As the shuttle accelerated on he increasingly felt a presence of something, somewhere, in the chilling darkness of the alien world around them, and it started to become visible that the five other members of the crew of the shuttle.
At a distance the shuttle resembled a highly advanced early twenty-first century space shuttle, but far larger, and was designed for the exploration of worlds, especially Mars, and future explorations in the solar system.
Most of the crew, including him, were also scientists and explorers, wanting to see the universe and discover new things, and were testing and improving the space vehicle, like the other twenty space shuttles being tested on Mars, and were from Base One, the largest structure in space and on Mars and the headquarters of all the operations, bases, and space stations on or over Mars.
The commander of the base and Martian operations was Base Commander Clarke, an associate of Commander Carl Cronenberg.
All the information from the shuttles was being gathered and transmitted to the base, and studied mainly by the shuttle builders and scientists.
The other five members of the shuttle crew were Orwell the shuttle science officer, medic, and biologist/exobiologist, Stanley the shuttle pilot, and an expert shuttle pilot and navigator, and Lyndon the co-pilot, navigator, expert on most of the Martian world, landscape and locations, and expert on shuttles, like most of them, and Deputy Commander Tom Campbell head flight engineer, and an astrophysicist/planetary geologist, and Rosenberg a flight engineer, and an astrophysicist/planetary geologist, and all basically checking the performance of the shuttle and findings the new detection equipment aboard gathered, especially in the unexplored regions they were entering.
Cronenberg knew that they were finally properly exploring Mars, and they were properly filming and mapping the landscape, and entering regions never properly explored.
He had recollections of seeing the shuttle for the first time, and its abilities, and ability to fly in the almost empty Martian atmosphere, and he knew they were a breakthrough that could lead to immense discoveries and the proper exploration of the smaller but vast world.
Their explorations of the whole world had been little so far – with only probes and satellite explorations – and he grasped the chance to be a part of it, but the dangers had not been apparent until he had started their mission.
After hours of intense training, medical examinations, and every form of screening, the astronauts were finally carrying out the first mission, and future missions.
“This technology is a scientific breakthrough!” Orwell announced to Cronenberg, as he sat monitoring newly installed equipment, over at his side, which was to survey the ground, and had a clear image even in the darkened landscape.
“It’d be a mistake not to use it to its full potential for science!” he replied.
“They’ve been redoing scanning and carrying out tests for months, back on the Earth, and seem to have progressed the technology far further than we thought. The views and information received is far greater …”
Cronenberg wondered if it was good enough to detect what was there, and realized whatever it was he had sensed there might be reacting to it and he considered having it turned off.
He was starting to suspect that some of them had discovered signs of something of unknown origins somewhere, and were either not sure and leaving it until they had enough evidence or they did not want to confront what was there, and, of course, it could be both.
Finally Rosenberg muttered to him, “There’s some form of powerful magnetic influence – or something of that nature – around here somewhere!”
Cronenberg swiftly checked it to see what it was and moved away, and considered what it was, and if it belonged to Mars.
From a side window he watched shades of light play with his vision in animated motions, as the shuttle rushed on, and he watched the crew at work, constantly examining the new technology, getting use to using it.
The Antarctic had a great potential with the ice and its other features and he wondered if any of it had been there for millions of years like the Antarctic on the Earth! If Mars had seas or large lakes there could have been amphibious or even prehistoric creatures that could be buried frozen away there!
For a few seconds he watched blankly as crew members gave reactions about something unbelievable, and he reacted when he spotted the equipment showing strange reactions that he could not comprehend, and he considered if it was because things were too vague, with insignificant reactions, which could be off anything, but he was sure something nearby was creating a disturbance or being detected for some reason.
The problem was they had not fully checked everything with the equipment, and its reactions to everything, even though it had been tested back on the Earth, and they were sure that something was ahead! The equipment was more powerful and sensitive at detection than ever before, and had even been modified before the trip, for detection at distances, which they had to work at there, which would speed up future searches of the vast terrain.
The shuttle rushed on across the immense desolate landscape and the equipment gave increased strange reactions and accounts, and they checked for equipment problems, and they gradually perceived that there was definitely something ahead that had similarities to something artificial with immense proportions
Chapter 2
The Attack
Cronenberg never got who was the most baffled by the situation, and if they were in danger, and how they should proceed to deal with what they had! No danger to them had arisen and nothing showed they would crash but they sensed something!
They had gradually realized something was emerging, with them studying the slightest reactions created by it, while still trying to prove the new equipment had nothing wrong with it.
Nothing seemed to be visible ahead and where the disturbances had been found to be generated.
