PROLOGUE
The Visitation
The pale cold complexion of the Russian scientist entirely altered! Sounds he gave took strange tones everywhere as he started trying to explain, and Weaver strained his eyes trying to see him now, while he considered it, and the darkness in the room grew!
“Normal astronomers and observatories around the world never detected it, and would have studied it with great curiosity if they had at a far lower velocity, and would have been baffled, as it went at many times the speed of light!”
Weaver grasped at what it was and started to comprehend what he had been missing! He wondered what could detect such an object, and if they even had anything available!
“Its origins were undetected by the sources that had seen it and had been set up for high speed objects!” The scientist continued, biting his lower lip hard. “The detection sites were mainly created and functioned to discover and track any high speed objects for military detection systems and unidentified flying objects of any kind, and from all the accumulated sources known only Russian intelligence agencies investigated it further because of its tremendous velocity and the fact that the location of its descent was accurately traced into this place and region of the Antarctic!”
“My god!” Weaver gasped, realizing the mistake he had made and what the outcome of what was occurring could be!
“Yes! The location was traced to this top secret American military ice station base, where they investigated!”
“It must have been incredible!” Weaver answered firmly. “The impact must have been tremendous! Did that telescope here with its new technology have anything to do with it?”
“The scientists here, and in the underground telescope chamber, did not even know of its arrival! If it had been far slower they might have recorded it as an asteroid of immense proportions! It was only recorded as an immense explosion or earthquake of unknown origins, which had lasted seconds, and which had occurred during the night!”
Weaver was amazed that it actually landed nearby, and he believed it had to be the telescope that had been responsible, and he had detected that they had been up to something with it when he had discovered it in the secret chamber below.
“The magnitude recorded by their equipment had shown them the tremendous power it had!”
“Tremendous power!” Weaver panted, and considered what weight it could have and at what distance away it was.
“Russian scientists used examinations of satellite images to examine and trace the exact location where it had landed, and where it had entered the ice!”
“Like a crazy shooting star exploding out of the polar night sky!” Weaver continued. “At a velocity and force unheard of!”
“After a great deal of observations, research, and discussions by the leading scientists they agreed that the thing that they had found had to have artificial origins mainly by its appearance and its tremendous power! It also has to have vast technology, which may give its origins! They had to investigate it as far as they could! Even with this highly confidential American base being here!”
Weaver could not get what it could be or the outcome of such a scenario, and thanked the scientist for warning him of it!
“Space may be full of them?” the scientist continued, giving his opinion. “We have to investigate! The future of this world could be at stake?”
“So there could be more searching for where it came from? Do you think it was damaged landing?”
“We have to get anything that we can on it! We have to get as much details of it and its origins no matter what!”
“The technology could very well make it worthwhile!” Weaver sighed, thinking of how much it could be worth.
“Have they been able to make contact with it?” Weaver asked.
“As far as I know they have not!”
“Have they entered it yet?”
“As far as I know they have not! What it is made of is either indestructible or virtually indestructible! They have been trying everything that they have to get into to it!”
“Incredible!” He replied. “I never thought I would live to see one! Never mind confront one! What information have you on it?”
“There is little so far! It has a vague flying saucer shape and is about quarter of a mile across all around it, and about hundred and something feet high! They have uncovered most of it, except a region still under the ice! They have used everything available to check for places to enter it!”
“Is there positive proof that nothing emerged from it before they arrived?”
“No! But there have been no signs of it anywhere, and no encounters have been reported worldwide from it!
“Has there been anything on getting where it originated from?”
“They have nothing on its origins or destination, and if it had achieved its objective!”
“Have they found anything to indicate it has intelligence or if there is anything aboard?”
“They discovered its forces deliberately melted the ice and allowed the water to freeze over it, and that it hid itself away, and it is believed something deadly is buried away in its interior!”
PART I
ICE STATION X1
CHAPTER 1
The Alien Encounter
Out of the silent empty Antarctic night high-powered rifle blasts were astonishing, especially in the fatal blizzard engulfing Willis! The explosions sounded so powerful he believed they were using some form of powerful explosive in the bullets!
