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MillionNovel > The R.A.C.E Alternative > Chapter 7

Chapter 7

    As Debra Hilds piloted number three inside, number two left the hatch and followed, with tunnel lights on, both hoppers descended toward the center of the sphere where all the columns joined.  On reaching the center Hilds decided to see it from all sides first, then land.  Weaving in and out between the columns as they circled the center, temperature probes indicated that the center mass was several hundred degrees warmer than the shell or columns of the sphere.  As the hoppers approached the three quarter mark of their circle around the center they saw a column that was much larger than the others here at its base but there was no noticeable difference at the other end.  Grid coordinates placed this as being the column under the dish structure on the surface.  Hilds orbited the center twice looking for an entrance, but found nothing.  Sapps was under the impression that a thirty-foot opening could be made between the column bases as they had done on the shell.  Hilds felt that the center cold indicated other energy was present also.  She proposed a smaller opening, say two meters and two of her team could go in, while two waited in the hoppers at the entrance.  Sapps agreed to this reluctantly feeling the crews were in risky enough straits being inside the alien artifact at all.


    Debra hailed Sam Kohan in hopper number two and outlined her idea.  His assistant Greg Alvich would go in with Debra, Sam and Tony Calvin would stay behind.  As Debra hit the plasma cutter control of her hopper the whole thing became academic.  The last thing she remembered was light, blinding white light that seemed to burn her eyes even after her eyelids were closed.  The scientists aboard Argus were still blind from the white flash they had seen through the monitors, as the crew reported the sphere was rotating.  As commander Sapp’s sight cleared, he saw the round shape of the dish pointed directly at his ship, his mind conjured a word from history “weapon” and he was totally sure that’s what it was.  “Computer” he called, “course to Charon, one tenth C, initiate!”  But Sapps was too late, as the Argus turned and accelerated a beam of pure white light engulfed his ship and an instant later both were gone.  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    No one was present to see the “hatch” move outward from the sphere’s hull, see the three inch cables snap and the edges of the hatch reform themselves into the hole.  Every core hole drilled in the sphere disappeared, and the cable pieces were absorbed by it.  Telemetry from Argus was gone, the two AV relays were gone (absorbed by the alien hull).  Debra Hilds and her three teammates were alone in their ships inside an alien spacecraft and trapped.  None of their energy tools would work and the fusion drives were cold.  They had battery life support up to three weeks worth if they were careful.  And racks of seismic charges they couldn’t deliver.  They set two times to call each other daily, so as not to waste life support on communications, and waited.  They did know the hatch had repaired itself, sealing them inside, but had no idea Argus was destroyed.
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