Voyages of the White Skull Book 1

by Jason Alan Jones

  “What kind of energy?”

  “My God, it appears that an energy blast has hit the side of the statue. From my readings, I’m pretty sure it came from some kind of large weapon,” the professor explained, not sure if he heard himself correctly, as if someone had spoken the words for him.

  “A weapon, are you sure?” yelled the captain, as he drew his own weapon. The two security officers drew their weapons as well and began looking around. Captain Moore was interested by the fact that aliens existed but not excited about an alien with weapons. “I’m going to search the area. I’ll leave my security officers with you. Will you be all right?”

  “Yes, but my scanner is picking up a big storm coming our way moving at a thousand miles an hour, so we’ll have to leave in thirty minutes, max. I want to study the statue for a little while longer. I need to take some images of the statue and samples of the metal.”

  The captain gave the professor a pat on the back and motioned one of his officers to follow him. They headed to the right of the statue, fighting through the intensely strong wind current and into the thick methane.

  “This is a remarkable find, the first proof that life does exist on other planets. We will be famous,” Dr. Petrouski yelled. Dr. Petrouski only cared about his own fame, but kept it to himself.

  “You’re quite right, Doctor. This will become a historic event in our solar system, the day that the Horizon’s science team found the existence of extraterrestrials,” the professor yelled. The professor felt uneasiness pass over him as he wondered where the weapons discharge on the statue had come from.

  After ten minutes, the captain came back and said, “Professor, you better have a look at this.” The doctor and professor followed the captain to a wall of rock roughly a thousand feet away.

  “I don’t see anything,” the doctor yelled, with an attitude. Captain Moore pointed up, and when the doctor wasn’t looking, flipped him off with both hands. The men moved in a little closer. To their disbelief, there were hundreds of caves carved out of a mountainside, reaching as high as they could see. The cave openings were carved in a typical arch style.

  “My God, that is amazing. I have never seen anything like it,” yelled the professor.

  “There’s more, gentlemen,” yelled Captain Moore. He waved for them to follow him near one of the cave arches. The cave looked primitive in design. But when the captain brought the team to the cave, he put his hand through the opening and a green force field came alive. The captain didn’t even comment on the force field, but, instead, walked through it and waved the men in.

  All six men passed carefully through the force field and examined the rooms of the cave. After a few seconds, they realized that everything was made of either stone or metal.

  “Check this out, Professor, what do you make of these?” asked the captain. Once inside, the men were able to talk at a normal audible level. The captain pointed to a large gash in the cave wall.

  The professor’s eyes widened as he touched the markings. “I would have to guess that some sort of animal had scratched the wall. Looks like bear claws, although I doubt they had them on this planet. I’m not sure, Captain, but I’ll take images and samples of the claw markings,” explained the professor. The professor increasingly did not like the evidence they were turning up. He kept his suspicions to himself, but had an idea of what may be going on.

  “There’s more over here, sir,” said one of the security officers to the captain. There were several more claw marks found in what appeared to be the sleeping area of the cave.

  “Look at the floor, Professor,” stated the doctor. The floor was covered in light tan-colored sand. “It looks as though something has been dragged out of this cave, like a body, judging by the weight.”

  “Interesting,” the professor simply said. The six men continued to examine the cave for a few minutes.

  “They seem so primitive with their furnishings, yet they have a force field that blocks out the wind currents from outside, very intriguing. Take as many samples and images of the cave as possible; it looks as though we have a mystery on our hands. You’ll have to hurry up since we only have a few minutes before the storm is upon us,” the professor instructed to his science team.

  “That means that our communications will be cut off from the Horizon. We must hurry; we don’t want to get left behind,” stated Captain Moore. The doctor stepped back and began taking his own notes. Captain Moore took notice of what the doctor was up to and shook his head. He knew the doctor intentions were never positive. Having worked with the doctor before, Eric Moore knew he was working for someone high up in the UPG. The captain wasn’t a cruel man at all, and never wished harm on anyone; however, he often wished that the doctor would get into an accident and die a horrible, slow death. The furniture and cabinets in the cave were made of stone. A stone table was in the center of the room surrounded by four stone seats. The utensils were made of metal and were finely hand crafted.

  “Where are all of the inhabitants?” asked one of the security officers.

  “It appears that this planet, or at least this area, has been uninhabited for quite some time. I won’t know for sure until we get back to the Horizon to run some tests on our findings,” stated the professor, who after finding many interesting facts wanted to get back to the safety of the Horizon.

  “We should get back and report to the admiral what we found. I think we’ve spent enough time here, gentlemen,” advised Captain Moore.

  “Quite true, Captain, that would be wise. My science team has taken many samples from the cave, including some of the utensils and pieces of the stone furnishings. We couldn’t find any remains of food particles. We’ll have to study our findings in our lab until the admiral communicates with the UPG,” stated the professor, who felt disappointed and excited at the same time. He was hoping he would get the opportunity to meet an alien being.

