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Software Vault: The Sapphire Collection
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Software Vault (Sapphire Collection) (Digital Impact).ISO
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marslife.zip
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CHAPTER6.TXT
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1994-07-23
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CHAPTER 6: CRYOGENIC SURPRISE
Everyone turned around, Vicki and Robert came out of the
lab.
"What's going on?" Asked Robert.
"The lift went down with nobody on it." Dan said.
"Don't go near the lift," this was Captain Freeman's voice
crackling over the receiver, "I'm going to lower the camera, to
see what's on the next level, so turn on your monitor."
This Rick did and the camera hovered through the hole in the
floor.
"Your images have been getting pretty distorted," said
Captain Freeman, "there's heaps of magnetic interference in that
place."
The camera found itself in a corridor of sorts, with a row
of almost triangular, large metal objects on each side. These
were actually banks of machinery extending down the sides of the
lift area. The camera turned into one of the wide spaces between
them, the machinery had silvery, elliptical panels along its
length. These were frosted over with ice crystals, with wisps of
cold vapour hugging the ground around the base. The temperature
readings fluctuated. The air was fairly warm, kept that way by
some kind of heaters, though the machinery's temperature dropped
below zero.
Seeing no signs of life or harmful gases, the team decided
it was safe to descend into the next level.
"How are we going to get down there?" asked Clara.
"Good question," said Rick in reply.
As if the lift had known their predicament, it rose up
slowly to greet them as if it had a mind of its own.
"What's going on here?" remarked David, "this thing is
acting weird."
"Yes, very weird," said Rick, "We'll just have to be
careful."
They boarded the platform and went down to the next level
where the camera was waiting for them.
Had they looked up they would have seen a discus-like object
eject from a depression in the ceiling above their heads and
descend through the aperture to lodge itself in a similar
concavity above them.
Somewhere else on the planet, an unseen figure in a brightly
lit room was watching the scientists on a wall screen outlined by
jagged edged crystals which formed the glowing walls.
Rick walked to the end of one of the blocks of machinery, he
rested his hand on the metal and drew it back in pain.
"Christ that's cold!" he remarked.
He found his heavy gloves in one of the pockets of his
spacesuit and put them on his hands. He leaned back again, his
hand shielded from the sub zero temperature of the surface.
There was a click as part of the machinery where his hand was
resting was slightly pressed into the wall. He immediately took
his hand away and stepped back, fearing he had done something he
shouldn't have. There came a low buzzing sound and along the
side of the machinery the elliptical panes shimmered, the
silvery, metallic lustre rippled and disappeared, leaving them
clear and glass-like. The team looked on at this spectacle, now
that the panels were clear of their silvery tint and sheets of
ice crystals, rows of vapoury chambers were revealed behind them.
Inside these chambers, connected to the machinery by assortments
of flexible pipes, were a range of large, lizard-like creatures,
dinosaurs!
"Dinosaurs!" exclaimed several members of the group in
unison.
Those who were dumbfounded just stood in wonderment. After
a few seconds they started to walk the corridors between the
cryogenic chambers. The inside walls of the chamber and parts of
the dinosaurs themselves were coated in a jelly-like substance.
This was riddled with rubbery, bulbous strands of some unknown,
kelp-coloured substance which was puffed out at regular
intervals.
"The aliens must have lived at the time of the dinosaurs and
taken specimens like those animals we saw in the flying disc,"
said Rick.
"That's not all they've taken," said Dan.
"What do you mean?" asked Rick.
"Up in the lab we found on the last level, there was a
viewer which showed the cell structure of a human being. Also
there were a number of Xray pictures, there must be some form of
life still here somewhere."
"Let's just hope it's friendly!"
Captain Freeman was registering everything the scientists
were seeing. He had instructed the wide eyed pilot to explore
further along the seemingly endless corridors with the remote
controlled camera. When he was satisfied there was nothing else
but the blocks of cells containing the frozen, and probably still
living dinosaurs, he told Grey to turn back for the lift.
Clara peered at a ferocious looking Tyrannosaur baby in one
of the cryogenic chambers, above its head was a form of
electronic graph, each cell had one of these, obviously for
monitoring the internal machinery. She moved along the row
towards the lift and was startled by the sound of the camera
hovering over it.
"You startled me," she spoke into the lens, "This place is
amazing..."
She stared at the lift as it descended once again to another
floor. The camera turned to see what had made her stop, and
seeing the hole, hovered through to the next level.
While left unguarded, the aperture in the floor was accessed
by the alien surveillance device. It hovered down, hid behind a
bank of chambers and waited patiently for the scientists.
Clara sped around the corner to find the rest of the group.
"Rick!" she gasped as she found them, "The lift's gone down
again!"
They followed her to the opening in the floor and Steve set
up the portable viewer which Rick had placed on the floor. The
next floor was the same in appearance as the cryonic suspension
gallery they were in now.
************************