It suddenly realized it had somehow been contacted by an unknown form of communication from somewhere, which was familiar but it could not identify, and yet it knew it should, and that it had lost memories of it, and it realized it had not fully grasped the extraordinary universe and that it had been trapped on the world with something unknown, and it detected the starship was trying to contact it or something else, which it could not grasp, but it sensed it was why it was there, and it knew it had to discover what was there.
Chapter 18
Planetary Search
The black lifeless sky of the DP1 world outside the planetary shuttle was now so peculiar and different, from the second DP1 world, Ripley was staggered by it, and wondered how dangerous the stars were, and could not believe it was the same world, and had fantasies of it not being in the normal universe.
The shuttle interior about him was dark and the entrance to the scientists at the back of the shuttle shut and all that was visible was the DP1 world stretched across the front of him, and he sensed great danger, and again wondered where the hell the DP1 extraterrestrial signal was coming from and started his procedure of searching with the newly installed equipment, and examined information given by the scientists at the back of the shuttle and from the other shuttles, surrounding the region, and he wondered why they had located it, and why it was not coming from the black structure they had discovered it at on their last visit to the world, where they had located the second DP1 world at.
They had picked up the new DP1 signal at the second DP1 world from the different location and they were carrying out a planetary search at the region it was located at.
They were still monitoring the signal in space in the starship and they were using new equipment to detect its exact location in the shuttles, but nobody knew why it was there.
Where the hell was it? Why was it there? Why were they so keen to find it anyhow, as they had found and had the artifact on the other world, and original structure there, and surely it was enough to achieve the goal they had been trying to achieve?
He watched Dan staring out the window directly ahead and realized he might have seen something and he searched there and at first saw only darkness, but his sight altered to see what was visible Dan saw, but it was still too vague, and he used night vision goggles to look and still saw little and handed them over to Dan to see if he saw anything with them.
The world at there location was so strange and to Dan too, and it looked stranger than it should, and barely like anything they had seen, and Ripley realized again it was the landscape and it was far different from normal and what was should exist, as though it was put there, and he wondered if it was the result of it not having or ever having water and an atmosphere, and he tried to imagine what such a world would be like, but he was sure it originally had water, and he wondered why there was anything at the place and what the hell had been there.
The world about them was crazy and in wild shapes and in an entirely different formation than it should, and even, at angles, looked as if someone had been doing something there and had left, and all he could think of was mining some rare element not found anywhere else, and he realized the DP1 signal or signals could be there to locate the world in deep space from some far distant location, and he considered if they could detect what it was.
It was one of the strangest places Ripley had encountered, and he sensed something he could not grasp, and he recalled first arriving there and him sensing something was there and would happen, and something had happened there and he wondered if the place was haunted or had something else that was far more different than what they had encountered, and recalled the artifact on the other world.
There was no sign of anything anywhere, and he tried going through everything he had seen and the encounters.
“What the hell do you think is here?” Dan moaned, with frustration, trying to grasp something.
He realized Dan had changed since their arrival, and replied, “I have checked ... Nothing indicates anything. What do you think? Could there be anything here that warrants the costs of this voyage to this place?”
“There could be! There could also be jewels and other valuable stuff too! I wonder how much it would be worth on the Earth.”
Suddenly, as he was staring out, examining the approaching landscape, he realized something was occurring behind them, at the back of the shuttle, and Dan followed his eyes as he looked behind him into the darkness there, and they grasped the scientists were all having excited conversations, and that they were getting louder, and realized they had found something but he could not grasp what as they seemed to avoid saying anything.
Dan stared over at him, excited by the sudden action, with an amused expression, and replied, “What’s here?”
Ripley recalled what the Russian scientist had recently claimed he had seen, which he had added things to, realizing he had not explained enough, and Ripley recalled what he had seen and they had encountered at the DP1 Antarctica.
“How the hell did anything get out here in this hellhole?” Dan continued, trying to grasp something, and perhaps some little detail he had missed.
Ripley eventually concluded by the loud voices of the scientists behind them there was something near there and realized they should perhaps slow down and he realized he should check what was happening and rushed into the back of the shuttle, where he saw most of the scientists standing having excited conversations, and he spotted Colman and Rickman looking the most excited, and getting louder, and he rushed over to them.
Colman and the soldier Rickman were talking about their mission at the world, and what was happening there, and he quickly entered the conversation.
“Is there anything here or what?” he asked Colman, trying to get him to say something.
