It was only thought that higher intelligent beings of big advanced civilizations had the means to match their defenses.
Just to create a weak version of the energy shield of the GX1 took far more energy than most of the largest alien spacecrafts could produce.
“You never saw that thing kill the rest of my crew!” Larsen moaned, slightly satisfied by the dramatic display and the deadliness of their weapons, reminding him of the power of the weapons, which they had not used.
Major Ripley seemed to recall some of his old training, and pointed at the weapons on their spacesuits, and ordered them to remove them, and they removed them, and he had them practice firing them at objects.
Kruger fired away at distant objects amazed their power, and continued firing into the distance, testing what range they could go to. It amazed him that they never got the chance to use them. He was even sure by the way people reacted to them that there was some rule and spacecraft rule preventing people using them, unless it was they had to, to save their lives.
He still thought that they should have more of the military on the vehicles though. He tried firing into a dense area of the thick fog, now going around them like wheel rim, and was amazed that it reacted and split open to avoid the energy blasts, and it quickly filled itself in afterwards.
The world about their sides was full of swamps, bogs, ditches, and bubbling pools of stinking chemicals and water. Chemicals in thick concentrated pools poured out gases through the cooling air giving it a sulfur stench, which they gave an occasional cough to, when it got deep and concentrated in their lungs.
The fog crept more rapidly towards them all around them, and Major Ripley gasped slightly, and smelt the air, and announced mainly to Larsen, “We’ll have to enter that! There is no other way! Besides we will be getting help here soon ...”
“From your communications device – giving out our location?”
“Correct! There is not enough power in the thing for communications at the distance the others are, but it will give our location to them ...”
“So we only need to handle this fog ...” Don coolly replied, surprising Major Ripley again with his coolness, which always seemed to be there, as though he knew what would happen.
It gave Kruger a great deal of happiness thinking that he was not just a twin, but Don was him from the future, and that he would survive such situations.
Yet at times he doubted it, and knew time could be altered anyway. He wondered if he shot himself, and Don was a future version of him, if he would vanish upon his death.
Chapter 9
Trapped
The fog engulfed them, and swiftly thickened up about them, and blinded them, but in areas in thinned out and they caught glimpses of the ground beneath their feet as they plodded on, wondering if the others could actually find them there, and why they had not taken more drastic measures earlier on to avoid it, when it had started appearing.
Kruger studied the thick fog about him, seeing what it did, and saw that it reacted less now that they were in it and not at the fringes of it, and wondered if he was part of it or something now, or it just considered them part of it.
Suddenly, a light appeared deep in the fog to their side, and Major Ripley took them close to it, surely considering if it was the recovery vehicle. Yet Kruger watched it vibrating up and down, and brighten, and its beam pointed near them.
A sluggish gurgling of something wading deep in and out of bogs ahead moved their way, confusing them more, and Major Ripley stopped his rush forwards, and came to a halt in a thinner area of fog where the visibility was better, and his familiar rugged look shone out of the fog, listening and observing everything ahead, in confusion.
He then placed the light near his head, and stood with his light shining over his face.
“We better be prepared ...” he muttered. “I never heard any vehicles sounds from there ...”
“I never either ...” Kruger agreed, looking concerned, considering what they were encountering.
“We better have our weapons ready then!” Major Kruger stated, removing his weapon, and waited for the others to remove their weapons and get the feel of them.
“Perhaps we should inform the others in the vehicles?” Larsen asked. “We could check if it is anything to do with them?”
Major removed his communicator, and silently started trying to contact the vehicle with Major Douglas, and when he could not pick it up he tried to contact any vehicle that he could, and stood surprised when he never.
“Could this fog stop the communicators working ...?” he asked them, trying to grasp the situation.
“Not normally!” Kruger answered first. “But this fog, and it being on this world, in an alternative universe, changes the rules.”
“So once again it could be anything!”
Larsen moved in close, to show his worried features.
“Don’t forget that thing that attacked us ...” he stated, and moved backwards, as Don moved in, and Kruger examined him, and his forced reactions.
“Will they be able to detect where we are with the communicators out?” Don asked them, with a glimpse of worry.
Kruger could not be certain if he was really reacting or not!
Yet it did seem as though he was experiencing new things now, and had not actually gone through the encounters, and he was sure that if he was from the future that things had changed as they were now in an alternative universe, and he was reacting to the fact that he would be experiencing new things, and he wondered again if he was there to prevent something from happening, without altering anything else.
Yet Kruger realized that there was no real proof, and that his reactions were really different, and he saw that he could not depend on such fantasies, and he recalled that he had not originally believed in time travel, and especially not in traveling backwards in time.
