The Alien Artifact 8

by V Bertolaccini

  Cronenberg went over to Orwell, the shuttle science officer, to see what he had.

  “Did you get anything on what happened to the shuttle, and how it came down here?”

  “A few things! It sure as hell was not the shuttle itself. I checked records, and also proved it could not have done what it had. There had to be something else that did it!”

  It surprised him that he was also questioning what had happened had happened! He also realized Orwell knew that they were also going to have a problem explaining what had happened to them. Would they accept what they told them, and if they did not what would they do about it?

  He could try to get a full investigation, as they had been nearly killed, and the highly expensive shuttle could have been destroyed, and it might cost a lot to get it properly repaired.

  “There was a strange magnetic phenomenon detected …!” Orwell gasped.

  “I wonder what that could be …” he asked, confused, copying one of the rescuers investigating it, to see what he replied with.

  “Something of incredible magnitude created a form of powerful magnetic influence, or something of that nature!”

  “What could create such power? It had to be tremendous!”

  “Someone may have been playing around with something somewhere! I was thinking if it was not from around, as we have seen, then something could have created it somewhere else, by some unknown means!”

  “Why would they be experimenting on something out there though? Could it be the southern pole creating a magnetic influence?”

  “How could it have controlled the shuttle and carried out what it did!” he moaned, confused. “Someone may be playing around with something in this region!”

  “Why would they be experimenting on something out here though?”

  “Perhaps they’re creating something big to influence Mars itself!”

  “In what way?”

  “They could want to alter Mars!” he mumbled to himself. “If they could move it close to the sun or use it to melt all the ice here they might be able to create immense lakes of water and create an atmosphere. They might be able to colonize it one day!”

  The idea surprised Cronenberg and he realized that he might even be suggesting it was a secret government or group of governments plan, and he considered why it would be so secretive.

  “What are your assumptions?” Orwell uttered, breaking the deep silence, seeing him thinking it over.

  “I’ve not drawn any proper conclusions!” he confessed, considering how he could check if it would work. “Whatever it is – it has incredible power! We need more reasonable clues.”

  “Even with all our technology, unknown and unexplained phenomena still exists! Who knows what exists out there in the depths of space – and even unseen about us – which could very well be beyond our detection methods and comprehension.”

  Some strange thought was going through Orwell’s mind and he was figuring through possibilities and Cronenberg could not fully understand why his view of things had so vastly altered and he wondered what had happened when he was away.

  He also occasionally had the look of a person who somehow sensed an oncoming consequence, and was checking ways to tackle it.

  Had he found something? Or had he dreamed of scientific finds far too many times?

  “At any rate, there might be other mentions of such occurrences on the Earth!” Orwell continued. “Even if most are antiquated and mythological! For instance there are zones like the Bermuda Triangle! Which was reputed to cause a similar effect – before ships and planes vanished! There could be some sort of mass of something around – perhaps a mass of magnetic iron ...! Our detection methods on Mars and even the Earth may be small, and far smaller than we think …The magnetic field of the globe has been found to have altered in many ways over Earth’s existence!”

  Orwell searched his face, wondering what he thought, and Cronenberg was sure he was thinking of questioning and getting answers from him.

  “I have not heard of it properly doing anything though!” Orwell replied. “Though not altogether investigated – it is very unlikely to have such an intensity and nature – even in northern regions ...”

  “Okay!” he replied firmly, determined to force Orwell into giving him something. “It’s coming from somewhere and we all know it exists ... And it will be beneficial to check the disturbance – which cannot be explained by normal science – and find what we can on it.”

  “I’ll attempt to find out if someone had something around here, or was using something capable of doing it!”

  “Did you find anything while I was away?” he finally replied.

  “I checked all the records and found one thing and just before it took control of the shuttle something appeared and flashed on and off, and was just recorded, which I think was unintentional, and I took a photo of the unusual formation, which was buried away in the blur of flickers!”

  Cronenberg was surprised when he produced a photo of a complex sphere, which was clearly artificial and of a highly advanced nature, and he realized it looked of highly advanced alien origins!

  Chapter 8

  The Lost Library

  Eventually, after hours of searching records, Cronenberg entered Base One library, after being given recommendations to go there, and glared at vast bookshelves, covering the library walls, as he entered, and gasped at how empty of people it was.

  It amazed him that such libraries once were the source of information for the human race, and as he approached the books it became clear that it had a great deal of unidentifiable information, and he put it down to laziness that the stuff had not been added to the computers.

  At first he had dismissed that there was a library, as the others had not been aware of there being a book on the entire base.

