The center was glowing within the torn hulk of the shell. As all aboard Avenger watched the sphere shrank from nearly sixteen thousand meters in diameter to one and a half kilometers across. Radar and magnetic scanners now read all metal remaining was closed armor thick around the center on very short thick solid columns, and all the rock was now on the outside surface and fused into slag. Russell began to suspect the sphere was still capable of some destructive action so he opened fire on it once more. However now the beams were cutting into thick glassy fused rock and silicates, which tended to refract and diffuse the lasers. Rocks hurled at the sphere were now absorbed and fused instantly into the surface. The bombs still produced damage but only gouged and dented the sphere. No penetration of such a thick and well-supported structure was possible. The dish structure had not re-formed but the tracks of the opposite side of the globe were glowing now. Glowing with a pale blue light and getting dimmer by the moment until they seemed to disappear into the sphere’s surface.
Russell’s scanner tech yelled a single word, “What!” then added, “Sir, it’s gone, the sphere itself the metal part, it’s gone!” Russ and all his command room watch were looking at the slag sphere and back at the tech. “If you think I’m kidding,” said the self righteous technician, “bomb that thing again!” Russ nodded to the mass cannoneers again. They each fired two bombs. The bombs contacted, exploded and the slag fragments flew in all directions through space. When the flash from the last blast cleared there was nothing in front of them but stars.
“I’ll be damned,” muttered Carlin. “Did it explode?” asked Russ.
“No,” said the tech, “it was gone while we were watching those lines disappear” referring to the parallel tracks first encountered in Jamie Chung’s cameras. The tech continued, “I read heat patterns, magnetic readings, mass figures, radar image and energy reflection, until those bars vanished, then, it was just gone.”
Russell Carlin had just one remaining question “Well if it’s not here then where is it now!” asked Russell roughly striking the top of his console. Russell looked forlornly at the tech and back up at the bars on the screen. Russ called in to UW Headquarters and reported, “It acted at first like we weren’t bothering it at all, and then it seemed to be ready to fall apart. Then it hunkered down and fended off our beat efforts, and then vanished completely leaving the empty rock shell behind it.” This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The reply came from Earth slowly and in several pieces. “Object has by-passed Jupiter bomb ships,”…… “no data on course or speed,”…… “object within eighteen minutes of Mars orbit”…… “measures one and two tenths kilometers in diameter now”…… “mass drivers seem ineffectual,”…… “projectile weapon striking mass driver sites, total,”…… “repeat total destruction of M.D. sites,”…… “object appears to be landing of Mars location,”…… “Plain of Elysium.”…… “All ships, all ships, general recall, return to OP and await instructions, do not, repeat, do not approach object. All ships…”
“Cut it off Murray,” asked Russell. Return to OP (Origin Point) was an instruction for each ship to go to whatever colony or station it came from and await further orders. For Avenger that meant Earth and Luna base. Russ gave his astro-gator and first officer some brief instructions and headed aft to the Med-Clinic to see Debra. He nearly missed the door entry in his haste down the corridor.
She was awake now and sitting up in the g-bed. “Is it over?” she asked, looking to him for good news.
“No,” he said “It isn’t.” “Are you alright I was afraid you…”
Debra cut off Russ in mid sentence by placing her finger on his lips. “Fine, I’ll be fine” she said, “For now, I was afraid we wouldn’t get out and then, this thing appeared inside the hopper with us.”
“What,” Russ gasped.
“I’m not really sure myself, darling, but it spoke to us in English-Asian (the official language of the UW Council.).” “It told us to go ahead and it would help.”
“What thing are you talking about Debra?” asked Russ.
“The blue globe that showed up in the hopper just after I detonated the charges.”
Russell placed his hand beneath a circle on the doorway and spoke. “Intruder aboard hopper craft, disconnect and distance the hopper immediately.”
Just as Russ lowered his hand and returned into the room he found himself starring at the blue globe floating up from behind the g-bed where Debra sat. Russell drew his sidearm and pointed it at the blue orb.
“No, don’t!” yelled Debra