There had to be something there! He wondered if it was the hill after all! It was exactly in the middle between Eagle’s crash site and their crash site!
He looked for the diamonds and anywhere he could see that looked like where they could be and realized he could not see anything, and even wondered if they really existed.
The shuttles were new and recently built and they were still testing them for the first time over Mars!
Something staggered him about the mission and he sensed something was going to occur, and had seen it approaching, with it edging its way towards him, and he felt he could not avoid it! He had to go through with what was going to happen! He believed he could survive if he did everything he could to avoid any serious and deadly mistakes!
He watched the pilots do a perfect landing next to the shuttle, and he put on his spacesuit, and followed Orwell out the shuttle, and marched over to the other shuttle, and he wondered if they were still alive, as it looked like they had landed to fast and hard, as the shuttle looked embedded in the soil.
Chapter 18
The Second Hill
What had he done? Cronenberg completely realized his mistake and gasped, and examined the dark Martian landscape about him, with some amazement, astonished he was on another world!
Out of the silent empty Martian night high-powered rifle blasts were astonishing, especially in the deep darkness engulfing him, threatening to totally blind him! The explosions were so powerful that he believed a powerful explosive was used in the bullets, and again he was staggered that he could hear anything in such a thin atmosphere!
Someone definitely was trying to kill him, and as he rushed furiously away through thick reddish Martian sand, with his legs sinking deep, deeper and deeper in regions, threatening to impede him completely, and even turn to some form of quicksand!
Why he had been so stupid as to leave the shuttle without anyone else, and without saying anything, and even without any form of communications, and he wondered why he kept doing such things on Mars, which he never did on the Earth!
He had left the two shuttles, on his own, and as it was getting dark, and he had entirely underestimated the depth of the sand there, and that there was even anything there, which had impeded his speed for a long time and by the time he reached the hill, in the southerly direction, south of the last hill he had climbed, when they had crashed there.
He had to see the hill as he was sure it was really where there was something, and he was sure it had been where Anders and the scientist had intended to land, and he had known that he would never have a chance to search there again!
More high-powered rifle shots blasted out and hit the ground behind him and he realized how deep the darkness was now, and why he had survived, especially when the person had been close!
His pale cold complexion had entirely altered now and his face was bright red! Sounds of his heavy breathing and outer sounds took strange tones as he started trying to explain what they were, and he strained his eyes trying to see in front of him, and in the darkness he spotted the mountain stone was nearby, and that he would entirely escape the sand there, where he would have to escape from the gunman behind him!
While he rushed furiously on he thought of the injured state the survivors of Eagle’s shuttle crash had been in, and their account of what had landed them there, and he thought of all the things they said, and when he had realized that something had definitely landed them there, as the they had approached from the south, and he had worked out the distance that they had claimed it had taken control of their shuttle, and then the distance it had been taken control of at the other side, as they had approached from the north, and he had worked out where the central point was, and the hill that he was going to had been directly in the middle, and he was sure it was where there was something, and that it had been only able to use its powers on both shuttles at a certain distance, at either side of it.
Though there was no sign of the diamonds being there he was sure they had to be there somewhere, and he wondered what the hell the connection was between them and what had made them crash there.
The solid ground ahead of him increased in size, as he slowly got nearer and nearer, and he considered using his light, by flashing it, to get a brief view of what was fully there, and where to run, but he decided not to as the person would see him and could easily shoot him.
He was sure it had to be someone from one of the other shuttles, as he had the same reactions, and he realized how desperate they had become to get the diamonds and he blamed it all on Eagle and his scheme to get the treasure, and have all the shuttles search and have himself go to that site, and crash.
Something staggered him about the mission and the fact that from the very start he sensed something was going to occur, and had seen something approaching, edging its way towards him, which he knew he could not avoid! He had to go through with it! And he somehow thought he could survive if he did everything he could and avoided a deadly mistake!
It was unexplored Mars! It had new dangers there! It was exploring where nobody had been before, with its great deadly environment with its hidden dangers! The region they were in was the least explored and the great Antarctica!
He could hardly believe he was at the legendary Martian Antarctica, and he still sensed there was something strange there! Something he had not encountered before! Something that could only exist at such a place, out in the depths of space, which might not be able to exist on the Earth, and it gave him an even more chilling sensation of something he could not grasp!
As he accelerated on, closing in on the dark stone of the hill, he increasingly felt a presence of something, somewhere, in the chilling darkness of the alien world around them, which he realized never existed earlier.
Whoever was after him had to be stark raving mad and out for the kill, and was stupid for going to such levels to kill him, as if they found his body, which they would surely discover, as they would find his footsteps in the sand from near the shuttles and would be able to trace him, and the other person’s prints, and there would be someone that noticed the person had not been around, and he could not realize who was there and just accepted that he was trying to kill him to get the diamonds, which might have been detected by them!