  He had just grabbed some books and sat down when Orwell marched in smiling, and marched up to him and sat next to him.

  “I saw you coming in here at the end of the corridor!” he laughed, and picked up a book off the table, at his side, and flickered through the pages. “What you looking for?”

  “I’ve checked everything about Anders everywhere and have not found anything!” he moaned back.

  “Anders!” he replied, surprised. “What do you want to know about him for?”

  “Why was he there, for starters? It’s an incredible coincidence he crashed at the exact same place, in a desolate region covering such a vast region, and it was one of the only crashes on Mars!”

  “You’re correct! What’s the connection though? Why do you think he was there, anyway?”

  Cronenberg just shrugged back.

  The furniture about him held his attention, and amused him, and was clearly used to make it look like an original Earth library, to give it authenticity, like many of the rooms and objects about the station, to give it the look of a normal place, as the astronauts had to live there for a long time, and stay indoors, without seeing a normal world.

  The vast size of Base One was incredible now, and had been slowly built up over decades, with many countries helping build sections, and them wanting to increase the inhabitants on Mars, and explorations there and in space. It was as though they were on the Earth most of the time, even after being there for years! The military and police had recently been increased to compensate for increases in the inhabitants!

  It was now like a small town, in a strange place, and Cronenberg kept realizing how little he knew of the inhabitants, as many he had never seen, and many left and many were new there, and he realized how little of it he had actually seen.

  He still regularly returned to the Earth and visited places like where he had been born and the people he knew back there!

  The library now had the look of an ancient study, and he started examining bookshelves, and he even wondered if the books were mostly all too old.

  The furniture there grasped his attention as it looked expensive, and he realized that they had lowered the production costs and amount of mate
rials used in the furniture about the base, and he was surprised at the quality of it and how far they had lowered the quality and he realized the seats and other furniture there were also far more comfortable and usable. It gave the whole room an atmosphere that was not elsewhere and he considered trying to use it in his apartment at the base and considered where he could get it and if it was still available there.

  He soon started examining bookshelves searching for anything on Anders, astronauts, things of that era he was in, and he and Orwell worked away for hours searching, and started speeding their search up and he soon realized that there was nothing there, and he slowly grew depressed and started trying to consider other methods of getting what he wanted.

  It was then he spotted a closed door at a hidden part of the library, which had ignored as it had looked like another entrance into the outer corridors or just a locked storeroom.

  On his close approach he realized it was something else and grabbed at its stiff brass handle, and felt it had been that way for a long time, and he realized how long the place had gone unused and how aged it was, and he gave the door a hard jerk to make it budge, and it creaked open, and a black switch became faintly visible on an interior white wall and he activated the lights, which flickered and grew bright.

  It took a few seconds for the sight before him to sink in, and he stood steady, glaring at shelves of books there, covering its walls, realizing that they were far more different and what he was looking for.

  It was clear it was a small room of information about Mars and its history, and detailed information that was not available elsewhere and on the computers, and he found official documents about the base and bases, findings about Mars, explorations, and astronauts, and he started searching for information about Anders and Orwell joined him, and he was surprised at how interested in it Orwell became after reading it.

  They started to realize most of the stuff had been classified stuff that they would not have been allowed to read, due to their low classified status, as their line of work never warranted it, and the stuff had declassified stamped on most of it and that the rest had been declassified without stamps, and they sat for hours at a table there examining the fascinating stuff they never knew existed and had occurred.

  They were even to astonished at some of it to mention it to each other, and they realized the mistake they had made in leaving the material there for anyone to read, as they clearly had not fully read through it all, and it mentioned things that were still classified, and about their introduction, with them only missing out things of what their current state was, and some of it gave away stuff that had been highly illegal and deadly, of a military nature, which they surely had been breaking laws creating, and it gave away the nature of their current classified material.

  He searched for anything at the region that they had crashed at and anything they worked on or had found that could have caused what had happened, and of what Anders had been doing there, as he suspected he had been doing something there.

  He even thought, after reading one paper on some military research, that they had created something there!

  He jolted when Orwell called out that he had found something and he dropped what he had and rushed over!

  If an answer to what existed actually existed he knew that it could well be there! Even though most of it seemed to be only outdated.

  What he found was about Anders and his disappearance and he collected all the material he could find on it to read afterwards, and they searched everything that they could, and he scribbled down notes about what he found, and added any interesting facts that he noticed, and he grew determined to do something and carry out his mission. If he could find out more about Anders, and what subjects he had been interested in and had been doing, and doing there, he might be able to discover what he had been like and what he had been doing when they crashed.

