The Antarctic Discovery (Novelette) (8 page)

“
So there could be more searching for
where it came from? Do you think it was damaged
landing?”

“
We have to get anything that we can on
it! We have to get as much details of it and its origins no matter
what!”

“
The technology could very well make it
worthwhile!” Weaver sighed, thinking of how much it could be
worth.

“
Have they been able to make contact
with it?” Weaver asked.

“
As far as I know they have
not!”

“
Have they entered it yet?”

“
As far as I know they have not! What
it is made of is either indestructible or virtually indestructible!
They have been trying everything that they have to get into to
it!”

“
Incredible!” He replied. “I never
thought I would live to see one! Never mind confront one! What
information have you on it?”

“
There is little so far! It has a vague
flying saucer shape and is about quarter of a mile across all
around it, and about hundred and something feet high! They have
uncovered most of it, except a region still under the ice! They
have used everything available to check for places to enter
it!”

“
Is there positive proof that nothing
emerged from it before they arrived?”

“
No! But there have been no signs of it
anywhere, and no encounters have been reported worldwide from
it!

“
Has there been anything on getting
where it originated from?”

“
They have nothing on its origins or
destination, and if it had achieved its objective!”

“
Have they found anything to indicate
it has intelligence or if there is anything aboard?”

“
They discovered its forces
deliberately melted the ice and allowed the water to freeze over
it, and that it hid itself away, and it is believed something
deadly is buried away in its interior!”

Chapter 13

The Renegades

The Russian scientist fascinated him now and
he had to restrain himself from meeting with him again to try to
get more, and to question him further on unanswered queries, and
the opportunity finally arrived when another scientist was found
shot, and he swiftly checked out the body with the other soldiers
and found out that he had been chased by someone with a gun, who
had shot him in the middle of an empty lower corridor.

Afterwards Weaver arrived at the Russian
scientist’s room and began questioning him about it.

“
I never knew him!” he replied
firmly.

“
But you know who is behind the
killing!”

“
It is some of the soldiers that are at
the voyager spacecraft base!” he finally confessed.

“
So the normal Russian soldiers are not
involved? Who is all in it?”

“
The normal soldiers and scientists
just give them what they want! They kill them when they threaten to
give them away! The problem is they cannot get anything from the
voyager and it is stuck out there! It is eventually going to be
discovered and we are not allowed to just hide it away. We have to
watch it now for any activity, which may happen years later! We are
stuck here, and we are lucky to have been able to remain hidden
until now!”

“
So they are trapped here?”

“
Yes! And they will eventually find out
about it and they do not know what to do! Can we afford to allow it
to fall into the wrong hands! If it opens and the technology that
is in it gets taken ...!”

“
So what has been happening? Can you
clarify what is basically happening, without any
details?”

“
The soldiers are trying to stop it
getting heard about! There are also renegade soldiers with us here
that are killing scientists, who have other reasons for not wanting
the technology being taken from them! We believe that they intended
to profit from it! And many of the scientists are telling things
about it and do not want anything to do with them and their theft
of the technology of the voyager, which could easily fall into the
wrong hands! That basically is what I know!”

“
But you said before that they had not
entered the voyager and that nothing had been
discovered?”

Weaver gasped at thinking of the gun battle
that they had had with the renegade Russian soldiers when he had
arrived there, and what it had really been about! He wondered where
the hell the voyager was!

He was stumped! Could they actually handle
all their soldiers, and would he be making a great error telling
Commander Craven and the intelligence agency of it at the
moment?

They were a really bad problem! Going by what
the scientist had told him about them, and the actual number of
deaths and the fact that they were Russian soldiers things were at
a new level and they had to avoid doing anything stupid or without
thinking!

In fact the ultimate answer they would
actually like was to have the whole voyager blown up!

He now thought of the Russians soldiers as
split into two groups, with one half wanting to fight for it
remaining theirs and the others going by the rules and perhaps even
wanting to get rid of it. The thing could be a threat to the entire
world!

He even wondered if a war could break out
over such an incident, and who was the headman behind the Russians,
which the Russian scientist entirely avoided saying, and he could
not get if he knew. If the incident got out they would have to
explain what the secret ice station was doing there, and with
atomic missiles!

Chapter 14

The Blizzard

The blizzard blasted out of the Antarctic
night with inconceivable fury that hit and froze his face giving
him sensations of collapsing into the ground snow!

The Russian scientist looked close to being
blown over or collapsing in a heap!

How had he talked him into this, went
repeatedly through his mind! He could have been sitting in front of
a nice log fire in the ice station lounge, and instead he was
battling to survive against what must be the coldest blizzard on
the globe!

Why had he had to agree to go to the Russian
base? He had claimed that it was nearby, like a rush around some
buildings!

The time had also tricked them as it had not
seemed late or dark outside, and of course as soon as they had made
it out the door and too far out to return the blizzard had
arrived!

Out of nowhere high-powered blasts shook him
out of his rigorous routine of shuffling on through endless deep
snow! The sounds definitely were a rifle blasts and his attempt to
persuade the Russian scientist into going back was dismissed! Yet
if it was nearby they were better going there. Except if it was
where the gunmen were, and they intended in killing them, it was
stupid going there!