Colman gasped silently, and finally replied, “The equipment indicates it!”
“What could it be?” he replied, trying to grasp what.
Colman looked deep into his eyes, slightly amused, and replied, “We have been trained for years for this mission and to investigate this world! And checking the extraterrestrial signal … We have detected the structure sending the real signal …”
“The real signal!” he gasped, and Colman nodded back in agreement, and showed his satisfaction.
Ripley realized their mission could be completed.
“They discovered the DP1 radio signal about a century ago and it was their first proven extraterrestrial origins radio signal!” Rickman continued. “We are probably the first shuttle and people to detect the source!”
Ripley realized that it could be the big one and that they had just discovered it and the story could be all over the newspapers back on the Earth, and he was staggered, and realized they could be at the point where the source was and the extraterrestrials were located, and realized the others wanted them to investigate it first before the other shuttles, and he realized it could be dangerous, and they could be making a first contact situation.
Chapter 19
Extraterrestrial Contact
What was incredible was for some reason they were now able to detect the exact source of the actual DP1 contact signal source to the Earth, directly ahead of the shuttle, and they had not contacted the other shuttles, even after requests had been sent, and there was to be no new landings from Starship S1, and they wanted further information first, and they were acting as their probe.
Ripley knew there would a large amount of people on the starship watching and monitoring everything that occurred, and Ripley knew he would be the chosen one to lead the investigation, and he sat back into his seat, in the darkness, next to Dan watching the landscape shift along, wondering what could go wrong and what the hell was there, which they had tried to solve for well over a century with human technology.
The black lifeless sky and world outside the planetary shuttle was so peculiar that Ripley’s senses seemed to heighten and he felt staggered, and again considered how dangerous it was searching for extraterres
trials in the stars and he was sure something dangerous could occur, and he considered if a war could occur, with them being attacked, and he wondered why they were so sure they could stop them.
The signal dramatically increased in strength as they approached the zone and he listened to its pulsations on a device, searching for any abnormalities and alterations, and was fascinated that they insisted something of great size and power was creating it, and that the signal was not being sent to someone else, for another reason.
It was the only signal to be classed as a completely positive artificial extraterrestrial source, of unknown origins, and to be hidden away right into the twenty-first century with scientists re-examining it continuously, for any signs of change, and on the introduction of better technology.
“What did they find?” Dan finally asked.
“They found new stuff about the signal with it being so close up and it has highly advanced perfectly symmetrical configurations, and some things are pretty staggering, and they’ve been able to study it far better on the starship and have established more of its properties and significances ...”
“At the location ahead?”
“Yes! They have detected it ahead! The most common assumption assumed – and assumed throughout history – since its discovery – is that it’s a greeting signal/message to other races – and perhaps even directly to the Earth – perhaps put here for humans someday to discover and trace the origins of, and to this world, which was only properly discovered in the decades leading to the creation of Starship S1.”
“So have they traced where the signal is exactly coming from?”
“Just before we first arrived at the DP1 world the signal vanished! We searched this dark empty world with our most advanced technology and searched for anything we could but we never found anything, and it looked as if whatever was here vanished, and was perhaps hiding from us, with our massive starship in orbit over the world, and backed up by the fact the signal returned when we left …”
“So someone could even be here watching us right now …”
“I believe the signal source detected the starship and had a way of hiding itself from potential attacks and dangerous encounters, and it could be allowing us to approach it, on our own, and some of the scientists are sure it could have a way of hiding itself or protecting itself or whatever if it’s confronted with a dangerous situation, and perhaps is going to make contact with us in its own way, avoiding a confrontation with us.”
“It could even be the other way round! It could be wanting us on our own for a reason?”
“Correct! They still have little information on what’s actually here, and all their scans show little.”
“Anything else?”
“There was nothing really detected at the source, and the signal and meaning of the signal itself at this range is still virtually incomprehensible! What it is and why it is on this dark empty world has not been identified. Now we have to find out what the hell it is and why it wants to meet us!”
Chapter 20
Extraterrestrial Source
The cold sun of the dark desolate world was on the horizon and Ripley studied it with amazement, and its incredibly small size, and that it was just a large bright star, giving little energy, and its vague illumination did little, and again he was unable to grasp what could be on the world.
The signal was blasting out from ahead as they approached it at a slow speed, searching the landscape, dimming and illuminating the front lights, but they still saw little, but they shifted the vehicle to where the signal was detected and it was increasing in strength.
