The Lost Time Probe Read online

  At one place he found something made of metal embedded within layers of mud in the wall of the corridor and he gripped a metal bar attached to it and gave it a sharp pull, and yanked it hard, and a sheet of corroded metal came loose out of the wall, where it had been stuck on with two rotted hinges, and he lifted it up and over, and placed it against the side of a wall, and stood mesmerized by a beam of starlight from a giant single star brightly beaming through a window hole into the dark confined space, like a laser beam, and he explored the room and found that they were deep in the cliff and in caves, which had been hollowed out, and they realized that the occupants had lived there for a long time, and had gone to great lengths to build it, and he thought the lower part in the cliff was there in case the above castle was attacked and entered, and there were other hidden lower caves.

  When they reached the bottom of a corridor Orwell, who was at the front suddenly stopped, startled by something, and Cronenberg felt vibrations blast through the stone walls and thought it was an earthquake, and when he moved in front of Orwell he gasped loudly as he heard it far louder, from something whirling away, and realized that someone had to be there, and realized that they could be about to meet an alien below, and he stood considering if they should, and they agreed to continue on to see what was there, and stay at a distance, and if there was anything there to silently approach it and observe it.

  It grasped their imagination and he approached it in confusion, as the sounds not only increased in volume, not only because they were getting near, but because something was increasing them, and flashes of light started appearing along the cave roof, from an area below, and shapes and colors formed, and he finally saw a humanoid form, which glowed and created the lights and sounds, and he measured the alien at over eight feet tall and at least four feet wide, and as he shifted silently forward he saw its skeleton through its body, and realized it had a translucent body, and he wondered what the hell it was.

  A blast of brightness exploded out from its center, with beams of colored light, and he saw its skeleton more clearly, with surprise, and he was surprised at how identical it was to a human!

  For a few seconds he stood stunned, wondering what the hell it was doing there, and he sensed it was a form of human, and he sensed the existence from the energy sphere, and the other deadly existence, and their surroundings vanished into blackness, and they shot through an infinity of gateways, going back in lines everywhere, and he continued to wonder what it was, as well as where they were going, and he realized the thing had been watching him when he had vanished, and though it was different he thought it was human, and he saw all of shuttle crew with him, and they were shooting through galaxies, and gateways.

  Chapter 23

  The Edge of the Universe

  The peculiar black empty sky of the destination instantly grabbed his attention, as it was empty of stars almost everywhere, and he barely saw anything, and it was the complete opposite of the other world, and he was left confused, as he had not seen space so empty of anything.

  He suddenly realized the world had to be at the outer limits of the universe, and he sensed it was the most distant world, and he considered what could exist there in such an empty region.

  A red glow soared out, as the sun raced up the horizon, and he sat with the other astronauts on flat rocks watching a beam of light blast out as the sun swiftly came over the horizon in front of them, beaming across the small rocky world, creating long dark shadows from mountains and hills going straight across the desert world towards them, and he had sensations of balancing over the world, on a spectacular bridge of rock, which they were on.

  The world looked lifeless but he knew something had to exist there, and that it was early in the morning, and he wondered if there would be a difference in them.

  The atmosphere was warm, evening for so early in the morning, and the ground had warm rock, and he gasped at how hot it might be in the day, and there were desert sand regions nearby that were identical to the hottest deserts on the Earth, and he smelt odors in the air from what had to be volcanic gases, and going by the reactions of the others he was sure it could be toxic gases.

  He realized that his spacesuit had the capacity to analyze it and determine what it was, and he quickly checked and was surprised that it was marked as unknown, and they just breathed it anyway, as it was weak and their oxygen supplies would run out if they never, and he realized the distance they traveled, and why it had taken so long, and that they had traveled from the direct center of the universe to the most distant, and he wondered if it was possible to guess the distance, and size of the universe.

  The sun rose swiftly, and he was surprised at how fast the sky changed color and a crimson sky engulfed them, and he realized that they were on another world, and at a point nobody on the Earth would ever see, and they had gone far further than anyone would, and he had originally believed that nobody would even see another solar system or step on another world.

  Orwell was fascinated in the worlds, as well as the other astronauts, as he was the science officer, and as a scientist, seemed to examine the world, and he was sure he was thinking of a way to escape from their voyage through the universe, and its dangers increasing, as they were surely going to get it soon, if everything went the way it was going, and if there was no chance of returning to the Earth why not find the best place, and even though it was so barn, and empty of life, it had air and surely water, and he also spotted rain type clouds behind him.

  Was this world good enough to live on? It was better than the vast dangers of the last worlds, and again he wondered why they had been put there, and he realized that there had to be something buried away there!

