The Lost Time Probe

by V Bertolaccini

  The artifact altered shape and appearance at a frenzied rate, of which there was little to indicate the outcome.

  At times he thought he saw a shape of something inside it.

  It looked powerful, and deadly! And perhaps unstable! By their previous investigations and what the scientists claimed he was sure they gave an energy force, and that they were feeding it energy that it used, and he realized it was perhaps the reason it could not do anything and had been dormant, and he realized the dangers of its revival, and if it exploded, and he wondered why the scientists were so confident about it.

  With horror, at the side of vision, he saw a group of scientists and technicians move in with new equipment, and they started arranging it around the energy bubble, and he gasped, and wondered what they were doing and dealing with, and for a moment thought he saw something inside it shift.

  Famous scientist in and rushed into places and he realized something really was going happen this time, and he watched someone film it, and what might be an incredible historic occurrence, and the discovery of it, and he realized from nearby scientists that it might prove what it was, and he watched someone else filming it, perhaps for the media, which some scientists were considering using if they wished it to be known.

  The scientists occasionally gave detailed explanations of things they believed were occurring, and watched it creating magnificent optical effects, making things distort, and it looked like it could rupture the fabric of space, and played with it, with properties of altering and suspending it.

  Scientists started carrying out complex experiments on it, and they showed detailed information accumulated.

  Suddenly computers and equipment all over the chamber burst into life, and he spotted one go over millions of special sequences and he studied it, and he was sure they had got control of the artifact somehow and had it carry out some functions.

  The sheer magnitude of it left him staggered and he expected something to occur, especially from its lethal reactions, and he could not believe it could hold so much energy and not explode.

  The center turned bright and expanded, and it became louder and brighter, and the floor shook, and started knocking everything furiously around, knocking scientists about, and many fell over, and a sudden shockwave blasted through the whole building, throwing everything about, and it died away.

  The chamber turned silent, and they started to recover, and he noticed some scientists dramatically activating equipment and he checked where they were staring and saw the artifact had turned solid, and was open, and saw something inside, and he tried to identify it, but could not, and saw it was alive and hideously staring out at them.

  Chapter 25

  The First Contact Situation

  While it shifted out Eisenberg stood horrified and tried to move, and to examine its celestial formation, wondering what it was, and what they had made contact with, realizing it was not solid and was some form of energy formation, and he wondered why it was so different and powerful, and gasped when he thought he saw it had demon features.

  Its glowing, altering, hideous shape stopped at the edge of its sphere, which had been the artifact, and he felt energy surges from it and stood trying to grasp what it was doing, and he realized it had to be made of some form of energy, and he considered if it was actually keeping itself alive, and in existence, almost consistently stopping itself vanishing, and he wondered if it could properly exist in the universe, and wondered if it would just vanish into nothing, and they moved back when it altered its formation, and he wondered how the hell they were going to communicate with it, and if it even used language.

  Suddenly he spotted the others react and saw visions emerge all around them, and he saw they were star formations, and flashing about, and he realized it was communicating with them and showing regions of space, and he wondered how the scientists could record the visions, and if they would show up in the film footage being taken, and saw a scientist confirm it, and he wondered if any of the scientists identified the stars.

  He was sure it was an exploration of the vast depths of the universe, and he spotted a massive sphere of light glowing and expanding, and wondered what the hell it was, and wondered how it propelled itself across the blackness of space, and if it could even travel without a starship, and floated and shot through space like a ghost going through the stars.

  They watched stunning suns shoot by and them increasing in density, and accuracy, and he was sure it was showing them a region of space it existed in, and he saw its powers increase, while it transformed itself, and further from its original state.

  Space and time seemed unrecognizable, and mysterious, and he felt he would never fully understanding it, and it seemed to search for a solution to something and suddenly all the visions vanished, and it altered further, and he wondered if they could provide it with energy or something to complete its transformation, and if they should treat it as dangerous.

  Suddenly all their technology, and mainly computers, burst into life, and the scientists looked up surprised, as it took control of them, and started giving them information, and taking and searching for information, and he watched it make a gesture and enter the center region of the energy sphere.

  The sphere became far more powerful, and its appearance became lethal, and he realized the sphere’s original activation was far less, and they stood staggered when its center turned almost blinding and exploded out, and a sudden shockwave blasted out, knocking everything over, and it died away, as it vanished.

  Chapter 26

  The Time Traveler

  Eisenberg sat in the library still staggered at the outcome at what occurred at the Extraterrestrial Investigation Center and still vastly confused at what they knew, and he even believed he was far more in the dark at what it was, and it was doing there.

