Glory for Sea and Space (Star Watch Book 4)

by Mark Wayne McGinnis

  Gus waved away the admonishment, as if swatting some annoying fly. “I was careful. And it was fun. I felt like an explorer. Thing is, the sinkhole wasn’t a sinkhole after all. I did some research at the library. What I discovered is this is more commonly referred to as an aquifer. At one time, perhaps thousands or millions of years ago, there was an underground reservoir here. And it’s big, Perry … immense!”

  “So you what … made a pathway down? Used the backhoe?”

  “Yeah … well … partially. This path only descends down about fifty feet. Then you have to climb down the scaffolding I put together. Eventually, though, I’m going to build a powered, elevator-type lift. Parts can be scavenged from the yard. I was hoping you could help me with that.”

  “We’ll see.” Perry realized he’d temporarily shelved thoughts about his father’s dementia. “I have to say, if nothing else, you’ve kept busy.”

  “It’s a fucking hole in the ground, Perry. It’s nothing. It’s what’s down there that I’m excited about. And I want to show it to you.”

  “Now? You want me to go down there with you?”

  Ol’ Gus swung the pack off his shoulder and unclasped the top flap. He fished inside with one hand and came out with first one and then another flashlight. “Here, take this.”

  Perry did as told and fingered the switch to check its batteries—the light emitted was strong and steady.

  “Follow me. Walk where I walk. Do what I do. A misstep and you’ll find yourself taking a header into oblivion. I’m serious … you need to be careful.”

  “Got it. Lead on, Indiana Jones.”

  Chapter 23

  Sol System

  Planet Earth, Subterranean Aquifer, San Bernardino, CA

  __________________________

  Summer, 1995 …

  The first part of the downward trek, the section Ol’ Gus had earlier excavated with the backhoe, was fairly steep but nothing compared to what followed. Perry stayed close to his father, which was no simple task. Gus had obviously climbed up and down his makeshift scaffolding—a collection of rusted metal bars and old wood planking—numerous times. He’s still fairly agile for an old codger, Perry thought.

  Perry figured they’d already descended more than thirty feet or so from the excavated incline now above them. He aimed the flashlight’s beam into the blackness below. The fact that some rocks knocked loose around them fell and made no audible sound of hitting the aquifer’s bottom was more than a little disconcerting.

  “Hard to believe you had the nerve to keep descending on that first trip, not knowing what the hell was down here—or if anything was down here.”

  Gus, fifteen feet further down and standing on a rocky outcropping, didn’t answer for several moments. Finding a handhold here and a foothold there—Perry slowly eased his body downward. It was like descending a grown-up-sized jungle gym. Finally standing across from his father, he stared at the four- to five-foot gap between the scaffolding he was on and the more secure rock outcropping Gus stood on.

  “Don’t think about it … just jump!” Gus said.

  “Uh huh, just let me get my footing first.” Perry positioned his boots on a horizontal crossbar and felt the rickety structure begin to shake and sway. “This isn’t secure,” he said, irritation in his voice.

  “All the more reason to jump fast,” Gus said.

  Perry jumped and, landing awkwardly, almost lost his balance, which could have thrown them over the edge.

  “Easy there … I got you,” Gus said. “The worst is behind you. The rest is pretty easy—no more scaffolding—just ropes and some little outcroppings, like this one.”

  Perry noted Gus had fashioned a rope railing of sorts that could be grabbed on to, like a bannister, when he descended. Every few feet the rope railing was secured to the sides of the cavern by hammer-driven metal stakes.

  For the next half-hour their descent was much quicker. Perry jumped onto the same rocks and ledges as Gus, following in his footsteps. The temperature had fallen, and though no clear detail of anything substantive was apparent, the beam of his flashlight revealed something was below besides total blackness.

  When Perry reached the bottom, Gus was waiting for him. He realized he’d held his breath for much of the last hour. He turned around and refocused the flashlight’s beam up, toward the rickety crisscrossing of metal poles and wooden planks that were now barely distinguishable from below.