The place had to be located in the coldest place he had been in and he detected it in places all about him, and it had the look of being the most remote place! Even in the summer the place was been highly deadly to any form of life!
He could not grasp why the person was so positive that there were diamonds, and could go so far to get them!
The dangers and the coldness made him cringe and blindly rush on through the blinding blackness, almost lost, and he wondered why people took such risks and gambled so far.
A loud explosion blasted out and a bullet thudded somewhere nearby and he had to jump through the sand into the dark landscape for his life! He dared not use his light now, and he could barely see anything!
The man could be heard over to his side behind him and he realized that he could have an infrared sight and was playing with him and when he reached the stone area below the hill he just dived at it and ran as fast as he could into the darkness, going straight to an area of small hills nearby, at the bottom of the hill, and that was covered up from being seen by the gunman, and once there he rushed round a hill and rushed towards one of another five hills, which he chose randomly, and immediately rushed around, and realized he had finally got away from him, and with delight saw many more small stone hills going over to the base of the large main central hill, and randomly kept rushing through different hills, covering up any sign he was there, and made sure his footsteps were not visible and he was not being watched, and he saw the gunman had vanished behind him.
Once he realized that he had escaped he started to enjoy going slower and being free from being attacked, and he thought through what had occurred!
Why would he go to such lengths to kill him? Surely the diamonds were not wor
th that much? There had to be something else! What else could possibly be there? What could be there in such a desolate place?
Suddenly it was like he recognized the place and mysteriously followed routes through different hills, and was constantly surprised that he knew things were there before he arrived and went around corners, and felt he could find somewhere to hide there and when he finally found a hiding place at the hill itself, in a small tunnel in a large pile of large boulders, and he rushed into the small tunnel going through and around the boulders until he reached the hill itself and found himself surrounded by a small hidden cavity, where he hid, and faced outwards, buried away in the boulders, seeing if he could see anything, and checked for any gaps in the boulders, and when he found there were no holes or places light could escape he turned on his light and quickly checked his oxygen supply, and spare tanks, and realized he could escape in the morning, before it was light, and realized the person would eventually return to the shuttles, if he never found him, as he saw the person never had extra oxygen tanks.
He rested and started going over everything and what had happened and he wondered if something else was occurring that he never knew of, and why they had been so determined to get the diamonds as there was no real proof of the diamonds existing, anyway, and he had seen the diary Eagle had, which had belonged to the scientist, and the diary had virtually nothing in it as far as he was concerned, and he recalled Eagle mentioning that that the location was hidden away on the map and he realized that Orwell had to have told him, and convinced him there was definitely something there, but Orwell never knew of the map, and he had not told anyone, and he had been sure Eagle thought he had it, and he recalled that someone did know he had it, and it was Rosenberg, as he had seen him take it out of Anders’s spacesuit!
Chapter 19
The Light in the Night
Cronenberg’s dreams were strange and as though he was floating through mist, which shifted about beneath him, and he never recognized anything, and he was too tired to awaken, and he observed it all with amusement, and an annoying whispering sound that he kept listening to, from some unseen place, which sounded artificial when he firmly listened.
The events of the past days haunted him and he kept wondering where things were going, and it was incredible as he had not done anything like it in years, and even then it was nothing like it!
Lights twinkled through thick areas of mist on the horizon. A bright light suddenly appeared, deep in the vapor. It oscillated and intensified.
He tried imagining the astronaut who had chased him as he tried to realize something that he could not grasp about him and he was surprised that he appeared and how authentic he was, and he studied the perfect copy in detail, with the strange light there glowing over him.
He resembled someone! He could not grasp! He realized no face features had been visible, and the person was somehow different, and he nearly grasped it when a strange loud gurgle came from somewhere. He sensed the presence of something mysterious somewhere nearby, or existing about him, and he felt danger existed and he swiftly opened his eyes and was surprised to see a light in the cavity, and he rapidly searched the tunnel where he had come in and saw there was nothing there, and turned to where he had been facing while dreaming and adjusted his blurred eyes, and sat upright staring at it trying to see what it was, and realized it was there and was not projected there, and he wondered if it was some form of volcanic disturbance, and a crack into some form of volcano, where there was molten rock, and realized it was Mars and things were different and that molten rock might not explode out, as the lava flow was nothing like on the Earth
It was not there before he went to sleep, as he would have seen a crack there, and the crack was too new looking, and he realized that it must have appeared about when he started dreaming, and he tried to work out why and he decided that him being there, and his weight and frantic rush into the cavity might have altered the weakened rock and allowed it to break, and he realized that if it got worse it could breakthrough.
