Chapter 17
DP3 Mission Completion
The size and depths of Starship S1 were incredible, and left Ripley staggered at the problem they had finding the DP2 extraterrestrial, and he spent most of the day wandering around all the main regions, and concentrated on the desolate regions, where it surely had to be lurking, as he could not imagine such an alien remaining near inhabited regions without doing something or being detected.
At times he thought he and they were not finding it because they never properly wanted to, as when in regions it could be they started hesitating over it as they were sure they could not kill it, and he was really trying to find it, and locate the regions it inhabited, and he mainly tried to find it at a distance in regions like the storage chamber where the German engineer was found dead, and chambers like it was inhabiting in the flying saucer.
Yet after many searches and talks with the others over all the searches now done he realized it could remain hidden, and hidden far better than anything on the Earth, with its advanced technology and ways of doing things, and was a silent creature of the night that could hide itself away in the most out of the way and unreachable regions.
In the end he just tried to detect signs of it having been in places and he was sure it would eventually leave remains of something behind without noticing it, and started searching for anything like footprints it might leave, and checked where the German engineer had been killed for anything and was surprised to find nothing, and was left more confused than he had been when he started.
When they got ready to leave the DP3 world he realized they had better leave it until it made a reappearance and did something, and he realized many of the crew thought it had left the starship, and had gone to the DP3 world.
Ripley was astounded at the thought of being trapped at such an extraterrestrial place, and they luckily had eventually been able to make contact with the starship and shuttle and had also managed to get through the vast heaps of snow to the shuttle, and had completed their mission mapping their region.
What was also astounding was a large amount of the shuttles had landed and had glimpsed the beings on the DP3 world, which they never located, and there had only been sightings of the small beings, in strange dark places, and most were believed to have a supernatural presence.
Chapter 18
Deep Space Encounter
Endless blackness engulfed Ripley, while he slept, and something emerged across his front, and he came to, in a state of disarray, studying light formations, and felt as though he had entered somewhere strange, but he never knew what or why, and he had vague recollections of falling asleep in his bed, and he suddenly saw he was floating through space.
He felt as though he had fallen through something and he tried to grasp the concept, and he saw the lights surround him.
He had an eerie sensation he had encountered it before or had seen the occurrence, and he tried to recall it, and eventually recalled it, and that he had seen a vision of it, and of an astronaut that shot out of the stars, when he had crashed on the DP1 world, and he realized the astronaut had actually been him, and he wondered why, and he wondered where he was, as the starship was no longer there, and he watched the strange intelligent lights, and realized that something was not right, and he sensed a weird presence, somewhere, which he had never encountered before, from somewhere else.
In stages he became more aware and tried to grasp if he was floating out in deep space, outside the starship, and he was staggered at how real it was, and he watched a larger bright light floating through the darkness to him, and he wondered if it was telepathically induced or he had been teleported into some unknown region of deep space.
For a moment he shuddered and thought something like an explosion had occurred and he searched around, into the darkness for wreckage, and wondered what had happened, and in the distance he spotted other members of the crew floating through the darkness, and them surrounded by lights, which were now making them visible, and he wondered what they were.
Suddenly a faint shape started emerging around him, and then the region around him, and he relaxed ecstatically as he saw the Starship S1 appear about him, and his room emerge.
For a long time he lay staring at the roof, breathing slowly, feeling the warm bed, and his proper presence, and wondered what the hell happened, and rested stunned, and for a moment wondered if he had actually been dead, and he eventually looked over at a monitor and realized the DP3 world had vanished and outside the starship there was nothing but deep empty blackness, going off into infinity.
Chapter 19
Hyperdrive Engine
Ripley stood staring, in front of Starship S1 bridge’s gigantic front window, at the outer emptiness engulfing them, contemplating what had happened, and all the scientists about him were left, at the front of the bridge, trying to identify where they were.
At the back, near the bridge doorway, crew members anxiously explained to Captain Corbett, the head of Starship S1, and Colonel Adams, head of the military, detailed accounts of what had occurred, and they were all left staggered when they finished.
Corbett and Adams had little to say and swiftly left, and Ripley went over everything he had heard trying to grasp what had actually happened, and gathered that when they had activated the DP1 hyperdrive at the DP3 world, to return to the DP1 world, while he had been asleep, the bridge crew saw everything instantaneously vanish, and they were left wondering what the hell happened when they emerged there.
Ripley sat next to Dan near the pilot seats, close to the colossal bridge window, in front of the others, studying what was outside, and Ripley confirmed again that it was identical to what he woke up in, and he tried to grasp what happened, and what the white lights had been, and realized that the other crew members were keeping quiet on what they had witnessed there.
