proceed; the control tower will monitor your approach. Please proceed to quarantine bay one on your arrival.’ He filed his report to date, so it could be updated once he had examined the wreckage in detail. Minutes later he left the control tower and made his way to the terminal’s departure gates, where he sat down to admired the view of the Eve Solar System, he could see the haze of the planets and the salvage vessel as it broke away from the planet’s orbit. He thought about the boy, and wondered if there actually was other life in the universe? Could all of their work investigating nearby galaxies eventually lead to a suitable planet for humans?
The information recorded from nearby planets had been useful and eased the pressure on earth’s unsustainable resources, in particular the raw materials needed for the world economy. However until the discovery of the boy there had been no breakthrough as yet to find a new world to live on, which was why the program was seen as a failure.
Could the boy change all that, he looked down again at the vessels progression towards the space station, soon it would be docking and soon he would know more. He calmly made his way to the quarantine bays to watch it enter the vast cargo bay, it maneuvered slowly and precisely until it touched down to unload its cargo. Eventually the roar of the engines and hiss of the boosters lowered whilst the siren and flashing lights in the terminal diminished. Celestial sat patiently awaiting the arrival of Wolfe.
At the rear of the craft Wolfe stood and looked at the illuminated rear door control, it was glowing red, so he turned to admire the content of his craft, when his eyes returned it was green. He instantly hit the glowing disk and the door retracted, his distinctive looking goggles darkened to protect his eyes from the brilliant light. The bay was a large white area, apart from the grey chevrons in a centre square where his ship had landed. This was the area where the wreck would be placed for examination; to his left he saw the bays office visible by the mirrored windows.
The engineer addressed the task at hand and balked instructions to the Astro-tech’s unloading the cargo. ‘Make sure the craft is securely anchored in the bay when it is unloaded, I would hate for it to get away,’ he said, before making his way across the brilliant white void to give an account of the operation. As he entered the office his reflection in the windows showed stains on his space suit. He dusted down his shoulders to take some of the excessive red powder away and tapped his boots on the doorframe.
Once Inside the two men greeted one another. ‘I hope you’ve brought her back in one piece?’ Celestial asked, as the two men shook hands.
‘Not only that but the craft is still functioning.’ Wolfe smiled.
Celestial looked puzzled. ‘Really? From what I can remember, it looked too badly damaged to work.’
‘Well it scared the hell out of the men. It knocked everything offline on the way back, before it became dormant again.’ Wolfe acknowledged.
Celestial looked thoughtful. ‘Maybe it will be of more use than I first imagined, perhaps you can take a look at any technology we could use?’
‘Well it looks to have used the last of its power, if I can find out what powers it then I might be able to run tests scenarios on it.’ Wolfe looked back into the bay before closing the office door.’
‘It’s good to see you in one piece Wolfe, the tension has been getting to me today. The last thing I needed was a problem with obtaining the wreckage,’ said Celestial.
Wolfe moved over to the office communicator, he accessed his account and uploaded images. A sequence of images began to play with an overview of the splashdown followed by the impact area and the damage caused to the craft.
Wolfe began his assessment. ‘The images taken show a visual record of the impact zone to evaluate your theories.’ He summarised. ‘The craft has remarkable advanced engineering, and the structure is made of an unidentified alloy which is remarkably resilient. However you can see where the main force of the impact was taken, here in the damaged cockpit.’ He pointed to images, which showed the structural damage to the craft imbedded in the planet’s surface. Wolfe continued, ‘In the interior you can see there are lots of containers and unexplained materials which will probably need testing.’
Celestial looked at the images concentrating as they flashed up one after another, like a visual story unraveling before him. ‘Was there any sign of other survivors, could there have been a pilot onboard at the time of the crash?’
‘There doesn't appear to be any evidence that the craft was carrying a pilot or any crew. Perhaps it was set on autopilot and lost its original course? One significant contribution to the crash would have been the damaged rudders. It appears the craft has been hit by a missile, and this is what has affected its flight.’ Wolfe pointed to an image of the rear of the craft.