  He lurched forward, and moved over to where there was a cliff edge, and instantly saw a panoramic view of an area of landscape, with a mass of gray stone stretching out, and he moved further along where loose rocks went down in a slope, and he considered going down to the lower ground below and he balanced on the edge of it.

  A cold breeze blew across his face, and the rustle of dry dirt came from beside him, and as the sun rose he looked back at the last region of space vanishing into a blue sky, and he wondered what existed beyond the universe, which he was sure was there, and he could not imagine anything for some reason, and he wondered if it just vanished into no existence.

  The figures of the other astronauts shifted over to him, after talking about it, and where they should go, and Orwell moved over to his side.

  They studied the contours of the rocky hills and mountains, and in parts of it where sand stretched out, with them looking for signs of life and plants.

  “Well, it looks like water over there!” Orwell announced, to his great surprise, calmly scanning the shapes in the land.

  “Where?” he gasped, searching for where it was.

  Orwell pointed over to the side, where he had not really looked, and he saw water shinning, which had looked like flat shiny rock or something.

  “That’s water! What makes you think it’s water?”

  “I can tell! And I can see the sky around it …”

  They decided to go down the hill, across it, and their feet rhythmically crunched into stones, and they breathed fast.

  A light gray rock plane mostly filled up the landscape directly below, and they went to it, and he saw pockets of what looked like water and vague splashes of red in places, which looked like water and vegetation.

  When they reached the ground at the bottom, where the light gray rock plane went out at their fronts, he examined chunks of stone that covered the ground of the world.

  The planet had large areas of its surface smashed into pieces of shrapnel. The rocks were scattered through the lengthy rock plane zones, and round holes perforated the stone in the form of large potholes.

  In the silence of the cool morning he felt the sun and heat start to increase, and he watched the land stretch out across their front, and the gray shingle rocks become thinner at their front.

  The la
rge holes surrounded their front, going deep into the ground, which looked strange, and they kept examining them wondering what the hell they were, and when they ignored them, and started to look for other things, a distant low pitch tone of something came from some distant place, like some inhabitant of the world had been watching them and had reacted.

  They rushed through the last of the shingle and arrived at the flat rock of the rock plane, and they walked there properly, unimpeded in their spacesuits, where their heads darted about, looking for traces in the landscape of any signs of life – and anything that would indicate the presence of anything that they would encounter.

  The strangeness of the place bewildered him, as it never actually had much, and he wondered if there was something missing from the place, with it being located so far away from the rest of the universe.

  Their figures cast deep shadows against the rocky background, as the sun accelerated up into the sky, and their glances looked for nearby water.

  His gaze went out across the rock plane, which went away out to faraway mountains, near the skyline, and he examined a small nearby red patch, out in the rock plane, for a long time, and he realized that it was not as far from there as he had thought.

  He sniffed the air as the wind blew from where he was looking, and out from the rock plane, and he thought he saw the shape of something moving, and he stared in disbelief, and tried to explain the confounded shapes of the smashed rocks about it.

  Orwell showed him some large holes in the ground nearby, hidden behind a small hill, and they rushed over to them, and as they approached them they all saw the holes had the same unusual shapes, and up close they saw that they went deep into the world below, and he was unable to see the bottom of them.

  He automatically lowered his head to the ground, over a hole, and listened for sounds, and any sound, even a crackle of stone, and stood up and thought about it, and realized it was not as new looking as it looked!

  What could make such a hole? Was there something on this world they should see, and should they avoid direct confrontation with it? Could it even be watching him there?

  While he moved away, Orwell stopped at the edge of a nearby rock pile, and he went over and found him standing examining a blob of reddish slime, and they watched its veins take blood through its slimy shape, and they allowed it to slither down into a crack in the ground, and they watched its organs vibrating as it vanished out of sight, and went into the ground and rock.

  While they walked away, going across the rock plane, a loud shriek came from there, and in the thin crack in the rock he saw its shape, and wondered what the hell it was.

  They cautiously shifted on, across the hot plane of rock, to a red patch, and their vague view of it increased in clarity, and a waterhole became visible at its center and to their surprise the red color was miniature red forms of thin plants, like cactus, growing like grass around its perimeter.

  They sat and rested at the small waterhole, and watched a gust of wind whirl a cloud of sand up and into strange shapes.

  To Cronenberg’s surprise he saw the horizon was altering and darkening and the sun was quickly going below distant mountains, and he realized it was turning dark already, and they were away out there, and he had wanted to return before it got dark, and he wondered if it was dangerous there.

  In the end they decided to stay, as there was water, and they could see everything about them, and it had to be safer, and it turned dark fast, and darker than he had imagined, and the night sky was totally empty of stars!

  At times he wondered why they had even gone there, and been left on the desolate world, in the remote stars, on the boundary of the universe – with such a dark, moonless, and starless sky, where there was little – and out of nowhere an explosion blasted out across the alien world night, almost making them jump out of their skin, and look everywhere, and look for cover, and protection!

