The Lost Time Probe

by V Bertolaccini

  “I don’t know if they have the means to revive it … But if they do they may be able to create a first contact situation …”

  “So what’s happening?” the paranormal scientist asked, coming in behind Kurt, anxiously examining it for the first time in amazement, waiting for a reply.

  “They might not have found a way to communicate with it!” Kurt replied first. “It has not replied to anything! They have also gone by all their instructions …”

  “So they are still trying to find a way to talk to it …” Eisenberg replied, showing confusion.

  “Correct!” Kurt replied firmly.

  “Incredible!” the paranormal scientist replied. “I’ll add if what’s active is the equivalent to our subconscious mind, while it is in a type of sleep or dormant state, and it carries out various functions, I think it might even be here for a reason, especially by it being buried away there! But why was it there? I think it might fully activate by physical contact by some means …”

  Eisenberg was confused, and started to examine the problem in more depth and wondered what would happen if they could not activate it.

  “I think we should try to enter it!” Kurt announced, to their amazement.

  “How’ll we go about doing that?” Eisenberg moaned, confused, and tired. “The thing could be indestructible! They could not damage it and it instantly fixes anything done to it …”

  “They found a region on its top central region that has markings near it, which they believe is sensitive to reactions from something, and I believe that it’s to open it …”

  “We could use different things on it …” the paranormal scientist announced.

  He started getting something out his bag and wrote ideas down, and started work on opening it.

  Eisenberg watched one of the scientists suddenly come in from another room and he whispered something in Kurt’s ear and he suddenly reacted to it, and looked aware of something, and he eagerly agreed with the scientist about something and they left to do something in another room.

  The scientist returned with Kurt with boxes and they started setting up equipment at the region on the top with the markings, and when they finished bringing in equipment and setting it up, they activated the equipment, and a laser beam blasted out at the region beside the markings, and started firing thousands of coded laser sequences.

  “What’s it doing?” Eisenberg asked the scientist, wondering if he had found something somewhere.

  “The procedure we use has advanced far further than you think! We analyzed the region near the markings and believe that it is activated by a laser sequence code!”

  Chapter 14

  Dracula’s Return

  The moonshine shifted over the dark clouds as Dracula shot down into a desolate wood from the sky, and shifted through the trees as it altered its formation to a monster creature, and it watched the mansion emerge in the trees ahead, and it instantly formed into the deadliest hideous supernatural monster it could contrive and it smashed its way through the trees, knocking some down and smashing others into pieces.

  Though as it approached the mansion, and was about to smash its way in, the mansion’s shape became familiar, and it stopped, staggered, and tried to recall something, but it could not recall what its familiarity was, and it altered its formation back to its normal formation, and reformed into its humanoid formation, and recalled its reawakening, and ancient memories, and memories from thousands of years in the past, and its supernatural origins, mysteriously lost in blackness, and the structure looked familiar, but its memories damaged, and yet it still had memories of the Carpathian Mountains, and it studied the mansion in the trees.

  It shifted on, nearing the mansion, and it recalled its death in the woods at its Transylvanian castle and the strange humanoid beings who destroyed it, and it violently shuddered and altered its shape more, and stood examining the colossal mansion sprawled across its front, near its small graveyard, as the moonlight beamed down illuminating the gravestones.

  The world was so unrecognizable now it could recognize little, and the hidden dangers to it seemed immense, but it believed it could survive and it considered how the world could possibly have transformed so much, and the humans had altered into something else, and it thought of ways of destroying it, as it thought of its vampire creatures.

  It rapidly altered into a colossal bat formation and leapt up into the air and flew away back towards its hideout, buried away, hidden away from discovery, and it flew up into the black clouds, and shot in and out of clouds, like a monster flying demon.

  It contemplated dangers to its survival, and contemplated how it should survive.

  Vague memories of its hideous death continuously went through its thoughts and it tried to recall something it had missed, and over and over it considered how it became existent again, and it wondered how the humans, whoever they were, at the mansion had revived it from death, and it tried to recall everything that had occurred at the mansion and realized it would have to find away to investigate them, and would have to avoid destroying them.

  The world left it staggered, and it wondered if it could find a way to detect the unknown humanoids that had captured and destroyed it, and realized that it might be able to detect and trace their supernatural powers.

  Chapter 15

  The Artifact Investigation

  Eisenberg watched Kurt enter the library absorbed in some problem, and sat in his seat, and he watched the paranormal researcher at work again, searching through a book with amazement, and Eisenberg could not even recall Kurt so troubled looking by so little, and realized I had to be something.

  “What do think?” Eisenberg asked him. “Do you think they will open the artifact?”

