The Alien Artifact 8

The Alien Artifact 8

V Bertolaccini

This
edition published 2016 by CB

This is a
Smashwords edition 2016

Copyright
Victor Bertolaccini

ISBN:
978-1-3111-2961-1

All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Nor can it
be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without similar condition including this
condition being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

All
characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance
to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Prologue

The Martian
Discovery

Loud explosions and blinding flashes from the
crash haunted Anders as he watched the remains of his rocket
vehicle burn out and vanish into the dark desolate Martian
night.

The vehicle had come down to the
surface of Mars too fast and the two
astronauts
had hardly been able to
land manually in the darkness, and they had just escaped as the
vehicle had started exploding, and sat at different places against
piles of rocks, watching its fuel burn away furiously, and he
wondered how long their oxygen would last.

He felt painful bruises covering his entire
body and checked his oxygen supply again, and checked for any
escaping air in his spacesuit, while watching Robertson, the
scientist, repair a hole in his with a small repair kit from his
suit.

He realized that they had to find another way
of landing on Mars, and that it was far too dangerous! Although it
had been their fault in carrying out the unscheduled ludicrous
landing, in search of wealth! They had gambled and had lost!

Robertson claimed incredible diamonds of
immense value were on the surface, in the unexplored region of the
south pole, and they had made a great mistake in landing in the
dark, as it had been their only real opportunity to carry it out
without being caught, and they would not know of them being out
there as they had not used any communications to the space stations
and Martian ground bases, and there were no satellites
overhead!

Mars was not like what he had imagined it and
it now felt like he was on a world in another solar system buried
away in the deep depths of the universe as he stared out into the
depths of space, in the dark night sky, and at what seemed to look
like the furthest stars of the universe, and he watched them
wondering what horrors existed there, realizing what they had
encountered there, which had also made them crash!

There were billion of light years of stars
out there and he gasped just thinking what could be on the nearest
stars, and they had just had an encounter on Earth’s nearest
world.

The world about him seemed a flat
stretch of ground full of nothing but space dust and piles of
rocks, with no real atmosphere, resembling areas on
Earth
’
s
moon in the dark, and some large asteroids had clearly hit areas
nearby.

He wondered if their crash remained
undetected and unregistered by them if their skeletons would be
found lying there by future
astronauts, and he considered if such an occurrence could
really happen, over a long time, and if he could end up in a museum
back on the Earth, or if his ghost would be trapped there forever
on the desolate lonely planet!

The last burning region of the rocket was a
sphere of light floating like a ghost in the darkness, and he
realized that something had been there, right there on Mars, and he
had telepathically felt its presence!

A silent roar vibrated through the ground and
he expected a sudden explosion, and he thought of it as a tremor
from some fault line, and a blur of light swirled in the blackness
from an area of the space vehicle and he realized it was the last
of the fuel dwindling away.

Memories of its strange sounds and lights
sent sensations through his body and he realized how close to death
he had been!

The world seemed unique but there were
trillions like it through the unexplored galaxy.

He recollected a full vision of what could
have attacked them and he felt his blood explode through his veins,
and he realized how little oxygen he had as he was starting to feel
like fainting!

A dull yellow and red radiance gleamed from
the remains of the rocket and illuminated his shadow casting a
crimson shadow like a hideous devilish figure, with peculiar
features, and he thought of it as what had attacked the
vehicle.

He glared unmoving at the silhouette in
shock, studying it, almost hoping it would come alive and answer
what it was.

The blackness was so deep and vivid as the
light and flames vanished completely, and the thing there felt so
real, and alive, he felt deep horror – and he thought of it as they
had first discovered it up in space – and he was surprised that he
started to see something in the blackness, and he realized that he
just wanted to die, and its glowing shape floated towards him, and
he watched Robertson react to it.

For an instant it altered formation and he
wondered what the hell it was! Where the hell had it come from?
What was it doing there in such a desolate place?

It lunged over Robertson first, like the grim
reaper, taking his soul, and he watched him go lifeless, fall over,
and collapse, and it moved to him, with its black shadow shape
shifting over the ground, and he felt its vibrations go through the
rock, and he sensed its powers, and he clung to jagged black rocks
and its swirling mist shifted over him, and shifting outlines
magically formed about him, and he realized how painful death would
be from slow oxygen starvation, and he welcomed death, and as he
did he realized it was Christmas and that the star he was gazing at
was really the Earth.

Part I

The Martian
Discovery

Chapter 1

The Antarctica
Encounter

Something startled Commander Cronenberg and
he struggled to grasp what and focused on the deformed sun, as it
went below the Martian horizon at the side of the shuttle, and he
gasped as he watched the golden landscape below grow dark!

