When he returned the next morning, to continue his search, he instantly observed that the location on the screen was now brightly lit, and vibrating furiously, in a blur of many images.
Yet though it was bright, it was not daylight – artificial lights beamed over it – and, to his great delight, he saw an image of the laboratory, spin through the frenzy of images.
Chapter 13
Destination: Earth
An extraordinary scene developed before Dexter, as he landed on the floor of the chamber. A mass of shuffling, activities, and flickering lights erupted about him, and he ignored cries of shouting and mumbling voices.
Dexter leapt over to his side, and the others came through, behind him, drawing away the attention of the crowd, from him, and he was able to see them properly.
How could he have been so unlucky? The entire laboratory was full of reporters and television crews. Had they actually expected their arrival? He had expected the opposite!
The laboratory looked the same, except for the screen, which was a more dense material. The crowd, behind it, watched them, with profound amusement, unable to believe what was in front of them. They occasionally cracked jokes, and loudly laughed, while they desperately filmed them.
Basinger observed himself and them, at different angles, and he shrugged. Selina held her ears, to ignore the racket.
Dexter imagined the media, and public, remembering them, the way they were, forever – as the scientific expedition that returned from the famous black hole as savages – dressed in bits of alien animal skins, and covered in muck, sand, and bits of creatures.
He felt as though he were Robinson Crusoe returning to civilization. He barely understood their reactions to things. How had he changed so quickly? Their cleanliness was unbelievable! Would they actually accept what had taken place – and that they had come from another world – and that they had stayed in the remains of a futuristic alien civilization, in another universe?
Professor Bergman finally appeared, and he pushed his way through the crowd. Then he stood glaring, in utter amazement, and confusion, at them, and Basinger repeatedly shrugged his shoulders, with embarrassment.
Professor Bergman rushed back through the crowd, and he ordered his assistants about.
They gradually drew the crowd away, and they started setting up equipment, to check the black hole. They finally opened an entrance to the chamber, at the side of the screen, and anxiously ushered them out.
“What happened ...?” Professor Bergman cried out.
Basinger lifted his hands up, exasperated, and he let them fall to his side. Burrell and Selina laughed, and Dexter laughed more uncontrollably than he could remember doing, and he decided that he was going to let someone else explain.
“Why was the media here ...?” Selina asked.
Professor Bergman observed her, for a few seconds.
“We thought that the black hole might disperse, after its appearance had altered – and the media had a fascination in it. What information have you discovered about it?”
“You will not need a protection screen around it anymore!” Burrell muttered. “It will not pull anything into it anymore ...!”
Professor Bergman looked at him, as though he were mad, and he touched a piece of animal fur on his shoulder.
“What in the blazes is that?”
A technician, at the door, came over, and he examined it.
“May we take this ...?”
“You can have all of it – once I have put on some proper clothes!”
“Do you want these as well ...?” Dexter asked, taking out a handful of bits of vegetation.
“What are they?” the technician muttered, examining their peculiar features.
“They are seeds!” Dexter replied, handing him the seeds, from the jungle. “Can you have them grown, and, if possible, tell me why some of them shift about?”
“Yes!” the technician replied firmly, confused.
“Look ...!” Burrell called out.
The black hole vibrated, as though something was coming through.
Then, as its movements stopped, Dexter saw a strange blur in front of it, which vanished into it. Then the black hole started contracting, until it no longer existed.
“How did that happen?” Basinger grumbled.
Dexter realized why, from the spaceship’s information, but he never said anything, because it had been the entity, and the last of what some of the super-species had advanced into, before their new species had completely annihilated itself.
The Alien Orb Page 28