A deep thud appeared within the rock and he heard a familiar sound and realized it was the annoying whispering sound in his dream that he kept listening to, from some unseen place, which had sounded artificial, and he listened to it with his ear against the rock and he heard it was a powerful vibration from something, and when he firmly listened he was sure something was breaking through, and he checked his watch and wondered if the astronaut with the gun was still about outside, hunting him down, and he examined the crack in the rock and was surprised when he checked it lower down and his eyes adjusted and he saw a cave there and the powerful light was coming from something strange in the distance.
What amazed him was before he checked he knew he could enter the cave, and he grabbed the edge of the crack and started pulling chunks of crumbling rock away, opening the gap wider and wider, until he had a hole large enough to enter, and he stood blinded by the bright light beaming out into the dark night, and surrounding cavity, and prepared to enter it, and was surprised at the formation of the cavity and it looked almost artificial made.
As he swiftly entered the hole he was surprised that it was a very long tunnel and he cautiously marched along it, going deep into the hill.
Mind-bending sounds and echoes from what he was sure was volcanic activity increased and came through the shaft with fury and left him stunned at the dangers, and no matter how he tried to shake it off and contemplate its full identity he never formed stable recognitions of what was occurring there, and why the light was so powerful, and almost like laser light or light from the sun!
The vibration going through the rock reminded him of a fault line and he accepted it had to be some form of volcanic activity, and he slowed down and prepared himself to run if he anything came towards him, and he probed his way through the large hole in the hill, and as he went along he realized that there was some form of breeze blowing from ahead and he realized the dangers he could be in and that there could be highly explosive volcanic gases, and that if he never caused a spark it could be ignited by the volcanic activity, and he checked the walls and ground around him searching for signs of it having occurred before, and if the lava had been through there, and he saw nothing, and there was no sign of scorch marks or anything, other than it was as if something had blasted its way through it.
Chapter 20
The Alien Sphere
A loud screech ripped through him and he nearly leapt off the floor, and he stood dazzled by the bright light blasting into his eyes, and he had to recall what had just occurred, and that he had sleepily just staggered straight into the blinding light, in an immense cavity, situated at the center of the bottom of the hill, and he tried to grasp what was in front him!
The thing resembled a magical sphere, and he tried to grasp what was really there, and why it was there!
In the blinding light he could not grasp if it was just energy or what, and he saw a blast of stars exploding by him, as though he was shooting through space in some strange galaxy, and he gasped again, and wondered if it was causing him to imagine things.
Its formation seemed to constantly change, as though unstable, and he watched it shift around a central region, of the cavity, as though trapped in something, and some force field, and for a moment something seemed to form in it that seemed alive, and its formation kept altering, as though its energy was constantly altering and trying to control itself, and altered and whirled within occasional hideous energy surges – while it kept consistently stopping itself from vanishing.
It looked like something had been caught in some energy field there and had altered itself to survive, and he was staggered at the power the field had and what was caught in it!
It surely had to be artificial, but he could not prove it, and nothing was normal or familiar, and the cavity looked natural, but unusual, and he tried to establish if it had alien origins but could not, and he believed if it was it was of a highly advanced species of some sort.
For a few seco
nds he was sure something formed in it and looked out at him, and into to his very soul, and for a second recognized something, and he tried to place it and realized that it had reminded him of what had landed their shuttle, and had made them crash, and for some reason he felt it had not deliberately caused them to crash and he wondered if it was trying to communicate with him or state information like a computer.
Surely the sphere could not create such a thing!
But he was sure it was something artificial and decided to leave it until he had slept and he considered staying in the cavity, and he realized that there was air around, which could be breathed, and for some reason he unlocked his faceplate and opened it and breathed air there, which was fresh and he wondered where it had come from, but could not find anything anywhere, and he decided to leave and closed his faceplate and went back into the tunnel, and back to where he had been sleeping, considering if it was sort of entity/life form combination, trapped there, and he wondered what the scientists at the base, and the Earth, would think of it, and he realized he would be famous and remembered in history books for the discovery, and the biggest discovery ever find in outer space, and he wondered what would happen to the energy bubble – and if they could remove it what would happen? Surely they would fully check the energy bubble before it was taken to an inhabited region of the Earth!
Chapter 21
The Scientists
The cavity was full of scientists, technicians, and archeologists going in a circle around the energy sphere, crowded around it, in groups loudly and excitedly discussing hundreds of scientific details, not going passed a white painted line circle going around its sphere, where alterations to things had occurred, and Cronenberg went behind them and took a seat at a table beside some scientists, and with the astronauts of his shuttle, and he watched the astronauts startled faces, still recalling his arrival back at the base, and his description of it, and they had immediately sensed that it was something immense of alien origins, of a highly advanced civilization, and had only been slightly surprised that he had gone to the hill.
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