The Alien Artifact 7 (7 page)

He wondered what was happening to him, and
how far his hearing could alter, and if it could alter him into
something else, and he wondered if it was a sixth or something else
involved as he had seen the rabbit in what appeared as a different
form of light.

The sounds were amazing and the others above
started to notice his peculiar reactions, and mentioned it.

He even wondered what would happen if they
remained the way they were, and what the effects would do to him,
and he listened to how mind-bending they were! Fogler’s breathing
came screaming up through the shaft like a dangerous fury that
stunned him, and no matter how he tried to shake it off and
contemplate how it could happen it never altered or formed a stable
normal recognition and he started not listening, and forcing his
hearing to return to normal again.

Clouds of powdered dirt came up from below,
swirling through the beams of light in gusts of air, and he felt
heat from the air and smelt burning and realized that Fogler was
now lighting a fire below for some reason and he tried to see
why.

He was using pieces of branches and twigs
that were covering the area below and Cameron considered if he was
getting rid of them to clean away the mess or using the fire for
some reason.

He soon realized that it was both and that he
was using it to see properly around him in the darkness below, and
he considered if his torch batteries were going flat and if they
would only have one torch later on.

He was sure the well was actually built
hundreds of years ago and wondered if there had been no water above
at the time, and why it had been made. Perhaps they had not owned
any land with water and had to use their own water source.

He wondered if it was the well’s builders
that had put the treasure there, if it existed! There was little on
what was there and why they were there. They insisted he was the
one that had the information and they expected him to recall what
was happening, but what the hell was it and he could not imagine
recalling anything. If only he could meet someone or something that
he had known that would remind him.

When he landed beside Fogler at the bottom of
the well he suddenly he recalled the map and he watched Fogler
absorbed with the fire and searching to fully notice him!

He recalled all the faint lines on the map,
and scribbles, and was sure it was a map but everything was too dim
and incomprehensive, but he was starting to think it could have
been a form of treasure map! He was sure it was a map of the area
and that an mark on it was where they were digging and he or the
person that it had belonged to had traced the well to there, and
had uncovered the well beneath the ground in the wood.

He had kept trying to read the writing on it,
and had been so unsuccessful that he had not even realized one word
on the thing, and he was starting to think it was in another
language or an old language used by the person that had made
it.

He had considered having it dated to get who
had written it, but he was not sure how to go about doing it yet
and was unsure if their dating was accurate, and could give him the
wrong time and be off by many years.

Fogler’s plan was clearly to search where
they had not looked or properly looked, and Simpson had given him
his information.

Cameron soon became more interested in the
fire and keeping it going, especially for its bright light and
warmth it gave out, and he wondered again what had happened to all
the water at the bottom of the well and realized that the
underground water supply was either gone or buried below all the
mud and boulders.

He suddenly wondered if the treasure
was behind any of the bricks making the surrounding well wall going
around him and he started to examine them in detail and even though
most had been removed and fitted back in place he was surprised
that one part of the wall was covered in a thick layer of dried
muck and when he pulled chunks of it away he eventually found
a
black slab embedded in
the dried muck, and that it looked like some form of shiny black
stone, measuring a foot by half a foot, and it interested him
greatly and he wondered why they had not properly searched the
whole wall, and what amazed him most was its accurate flatness and
shape, as all the other boulders were chiseled rocks.

It was
perfectly manufactured and he could not realize how it had gotten
there, as none of them had believed the makers of the well had
manufactured it less than hundreds of years ago.

The find soon
grasped Fogler’s attention and he eventually threw his tool down
and rushed over.

Fogler grasped
at it furiously, making him wonder what he was doing! He looked
really angry at something and he was sure he now thought it was
just a perfect brick, as it seemed too heavy to be hollow!

When he
uncovered all the muck from it he saw his point and that it looked
like it had been put there by someone else, and Fogler washed it
with some water he had!

To their
surprise it was a corroded metal box, and had not been part of the
wall. Cameron was sure it had been on the ground and at one point
water had flooded the well and it and the muck had become embedded
on the wall.

He recalled the
well wall when he had first been there and that the muck had also
been on the other sides of the wall and that it had been cleaned
away on the other walls by Simpson.

Fogler started
banging the side of the box against a boulder on the ground and he
found their was a hollow sound after all and they both realized it
was really something, and Fogler shouted up to the others and gave
them a description of what they had found and they started climbing
down the rope to see it, and while they waited for their arrival
they checked it and tried opening it, and Cameron found a keyhole
and proved the metal box was locked.

Clouds of powdered dirt and stones came
crashing down and also swirled about through the well in the torch
beams as the two soldiers raced down on the rope, and Cameron held
the ropes and allowed them to move down better and wondered if they
had made a mistake in giving them the impression that it definitely
was something, wondering what the outcome of it all would be, and
he considered seeing a specialist on memory loss and its
causes.

Cameron watched them come down and land on
the ground and he was amazed that Fogler was already trying to
smash open the metal box with different objects, and they all
examined it and him at work, and when he stopped and allowed them
to see it properly Simpson picked up a hammer and chisel and
smashed the top off the box with one blow, and they stood with
their mouths open as it opened to reveal muck and stones, and
Simpson put a newspaper over the ground and emptied the box and
they rummaged through it and found nothing but dried muck and
pieces of smashed glass.

