The Antarctic Discovery (Novelette) by V Bertolaccini Page A

originally been activated and opened by his dreams and
thoughts!
    The Russian ice
station was further ahead and small and looked ancient and from a
century ago, and he imagined figures like Captain Scott arriving
there.
    When they
finally got near enough to see it properly they started to see
buildings had been burnt down, and some smoke and steam still
coming off them, and being blown around in gusts of cold polar
winds, while gusts of snow blew around them.
    Some form of
battle had clearly taken place there! There were bodies lying
around everywhere! The snow around Weaver was too deep and the
terrain virtually impossible to get quickly across!
    It was
incredible that they had actually not landed later than when the
sun was going down.
    What had
happened? It looked like the seen of a small battle!
    They approached
slowly and they saw that many of the Russian renegade gunmen had
been killed there! It proved that they were more maniacs than he
had predicted! They could easily have met and held up the
inhabitants of the ice station with guns. Instead they had a battle
with them!
    He was also
sure that they had not been able to do what they had intended! He
was sure that someone had warned them about their arrival!
    He believed the
pilot and airplane that was to land was with them, and would see
them if it appeared and landed.
    They swiftly
shifted about the small ancient building structures, searching for
signs of them, and found that they had all gone into one building,
which was the largest there, and they searched all the other
structures and about the base and surrounded the building.
    He thought of
the incredible operation the Russians must have carried out getting
the voyager at the other ice station and wished that he had been
part of it, and the digging up of the black object beneath the ice,
and them digging out the cavity.
    The amount of
equipment and men they must have used must have been tremendous,
and they must have gone to incredible lengths to get people into
the ice station, and to monitor it and prevent them discovering
what they had been doing.
    He wondered how
long they had been there trying to enter or make contact with it,
and then a stray scientist from the ice station entered the cavity
and simultaneously made it into the voyager.
    He recalled
when one of the Russian scientists had told him and that Willis had
entered it and it had shown him its flight in space!
    He was sure
that it had wanted something, and perhaps it wanted someone to
pilot it, and he was sure he never gave it what it had wanted.
    He went over
and over it through his mind trying to grasp some clue that would
show him what it wanted.
    He examined the
soldiers ahead of him moving in closer, preparing themselves for
action and were ready.
    A loud blast of
a gun exploded out and he saw one of the front soldiers beside
Commander Craven was hit and Weaver swiftly moved behind a wall,
preparing for the gunmen to attack.
    The bullet had
instantly killed the man and he was heaped over the snow and he
realized that someone had blown their cover and they had given away
their element of surprise, and he realized it was one of the
Russian soldiers from the Russian base that had given them away! He
then realized that they could very well be in it with them! The
Russian soldiers with them had not been checked out and had even
been with them!
    It was lucky
there was cover for all the soldiers and they rushed into position
and he watched the Russian soldiers and what they did and wondered
what he was missing about them.
    Suddenly
soldiers rushed forward fast shouting at them to throw down their
guns and started blasting at them with everything, and bullets flew
out everywhere hitting the snow all about them, and the gun battle
stopped and they shouted to them the gun battle was over and they
all moved in.
    He rushed in
the building and realized that there were only six of them left,
and two were dead on the floor!
    A Russian
soldier with them