A member of the crew behind him loudly announced the captain had ordered a meeting in the meeting room.
The situation was absurd and absolutely crazy, and the outer sky now left them all even more staggered, and the more it was studied, and what could happen, and that the normal universe had vanished, and he was sure it was just some form of warp in space or similar, instead of hyperspace.
In the end scientists turned the bridge lights off and stood around the window, with Ripley and Dan, to see only outside, and he watched Dan, and a starship pilot, staring out the window at the surrounding depths of black space, and they shifted the starship around, examining the entire region around them.
It was so strange, empty, but it somehow looked stranger than it should, and constantly tried to grasp why.
The universe all about the starship was an empty stretch of blackness, with nothing, going out into infinity everywhere, and they used instruments to try to detect space dust and rocks, and talked of the equipment they were sending out to check it further.
All equipment around them automatically carried out their programming and functions, and some was still trying to map the region, and analyze anything detectable, while searching for anything of interest, and any abnormalities.
Chapter 20
Black Hole
Ripley started searching the starship, on routine strolls, engrossed in thoughts of the voyage, and catastrophes, and entered places that they never normally entered, and storage chambers, while he still searched for signs of the DP2 extraterrestrial, even though the rest of the starship believed it had left, and was on the DP3 world.
On a screen on a device he carried he occasionally studied the outer blackness for anything, and any alterations, and considered how long they could survive there and how long their oxygen would last.
None of the examinations of there showed anything, and they were lost in nothing.
Yet the meeting held by Corbett, with many of the leading scientists, had revealed that they believed that the starship had not in fact entered hyperspace and had entered somewhere else, and perhaps another dimension, or some unknown region of space.
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p; What was incredible was an immensely slowed down recording of their entrance to it showed something before their entrance to it, which was enhanced and brightened, and what looked like a glimpse of what looked like a strange black galaxy, and he studied its formation of swirls around it, and it and it looked like a perfect black circle at the center.
Yet as he studied it more and used all the information he had of space he started to believe it had been a black hole, and that they had darted straight into some form of black hole.
He was sure many of the scientists believed it was, but never had enough evidence of it.
Though little had been found a team of investigators that they had carefully chosen were also working on the problem and accumulating all the information they could find on it, and things like hyperspace, and from all the colossal amounts of information found on the DP1 world that they had accumulated.
They gradually grew more interested in DP1 world information, because they had invented the technology and had used the hyperspace starships far more, and properly tested them out.
All the investigators from the Earth got vast amounts of information, left for them, and from the buried away cities, and the remains of the technology, and the source of the DP1 signal was examined in the DP1 starship and it was basically a message to the Earth DP1 humans, for them to discover, giving the coordinates of where the DP1 starships went.
The coordinates of where the DP1 starships had gone were repeatedly checked by the world’s most advanced people and technology and the technology to decipher it and other findings was developed at an inconceivable rate, and they examined the extraterrestrial star maps and records, and searched far deeper into the depths of space with the DP1 starship technology.
Their hyperdrive, and exploration of stars and worlds, had to be created and NASA consequently developed the starship hyperdrive engine, which led to hyperdrive Starship S1.
The starship and crew were advanced far further than thought possible, with new forms of engineers, technicians, scientists, specialists in countless fields, and some to test and develop the starship hyperdrive.
Although all of their tests showed the hyperdrive engine worked perfectly, and left normal space and could return short distances away, nothing had so far showed it could travel safely over large distances, and at the speed they wanted, and have calculated reentries into the universe, and properly detect objects in its reentry path.
Ripley believed that they could, and tried to solve the problems involved, as he stopped and stared out a porthole at the unbelievable extraterrestrial sky outside, and realized that they had not properly checked the hyperdrive starship, and were still testing it, and they had forgotten the fact, and that their leap through space had been far further than ever before, and he believed they might not have been checking for obstacles in its path, and had perhaps entered a black hole by accident.
Yet their checks for damage to the starship had shown no damage had been done and all they needed to do was find a way out of its confines, or to make another voyage back out, and use the hyperdrive to get out, and was sure they would eventually make an attempt at it, even though he was sure they currently had no proper coordinates or anything for the voyage.
In a dim chamber, as he shifted, looking over at another porthole, he saw something, like a shadow shift, or a strange darkness at the edge of his vision, and he looked directly there, and gasped, and backed away, as he saw something unlike anything he had seen before, and shifted position, and saw a hideous dark blood red devilish shape in the darkness it was in and he slowly shifted further away, and as he got away shifted faster away, and when he looked back realized it had vanished.