  Once the paranormal investigator arrived, after questioning one of the scientists on the phone, he knew he had something.

  “What did they tell you?” Kurt asked the paranormal investigator, as he picked up a book. “Tell us what you found!”

  The paranormal investigator glanced up, and reluctantly placed the book he held down, and replied, “This astounds me, and I am still staggered how both events are connected … The artifact could be the only alien arrival this world has had … Those vampires are also astounding …”

  “What was the scientists explanation of the artifact and all the information it gave them on their computers, before it left?”

  “They are positive! They’re positive it was a time machine pod from the future …”

  “It traveled through space and time …”

  “From what they got I say it traveled back from Earth’s future … They believe it was some form of mission … They believe that time travel does not properly work … That it experimented with it … Though they can send energy forms, they could not properly send anything physical … They believe it was converted into some form of energy or something – of colossal degrees – and perhaps even virtually forced itself back through time – and that it never properly worked and it surely never arrived where it should, and far further back in time than it should, and with not enough energy to return, or even alter to this place …”

  “It was a trapped extraterrestrial time traveler of the future …”

  “They found out some other things … Which I believe … They believe it arrived on this world in the future from somewhere … And – going by what they claimed it found – they found the remains of our civilization on the world … They believe they destroyed themselves in some form catastrophe … That there was barely anything left … I believe it left to find out what we were like, and were doing here, and perhaps to make contact with us, and find out why it happened …”

  Eisenberg sat back thinking it over, astounded at such a thing could be hidden in such a place, and influence so much, and realized that proper time travel might be impossible, and be far too dangerous if they did manage to recreate it …

 
; He imagined it trapped there as an entity, not existing and existing, through centuries, perhaps thousands of years, unable to leave its confines, perhaps imprisoned for all eternity.

  Chapter 27

  The Haunted Wood

  Eisenberg could not tell what it was and if it was the strange dark wood they had entered, altered trees and landscape, or what was there that was so strange, and he searched around him, through the trees, and searched for the vampires.

  Their discovery of the wood had been lucky, and he still wondered if the paranormal investigator had got it wrong, as he claimed the wood was perfectly positioned for the vampires to hide in, for them to safely perform their attacks on New York, and the incredible thing about it was it resembled the wood in Transylvania where Dracula’s castle had been, and it was the drawings of it and finding the giant wood on the television and an occurrence there that drew their attention to it.

  What they could find out about it gave little, but they had found a structure in it, and though it was old and derelict they were sure it could be where the vampires stayed at night.

  Everything confused him and he started to think that just about anything could occur and realize the danger they were in, and there was no reason to believe they could not exist in the light of day, and that they were just night creatures, and as he led Kurt and the paranormal investigator through the dense undergrowth and tress he started to imagine strange dark figures behind trees, and a mysterious distant light, but everything he found was either vegetation, trees, fallen trees, but he started to realize it was starting to get dark, and the time it took to get through the wood, dense undergrowth, was impeding their progress.

  Occasionally he heard distant things being violently smashed, but saw powerful wind surges blasting about, and he started to believe it was the wood itself, or the region, and it had a supernatural presence, either from the vampires or something else there, which could be why they had gone there.

  What staggered him the most was how dark it would be soon, and he rushed on, and believed that they might be able to achieve their objective and that there would be an eventual conclusion to the event, and events, but the place was shrouded everywhere with increasing denser vegetation and he even started wondering if they could get through it, and in the distant he heard what he was sure were wolves, and it left him trying to contemplate what was there, and at times sounds emerged like they were coming out the ground, and from underground shafts.

  Chapter 28

  The Vampire Hideout

  Eisenberg thought supernatural regions existed, and that they had entered something, and when they entered the derelict building he was staggered that anyone could build and stay in such place.

  It confused him, what they were doing, after all he had encountered, and now believed existed, compared with before, and he did not know what it was, and just tried to grasp how dangerous it was, and he rushed into the building before it became too dark, and to stop the vampires reviving before they found them, and he kept his eye on Kurt and the paranormal investigator.

  He considered all the things he had heard of the supernatural trying to grasp what it was he was missing. He was sure they had discovered more than they realized, and he analyzed everything in a far greater degree.

  At the top floor, he stopped suddenly, tiredly and startled by something, and he sensed something, and he moved on slowly, as Kurt and the paranormal investigator followed him, and he heard something somewhere.

  For a long time he stared into the dimness recognizing little, as he strolled on, and gasped for a few seconds when he thought he was being watched by something in a region of darkness ahead, and was surprised something appeared there and he saw large box shapes, and kept examining them, and realized that it was tombs, and that they were in the same style as the vampire tombs back at the mansion, and realized that they were placed directly at the central region of the building.

