The Alien Artifact 9 (Novelette)

The Alien Artifact 9

(Novelette)

V Bertolaccini

This
edition published 2016 by CB

This is a
Smashwords edition 2016

Copyright
Victor Bertolaccini

ISBN:
978-1-3112-1735-6

All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Nor can it
be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without similar condition including this
condition being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

All
characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance
to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Prologue

The Ancient
Discovery

Even now, after what transpired, I do not
comprehend what it was, but what I do distinguish is it never came
from this universe.

Visualization I glimpsed off it showed it
resembled a dazzling star in deep space as its front materialized
into the solar system.

A powerful star of unidentified magnitude
and origins emitting strange shades of dazzling light through
Earth’s atmosphere that would have been seen by early human
inhabitants.

Its formation altering to a radiating
reddish triangular of light magically rotating out of space itself,
and a hole through the fabric of space and time, from somewhere
strange and unknown, spinning increasingly faster, while
bright
colored
lines of energy spun rapidly around its radius, and parts of
it altered to different forms of energy, and while its power and
spin increased it turned to a circle of lines and light.

Its powers were so strong its detection of
the Earth and transit to it were swift, with the world’s bright
blue formation sitting alone in space, and it had been its best
relocation and exploration.

On its arrival, it swiftly emerged out of
the blackness of space, with its radiant circular shape shifting
downwards, while it altered formation, becoming more solid as it
tried to transform to matter.

Its silhouette went over the
world
’
s icy
rock like the figure of an ancient dark demon, with cold whirling
currents of mist shifting around its partially formed shape, while
wild beasts of ancient Earth gave far-away blood-chilling screeches
from distant places, hidden away out in depths of the
landscape.

Years later I
have barely been able to make out anything, never mind what its
originally objective had been, but it made a terrible mistake
manifesting in this universe, specifically going by what had
occurred.

What the hell had it been before it had
arrived in this universe, and had transformed from? I have never
heard or seen anything anywhere like it, and I still feel there was
something I should have grasped, but I just could not grasp!

Its peculiar ghostly formations of what
might have been life forms to it, surely from where it came from,
flashed through my mind, as strange energy formations, when it made
forms of communications with me, which I originally doubted the
sanity of.

Was it insane? Did insane exist to it? Going
by what it had been through it could have been! It surely was
damaged! Sometimes it haunted my dreams during the night, and
during the day I went through facts trying to grasp something! The
smallest clue of something unnoticed!

Other than its entrance to the universe its
main error could have been separating into two divisions, which
separated too far apart, with perhaps its unfamiliarity of the
universe, and it became trapped on this strange celestial object
and reality, with its unidentified formations, and it had gone
further than it had ever gone before to survive.

Part I

The Ancient
Discovery

Chapter 1

Reality
Investigations

The headquarters of Reality Investigations
detective agency, beside the river Clyde, was where I disembarked,
from directions John Marple, the founder, owner, and chief
investigator, had given me on the phone, as he needed me as his
assistant investigator.

At the time I never even suspected even in
my wildest fantasies that we would find what we did, and also lost
historical treasure, after major clues to its location were
uncovered by Dr Barrymore.

Marple had investigators in all major
worldwide cities and he was one of the most advanced and
knowledgeable investigators I have met, who was known to me for
many years before I joined him there, as assistant chief
investigator, and his experience was vast, and entered new
dimensions, in all sorts of ways, in science and technology, in
extraordinary occurrences, and he handled cases and activities
beyond any other agencies I have encountered, and even in current
times, and especially at that time, as the Second World War
began.

On my entrance of the building he arrived to
welcome me, and rushed me up to his office, and meeting room, where
all the action occurred, and I was introduced, as Mike Malone, the
news reporter, to other investigators, and given a seat.

I felt painful bruises all about body where
earlier that week I had slipped and fallen down a staircase, after
trying to get an interview with a leading politician on the war,
who had swiftly escaped, and I knew that there was trouble ahead,
and I also realized I wanted a new career.

Marple held a meeting with his investigators
discussing the onslaught of the war, to my surprise, and of its
deadliness dawning, becoming apparent across the nation, and it was
then that he introduced what must be one of the most distinctive
and strangest investigations in scientific history, and what must
surely be the greatest scientific discovery mankind has ever
encountered, since the dawn of time.

He bestowed the case at the end of the
meeting with little knowledge of what it was about, and asked me to
handle it, as my first case, and to see what I would come up with,
and left me in unadulterated confusion, as he gave me little, and I
was sure we should not have taken the case at all, and I was
surprised by Marple’s last silent mention of it, to another
investigator, and that a desperate frightened woman on the phone
had practically forced him into accepting the case.