Was it a coincidence that the equipment was malfunctioning at the same time? He knew there could easily be still hidden flaws in the technology! It was valuable and might still need to be advanced further, in its new state!
He checked Deputy Commander Campbell’s map, which he claimed was the most accurate up-to-date map available, and Rosenberg helped, but they found little ahead, and the facts showed little existed there, and the region had not been explored by anything other than satellites.
Their records showed nothing had been recorded of such a disturbance, even though he was sure there had been mentioned past events discovered on the Earth, but they were too vague and too proven to be false for him to be believe.
It was then that he realized that all the communications from and to the outside world had gone and the pilots reported it to him when he asked, and he expected them to offer help or at the least their scientific theories, and they just looked confused.
They just left pilots on their own to handle all the problems themselves, with the shuttle’s flight! They were better off without them being in the way.
It was incomprehensible and crazy, and would surely be recorded as such a discovery! Investigations proved that nothing could be there!
Would they even survive to see what was there? The equipment and plane had increasing signs of being dangerous, at an alarming rate, as they advanced forwards, and they surely would have to land, and their constant attempts to turn back had failed.
Something was either wrong with the shuttle equipment or something was taking them forward, and its power was increasing as they went forward, and the pilots seemed to lose more and more control, and he kept on believing it was the new equipment, and even considered if they had deliberately invented the situation to test their ability in handling such a scenario and were also trying to test the shuttle, or someone needed the information.
Shudders and fluctuations ripped through the plane and him and the others as what seemed like strange unknown energy surges swept through the region, threatening to rip it to shreds and scatter it and them across Mars, and he imagined his remains be
ing recovered days later half buried away in sand.
The rest of the crew also started to realize it and that they might not even see what was there, but he decided to insist in ignoring it! He gasped when he realized that they should have turned back as soon as there had been evidence something was occurring, and even because it was getting dark! Surely there was a way to change the course of the shuttle, and the new shuttle and equipment had only confused them! Perhaps it was a built in programming that had been somehow activated, which had not been known by them, and had perhaps been on an earlier version of the programming or was used for some other reason.
He considered what it could be and what would happen and how to combat the occurrence! Whatever it was it had control of controlling the shuttle!
He decided to ignore the dangers and to examine everything that was occurring to try to explain things, and fit things together and get a proper picture of what might happen, and if they could do anything. In the past he, and surely the others, had pulled themselves out of dangerous and tricky situations, and he thought that they could do it once again, even if there was a slight chance.
He examined the strange alterations, with erratic characterizations, in the equipment and realized there had been a change, and they all started examining how it was now affecting the shuttle and its performance, and he checked the pilots and saw that they had seen something in the increasing darkness ahead and wondered what the shuttle was going over, and was surprised at how fast it was getting dark and he managed to adjust his eyes and followed one of the pilot’s eyes to a location ahead.
He joined in examining there in detail. It was incredible! There was nothing visibly there but he knew there was something! He had seen nothing like it! At that distance it seemed normal though, and he was left confused as he was sure something was going to happen there, and he and the pilots started preparing for something to occur, and he decided to ignore the dangers and to handle everything he could as best as he could as it appeared.
The area was not properly charted and there was nothing shown there, and the satellite photos showed nothing but another area of Mars, and he suddenly wondered what was there and where the hell it had come from!
Areas surrounding the region had a volcanic appearance, and it was definitely old.
Campbell discussed it with Stanley the pilot and tried to get anything he could from the pilot.
“We should get someone to check out what’s there as soon as our communications return!” Stanley replied. “It seems to be where the disturbances are from!”
“That looks empty?” Orwell announced, looking into the front window with high powered binoculars, hardly able to see in the blackness there.
Campbell took the binoculars and searched where he was looking, and stood confused, and replied, “What happens now? How the hell could anything be there?”
“I think we’re going down …” Stanley shouted, and the shuttle started going downwards.
“I’ve recovered control of it!” he gasped, after a few minutes of struggling to control it.
“We’ll have to land!” Lyndon announced, checking everything about him, preparing himself.
Cronenberg gasped at the situation and rushed into his shuttle commander’s seat, one of their impact protection seats, designed for him, and the shuttle started reacting crazily and viciously shuddered, as if caught in some force, and they started descending swiftly and he realized like most of the crew that the worst outcome could become real, and he saw them reacting and preparing themselves for their worst fears.
He copied positioning himself in his seat and prepared for what was ahead, and considered using something for violent impacts.
As it hurtled downwards he spotted the last shreds of sunshine illuminating the sky on an area of the horizon, and he spotted the startled faces of the two pilots recalling emergency procedures, and others swiftly securing equipment or themselves.
He wished he had a better view at a main window of what was happening! He imagined it bursting into flames with the powerful fuel and the entrance being blocked.
