Fatal Discovery

Chapter 5

Tom insisted on going, saying that her had "discovered" the hollow area.

The mining pod descended the shaft and reached the area where the hollow spot had been detected. Derek activated a drill on the side of the pod and began to drill through the wall.

“What do you think is behind there?” Asked Alyssa, excitedly.

“Rocks,” said Derek, sounding completely uninterested.

“Oh come on, use your imagination!”

There was a loud crash as the wall on the other side of the mining pod collapsed and the pod itself lurched violently.

“I guess that means we’re through,” said Derek, smiling.

“I guess so,” replied Alyssa.

Derek fiddled with a control panel on the wall of the pod and the pod rotated so that the door faced the hole they had just drilled.

“Would you like to push the button Alyssa?” Derek asked in a mocking voice.

“Why of course.” Alyssa said, grinning. She shifted over to the control panel and pressed the green button appropriately labeled, “Open”. The door slid up swiftly, as the jaws of the three passengers slid down slowly. They were staring at a city. An entire city buried under the surface of Mars. At first no one spoke. Then Alyssa pressed a button on her comm-band and called Fletcher.

“Anderson to Captain Fletcher, I think you should come to the main mine shaft ASAP.”

There was a slight delay and then Fletch replied, “Is everyone alright?”

“Yes, we’re fine, but we’ve found something.” Alyssa almost didn’t believe what she was seeing. “Fletch, there’s a city down her. An abandoned city in ruin.”

“Very funny Alyssa.”

She change her tone, “Do I sound like I’m kidding, Captain.” She put emphasis on the last word, perhaps a little too much.

“What do you mean a ruin city, that’s impossible. Aliens don't exist.”

“I think the builders of this city would have to disagree.”

“I’m sending a team over there right away and I’ll be down as soon as I can.”

“Right. See you then.”

The comm beeped as she ended the transmission.

“What should we do?” Tom looked terrified.

Alyssa pulled a flashlight from a compartment under her seat and strapped it to her wrist. “We explore!” She had a crazy look in her eye. “Just think, we are the first humans to examine an alien culture.”

Derek was staring out the door and the roof of the cavern. “Where do you suppose the light is coming from? It can’t be the surface or we’d have noticed this place.”

“Let’s find out. Is there a scanner on board?”

“Yeah,” Derek detached a scanner from the wall of the pod and handed it to Alyssa, “I guess your the leader for now.”

“Well then, let’s get a move on.” They filed out of the pod an into the cavern. Alyssa began conducting scans of the surrounding area.

“The light is coming from some sort of halogen gas emitter on the ceiling. The halogen is being mixed with some type of element I’ve never seen before to produce light,” she paused as the scanner finished its analysis, “five times brighter than traditional halogen lights.”