The Alien Artifact 9 (Novelette) (4 page)

The
brightening sunshine and white snow was blinding when the sun
properly emerged, and early in the morning, and I had a hard time
seeing what was in front of us.

“
Over
there ...!” Higgins moaned, looking at part of the ground ahead,
where we followed his eyes to. “Footprints are visible!”

I examined the
snow all around us, keeping my eyes peeled for anything, especially
behind trees.

It was
incredible the prints were there, but covered in some snow, and I
knew that they had to belong to something immense, and larger than
anything I had seen before, and we stopped in front of them amazed,
and staggered at the enormity of what it was.

We strolled
about them, and the two scientists took photos and measured them,
and I started to realize with disappointment that we had not
actually achieved our goal and they were covered in too much snow
and the photos would not be enough to prove anything, and I saw
that the snow was about to come down heavily on top of them and us,
and I searched where the prints went and followed them down to the
shore and out into the loch, where I saw something emerge in the
dark water, like a black shadow, and I saw it shift, with
amazement.

Chapter 7

The Wood

Fifteen armed
soldiers arrived, and the police, and I kept wondering why the
police had not been used in the first place, but I recalled hearing
the soldiers had been nearby.

There was
something different about the monster that was extraordinary and
vastly dangerous that I could not fully grasp! All the soldiers and
police were marching in a line through the wood, and they were
ready with their guns as they started searching!

One marched
with his rifle pointing at the undergrowth directly ahead, while
officers watched at his side, and I saw their eyes wide and how
alert they were, and ready for action.

It was
incredible the monster actually existed and came out the loch
further along from where we had been at the loch, but distant, but
we saw the size of the thing and that it was far larger than
anything we had heard of, and it had vanished into the wood, which
they were searching.

It was a shame
if they shot the thing or even captured it! Even though it would
prove it existed!

I could not
grasp how such a thing could exist there, and had not been caught,
and going by the others they thought the same, and it was amazing
seeing the soldiers discovering its footprints, and I waited to
hear gunfire from the wood.

At the time I
expected some form of flying vehicle to appear, as I had heard of
stuff, and that there had been a form helicopter that had been
experimented with, and I watched the loch go along the wood away
into the distance and realized the creature definitely belonged in
the loch, and I realized it would probably reenter it further
along, instead of moving back through the wood, and I wondered why
there were no soldiers there, and with amazement I saw it shoot out
of the wood and shift swiftly into the water away in the
distance.

A deep heavy
thud echoed about the place and I realized it was an altered
version of a gun being fired, and for a few seconds I gasped
wondering if it had entered the loch after all and if they had just
killed it.

I watched the
most distant soldier, away in the depths of the wood, and him using
a torch and its beam shifting around everywhere, while he stood
aiming his rifle.

I realized how
dangerous the monster was and that it could go crazy and I expected
the thing to come flying straight out the loch, and I wondered if
they could accurately shoot and kill it, and if their bullets could
kill it!

Chapter 8

The Search

The entire front page of a major newspaper
covered the story, of the Loch Ness sighting, and what had
happened, but they had not authenticated the discovery or produced
evidence, and its species was marked as unknown.

The story was seen all over the
country, and tourists, reporters, scientists, people from other
groups started to turn up, and the two paranormal scientists, with
some luck, saved the day, just when we were about to leave Loch
Ness with no proper proof of the monster’s existence, when they
brought in conventional scientists, who had the technology to
scan
the loch, to the
deepest depths, and even into regions of the ground.

Though it was not accurate, and produced
some mapping below the ground, to a certain depth, it made it
possible to observe some objects with some clarity, and perhaps
even a dinosaur fossil, and it worked from a plane.

The scientists were also members of an
exploration association, and they had been on a scientific
expedition to uncover a legendry form of
dinosaur in the Amazon
, and they had
declared how they could help them, and they gave them an insight
into their technology and how it could be used.

Though dark
clouds shifted in at nightfall and the heavy snow arrived, and it
even looked as if we would be snowed in and trapped in the hotel,
and unable to even reach the airport, to get to the airplane, but
luckily in the morning it cleared.

The roads were
cleared by the evening and we got to the airport and airplane and
started investigating their new technology, trying to grasp what we
could from what they gave, and we left on the airplane from the
airport towards Loch Ness.

The two paranormal investigators were
enthralled with their setup and operating methods, and thought that
it could be a major breakthrough, and in their investigations,
grasping its full potential and the future possibilities that it
could offer their various forms of scientific exploration.

At the same time I investigated what I could
and how the technology functioned in far greater detail and what
its capabilities were. It soon began to look too hard to produce
and use, but my thoughts of it and the mission altered once we
started investigating large regions of the loch.

How could they
fail? The creature had to be around where our hotel was, and they
were swiftly exploring the entire loch!

