The Thing: from the Depths of Hell Page 9
At times it felt like they were in a bubble of pure energy – buzzing and vibrating wildly and dangerously about them.
Kruger knew that they were only experimenting with something, but was at a loss to what it was.
They had clearly just created a miniature version of an area of space, and they stopped its progression at a calculated point, and carried out a series of basic experiments, and they decreased its size and form.
It was like an altered projection of reality magically spinning around them, in patterns of light, like a light show.
“We were not able to carry out our original plan,” Mitchel announced to all the scientists, who stood gasping.
“Basically speaking! We were going to detect the alien and throw it out the universe, where it would not bother us again.”
Kruger gasped, and wondered what he meant outside the universe!
“We have to do something before the alien, which has just entered the control center, deactivates the spacecraft’s energy shield, as it will not only destroy everyone here, it will be able to find our worlds and destroy them. It is crazy enough already!
“The outer entity, in the surrounding void, is too powerful. It could destroy whole galaxies.”
“So what is your answer to that then?” Kruger asked.
“We only have the one answer, and the first part of it is that we leave the universe!”
Mitchel started activating controls, and the other scientist joined in, until they had completed all their procedures, and Kruger felt something leaving him, and the essence of the universe vanishing away, and realized the earlier stuff was just rehearsals for the real stuff, and that they were now leaving the universe.
There were sudden explosions of movement, of everything around them, as space and time altered, and the universe shrank away, and Kruger felt like losing consciousness.
He had feelings of being alone, and he realized that his mind was not able to function in different ways.
Everything about him turned transparent, and he saw the darkness outside. The voyager about him was disappearing, and turning into an energy state, and he watched his body fade into nothingness.
They were going beyond reality to what? It was as though he were dreaming in an altered state of existence.
Kruger sensed telepathic thoughts of the alien, and that it could not handle not existing in the universe, and he heard its last gasps before it died, and he wondered if they would die too, or if they were going to enter he universe again.
He realized then that they had invented something to keep them and the voyager existing.
However, Kruger could not realize what would happen if they could not enter the universe again, as there clearly was nothing outside it.
He sensed that there was power there though, and it was more than anything that he had ever thought existed, and he wondered what the hell it was, and why it was hidden away from him.
Light from it shone over him, and entities in the form of large bright globes appeared, and he recognized that they had some features, and that they really had the appearances of ghosts, and he lost consciousness, with the others.
Part II
Ice Station X1
Prologue
The Visitation
The pale cold complexion of the Russian scientist entirely altered! Sounds he gave took strange tones everywhere as he started trying to explain, and Weaver strained his eyes trying to see him now, while he considered it, and the darkness in the room grew!
“Normal astronomers and observatories around the world never detected it, and would have studied it with great curiosity if they had at a far lower velocity, and would have been baffled, as it went at many times the speed of light!”
Weaver grasped at what it was and started to comprehend what he had been missing! He wondered what could detect such an object, and if they even had anything available!
“Its origins were undetected by the sources that had seen it and had been set up for high speed objects!” The scientist continued, biting his lower lip hard. “The detection sites were mainly created and functioned to discover and track any high speed objects for military detection systems and unidentified flying objects of any kind, and from all the accumulated sources known only Russian intelligence agencies investigated it further because of its tremendous velocity and the fact that the location of its descent was accurately traced into this place and region of the Antarctic!”
“My god!” Weaver gasped, realizing the mistake he had made and what the outcome of what was occurring could be!
“Yes! The location was traced to this top secret American military ice station base, where they investigated!”
“It must have been incredible!” Weaver answered firmly. “The impact must have been tremendous! Did that telescope here with its new technology have anything to do with it?”
“The scientists here, and in the underground telescope chamber, did not even know of its arrival! If it had been far slower they might have recorded it as an asteroid of immense proportions! It was only recorded as an immense explosion or earthquake of unknown origins, which had lasted seconds, and which had occurred during the night!”
Weaver was amazed that it actually landed nearby, and he believed it had to be the telescope that had been responsible, and he had detected that they had been up to something with it when he had discovered it in the secret chamber below.
“The magnitude recorded by their equipment had shown them the tremendous power it had!”
“Tremendous power!” Weaver panted, and considered what weight it could have and at what distance away it was.
“Russian scientists used examinations of satellite images to examine and trace the exact location where it had landed, and where it had entered the ice!”
“Like a crazy shooting star exploding out of the polar night sky!” Weaver continued. “At a velocity and force unheard of!”
