The Thing: from the Depths of Hell Read Online Free Page A

identical to the fourth
vehicle, though slightly aged, which could mean that it was an old
version that they got hold of to use, from somewhere.
    Looking about he started to go over
everything, in case he had missed anything, and considered if there
could be something on the world that did not want them to know of
its presence.
     

Chapter 6
     
    Something Gone
Wrong
     
    The situation
seemed to get worse as they sat there over hours, waiting for some
form of announcement that they would soon be able to go aboard, and
Kruger began to come up with new worries, and that the oxygen
supply could be lower than the vehicle had announced it to be.
    He had a
headache and his breathing was slow, and the air was weak, and he
wondered what had happened. He could not think of any reason that
could properly account for it and gave up.
    Distant voice s from the communicators absurdly mingled in a mass of complaining sounds, as the other
vehicle occupants tried to get information and brought aboard and
were continually let down or not answered, and he drearily
dozed , in his silence , with his ear
crammed against things to stop him hearing it, more and more,
almost engulfing him in the monotony, and
a buzz from the communicator to the GX1 control center
brought him awake.
    “ Colonel Pratt here , ” a heavy voice announced , as Major Ripley turned the
sound up. “I am handling everything!”
    Colonel Pratt was happy to be the military
head of the military presence, and with the landing vehicles, which
was going to be a difficult job, but interesting for him, as he was
up against the unknown, and he was prepared for just about anything
there in the depths of the universe.
    To Kruger he sounded as if he had been given
a hard time, and hard time understanding the problem. He confirmed
that the entire vehicle crews had experienced losses of memories,
but not just normal ones, 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 possible, especially
not wired up to a machine. There were also people aboard that had
experienced it too, but only about people aboard the vehicles, and
much of the information had been erased from their records on them
too, and that they were investigating everyone and everything
involved.
    It was a strange situation to him, as they
had not come up with any information on what the motives of the
people behind it were.
    Kruger also could not get any proper motive
to explain things, and how they had carried it out.
    He sat and listened to the detailed
accounts, and sat dazed, partially staggered, considering what the
outcome was going to be.
    Then there was a discovery of another
vehicle, which seemed to stagger Major Ripley and Kruger
simultaneously, while Dan sat silently observing them, not moving,
examining everything.
    Five vehicles had left to scan the world in
a detailed surveillance mission and six vehicles had returned!
    Moreover, things were confused further
by two of the vehicles being identical, and by the fact that they
had to have brought an identical vehicle aboard the GX1, and
sneaked it out with them, and returned with them, which seemed
impossible with the technology and surveillance of everything they
had – unless they had people working for them as leading engineers
and in the control room – and they hide what was occurring – and they
believed someone had screwed up somewhere, and they got
caught – with the extra vehicle carrying out the illegal
mission.
    Colonel Pratt, with his military view,
believed some valuable rare mineral could have been detected from
the ship, and the information hidden, which could be for military
use.
    They believed the merchandise may be still
in a vehicle, and they were monitoring all the vehicles, especially
the sixth vehicle, and they were going to allow each vehicle to
enter through the energy screen, one at a time, and check them.
    Kruger sat amazed, wondering where