The Thing: from the Depths of Hell (9 page)

Major Ripley gave them all that he knew, and
described everything as clearly to them as he possibly could, while
warning them of the danger that he was in, to which they clearly
did not understand, or even realize the location that he was at,
and he had to describe things further and further, and situation
remained the same, with them now not understanding what the alien
or other aliens were, and he finally had to pack it in as one of
the aliens approached his vehicle.

It finally rushed along in fury at the
vehicle, and Major Ripley reversed the vehicle, and it caught and
lifted the whole vehicle up into the air, and Kruger thought it was
the end of everything.

It opened itself up, and created a deafening
scream like nothing he had ever heard before, which was so alien
and hideous, and out of the depths of hell, that he thought of
killing himself first.

Yet he heard two explosions from weapons and
the vehicle went crashing to the floor, and he saw two soldiers
further up had fired weapons at the places the alien was holding
the vehicle, and the areas had been destroyed, leaving the alien
holding bits of debris from it, and Major Ripley swiftly raced the
vehicle away.

Afterwards they heard
that the control center had realized the situation that
they had been in after all, and had contacted the soldiers nearby
to help them.

Chapter 20

The Psychic
Researchers

Kruger had kept
the secret Mitchel and Bryan had told him of what was out in the
void, and he confirmed it to them when he arrived to see them.

The laboratory
was great now, and he liked being there, and especially away from
the other side of the ship, where the aliens were starting to make
attacks on.

He had thought
of getting permission from Mitchel and Bryan to tell them about
their discoveries, but he would only have added and worsened all
the confusion and problems that they had, and there being something
out in the void.

The situation
was bad, and they were all starting to think there might not be a
way out of it now, and the tension about the spacecraft was
increasing, and people in or near targeted areas reacted as if they
were in war zones.

Kruger
suddenly recalled recognizing some of the work that Mitchel and
Bryan had done, after he had examined documents about them.

Their stuff
was surprising, and even more surprising with them being psychic
researchers, and he even thought that they were deliberately
putting the psychic researchers title on them to cover their work
and discoveries, as he had hardly even seen anyone even check what
they did or had created.

They informed
him that they were checking for virtually all known forms of energy
and matter disturbances in the void and on the spacecraft.

He wondered if
they had something that could properly detect the aliens, so they
would know where they were, and stop them catching and killing them
all.

Presumable
their presence could act on things and produce effects to indicate
them being there – such as altering air currents, gravity, magnetic
fields, radioactivity, scent, sound waves, static, and the light
spectrum ...

Most of the
equipment in the surrounding laboratory was there to check
everything in a degree that had not been done before!

Kruger moved
over to some equipment, and asked, “Would this detect the alien at
a distance?”

“
It is
only for detecting temperature at great distances! I am unsure what
temperature readings the alien creates! But we do have stuff here
that we use to check a whole range of things, to show us exactly
what is occurring, and what we may be missing. Information such as
it is of course vital. We may be able to acquire some type of
insight into what is happening, with the right
information.”

“
Have
you used the equipment on the alien?”

Mitchel
strangely glared at him, and asked, “What take the stuff over
there? Why would you want to do that?”

“
To find
out if we are missing something! That thing is starting to kill
more and more people, and they have not come up with anything to
destroy it with. And if things go the way that they are it will
kill everyone aboard! If you have anything, even if it just helps
locate its position then it will be of great use ...”

Bryan glared,
and wondered how much he was exaggerating the situation, and if
they should help.

“
That
may be a good idea,” Bryan finally replied, still considering it.
“But what would it want the ship for? And why go to such lengths to
get it, and why could it not work with us?”

“
I’ve a
few good ideas about that, you should know ...”

Mitchel
moaned, “We wanted to see it. Will you take us to it?”

“
Yes! It
is not as secretive and hidden now! And the military are following
and attacking it with what they have! We can go and see it if you
want?”

“
Alright! We will go and see it then!”

“
I don’t
know if I should laugh or cry! You’re going to be surprised
somewhere! I can assure you! To think I was in the same vehicle as
that thing out there on that world, trapped with it ...”

Kruger picked
up a container from his bag, and poured drink from it down his
throat. “That’s perfect! What type of surveillance stuff have you,
for detecting it?”

“
We have
a great deal of stuff as we have shown you! We specialize and
experiment in detecting things! This is the best there is, and we
love investigating anything extraordinary. Even if it is an
assassin trying to wipe us all out ... And we would love to help
stop it ...”

Kruger began
to leave, and they followed. He was getting tired, and he needed
some sleep, and he wanted to do one last thing before he finished
up for the day, and to get these scientists to see what they were
up against.

Chapter 21

The Devil

The alien rushed through the walls like an
enormous blood red devil, going through walls like they were
transparent clouds of energy, seeking vengeance against the life
forms that had tried to destroy it, and stop it carry out its
plans, which would leave it a prisoner in the void, after all that
it had discovered.

While
its speed increased walls turned to glowing flickers, while it
raged on, and occasionally stopped to savagely attack and kill like
a
grotesque
monster killer lion.

People
would see it materializing out of red clouds of energy, like the
realms of hell, as a blood
red devil, with its
giant demon shape glowing,
altering, whirling, within hideous energy surges, while it
consistently stopped itself vanishing from existence, and back into
original energy states.