“After a great deal of observations, research, and discussions by the leading scientists they agreed that the thing that they had found had to have artificial origins mainly by its appearance and its tremendous power! It also has to have vast technology, which may give its origins! They had to investigate it as far as they could! Even with this highly confidential American base being here!”
Weaver could not get what it could be or the outcome of such a scenario, and thanked the scientist for warning him of it!
“Space may be full of them?” the scientist continued, giving his opinion. “We have to investigate! The future of this world could be at stake?”
“So there could be more searching for where it came from? Do you think it was damaged landing?”
“We have to get anything that we can on it! We have to get as much details of it and its origins no matter what!”
“The technology could very well make it worthwhile!” Weaver sighed, thinking of how much it could be worth.
“Have they been able to make contact with it?” Weaver asked.
“As far as I know they have not!”
“Have they entered it yet?”
“As far as I know they have not! What it is made of is either indestructible or virtually indestructible! They have been trying everything that they have to get into to it!”
“Incredible!” He replied. “I never thought I would live to see one! Never mind confront one! What information have you on it?”
“There is little so far! It has a vague flying saucer shape and is about quarter of a mile across all around it, and about hundred and something feet high! They have uncovered most of it, except a region still under the ice! They have used everything available to check for places to enter it!”
“Is there positive proof that nothing emerged from it before they arrived?”
“No! But there have been no signs of it anywhere, and no encounters have been reported worldwide from it!
“Has there been anything on getting where it originated from?”
“They have nothing on its origins or d
estination, and if it had achieved its objective!”
“Have they found anything to indicate it has intelligence or if there is anything aboard?”
“They discovered its forces deliberately melted the ice and allowed the water to freeze over it, and that it hid itself away, and it is believed something deadly is buried away in its interior!”
Chapter 1
The Alien Encounter
Out of the silent empty Antarctic night high-powered rifle blasts were astonishing, especially in the fatal blizzard engulfing Willis! The explosions sounded so powerful he believed they were using some form of powerful explosive in the bullets!
Whoever was after him had to be crazy and out for the kill, and stupid for entering them into such a blizzard and fury of snow! He could not realize who was there and just accepted that they might be trying to kill him for being a leading scientist at the ice station!
Ice Station X1 had to be located in the coldest and most remote place on the planet! Even in the summer the place had been deadly cold to him! As far as he was concerned there was nothing there to kill for and nobody there that he thought capable of doing so! It and the coldness made him cringe, and blindly rush on through the blinding blizzard, lost.
A loud explosion blasted out and a bullet thudded somewhere nearby and he had to run through the dark snow landscape for his life! He dared not use his light and he could barely see anything!
The men could be heard over to his side and he realized that they could have infrared sights and he just dived into a pile of snow, and buried himself deep. Surely they would not find him!
Once he realized that nothing had happened he started to enjoy the rest and being free from being attacked. His mind raced through what had occurred! Yet he only realized that the location that he strolled into had been a region that nobody at the ice station went in, and he started to wonder what was there.
Why would they go to such lengths to kill him? What could possibly be there? What could be there in such a desolate place?
When he finally left where he was and started to return to the ice station, he started tracing where he had been where they had appeared and started looking around, and strolled around and found something buried beneath a region on flat snow, which he wiped the snow and ice away from and revealed a wooden cover.
Below it he found a vast hole going straight down deep into the ice below, which had clearly been hollowed out with some large powerful machine, which he had not seen there. Yet the region was vast!
Who had dug such a hole? And he wondered if it was by some foreign country that intended to destroy the secret military station?
It was then that he discovered an old rope and harness buried away in the snow, and knew he had a way to climb down, and he decided to investigate it, while avoiding being killed by them or the blizzard! He was sure it had been dug for a reason and that something was just below him!
He swiftly attached the ropes and fitted the harness around him and shifted in, and turned on his light, and covered the top with the wooden cover.
Mind-bending sounds and echoes from the haunting blizzard screamed down through the ice shaft with fury and left him stunned at the dangers, and no matter how he tried to shake it off and contemplate identities his thoughts never formed stable recognitions of what was occurring in the blizzard above!
The ice that the tunnel went through fascinated him as it was different from the regular ice below the ground there! It looked to him to have been formed from water that had melted and had been frozen quickly afterwards!
Clouds of powdered snow and snowflakes swirled down and through the beam from his light and he continued to release the rope, edging him down, seeking to discover what was below.
He realized that he had avoided being killed after all and wondered if he was going to be killed later, when he climbed back up and went outside.
