The Alien Artifact 8 (17 page)

The universe seemed to explode with energy
about him and he sensed that they were the chosen ones and that
something incredible would occur that was one of the greatest
occurrences to occur since the beginning of the universe, and that
it had been created for it, and that it would one day replace the
other that was chasing them through the universe.

For some reason his mind seemed to remember
it as though it had been put there to stay there, and he knew that
he would always remember it, no matter what occurred.

Powerful stars exploded through colossal
black tunnel shooting through the universe, stunning him with its
brilliance and majestic creation, and a colossal vortex of
trillions of straight lines magically blasted by, and he studied it
for a long time and realized that he had no proper bodily presence,
and he slowly lost consciousness, as though entering an altered
sleep state.

He sensed
something, and he realized he was at another destination! Something
of ancient origins was there.

For a moment
all six of them stood in complete darkness, trying to see what they
had entered, and a vague light emerged, and Cronenberg examined
Orwell and was surprised that he now looked confident, and he
wondered if he had something planned and what it could be, and
wondered if he had detected something that he had not and what he
would do, and he had a weird sensation of something happening, and
he examined himself to see if there was anything different about
him now!

It was
incredible! It had only been hours ago that he had been sleeping,
and it was as if it was days ago, and he realized how little he
remembered of things! All their minds and bodies were affected by
the gateway and what they had experienced, and he even recalled
losing consciousness and he could not fully recall anything after
it! It felt like an incredible amount of time had passed, and he
wondered if time had been altered, and if they had traveled through
time, and he realized that it could have been a time effect of the
gateway!

He realized that he had actually survived
though, and what must be the most dangerous anything that he had
undertaken, and he realized that he could have actually avoided the
whole lot by doing other things, and he wondered if he would have
ended up there anyway, and had even been waiting for them.

The astronauts searched everywhere about them
for anything that showed why they were there, and what was there,
and he searched for Orwell as he thought if anyone could find
answers he was the one to do it.

The blackness about him reminded him of an
empty region of space, and he examined it in awe, wondering if it
was somehow representing something, to show them something, but he
could not grasp anything and knew it was something else.

In a region of blackness he spotted something
shift, where Orwell was, and Orwell’s eyes adjusted and Cronenberg
saw a faint blue radiance, which he considered as a blue star, and
that it might be a section of sky or somewhere and he made a closer
examination of his surroundings by feeling around him, like
Rosenberg was doing, at another region, and he immediately felt it
was something artificial, and part of some form of structure, and
he felt the strange floor, with his thick spacesuit boots, and he
watched Orwell lift up his faceplate and slowly breathe in air
there and nodded to them that it was breathable, and he slowly
copied him and smelt a strange odor, and a little dizziness, and
just ordered the astronauts to copy him to save their oxygen
supplies.

With it off he heard a faint vibration from
something and felt it running through a wall when he touched it and
he tried to realize what it was, and what material it was made of,
and wondered if he could get a sample of it and if it was worth
anything, but he never bothered as he did not know what it was and
if it did anything, and could not remove anything as it was too
solid!

He returned to staring at where the faint
blue radiance was as Orwell and Rosenberg shoved something into the
wall and as more light came in he realized that he was actually in
some form of room, and had been looking through a crack in a form
of entrance to the structure.

For a second his emotions ran amok thinking
of what incredible things could be there and what their voyage
through the universe could give them, even if it had them on the
brink of existence, but the spectacular views of the universe were
worth it!

In the darkness he felt an eerie sensation
that the place was stranger than he thought, and he sensed a hidden
presence somewhere, as though something was nearby, and he wondered
if it was what was in the gateway, and why they had not been put
somewhere else, and he marched forward through the entrance as
Orwell and Rosenberg watched there, and he realized by their
reactions how strange it was, as they would normally have just
marched in!

Strange lights blasted out at him everywhere
from things he could not see, blinding him in the surrounding
blackness, and he examined flashes and beams of radiance!

He staggered in and it became more and more
perceptible and he saw a room full of beaming colored lights and
controls and he examined how strange it was, and clearly designed
for some alien creature, and that it had a strange form of claw,
and he even spotted scratch marks where it had scratched the bottom
of a complex control panel, and he tried to examine it in the dim
light to see what it was, but nothing indicated anything and gave
anything away as to what it was for.

Suddenly he spotted Orwell and Rosenberg over
at something at his side and he spotted speckles in the darkness,
and he moved over to them, and realized that he was glaring out at
the stars of deep space, and he saw the ground below, outside the
structure, and he realized where he was! He was actually on a moon
station in the depths of the stars!

He searched through the blur of controls in
the dim room behind him, only lighted by controls, looking for
anything familiar now he knew what the structure was, wondering if
they should avoid touching anything.

He realized it was actually out in the
deepest depths of a group of stars! Further than any human had been
before, and many galaxies away from the Earth!

“
Where do you think this place is?”
Rosenberg moaned, searching about the landscape outside, trying to
find something that could give him a vague clue to
something.

“
If it is a race of aliens like
humans,” Orwell replied, firmly, “I’d say that it had to be part of
their civilization, on a moon, and for carrying out
research!”

“
There could be a planet nearby!”
Cronenberg continued.

“
It seems to be abandoned, left out in
the depths of space, endlessly trapped in time and
space.”

“
We can check it and see if we find
anything of value here!” Rosenberg announced.