Whoever was after him had to be crazy and out for the kill, and stupid for entering them into such a blizzard and fury of snow! He could not realize who was there and just accepted that they might be trying to kill him for being a leading scientist at the ice station!
Ice Station X1 had to be located in the coldest and most remote place on the planet! Even in the summer the place had been deadly cold to him! As far as he was concerned there was nothing there to kill for and nobody there that he thought capable of doing so! It and the coldness made him cringe, and blindly rush on through the blinding blizzard, lost.
A loud explosion blasted out and a bullet thudded somewhere nearby and he had to run through the dark snow landscape for his life! He dared not use his light and he could barely see anything!
The men could be heard over to his side and he realized that they could have infrared sights and he just dived into a pile of snow, and buried himself deep. Surely they would not find him!
Once he realized that nothing had happened he started to enjoy the rest and being free from being attacked. His mind raced through what had occurred! Yet he only realized that the location that he strolled into had been a region that nobody at the ice station went in, and he started to wonder what was there.
Why would they go to such lengths to kill him? What could possibly be there? What could be there in such a desolate place?
When he finally left where he was and started to return to the ice station, he started tracing where he had been where they had appeared and started looking around, and strolled around and found something buried beneath a region on flat snow, which he wiped the snow and ice away from and revealed a wooden cover.
Below it he found a vast hole going straight down deep into the ice below, which had clearly been hollowed out with some large powerful machine, which he had not seen there. Yet the region was vast!
Who had dug such a hole? And he wondered if it was by some foreign country that intended to destroy the secret military station?
It was then that he discovered an old rope and harness buried away in the snow, and knew he had a way to climb down, and he decided to investigate it, while avoiding being killed by them or the blizzard! He was sure it had been dug for a reason and that something was just below him!
He swiftly attached the ropes and fitted the harness around him and shifted in, and turned on his light, and covered the top with the wooden cover.
Mind-bending sounds and echoes from the haunting blizzard screamed down through the ice shaft with fury and left him stunned at the dangers, and no matter how he tried to shake it off and contemplate identities his thoughts never formed stable recognitions of what was occurring in the blizzard above!
The ice that the tunnel went through fascinated him as it was different from the regular ice below the ground there! It looked to him to have been formed from water that had melted and had been frozen quickly afterwards!
Clouds of powdered snow and snowflakes swirled down and through the beam from his light and he continued to release the rope, edging him down, seeking to discover what was below.
He realized that he had avoided being killed after all and wondered if he was going to be killed later, when he climbed back up and went outside.
He groaned as he moved down, realizing the mistake he was making and the trouble he would have getting back to the surface and trying to find the ice station in the dark.
He stopped and dangled about on his rope and examined how the tunnel had been cut, while glimpsing parts of the shaft above, and was surprised again at how large and expensive the equipment used must have been.
He had always wanted to investigate some great mystery and it had even helped lead him into becoming a scientist, at such a far out desolate location, and he wanted to explore more. He had wanted to explore and discover new things of value and greatness, and perhaps even be remembered in history somewhere!
What interested was why they had gone to such lengths to kill him, and why he had not known about the tunnel! Surely they had a way of examining below the ice and would have done it while constructing the underground ice station, especially with it being of so confidential and belonging to the military.
What treasures could be hidden away in such a region, with it being one of the last not properly explored regions?
What was he dealing with though? Why were they trying to kill him? Were they protecting something that they had hidden there?
Something of unfathomable unidentifiable nature could be under him and he had to explore it!
As he lowered himself progressively he started to realize the depth of it and that there could be something there!
Something could be secretively built there with the help of the Russian spies in the ice station, and to be used to destroy the entire ice station in an atomic war!
He realized the implications of the find and that he would have to check what was there, no matter what! He could not let it go, and he had to survive and give the information to someone.
Willis was blinded by the black abyss below him as he lowered himself down through the cold tunnel, uniquely drilled with an incredible precision.
