The Thing: from the Depths of Hell Read Online Free

structures,
leaving deep shadows, probing towards the skyline, and the
deep black abyss beyond .
    Colonel
Pratt unscrewed the cap off a bottle of fruit juice that he held
in his palm. Distant voice s from the other side of the
control room absurdly mingled
in a mass of regular waves through his silence ,
almost engulf ing him, and t he buzz of his communications
device disturbed him until he answered it.
    “ General
Chisholm here , ” a deep voice uttered , from
somewhere at the other side of the spacecraft. “I want you to
personally handle the problem with vehicles with the
spaceship’s Lieutenant Weber . I have enough things to do here!”
    “ Alright. I’ll get on it right
now ! ”
    Chisholm hung up, and left to do something
that needed his entire attention.
    Colonel Pratt was happy to be the military
head of the military presence with the landing vehicles, even
though it was going to be a difficult job, but interesting, as they
were up against the unknown, and he had to be prepared for just
about anything out here in the depths of the universe.
    Lieutenant Weber was great, and head of that
control center, for Captain Powell, who was the captain of the
spacecraft, and ran the spacecraft itself.
    He had a hard time understanding what the
problem was! The entire vehicle crews had experienced losses of
memories, and the claims were that they were not normal memory
losses, and that they had experienced only memory losses in the
regions of their brains that were used for identifying people,
which he never thought was even possible. But with the right
equipment why not! They had mapped everything in the human brain,
and could read and alter anything in the mind, so why could they
not have had particular memories erased?
    It was a strange affair. There was no
motive! Why would anyone want them to lose their memories? What
possible reasons could be behind it?
    He did believe his men, and they gave
detailed accounts of what had occurred, and that they had all
crashed and woke up with the problem.
    Whoever was behind it, if it was not an
accident that is, had to want something hidden? Was there something
out here somebody wanted, and wanted it hidden? What could be on
this hellhole?
    He sat and read the rest of the detailed
accounts, and sat dazed, partially staggered, considering what the
outcome of the affair would be.
    There was a discovery of another vehicle!
Five vehicles had left to scan the world in a detailed surveillance
mission, and six vehicles had returned!
    Moreover, to confuse things further, two of
the vehicles were identical. Someone would have to have sneaked an
identical vehicle off the ship, and driven it out there, and
returned with it, which had to be impossible, unless they had
people working for them in the control room, and they had hidden
what was occurring, and someone screwed up somewhere, and they got
caught, with the extra vehicle carrying out the illegal mission to
get hold of whatever it was, which must have great value to have so
many people, going out to such lengths, behind it.
    Some valuable rare mineral or similar that
could have been detected from the ship, and the information about
it hidden away from them. It could be for military use, and be
exceedingly rare?
    Therefore instead of ignoring the situation,
as an insignificant crime gone wrong, the situation should be
investigated, and he started to consider what action should be
taken.
    They had the upper hand on this – whatever it was
about – and
they had the vehicles and occupants sitting outside.
    The merchandise had to be there, and surely
it had to be in the copied vehicle, which was vehicle four, with
Carl Kruger and Major Ripley inside.
    He knew Major Ripley, and he knew he was not
involved, and that he could use him, if needed.
    He wondered who was in the sixth vehicle,
and looked out the window, miles below, and checked one of the
screens nearby, and examined the vehicles until he came to the
sixth vehicle.
    The vehicle was