Furthermore, before I undertook it, another
bizarre occurrence took place, which later incredibly became part
of the case, and a new eccentric client phoned Marple and arranged
a meeting with him, with another strange case, and I stayed to see
what the man was so desperate to do, and why Marple had suddenly
become excitedly interested, and I knew money was involved.

I sat with Marple drinking whisky at the
fireplace, and we discussed our past adventures together, and he
promised me more, just as we heard the man enter the bottom floor,
and Marple’s secretary announced his arrival through an intercom,
and Marple ignited his pipe and smoked it briskly considering the
case from diverse perspectives, and I saw he was confused over
aspects of it.

The room slowly grew silent, and the outside
traffic seemed to vanish into the distance, and I sat deep into my
seat, and felt the suspense Marple was reacting to, but I could not
quite grasp all of it, but realized he had to have something and
tried to identify what his reactions were to, from the past.

It was intriguing and baffling! What could
make such a guy react in such excitement, with such intrigue?

His secretary was clearly affected, which
was also noticeable in her knock, and was silent and impeded, and
Marple withheld from rushing up and over, and I was staggered when
she brought in an aged man, she announced was Dr Barrymore, and he
shifted forward, with some pain, and I realized he could hardly
walk properly and had serious medical conditions.

I examined him wondering why he was even
there, and realized he could be a politician or with the
government, and it made me gasp as I considered the war again and I
realized they could be looking for our help.

Dr Barrymore stopped in front of us and
removed an envelope, which had the top ripped off.

He observed us sitting at a small table,
between us and the fireplace, where our drinks and Marple’s pipe
and ashtray were resting, and he anxiously shuffled over to a seat
next to Marple.

He showed us a typed label on the envelope
with his fingertips, with a glint of humor, followed by happiness,
and he cheerfully rolled the envelope into a ball and threw it into
the fireplace and removed chewing tobacco and chewed off a lump,
placed the remainder in his interior pocket, and chewed off a chunk
from the chunk in his mouth and spat the piece into the fire in the
fireplace and started hungrily chewing the remainder.

Marple rushed over and got a drink, and
returned, and placed it in front of him.

He removed something ancient looking from
the envelope and started playing with it in front of our faces,
considering what to say, as I watched the sun go down into the
horizon at a side window, and golden shades beam over city
buildings.

“
What’s that?” I conclusively asked
him, slightly annoyed at him not doing anything for so long, unable
to maintain waiting.

“
It’s an eighteenth century document!”
Marple announced, and made Dr Barrymore look up,
startled.

He stared annoyed at it, and Marple
continued,
“I’ve some
experience of dating documents!”

“
The origins of the artifact I am
looking for come from the majority of accumulated sources, which
have been proven to be from around 1568 …”

“
1568?” Marple replied, looking
slightly surprised, and sat back considering it.

“
Yes!” Dr Barrymore continued.
“According to accounts and legends! Valuable treasure was left near
where it was concealed!”

“
Near where what was concealed?”
Marple swiftly gasped, looking confused.

“
The artifact!”

Marple looked
at him calmly, and looked deep into the fire, and listened to what
he had to say.

“
For
centuries it has been thought to exist by a few scholars and
explorers, who have carried out meticulous investigations and
searches, of which none have been lucky enough ...”

“
What
you’re saying is there is treasure somewhere?” I replied, unable to
hold back my surprise and enthusiasm.

“
Of
course!” he shouted. “That’s what I said on the phone!”

“
What do
you want us to do?” I replied, cautiously.

“
Help me
find it!” he moaned. “I’ve recently come into some new information
that could allow me to locate it!”

I could not
grasp if it actually existed, and sat considering it, and
everything he said.

“
According to myths,” he continued,
“some people have been found dead searching for it! There could be
something of great danger nearby, where it’s been
concealed!”

I sat thinking it over wondering what could
be of great danger, and from that century, and was left baffled,
and spotted Marple was still confused by the case.

“
What’ll we do then?” I asked,
curiously.

“
You’ll have to wait until I’m ready!
I have a major clue to its location, and I’m sure I can discover
something of significant importance! I will need your help to
recover it!”

“
We’ll do that!” Marple replied
firmly.

I knew that he had major clues to its
location and that he was confident in discovering it and that it
was located somewhere in the region, but I had no idea what it
actually was!

After he had left the building, and returned
home, I started to doubt what he was after was of value as all the
archaeology and museum discoveries found then were usually
worthless, except to historians like him, for historical value, and
I was sure he was just trying to get us to go out our way to get it
for him, and I was sure Marple must also think so.

Though did he have a new way of discovering
lost treasures, and had he partially located it as he suggested? He
had not given any major clue to its location and identity, but he
had given the date of what must surely have been the time of its
origins.