He was not even sure the scientist had
acknowledged what was happening! They had to go on now, and he saw
that they would have a bad time trying to see them.

It seemed far more astonishing within the
mind-bending blizzard engulfing everything! Further explosions
sounded so powerfully he believed they were walking straight into
them, and he thought he saw powerful blasts from bullets hitting
ice!

Whoever was after them had to be crazy and
out for the kill, and it was stupid entering such a blizzard and
fury of cold and snow! He could not realize how the hell they knew
they were there, and realized that they must have guns equipped to
see in the dark, and they perhaps had trigged something on their
approach to the base, which only left why they could not properly
hit them!

The place had to be located in the coldest
and most remote place on the planet! Even in the summer it had
deadly cold!

The men could be heard over to his side and
he realized that he could surprise them, even though they could
have infrared sights, and he was willing to risk it! They were too
close! Surely they could find them there! It was a mistake just
remaining there and he whispered in the Russian scientist’s ear
that he was going to do something and he was to keep going the way
he was.

He dived through the snow when he was sure
that he was not being watched and rushed away at full speed going
to an area behind him and them.

Again he could hardly believe the situation
that they had put themselves into! He was not use to the
environment and conditions! Soldiers would normally have avoided
such a confrontation in such deep snow and blizzard, and at
night!

The coldness made him cringe and not only was
he not used to it he had never been in such a hellhole in his life!
He was blindly rushing on through the now blinding blizzard, and
realized that he could leave the Russian scientist and return to
the ice station and that the gunmen would follow the Russian
scientist.

A loud explosion blasted out and thudded
somewhere near where the scientist was and Weaver ran through the
dark snow landscape as he knew that they were closing in on the
scientist! He owed the scientist it for what he gave him! He knew
the gunmen dared not use lights and he would barely see them!

Once he fully realized that they had not
noticed him breaking away from the scientist he started to enjoy
being free from being attacked. He realized that the location that
they had entered had been a region that nobody at the ice station
went near, and he started to wonder what was there and what he was
missing.

Could there be another reason for them
killing them? What could it possibly be? What else could be there
in such a place?

When he finally saw the men and realized that
there were only two of them and that he could easily get them he
decided to approach as close as he could and tried to sneak up on
them! There was a good chance that he could miss in such
conditions. For all he knew the severe wind and snow could alter
the bullet’s path, and that could have been why the gunmen
missed!

He started to rush, as he saw he could get
them, from behind, and he was getting near when he saw the Russian
scientist’s figure appear through a region of the blizzard that had
cleared and he watched one gunman raise his gun and knew he would
kill him and he fired at him first before he pressed the trigger,
and before he hit the ground he rushed over with his gun aimed
directly at the second gunman, and shouted at him to drop his
weapon.

The soldier studied him for a second and
dropped it and he rushed up to him and took his gun, and rolled the
body of the other gunman over and checked he was dead, and called
the Russian scientist over and they marched on with the gunman at
the front, with his gun aimed at his back.

Chapter 15

The Secret Base

At large empty region of flat snow the gunman
stopped and they allowed him to contact someone, and Weaver
wondered where he was talking to!

There was nothing around anywhere, perhaps
going out for miles everywhere, and he was communicating with
someone, clearly near there, for permission to enter somewhere.

The Russian scientist checked what he said
for him!

He was then shocked when the ground at their
front burst opened with bright light exploding out, like an immense
brightly lit ice cave opening out, and he saw a ramp going
downwards into somewhere and that large vehicles had been driven
down into it.

It was staggering that such a large
underground structure could be built there under their feet!

The entrance closed behind them when they
marched down the ramp going down into the tunnel, and he started to
wonder why they had built it if the alien object was a cover up for
something.

Yet what the hell would they be doing next to
the ice station? Then he recalled the missiles and telescope and
gasped, and was amazed at how he had gone along with it! Was this
their attempt to exterminate him?

He decided to be on guard to the approach of
anything and studied everything in front of them, and started to
dismiss the gunman as being a useful hostage that would stop them
killing him, and thought of ways to survive any confrontation
there.

If he could only get to see the commander of
the base, and persuaded the Russian scientist into taking him to
see him! And he was surprised that was where they were going!

They marched through corridors virtually
identical to the ice station, and he realized that they had
attempted to make a miniature version of it.

They were mainly temporary accommodations and
recreation places for personnel there and he started to see they
were more normal than he had expected, except for the gunmen and
their killings. Yet he had a feeling that there was far more there
and the base was far bigger somewhere than he was imagining it!

At the base commander’s room they entered and
were shown into seats and Weaver immediately realized that he spoke
English and with a slight Russian accent and clearly wanted to talk
to him.

“
So you have caught one of our
renegades!” he spoke firmly, examining Weaver holding his gun at
the man, making sure he never did anything!

The Russian scientist spoke to the commander
in Russian for a few seconds and the commander agreed with him,
about something.

Weaver realized that they had agreement and
they were trying to carry out a plan, and he considered what it
could be.

“
If you put down your weapon I will
have him arrested! We will not do anything to you!”