He gripped the rope hard, but spun round, and fixed his foot against the tunnel wall to stop it, and looked up to the top of the tunnel and just saw darkness there now, and looked and listened to what was there, and realized that if he was caught there they could cut the rope and let him fall to his death at the bottom. If he never died he would starve to death there!
So far he had been unchallenged with his insistence in going down and he realized that he best increase his speed!
A silent thud echoed down from the top and eventually a cloud of snow came down making him gasp and search for anything, and consider putting his light out, but he saw that it was a freak gust of wind blowing into the cover.
He wondered why he was lowering himself so slowly down when they could easily fall down by freeing the rope and using his hand to slow and stop it, but it could be dangerous!
The dangers of being caught were greater and he did it, and raced down the shaft, with him continuously having to slow down, while also using his legs and boots against the ice to slow himself.
When the bottom appeared he stopped and stared in wonder, and considered what was in the blackness there, and considered the incredible trouble he would have climbing back up.
He was mainly confused as to what was there to be discovered as he made his way there slowly. The ebbing radiance of the light clearly was increasing and he realized how tired he had become, and he decided it was best sleeping at the bottom! Surely the men with the guns above would not come down at night? They would know the trouble it would be to get back up!
The coldness entering his throat gave him cough sensations, so he speeded up and unleashed the rope allowing him to fall faster.
What would the outcome of it be? Would he even find anything? What could be there? It could have belonged to earlier scientists, checking for something? The ice station was old, and a great deal of research had been done there!
Hazy echoes off his deep breathing broke the extraordinary silence and he examined the ice as he shifted downwards, and he started to find the cold air was damaging his throat and was harder to inhale, and he frequently stopped to gasp for air, while dangling with hideous expectations of plunging into something dangerous.
A distant upper rumble of wind eventually released chunks of ice and he realized how dangerous the place might become if solid ice came crashing down, and that the place the rope was attached to might not be able to support such weight after all, of him and the immense rope, and he considered how he could survive at the bottom if he fell down there!
In an instant the rope jerked and wildly oscillated and he spun uncontrollably around and a surge of blackness engulfed him, and he realized the light had been banged against the ice and had been turned off, and he realized what he had missed and what it would be like if he got stuck there in complete blackness, with him trying to climb back up!
He searched for the light switch while straining his eyes to see further down to the bottom and thought he saw something there, but there were no particular features.
When he had turned the dim light on the tunnel vanished into the darkness at the bottom, and when he arrived there the light was so faint that he was too busy focusing on the ice ground to properly see anything, and he only vaguely saw an immense dark cavity open out!
He hit the ground with a thud and in the turmoil he slipped over sideways into something heavy!
In the dim light he then saw a large artificial black object resting in the central region of the cavity, which went out and vanished in the distance, into darkness, and he examined what he could properly see, and tried to see the cavity roof fifty feet above, and it going higher further in, and he gasped and wondered what hell he was looking at!
He wondered how they had managed to get the equipment down to build such a structure and if it was safe!
They clearly had another way into the cavity to bring it in and he realized that he could get out more easily than he had entered!
He explored over to his side and discovered equipment and small vehicles and a colossal generator and examined the controls and realized how new it was, and he traced cables from it to more equipment and massive lights!
He activated the generator and it swiftly started, and when the lights brightened he gasped, slipped, and collapsed onto the slippery icy ground!
The cavity was immense and went into the distance, but what really staggered him was the black object at its center! It was immense and bigger than any manmade object that he had seen! It was circular and he estimated it went out for at least quarter of a mile in every direction!
He was staggered and exhausted and could not understand any of it! They surely could not have put it there? The construction of it there would have taken vast resources! They would have had to have vast amounts of men and vehicles being brought in!
How could anyone have been able to hide and carry out such an operation without being noticed?
Even if they had worked on it at night lights and sounds would be visible, and vehicles and airplanes taking in supplies would have left signs of activity everywhere.
