The Alien Orb

by V Bertolaccini

  The next machine, if it was a machine, left them in total disarray. Basinger was bewildered, and he was unable to confirm if it was the machine. Dexter had expected him to grasp its basic functions, but he could only examine it repeatedly, without recognizing anything.

  Their tour of it proceeded, with them, including Darwin, giving blank stares about them. It did not take long before they just went to find a place to stay.

  It was dim, but it was a good shelter, and they found lights.

  Once they had chosen a place to stay, beneath a light, Basinger and Dexter went to find a way of lighting it.

  “Is that it?” Burrell called out, pointing straight out, to the opposite wall, where Dexter saw a familiar shape.

  The machine was identical to the information machine, and it had a head device on it, to Basinger’s great pleasure. And once Basinger had dived down in front of it, he soon had the lights on – putting the entire interior in a greenish glow.

  Basinger put a projection onto the rear wall, and he began absorbing the information.

  Once Dexter saw that its information was about the same, he left, to join the others.

  “Is there power to recharge the vehicle?” Selina asked.

  “I’ll have a look for it later ...”

  Suddenly, he realized Basinger was gone. Then he saw him eagerly removing dust from a large machine, at the other side of the structure, and Dexter briskly left towards him.

  As he was approaching him, he gasped, when he clearly saw the machine.

  “I got enough information about it ...!” Basinger mumbled.

  “My god! Did you recognize it ...?”

  “What ...?”

  “It’s the alien artifact – we found on Mars!”

  Basinger looked at it amazed, and he walked around it, closely examining it, at different angles.

  “It is not the same one. It’s one of the Star Chambers, identical to the diagram ...!”

  “It had its cover over its controls!”

  “So they actually copied that alien sphere ...!” Burrell mumbled, approaching them.

  “Do you know if it will work?” Dexter enquired.

  Basinger walked to the side of it, where he had been, and he played around with an unlocking mechanism on it.

  “This control I believe should reveal more controls!”

  A panel silently slid into the machine, revealing its complex controls.

  Basinger’s hand gently touched a control, and Dexter barely kept his eyes open, not wishing to see what it would do. To his fascination, a shield slid away, from its central region, going into the machine, revealing a deep darkness. Then he looked upon the blanket of blackness in disgust, wanting to edge away from it, but it did not seem to be a genuine danger. The machine seemed to be in control of it. It had no protection screen over it, yet there was no pull from it. It was stable, and it covered the entire area of the inner chamber.

  “Why is the inside of it actually different ...?” Burrell asked Basinger.

  “From the information I got from the machines, I would say that the one at the laboratory had been left on, and it lost most of its power. The black hole would have formed in it, from the entrance curtain, over the chamber. It collapsed into its original state, and one of the machine’s safety devices was holding it, at the machine. In the right circumstance not even the safety devices could stop it escaping from it!”

  “Why are there so many controls?”

  “They are different destinations ...!”

  “Will the other machines be working?”

  “They may be!”

  Dexter avoided saying any more on the subject, and he wondered just what he was planning on doing.

  “Let’s try the machine out!” Basinger taunted. “Touch them two buttons!”

  A dim view of something lit up on a screen, at the top of the controls.

  “This gives a view of the other side of the black hole!”

  Basinger pressed the first of the hundreds of location buttons, at the top of them, and the screen partially lit, in dim shades. They viewed it at different perspectives. The light slightly vibrated, and he began to understand what it was.

  He held his hands apart, in front of his eyes, over the screen.

  “Is that daylight? Could that be where it is passing through?” Dexter presumed, looking at specks floating about, in the beams of light.

  “It’s underwater!” Basinger continued.

  “It must be at this side of the world – the sun is out!”

  Basinger pressed another button, and he saw dirt and rocks dimly light, in a green shade, from light going into it.

  “We can use this to transport ourselves about the world!” Basinger explained. “And we can properly explore it. The other machines will have lots of other destinations!”

  “Do you want to push something into it,” Burrell enquired, “to see what happens?”

  “Let’s find something ...!” Basinger answered, wandering away, looking for something long enough.

  Dexter knew where there was a pole, which could be detached from one of the machines, and he went straight to it, and got it.

  Basinger eagerly returned to the machine, with him, and Dexter put it into it.

  It felt strange, as though the magnetic properties of something had caught it, and there were no signs of any time derangements. The end of it then hit something, which was the ground surrounding the machine at the other end.

  “Do you want to try the other controls?”

  “They only adjust some of its basic functions.”

  “Let’s see some more of its destinations!”

  The first controls activated more buried machines, but then the interior of a small structure appeared, which had light entering it from a slightly open entrance.

  “If that machine is not working properly,” Dexter enquired, “will we be able to return here?”

  “You pushed the pole through, and it came back through!” Burrell answered.