Celestial agreed. ‘I will make a note of that in the accidents report,’ he said before approached the com’s console, to leave a message for Dr Halley Magellan. ‘I would urgently request your presence in the quarantine bay to examine a retrieved spacecraft. Could you please report to quarantine bay one immediately!’ It was more a command than a question.
Celestial thanked the engineer for his assistance and accompanied Wolfe out into the quarantine bay, the wreckage now laid on the ground in the centre of the facility surrounding it was caterpillar imprints of red and brown deposits that led a trail towards the savage craft, which was slowly departing for the maintenance bay in the distance.
Wolfe patted Celestial on the shoulder. ‘She’s all yours commander. I need to go and lock things down in the maintenance bay,’ he said as he started a weary walk.
The Commander now alone looked back towards the wreckage, it appeared more compact and more intact than he had anticipated. The craft was more streamlined than any craft he had ever seen and probably more advanced in terms of speed and navigation than the IGE fleet. He walked around the craft and looked for markings to identify its origins, but there were none. He became lost in thought as he moved to the front of the craft and imagined how it would travel through space; he imagined the crumpled cockpit repaired and a pilot using the controls to navigate between different galaxies and worlds. He began mentally making notes of how Wolfe might service and utilise the new technology aboard it.
Moments later he was interrupted by quiet footsteps approaching him from behind. He looked down at his watch and addressed Dr Magellan, ‘What took you so long?’ he asked with a smile on his face. ‘What do you think to our acquired UFO?’
The doctor’s brown eyes focused through her square framed glasses at the wreckage, her brown hair highlighted by the bay’s bright lights. ‘I had already heard about the salvage operation, so I was half prepared for your communication,’ she said excitedly. ‘I have brought testing equipment and isolation bags for samples to be taken back to the laboratory. But before we start we need to close the quarantine bay doors and put these masks on.’
Dr Magellan moved over to the entrance of the craft, set her lab box down on the floor and laid bags at the side of it. She then opened and took out a small hand held electronic microscope and analyzer. ‘Ready. Shall we bring the contents out a little at a time, label it examine it and then place it over there?’ she asked, pointing to a sheet which was set out at the side of the equipment. The Commander agreed.
Inside it was exceedingly dark until they switched on their head mounted torches. They didn’t waste any time scouring for clues that would build up a picture of the child’s identity or where he came from. ‘Celestial could you take out the bulky boxes, whilst I take a look at the fragile containers.’ Dr Magellan gathered some containers full of specimens together and placed them in her bag, there were also a varied number of smaller parcels that contained seeds.
The Commander looked around the compartment and seat, the searchlight shone over the debris all around it, out of the corner of his eye an object reflected. It was a necklace, and he recognised that the markings on the medallion were the same as the boy’s tattoo. Whilst continuing to scour the wreck
age for other personal effects, he retrieved a black bag from the space below the seat. Inside was a silver metal object, which looked like a console and a wallet full of small disks. The object had no visible markings and did not function to his touch, so he placed it in a specimen bag to examine later.
The examiners over a period of three hours worked closely to itemise and categorise all they found. ‘It appears that there is an abundance of plant life in the form of seeds or young plants, some eggs have also been recovered from protected parcels,’ the doctor announced, pointing at the samples all bunched together with her equipment.
‘It is very puzzling, that there isn’t any trace of the boy’s identity apart from this necklace and a console,’ Celestial said thoughtfully.
‘And that there are no clothes, which you would assume he would bring on a space journey.’ The doctor noted.
Celestial made a request. ‘Could you place all of the organic materials and this wallet of disks within the Bio Lab’s for further examination. I will give the necklace and console to the boy when he recovers.’
Dr Magellan nodded. ‘I will isolate these seeds for germination and let you know the results of the crops.’ She packed away her equipment into the
Spaceboy Mars - Star Warriors Page 4
