“We all know that we need to come up with a better idea for shelter. We can’t afford to give up a greenhouse for a habitat, so the NASA advisory committee and Admiral Ellis have given me an option. If we decide it’s feasible, they want us to investigate using one of the small alien buildings as a shelter and habitat.”
Albert jumped up. “That’s a splendid idea. Let’s go check it out,” he said as everyone talked excitedly.
“Not so fast,” warned Kristy. “We’re going to explore that option, but we’re not all going to go running down there and get into something we know nothing about. Albert, Master Chief and I will go down into the site and look around. The rest of you will remain either here or on top of the hill. If there’s a problem, I don’t want all of us down there put in a bad situation at once. And there will be some limits. Nobody touches anything without us talking about it first. Do I make myself clear, Albert?”
“Of course Kristy, you’re our leader and we shall heed your sense of caution,” Albert said with a grin. “I am, however, firm in my belief that the aliens who built this site intended for it to be found and didn’t booby trap the place.”
“Be that as it may, we’ll proceed slowly and cautiously. Each of us will have our PA’s and will stay in sight of each other. Jason, you’ll maintain watch here and monitor the whole site. If you see, hear, or detect anything, let us know and we’ll back out right away. Does anyone have any questions?”
There were none, so the entire team headed up the hill. Since they now had the communication array up, the team could all talk easily via their PA’s. The communication array also had the ability to roughly fix anyone’s position on the team, at least within several miles of the landing zone. Unfortunately, the two satellites in orbit above the planet didn’t have the capability to lock onto a PA’s position so location services were more spotty the further someone got from the communication array.
When the team reached the top of the hill, Kristy, Albert, and the Master Chief started down into the artifact site.
Upon reaching the bottom of the hill, the three of them stopped just outside the artifact site.
“Ok,” said Kristy. “Let’s circle the building that Albert opened before. See if there are any other openings or anything of interest. I’ll go this way and you two that way. Don’t touch anything.”
Kristy circled to the left while the other two went right. She paused and looked closely at the doors. The leaves of the iris opening were so well machined they were all but invisible against each other. The bottom of the iris went slightly below the ground. It appeared that the foundation of the building was buried at least a meter into the ground below the door. Moving left, she came to the door operating mechanism. She looked closely into the recess and examined the handle. Without turning it, she carefully felt of it. It was slightly too big to fit her hand comfortably. She noted that it appeared that you had to squeeze the handle and turn it at the same time. That explained why the robot from the first expedition couldn’t operate the mechanism. The robot’s manipulators could not have performed both functions at once.
Leaving the door, she kept moving left. The building was completely smooth and rounded. The Iridescent surface, which they assumed was some sort of solar cells, covered the entire building. She felt the surface of the building. The surface was warm from the sunlight hitting it. She moved on around the building and met Master Chief and Albert who were on their knees looking at a small recess on the back of the building.
“What do you have Master Chief?” she asked.
“It looks like the same type of recessed door mechanism. There’s some sort of cover here as well. See how this little area is flat. We think that the handle will open that small cover.”
“I wonder what’s behind the cover?” asked Kristy.
“One way to find out,” said Albert.
“Wait!” Kristy ordered. “You two back away, I’ll turn the handle.”
They backed up and she grasped the handle and squeezed. She felt the back side of the handle compress as she slowly turned it. The small cover promptly slid into the wall of the building and exposed what appeared in all aspects to be a large three pronged plug. The Master Chief came up and bent down to examine it.
“Unless I’m totally mistaken, that looks like an electrical plug.”
“It sure does,” said Albert.
“I have to agree with you on that point,” said Kristy. She turned the handle the other way and the recessed door slid back down and covered the plug. “We’ll look at this later. Let’s check the other small building.”
They did the same walk around the other small building and found it was completed identical to the first. Moving across the site to the tracked alien vehicle, they split up and circled it. The very back of the vehicle had a iris door that was about a meter off the ground with a operation mechanism identical to the small buildings. In most respects, the vehicle was very similar to one of the tracked and pressurized bulldozers that were used on the moon. The front had some heavy mounting points for the scraper blade that was sitting nearby. It was too tall for them to get up on top and look into the glass bubble where the operator was probably supposed to sit. Albert got down on his hands and knees and crawled under the vehicle between the tracks. He crawled all the way to the back pausing just underneath the iris door on the back.
“Come and look at this,” he called.
Kristy and the Master Chief ran around to the back. Albert motioned for them to look under the lip. There was a small recessed door very similar to the one that covered the plug on the sides of the small buildings. There was no operating mechanism in sight. Master Chief stood and looked between the tracks and the body of the machine.
“Here it is,” he exclaimed. He turned the handle and the door slid aside to show a three pronged plug identical to the ones on the small buildings. Turning the handle the other way shut the door. “I would bet a paycheck that this thing is powered by electricity and that those plugs are for charging it.”