The equipment
system was monitoring everything perfectly and I sensed that they
could detect the monster and I considered if they had deliberately
given incorrect information on the distance of the scan to hide its
faults and power, as it was expensive equipment!

I later became
sure from things some of the scientists on the plane had indicated
that they were carrying out a more distant and less accurate scan,
which I was sure could not detect it without it being close up.

At the
front window I watched s
hade
s
of light play with my
vision
in
animated
motions,
over the
bright loch, and snow covered hills and mountains, while the plane
rushed through the air, and
I watched
the scientists at work, constantly
examining their technology and readouts to discover anything, and
anything to make improvements, for them to introduce, or for them
to make any breakthroughs with.

The two paranormal investigators sat along
from me, sitting opposite beside each other, at a table with a map
stretched out across it, searching the area ahead and about us,
while they discussed it.

It was strange as there never looked as
though there was anything there, especially so desolate, and there
was little about the plane with anything, and the region looked far
colder and too far north. Yet we knew what place the monster could
be, even though it could be virtually anywhere there, and I was
surprised that they finally asked the pilots to fly lower, and I
looked out the side window and saw that the hotel was away up
ahead.

It was incredible when something
occurred, and few minutes later it did, and the equipment reacted,
which was unbelievable, even as I knew something could be there,
and t
he equipment
started showing more reactions and giving incredible readouts and
the scientists, who had not seen the creature, could not
comprehended what was there, and as it was vague, which could have
been off anything, but when they shifted the airplane over to where
the source was they started getting better and more comprehensible
readouts, and one scientist even started suggesting something else
there could be creating the disturbance.

At a screen
where reactions were being displayed, and a blurred but visible
image of a massive creature emerged, and they all started
discussing what they thought it was, and at least one thought it
was something else, as they could not comprehend what could cause
it, and I saw that another was disappointed.

I realized
something and gasped, and I saw the two paranormal scientists
notice it and follow my eyes and surely realize what I thought and
that the detected object was not in fact under the loch, and was
under an area of land beside it, which was in a desolate spot near
our hotel.

Chapter 9

The Science
Convention

I was surprised to see reporters I knew and
the media from throughout the globe arrive at the annual conference
of the exploration association and I realized straightaway that the
whole story of the Loch Ness monster and occurrences that had taken
place would become well known and documented, and be on newspapers,
magazines, television, and many other media sources.

All the scientists and explorers were packed
together around a stage platform and some were being interviewed
and filmed! Luckily the scientists with our investigation of the
Loch Ness monster and the cavity avoided them and telling anything
and the majority of the people never knew what had really happened
either, and the media was mainly investigating things and doing
news updates on the story.

I recalled everything that had
happened and our explorations of the cavity we found, where
the object was under the area
of land beside the loch, which we used a photo of the airplane scan
and of a photo of the loch from outside the airplane to find, and
put it on a map of the loch.

We used divers
to investigate the loch about the cavity and they found the
entrance, and filmed its interior, which was startling, and had
many signs of the monster having been there, and the remains of
food it had eaten, including fish, sharks, and the skeleton of a
large cow.

Yet, even though we found it, the mission
was unsuccessfully as we were unable to capture it and get anything
on the monster itself, and it never appeared there again, and it
had gone into hiding, and we never had any proper proof of its
existence, except vague hazy photos we collected from people there
who had seen it, and one I took when the divers were in the cavity,
of its black distant shape, away in the distance, watching us, and
I saw it vanish away in the distance, surely never to return.

I was astonished that the exploration
association was mainly unknown and that the media had not noticed
the group, and its accomplishments. They had many mentions of their
explorations and adventures over many years! And the large
conference hall was packed solid with famous and major scientists
from all over the globe that were members!

I even realized, from something someone
said, that within the club there was a form of secret society,
which I never fully grasped the objective of!

The two paranormal investigators, with me
there, vaguely told me of some of their discoveries that could well
rival major discoveries at the time, which were never reported, and
which they had vast amounts of evidence and documentation of.

It had activities that gave colossal amounts
of new findings, and I was astounded at the connections and
potential assistance they had and provided.

Chapter 10

The Treasure
Investigation

The streets
and lanes
glowed in the
last
rays of
sunlight,
surrounding
t
he headquarters of Reality Investigations,
and it looked as
though
it was
altering
into a
form of
modern ghost town.

P
ale golden
shadows
swept
out from
city
structures,
in
gigantic
shapes
,
probing
out
into the skyline.

Marple
grabbed a bottle
of
whisky
and poured me and him glasses
full of whisky, and
he
firmly
screwed the cap
back on the bottle and put it away
,
and we sat back at
the fireplace, and listened to a distant
vehicle and
vocal
tones
absurdly
mingle
and I realized Marple had
something
.

A few
minutes later t
he
phone
’s
ring
disturbed him,
and put him off what he was doing,
and
it
had
him
going
through
the
clients
that he might have
overlooked,
but
it eluded him,
and he rushed over and
answered it.