The Deadliest Alien Artifacts (Story Collection) (14 page)

“
I do not recall hitting
anything,
”
Major Ripley replied, looking about, and under the
vehicle.
“
Did we? We
’
ve only skidded to a standstill against some
boulders, and the vehicle has stopped itself
automatically
! You
’
re the scientist here! If I can
still remember correctly! You work it out! How come I can hardly
remember anything about you or anyone else?
”

“
Perhaps gas escaped
...?
”

“
I know this vehicle, and
there
’
s
none in this model! And if this gas exists, I
’
m sure it would be of
interest to the military
–
as I
’
ve never heard of a gas that only makes a
person forget people.
”

“
There could be some gas in the
atmosphere outside. We may have a leak!
”

Major Ripley checked the shuttles
instruments, and replied,
“
There does not seem to anything here. It
would have to be very small to be undetected.
”

Suddenly, Kruger jumped, and his heart
leapt, when a figure in a spacesuit shifted out from the darkness
at their side, and Major Ripley moved for his weapon at his
side.

“
How far do you reckon it is to the
nearest shuttle?
”
Major Ripley whispered, to confirm what he knew.

“
Well, there are four others, and the
nearest has to be vehicle three with the famous biologist Mendez,
and it has to about three miles away at least.
”

“
We better contact the others, and
check what is happening!
”

Kruger watched the strange figure move in
close, and bang his glove hard against the vehicle window, near
him.

There was something strange about him and
the way that he shifted that interested Kruger. He could not place
it and put it down to memory loss again, and the strange
environment.

“
I cannot reach them! There could be
some damage to the communications equipment at the
moment!
”

“
You mean something is blocking the
transmissions!
”

Major Ripley studied his face and the figure
outside, and tried to see the face of the man through the silver
screen of his faceplate, but gave up.

“
We will have to let him
in!
”
Kruger
stated, after minutes of silence
–
to the unsaid question.
“
Who else could it
be?
”

“
That is a good question! Who
or
what
else could be out
here in this hellhole! Away out here!
”

“
They must be in trouble if he
traveled all the way over here
–
in complete darkness!
”

“
And how did he find us? That is the
question! And why did he know we would be sitting here? We could
easily have left here, before he arrived!
”

Kruger studied the man in the spacesuit, and
realized that he had not moved or done anything since he had
arrived.

“
And if they monitored us and knew we
had stopped here, and he walked here from away over there, it would
have taken him far longer to reach here
–
especially in that spacesuit,
without any lights!
”

“
We cannot leave him,
Kruger!
”

Major Ripley moved into the back of the
vehicle and removed the spacesuits, and they fitted them on and
tested them for leaks.

Major Ripley then moved away from the door
where the stranger was and removed his weapon, and allowed Kruger
to unlock the door, and they watched the air gush out into the
outer desolate world.

They watched the man enter and close the
door behind him, and they remained silent as the air filled the
vehicle, and with amazement they watched the man remove his helmet
and reveal his identity, and that he was an identical duplicate of
Kruger.

Kruger could not realize who was more amazed
him or Ripley!

They both sat staring, dumfounded.

“
Just tell me
–
who the hell you
are?
”
Major
Ripley demanded.

“
What
’
s up, Carl!
”
the stranger announced, exhausted,
after his march across the world, and through the dust, with the
heavy suit on.
“
What don
’
t you recognize your own
brother?
”

“
I never knew you had a
brother?
”
Major Ripley continued, amused, trying to find out what he
was missing. He clearly thought there was a hidden joke to it
all.

“
I don
’
t remember any of my relatives
though!
”
he
replied, not knowing what to do now.

“
So you lost your memory as
well!
”
the
stranger replied, amused.

“
What? You lost your memory? Where did
that happen?
”

“
On my way back
here!
”

“
Back here!
”
Major Ripley replied, and laughed
loudly.
“
What? You are claiming you were here, and
left ...?
”

“
Of course! I woke up over
there!
”

The stranger pointed over in the direction
that he had come from.

“
I woke up over there, and I never
knew how I got there, and saw your headlights and walked
back.
”

Major Ripley heard a noise from the
communication device, and jumped in beside it, and picked up the
part of the device to communicate.