  “I don’t have a clue!” he moaned back, sitting back in his seat, and checking what the paranormal researcher was doing.

  “Has it altered again?”

  “Yes! And this time it does not even resemble an artifact, and the scientists look like they’re back at the start again, investigating it over again, and what it really is …”

  “What’s it like?”

  “It looks like a blob of translucent jelly …”

  “What’s wrong with it …”

  “It is completely empty inside … And no longer gives anything … No magnetic type field … And has barely any gravity … And it sometimes floats …”

  “Perhaps if it has intelligence … It could be trying to cover up its identity … It’s been attacked by lasers and everything else they have thrown at it …”

  “You’ve a point there!” the paranormal investigator replied, looking up from his book. “I think it has intelligence … What I don’t get is why it’s here … Was it with the original castle or was it put there by the mansion builders? And why is it there?

  “We might never know!” Kurt moaned.

  “How are the scientists taking it?” Eisenberg asked.

  “I do believe, if they remove it from here, to where they want to investigate it, and if they don’t get anything from it, and it is perhaps damaged, or unable to properly function, that they might be investigating the thing for decades …”

  It was incredible! He had ruined the outcome of the events, and he considered how they would handle the situation, and considered it from different perspectives.

  The paranormal investigator eventually answered, “I think they’re waiting for it to do something … And that it will alter again, and perhaps enter different phases, and perhaps finally make an appearance.”

  “It could be investigating us,” Kurt replied. “Without being noticed, and intends to go dormant and into hiding if it discovers or discovered we are a danger to it ...”

  Chapter 16

  The Treasure Map Discovery

  Eisenberg sat examining the old Indian treasure map wondering why nothing had turned up of where it was.

  What confused him was why Howard Eisenberg gave them it, and why he was avoiding meeting them, and according one o
f the others he was expecting them to trace where it was, and he wondered what the hell he was up to now.

  He seemed to insist that there was something at the mansion that could solve the mystery, and the library seemed to be the only logical place where there could be anything, and again he wondered who the Indians were that made it and why.

  The only thing he had thought of was getting accurate maps of the whole region, and Kurt had got them, and he had finally got them off him when he had given up searching.

  At first he studied them blankly, and realized there was few, and they had little detail of the region, and he showed them to the paranormal investigator and he admitted they showed little, and if it was there they would probably not be able to find anything with them, and he sat considering where a proper map might be available, and again checked internet maps and found little.

  He decided he should hire an airplane to photograph the region, and considered the height the map was from the ground, and what it would come up with.

  The only reason there could be anything in the library was someone that built the mansion had put something there, and he was left confused, wondering why there was anything as there was nothing that indicated anything.

  He again recalled the findings the paranormal researcher had come up with, and of the kings Dracula had taken vast treasures from, and he was sure there was far more, and he was sure Howard Eisenberg might think so, and he sat considering where it would be, and wondered if it was in the mansion and then wondered what the hell the new map was for, and realized there would be more to follow and it might be the first clue.

  It was astounding what they had done, and he was sure they were still missing things about Dracula, and he still had vivid memories of Dracula and his two vampire creatures going away into the dark night, flying out towards New York, and them wondering what the hell they had released on the world, and him realizing it was becoming true, and he realized that the police had not captured or even clarified what it was, which was astounding, and their views of what was there were far different from what was occurring, and he realized they might be hiding what they believed it was, and something else, and perhaps even someone using a disguise to confuse them.

  The paranormal investigator looked up, and finally put down the book he held, and moaned, “It’s incredible that this stuff is packed with supernatural stuff! Why?”

  Eisenberg recalled that he now was also searching for valuable books there as well, but he doubted if he now fully thought there was, and realized it could be a fantasy that he liked, and he realized he wanted to thank him for his work on solving what was buried away there, and realized he should get a share if he found it and that he might perhaps come up with something, and just did it, and he started searching more.

  “There is really a lot of stuff here …” The paranormal investigator announced, looking everywhere, looking where to begin, and started going through what he found.

  “What do you think?” Eisenberg replied.

  “This stuff is mind-boggling … But much of it’s is really hard to grasp … It’s about another place and time – where they did things differently …”

  “Ancient books from Transylvanian …”

  Eisenberg removed the map again and spread it out on the table and used a magnifying glass to study it, checking everything now, and even marks on marks, and realized it looked different, and tried to grasp where it was, and why it was there, and he was surprised when he managed to recognize something he had not seen before, and sat studying it with fascination.

  Once again he realized it to be in the vicinity of the mansion, as all the information given to him came from Howard Eisenberg and he was sure he was indicating it was at the mansion, and he believed he might have originally bought the mansion to get it, and he went over the trees and realized they would be different, and looked for permanent landmarks such as hills, and tried to recall what he had seen in the region.

