Chapter five
Walters stepped one foot into the leg of the Hazchem suit and into the boot. “Make sure you pull up any slack in the legs,” He said, sliding his hands upwards from the top of the boot to his inner thigh, “You don't want to have it pile at the bottom, you need to be able to move properly.” He slid his other leg in and repeated the process.
Stint stood on the other side of the room getting into his suit, mimicking Walters’ actions. When properly fitted Walters zipped him up and checked the seals.
“Now, when we are in there, do not touch anything, we don't know enough about it to predict any reactions it may have.”
“I’ll be fine,” Stint said sternly.
“Ok, follow me.” Walters turned and headed to the plastic corridor that led into the main chamber. The semi-reflective material had been installed as soon as the object was moved there. At one end a large plastic sphincter sealed the corridor. Beyond that, a large bubble of plastic was inside the main chamber and had been fastened to the inner door.
Walters pressed a large orange button on the wall and a light above it turned from red to green. With a sharp gasp of air, the opening expanded. Walters stepped through first, the plastic bubble separating the entrance from the rest of the chamber. Stint cautiously followed. The rubber soles of their boots clung to the plastic floor and squeaked slightly with each step. Stint could feel the covering slip a little as he passed from the solid tile floor to the inside of the bubble.
“All the way in please sir,” Walters directed. “I’ll need you to stand over there so I can reseal the entrance.”
Stint walked over to the other opening and waited while Walter pressed another orange button on the inside of the sphincter. The seal shrunk down with the same suction sound as before.
“Ok, you can go ahead now,” Walters said pointing at the opening.
“Shouldn't you go first?” Stint questioned.
“I’ll be right behind you, just open it and walkthrough, you’ll be fine.”
Stint gave Walters a suspicious look then turned to the doorway. It was sealed with a plastic zipper this time and held in place with a metal ring large enough for a person to step through. “What’s it made of?”
“It’s plastic, but it's sturdy enough, just unzip it and step through,” Walters answered from behind.
Stint examined the ring for a moment before he raised his hand to pull the zip cord. There was a click as the tag separated the first set of teeth and then slid down. The plastic opening spread apart like a curtain, Stint raised his left foot and stepped onto the carpeted floor of the inner chamber.
As he entered he heard a low humming, it was rhythmic, pulsing, he could feel it hit him like a light invisible wave.
“What’s that?” Stint said as Walters followed him through the plastic curtains.
“That’s the signal we have been trying to analyse,” Walters answered as he zipped up the curtain.
“But I can feel it,” Stint hesitated to move further into the chamber.
“Yes, it seems to be interacting with the atmosphere. It’s not unusual, the sound vibrates all the time. But this feels stronger from the gravitational element.”
Stint watched and listened for a moment. As he looked at the room he saw the aura from the object. It was clearer inside the room than it had been through the window. With each pulse, he heard and felt a new ring emit from the object and then fade past him into the soundproof walls. “Remarkable,” he said to himself.
Walters walked along the flat strip of carpet that separated the foam spikes. It was the only pathway towards the object.
Stint followed slowly looking around the room. It was like standing inside a giant oyster shell with foam teeth protruding down on them. As he walked he felt an uneven lump under his foot. He looked down to see a bundle of cables running along the middle of the pathway. Taped together they wound around and led up towards a black box about a meter from where Walters was. Stint continued forward, as he approached the box the cables fed into one side of the box and then fanned out like the roots of a tree. Each one ended with a small bud in a semicircle around the object.
Walter knelt down near the box and retrieved a small screen that he plugged into the side. The screen flickered blue and began displaying sensor data.
As Stint stepped closer to the egg-shaped object it shimmered in the dim light. The translucency seemed to change as he viewed it from another angle. At times he could almost see it as a solid object but then it seemed to adjust and return to the state of both in the room and not.
“We have been recording the pulse since we found it, we haven't decoded anything significant yet but it has been steadily increasing its output. That's why we set up the chamber.” Walters pointed to the ceiling and walls, “The foam spikes help insulate it from the rest of the complex. This place was originally used for sonic testing by the military, we repurposed what we could and retrofitted everything else.”
Stint looked up at the ceiling for a moment, it was almost like the light was sucked out as he looked up. He lowered his eyes again to the object.
“What else do you know,” Stint asked, stepping closer.
“Not too much Sir. We know we can’t touch it, the field it emits generates some form of force field about four inches around the actual object… or at least where we think the object is.” Walter continued looking through the sensory data. “It may be linked to how it generates power or even some propulsion. We know it seems to generate its own gravity”
“Its own gravity?” Stint questioned.
“Yes, that's how it floats,” Walters pointed to the base of the object. “It’s never touched to ground, even when we found it buried there was a sort of bubble around it.”
‘It’s own gravity,’ Stint said to himself. If they could figure out how it was doing that the applications would be endless. Government policy would dictate that if the technology was deemed suitable for integration it could be utilised. If it was deemed harmful, that was another matter. His eyes focused on the glimmering aura.
“We have put together a team of cryptologists to decode the transmission, so far we know it is repeating but they have yet to figure out what it is actually saying,” Walters continued.
Stint stared at the bands radiating outwards. As he stared they dispersed into colours that then separated again before disappearing into the insulation. “What are the colours?”
Walters stopped what he was doing and looked at the object, “Colours?”
“There,” Stint raised his hand and pointed, “There are colours in the bands.”
Walters stood up.
“There,” Stint traced the bands with his finger.
“We haven't seen that before,” Walters said, cautiously reaching for a sensor. He moved it closer to the object and then stood back looking at the screen. “It’s not showing here” He looked back at the colours. In the second’s Stint had noticed them they had intensified.
“It’s splitting the light,” Walters said watching the rainbow lights fade in and out.
“Splitting?” Stint asked.
“Like a light prism,” Walters rounded the air with his finger tracing the distortion.
Stint watched the bands form and disappear.
“It must be the energy field and the signal interacting with the light,” Walters continued.
“What?”
“That's the signal, and it’s gravity. We have believed for a while, or at least we used to believe,” Walters corrected himself, “That gravity might be used for communication… we think this proves it.”
Stint’s eyes looked empty, “Is it dangerous?”
Walters looked at him, “What gravity?” he said with bemusement.
“The signal” Stint snapped.
“No, as far as we know, it isn't radioactive. At least not at levels we aren't already exposed to every day.”
“How does it do that to the light?” Stint said out loud, asking a question to himself as well as to Walter.
“The signal has a mass of its own, so it creates light dispersion, it's really quite beautiful,” Walters finished smiling slightly.
“So you do know a fair amount about the signal,” Stint said sternly.
“Yes, and no,” Walters sheepishly went back to the panel he was examining.
Moving closer, Stint could see something in the shimmering aura around the object. Something was moving inside. He leant in closer. Something moved again, like a reflection in a pond, he couldn't see what it was but there was something there.
“Something is inside,” Stint pointed.
Walters stood up immediately and walked over, “What?”
“There’s something in there, I saw it. It was in the reflection.”
Walter looked closely at the rippling aura, “Are you sure it wasn't a reflection, maybe yours?”
Stint watched, “hmm, maybe.”
“The light in here does play tricks on the eyes,” Walter remarked.
Stints’ eyes did not leave the object, he stared. He stared until the room felt darker. Until the waves began to pull instead of push. He saw the rainbows drift past him as he looked deeper into the aura, and then it appeared. A shadowy object directly in front of him. He stepped forward and so did the shadow, it was looking back at him. The Shadow was the outline of a head and shoulders, someone was inside.
to be continued.
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ADH Thomas
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