Chapter 13

The NASA Investigation

Early the next morning they were taken to
where the crash site was, to investigate what was there for the
army, where they met officials and scientists from NASA and the US
military, and they were to help answer their unanswered
questions.

They were
carrying out examinations on what they could find, and removing
samples of everything, and had clearly been there some time, as
their equipment was all over the site and their large tents
surrounded the area.

What astounded
Cameron was that they had clearly found things and a major find and
their activity was immense, and they seemed disappointed that it
was located there!

What the hell
could it be? Was it a highly confidential airplane, weapon, or
rocket, and why were they so interested in getting so much
information about it. They clearly were not going to let anything
go!

The faces on
the other soldiers with Cameron were considerable and surprising
and he knew something was happening!

Malone could
not believe the amount of attention there and made many
unsuccessful attempts trying to investigate things and question
them.

It was
incredible! It was like being beside something of immense size that
was hidden behind something! He could almost feel the gravity off
it! Like an immense mountain hidden away behind trees in a wood he
could not get what was there and just got scraps of information.
Yet he knew they would eventually let something go and that they
only had to wait. Malone was getting desperate for answers and was
clearly running through ideas to get them, and he could sense
it.

The heat from
what had crashed there had been immense and had more of an effect
on them than he had realized! It seemed to go far further than any
of them had imagined! Things were far different than damage from
normal energy sources and they all looked closely in detail for
why.

“
What’s
going on!” he finally asked an aged scientist, at the edge of the
action, and he eyed Cameron up, and studied his face with some
astonishment and amusement for some seconds.

“
Well!
For starters there was originally a massive energy surge detected
here from a satellite? They are still investigating all the
information!”

“
What
interest has NASA in it?”

He listened to
Cameron’s voice with some surprise and he considered what they had
realized.

“
A piece
of metal was recently discovered here too, and it was analyzed and
is thought to be part of a rocket!”

“
One of
your military rockets crashed here?”

“
Wrong!
Not ours! They still haven’t detected where it came from! We were
brought in to investigate the incident! I’m not fully sure what
we’re investigating now!”

“
Who else
could have such a rocket?” Cameron asked, confused, considering it.
“Could it have been a spy rocket?”

“
A spy
rocket!” he gasped back. “Well, it sure as hell isn’t ours! They
did a search and investigation of other countries and nobody
claimed it!”

“
So it’s
a new form of rocket?”

The scientists
laughed at him, with a peculiar expression.

Cameron went
over to where Malone was questioning a leading scientist, where he
was sure he was getting some proper information.

Cameron was
sure it had to be one of their rockets, and an experimental rocket
or projectile. Yet if it was theirs why were they discovering
things that they never knew existed? Yet it could have been a more
secretive project that they had not known about, or it belonged to
Russia!

“
But we
do not fully know what it was!” the scientist moaned to Malone,
answering something he has asked earlier.

“
So why
such an interest in it?” Malone asked.

“
Interest
in it?” he gasped. “Haven’t you heard, that they shot it down ... A
powerful military laser shot down the undefined object! They
screwed up on where its remains went, and they did not want the
story to get out ... It is still confidential! If it had turned out
to have belonged to a major country there would have been
problems!”

“
So you
shot down an undefined object in space, with some form of weapon
system, and it came crashing down here!”

The scientist
stared up through a hole in the above trees, where it had to have
come through, and at the above sky.

“
So who
did it belong to?” Cameron moaned, trying to get some answers to
what they were talking about. “You’ve come up with all the
abnormalities of the find here and none of it matches another
country’s rocket or spacecraft ...!”

Malone looked
at Cameron annoyed, but with pleasure when he saw that the
scientist reacted as he wanted.

“
It’s an
unidentified flying object!” he replied firmly.

“
Of what
origins?” Cameron asked swiftly, before anyone else said anything,
and the scientist looked closely at Cameron’s face with some
surprise.

“
Of alien
origins!” he replied, and his face went blank, as he stood
controlling his emotions.

Malone stood
gasping, with his mouth wide open, finally realizing what he was
missing!

“
You’ve
detected and shot down an alien encounter?”

“
We don’t
actually fully know its origins in the universe! It appeared, and
our weapon systems detected it and destroyed it!”

“
Appeared
from where?”

“
We don’t
know! It seemed to emerge in space, accelerating out at an
incredible velocity ... For the moment it’ll be classed as an
undefined space vehicle!”

Cameron and
Malone realized something simultaneously and that if it was of
alien origins that they might have declared war on another world,
with a far more advanced species!

Chapter 14

The Bar

People kept buying Cameron drinks in the bar
and he could barely even stand, and he was amazed the three
soldiers had talked locals into it and he thought he would never
make it back to the camp.

The newspapers one of the soldiers brought in
were astonishing and he did not know what to think of the crash,
and if he believed it were aliens that were behind it! He was sure
that they were covering up what had happened! Why had they told him
anyhow? They all seemed to doubt what had happened in different
degrees!

He carefully read the accounts in two
newspapers and was surprised that they claimed that they had the
definite story and that a giant spy satellite had come crashing
down into the wood, and might have been shot down by one of their
advanced fighter planes by accident.