The ice cavity above and around him also looked like the ice in the tunnel and as though it was different from regular ice! It seemed to him to have been formed from water that had melted and had been frozen quickly afterwards!
He realized that it could have been built when the large ice station had been constructed and that it could well have been a hidden part of it! Whatever it was it had to have been even more secretive than it!
What the hell was it? It staggered him when he thought of the nature of the ice station! The place had been built for atomic warfare!
Could it be an ultimate atomic weapon and doomsday device?
He realized the danger that he was in and he had to get out, and realized he would have to leave the ice station! It was far too dangerous and he considered if he should have it investigated!
While he started wandering up to the deadly black object he wondered how the thing could even lift off! The power behind it had to be colossal and new and highly confidential!
He quickly returned to where he had been and did his best to remove all signs that he had been there. Except the rope was still attached at the top of the tunnel and he had to ignore it and left! He would have to go into hiding for a month or two and hope that it might be forgotten!
He soon found a vehicle and sat in it and got ready to drive away. He was staggered at his original thoughts of what was there! It did not add up! What the hell was it doing there?
He barely even grasped why the ice station was situated there! The Antarctic was not near anything! Surely America had enough land and hidden places where it could be hidden away? It was located away out there where anything could happen!
He shifted the vehicle away slowly getting use to using it while examining the black object and its immense shape, but never saw anything on or in it, or marks of anything, which would had shown that it had been welded or parts had been somehow fitted together!
When he stopped to feel its surface he was surprised that it was not a type of metal and was some new unknown substance.
There had to be a way into it or something, and he raced along its side gasping at the immensity of it. Now amazed that there had been only two gunmen looking after it! How could it have been so hidden away?
The structure was circular and flat at the top and bottom, and he when he reached the furthest region he realized that it was a least quarter of a mile long all around it, and he was staggered!
Eventually he found an opening tunnel in the ice cavity where large vehicles had entered and left, and he followed a road slightly going upwards to the surface and discovered a vast metal door further up, and he failed to discover a way of opening the lock, and he realized that he was trapped in the cavity!
Once at the bottom again he continued going around the black object searching for anything strange, and slowly started falling asleep, still trying to find a solution to finding a way out and what he had discovered, and finally he allowed the vehicle to come to a standstill against a slightly different flattish region of the black object, which looked like the front of it, where he went to sleep and had strange dreams!
When he awoke a few hours later he had a throbbing head from the cold and he was dazed from his dreams, and he jumped out the vehicle and spotted and stared over at a hole in the black object, wondering where it came from!
It confused him and he even wondered if he was imagining it being there and that it was something else!
Where had it come from? He searched around looking to see if anyone had been there or was about!
How recently had the opening in it formed?
He tried to recall if there had been any marks on it or anything there, and again he wondered how long ago it had appeared? Were there people inside? And how dangerous was it being there?
He moved directly below it and listened into it. It was only a few feet above his head and was a perfect circle at the same size as his height!
It still confused him greatly as he did not have a clue what he was dealing with and he realized that he had to investigate it as he would not forgive himself for letting go a chance of explaining it or getting some information! He was a keen scientist and had also investigated everything of the slightest interest.
He shifted the vehicle correctly below it and stood on the highest part of the vehicle and hoisted himself up into it, fascinated at the dangers and the impact of such a discovery! He had been waiting his entire life to see something like it! Even though the dangers were tremendous!
Light dimly beamed through the hole only lighting a small empty area and he looked about and moved into the darkness further in, where dim black shapes became vaguely visible.
He could not recognize if it was a room or large hall and he strolled slowly and blindly into it, wearily resting, and got ready to escape if he heard or seen anyone and stayed observing what the black shapes were, while he let his eyes adapt to the darkness.
He was sure what was confusing him and stopping him grasping small details was what the whole object actually was! The material it was made of was clearly unknown and capable of withstanding tremendous forces, and nothing was familiar to him, which he had not done in a long time and in such a way!
He felt strangely shaped black things about his front in the blackness, and smelled a musty synthetic scent in the air. His eye pupils slightly adjusted, to the blackness, and he stared at places covered in lines and curves.
