The Antarctic Discovery (Novelette) (6 page)

Chapter 8

The Hidden
Structure

The incident of the scientist’s appearance
stuck in his thoughts for days and he kept going over it trying to
grasp some clue and something that he had missed that he could not
realize!

It baffled him as he sensed that he had been
up to something and there was nothing there and all he came up with
was he could have some animal hidden away there that he fed, as
large animals were banned from being kept in the ice station, and
going by many ice stations the isolation and environment made some
inhabitants do strange things.

The scientist had clearly looked like he had
been doing work though, but what had he been doing?

He investigated everything that he could
about him and the main thing that he found was he was born in
Russia, which surprised him, and he wondered why such places
employed people from places that spied on them! So he decided to
watch the scientist and he observed that he regularly left his
normal work at the same time and went down the spiral staircase,
which he was sure was to the bottom floor, and some times he did
not return until it was late in the evening, which grabbed his
curiosity more than ever, as what the hell was he doing there? The
incredible thing he never grasped was why nobody actually missed
him and asked why he was not doing his work!

In the end he returned to the bottom floor by
himself and waited near the bottom of the staircase at the time he
normally arrived, and was not surprised to see him stroll down
smoking and head straight towards somewhere.

What the hell was he up to? This case was
really fascinating him! There were things that did not add up and
make sense everywhere, and he could not think of any equivalence!
He had never even heard anything take place at an ice station, and
the normal ones were nothing compared to this one!

He watched the scientist enter a nearby
corridor and he rushed over to the corner, where he hid at the
corner and glanced at him move along it, and waited until he got to
the end of it, and watched the way he smoked and got ready to throw
away his cigarette, and Weaver got ready.

When he looked again he was going around a
corner and as he did Weaver moved out and rushed down the corridor
not wishing to miss anything and he started to see the amount of
footprints there that were visible!

At the corner he stood staggered as all there
was there was a dead end! The corridor went ten feet sideways and
came to a wall!

He stood staring at it in disbelief, resting,
trying to realize what he had missed! The corridor was a dead end!
For some reason it went sideways for ten feet and came to a dead
end!

The scientist had to have gone somewhere and
he saw the floor had no prints and was clear of any dirt and
rubbish for some reason.

He clearly had not moved a trapdoor or
anything on the floor and the roof was solid and fixed, as well as
the two side walls, so he knew that he had gone forward and he
examined the front wall and it felt as solid as the other
walls.

He did not know what to do, because if he did
find a way to move the wall what would be there! Was it just a
room? Was he able to defend himself if the scientist was one of the
gunmen and had a gun?

It had to be the most desolate and darkest
place he had seen in a modern building, and it was even more still,
silent, and empty as was possible! Should he go and get help from
the other soldiers or at least tell Commander Craven! At least he
would not die in vain!

Even with the lights on there were strange
haunting dark shadows and glows that held secrets and dangers!

He started thinking of if he could catch him
doing something and whatever he was doing there, and he removed his
handgun from his bag and prepared it and himself, and started
trying to find a way in.

At the edge of one side of the wall he saw a
large crack that he examined and found light shining out from it
and concluded it was the side that opened out, and by the fact it
was in the same place as all the doors, and he searched for
something there at the level of where there would be a door handle
or lock for something to open it, and tried just pushing and
pulling it first but that did not work. So he searched for
something!

Eventually he recalled there was a flattened
metal bar in the other corridor and went and got it and when he
arrived back he discovered the door open, and saw a more modern and
clean corridor behind it, which had clearly been cleaned by a
cleaning machine like the corridors at the top of the ice station,
and he examined the lock on the door and realized that he could
easily have broken it open.

He swiftly moved through it wondering where
it went and what the use of having it was, and he wished that he
had informed someone where he had been and made sure his gun was
ready.

The cost of it proved that if there was
something there that it could have value!

He remained silent and wandered along the
corridor in the one direction, going away out from the ice station
and going directly under the ice, and found the entrance to an
elevator and entered it.

He stood even more confused when it kept
going down the depth of floor after floor!

At the bottom he gasped at the depth and
watched the doors open and darkness appear outside and he walked
out trying to see about him and saw nothing, and as his eyes
adjusted he watched the elevator doors shut and the elevator return
to where it had been, and in the darkness that engulfed him he
tried unsuccessfully to find where the buttons were located for him
to reuse the elevator when he wanted to return.

His eyes searched the abyss above, as he
walked away from it.

A deep thud echoed down, from high above
somewhere, and he wondered why whatever he was in was so large, and
he could scarcely grasp the concept and he wondered if he was on
the Antarctic land beneath the ice!

The depth by far exceeded his comprehension,
and he could not justify there being just one compartment and not
corridors. Sounds took strange tones everywhere as he started
trying to hear more, and he strained his eyes more trying to see
further beyond an area in front of him and he started to see a dark
shape, but there were no features that he could recognize, but it
seemed immense. Its shape vanished into darkness everywhere!

A swift explosion of light exploded out like
a laser blast in blackness, silencing him, and all about him the
darkness was lighted, and he saw more lights appear about him and
scientists and soldiers started appearing.