  Dexter shrugged his shoulders, and just smiled.

  “But the top of the pole is missing!” Basinger replied, showing them the top of it missing.

  “You said nothing could break that material!”

  “Good, it has the ability of virtually stopping everything, from coming through it – if you don’t open it at the other end, to return. I am positive that the other machines will be working, if their shields open!”

  Dexter wondered what Basinger was going to do next.

  “I am going through ...!” Basinger suddenly volunteered.

  “How about us searching for a better location first?” Dexter pleaded. “It would not take that long to search through them! If you cannot activate it, to get back here, it may leave you trapped in a desert!”

  “No!” Basinger grunted, and he unhesitatingly plunged into its blackness.

  Chapter 11

  The Star Chambers

  The dark city shapes of the sunken city rapidly illuminated, beneath the morning sky, as the sun elevated.

  Dexter observed the sun reflect from the sea, in sparkling shapes.

  He started eating his morning ration of food, as he stood at the edge of the entrance.

  As he turned, the machine’s shield sprang open, at lightning speed, and Basinger instantly leapt out of it.

  “My god!” he yelled, panting, and staggering sideways. “Close it, and change the destination!”

  Dexter swiftly ran to where he was, and he managed to close the shield on the other machine, before Basinger could get to it. Then he changed it to another destination.

  “There are worse dangers at the other side of the world than in your wildest fantasies!”

  “What happened?” Burrell asked loudly.

  Basinger held his side, and he took in a lungful of air, calming himself.

  “Once I got through the entrance, I found that it was a small structure, in the middle of a swamp – the strangest swamp I have ever seen –

  “I was
attempting to locate where it was – and why nothing resembled anything I had seen – but I got lost ...! It was buried, and the exit was too small, and hidden away! The stench of gases, stuck in my lungs ... I was going in circles, and I could not find it ...

  “Then the land that I was on, next to some water ditches, lifted, and I saw everything shifting up ...!

  “A head, almost double my height, appeared from beneath the water! The thing threw me out of its way, and in the water!

  “After a long slog through the swamp, I climbed up a hill, and I saw the shape of where the structure was! Yet, as I rushed back, the sky rapidly darkened, and I heard some of the most ghastly, goddam sounds. I don’t know what some of the things, beasts, were, but hundreds of them started appearing everywhere!”

  Dexter listened, horrified that the world was inhabited by monsters, beyond his imagination.

  “Surely that cannot be correct!” Burrell replied dazed. “Why have we not seen any beasts – the size that you described?”

  “The same reason that you didn’t get lions and elephants on other continents, or on islands!”

  “Are you sure that you did not travel in time?” Selina asked.

  “I am sure ...! The information machine gave me facts, which told me that it is not a time machine! We will just have to check the destinations better, and, perhaps, draw a map of where we can go!”

  The destination controls made many shades of soil appear on the screen, and then a view of a gap, going out of the ground, emerged.

  Basinger grabbed the pole, and he pushed it into it. Then Dexter watched some rocks fall away, revealing a valley, from the side of a hill.

  “It must be near here,” Selina declared, “as the sun is almost in the same position as here! Let’s try to get through, to try it?”

  “We may not be able to get back!” Dexter answered. “If it is buried in something – we would have to dig it up! We have to do this right – this machine could be dangerous ...!”

  He swiftly began to activate the controls. Most of the views were now dark, and he tried to see if they were in structures. For some time, they just stared at the screen, as he rhythmically pressed the controls.

  A blur of light appeared, which was underwater, and something about it grabbed his attention – it somehow seemed familiar – for some reason. He could not identify it, and he saw Selina’s antics – signaling to him to move on – and he proceeded at a slow pace. Some hot desert places appeared on it, and they were not worth investigating.

  Halfway through them, the others grew tired of standing at it, and they left to get some food. Dexter then put the underwater view back on the screen. It was as though he were seeing something he had dreamt.

  He thought of every underwater place he had recently seen, and he froze, in shock, and he barely breathed.

  A strange shiver went through him, and he swiftly changed the destination, to where it had been. He desperately wanted to inform them where he believed it was, but they would not believe it. He barely believed that it was possible.

  He then realized that it did not make sense. The view on the screen had to be only reminding him of the bottom of the pool, outside the cave tunnel, at the top of the cliff. However, he was sure that he had seen something there, in the depths of it, even though he had not noticed that it had been a machine.

  What had been there, at the island, and in the pool, and why did he sense that it had saved them?

  Selina strolled towards him, and he desperately tried to hide his startled looks.

  “Here’s some food!”

  He took the food, and he chewed large bits out of it, as he tried to think of a way to check it. He might not be able hold his breath long enough, to activate the machine, to return. He could put himself in great danger, or be stuck there.

  He just put his hand out, and he put the view on it again.

  “What is it?” Selina murmured, glaring at him.

