The Deadliest Alien Artifacts (Story Collection) (15 page)

III

The GX1

The GX1 was the most advanced spacecraft that
would ever be created. Centuries of technology advances had created
it, and decades of work by millions had been used to build it.

It had been built twenty miles long by ten
miles deep with a flying saucer shape, with the sole intention of
it be used to travel to and properly explore the galaxies, and
reach the final frontiers of the universe.

It had been built with much of the
technology found centuries before in
a fifteen-mile alien artifact that had been found
buried away for millions of years in an immense crater in a lost
desolate Pacific island.

Many human worlds had collaborated in its
creation, and it had been launched when nobody thought it could be
improved further.

People from all over known space had tried
to take part in the first voyage, and the first visit to the
galaxies, and the people aboard it numbered close to a hundred
thousand. The majority were scientists and explorers that were
needed to make it a proper exploration of the universe. The rest
were military and people to run everything.

The first voyage had taken them to the
immense void, which had only been discovered decades before, as its
strangeness had warranted it to be the first place for the DX1 to
explore, and as it was located in the direction they wanted to
explore.

The answers to many unanswered queries of
the creation of the universe were thought to exist there!

Kruger considered himself lucky to be on the
voyage, even though he had been chosen because of him being one of
the most experienced in aliens (in knowledge and experience).

The confrontation with an identical twin on
the world had left both the passengers on vehicle four bewildered,
especially when they had realized they had lost their entire
memories of who had been aboard the GX1, as well as in the other
vehicles, and their communications to the GX1 had been lost, so the
only thing they could do was continue with their mission and return
to the GX1.

While the vehicle automatically carried out
its programming, floating over the surface of the world at hundreds
of miles an hour, still mapping and checking for anything of
interest, and any abnormalities, Kruger watched Dan, examining him
for anything unusual, but he never saw more, accept that he was
more secretive than he had noticed, and that he was hiding
something, and tried to question him every time he could, but he
was good at avoiding giving anything out.

He was starting to think he was part of
scheme to carry out some illegal activity aboard the GX1. But what
could it be?

He recalled his own little scheme to find
anything of value, and take it back with him. Though all the
findings brought aboard must be declared and checked, with
invaluable items usually being allowed to be kept, due to lack of
interest and them not wanting to end up with heaps of useless
items, and returning with ninety percent of their specimens from
the galaxies as junk.

He was sure they would even discard most of
the stuff before returning to the base, near the Earth, and he was
sure that something could be found. He knew many of the explorers,
who were to make explorations outside the ship, including Major
Ripley, had an agreement to search for such items. Yet he was
unsure how far they would go, but he did see the point, as he was
not sure he knew how valuable an item he would keep, or if he could
tell the value of some items found in space.

There had been valuable alien life forms
that had been traded, and he knew that they would be very keen to
stop anything getting aboard, and he did see the point there, and
never wanted anything from out here running around the ship
creating unknown dangers.

If anything seriously dangerous were to get
on the habited worlds, like Earth, they would have serious
problems. Such creatures could inhabit entire worlds!

“
Do think there is anything of value
out here?
”
he asked Dan, trying to get his views.

Dan laughed again, over some hidden joke,
either about him or something that he could not quite grasp.

“
I have checked a few
times,
”
Major Ripley replied.
“
None of the instruments indicate anything!
What do you think Dan? Could there be anything of value about
here?
”

Dan looked over at Kruger, still
slightly amused, with his amused expression, and replied,
“
Out here! I
don
’
t think
so!
”

His reaction to him confused him. If he was
what he claimed, why did he not act like he was his twin? It was
more like a joke to him! It had him searching his memories
searching for long lost relatives that could easily have hid away
aboard to play something on him.

Yet how the hell did he get out here? He
would have to have captured a vehicle without them knowing it, and
sneaked out of the ship, which was just about impossible. Moreover,
he would also have to have left his vehicle away out here, which
would have cost a great deal, for nothing other than a stupid joke
on an unknown relative.

Or he could have found some
alternative means of transportation. He could have been hidden in
the back of the vehicle all along
–
where they kept the supplies, and
had sneaked out after the crash.

But what would he have done if they had not
crashed and stopped? And what the hell did he want?

He decided to try to solve how the crash
took place, and why they all went unconscious, with their memory
loss. Then he decided to leave it to the engineers back at the ship
to work out. They were the ones that would have all the details,
and scans, and be able solve the mystery.

Suddenly, he remembered something, and that
they were the only people to know fully what the main objective of
their mission was, and the few officers that had ordered it.

“
Dan! What is the main objective of us
checking this world? And who ordered it? As my memory seems to have
gone!
”

“
That is an easy one! It was to check
it because it was out here in this void. It was Pratt that ordered
it.
”

“
And where were you when he ordered
it?
”
Major
Ripley asked.

“
I was near both of
you!
”

They all went silent again. Again neither
Major Ripley nor Kruger could fully recall what happened, nor prove
that he had not been there, and they continued to search for
clues.