  “How far down are we?” Perry asked.

  “Few hundred feet, I figure.”

  “So what’s down here?” Perry moved the beam of his flashlight around their surroundings.

  “We’re in a feeder tunnel,” Gus said, crouching down and leaning over something on the ground. A moment later, Perry saw a cigarette lighter spark to life, followed by the lighting of an old-fashioned gas lantern’s wick; it seemed a fitting necessity for a mineshaft.

  Gus, holding the lantern before him, hurried off into the darkness. The tunnel was wide enough for two side-by-side automobiles, with room to spare. High above their heads, Perry estimated the rocky ceiling to be up about twenty-five feet. They continued on in silence, as the tunnel snaked left and right through solid rock. Crazy or not, Perry had to give his father his due: he’d explored this subterranean world alone—not knowing what he’d find. “You must have huevos the size of bowling balls,” Perry said.

  Gus looked back over his shoulder. “Nah, I nearly crapped in my pants my first time down here … but I was curious, too. Took me a while to get up the nerve to come in this far … a few weeks, maybe.”

  Perry, still shining his flashlight around, realized the tunnel’s walls were no longer there. He sensed, more than actually saw, they’d entered into a vast open space. They continued moving forward another few minutes before Gus slowed—waiting for Perry to join his side.

  “I’ve been waiting to light this … waiting for you to get here.” Gus raised his lantern, illuminating a ten-foot-diameter ring of piled stones. Inside the stone circle, a stack of firewood reached up to Gus’s waist. He produced his lighter once again and began to ignite rolled-up sections of newspaper interspersed throughout the log pile.

  Over the course of several minutes the flames spread wide, becoming a high-reaching blaze; much of the aquifer surrounding them became brightly illuminated. Perry spun completely around and whistled. He guessed the huge space he was viewing was several hundred yards in diameter, and more spherical shaped than circular.

  “Gus?” Perry spun back around but his father was gone. “Where are you?”

  Hearing the sounds of a shovel scooping up loads of dirt on his right, he spotted first the miner’s lantern, then his father, digging in a section of the cavern that appeared to have collapsed.

  As the bonfire continued to burn hotter, more and more of the aquifer took visible shape. As he approached Gus, he could see a large, partially uncovered object. Coming even closer, Perry halted, wide-eyed.

  His father continued to unearth something clearly not of their world; though only a section—it was, perhaps, a wing? A second section, exposed next, showed part of a propulsion system: an exhaust or huge thruster.

  “You going to stand there gawking or pick up a shovel and help me?”

  At some deep, inner level, Perry knew that from then on his life would never be the same. He joined Ol’ Gus’s side and, grabbing up the long shovel handle, began clearing rocks and dirt away from the hull of what was most certainly a spacecraft.

  “Still think I’m bat-shit crazy?”

  Perry didn’t answer right away. “Not as much as I did five minutes ago.”

  Gus chuckled. “We’re going to need more than these shovels.”

  Perry nodded. “How large do you estimate this … thing … to be?”

  Gus stopped shoveling, leaning his weight on the long handle. “I’ve climbed all over this mound.” He pointed a finger toward a distant area. “I found, I think, the nose of this ship over that-a-way; that’s a hundred yards—
plus—from where we’re standing.”

  “And vertically?”

  “Maybe a third that high. I’m guessing multiple decks. I’ve also found what I believe to be an entrance. Maybe we can get inside.”

  “No, no Dad … I think we should contact the proper authorities. Not sure who that would be … maybe NASA,” Perry said.

  Gus swung around to face him, fury in his eyes. “No! That’s not going to happen! This is our find and nobody, and I mean nobody else, is going to know about this.”

  “Dad … this is an incredible, serious, discovery. Maybe the most important discovery … ever.”

  “I don’t trust the government … never have. And share a find like this … this technology? Forget it!” Gus turned his back and returned to shoveling.

  “It’s not like finding a lost puppy and deciding you want to keep him. Have you thought about what you might find inside the ship? There could be contaminates … strains of diseases we humans aren’t capable of handling. We could be unleashing a scourge that wipes out the entire planet. We need to talk about this, Gus.”

