there is anything metallic buried there, this gadget will find it!” he said over his shoulder as he walked over to the mysterious circular area wielding the metal detector cockily.
His cocky manner soon dissolved when he approached the circle and the metal detector went crazy with beeps and flashes. What surprised him most was that the detector was still a couple of feet off the ground being carried by the shoulder strap. Glancing at the detection meter he saw that the needle was off the scale. His jaw dropped and he looked round at Sarah who had heard the squawking noises over by the jeep. Sarah shouted “What’s up Mike, it sounds like the metal detector is busted?” He walked away from the circle until the beeping stopped and the meter was at its rest position.” He shouted back “No there’s nothing wrong with it, but there’s something damn big under here!” The same result was obtained all the way round the circle, with the meter fading as he backed away. “What do we do now Mike?” said Sarah looking a bit worried. “We’d better phone the State Police, let them sort it out. It might be something dangerous. It’s certainly big!” exclaimed Mike, almost relieved that he could now unload the problem on someone else.
Dangerous Cargo
Thirty minutes later the local sheriff arrived with brakes screeching, still chewing on the hot dog he had just started eating when the phone call came in. He looked slightly bored and quite upset that he had been called out right on his lunch break. “Well there sure don’t seem to be anything wrong here.” he whined. He followed Mike over to the circle, huffing and puffing as he thought he was wasting his time. Mike switched the metal detector on and the sheriff spat out his hot dog in surprise and said. “Just what the hell is that noise?”
He tagged along reluctantly as Mike showed him the meter readings all the way round the circle and explained what they meant. There was a cloud of dust as he ran back to his patrol car and spoke into his radio for fifteen minutes. He came back puffing and wiping perspiration from his face and said abruptly “Ok, thank you, I can deal with this now.” Mike and Sarah went back to their jeep after saying goodbye to the sheriff, who didn’t look so good. They drove back to the diner for lunch, wondering why he had seemed so keen to get rid of them.
The sheriff waited cursing for almost two hours until he saw the huge lorry and excavating machines arrive, followed by two mobile cranes. He’d be glad to get back to his air conditioned office after all this. There was plenty of paperwork to be completed, mostly parking fines and petty crime, but it had to be done.
He pointed out the area in the distance and the excavator rolled off the road towards the orange markers. It made short work of the piles of sand and rubble, and within an hour there was a huge mountain of debris, well away from the circle. Almost jumping for joy the foreman pointed to a dark area in the pit, the pit now being ten feet deep. The excavator went back and cleared the rest of the rubble exposing the enormity of the object beneath.
The excavator moved out of the way to allow the two cranes to position themselves facing each other across the pit so as to distribute the forces necessary to lift the object. Chains and shackles were fixed to metal protrusions found around its perimeter and the powerful crane engines heaved it up from the pit inch by inch into the sunlight.
The specialised retrieval team had seen UFO’s many times before but the sight of the space craft still brought sounds of astonishment as it swayed gently on the chains. The huge low loader was brought as close as possible and through very precise and much practiced synchronisation of the two cranes, the craft was lowered gently on to the back of the truck and sheeted over. After the load was secured the truck moved off with its engine grunting.
Area 51, Nevada
The truck arrived at the gates of Area 51 with much checking and double checking by security and was eventually permitted to enter. It backed into a hangar where the UFO was carefully removed and placed on supporting steelwork. The shape of the craft was almost the accepted classic. It was pretty much saucer shaped with a flat area on the top of a domed structure. Six small protrusions appeared equally spaced around its entire circumference but it had no visible ports.
Within half an hour the hangar was crawling with technicians with every conceivable test instrument imaginable. The first and most important check was for radiation readings. A thorough scan showed a higher than usual reading and great care was taken to reduce the risk of radiation sickness. The teams were rotated regularly to avoid prolonged exposure and they all wore dose meters that were checked carefully.
One of the technicians detected a faint creaking sound coming from the craft which only occurred the once. He put it down to temperature change and never reported it. Since the UFO had been dug up and exposed to higher temperatures, some expansion in the metal structure, with the consequence of the odd noise, was expected; this was normal. The team wrapped up just before midnight without any concrete findings. A means of ingress was not to be found. The curved outside panels appeared to flow into each other without seams. Machinery was transported into the hangar ready for the next shift when they arrived in the morning. The next operation would be to cut an opening into the UFO. The lights were switched off and the heavy sliding doors pulled shut.
Deekov Awakes
When the first disturbance was felt Deekov slid off his bunk and gently woke the others to alert them of danger. Kralak murmured “What is happening, are the engines working?” “Be quiet, we must not make a noise.” Deekov whispered as he crept to the control room. Kralak woke Zeelob and told him to be as quiet as possible and they both entered the control room and stared at the view screen.
Deekov was standing in front of the screen examining the images. “We are moving, but I do not how or why. I can see a sun in the heavens, not unlike ours. It seems we are being taken somewhere.” he said with great concern. They all went back to their bunks and listened, and worried.
After all the noises stopped Kralak chanced a trip to the control room and switched on the view screen. Using infra-red he scanned the hangar. Their situation hadn’t improved by much. They were still prisoners, and their predicament weighed heavily on his mind. He went back to the others and spoke to them with a grave expression on his face. He sighed “We have very few options. Our engines are broken and we could never return home, even if they were working, and also our rations are almost gone.”
Deekov said with much sadness “There is only one thing we can do.” They slowly entered the control room and each of them went over to a separate key pad on the bulkhead. “Now, is the time.” moaned Deekov. They all entered the codes that they had memorised.
Epilogue
On the Las Vegas Strip, all heads turned to see a flash in the sky followed by a slowly rising mushroom cloud. Margaret turned to her husband and said “Look at that honey, I think they’ve opened a new casino!” The crowds soon got bored and carried on talking about how much they’d won on the slots.
The End
Unfortunate Discovery Page 2