Why had nothing been discovered there? The technology and all the research into it would have at least proven its existence!
Major stood checking his communicator device, and put it away, and avoided replying to Don. Surely to avoid adding to their problems!
“There was a device on my spacesuit sending out footage of what happened!”
“So we better stay around here!” Larsen added. “As they will arrive there then ...”
“Correct! But we better check what that light is as best as we can, without being seen.”
Kruger realized that he would properly never experience anything like this place and this universe again if he made it back alive to the normal universe and the Earth. He would remember it forever, and he was sure he would be remembered in the history books for taking part in it all.
He wondered if it would be proven that time travel existed, and he realized if it did and Don had traveled back in time that he would have to go through everything over again, and that he may alter things and do things differently from what Don had done, and that he might do something that alters things by accident, and that he could also be stuck in a scenario of travel back in time and living out the events for the rest of his life.
Chapter 10
The Beast
Strange multicolored streaks of starlight exploded through thin fog, and Kruger was reminded of the fast rotation of the world, and in the sky above him massive blinding stars were appearing.
The light from one star’s flickering streak hit his face like a desert sun being shaded by something. It was a truly unique world that saw no darkness, and probably would never know it.
He wondered again, from his normal scientific perspective, what the larger and more advanced life forms on the world would be like in such an environment. They had seen little so far, as the spacecraft had landed in one of the most barn regions of it, as there had been few regions for landing the immense spacecraft.
The lights above rapidly engulfed them, and they lost more of what little sight they had, as they had briskly sheltered their eyes, and still tried to examine everything.
If on
ly the vehicle had not crashed and they were out there exploring where they were supposed to. He would be extremely annoyed if they found the things that he wanted to discover without him.
Thick volcanic soil shrouded everything, covering their boots with muck, and their lower spacesuit with dust, and Kruger imagined the mind-bending landscapes beyond, and he realized that he no longer felt tired.
It was shocking how easily they had got trapped and lost, and the worst part was he could not realize how they could have avoided it. They should have stuck to the exact place that they were to be, for the vehicle to find them. But in the dense fog with all its vast dangers they soon kept altering course, and everything turned indistinguishable.
At one point slight gaps leading through into distant areas showed outer empty fogless regions. But Major Ripley stuck to the same general direction, and he was too tired to alter his course.
A peculiar whistle still shadowed them from an unknown place, driving Kruger insane trying to identify it.
Their legs almost became stuck in some deep bogs of stinking rotting vegetation and chemicals, which resembled quicksand as it grew in depth, and he would wonder how such chemicals got there. Many smelt like they had been dumped there by some industrial site, and he considered if an intelligent species there could have built civilizations there. But his mind refused to accept anything without further evidence, and he continued on going.
Then, out of nowhere, a light emerged through some strange undergrowth, and its radiance pulsated like a living entity, magically illuminating the fog and strange tree forms, creating mind-bending shadows that weaved and probed though the mist.
While they silently and casually stopped and observed it, heavy pounds of something of incredible size and weight rushed out towards them, causing them to scurry away without being able to see anything behind them.
They furiously moved their legs in and out of bogs as it grew nearer and deadlier, causing their legs to become painful and tired, shifting away to hard ground, to be able to escape better.
It was like their last stand, and being on the edge of their destruction, and Kruger watched how each of them reacted, and noticed Don reacted the least again, and even looked as if he had no intention of trying to kill the thing with his weapon.
They ran almost blindly up and down over bogs and humps, rushing through to where they believed there was flat ground.
Heavy beast sounds furiously exploded out nearby, and clearly chased after them, and Kruger considered turning and firing his weapon. It was common for large animals to become frightened and withdraw from being fired on.
Loud explosions surely would scare it enough to avoid them!
It was like a strange nightmare, and finally annoyed enough at Major Ripley’s avoidance of doing anything at all to save them he swiftly turned and blasted away at what looked like an immense shadow on the fog, where the sounds exploded out!
They were breathless, and they all stared blankly at him, and he wondered what Major Ripley was thinking, and what his explanation for not using his weapon would be.
The thing, as far as he could see and hear, never even acknowledged his direct hit on it, and it left him confused. Firstly, the energy beam he blasted into there could have been weakened by the thick fog, and he tried to recall if it had been and anything that he had heard about it, and he decided to try again if it appeared visible to him, and he considered if this was why Major Ripley had not fired.
Their legs could not take them fast enough, and the thing soon started closing in on them, and Kruger cursed their stupid idea of running, as they could have entered a thin area of the fog and used all their weapons on it at the one time, and they would not have tired themselves and allowed the thing to think they were its prey.