The last shades of weak light pulsated, in various motions, through the front pilots window, and he considered what could happen! Would it ruin everything if the shuttle was destroyed and they survived?
Yet they had revealed something, and with incredible powers, powerful enough to take down a powerful large shuttle, with such high technology, and he wondered if they could discover what it was and save the day! If they survived to see what was there!
All they could do was wait for the outcome, and try to do everything they could, and he realized he was actually part of a real drama and occurrence, perhaps for the first time in his life!
He started realizing how professionally skilled and proficient the crew actually were, and how far they had gone out of their way to get them and carry out the Mars operation, and he realized why they had chosen him, and had realized the dangers!
Everything on the shuttle appeared in order, and it was only being influenced by something clearly below, somewhere, and he wondered if it was a natural phenomenon, and if it could be a danger to flights over that region. He was sure it was forcing them to land – or was it their imagination, and some force like gravity, and he wondered if there were disturbances like it on the Earth.
He saw that they were having a hard time controlling the speed of their descent!
How could anything take control of such a powerful shuttle, and at such a distance? What form of technology was behind it? Could they use it in warfare? Was it a form of military technology? Could they figure out a way to block and stop it?
Surely there had to be a way to obstruct it or just weaken it?
One of the crew called out, “It’s not increasing in power!”
He realized that some of them were holding back information about it, and he considered if he should try and get it!
The pilots tested and did what they could perceive and he realized that it was a more interesting trip than he had even imagined! Nothing anywhere seemed enough to understand it, and he was sure none of them had anything to properly explain it!
There had to be something irregular, visible, and solid behind it, and he wondered if he could get it if he had long enough and the right means!
“We’ve still lost all contact with the base!” Campbell confirmed loudly, as he examined his equipment.
He noticed as it got lower to the ground the crew started avoiding looking at each other, with occasional horrified glares, realizing they that they were going to land soon and they might not be any longer in control of their fate!
“I don’t get this!” one of the pilots uttered, as he looked up startled. “It is as though something kicked in there and has started landing it, and I cannot discover why and why it is going to a different destination than we were set to land!”
“Is there anything visible there?” Cronenberg asked curiously.
“Nothing visible! It seems to be carrying out some form of alternative plan – to land us!”
The shuttle shifted down low, but still at a regulated pace, almost as though it were being overwhelmed by something.
Occasionally the crew started monitoring what was happening about them as it happened, and Cronenberg realized that they liked to handle things rather than ignore them, and they were not fully confident of surviving!
Even the most professional pilots on the Earth would have a hard time finding a landing site below, and they were allowing it to land them there.
The shudders from turbulent energy surges made them jerk forwards and backwards, making them all go silent and stop silent conversations, and they started putting on their spacesuit helmets.
At times he felt as if he were drifting down to a hideous death!
It plummeted and suddenly administrated what was an almost perfect landing, but smashed hard into something, and his eyes bulged brightly, and he barely believed the destructive forces lashing out at the shuttle.
When he realized that they had avoided dieing, when it stopped, flames bursting out, and an alarm blared out, and a sudden explosion smashed it with tremendous force!
Then as he caught sight of something in the obscurity out in the distance, through a window, he heard them all trying to escape and realized that the shuttle had acquired serious structural damage and fuel was leaking out and had ignited.
Chapter 3
The Crash Site
After the astronauts had jumped onto the Martian soil Cronenberg and copied the others lifting out oxygen tanks and he rushed away from the crash site with them, and he had a strange sensation and thought that he was somewhere far more than an uncharted desolate region of Mars!
It was as though they were entering somewhere else, and making the first step for mankind to something!
He did not know what their next biggest problem would be!
Was it even dieing of starvation? Or was there something there after all, which had brought them there, which was getting ready to kill them all or what?
They never had any communications with the outside world and the shuttle was damaged beyond what they could repair and the last of the fuel was burning away, and they were lucky as the shuttle had been designed right and it did not have a fatal explosion, but they never knew if what had taken them there would allow them to leave, be found, and allow them to live!
The next peculiarly that they saw was the strangely tinted night sky, and nobody could recall seeing anything like it but they had not been outside the base at night that much.
Yet he was sure it had not been there when they had landed!
There was sand and rocks everywhere, unhampered by humans, and it was very dry and he watched the astronauts return and get fire distinguishers and help control and put out the flames, while others removed equipment and things they needed outside the shuttle, and he watched their speed increase, and slow when the flames started going out, and their reactions when it was annihilated, and they started moving back in the shuttle and fixed its lighting and heating.
The Lost Treasure Map Deluxe Book Collection (2017 Edition) Page 33