“You may be right, Master Chief,” Kristy said. “But, I do not see how it could maintain an electrical charge that long though. It’s sat here for thousands of years.”
“The door mechanism may not be electrical. It could be a hydraulic mechanism. When you turn the handle it asserts hydraulic pressure on a piston to open the door. No power needed. That’s the way I would design something like that to ensure it would always work even if no power was available,” the Master Chief said.
“Try to open the door,” said Albert. “If it doesn’t open then you can assume the battery or whatever powers it is dead.”
Kristy stood up, took a deep breath, and turned the door opening mechanism. Nothing happened. “It appears it needs to be charged,” she said. “I doubt that a battery would still be good after thousands of years though.”
“The door opened on the small building, though,” said Albert.
“It’s probably powered by the solar cells, if that’s what they are,” said the Master Chief.
“Ok, let’s go around the main building,” said Kristy.
They split up and circled around the larger dome until they met. There was no features on the main building other than the iris door and the door opening mechanism at the small square feature that they were assuming was an air lock. “Don’t try that door Albert,” Kristy warned. “We’ll get back to that later.”
They walked over and under the alien space ship. It was obviously an atmospheric lander. Even after thousands of years in the cold of space, there were still scorch marks visible along the leading edges of the wings. Kristy looked curiously at the dead robot from the first expedition. Under the lander beside the robot was a large heavy box that had been dragged under the ship by the now defunct robot. Kristy shuddered. She was the only one besides Jason who knew what was in that box. The small fusion warhead had been left by the first expedition to completely destroy the site if any other country had attempted to reach it first, or if the site was
perceived to have become a threat to Earth. She had orders to eventually move it behind the main alien building but not to disarm it. She didn’t like even being close to the thing.
They spread out and examined the underside of the alien space craft. They converged at the front landing gear that had sunk into the ground. There they noted the similar looking door opening mechanism on the landing strut. Looking at Kristy, Albert offered to turn it. She nodded, but as with the excavator, nothing happened.
“Dead battery again,” said Albert.
The Master Chief was peering up into the recess where the landing gear was stowed when it was raised. “I have a hunch,” he said. “Give me a boost up.”
Kristy and Albert helped him climb up the strut. Sticking his head in the recess he called down. “There’s one of those three pronged electrical charging ports here also.”
“Then, we must be wrong about what those prongs are,” said Kristy. “This ship couldn’t possibly be battery powered.”
“I doubt it would use a battery for its main power source,” said the Master Chief, “but even Earth based aircraft have a power fitting to provide power for starting them and running systems when the main engines are shut down. This probably does the same thing. That’s a pretty smart design feature. They use the same size electrical prong on everything. I would like to bring some equipment down and check that connection on one of the small buildings. I bet that it has power to it from the solar cells.”
“Let’s go back to that first building first,” said Kristy. “I guess it’s time to open the door and take a look inside.”
They went back and stood in front of the first small building. Kristy radioed up to Jason on top of the hill that she was going to open the door. “I want you two to get back around the side of the dome,” she said.
“Kristy, I think that this is a bad idea. Let me open the door,” the Master Chief said. “Just in case something happens, I’m more expendable than you are.”
“It’s my responsibility,” argued Kristy. “I’ll open the door.”
“Commander, you really shouldn’t put yourself at risk. You’re needed to lead this expedition. I’m the oldest team member and my duties are the most easily replaced if something bad happens.”
“Good grief,” exclaimed Albert in frustration. He went over and turned the door opening mechanism. The large iris slowly opened up as the door sections recessed into the walls of the building. He walked into the building and looked beside the door. Reaching up he turned the mechanism there that was identical to the one on the outside. The door shut before either Kristy or the Master Chief could say a word. A moment later the door reopened as Albert operated the mechanism from the inside.
“There’s a knob on the inside,” said Albert with a grin. “Oh, and by the way, the lights are working.”
Kristy was furious.
Albert held up a hand. “We couldn’t stand here and let you two argue all day. I’m the most expendable of the three of us. I also have a hunch about these doors. Watch this.” He came out and stood back. In about thirty seconds the door shut. He re-opened it and stood in the middle of the door way.
“Albert, get back!” Kristy yelled. “The doors will shut and crush you.”
“No they won’t,” Albert said. “Watch.”
He stood there a couple of minutes, and then stepped out of the doorway. The doors again shut after about thirty seconds. “Safety features,” he said. “The builders of this place weren’t stupid. Shall we look inside?” he asked.
Kristy wanted to slap him, but she just shook her head and cautiously stepped inside the building as Albert re-opened the doors. The three of them went inside and looked around. The interior of the dome shaped building was about twenty five meters in diameter. It was hemispherical in shape. The floor appeared to be made of some sort of composite material. There was light coming from some hidden source in the curved overhead of the dome. The walls were made of an unknown metal and very uniform in appearance except where the five meter tall door was mounted. Around the walls were stacked containers and oval drums. On one wall was a large beam with several large cables draped over it. The Master Chief walked over and looked at the grey cables. On either end there was three recesses where one of the three prong plugs would fit. Kristy and the two men jumped when the door shut behind them.
