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 materials 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 sil
ently 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 agreement.
“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?”
“It was at night when we went to sleep! We hardly moved while sleeping in the spacesuits!”
Cronenberg avoided telling him and them about the ghost astronaut he had seen, as it was not linked to the incident, and he was now unsure if he had imagined it.
“How did he die?”
“He looked as if he had been eaten by something!”
If it had been one of the others in the shuttle, who had followed them there, and how could the person have done it? They had been in a group!
And it could only have been done while Rosenberg was away investigating the other side of the hill! He believed there was something out there, which had to be with what had taken them there or it was it itself, which he had explained to the police, and he had told Orwell and he agreed it could have been, as what had happened to the shuttle was far stranger and difficult to occur.
He realized that he only needed to explain what it had been, and he realized it might have taken samples of Campbell’s body for some reason, and he wondered why.
Had this infernal place a killer alien or not? Yet why would it want anything from him?
Still nothing about it made sense – and neither did anything else there – it was obvious it could have attacked all of them.
From the looks that he caught from the police he knew that the incident had affected them! The police were now aggressive! And he was sure that they had not found any other clues.
His killer, whatever it was, had to be ruthless and carefree to have done it in the way that it had been done it.
He wondered if something was on the southern pole that did not need proper supplies of oxygen, and had been there from when Mars had an atmosphere and water, and had adapted to survive in the harsh climate!
Fish survived with barely any oxygen in water, and lived off miniature life forms, he wondered if it had tried what they had been like as a food supply, and he wondered if it liked it!
Yet that was fantasy, and they had not found anything like it, and why had they not found anything like it and what would it have normally have consumed? Yet was a big planet and they had hardly explored the surface and there was water and life forms that froze and dried out and returned to life, including plants ...
He and Orwell marched along a corridor to the library, for their regular visit and they occasionally looked into rooms with their doors open, as it interested them what people were like there.
“It’s also incredible,” Orwell muttered, “that most of the people that investigated the body thought it was some form of animal!”
They then entered the library, and he asked Cronenberg, “Have you found anything else?”
“I found a photo of a newspaper article of Anders, found in his apartment, about a scientist that found something, which I’m sure was the diamonds … I’ve been trying to trace information about him and what he was doing.”
Chapter 11
The Deaths
It was almost a week later when he saw Orwell again and he thought he had lost interest and was glad to see him and was surprised that he had been searching elsewhere in his spare time, and had arrived with some news.
Cronenberg search in the library had just about become exhausted when he saw him enter the outer library, marching over to him, and he studied him trying to see what he was up to.
“What you got?” he swiftly asked.
“There’s been another death!” Orwell replied, making Cronenberg gasp.
“What happened?”
“The person was found in the same condition as Campbell! Large regions of the body were eaten! And they’ve found Campbell was definitely eaten in the same way.”
Cronenberg was confused, and wondered what was going on about, as the day earlier he had found declassified material in the library showing similar attacks and deaths at the base and that they had covered it up.
“I’ve also found stuff on deaths here!” he replied, and flicked through a pile of documents he had at the end of the table, and handed him over two documents about it, which were of deaths occurring there over a decade, five years from then.
Orwell searched through it in surprise, and stood confused, staring a section of one document.
“In one case they were unable to find out if it was an animal or human!” he finally replied, and put the document down.
“We could have been followed there, by someone?”
“Or there are things of Mars that kill? They might have been covered up? They might not have declassified the stuff!”
Cronenberg nodded his head, and agreed it could be the answer and he wondered why they had not been warned by some means about there be a possibility of them being there, and he gasped when he realized that they could enter the base.
“Found anything new about the diamonds then?” Orwell finally asked, after a few minutes of stunned silence, with Cronenberg realizing he could have been the one.
“Yes!” he replied, firmly, searching through another pile of documents, and pulling documents out.
“What you go there?”
“I found stuff on the scientist that found the diamonds! It seems he was working with a new satellite, at the time, that could magnify into areas of the Earth and Mars far greater and clearer than before, and he was the first to use it on Mars! I think he found the diamonds with it!”
“From up in orbit! I never knew that could be done!”
“I reckon he knew where to look for diamonds and that he discovered them!”
“So if we managed to get the use of it we could explore the area where the shuttle went down for them …”
“Or where the diamonds may be under the ground …”
“I’ve not heard of any diamonds being found on Mars yet!”
“Ex
actly! And their value would be great!”
Chapter 12
The Satellite
Cronenberg could not believe the length Orwell went to find and get the use of the satellite, and he was sure they were now being watched by security agents, and was sure the satellite was still highly classified, even after decades, and perhaps vastly improved and used for some military purposes.
He was sure that he only gained use of it for them to get what he was up to, and he realized why they had started watching Anders, and he had also highly illegally taken an expensive classified space vehicle.
Orwell had updated himself on where to look for diamonds, and techniques used to locate them, and he searched the region where the shuttle had gone down.
Cronenberg was invited to join them and welcomed it and he became sure they had little on them other than they were trying to use the satellite for a project, and if they found the diamonds, they were an interest to science and their missions there anyhow.
They used it to search everywhere they could on and around the hill, searching there in such incredible detail that he was sure he would never think he was not being watched outside again. It was incredible and he managed to examine where the shuttle had come down, and the massive amount of footstep and vehicles marks left there, and where the shuttle had been and had been repaired and taken away, and he studied where Anders had been, and the remains of the rocket, which had been dug up and examined, with its interior searched.
He realized it was the ultimate way of searching for it, as he could search everything there, hill by hill, but realized that where the diamonds had been may now be buried deep beneath the sand, but the area looked unchanged to him, and the sand was not as deep as it seemed, and he proved that they could not be properly hidden away.
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