He groaned as he moved down, realizing the mistake he was making and the trouble he would have getting back to the surface and trying to find the ice station in the dark.
He stopped and dangled about on his rope and examined how the tunnel had been cut, while glimpsing parts of the shaft above, and was surprised again at how large and expensive the equipment used must have been.
He had always wanted to investigate some great mystery and it had even helped lead him into becoming a scientist, at such a far out desolate location, and he wanted to explore more. He had wanted to explore and discover new things of value and greatness, and perhaps even be remembered in history somewhere!
What interested was why they had gone to such lengths to kill him, and why he had not known about the tunnel! Surely they had a way of examining below the ice and would have done it while constructing the underground ice station, especially with it being of so confidential and belonging to the military.
What treasures could be hidden away in such a region, with it being one of the last not properly explored regions?
What was he dealing with though? Why were they trying to kill him? Were they protecting something that they had hidden there?
Something of unfathomable unidentifiable nature could be under him and he had to explore it!
As he lowered himself progressively he started to realize the depth of it and that there could be something there!
Something could be secretively built there with the help of the Russian spies in the ice station, and to be used to destroy the entire ice station in an atomic war!
He realized the implications of the find and that he would have to check what was there, no matter what! He could not let it go, and he had to survive and give the information to someone.
Willis was blinded by the black abyss below him as he lowered himself down through the cold tunnel, uniquely drilled with an incredible precision.
He gripped the rope hard, but spun round, and fixed his foot against the tunnel wall to stop it, and looked up to the top of the tunnel and just saw darkness there now, and looked and listened to what was there, and realized that if he was caught there they could cut the rope and let him fall to his death at the bottom. If he never died he would starve to death there!
So far he had been unchallenged with his insistence in going down and he realized that he best increase his speed!
A silent thud echoed down from the top and eventually a cloud of snow came down making him gasp and search for anything, and consider putting his light out, but he saw that it was a freak gust of wind blowing into the cover.
He wondered why he was lowering himself so slowly down when they could easily fall down by freeing the rope and using his hand to slow and stop it, but it could be dangerous!
The dangers of being caught were greater and he did it, and raced down the shaft, with him continuously having to slow down, while also using his legs and boots against the ice to slow himself.
When the bottom appeared he stopped and stared in wonder, and considered what was in the blackness there, and considered the incredible trouble he would have climbing back up.
He was mainly confused as to what was there to be discovered as he made his way there slowly. The ebbing radiance of the light clearly was increasing and he realized how tired he had become, and he decided it was best sleeping at the bottom! Surely the men with the guns above would not come down at night? They would know the trouble it would be to get back up!
The coldness entering his throat gave him cough sensations, so he speeded up and unleashed the rope allowing him to fall faster.
What would the outcome of it be? Would he even find anything? What could be there? It could have belonged to earlier scientists, checking for something? The ice station was old, and a great deal of research had been done there!
Hazy echoes off his deep breathing broke the extraordinary silence and he examined the ice as he shifted downwards, and he started to find the cold air was damaging his throat and was harder to inhale, and he frequently stopped to gasp for air, while dangling with hideous expectations of plunging into something danger
ous.
A distant upper rumble of wind eventually released chunks of ice and he realized how dangerous the place might become if solid ice came crashing down, and that the place the rope was attached to might not be able to support such weight after all, of him and the immense rope, and he considered how he could survive at the bottom if he fell down there!
In an instant the rope jerked and wildly oscillated and he spun uncontrollably around and a surge of blackness engulfed him, and he realized the light had been banged against the ice and had been turned off, and he realized what he had missed and what it would be like if he got stuck there in complete blackness, with him trying to climb back up!
He searched for the light switch while straining his eyes to see further down to the bottom and thought he saw something there, but there were no particular features.
When he had turned the dim light on the tunnel vanished into the darkness at the bottom, and when he arrived there the light was so faint that he was too busy focusing on the ice ground to properly see anything, and he only vaguely saw an immense dark cavity open out!
He hit the ground with a thud and in the turmoil he slipped over sideways into something heavy!
In the dim light he then saw a large artificial black object resting in the central region of the cavity, which went out and vanished in the distance, into darkness, and he examined what he could properly see, and tried to see the cavity roof fifty feet above, and it going higher further in, and he gasped and wondered what hell he was looking at!
He wondered how they had managed to get the equipment down to build such a structure and if it was safe!
They clearly had another way into the cavity to bring it in and he realized that he could get out more easily than he had entered!