The Alien Orb (40 page)

“
Where is that ...?
”
Basinger gasped, as he saw
it.

“
I would say it was another
world!
”
he
answered, into the confines of the dark spaceship.

“
They visited other worlds! This thing
actually traveled to other worlds!
”

“
You might already have visited one of
them
–
when
you first entered that machine
–
that swamp you told us
about.
”

“
My god!
”

A yellow cloud of gas floated by the screen,
with a surreal motion, and a creature like a jellyfish drifted
through it. The air and world looked too deadly, and they avoided
making any statements about going to it.

The Dexter activated control after control,
and strange landscapes appeared. Their colors and shapes were
unpredictable, and they did not move as he pressed a new one.

By the amount of worlds that he had seen, he
knew that the aliens must have traveled incredible distances. At
any moment, he expected an alien civilization to appear on it, but
there were no traces of any civilizations on the machine. They
seemed to be exploration places, or places that they had chose to
go to for other reasons. He was beginning to believe that mankind
might have been one of the few civilizations that they had found.
Yet had they found the remains of mankind, years after its
extinction?

There were hundreds, and they were
speechless by the time they got to the last. Basinger looked as
though he was getting ready to argue with him, if he suggested
going to any of them. Yet Dexter was sure that most of the worlds
were so deadly that they would not be able to survive on them
without spacesuits and weapons, and that they needed time to
consider them.

As he was thinking of how many other worlds
there were on the other Star Chambers, an unusual view appeared on
the screen. It remained there, and they moved their heads about at
different angles trying to see what it was. Eventually Dexter went
close to it, and he took a proper look at it. It seemed to be in
some type of structure. Basinger put out his hand to press another
button, and Dexter grabbed it, tightly holding him away from
it.

“
What is it ...?
”

“
There are lights on in
it!
”

“
It will be some type of machine that
has remained running on solar power, or
something!
”

Dexter disagreed, and he moved his head from
side to side.

He sensed something, and he knew that he had
to check it.

“
I am going into it!
”

“
You better take a weapon with
you?
”

“
I
’
ll not need one!
”

“
What do you mean ...? Why do you not
need it? Anything could be hiding there?
”

“
I want to do this the right
way!
”

As he leapt through, a place like a tomb
became visible about him, and he watched the machine, making sure
that Basinger was not following him.

As his eyes adjusted, he saw yellow globes
of light dimly lighting a narrow corridor, like dull candle
flames.

At a distant region of it, it abruptly
darkened, where the lights did not go any further, and he saw that
it was the corridor of something, with the machine at the end of
it.

The gravity felt the same as the spaceship,
which meant that the aliens had built it.

A low buzz sound emerged, from
somewhere in front of him, and he realized that he was in another
spaceship. He temporally doubted his senses; but a spaceship would
have enough power to keep its lights going
–
the lights on the controls
in the other spaceship proved it. The size of this one seemed
immense, with its corridor going on endlessly into it.

The lights vanished, and he walked into the
darkness.

An open entrance finally appeared in it.

He went through it, not seeing where
he was going, and, with a thud, his side hit something. In
amazement, he then saw that he was not just in darkness
–
a large
translucent dome surrounded him, and his entire sight was full of
stars.

It obviously was an observation point
of a starship. The black floor was a barely visible line below him,
and he felt what he had hit
–
its shape suggested that it was a type of
seat.

After he had finished feeling its rough
texture, he rested on it, and he stared out into space.

Suddenly, a clang came from behind
him, giving him a fright
–
making him instinctively jerk forward
–
and he realized
that he was not alone. He was positive that it had been an
unintended noise, and he gently lifted himself up, making faint
brushing sounds. And as he moved towards it, he started to
sweat.

In the dim starlight, he saw a closed
entrance, on a wall, beside the entrance that he had come in, which
had a material on it that almost hid it. He carefully removed a
stick out of his pocket, and gently inserted it into a hole at its
side, and it silently opened, revealing a dark interior
–
with the dark
figure of a being. Yet, as his sight adjusted, he recognized its
shape.

Basinger virtually jumped into the air, when
he heard him.

“
What are you doing
here?
”
he
cried out.

“
This is where I arrived
–
through that
entrance! You have to see the observation room
that
’
s in
there!
”

“
Show me!
”
he grumbled, while calming himself,
as he closely examined him.

“
I
’
ll show you!
”

“
Where in the hell is
this?
”
he
gasped, as he walked through to the observation room.
“
Why are there two
of the machines?
”

“
They might have been transporting it
to another world!
”

They stood silently, watching a light streak
by, across the stars.