  Without any explanations, he just leapt into its blackness, as he was sure that he could do it, and it went past his head like a black line. And he swam up through the water, to where light beamed down.

  He leaped through the surface of the water, and he crawled onto an embankment.

  As he cleaned the water from his eyes, he saw some of the animals that they had left at the pool, jumping back from him, as they saw him.

  It was incredible, he had thought that he would ever see the cave again, but it had been his intention to return.

  As he rested, he wondered if he had condemned himself to be stuck at it for the rest of his life. Yet he knew where he was, and where the others were. Moreover, all he needed to do was find a way to drain the pool.

  While he tested his breathing, proving that it was about normal, he stood. But as he was about to dive, he remembered the lifting device. He had to try it first, even though its powers might not be enough. The rewards for getting it to the surface would be outstanding.

  Once he had it, he practiced using it, and he dived into the water, as fast as he possibly could. If he could swim down fast enough, he might have enough oxygen left. The pool seemed to go endlessly down, but he swam fast and furiously into it. As it grew very dim, the bottom finally appeared beneath him.

  He frantically searched, trying to find the machine, but it was not visible to him. However, he recalled where it had been, and he found it. Then he traced its shape into the mud.

  Dexter swiftly activated a control, and his height increased, dragging up a tremendous weight beneath him, including the mud and water, surrounding the machine. Even though he had activated the control that made it swiftly lift, it only was capable of taking him up at a gradual pace.

  His lungs began to lust for air, and he thought he was going to die. But he saw the surface over him. Then the water rushed away, and he gasped for air.

  He was soon lying on a layer of water, on the ground, with the machine next to him.

  Selina appeared at his side, and he saw that the water had stopped pouring off the machine.

  “What did you do?” Burrell moaned, as he approached him.

  Dexter coughed furiously, and rested.

  “We’re back at the cave!” Basinger explained, in amazement. “And the animals are here!”

  Dexter smiled, and he nodded rhythmically.

  He had never seen them so troubled for an explanation.

  Basinger and Burrell then strolled into the cave, looking baffled, and Selina stayed with him.

  She cleaned some of the mud from the machine, with water.

  Basinger and Burrell congratulated him, when they returned, with the things that they needed, and they quickly left, to get some precious food supplies.

  There was a large amount of things that they needed from the island, and they would have to keep making trips to it. They had not found anywhere else to get proper food.

  However, they had not seen that many destinations. And the machine, in front of him, would have destinations on it that were not on other.

  The next morning, Dexter helped Basinger check more locations, on the machine at the structure.

  Dexter carefully marked down the locations that they were able to go to, and what he saw at the places, which were mostly deserts and rocky locations.

  Basinger did not know why another swamp region had not appeared. He eventually returned to the information machine, where he sat captivated, trying to find details on various things.

  Dexter examined the locations on the machine, and he would remove them from the list if he realized that they were too dangerous, or if he might not be able to return – especially if the machine looked as though it was in a place that might have damaged it.

  He finally decided that it was time to check the machine at the cave, and he went to it.

  After only checking a few destinations on it, a dark green shade appeared, and he realized that it was a type of forest. And he marked it down as a possible source of food for them. He then closely examined the types of soil at v
arious locations about the world.

  Then a spectacular whiteness illuminated at one destination, and he saw that it was ice and snow. And he wondered why the snow had not covered the machine, or why it had not been in a glacier, and he decided to investigate it.

  A bitter breeze hit his face, as he swiftly walked through, onto crunching snow. And an unusual sight opened out behind him, where he had only expected to see the sun beaming brightly. A hill of square stones went out for about half a mile, of the remains of a stone structure.

  What confused him was that the machine was out in the open – and not under the stones. There were no indications why the machine was there. However, it might have been in part of the structure that had deteriorated away, over the many years, by the harsh winter conditions. Its remaining parts had to be under him, and the weather must have destroyed it.

  Then he noticed that there was an area missing from the stones, as though the machine had been in the stones.

  He was sure that it was a sort of observation point, to check the region, and that it was at the edge of a polar region. He was sure, by the fact that the structure was not under the ice, that the world now had a stable climate.

  At the controls of the machine, he touched a control, and it reversed the black hole. The brilliant whiteness vanished, as he went back through, and the dim surroundings of the cavity engulfed him.

  He was about to activate the controls of the machine at a fast pace, as there were many destinations under the ground appearing on the screen, when he saw a faint shape, within one. When he closely examined it, he did not see anything else. However, since the faint light that was about him that was traveling into the machine was not bright, he waited for the sun to appear from behind a cloud.

  Then, when the sun flashed, he saw a room.

  When he entered it, he instantly smelt a deep stale odor, and rapidly proved he could breath it.

  Then he spotted speckles in the darkness! And he moved further in, and realized that he was glaring out at the stars of deep space.