The shape of a vehicle appearing through the vapor was blissful, and they all stared fascinated with it and in their luck, and Kruger spotted Don’s reactions and that he was surprised.
Its lights radiated its shape and them, and they forced their legs to go faster to avoid the thing behind them pulling a final surprise on them before they could be saved.
The vehicle and the appearance of two other vehicles at its side was ecstasy, and a glimpse of reality amidst their surrounding desolate hell.
It was like a phantom place out on the edge of realism, on the bounds of what lay beyond - with the beats charging out of the depths of hell, and they were reappearing into reality.
The place looked static, and supernaturally glowing, and Kruger considered if he could have the paranormal scientists check if there was any paranormal activity there.
Forms of plants broke to pieces as they ran through them, and large tree vegetation looked as if they were ready to fall to dust, as though it were suspended there on the edge of reality!
Behind him, within shifting lights of stars, shifting through the fog with the world’s fast rotation, he finally saw a ghost image of the thing chasing them, shifting out of the fog covering its hideous deadly features.
Yet all his looks back never showed him a proper view of the heavy monster thing rampaging towards them, and he wondered if the thing was playing with them – like a cat with a mouse, and waiting until it fully had them – before paralyzing them with fear by rushing out at them at full speed.
His mind conjured up monster creatures as they moved to where the vehicles were, and they rushed into one, exhausted and staggered, and at the doorway Kruger watched and listened as the door shut and the vehicle left, and he heard hungry grunts from it and its powerful movements rapidly taking it as close to them as it could, and he saw a giant ghost monster cat creature floating out of the mist, as it leaped through the air at them, snapping its massive jaws.
Chapter 11
The GX1 Discovery
The time being had sensed the landing of the incredible GX1 from its immense surges of energy blasting through time, at least a century before it had occurred, and further out in time than it could normally travel, especially with its limited power.
At first it had resembled a miniature black hole with its incomprehensible powers, which it had never seen before, or even heard of from its recollections of its mighty empire.
Its pure magnitude even made it avoid it for many years, for fear of destruction, but it then realized that it would confront it, and would have to discover what was there, which it considered was one of the main reasons for the fall of the empire of its race.
It soon started work on ways to conceal itself and avoid detection, and began to send probes that concealed its presence, and started to get information on what was there.
The colossal size of it left it staggered! Its race had never built anything like it! It had found ways to travel space at the speeds that it needed, and had not attempted to create such a space vehicle. It was sure it had come from a distance galaxy!
It soon proved that it had the ability to become undetected, and thought of the uses it could use its technology and knowledge for.
It was sure that it was the last of its species, and thought it had happened because of its location, dwelling far beyond the outer universe, and because it was more advanced than the rest of its species. It surely now was far superior to all its ancestors, and the greatest scientist, with one flaw, of it being imprisoned on the world, even with it being the ruler of the world, with its powers.
It had many times thought of reproducing its species, in an altered form, capable of surviving and being a master race, and creating a better and proper empire that was capable of surviving, but it never bothered, as it would have taken it years to create the right resources.
Its powers were immense though, and it could alter and do incredible things, and it worked away in its castle carrying out its experiments and explorations, and considered where it could go with the space vehicle.
Chapter 12
The Center of Space
Trillions of magnificent stars shone everywhere, turning the whole sky golden, except for the colossal black h
ole at its center.
The sight was fantastic, and probably the most magnificent sight Kruger had ever seen, and he thought he sensed mysterious and dangerous things existed there.
They stood on the flat top of a high hill, overlooking the world for approximately fifty miles in every direction, and watched the fog blanketing the entire frontal world, going into the horizon, where the GX1 was positioned.
Around twenty of the main vehicles on the world were positioned behind all the men from the vehicles, positioned around the edge of the cliff, where the majority were examining the incredible view.
Many filmed the sight, which made the whole voyage worth taking part in, and the rest were scientists carry out their work with their equipment, with some of the military, including Major Ripley, checking the world for dangers.
Kruger stood with the two paranormal scientists, Mitchel and Bryan, with their equipment and scientists, examining everything around them.
They had confirmed it was the central galaxy of the universe, and the black hole, where they had appeared there from, was at the exact center of it, in the middle of the sky, with them examining it, facing the entire the center of the universe, and center of space.
The black hole interested the majority of the scientists and military, as it was considered to be the only way to return to the universe, and it was the only proper view of it that had emerged so far – from a distance away from it – which allowed all of it to be properly visible – with its influence on the surrounding galaxy.
The entire galaxy seemed to be in orbit around it, and Kruger gasped, wondering how they had managed to escape from it. But he knew the power of the GX1, and what it was capable of.
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