Ripley gasped, realizing the situation, and that they were about to make contact with another race for the first time and he was the main representative of the group and human race, and he was amazed how keen he was to do it now, and he would actually be marked in history like the first astronaut to step on the moon, and he realized the voyage would be a success.
When the signal hit a really high peak he saw something on what looked like a small hill directly in front of him, and when at it he stopped the vehicle, and they sat staring out and he increased the power of the lights, and saw what looked like a cavity in a hill, and wondered why there was nothing but the cavity, and properly examined it for the first time and saw it was some form of structure covered in dust and rocks and he knew there had to be something inside the cavity, and gasped at what could occur if it was the source and it was nothing, and realized the search for aliens in the universe could be a disaster.
Yet they might find where it came from and a new power and transmission source.
He was surprised to hear the scientists behind him confirm the source was there and that something there had detected them and had scanned the shuttle.
Ripley felt a sudden sensation of shock, which made him shudder! What the hell was it? The thing could be virtually anything! They had no experience of extraterrestrials or anything!
He sat staring out the window, and Dan laughed, and he ignored him, and he thought of the best weapon he could carry and way to defend himself.
Whatever was there had to have detected them as the signal had been stopped, and he wondered if they had robotic equipment that could have carried out the mission.
For some reason the DP1 world was far more unrecognizable to them with it being there and he wondered why and where it or they came from and he tried to recall something he was sure he had forgotten, and as he and the others put on their spacesuits he was staggered by their altered attitude and the deep reactions they gave, and he was glad they were all going with him, but he felt the dangers decreasing and gasped at the surrounding world as he marched out first, and for some reason gasped at what it would be like to be trapped on the world.
As he marched through the thick dust covering the surface he felt a strangeness of something as though something was detecting and investigating them and trying to grasp things about them and could not totally grasp things about them, and he tried get what whatever it was, and it would be like if it lived and survived on the world and was adapted to its mind-boggling environment, and he started to succeed in understanding what they should do and he wondered if it would fight to survive against them if it was threatened by them.
For a moment Ripley thought it knew them and recognized them and wondered what he was dealing with, as he and the others behind him approached the hill structure, where he found the signal was coming from, and he searched around it with his light, in the darkness there, and Dan shifted up to him holding a beeping device and pointed it at various places about the hill structure searching for the signal, and a higher beep, and located a point and they marched over to it, with others behind them, and when they arrived at the exact point they were surprised to find the cavity, going deep inside it, and they stood pointing their lights inside its interior searching for anything, and where it went, and if it would collapse on top of them.
Eventually Ripley ducked down and entered it and shifted along it with his helmet light beaming out, analyzing the strange rock it was made of, and he was surprised at how different it was and it had formed differently by some means, and he started to become surprised at how perfectly straight it was, going on in, and tried to grasp how such a structure would be created in such rock, and wondered what the hell the signal was doing there and if it was in fact of alien origins.
At the end of tunnel he crawled out into a large cavity and stood examining it and realized it was artificial but made in a strange way, almost as though designed to be disguised and he thought of the massive creature mark they found on the world near Vega, and if some life form had once lived there, if the world had been habitable and supporting life.
He stood with Dan searching it trying to locate anything there.
He searched for the DP1 signal and located it at a point on the opposite wall and strolled over to it and started cleaning and dusting away loose dirt and dust with his glove, as the others entered the cavity.
What wa
s peculiar was the way it started crumbling away itself and something artificial appeared behind it and he stood back and watched the rest of the dirt crumble and fall away, as though it had been there for thousands of years waiting to be discovered, and the artificial shape of an object became recognizable and he recognized how advanced it was, and used his device to check where the signal was emerging, as its oblong black box shape became clear, and he detected the exact point directly at the center.
When the object was entirely revealed they all stood in a line examining it, silently, trying to grasp clues to its identity and any form of controls.
It left them confused and Ripley removed a tool from his spacesuit and tried to scratch its surface to see if he could get a sample of the material, but the material was too hard, and he began feeling it trying feel anything he could not see, and jumped back, as something activated, and he felt a silent vibration and movements of something in its interior activating and carrying out some ancient function, and they moved back.
Suddenly dust and rock fell and the front opened out and bright light dazzled and blinded them, and they stood staggered trying to see what was in its brightness, and when it was fully opened out they began to see a shape of a form of life form.
Chapter 21
Extraterrestrial Life Form
Extraterrestrial DP1 Page 6