  All they could see were rocks smashing and exploding out and showering the ground of the rock plane in the darkness, at a nearby region they had come from, and he recalled the deep cavities he had seen in the ground there, and their strange shapes, and tried to explain what had created them, and he realized how powerful it was, and that its forces had smashed the rock to pieces.

  It was like it was something smashing its way out the depths of hell, crawling up into the upper world in the dark desolate world!

  With a final blast it smashed its way through a pile of solid gray rocks, sending up splinters of rock and dust across the ground, and its loud thundering thuds blasted out into the silent world, on the brink of existence, at the furthest reaches of the universe, and it rushed straight towards them, like an earthquake, making the ground about them furiously shudder from its force.

  Its black shape rushed wildly over the rocky plane seeking, and ready to pulverize any life form that it sensed, and anything that crossed its path, and the ground pounded and shuddered furiously, and they froze, hoping it had not seen them, and as it approached them they saw the beast’s red glowing energy formation, and red devil features, and their minds screamed in horror, and they were astonished to see the universe exploding away, and it with it, and them blasting through a gateway, going further out, and taking them to another destination.

  Chapter 24

  The Outer Universe

  At first they could not comprehend anything and form mental recognitions of their surroundings, and Cronenberg conclusively wondered if it had accidentally killed him and sent him to some form of its afterlife, and examined what was there, and considered if they were still in one of the sections of the gateways, and considered what would happen if they were trapped there, or their consciousnesses were, after them being killed there, and he examined everything about him in as much detail as he could and saw his entire field of vision full of celestial whiteness.

  His spacesuit faceplate automatically shaded the light as far as it could, and though it was still blinding he saw things about him!

  After some time his eyes adjusted and he saw his legs, below his spacesuit, and them looking like they were hanging over nothing, and he tried to feel what was below him through his thick spacesuit boots, but could feel little!

  There was an intense glow below, creating the intense light, and he was unable to see virtually anything, and he checked the surrounding temperature in his helmet, and it was normal, and he checked if his surrounds had an atmosphere, and it was normal, and he examined the blinding light beaming up at him.

  He felt some pain in his eyes, and knew that they had to find somewhere to shelter, and he felt tears pouring down from his eyes as they reacted to the intense light, and he was sure that it could blind him, and he searched around to see where they were and where they could go, and saw little, and decided they should move away and try and find somewhere elsewhere.

  The place was like heaven and he occasionally heard the others give gasps at it as they marched away as fast as they could, in a direction where there looked less light.

  It was incredible and he could not see or feel anything below him and everywhere else was white, but not blinding like from the entire region below, and he searched through it seeing nothing anywhere, and stopped occasionally frustrated at their lack of progress of discovering a way to get away from there, and wondered how long they could survive there, and wondered if he would die there wondering where the hell he was.

  For some reason he thought his size had decreased, and he continuously measured himself, and he wondered if the gateway had shrunk him, and he considered if it was the lighter gravity, and he finally felt the ground with his spacesuit glove detached, and discovered it was some sort of energy force.

  Away in the distance he finally saw something shift out of the light and he studied it gasping, for a long time, and they rushed on, silently trying to grasp what was there, and even tried to listen to the strange ground with his ear.

  At a closer position they saw something large going across the horizon, and at more closer position
they realized it was land, and he felt ecstatic, after what had happened, and he thought of it like being a castaway out in the sea finding land, or an island, and he increased his speed and they finally rushed over the land, and climbed up an area of sand, like a beach, until the light was out of view, and they rested, and allowed their eyes to return to normal.

  It was incredible he had never seen anything like it, and he wondered what sort of world it was, which had an energy that glowed brightly and was solid, and had areas of land, and he wondered if it was some form of early world of the universe, and that the land was normal matter and the other an early form of it.

  When their eyes recovered from the bright light, and they had rested, they climbed a hill behind them, and they saw an astonishing sight and the world beyond that was more immense than he could imagine could exist and its horizon was flat and went out hundreds of miles all around his front, and there was no real distant curve, and the horizon disappeared into hills and mist hundreds of miles away, out in the distance, and they could not explain how it could be that way, and he wondered if it was a flat or square world, and they just explained it as being an early form of world that had less gravity and an immense size, and he considered if the energy they saw below it filled the entire world, and the energy had little gravity.

  They spotted large regions of water and what looked forms of vegetation, and they rushed over to the nearest area with water, and had a last look at where the massive central energy was.

  Many miles away, he saw types of volcanic phenomena, which looked strange and he and Orwell studied it with interest, to check it and they considered if the stuff given out from below was the same as normal matter, and they examined the ground more and more and found it had unknown substances, but was basically normal soil and rock.