Fractions of
its composition frequently altered or vanished into other
dimensions, as it altered itself to form other forms of itself to
attack at other locations, to speed up its work, and show its
powers and that it could form itself into many versions of itself,
and it sensed some thought it was a freak of nature, before their
deaths.

It was thought
to be from the deepest depths of hell, and people who remained
alive or had heard the horrible stories of it never spoke of it, as
though they were talking of the devil itself.

With all its
powers it still admired the human life forms in many ways,
especially when considering when it had taken the form of Dan,
before it had transformed, and it admired the voyager, and the work
that they had done on it, and it considered if it could have built
it with the right materials and powers, and wondered if it could
reproduce something like it out in the void if its mission never
worked.

The life forms
were capable of destroying it to stop it getting its hands on it,
and it had detected thoughts of this from the control center, and
it wondered if it would do such a thing.

Sometimes the
energy powering the voyager astonished and staggered it, and it
could not imagine what it was, and how so much power could be so
condensed, and why it had not confronted it before. Vast unstable
energy explosions blasted out across outer dimensions with so much
power that it thought it could rip away and destroy the fabric of
space and time, and make it unbalanced, temporary warped, and
cracked – across light years of space – with its protective energy
shield and other stability forces holding it from the effects,
which large regions of space could be subjected to in its field –
in the form of time leaps, warping, decelerations, accelerations,
and leaping of space – or being thrown out of space and time
entirely.

Chapter 22

The Retort

Some people in
the outer regions of the spacecraft thought anarchism was occurring
and being covered up, from traveling out so far into the depths of
space, where nobody had gone before, and it had altered people, and
that the media was covering it up.

Others thought
it was one of the scenarios that were sometimes introduced on
worlds to stop civil disturbances, which even went as far as
creating wars, and allowing people to be killed.

What was the
true nature of the savage and brutal killings that threatened
everyone aboard? Had some hidden occurrence taken place that had
lead up to the events? Unseen and unpredicted events could occur
that had to be handled by them!

Many wanted
full investigations of the deaths and what was actually occurring!
And for it to be proven that there was an actual alien aboard, and
if there was, that the military would be given full control and
power to deal with it, as many thought that they had not even
attempted to do anything, and that their weapons were not capable
of being beaten or not being able to destroy anything in the
universe.

The figures of
the amounts of deaths were unbelievable, and reached out to many
thousands, and the people that discovered them were increasing
everywhere, and the way people reacted to the events and that there
was great danger there accelerated at an alarming rate, and people
were reporting trouble occurring and them threatening to attack all
the people controlling the spacecraft.

The alien had
stopped thinking of the humans and their normal weapons of being
able to do anything, and it no longer tried to avoid their
surveillances, including their scans of it.

It turned
faster and faster, and too fast for them, and anything they had
available, even though they had not entirely used their most
powerful and advanced stuff available, from years of scientific
achievements from many worlds.

The
alien believed it had many far superior science advantages, and
needless to say it thought that they never had any proper portable
weapons capable of destroying it or damaging it
.

In fact, they
had so little on it that many people who knew it was there thought
it was of a supernatural nature, and that it was beyond their
powers, and them to do anything.

Where had it
come from? There were no clues found anywhere!

What the hell
was it? There was nothing remotely known or recorded anywhere about
it!

Yet most
people could answer why it had gone to such lengths to get on the
spacecraft, and why it wanted to destroy everyone!

The people
that had been with it the most and were the most confident with it
were Don, Major Ripley, and Kruger – who had examined it before its
attack against them.

It was soon
realized that all three had the best experience and knowledge of
it, and they were regularly called up for help, and Colonel Pratt,
who was still leading the search and possible annihilation of it,
had many times contacted them for information.

Military
intelligence, investigators, scientists, explorers, and a whole
range of experts of every field were bought in to take part, and
everyone else aboard regularly warned and asked for help, and were
given weapons to defend themselves, and to help kill it, and were
asked to give locations of any sightings, and to help stop its
threat to humanity and the outside world, if it used the spacecraft
to return to civilization.

Chapter 23

The Alien
Surveillance

In the end Kruger and the paranormal
scientists decided against going near or in the direct path of the
alien, and located at a place where other scientists and the
military had regularly occupied, where they could make an exit if
it changed its path in their direction, and was still close enough
to make observations of it, with cameras and vast amounts of
surveillance equipment.

The alien was predictable, since it had
beaten their weapons and killed large amounts of soldiers, and
mainly intended to wipe everyone out and scare the living daylights
out of them doing it.

The paranormal scientists had consultations
with the other scientists and the military, and they now entirely
left their minds open to what was there.

Their next big surprise was their first view
of it through powerful optical equipment, used with astrologists,
to give them a real view of the alien, and what they were up
against.

Mitchel looked through it first, while Bryan
watched him observing it, and he was surprised at how much he
reacted.

“
This is entirely
new!
”
Mitchel stated, and he allowed Bryan to see it, and he
watched it as if he had been waiting all his life to see it, and
gasped loudly, and examined what he was looking at with what can be
described as staggered.