They had to land! Soon! Surely they should
not take the risk continuing to fly to their destination at night!
The shuttles were new and recently completed and they were trying
it out for the first time, and testing it for the first time over
Mars!

Something staggered him about the mission and
he sensed something was going to occur, and had seen it
approaching, edging its way towards him, which he knew he could not
avoid! He had to go through with it! He believed he could survive
if he did everything he could and avoided any deadly mistakes!

It was Mars! It was the new dangers there! It
was exploring where nobody had been, and the great deadly
environment and hidden dangers! The region they were in was the
least explored!

They were approaching the south pole, the
legendary Martian Antarctica, and he now sensed there was something
strange there! Something he had not encountered before! Something
that could only exist in such a place, in such a place, and in the
depths of space, which might not be able exist on the Earth, and it
gave him chilling and peculiar sensations, but he could not grasp
what!

As the shuttle accelerated on he increasingly
felt a presence of something, somewhere, in the chilling darkness
of the alien world around them, and it started to become visible
that the five other members of the crew of the shuttle.

At a distance the shuttle resembled a highly
advanced early twenty-first century space shuttle, but far larger,
and was designed for the exploration of worlds, especially Mars,
and future explorations in the solar system.

Most of the crew, including him, were also
scientists and explorers, wanting to see the universe and discover
new things, and were testing and improving the space vehicle, like
the other twenty space shuttles being tested on Mars, and were from
Base One, the largest structure in space and on Mars and the
headquarters of all the operations, bases, and space stations on or
over Mars.

The commander of the base and Martian
operations was Base Commander Clarke, an associate of Commander
Carl Cronenberg.

All the information from the shuttles was
being gathered and transmitted to the base, and studied mainly by
the shuttle builders and scientists.

The other five members of the shuttle crew
were Orwell the shuttle science officer, medic, and
biologist/exobiologist, Stanley the shuttle pilot, and an expert
shuttle pilot and navigator, and Lyndon the co-pilot, navigator,
expert on most of the Martian world, landscape and locations, and
expert on shuttles, like most of them, and Deputy Commander Tom
Campbell head flight engineer, and an astrophysicist/planetary
geologist, and Rosenberg a flight engineer, and an
astrophysicist/planetary geologist, and all basically checking the
performance of the shuttle and findings the new detection equipment
aboard gathered, especially in the unexplored regions they were
entering.

Cronenberg knew that they were finally
properly exploring Mars, and they were properly filming and mapping
the landscape, and entering regions never properly explored.

H
e had recollections of seeing the shuttle for the first
time, and its abilities, and ability to fly in the almost empty
Martian atmosphere, and he knew they were a breakthrough that could
lead to immense discoveries and the proper exploration of the
smaller but vast world.

Their
explorations of the whole world had been little so far – with only
probes and satellite explorations – and he grasped the chance to be
a part of it, but the dangers had not been apparent until he had
started their mission.

After hours of
intense training, medical examinations, and every form of
screening, the astronauts were finally carrying out the first
mission, and future missions.

“
This technology is a scientific
breakthrough!” Orwell announced to Cronenberg, as he sat monitoring
newly installed equipment, over at his side, which was to survey
the ground, and had a clear image even in the darkened
landscape.

“
It’d be a mistake not to use it to its
full potential for science!” he replied.

“
They
’
ve been redoing scanning and
carrying out tests for months, back on the Earth, and seem to have
progressed the technology far further than we thought. The views
and information received is far greater …”

Cronenberg wondered if it was good enough to
detect what was there, and realized whatever it was he had sensed
there might be reacting to it and he considered having it turned
off.

He was starting to suspect that some of them
had discovered signs of something of unknown origins somewhere, and
were either not sure and leaving it until they had enough evidence
or they did not want to confront what was there, and, of course, it
could be both.

Finally
Rosenberg muttered to him, “
There’s some form of
powerful magnetic influence – or something of that nature – around
here somewhere!
”

Cronenberg swiftly checked it to see what it
was and moved away, and considered what it was, and if it belonged
to Mars.

From a
side window he watched s
hade
s
of light play with his
vision
in
animated
motions,
as the
shuttle rushed on, and
he watched
the crew at work, constantly
examining the new technology, getting use to using it.

The Antarctic had a great potential with the
ice and its other features and he wondered if any of it had been
there for millions of years like the Antarctic on the Earth! If
Mars had seas or large lakes there could have been amphibious or
even prehistoric creatures that could be buried frozen away
there!

For a few seconds he watched blankly as
crew members gave reactions about something unbelievable, and he
reacted when he spotted t
he equipment showing strange reactions that he could not
comprehend, and he considered if it was because things were too
vague, with insignificant reactions, which could be off anything,
but he was sure something nearby was creating a disturbance or
being detected for some reason.