  When he told the paranormal investigator it and again showed it to him he was surprised that he studied it and recognized it this time and told him where the hills on it were, about the mansion, and he left Eisenberg wondering how he knew as he had not traveled about it, and the paranormal investigator pulled out an old book he had with regional maps, and showed him one of there, and an old photo of it on the opposite page, and showed him the landmarks on it and that they were on the map.

  Chapter 17

  The Two Treasures

  Eisenberg sensed Kurt knew something, and noticed that he had recently made some form of discovery, and he watched Kurt enter.

  In the end he just asked him, and sat watching Kurt at the library table as he considered it.

  The paranormal investigator glanced over, and continued reading the book he held.

  Even though the visible haunting of the mansion was no longer occurring Eisenberg still sensed something was there, and some form of presence, and that something might occur, and it was Dracula’s castle, and as though something else existed there, and as though a combination of two supernatural presences also existed there, from the vampire castle and the artifact combined, and he tried to figure out what it could create, and realized the forces it had.

  The whole affair seemed muddled, and even the media reports of what was there was astonishing and they never really believed anything was there.

  He intended to one day solve everything if he could, and what Howard Eisenberg wanted, and Kurt kept suggesting he knew something new, from Howard Eisenberg, and the treasure.

  It was incredible! The old Indian map was of there and the only place there was the mansion, and it surely had to be hidden at the mansion, which was staggering, as it meant that there had been two treasures there all along, and he realized if it was buried by the old Indian that it had in the ground, and under the building, which left him confused, and he realized why it was not found.

  “Going by everything told by the Indians …” the paranormal investigator announced, watching him. “What is there is dormant … All the stories show it’s deadly … If it’s the artifact all along, them reviving it could be deadly beyond our imaginations …”

  “It also means the treasure is buried near it!” Kurt replied.

  Eisenberg was surprised and realized that it must have gone dormant, or gone less dangerous and from a powerful state, from before the mansion was built on top of it, and he removed the map again and began going over the hills on it and comparing them to the map, and found all the hills on it were there, with a few small ones missing, and he examined the mansion position on the map and was surprised to find a vague dim hill on the map there, and as he examined it more and more he saw it had more significance than he had noticed.

  It never looked like the other hills and it was a circle, like someone had marked something there, and it also looked like someone had tried to rub it off, and he carefully measured the position of it and other objects on the map and worked out its position was near the center of the mansion and where the artifact was uncovered.

  Chapter 18

  The Treasure in the Well

  Eisenberg could hardly believe everything that had occurred and it was as if he was in one of his strange dreams and it was shocking that he was hunting another treasure feet away from the tunnel where the artifact had been.

  They had worked out the exact position of the circle on the treasure map, and its position had been away over to the side of it, and their metal detectors had detected it under the ground, and they had found a small old water well there, under the floor, and under the ground.

  He entered the well with a harness and rope on him and he lowered himself down, and wondered why it was in a well, and realized someone had actually dug a well beside the thing, and wondered how they had survived, and realized it activated and went dormant, going by what he had heard, and he realized that the Indians might well have attempted to dig up what was buried away there, and had got the wrong position of it, for some reason.

  He r
emoved muck from him, and ignored it, and studied the well with one of the torches he found, and swiftly fixed the harness more firmly around him, getting ready to go down to the bottom, and heard a vehicle outside the building.

  It was an incredible situation, and he could not realize what the full outcome would be! The thing was far deadlier than they realized, and even the main scientists were starting to realize it.

  He was determined to discover what was there and he swiftly lowered himself into the well.

  He tried to realize what the place was like before the building was there, and it covered over the well, and he listened to his breathing in the silence, silently going through the shaft, and no matter how much he tried to contemplate the artifact’s reactions and dangers he could not.

  Clouds of powdered dirt consistently came down on top of him and he kept trying to cover his face, and he watched the swirling clouds of dust going through beams of light, as he slowly edged himself down the thin crumbling well, realizing the dangers it had this time, as the other tunnel had been professionally drilled, and it was an ancient Indian well.

  Even though he had never been in a well before the well was strange and looked as if it had never had water in it, but most of it was not visible yet, and he swiftly checked its walls to make sure he had not made a mistake and realized the water must have been below, and he started to see signs of water once having come down from overhead.

  He recalled all the faint lines on the treasure map, and scribbling, and again was sure it was a map drawn quickly, and was almost incomprehensive, but actually accurately done!

  He had considered having the map dated, and having it compared with any Indian maps and drawings.