  He started to consider that they might have something over there, at the southern pole, and that it was still highly classified, and that they might find suggestions of something from before it was created, and perhaps what had led to its introduction.

  Chapter 9

  The Lost Treasure

  Cronenberg reluctantly dragged himself away from all the files he was studying, which he had been going through for many hours, for over a week, and he watched Orwell march in the library, for the first time in days.

  Orwell was still fascinated at why he was so obsessed with searching the information, and only seemed to turn up occasionally answer it, and seemed be trying to answer other unanswered questions, and he believed that he wished to know what had nearly killed them and took control of the shuttle, and why, and perhaps why they survived. What had the whole episode been about? Nothing seemed to add up!

  “Come over here ...!” he called out to Orwell, and Cronenberg moved over to the end of the table and removed a pile of files, and returned to where he was and dumped there.

  “What are they of?”

  “I’ve put together everything with the information I want on the table, and all the files about Anders and things associated with him and that site, and I’m going through it all searching for the slightest clues …”

  “What’s the point? You’ve searched through the main stuff though!”

  Cronenberg had realized that he would have to let someone else in on what he was doing, as he could not do everything himself, and was sure that he could answer stuff he could not, and he had checked him out everywhere, and he knew him more than anyone else there.

  A glance into the main library showed it was empty, and he listened to the deep silence, and he listened into the deepest depths of the base, and outer corridor, once again, and it showed him that there were still only workmen building a new ceiling in a nearby apartment, replacing an original ceiling, with modern materials.

  The wires from the electrics had rot and webs over them, and had been easily broken, and were in bits on the floor, and he had studied the room and people.

  He had been surprised that spiders actually existed at the base years before, and must have been in things brought to Mars.

  “So what is it?” he asked Cronenberg, sitting at his side. “If you find something you’ll have to let it out eventually!”

  “I think Anders was looking for valuable diamonds!”

  Orwell gasped and his face showed he was startled by the final reply, and he sat thinking it over, and then looked confused, and finally asked, “What makes you think he was looking for them?”

  “I’ve found various things … I still have not proven anything though! But I believe that was why he was there! And it made him the only person in history to steal a rocket vehicle, with such an expense, right under their noses!”

  “Ah! He stole that vehicle, with another astronaut …”

  “Who, according to this, they both managed to cover up where they went, but crashed in the end, and they even thought he got away with it, which was why they never searched here for him! They believe he could have been working for another government and had taken it and its highly advanced technology for them – as they might have not been able to get hold of anything on it!”

  Cronenberg removed a document that he had marked and handed it over to him, and he started looking for another.

  Orwell read it swiftly, examining things, and put it down over the table, thinking about the stuff in it, and Cronenberg handed part of an old newspaper with part of the story in it, showing where they believed the vehicle had been taken.

  “What he was after must have been incredibly valuable?” he silently moaned to himself. “Are you sure it was diamonds?”

  For a moment he never seemed to accept the space vehicle had been taken – not believing such a fact. But the official documents confirmed what had occurred, and he had not seen such documents and information being wrong.

  “There is still a small chance it could have been something else though?” he finally confessed.

  Cronenberg just nodded in agre
ement.

  “Are you saying the diamonds are at where they crashed?”

  “That’s what I’m searching for! If only we can find something on it! We need a location!”

  Cronenberg never said anything of the map he had found in Anders pocket, and a mention of diamonds on it, and though he had not found the location on it he decided to try and keep it that way, if he could.

  “So you think we should start looking for it?”

  “If we find a more accurate location!”

  Chapter 10

  The Investigation

  Cronenberg could not believe the police investigation into Campbell’s death! The strange way they had approached it was unbelievable and surreal! And it left him gasping at what would happen, as they insisted he was killed, and they believed there were no animals outside the base.

  How could an animal or anything live there? He and Rosenberg had a hard time explaining what had happed to them!

  There had been barely a killing in space or there, and the crime was low, and it was mainly made up of scientists and other professionals working there.

  He was baffled! What the hell had killed the flight engineer, and how had it made it into his spacesuit?

  There was only one explanation and it was what had taken them to the destination! Yet what the hell could be that advanced and that savage? And why had it only attacked him?

  Orwell soon started asking questions, after he told him of what occurred, and he wanted his thoughts on it.

  His first question was, “Who found him dead?”

  “I did!”

  “He managed to stay alive until the morning?”

  “We were with him up until the morning! And I’m sure nothing happened while we slept …”

  “When was the last response or movement you saw from him?”