“
Vehicle four here! Any information on
what happened to the communications?
”

“
Ripley! This is Douglas. Major
Douglas! Vehicle two. All the communications were down! They
returned to back to normal ten minutes ago. We have a problem! All
the people here and aboard the GX1 have lost their memories
–
relating to
identification of people. We do not know if it is permanent or if
something is causing it. All the vehicles crashed too!
They
’
re
working on the problem back at the GX1. All the vehicles are to
return there now!
”

“
This is Ripley!
What
’
s the
distance to the nearest vehicle, vehicle number three, from
us?
”

“
That
’
s Mendez! It
’
s just over three miles from
you! Why?
”

“
Do me a favor! Just tell me what was
the number of passengers in this vehicle?
”

“
Wait a minute, and
I
’
ll
check!
”

“
That
’
s strange! All the stuff on the
personnel of the GX1 has been erased!
”

“
Brilliant! Thanks!
”

“
So what
’
s your name then?
”
Kruger asked the
stranger.

“
Dan Kruger! I think you called me
Dan! I believe we
’
re twins!
”

“
How do you think you got over
there?
”

“
I don
’
t know. I just woke up
–
over
there!
”

The stranger took his entire suit off, and
they saw how identical he was, and to Kruger it was like looking at
himself in the mirror, and he saw Major Ripley checking for
differences in their features to identify them, for the future.

II

First Contact

In the depths of its infinite surroundings a
spectacular energy surge had exploded out, with radiating beams,
mystifying the entity for the first time for an immeasurable length
of time, as it had continued its regular routines of regulating and
improving its vast existence.

From nowhere a concentrated sphere of energy
had appeared, vaguely even being detected by its senses due its
minute size. Except its acceleration soon left it staggered! It had
never known anything of the outside universe, and everything about
it was beyond its knowledge, and it considered if it was something
to do with another like itself, with even a far greater degree of
knowledge and powers.

It had observed that it had clearly traveled
a great distance, and from the distant energy fields, of the
galaxies. Its technology interested it the most, and its size was
so small that it had confused it. Was it sent by another of its
kind? Could it itself recreate such a thing to explore its
surroundings? Should it actually conceal itself or attack and
capture it?

Thus it soon set itself the task of
exploring it to gain all the knowledge that it could before it
left, or anything happened.

A surge of energy forces that it had never
conceived existed hit its probing forces, shocking it and
fascinating it at the same time. It had been unbelievable and
glorious, and it admired it greatly, but had sensed great danger,
as with its encounter with destruction on its creation.

Through its thoughts a blur of radiation had
swirled out of the blackness. Strange energies without any meanings
had sent sensations through its structure.

Amidst its awesome powers it had detected
its core, the GX1 spacecraft, surrounded by its propulsion forces
and energy protection shield, force field, which defended it
against the forces that propelled it through space, and stopped it
being damaged by anything else. At the speed that it traveled, at
hundreds of times the speed of light, even the smallest object
could cause indescribable damage.

The entity had always thought of things in
size, and small had always been powerless and useless to it, and it
had realized that far greater powers could exist in the smaller and
concentrated.

It had visualized its appearance as it had
probed its force field, as a speck appearing with spectacular beams
spraying out into the stars. Its outline emerging out of obscurity,
and it had imagined its shape hurtling on to the distant
formations.

A vast line of energy had stretched out
across space from it, left behind, and it had fascinated it in that
it could discard such great amounts of energy. Its body had
absorbed it with enchantment, as it could not recall having taken
in such forces since its creation.

After many
probes, and unsuccessful probing, including through
multidimensional sensors, it had accumulated everything that it
could as swiftly as it had done anything for a long time, and
started to examine what it had accumulated.

Its unique acceleration had allowed it to
travel the immense depths of the void, and it had been controlled
by altered forms of it. The whole object had been controlled by
parts of the object itself, but regulated by small mobile separate
forms, which had free thinking states, unlike the object
itself.

Even though it had gained knowledge, which
it would study for years to come, it had gained little on its
construction and how it and everything in it had worked, and it had
realized that it could be the only time it would come across such a
phenomenon, as it began to reach the limits of its reaches.

The deep emptiness about it had become
so vivid, and it had thought of its original thoughts of the
object
’
s
discovery, and then of the finding of the things in it, and at the
same time it had detected with amazement its sudden deceleration,
and it had considered if it detected its surveillance, and if it
intended to make contact with it.

Yet it had then gone into orbit around a
world, which it had not even known was there, over to the side of
it, and it probed the world with fascination. It had never seen a
world before, and it had been fascinated that it could have been
there without it knowing, even with it being outside its normal
reaches. It wondered if it had been missing many things while it
had been drifting and building itself.

What strange place had it come from? What
other wonders were there? Where had it been traveling to on its
voyage into the depths of space and time?

The denseness of the world had surrounded it
with mind-bending wonders and visions as it had explored it,
seeking answers, and it had returned to surveying the GX1 as it
landed, and later on it detected some of the small separate
intelligent forms had left it and were outside the energy screen,
and it had examined their free thinking states and realized that it
could reproduce them, and it had decided to make one of them from
itself, to get aboard the GX1.