“Well, I guess we know where the extension cords for charging are now,” Master Chief laughed.
Kristy walked over to the stacks of containers. She knocked on one and was rewarded with a hollow empty sound. The box had three simple clasps on the front of it to keep it closed. She opened them and pushed up the lid of the box. The box was empty. Albert pointed out that each box or container had a small shiny copper colored tag on the front or lid. The tags had a series of dots.
“These are probably the content or identification tags. I wonder if the dots are the alien version of writing,” pondered Albert.
The last box closest to the door did not sound empty. “Somebody give me a hand getting it off the stack,” said Kristy. They were about to open the clasps when the iris door opened. The three of them turned to face the door and jumped. The sun was shining in the door and there were two figures silhouetted there. They couldn’t make out any details due to the bright sunlight and Kristy suddenly realized she had forgotten to breath. Suddenly one of the figures stepped into the building.
“We were getting worried about you,” Brianna said.
Kristy about fainted and Albert almost fell over laughing.
“You scared the crap out of us, Brianna,” Kristy said.
Brianna started to apologize and then Kristy laughed. “It’s ok. I didn’t realize we were walking around on our toes. I guess we were all looking for alien ghosts.”
Donald called on his PA to the others up on the hill that they were all ok. “I think the building blocks our radio signals. We’ve been trying to call you on your PA’s.”
Master Chief had finished opening the clasps on the last box they had pulled out. He opened it and looked inside. “I think I found one of your ghosts.” He reached inside and pulled out what appeared to be a space suit. Donald went over to help him and they held it up.
“Oh my God,” said Brianna.
They stared in awe at the suit that the Master Chief and Donald were holding up. It would have fit a creature that stood about two meters tall; except that the being that wore this suit was obviously not human. The creature that had worn this suit had four legs and two arms.
Chapter 33
May 1st, 2047
Houston, Texas
NASA and JPL headquarters were a mad house. When the video images of the alien space suit had been transmitted back to Earth by the expedition team, the control and communication center had erupted in excitement. The biologists back on Earth assigned to the expedition advisory team were falling all over themselves. They were going crazy speculating on the anatomy and physiology of the creature that the suit was designed to fit. What type of environment did this creature evolve in? What did it look like? Was it a mammal, a reptile, etc?
Peter stood in the communication center and j stared in wonder at the images. The creatures that had designed and wore that space suit had evolved around a very distant star. Somewhere, sometime in the past, an alien on another planet had held a leadership position probably very similar to his. What was it thinking when it ordered that outpost to be built on the frozen planet? What was the purpose of the outpost, and why had they left that ship there? Why, when, how…so many questions.
Robby stepped up beside of him. “Too bad there’s not a helmet with it. Even so, that suit gives us a lot of clues what they were like.”
Peter nodded. “They were about our height, probably weighed a hundred kilograms, four legs, two jointed arms, and three fingers on each hand.”
Even more than that can be deduced,” Robby said. “The feet are almost perfectly round. The biologists think that indicates it had something similar to hooves. I
f that’s true, then it may have been a social, herd type creature. Every single creature on Earth that has hoofs is a herd creature. They had six digits, on their hands as well as six limbs. That explains why they were using a hexadecimal based signal in that beacon. We use a decimal system because we have ten fingers, they have six.”
Peter nodded. “It’s also interesting that every single herd type creature on our planet is an herbivore. I guess this means we don’t have to worry that they’ll want to eat us,” he laughed. “I’m sure the Elpis ground team is relieved at that news.”
…
Brianna grunted as she struggled to pull the box of medical supplies off the heavy transport’s trailer. They had started hauling equipment and supplies into the first dome after getting approval from Earth. They were hoping to get all the stuff under the tent moved by the end of the day.
When they had sent the images of the alien space suit to Earth there had been shock and excitement in the communications that they were getting back from NASA. The aliens that had built this place now had a physical shape. However, they still didn’t completely know what they looked like. Did they have a horse shaped head or what? It was fairly certain that they probably had hooves. Every single mammal that had evolved on Earth that had hooves possessed elongated snouts and strong teeth for grinding plant fibers. Still, she knew that everyone was assuming that evolution had repeated familiar patterns on a distant planet that was most likely not exactly like Earth. There were just too many variables like climate, gravity, and available resources that could drive an evolutionary path.
There was a shout from outside. Master Chief and Donald came in with a compact electrical multimeter. “Anyone care to hazard a guess what voltage that plug is out there?” Master Chief asked with a grin.
Everyone present threw out guesses from twelve volts to four thousand. Then they stood patiently waiting for the Master Chief to enlighten them.
Blue Planet Rising (Pebbles in the Sky Book 2) Page 19