Their abnormal antics captivated him, as well
as mystifying him, and he only recognized a few from the ice
station above. He repetitively studied everything, preparing
himself for whatever happened!

The immensity of the cavity about him was
staggering and the structure of the shape that he had been studying
in the dark left him gasping and wondering what the hell it was, as
the cost of it must have been colossal!

It was clearly highly confidential and hidden
out there for a reason, but he just could not grasp what it was! It
clearly was to do with space, and he even considered if it was a
spacecraft of some form, and if they had been building a
starship.

The scientist that he had followed there
communicated with someone about him being there.

The thing was colossal, and he felt as though
he had never seen anything so big, and tried examining different
parts of it to identify it! It started to resemble some form of
communications device, which stretched across to the end of the
cavity, and he stared, staggered.

It was black and had golden areas, and lights
on it were like stars in the depths of space, and tightly packed
together in areas.

Nothing seemed to justify its presence to
him, and he sensed from the scientist something mysterious existed
there, and that he might not grasp it.

It was beyond comprehension how it managed to
exist there!

Four of the scientists that seemed to be
running things gathered into a group near him, and he listened to
some of the things they said, but he only picked up some things and
something about a possible first contact scenario, and he started
to consider it.

“
What the hell is it?
”
he finally moaned loudly,
dazzled by the massive black shape of the object covering his
vision.

“
The world’s most advanced
telescope!
”
one scientist replied.

“
That’s a telescope!” he
moaned.

“
We’ve moved on since the days of radio
telescopes!”

“
Incredible! Is it
American?”

“
Yes! And we want it to remain only
American!”

“
Have you found anything with
it?”

Suddenly all the scientists reacted, gasped
and went silent!

“
There could things hidden in the
depths of space everywhere?
” one of the scientists finally replied.

“
Incredible! Such power! It does not
even need to be out in the open – or on top of a high
location!”

Strange objects about his sides vaguely
captured his attention as they started to function and he saw that
they were the main controls and monitors, and where the information
was gathered.

At his feet, partly buried away in dust, he
saw something glitter, and he crouched and realized that there was
a hole in the floor, where it had been smashed by something heavy,
and that there was a small fossil buried in the ground, which was
the ground under the Antarctic ice.

Chapter 9

The Second
Encounter

The drinks at the ice station bar were great
and Weaver watched Reeves at the other side of the table drinking
fast and laughing with another soldier beside him, and more of the
soldiers arrived at the bar and he watched them.

It was incredible he had found the immense
cavity below and all it had done was add more facts that never
added up! What did a new telescope for searching for aliens have to
do with anything! What were the Russian scientists doing there?

Had they detected something in space and were
trying to cover it up? Or perhaps the technology behind the
telescope was highly secret and had military uses and they were
using it out in the Antarctic to hide it and the Russians were
trying to get it!

He left it again, and saw he needed more
intelligence, and he realized he might be able to get in with one
of the Russian scientists!

He kept wondering why he never had memories
of having such a situation. There was something far more unique
about this case! Everything he had been confronted with had been
new! They were all connected, and he did not know what to do!
Surely something must exist about that could be triggered by
something to surface for him to grasp the big picture?

While they sat there the soldiers drinking
seemed to increase, and he recalled that many of them at the ice
station seemed to drink more, especially with winter and the dark
nights approaching.

One of the other soldiers seemed to provoke
Reeves further and further, trying to achieve something, and Weaver
watched on watching their reactions.

Reeves in the end laughed loudly and thanked
him for it!

The other solider then started questioning
Weaver about where he had been when Weaver had been down
investigating the lower ice station and the telescope.

Then when he avoided replying he tried
questioning him on various subjects, and it was clear that he was
testing him, trying to discover something!

Reeves suddenly leaned over the table, with
his face bright red, and suddenly removed his handgun, which was
very dangerous and powerful looking in the bar, and Weaver did not
know what he wanted to do!

Everyone stopped talking in the entire bar
and stared at something behind Weaver, and he slowly followed their
eyes!

Suddenly, at the side of his vision, he saw a
faint mist surrounding something and people started examining what
was there, and gasping, and instantly looking for a fire, but it
was not coming from anywhere.

A thick cloud swiftly emerged from no visible
source, like it was some form of gas condensing into a cloud, but
when he examined it in detail he saw that it was made of some form
of energy, with no visible source, hung in the center of the bar
floor behind him, thickening in the air, swirling around in an
intelligent way! He watched it confused and tried to see if was
being controlled by something!

He saw straightaway Reeves knew something was
going to happen and was reacting in an uncontrolled fashion! Though
he knew he was mentally actually planning something! Weaver watched
on confused, wondering if any of them knew something, which some
seemed to give reactions to.

He was sure something had happened while he
was in the lower ice station that he had missed!

H was not fully able to explain its presence
and stayed still and where he was, ready for action, and to take
any course of action that appeared and he could!

He recalled the ghost sightings and the dead
man in the spacesuit that had walked in the dinning room!

The thing shifted creepily, forming a more
turbulent thickening formation, and they started rushing over to
the doors, while people from outside came in to check what the
excitement was, and they stood pondering what was occurring.

Weaver went to the side of the door and
listened to
strange
silent sounds, which were barely perceivable, which manifested
everywhere about it!