It was clear to Kruger that Major Ripley
intended to catch him out somewhere, and was waiting for his
moment, and he was sure Dan also knew it. Yet he could not get why
he was so amused, confident, and waiting for something to
occur.

Kruger then saw the immense shape of
the GX1 in front of them, and saw Dan
’
s pupils widen, as if he had been
waiting on some event to occur, and it was now finally going to
occur.

Chapter 10

From Beyond Space and
Time

(From the novel
The Alien Artifact 1)

In the vast depths of the universe a
spectacular brightness appeared, with radiating beams.

A sphere of light floated out like a
ghost, going through the darkness, and, again, Sandler realized
that it was the telepathic recordings transmitting from the alien
artifact, silver sphere
–
which were covering his entire sight with
its vivid visions!

A silent roar vibrated through his mind, and
a blur of light swirled in the blackness. The strange sounds and
lights sent sensations through his body.

He watched the voyager vanish into faint
starlight, at the fringes of deep stretches of intergalactic
space.

The starless expanse of space where the
voyager had materialized from was beyond a rim of their remote
stars. It was hidden within the central galaxies, at the location
where the voyager had come from before it went through the
galaxies.

Amidst its awesome black abyss he
visualized its appearance in more detail
–
millions of years ago
–
as a speck
appearing, with spectacular beams spraying out into the stars. Its
outline emerging out of obscurity! And its shape hurtling on and
on, to the star formations
–
on an expedition to the far reaches of the
universe.

At the outer reaches of the Milky Way, the
galaxy was a vast line of light stretched across space, with its
remote stars going around it.

It was its entry of the galaxy, all those
millions years ago! With its unique acceleration allowing it to
travel the immense depths of intergalactic space to explore the
unexplored galaxies.

The full vision of the
voyager
’
s
interior appeared about him so swiftly and vibrantly that Sandler
felt his blood explode through him just seeing it!

Its entire horrific dull blue lighted
interior so vividly surrounded him, as the visions of deep space
vanished, that he could not spot any differences in it to
reality.

A dull red radiance gleamed, illuminating
the hideous devilish figure of the Superbeing, casting a crimson
shadow of its peculiar features.

He glared at its unmoving silhouette in
shock, studying it.

The deep blackness so vivid, and
objects so real, and alive, he felt deep horror, and thought of his
original thoughts of it
–
as he had first discovered the thing, in the
voyager.

A hole magically appeared in a wall at his
side, like the entrance of it must have appeared in it at the
museum, and its glowing shape floated towards it.

A radiating purple triangular of light
magically rotated out of the hole, through the air, while
bright
colored
sparks of energy spun around it, and the
Superbeing.

For an instant it altered into a form of
energy.

He stood, staggered, wondering what it
was!

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

The interior vanished into blackness, and
the mind-bending visions re-formed to the interior, but with a blue
star emitting a faint sparkle on the front screen.

Stars appeared, and began to
transform
–
streaks of light turned into normal stars
–
and the immense exploding
thrust halted simultaneously with it.

The turquoise ocean of a world appeared,
rotating wildly below, and a land mass stretched out across the
equator.

The being
’
s green glowing shape held an object
to its mind.

Strange ghostly images of life forms flashed
about it and him.

The view of the interior dispersed to show
the voyager plunging down into the atmosphere of the world.

The dark shadow from it went over the
world
’
s icy
rock, while its cold swirling currents of mist blew about its
hovering shape, and a wild beast
’
s blood-chilling screech came from a distant
place, hidden out in the landscape.

The pale blue sun peered through clouds of
vapor. The desolate world turned silent and motionless, and the
voyager lunged forward over a life form, with its shadow shape
going over it.

The crimson slime vibrated, clinging to
jagged black rocks.

A gust of swirling mist was left, as it
hurtled upwards towards the stars.

Its thrust blasted across the sky of the
planet, and it continued on going through space, exploring the
unexplored galaxy stars, searching for creature specimens, voyaging
past the central stars, and traveling through the different star
quadrants, exploring the vast billions of stars throughout the
expanse of space.

Yet, on exiting the galaxy, patterns
of light on the screen altered to show a star swiftly increasing in
size, and the voyager maneuvering around its ball of flames. And,
while avoiding colliding with it, the planet Earth appeared
–
directly in its
new course
–
and it crashed into its surface.

A vague gleam appeared, amidst dancing
and darting spectral rays. A vortex of shifting outlines magically
formed, and Sandler studied the silver sphere
’
s deactivation
transmissions. Swirling patterns from it reshaped reality into a
surreal splendor of transforming detail, while the mind-bending
display of displacements altered from the visions of space to his
room.

II

The Exploration
Association

The science conventions of the Exploration
Association were almost always held at distinguished locations,
where famous and unknown scientists inaugurated scientific affairs,
brought forward scheduled activities, and bestowed a source of an
abundance of unknown findings.

It was at one of these conferences, vividly
recollected by all, that what probably may become the greatest
scientific find in history was revealed by Professor Robert
Farrell, when he bestowed a breathtaking lecture.