Unfortunate Discovery
By Michael P. Rogers
Copyright 2013 Michael P. Rogers
Prologue
The space craft was finally ready after being fuelled up. The technicians had made their final checks and were satisfied that everything was in order. The crew members had volunteered, knowing the dangers that they might encounter. A new planet had been discovered millions of miles away among the stars which had all the promises of being habitable, but a visit to the planet was necessary to confirm the findings. The round trip would far exceed the life span of the crew, so they would be spending most of the long journey in suspended animation.
Their home planet, Zrilkon was slowly dying, its atmosphere gradually leaking away into space. Resources were dwindling and the world was in turmoil. The most they could hope for was two hundred years before their planet became barren and unable to support life, according to the experts. They wasted no time in preparing themselves. Fleets of passenger ships were being built optimistically, to carry as many of the population as possible to the new world, after it had been proved to be habitable upon the return of the exploratory visit.
Countdown reached zero and the space craft left Zrilkon carrying all the hopes and dreams of the entire planet with it. After the craft was well on its way the crew climbed into the life support pods, reluctantly, but knowing it was the only way that they could survive the epic journey. They wished each other well, strapped themselves in and activated the computer controlled machinery that would keep their bodies in stasis until they reached their destination.
Alarm Call
The creatures had lain in the cryogenic pods for more than fifty years, receiving the precise amount of life sustaining liquid and oxygen delivered automatically by an array of tubes. Heart and breathing rates were kept almost at zero, almost on the brink of death. The space craft had travelled millions of miles; it’s home world just a speck in the sky. It had plunged towards Earth, being pulled nearer and nearer by the uncompromising gravity of the third planet when its main engines failed and the emergency jets activated, slowing down the descent just enough so that it wasn’t burnt up by the friction of the atmosphere. Even so, it buried itself deep in the ground upon plummeting to Earth. The life support computer was programmed to awaken the occupants long after they had passed the solar system. It very slowly raised the temperature of the pods, monitoring life signs and making necessary adjustments. The time had come.
One by one, the three crew members started to show signs of awakening from their long sleep. Eye lids fluttered open showing large saucer eyes, as the heart rates were brought up to normal. Eventually, the pods swung open allowing them to breathe the air that was continually circulated and oxygenated in the space craft, powered by the nuclear energy cells. Kralak was the first to stand as the overhead lights flickered on, glowing dimly, and managed to make it to the control room before his legs gave away. He examined the flight indicators and was shocked to see that they had not reached their intended destination although the life support computer had awoken them at the prescribed time.
They all had some difficulty walking, as the gravity on their home planet was approximately a third of Earths. They effectively weighed three times their normal weight, and it showed in their movements. The food dispensers ejected their nutrition packs as programmed, and they ate quietly in the canteen area, for the first time in many years. They looked at each other puzzled, knowing that things were not quite as they should be.
Zeelob was the first to speak. “According to Kralak we are far from Lotom, where we were headed. We have crashed on an unknown world and must assess our situation. There is no image on the view screen, so either the sensors are not functioning or we are buried. Our first priority is to check all systems for damage.”
After a full inspection of the craft was carried out, things looked even worse. Deekov announced with much irritation that the engines appeared to be beyond repair, having sheared from their mountings. The hatch and airlock were both inoperable even after several attempts to activate them. It was also discovered that the cryogenic pods were unusable because of a life support systems malfunction; not that they wanted to be encapsulated in a near-death sleep again. To make things even worse, communications were down. They were trapped and unable to make contact with their home planet!
Minimal food rations were available because for the main part of their journey they would have been in hibernation. The space craft would be their tomb, and the realisation brought an overwhelming sense of sadness and despair among them. Here they would stay until, one by one, they died, not ever being able to see or contact their home planet again. They all took sleep capsules, in order to conserve their meagre rations, and made themselves as comfortable as possible in their bunks; they slept heavily.
Somewhere in the Arizona desert
Mike and Sarah headed along the dirt road in their jeep with dust clouds swirling up behind them as they looked out for interesting rock formations to photograph. Sarah spotted a very beautiful and unusually formed monolith over to the right. She tried to take some photos of it but the bumping of the jeep made it difficult to hold the camera steady. “Drive over there Mike, I’d like to get some shots of that beauty.” He glanced over to where she was pointing and said “Wow that really is something!”
He steered the jeep off the road trying to avoid the rocks strewn here and there, but scraping one now and again, much to his annoyance. “That’s close enough Mike.” said Sarah as she reached for her camera tripod behind the seat. The sun was starting to dip, giving the monolith a golden hue. They both remarked how gorgeous it looked and got to work with their cameras with great enthusiasm. The monolith was photographed from every possible angle until the sun was almost on the horizon.
“We’d better call it a day Sarah. I’d like to get back to the motel before nightfall.” said Mike, seeing that the disc of the sun was already half swallowed up. The cameras and tripods were stowed in the back of the jeep and Sarah climbed in the passenger seat feeling quite satisfied with the days work, although quite weary. Just as Mike was about to drive away, something caught his eye. He switched the engine off and jumped out, staring at the landscape. Sarah quickly joined him, anxious to know what he was looking at. Mike pointed to something about a half a mile away.
As the sun was going down it showed a perfectly circular indent in the desert floor roughly one hundred feet in diameter in sharp relief. “Oh my, what is that?” shouted Sarah. She quickly grabbed her camera from the jeep and took several shots before the tip of the suns globe disappeared completely, which wouldn’t be very long. “We’ll come back and have a proper look at that tomorrow, it’ll be getting dark soon. The photos will give us a point of reference.” Mike said, heading towards the jeep. As they drove off, Sarah said laughing “Crop circles sprang to mind, but I’ve never heard of sand circles.”
Back to Work
They arose the next morning, had a leisurely breakfast at the diner across the road and discussed the anomaly. Sarah admitted that she had never seen anything quite like it, and any ideas explaining its existence were quickly dismissed as impossible. Mike said, shaking his head “I can’t think of any natural reason for it to be there; a perfectly formed circle in the middle of the desert. It’s got me stumped.” They left the diner and made their way back to the motel to pick up a few things.
Sarah remarked about the scratches on the sides of the jeep as they drove away from the motel, and Mike said “Yes, I’ll have a bit of explaining to do when I return it to the car rental firm.” The journey was non eventful and they left the road when they approached the monolith they had photographed the previous day.
The photos taken yesterday showed them where the depr
ession was, although it didn’t appear quite so distinctly with the sun high in the sky. Standing near the rim of the circle they noticed there were no rocks inside the one hundred foot diameter depression. Mike went back to the jeep and came back with a box of orange coloured markers. “Okay Sarah, we’ll place these round the perimeter of the circle to mark it more clearly.” said Mike, as he handed Sarah a bundle of the markers. They made their way in opposite directions, placing the orange markers as evenly as possible. Finally meeting up at the other side of the circle, Sarah remarked with a satisfied smile “That’ll do nicely, now we won’t have to screw our eyes up to find it again.” “Yup, nice job!” agreed Mike.
They went back to the jeep for a much needed coffee that Sarah had brought along in a flask while they pondered over the sand circle. All of a sudden Mike rushed to the back of the jeep and grabbed a metal detector that was amongst the equipment. He switched it on to check the battery and the panel lights illuminated much to his relief. “What on Earth do you want that for?” exclaimed Sarah. He explained that it might just give them a clue to what was there. “If
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