  “This ship has been down here for eons. There’s nothing living in there … how could there be?”

  Gus picked up a long-handled shovel and handed a second one over to Perry. “Come with me … I want to show you something.”

  Chapter 24

  Sol System

  Planet Earth, Subterranean Aquifer, San Bernardino, CA

  __________________________

  Summer, 1995 …

  Perry took the shovel and watched Ol’ Gus mount several dunes of dirt before disappearing around the backside of the vessel. A moment later he heard the sound of metal scooping aside dirt and rocks. Nearby, where a portion of the hull lay exposed, he stepped up close and tentatively placed a palm on its surface. Immediately, he pulled his hand away. Had he only imagined it? A tingle … a tiny electrical zap? Again, he touched the surface and felt a slight charge of electrical current. Using his hand to both wipe and swipe away accumulated dirt, Perry could see that the ship’s exterior finish was matte black and appeared to be in a perfect, unscratched condition—hardly what you’d expect to see on a ship buried for untold centuries. He looked back toward the ship’s stern, ensuring Gus was out of sight, before reversing his shovel’s position. Placing his hand close to the metal blade, he struck the exposed hull then brought his face close in to inspect the surface. Nothing—no small dent, not so much as a scratch was evident. He lowered his grip and, holding the handle with both hands, swung the shovel’s metal blade down hard onto the same spot. Expecting to hear a loud clang, he heard instead a muffled thump. Again, he inspected the hull’s surface and found only a tiny blemish. His eyes widened as he watched the blemish, in a quick rippling effect, disappear from the surface, which once again became perfect.

  Perry, following the shovel sounds of Gus’s digging, could better see now the exposed thruster. Evidently, the ship was not lying flat but actually lay angled—as much as forty degrees. Several large mounds of dirt flanked an excavated valley, which led down beneath the vessel. Perry had to duck his head to enter the opened-up space. Gus had lit a second lantern, which illuminated the cavern beneath the vessel.

  “I discovered this section about a week ago. I guess … because of the way the ship landed, or because a cave-in tipped it up and onto its side, an opened-up space formed. As you can see, this is the underside of the vessel.” Gus sounded proud of himself.

  Perry marveled at the exposed section of hull just above them. The ship was obviously immense. “You think it’s safe being under here?”

  Gus shrugged. “Yeah, I think so. Hey … I think I found a way inside; come take a look at this.”

  Perry headed toward an area holding more of Gus’s makeshift scaffolding. It looked even more rickety than what he had pieced together back at the vertical opening. He noticed Gus had removed his grimy, button-down shirt and was wearing an equally grimy wife-beater undershirt. His tanned arms contrasted starkly with his ultra-white shoulders, and his upper chest area, where a forest of white hair billowed over the top edge of his undershirt.

  Perry climbed up the scaffolding behind his father, grabbing the same handholds and stepping onto the same cross bars. At its very top, Gus had placed a somewhat wider wood plank—wide enough for both to stand on side by side. Standing now, underneath a section of the vessel’s stern, Gus glanced over to Perry and smiled, nodding.

  Perry smiled back and shrugged. “Okay … what now?”

  “You don’t see it?”

  “See what?” Perry asked, taking a closer look at the hull mere inches from their heads. Then, just barely, he could make out something, too, hidden under a thick accumulation of dust. Reaching up and wiping the surface clean, he beheld an ever-so-soft glowing rectangle. Up on his tiptoes he angled his face higher. “It’s a … what … a screen? Maybe an access panel?”

  “That’s what I thought. I’ve waited for you to get here without touching it.”

  “Seriously?!! You were curious enough to explore this far then just stopped?” Perry stared at him.

  “It was one thing digging around the outside of the ship. But to venture inside scared the crap out of me.”

  Perry looked closer at the screen, noting symbols and strange characters, plus the outline of a hand. “You saw the handprint?”

  “I’m old but I’m not blind. Of course I saw it.”