“
How fast do you think this thing is
traveling at?
”
Dexter asked.

“
It is fast enough to get quickly to
other worlds! What I want to know is where in the heck it is! If
this thing has been traveling through space since the aliens of the
civilization existed, it may be many galaxies away, in the distant
depths of the universe, traveling forever into
infinity!
”

“
How do you think they got their
food?
”

“
I am going back to the
others!
”

“
Do you want to check the rest of the
destinations first?
”

“
Okay!
”

When Dexter got to the machine, he activated
a control, and a moon appeared.

“
Why is that there? All the others
were worlds!
”
Basinger spoke, from behind him.

“
Could have had something that they
had an interest in
–
perhaps for mining?
”

Another world lit up, and he was sure
that he now knew why some of the worlds were on it
–
they had to have
things on them that they had needed
–
they were not colony
worlds.

Basinger started to get ready to
leave, as they approached the last controls, and Dexter suddenly
saw surreal blue shades wavering about, in patterns of whiteness.
Their colors gave away their identities
–
as the reflections of water. In the
brightness, he saw a flat shape, which was obviously an artificial
floor.

He stared intensely at it, and Basinger
shrugged his shoulders.

“
Well, what is it
then?
”

“
I don
’
t know, but its color is identical
to the sea, back on the world!
”

“
So what?
”

“
It may be useful
–
if it
’
s a structure
–
if
it
’
s on the
world?
”

“
If you want to check it, please
proceed ...!
”

Dexter just stared, and he walked towards
it.

The darkness swiftly turned to blinding
light, and a type of dome, made of a translucent material, became
visible over him, which had brightly lit water over it, sending
reflections all about him. The distorted shapes of the sun seemed
magnified.

He was in a globular bulge of transparent
material, connected to a translucent tunnel, which went on and on
into the distance.

Stars shone below him, as he clumsily
rested, and he realized that he had been mistaken
–
he was not on
the world
–
he was over the world. Its sphere was shining in space, at
the side of him. It was completely different, and he could barely
believe that it was the world.

He was on some form of space station, with a
tremendous size, stretching out for miles all about him, in
networks of translucent tunnels, with large round and square
bulges.

After a long time, of observing it, he
returned to the machine, and made his way back to the
spaceship.

Basinger was gone, and he blindly searched
for him. He wondered why he had left. Then he saw the entrance to
the control room at a different position than it had been.

At his approach to it, he saw something
strange in its blueness, but the intense brightness to blackness
was still affecting his sight.

Yet, amidst the blur, he saw a large
sphere rotating at the center of the room, and
Basinger
’
s
head was faintly visible behind a machine. He was at a machine that
he had not noticed before, at the opposite wall, in the darkness
that was there. He was sure it was an information
machine.

“
You have an early view of the world
there!
”
Dexter explained, looking at the hologram image of the world,
floating in air.
“
I just saw a recent view of it from
space!
”

“
No, you never ...!
”
he called out, frantically
shaking his head from side to side, as he lifted a head device from
his head.

“
What ...?
”

“
This is not the Earth! I should have
realized it ...!
”

“
What have you
realized?
”

“
We have been on another
world!
”

“
What ...?
”

“
From this machine
’
s star charts, I gather that
the Earth is in another universe!
”

The spaceship
’
s technology was incredible, and it
had the most advanced and last records of the super-species who had
eventually completely replaced the aliens. Their territory had
spanned galaxies, and then universes ...

Their knowledge was immense, and his mind
could barely understand most of their information. They used the
Star Chambers to keep their civilization connected, over the
immense expanses of space.

Dexter sat, in its blue glow, with his head
facing a patterned screen, listening to its silent hum. He took the
head device away from his head, and he placed it into darkness, at
the side of the machine.

Basinger sat thinking, probably about how to
use the newly found knowledge.

“
Did you get any information about why
the black hole put us at the island?
”
Dexter asked him, watching his head
glow, in the surrounding dimness.

“
From the information that I have
taken, I would say that the black hole connected to the nearest
open black hole, from the damaged Star Chamber. With it being
damaged, especially when it entered the laboratory, and we were
pulled into it, it would not have been able to connect properly
with the other Star Chambers, and we might have ended up in a
natural black hole, somewhere. Perhaps at the center of a
galaxy!
”

“
Or we might have traveled on
endlessly into infinity! The last of the aliens might have
deliberately left the black hole at the island, over the water
there, to prevent such occurrences happening!

“
Is there anyway to link a Star
Chamber to that black hole back on Earth?
”

Basinger
’
s eyes glared for a second, as
though he had just been thinking about it.

“
I do not know ...!
”