  At the tombs he heard silent sounds from something, and realized how dark it was and shifted silently up to them, searching everything everywhere, while he considered putting on his light, but he could give his presence away, if he had not been noticed.

  A sudden blast, and explosion of light, left him stunned, while he crept on, and he froze, waiting to die, and die hideously for what he had done, and he stood confused, and saw what looked like a vampire illuminated in bright light standing in front of him, and he wondered what the hell it was, and after examining it closely it looked like a humanoid, and it seemed to welcome him, and he studied it and realized that it was a form of hologram.

  It eventually altered, to do something, and do something to itself, and he remained trying to identify it, and he felt energy from it, and sheer power, and it reminded him of the extraterrestrial at the research center, and something about it, which he could not quite grasp.

  Chapter 29

  The Supernatural Universe

  Behind the glowing entity Eisenberg saw a hideous slithering black devilish shape emerge from the blackness, out of a tomb, and he froze, and recognized it was Dracula, as it shifted slowly towards them.

  While it crept up he watched it somehow alter, and it froze, unable to move, and the glowing extraterrestrial stood staring at it.

  Suddenly he saw visions of star formations, and suddenly realized the glowing extraterrestrial was making contact with them, and showing them regions of space.

  He felt energy surges from it and realized he was picking up telepathic messages from it, and it explained it was made of some form of energy, and existed in the past, and he realized it was a time traveler, like the extraterrestrial in the artifact.

  Suddenly it altered his thoughts and he realized it was not a time traveler and that time travel could not properly be used in the universe, and only in its own universe, and he realized it was in a supernatural universe, and it had transmitted itself as a form of hologram, from the past.

  It told him of an eminent scientist that once existed in its universe, who carried out experiments on transferring things into other universes, and in the end experimented on itself, and altered itself to exist in the universe, but its experiments altered it, and altered it into a monster being, trapping it in the universe, and unable to return to its universe, and its name had been Dracula.

  They had found a way to transfer themselves, as a form of energy/hologram, energy formations, and took the form of humanoids, and tried to rid the world of his vampires, and it had been them that had trapped Dracula in the wood at the front of his castle, when he had returned, and they had left him dormant in the tomb, in the mansion/castle, as they had been unable to repair the damage he had done to himself.

  They had searched for a method, and had searched the future of the world, and had eventually found a way, and they had someone move the castle to New York, and had placed over the artifact, before its discovery.

  Eisenberg realized that the only way they could help Dracula was with the highly advanced extraterrestrial technology from the artifact, and they wanted Eisenberg to take Dracula, now dormant, to the Extraterrestrial Investigation Center research chamber, and with the knowledge they got from the extraterrestrial and artifact, and equipment they now had, to use it to repair and alter Dracula and transfer him back to his own universe, where they would return him to his own time.

  Epilogue

  The Lost Time Pod

  For centuries the energy formation rested trapped under the Earth, and fiercely waiting to leave its confines, and imprisonment, frequently reawakening, with deadly energy surges blasting out.

  Its shape inside the energy pod had pulsated when awakened, feeling little awareness, and had found little activity, which it had no real way of checking.

  Its energy capsule was molded about it, with only some functions, with little power, and with no proper observations.

  It perceived little and its thoughts wandered and it occasionally recollected distorted memories that had turned incomprehensible, from what had led it to its lethal erro
r, and it could barely realize why it had survived or had annihilated itself.

  It had activated vague sensors and felt vast unstable energy explosions blast out across dimensions with such force it felt like it threatened to make space and time completely rip apart, and destroy the fabric of space and time, and it had constantly realized it could do little when it had checked if anything had been detected anywhere.

  The hideous situation had left it ensnared and recalling the colossal powers it once had and firmly contemplating the dangers and its chances of survival.

  Its mission had been unbelievable and it realized how deadly it had been and recalled little of why it had once contemplated there not being any danger.

  Its near destruction had amazed it and it frequently realized it had no proper presence and had become a form of unknown energy/formation, altering to something that it never recognized.

  It turned invisible, and translucent, and the outer universe vanished from its thoughts, and it occasionally imagined echoes of its voyager functioning and its massive energy pulsations blasting out across the whole of creation.

  Its revival attempts sustained, and the Earth and mankind evolved, and it realized its mind-boggling powers were dwindling, and it realized it would one day no longer exist, and it gradually turned itself completely dormant – and for as long as a hundred years – waiting for it to be revived to complete its deadly mission.