  “All right, let’s get underway. Hopefully we will be able to come back to investigate further,” remarked the professor. The entire group ventured back to their elongated science vessel. Dr. Petrouski was equally disappointed and didn’t want to leave, but his dissatisfaction was dissimilar from the professors.

  As they cleared the planet’s atmosphere, the storm could be seen from their ship. Lightning violently sparked in the midst of a large blue swirl of clouds that lit up the area they were in only seconds ago.

  “Do you think they’ll let us go back?” asked the doctor, as he leaned in closer to the professor.

  “I truly hope so, Doctor. I truly hope so,” answered the professor. The doctor was eager to get back to the Horizon, after seeing something he knew the other men did not see. Before they had entered back into the science vessel, the doctor had noticed four rather large imprints on the surface of the area where the ship had landed. He surmised that the four deep imprints were made by landing gear from another spacecraft, a spacecraft from possibly another alien species. He also concluded that the imprints, being so deep, would mean that the ship landed on the same spot several years ago and would have been large in size. The doctor also noticed more markings on the ground of additional objects being dragged to the center of the four imprints. He had his own agenda that the other men were not aware of.

  Within minutes, the pilot landed the craft back in hanger bay thirteen. The professor instructed the science team to take their collected samples to the science lab to begin immediately studying their findings from the large blue planet. The professor removed a small green, neon-colored disk from his scanner and then handed the scanner to one of his science officers. The data disk he had taken was the size of a quarter, yet contained one Exabyte of information, which is approximately one quintillion bytes, or one million Gigabytes of data. The captain, professor, and the doctor quickly strutted to the Command Bridge, as the security officers went to their posts. Since the Command Bridge was only three levels up from hanger bay thirteen, it was a relatively short trip for the men, taking only one elevator and a few ste
ps. The three men entered the magnificent Command Bridge. The professor found it hard to get used to the size and length of the Command Bridge. He wasn’t used to such a colossal area, but was impressed and enjoyed being in it. Huge computer systems lined the surrounding walls, as well as filling in the center of the Command Bridge with rows of super computers and computer workstations. The many super computer workstations had multi-colored buttons, which busily lit up the entire area. Hundreds of crewmen and women, while wearing their impressive black military uniforms, prolifically strutted around the bridge tending to their duties. As the captain proudly walked through the Command Bridge, his appreciative crew saluted him. At the forward end of the Command Bridge, one gigantic wall was dedicated to six enormous square digital screens that were displaying different views. The two screens in the center, from top to bottom, were views of the large blue planet below.

  The top left screen was a trajectory of their flight path from Earth to their current location. The screen below it displayed a map of the different solar systems the Horizon had documented and passed through. The top right screen displayed the Horizon’s communication beacons that were left behind. And below it displayed scientific waves of data analysis of the mysterious planet. Facing the view screens were ten rows of stationary chairs, which were bolted to the deck, where the admiral and his military officials conversed on different matters. The chairs were also used by Commander Jain, who was in charge of instructing the crew on security procedures as well as giving additional departmental classes. The flight window, which was oval in shape and the size of a screen normally seen in a movie theater, rested under the six large video display screens. The flight window looked out into space revealing the incredible blue planet. A group of navigators and operations specialists sat under the flight window behind a lengthy command console. Ten feet behind the navigators sat Admiral Scanlon in his command chair. From this position, he was able to give his commands to the different sections of the Command Bridge. The command chair itself was positioned on top of three steps, which gave the admiral a better view of all areas. Fifty feet away, to the left of the admiral’s command chair, there was a large private conference room where he held his own meetings. The conference room was made of what appeared to be transparent glass, but when the admiral was inside, he was able to press a button that turned the see-through glass into a solid silver color. This allowed complete privacy within the room, as well as allowing him to see the entire bridge. The captain’s chair was one step lower and five feet away, to the right side of the admiral’s chair. The captain preferred to stand while on duty and seldom used his own chair. Many of the crew felt uncomfortable while the admiral was in the room because they knew he was watching them, yet they couldn’t see their captain.

  The three men approached the admiral. Standing next to the admiral was Commander Jain and two armed security guards who were assigned to the admiral. It wasn’t necessary for the admiral to have armed guards protecting him; however, it was required by UPG military law. The armed guards wore dark black and blue jumpsuits. Each guard was a Special Forces Unified Police Officer of the UPG and highly trained in hand to hand combat. Captain Moore and Commander Jain were trained together in the same Special Forces class that the two guards were trained in. Nilay and Eric were also martial arts instructors for the security personnel of the Horizon. Captain Moore gave his friend a wink, causing Nilay Jain to narrow his eyes and grin.

  “Admiral, we have a lot to discuss,” said the excited professor. With his fingers interlocked behind his back and his perfect posture, the admiral stood next to his chair.

  “What do you have to report, Professor?” the admiral asked in his deep voice. Admiral Scanlon was a tall, fit older man in his early fifties who had short gray hair. His black military uniform was decorated with medals he had earned in his many years of service. His years of experience could be seen in his serious brown eyes, and the deep wrinkles around them.

