The Alien Artifact 8 (14 page)

A distant wind occasionally howled strangely
around through the top of the tunnel behind them, as it was caught
by gusts.

Eventually the stone tunnel finished and they
entered an artificial structure and they examined it trying to find
what it was made of and found it was too hard to even scrape a
sample off, and were unable to realize what it was.

The inside of the structure was
incredible and it at first looked like they were encountering
something from Earth
’
s early past, and the inside of some form of
ancient pyramid and an earlier version of what the aliens had, but
its look altered the further in they went and he realized that it
was far more advanced, even though they had not come across any of
their technology and only forms of advanced corridors and forms of
rooms, and yet they had not seen anything of the aliens themselves
and what they had.

For a swift instant he felt a strange feeling
that something had detected them there from some further in region,
where he was sure there was some highly advanced structure and
technology, and he was amazed that Orwell and the others behind him
had also picked it up, and were reacting simultaneously with him,
and he even saw them discussing it and something, and he wondered
what the hell it was, and if they should have turned back earlier,
and he wondered how they could profit from such an encounter, and
he spotted Orwell holding a weapon, from his spacesuit.

Chapter 5

The Astronaut

As they entered a large chamber Cronenberg
felt shudders and deep vibrations going through the floor and walls
and his eyes fell upon a large sphere object spinning with
tremendous force, trapped in a form of cage, clearly using
tremendous forces to keep it there, and they got to a point near
it, staggered at the dangers it had, and watched the power of it,
like it could destroy anything put against it, and he watched the
other astronauts and started to notice their reactions to the
dangers and that they were going to keep away from it, and it
looked as if it had recently altered in some way, and he wondered
if it had been there the amount of time he thought it had been, and
where it was getting its power from, and considered if it was a new
source of immense power and what it would be worth!

Gusts of wind occasionally howled about in
the chamber in front of them, as air was caught by its forces, and
he kept wondering if it created power, which was used by its
creators as a power source, and he considered if it could be the
reason it was there, and that it was so dangerous it was put there
on top of the pinnacle, and had connections going below.

Yet he could sense it was more, and that they
could have been put there for a reason!

The antics of the astronauts captivated
him more and more
–
mystifying him with the depth of their
unsaid thoughts! Orwell wondered around the chamber examining
everything he found, repetitively looking for controls to it or
something else, and he realized he might be intending to do
something, at some point!

Suddenly, the reactions of the sphere
altered, and he sensed something had happened and he felt a shiver
run through him as he felt massive shudders of energy blasting
through it, and he turned and realized that Orwell had activated
something, and he slowly backed away from it, as it looked more and
more deadly and pulsated with violent energy surges, and looked and
sounded on the brink of something, or exploding!

None of them spoke and he considered what it
really was and how it was formed and he believed that they should
start leaving the chamber, but he never knew what direction to go
in. Should they go back up to the top of the pinnacle or continue
going down, and maybe get trapped below if there was an
explosion.

He saw how big it really was, as it expanded
out. Its size was huge and like a massive ball of different
energies.

Suddenly Rosenberg called out, “What’s
that?”

Cronenberg spotted what looked like the shape
of something inside it, as though a life form was there, and after
a long time of carefully examinations he realized he and the others
were unable to properly see it and identify it.

It looked powerful and deadly! It also looked
like some form of freak of nature!

He offered the others to give vague
explanations, even if fantasies, and they occasionally gave
detailed explanations of what could be occurring and Stanley
finally explained that particle accelerators experiments on the
Earth had now had forces that were able to accelerate particles to
velocities beyond anything before, but he was unable to connect the
occurrences, and Orwell finally claimed it could be a form of time
warp, and could have forces like intense magnetic fields holding
it.

Cronenberg realized that they never had
anything like it, unless it was kept secret, and he compared it to
the energy sphere and the artifact back on Mars.

At one point the thing looked entirely deadly
and was pulsating with energy blasts, which looked and sounded on
the brink of doing something.

At times they spotted it looked like it
turned vaguely translucent and they saw the shape of something
inside it, and after along time of carefully examinations and
discussions they believed they saw a life form inside it, in some
suspended state, in some form of rest, and they stood confused,
wondering if they could be on the brink of making a proper first
contact situation.

It looked powerful, and deadly! But he could
recognize what it was or what it could do, and kept glaring at it
trying to get a clue.

At one point Stanley moaned
loudly,
“
What are we doing here? If this thing is as
dangerous as it looks …
”

His reply
surprised him, and he wondered what their reply would be to it, and
he allowed them to reply.

“
It could
be of great value to us!” Orwell replied, firmly. “We were surely
put on this pinnacle for a reason … And this is all there is
here!
It has fascinating properties, and I believe it
is not as dangerous as it seems! There would be signs of something
having happened before if it had …
”

Cronenberg just agreed with him, and
examined it in a glance, and replied,
“
We have been investigating it with
everything we have …!
”

“
The artifact may exist in other
dimensions?
”
Mitchell, the shuttle flight engineer, replied, surprising
Orwell, and Cronenberg recalled recent stuff about investigations
into other dimensions on the Earth, and he tried to recall what the
outcome had been, and realized it had mainly been theories about
things.

They all sat down and rested against an area
of the chamber wall, at a more distant position, and they started
trying to get some rest and sleep, and when Cronenberg finally fell
asleep he was soon awakened by Rosenberg giving a loud gasp, making
him swiftly awake, and he looked into the sphere and saw a man
standing near the center of the sphere and he also gave a loud gasp
himself, and he kept trying to see properly what was there, and he
finally went silent, and was sure it was a humanoid alien.