Even with everything he knew of the DP2 extraterrestrial he amazingly did not know what it looked like and could not draw what he had seen! Was it the DP2 extraterrestrial or another parasite they had picked up?
As he crept away he examined what he had seen and realized he had seen little and even wondered if he imagined it, and knew if he had to identify it he could not, and he wondered if it could even have been the DP1 extraterrestrial instead, which could have been hidden aboard, and even something from DP3 or something that lived in the depths of space, and he realized the situation they were in and the dangers.
He even considered if it was possible to make contact with such a thing, as if it was intelligent and a highly advanced species it surely might make some form of deal with them, as it must know its on its own and trapped out in the depths of space with a highly advanced species.
They after all had entered space to trace extraterrestrial signals and make contact with highly advanced civilizations and life forms, and he wondered why it was so different, and if it was actually an earlier form of the life form, or it had returned to its original savage state.
In the end he realized that they should treat it as the DP2 extraterrestrial all the original evidence indicted, and he recalled what had been found out about the DP2 extraterrestrial, and he considered how it was keeping itself alive, and in existence, and he wondered again how they could communicate with advanced versions of such extraterrestrials, with advanced civilizations.
Chapter 21
Starship Computer
Outside the Starship S1 bridge window, where Ripley stood feet away, with his entire vision covered in its blackness, and he studied everywhere he could see try to see anything, and if the occurrences the scientists had told him existed.
Ripley stood contemplating what had happened, and he and the scientists with him were left trying to identify what they were now up against and what had happened.
Ripley eventually marched out, seeing the odds of him surviving the trip were decreasing more rapidly, and he recalled he had a dream of the extraterrestrial he had discovered attacking and killing them all, and he was left confused as what to do, as if he announced it was still there and the location, and virtual undetectable, there would be dangers of many things occurring, and he decided to leave it, as he knew the dangers would be increased by them hunting it down, and he was sure it was avoiding doing anything to remain hidden.
Ripley marched down a corridor and into a small empty room, hidden away, near the bridge, where the main computer of the starship could be communicated with directly, where he had rarely entered, and where he wished to check what was happening, as its communication thought processes were close to being human, and designed for them to understand, and for them to carry out various objectives, and basically get detailed and explained information when they needed it.
He sat down inside and examined the computer surrounding him, and gasped and recalled why they rarely visited it, as it was powerful and dangerous and it made them feel like it could do things against them, and they might even activate something, or cause it to carry out some dangerous act, even though he was really sure it could not do anything anywhere dangerous against them, and yet he was sure it had information hidden away that he should know.
“There are assumptions we are shrinking …” Ripley asked it, trying to get the computer to give him the details straightaway.
“According to the data from the probe sent out,” the computer confirmed, “I received enough evidence to confirm the entire region is shrinking …”
“Is there anything else that proves this is occurring …?” he moaned, watching if areas of the computer about him altered.
“There have been large amounts of information gathered since the occurrence was originally detected, and from many other sources.”
“So the starship is definitely shrinking …?”
“Yes. Everything is shrinking at the same rate …”
“Going by how long we have been shrinking, how much have we shrank …?”
“We have been shrinking since we arrived in this section of space …”
Ripley wondered why it avoided giving the reply he asked for, and wondered why it was considered a section of space, and realized it probably was, and decided to ask it again.
“H
ow much have we shrunk …?”
“The starship will soon be reduced to the size of an atom …” it replied, taking the tone of someone he attempted to identify.
He gasped realizing what would happen! He also fully realized how long ago they had known, and realized why and that the situation was dangerous and that they would be lucky to survive.
Yet he was confused and he did not feel smaller and he realized they could have been crushed all along, and wondered if it was the black hole crushing them, and the reason that the section of space they were in was so empty.
“What will happen to us?” he eventually asked.
“We are unable to deduce what will happen, from what we know, and all we can do is examine and study what is occurring around us.”
It was incredible was that they had been handling such an occurrence all along and had not even suggested it!
He recalled the captain and colonel and their desperate reactions, and what had happened, and he recalled the meeting they held and that they had actually not fully given what had happened at it and what had been entirely discussed.
The situation was absurd and absolutely crazy, and the outer sky had left the whole starship staggered, and he recalled all the reactions of the people that would have known.
Chapter 22
Gateway
For a long time Ripley sat contemplating what would happen, while staring at his meal, with Dan sitting reading opposite him at the other side of a table, and he studied all the starship crew and their reactions, at their tables, about him.
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