“
Value to us trapped in space?” Orwell
asked. “Or value to us if we get back home!”

Rosenberg shrugged, and followed Cronenberg
going back to the controls, where the other three members of the
crew were standing examining them, discussing them, and they tried
activating one, and they all watched strange reactions about
them.

Their thirst for knowledge was increasing and
they insisted in checking everything that they could for the
slightest clue to what it was for and why they had been put there,
and Cronenberg suddenly spotted the room that they had appeared in
and realized that it was strange and he attempted to examine it in
the dim light from the controls, and discovered that the entrance
to the gateway had appeared there and he wondered if they should
enter it, as they would eventually, and Cronenberg sensed that it
had reappeared for them to reenter the gateway.

Chapter 14

The Monster

While the gateway shifted them through
galaxies at one point it altered considerably and Cronenberg
instantly started examining what was happening, and they were being
shifted somewhere else, and he detected the other presence and its
danger, and he realized the gateway systems stretched everywhere
through the whole universe, and called the Dyson Stargate.

Even though he did not know what was
happening he knew it was their only chance of survival, and, as
they shot through the outskirts of a small concentrated galaxy,
seeing it as a faint ghost shape of large celestial objects
shooting by, he and the other members of the crew were surprised to
see a cloud of energy form far behind them, and it was their first
visional detection of what was there, and he looked for a central
point of it. He was sure that something was there, and he looked
for anything else, or if it was being projected from somewhere. Yet
there was nothing anywhere that could produce anything like it!

What could exist in a gateway? What were they
up against?

It never accelerated further! It hung there
thickening, directly behind them, swirling around in intelligent
ways, with intelligent formations, and as he watched it to see if
it was being controlled or controlling itself. Yet he was sure it
was a form of probe attempting to check them out!

He mentally detected it doing something, and
wondered what would happen next, and he watched Orwell examine it,
as they all spun through space, as mind-bending lines of stars shot
by, as they accelerated faster at a hyper speed, and he was sure
Orwell was going to say something. He was sure he was not fully
able to fully explain its presence, and how it got there, but had
an idea.

The probe shifted creepily, forming a more
turbulent thickening formation, forming shapes in itself, and they
checked it with horror as well as excitement.

Strange sights
and silent sounds began manifesting everywhere about them – like
partially visible life forms were appearing – and it was forming
something around them.

Strange glows
and swirls formed and reformed, while the energy around them
increased and increased, as though something was manifesting, and
creating itself about them, almost in a bubble formation,
surrounding them.

Chapter 15

The Living
Jungle

They woke on the ground in a strange jungle
landscape, and they examined what was there with interest,
wondering what was there and why it was there, and in the trees
formations above Cronenberg saw a strange weird cloudless ivory
sky, and he spotted an easy way to climb up, using strange
formations like branches, and he realized how peaceful it was there
and he rested on a boulder, and smelt a scent in the atmosphere,
which he could not recall, and he suddenly detected it was an
animal smell.

He knew it was not a normal jungle, for some
reason, and it was not like any other jungle that they had been in,
and he suddenly saw Anders climb up the tree he had been examining,
which he found a way to climb up, and he realized he was taking the
route up it that he saw.

The others all stood looking up at him as he
reached the top, while they shaded their eyes with their hands, and
Cronenberg took a good look around and saw their problem and that
they could not see through the tree formations and ground
vegetation further than a short distance, and it confused him and
them, as they for one never knew where on the landscape of the
world they were and where they should go to, and he could not grasp
how they would leave there and if they should just remain
there.

Anders looked out, at the top, and shouted
down that the jungle region vanished at a region, away in the
distance, and he pointed in the direction, and Cronenberg noted the
direction, and tried using a compass he had to see if there was a
magnetic pole on the world that they could use to navigate, and he
found there was a weak movement at the direction Anders had pointed
at, and he examined it surprised and wondered what it was, as it
seemed different from the Earth’s magnetic field.

It surprised him how swift Anders was at
climbing, and that he had some experience, and he realized how
things had changed.

Cronenberg realized how much the place
reminded him of the Earth and he allowed his spacesuit to fill its
air tanks with air, as some of the other astronauts were doing, and
he was amazed at the environment and how he reacted to it
instinctively, realizing how much he missed being out in the open
on the Earth.

He suddenly felt something hidden below was
on his ankle and that he had noticed it before, and he wondered if
it was one of the species of the world and he realized that he had
not even heard a noise on the world or seen any form of animals and
it seemed strange, and it was also strange as nobody had
encountered any normal life forms on other worlds and they were
now, only days from being on Mars, treating such things as normal,
and he gasped at what could be there and felt something grab his
ankle and he jerked, and he looked but in the dense undergrowth
around his legs he saw nothing, and never felt it anymore, and
ignored it.

What sort of world were they on? What did its
empty silence mean? He could not hear anything away into the
distance, and realized that it could be in a cold region and
wintertime there and that the silence was due to it having been a
deep cold winter there.

The others reacted by almost whispering to
each other, and when Anders climbed down on the ground from a lower
branch Cronenberg took them away in the direction where Anders had
spotted the jungle ending.

As he walked away his leg became painful, and
he felt something rapped around it, and tried to pull the thing off
it, which looked like a plant or vine around the lower part of his
knee but as he pulled it hard it grabbed him harder and it felt
like an animal. It was strong and went down his leg.