He moaned thinking his tiredness and disappointment at not receiving any answers to what was going on! Surely it was something? They gunmen were willing to kill for it! The size and cost was tremendous, as well as their bringing in such equipment and building such an immense structure there!
It startled him and he could not grasp the purpose of such a thing! A curved part of a wall had shapes on it and he tried touching them and seeing if they did anything, but there was no response.
He moved further along to another area and observed a dark shape and had a feeling of something being there, like he was being watched!
Something lifted him and he gasped, and it shifted him away, with nothing visible holding him, and he felt some force moving him away into the interior of the black object, and he realized slowly that it could kill him easily!
He tried to theorize about it but there was nothing he could grasp! All he saw was strange dark shapes!
Was it of military origins? It could be to camouflage the technology and confuse any observers? Whatever it was the cost and time behind it proved that it could take warfare to a new level!
Blackness covered his vision and he felt a strange sensation like he was floating through space, and something opened at his front like an energy curtain, and he felt as though he had entered something strange!
A strange blue radiance shone out so dimly that he could not properly see what was there. It shone like a faint blue star.
It swiftly shifted away and his emotions ran amok when he started seeing spectacular views of space, and he could no longer feel any floor beneath his feet or see any of the black shapes.
An eerie sensation gripped him! Something was not right! He sensed a weird presence of something, which he never recognized!
Nothing but space formed around him in stages as though he were standing out in deep space, and he stood staggered trying get how it was implanted within his mind, and he watched a sphere of light floating through the darkness and passed him, and he realized that it had to be telepathically transmitted into his mind, covering his entire sight with vivid visions.
Strange displays of visions and sounds altered and vanished about him, and they reformed into other things, and visions of space appeared and vanished like something was searching through memories for something, and he was sure something was trying to adapt it to him, so that he could understand it. Some of the strange sounds and lights gave him artificial sensations, which he could not grasp the nature of!
He was sure he was picking up knowledge of things but he could not understand what they were, and he then watched infinitely streaking stars, of solar systems, flickering by.
Suddenly he realized the black object he was in was a voyager spacecraft, which had a new form of propulsion, with mind-boggling technology and powers, and an accuracy and capacity inconceivable, and was built to travel into deep space, and he watched its voyage across star quadrants and through clusters of stars, exploring vast unexplored stars.
He wondered what it had been designed to do! Had they built it to make contact with something that they had detected? Perhaps the radio signals from it had been detected?
He wondered if it was in a probe of immense proportions, as there was no mention of any humans!
There were sights of it exploring worlds, but he could not grasp its mission. He knew that it had to be more than for doing what normal probes did and that alien contact and deep space exploration had to be part of it! Had something made contact with them? Did they have a real Star War program hidden away?
Why did this voyager end up there, embedded in ice in the Antarctic? Was it there as it would not be detected by the rest of the world? It surely would be detected coming down even at the Artic! Yet he could not even imagine such a large object not being detected coming down anywhere!
Willis gasped as new visions appeared and he saw nothing but a vision of blackness, and it hurtled through the outer limits of space and time, racing into this universe, and he watched, staggered, realizing that it had traveled beyond the universe, and he realized it had a way of making vast leaps through space with it, but it was inaccurate, and that star traveling was needed to carry out the majority of its voyage!
For some reason its form was a mass of energy and it became unstable and it created vast unstable energy explosions across space and time, which he realized were so powerful that they ripped at the fabric of space and time and made regions temporary unbalanced and warp, with only its protective energy shield holding it from the effects.
Star formations flashed by, as it continued its pursuit of something, with its sphere of white glowing energy floating by like a colossal ghost. Voyaging through billions of stars, while transforming its energy states further from their original states.
Willis watched the visions vanish and the normal surroundings there emerge, and felt himself being moved away and was left standing at the entrance hole, where he gasped and saw the two gunmen standing below at his vehicle, who aimed their guns at him and ordered him to climb down!