The being was in a central denser region, and
the whole sphere was turning brighter and louder, and it started
shaking everything about them, and it even started knocking them
furiously about, and they fell over, and while he was considering
evacuating the chamber a sudden shockwave blasted out from it and
through the whole structure, throwing them over dangerously, and he
heard a distant rumble of rocks falling off the outside
pinnacle.

Suddenly everything turned silent and the
bright light vanished, and they started to recover, and check the
damage, and he noticed Orwell dramatically talking to Mitchell and
Cronenberg checked where they were looking and realized that the
energy bubble had returned to normal and that a being had appeared
from inside it and was standing in front of them, wearing a human
spacesuit, and he immediately recognized it, to his horror, and it
was the astronaut that he had seen on Mars, which had chased him
into the cavity in the hill with a gun, where he had found the
alien energy sphere and alien artifact.

Chapter 6

Anders

One of the
biggest surprises, after seeing the astronaut emerging, had been
when the astronaut removed the spacesuit faceplate, and revealed
his true identity, and Cronenberg had been staggered and stumped,
as the astronaut was Anders, one of the two astronauts who had
crashed and died on Mars, trying to get the diamonds!

He had seen
Anders’s skeleton, lying on Mars, staring up at the stars, and when
he had seen him standing in front of him he had been totally
staggered and had just stood staring, and Orwell had been baffled,
and Rosenberg had been dumbfound too, as he had only seen Anders’s
skeleton!

For a few
minutes they actually stood considering the unthinkable and that
they were standing in front of a ghost!

How had he
managed to appear in the places he had seen him as an astronaut in
a spacesuit, and why was he the same age as he had been, and he
would have been dead a long time ago, going by what year he had
crashed in.

Anders finally
examined them confused, and examined everything about him
surprised, and finally asked them what he was doing there, and they
just stood staring at him dumbfound, and considering all the
possible explanations.

The whole
affair seemed to be building up to it – with their space shuttle
being brought down by a mysterious force, the discovery of Anders
in the crashed space vehicle, right next to where they had crashed,
the astronaut that had been haunting him, and the discovery of the
alien energy sphere, and the eventual discovery of the alien
artifact buried below, under the ground below the hill, the
explosion of the whole hill, and their trip through the universe,
and being found below it not knowing how they got there, and the
mysterious discovery of the laboratory black hole and it exploding
out and taking them there.

They were
positive the black hole had connected to someone’s gateway, and
that they were deliberately taken to the incredible world, and now
they had found Anders there, alive and in the same state as he had
been on Mars.

The place
startled Anders and he had never seen anything like it, and he
could recall nothing other than what he was sure was him dieing on
Mars, watching the Earth in the sky, and he recalled encountered
something alien and it taking him away, and he had no recollection
of meeting Cronenberg or shooting at him.

Cronenberg
watched him in partial horror and amazement! Astonished that he was
alive! Something he had not even thought of! He had thought of him
and his map many times over since finding his skeleton, and
especially when he had been in the Mars base library, investigating
him and where the diamonds were, and he could only watch him,
examining him.

He looked
slightly different, from his skeleton and photos, but he knew it
was him, and he wondered if Anders could help him!

He noticed
Rosenberg could hardly believe it was him and kept examining him
and trying to fit things together, to explain something he could
not grasp, and it surprised Anders that the scientist with him, who
had found the diamonds with the satellite, was not there, and
Cronenberg realized that he looked more disappointed in that fact
than anything else.

Cronenberg
could not grasp what had taken him away on Mars, as his
descriptions of it were fascinating, and he realized it had to have
been the force that had landed them and he had encountered within
the energy sphere, and he realized that they had not fully
contacted it, and that it could have two identities, as it had to
have put Anders on Mars as a form of ghost as the astronaut with
the gun, which had shot at him and nearly killed him.

He was unsure
how dangerous it was, as it had done many dangerous things to
them.

Anders started
believing that he had been transported there through a vortex and
had religious beliefs of what had occurred, to their surprise! He
surely had thought he had gone into his own place in the afterlife
but was unsure where the hell he was, in heaven or hell, and they
watched him praying to be saved.

Yet after what
they had been through there, and all that had happened everywhere,
some of the crew even looked like copying him, but he thought
better of it.

One of the
problems that faced them now was there was hardly any food, and the
stuff they had was running out, which was mainly emergency rations
in special pockets in their spacesuits, and they were tired and had
not slept properly!

So after they
had all slept they carried out a great deal of examinations of the
structure they were in, but found little, and seemed mainly to be
some sort of base, and they investigated the sphere of energy as
far as they could, but still found little!

None of them
could explain much, as it never even fitted into any of their
fantasies! They were more confused than he had ever been, as he no
longer just ignored all the mysteries and he just could not explain
things, with anything that he could now accept, and why they had
gone through the vortex and black hole in the laboratory, which was
an incredible piece of luck, and Anders did not explain anything
for them either!

His secretive
questioning of Anders about the map, when the others were away
searching under the structure, gave little other than the fact he
had believed the diamonds had been there, and had partially
suspected they were elsewhere when the scientist with him kept
suggesting it, which he was unsure of, but he was sure that he had
been hiding things and that he had not been fully positive that
they existed, and had been confused about many things! He must have
been the only person in the history to have such an occurrence
occur to him and find himself in such a place and have no way to
return to the world after such a long time!