  Perry went ahead and placed his palm against the hand outline. His own hand continued moving, until submerged within the screen’s surface. “My hand’s stuck! Fuck! I can’t pull it free!”

  Gus grabbed ahold of Perry’s wrist and tugged too.

  “Ouch! You’re going to break my arm … let go of me.” Perry tried to bring under control his rapid breathing. Mind racing, he envisioned calling the fire department—the Jaws of Life they’d use to cut off his hand at the wrist.

  “I’m feeling something. Oh God … a tingling … shit …”

  Perry suddenly relaxed. “I think it’s releasing its hold on me.” He pulled his hand free and rubbed his wrist.

  “Do you hear that?” Gus asked.

  “No … we should get down from here.”

  A section of the hull began to drop toward them. Within seconds, it was at head level and descending fast. Perry leaned backward, to avoid the hull section crushing him. He pulled Gus backward too before it hit his head.

  “Grab ahold of it, Dad! It’s going to hit the scaffolding,” Perry yelled.

  “It’s a ramp … a gangway … descending,” Gus said excitedly.

  “Well, better climb up the scaffolding before you fall!”

  As the gangway continued dropping lower than waist level, they both scampered up onto the scaffolding’s top section. Its metal supports began to bend, followed by loud wood creaking. The plank bent and began to splinter into kindling-size pieces. Without further hesitation, the entire scaffolding gave way, then fell to the ground below. The ship’s gangway steadily progressed downward until reaching a complete stop—fully extended.

  Perry and Gus, on their hands and knees atop the gangway, gazed further up the ramp and watched a hatch door lifting. In seconds it silently disappeared into the hull’s framework. Now—a newly opened, barely discernible exposed section of the vessel awaited discovery. “Still want to call NASA?” Gus asked, his raised brows questioning.

  Perry didn’t answer. A part of him knew that this very moment was probably the most important of his life. He was about to enter into an alien space craft. He’d never felt more alive or more excited—and he couldn’t wait to see what awaited them inside.

  Summer, 1995 …

  Perry and Gus rose to their feet. Although the incline up the gangway was not overly steep, the entire ship, lying off-kilter, made standing upright on the ramp difficult.

  “Careful, Gus … it’s a thirty-foot drop if you slip off the edge. And to answer your question: No, I don’t want to call NASA. I’ve been thinking about what yo
u said earlier. I guess it’s best we keep this to ourselves. I have my own reasons for not trusting the government … at least certain individuals within the government.”

  “The ship’s opened the door for us. Be impolite not to enter, don’t you think?” Gus asked.

  “Crap … I must have dropped my flashlight somewhere along the way,” Perry said.

  “I have mine.” Gus retrieved his from his pant pocket. “Maybe you should lead. You’re used to ships.”

  “Not this kind of ship. Okay … stay close.” Perry led the way up the precarious gangway with Gus following close behind him. The open hatch was approximately ten feet wide by seven and a half feet high. Entering through it, they discovered a compartment about the size of a standard, single-car garage. Taking several long strides into the area, Perry came to an abrupt halt, causing Gus to walk straight into him.

  “Warn me when you’re going to do that,” Gus said.

  Perry, looking over his shoulder, asked, “Have you noticed it?”

  “Noticed what?”

  “That we’re no longer standing at an angle. Somehow, the vessel’s managed to compensate for lying at a forty-percent angle.”

  Gus looked from side to side and slowly nodded. “You’re right … she has.”

  Gradually, indirect lighting began to illuminate the compartment around them. Perry took in his surroundings. “This is the ship’s airlock.”

  “And you know that how?”

  “On Navy ships, seawater needs to be kept out. Ships are designed with multiple hatchways or safeguards so if a compartment becomes flooded that section can be sealed off. I’m fairly certain that whoever designed this space vessel ensured the vacuum of space, or some alien environment, was kept outside. We need to close that back hatch before we’ll be allowed to proceed.” Perry, looking back toward the rear bulkhead, noticed it first. “Gus, go back and tap that square pad … see it? It’s placed right next to the entry.”