  “Let’s talk in the conference room, shall we?” advised the admiral, as he put his hand out letting the other men enter first. After the men entered, the security guards took up post outside the conference room. The admiral pressed a black button that was located on the conference table in front of where he usually sat. The transparent glass became solid, giving them complete security and privacy. Some of the crew outside the conference room jokingly commented, “There he goes again, with that damn button.”

  Surprising his crew, the admiral hit another switch turning on a communication system, which startled the crew. “I heard that,” the admiral said, scaring the entire bridge crew. Every crew person nervously continued on with their work. From inside the conference room, they could not hear Eric and Nilay laugh as their admiral smiled then cleared his throat. The admiral could be serious but believed in letting loose once in a while, showing his lighter side to his men. All of the men sat in the silver chairs, except the admiral—who chose to pace back and forth as the professor spoke.

  “I know this may come as a little shock…but we have discovered the existence of actual extraterrestrial life. Now, unfortunately, they are no longer living on the planet…but they were there at one point in time, I’m guessing about fifty or more years ago.” The professor was extremely excited about their discovery and found it hard to catch his breath. He waited for the admiral to make a reaction, but was disappointed when he didn’t even blink; instead, he was stroking his chin. The admiral was not one to get excited easily. The only reaction came from Commander Jain, who slightly cocked his head to the side, as if not believing what he heard.

  The professor took out the quarter-sized data disk from his pocket and inserted it into a black slot located on the table. Immediately, a slide show of holographic images appeared above the table. The quality of the images was so clear it looked as if you could reach out and touch them.

  “What exactly am I looking at, Professor Howard?” the admiral asked.

  “This first image is a statue of an alien being that is holding out a replica of the blue planet below, and with its other arm reaching out. This second image is of a possible weapons blast on the side of the statue. I took samples and will analyze them so I can better determine what may have happened to the extraterrestrials. These next few images are of the caves we have found and some claw marks on the walls as well as the tracks on the floor. It looks like something has been dragged out of the cave,” explained the professor.

  “It’s possible that the extraterrestrials were taken off of their planet by force. Although we were short on time, we were unable to find any bones or remains of food of any kind.” the doctor added.

  “Yes, it is possible they were abducted, but I don’t want to speculate until I have all the facts,” the professor said, while being short on breath and a little defensive. He was uncomfortable with the thought of aliens being abducted… possibly by other aliens.

  “Calm down, Professor,” the admiral ordered in a serious tone.

  “My apologies, Admiral, this is very exciting and hard to ascertain in one day. I wasn’t expecting this kind of a discovery.” The professor took a quick breath then continued, “From what we have found, they are a technologically advanced species, but seem to have chosen to live a primitive lifestyle. Will we be returning to the surface as soon as the storm subsides?” the professor asked.

  “That will be determined by the UPG. First, as you know, I will need you to prepare a data report with the images, and some brief info on the samples you have taken, which will be sent by probe immediately to the UPG Headquarters in Washington D.C.” The admiral wasn’t easily impressed and cared little about the existence of other life forms, unless he had to go into battle against them.

  “If only that were so,” the admiral thought to himself. The admiral did understand that the possibility of discovering an alien species was to be expected sooner or later on their trip through space. He felt that it was impossible that the human species could be the only life in the entire universe. He thoug
ht that only a small mind would think that way.

  “Yes, sir, I’ll prepare it immediately,” the professor said as he scratched his head, phasing out, thinking back on the settlement.

  “Professor, are you still with us?” the admiral asked, as he grinned.

  “Sorry, I was just wondering what could have happened to the settlement. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll have the report ready in an hour.”

  “Very well, Professor, thank you.” The doctor quietly followed the professor, leaving only the admiral and his second and third in command in the room.

  “Two years and we still haven’t found an inhabitable planet. I hope we find something soon; the crew and civilians are getting restless,” stated Commander Jain.

  “What is your assessment of the situations, Captain?” asked the admiral.

  “Well, sir, although I hate to agree with the doctor, as you know, evidence does lead to the fact of a possible abduction,” Captain Moore stated.

  “Aliens huh? Abducted aliens? Very interesting. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass, gentlemen, of the existence of other life forms. Our primary mission is to find a habitable planet, colonize it, and then find more planets. Not hanging at the disco with some aliens on my ship,” the admiral stated, while pointing to the hologram of the statue that was still hovering above the table.

  “Captain, will you please turn that thing off?” asked the admiral, in frustration. “As soon as the professor gets his report together, notify me immediately. I would like to send the probe as soon as possible so we can continue our mission,” the admiral ordered as he pressed the button to return the conference room back into regular glass.

  “Aye, sir,” both men replied in unison as they saluted.

  The admiral left the room and left the captain in charge of the bridge. The admiral was used to long missions away from home, but not this far out in an uncharted solar system. He was inwardly excited about the danger level of this type of mission. Given that he did not have any family to leave behind, the admiral wasn’t worried about anything happening to himself. He was, on the other hand, slightly disappointed that the last two years of their mission had been almost utterly uneventful. Discovering an alien species wasn’t that exciting for him. The admiral was trained for combat, not exploration.