The Writer. Danilo Clementoni
Kerion â The tragic discovery
"The (|) container has just left the intercommunication tunnel,â announced the tiny Kerian in charge of coordinating manoeuvres. "It will reach the docking point in 0.1 cens."
"I want it brought here immediately to check its contents and analyse the memorised data,â Supervisor RTY ordered his subordinate.
The strange egg-shaped object, from almost sixty-five light years away, had been intercepted by a sort of containment field that grabbed it out of the planetâs orbit and quickly dragged it down in the direction of a large opening in the immense, completely metallic structure, that stretched for nearly two hundred square kilometres along Kerionâs equator.
"Container (|) almost in position," said the coordinator.
"Hurry up and get it brought here," shouted RTY. "We absolutely must find out what happened on /\".
As soon as the casing reached the docking point it was immediately taken into custody by two Kerians with decidedly unusual shapes. One was very similar to a sort of trailer without wheels, while the other was more comparable to a huge crab with six claws. The crab gently grabbed the container and deposited it inside the Kerian/trailer which, after receiving confirmation it had been successfully loaded, without a single sound, set off at an incredible speed in the direction of the laboratories.
"Container (|) has arrived," exclaimed the coordinator. "Inspection team, carry out a full analysis of the content."
Four Kerians, also of somewhat bizarre shape, rushed over to the object and, after immersing it in a small docking area containing an ammonia-based solution, began scanning it internally. Only a few minutes had passed when the smallest Kerian of the four announced, "Nine-hundred and ninety souls present, all in perfect condition. I am sending the log of the events recorded by the capsule to the central system."
"On screen,â ordered RTY peremptorily.
The images showed the surface of the moon rapidly moving away while a large, perfectly spherical object approached the area of underground laboratory /\. After a few moments, a blinding glare almost saturated the footage and immediately afterwards, there was nothing. The whole area was as if it had been hit by a giant hammer. The images showed only a huge flat area of lunar soil, incredibly smooth and polished. The recording continued for some instants showing the satellite increasingly distant, then it was interrupted.
"The laboratory," exclaimed RTY amazed. "It was completely destroyed."
"Thereâs nothing else," commented the coordinator bitterly. "The recording is finished."
"This is a brazen and deliberate attack on our outpost. I knew we shouldnât have trusted that alien species."
"Do you think that spherical weapon was built by them?"
"There are only two inhabited planets in that solar system and there are beings of that species on both. We should not have established our base there."
"Itâs an appalling tragedy," said the Kerian coordinator sadly. âThere were almost ten million souls in the laboratory ready to be transferred. Only the nine-hundred and ninety that managed to escape the disaster through capsule (|) were saved."
"I still can't believe it," exclaimed RTY astonished. "We must immediately notify the Supreme TYK."
Tell-el-Mukayyar â The footage
Petri and his three other friends had meanwhile moved inside Dr. Hunterâs laboratory tent.
"Now I really am curious," said Azakis nervously. "I really want to see what didnât work on your hook system."
"No, my dear friend. Youâll see that things are slightly different," answered Petri as he made a three-dimensional hologram appear, about half a meter off the ground.
"This thing you do always amazes me," exclaimed Jack as he observed the images that were forming right in the middle of the tent.
"Now Iâll go back a little," said Petri as he busied himself with a strange instrument and the scenes were reproduced the other way around. "This is the moment when we took General Campbell, Senator Preston and those two funny characters that attacked us when we were trying to retrieve the cargo, back to Area 51."
âYes, yes. I remember that very well," commented Azakis.
"Now Iâll show you something," and the hologram showed the fat guy approaching Azakis threateningly, then giving him a light shove with his shoulder.
"He thought he could frighten me," said the Alien captain. "He didnât move me even one millimetre. But whatâs this got to do with the loss of the remote control?"
âWait a minute. Let me just enlarge this detail... What youâre seeing is the fat manâs hand as, with great skill, he slips the device off your belt."
"Incredible," exclaimed the Colonel. "A manoeuvre worthy of the best pickpockets who prowl around on the underground."
"With the excuse of giving you a shove he took the opportunity to steal your remote control," added Elisa. "Itâs an old technique that shoplifters hand down from generation to generation."
"He stole it from me?" asked Azakis astonished.
"Precisely, old chap," confirmed Petri.
"And how on earth did he reactivate it and run the self-destruct command? You had even disabled it completely if Iâm not mistaken?"
"Yes Zak. The device had been deactivated. Probably, after they were freed, he and his crony must have started searching amongst the countless information we left the terrestrials and found the way to get around the blocking system."
"Those two destroyed our spacecraft and prevented us from returning home,â blurted out Azakis, angrier than heâd ever been before. "When I get my hands on them, Iâll make them sorry they ever came into this world, I promise."
"Calm down my friend. Whatâs done is done now. We canât do anything anymore. Instead, what we should do, is track down those two lowlifes and get back what they stole from us before they also discover its other functions."
"Why, what else does it do?" asked Elisa intrigued.
"Never mind for the time being. Itâs best you donât know."
"Blimey, so many secrets," replied the doctor a little upset.
"Certainly, if theyâve managed to find out how to activate the self-destruct, they might also discover the rest," said Azakis worried.
"But shouldnât you be thinking about a way to get back home first?" asked the Colonel. "This doesnât seem such an urgent matter to me."
"You're right Jack, but that thing, in the wrong hands, could be very dangerous."
"And those are definitely the wrong hands," added Elisa.
"There may just be a way," said Petri almost in a whisper.
"Well? Talk? Do I have to get down on my knees and beg you?" exclaimed Azakis annoyed.
"That device is equipped with a special power supply system. If we were still on the Theos I could make a device that would be able to identify the trail of emissions it leaves behind."
"And youâve only just remembered that?" Azakis was decidedly angry. "Couldn't you have done it as soon as we found out it had disappeared?"
"Iâm sorry but this search system only works if the object is in motion and weâd taken it for granted that youâd dropped it somewhere."
"Now calm down boys," said the Colonel, reinforcing his words with sweeping hand gestures. "Anyway, from what Iâve understood, you canât do anything without the Theos, right?"
"Well, perhaps I could