Information Gathering (standard:science fiction, 2821 words)
Author: Ben Lees	Added: Mar 12 2015	Views/Reads: 2600/1899	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Two teenagers investigating the site of a meteorite strike find a lot more than they expected...

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


They scrambled up the final stretch of steep slope that led to the more
level ground towards the summit of the hill.  Further up stood the 
short sections of wall and window that were the remains of the small 
medieval fort that had once looked over the surrounding landscape.  
Beyond it, Rebekah could see some black clouds approaching: it looked 
like it was going to rain. 

"How long do you think this dust is going to stay around?" she said. 

"Until it rains again, I suppose.  Proper rain, I mean." 

"Looks like that might be soon."  She looked back at the ground.  "You'd
think there would be more meteorite rocks lying about, wouldn't you?" 

"Not necessarily.  The ones that hit the ground weren't really all that
big, they were just going really fast and hit the ground hard.  The 
pieces are difficult to see among all the other stuff on the ground 
anyway.  You have to go to somewhere like the Arctic to find meteorites 
sometimes because they land on top of the snow." 

"Right.  So they're easier to see?" 

"Yes." 

"You seem to know a lot about it." 

"I looked it up." 

"So where do they come from?" 

"Space." 

"Obviously," she grinned at him, forcing him to continue. 

"Yes, but there are groups of them floating around and when the Earth
passes close to a group the gravity pulls a few of them towards it.  
This was just a group we didn't know about." 

"Right."  Rebekah nodded, making a mental note to read up on meteorites.


They stood in silence for a while, looking over the village below them. 
Rebekah pondered what to say next; she wanted to get Alex to tell her 
more about what had happened during the meteorites but he seemed 
reluctant. 

"So what do you usually blog about?" he asked her just as she was about
to say something about the view. 

"Oh, all kinds of things.  Just what's on my mind sometimes, or if I've
been somewhere or done something interesting I'll blog about it.  And 
when I'm nosey about something I'll try and find out about it and post 
something.  I thought the meteorites might make a good story and you 
kind of had the closest look at them so I thought maybe you could tell 
what that was like." 

Alex nodded.  "Like I say, I don't really remember what happened.  It's
all bit of a blur." 

"Where did you hide?  Could you show me?" 

"It wasn't really in one particular place.  I kept moving around.  I
think." 

"Like where?" 

Alex paused and looked around, thinking. 

"I think I headed off to the side," he said at last.  "I'm really not
sure." 

"You remember which way?" 

Alex paused a second or two and then headed off to the right, leading
her to the side of the ruins and down one of the less steep parts of 
the side slopes.  As they picked their way down carefully the sunlight 
was abruptly replaced by shadow. 

"Looks like it is going to rain," Alex said, looking up at the clouds. 
"Maybe we should head home." 

"Not just yet."  Rebekah produced her phone.  "I want to get a couple of
pictures.  Smile!" 

--- 

Human beings have been recording information for thousands of years;
from paintings and carvings on cave walls to digitised electronic 
records; from looking at the night skies and finding patterns in the 
stars to building and launching robotic probes into space. 

Other species have been seeking and recording information for far, far
longer.  Their probes have travelled for much longer and reached much 
further than ours.  And where humans have been seeking knowledge for 
thousands of years, others began looking even longer ago.  So long ago 
that some of these inquisitive beings no longer exist, having evolved 
into an entirely different form or even become extinct. 

But some of the probes they seeded live on.  They drift through the vast
spaces between the stars for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, 
hibernating until they reach the warmth of some alien sun.  Then they 
wake, their artificial senses slowly tuning in to study their new 
surroundings, to look for something worth recording and transmitting 
back to the place they originated from. 

One such probe was drawn towards a yellowish, main sequence star quite
close to the edge of the galaxy, a star with planets orbiting it.  
Slowly it began to observe the objects it was close enough to begin to 
see: several large gas planets and what might be a few small, rocky 
worlds orbiting nearer to the star.  And between the gas worlds and the 
rocky worlds was a large space containing a ring of smaller, rocky 
fragments, a ring the human race would one day name the Asteroid Belt. 

The probe's curiosity was engaged.  Its artificial mind made a decision
on what to investigate first, gently adjusting its direction of travel 
and heading slowly towards the rocky belt, shutting down most of its 
systems to save power and becoming dormant again until it reached its 
destination. 

--- 

"Can I put it on my blog?" Rebekah asked, showing Alex the picture. 

Alex paused for a moment.  "Okay." 

"Great.  Now if I can get a couple of pics of a crater or something that
would look fantastic." 

Alex looked around.  "How about over there?" 

--- 

Collisions between small objects in space are rare but are still
possible and do occur, especially in regions where small objects are 
more common.  The probe did not become aware of the small rock fragment 
speeding towards it until it was too late to wake itself fully.  The 
iron -nickel shard sliced across its side and passed on, deflected from 
its course and flying off and away towards empty space.  The probe 
began a long and slow spin in the opposite direction, its main battery 
punctured.  It was still too far from the star for its light to keep 
its reserve battery charged enough through its skin to keep it 
operating fully.  Badly wounded and with only its reserve power left to 
wake it later, it became dormant again. 

--- 

"That looks good," said Rebekah, peering at the hole gouged in the
hillside.  "How fast do you think the meteorites were going when they 
hit?" 

"I'm not sure," said Alex.  "Fast anyway.  That's why they all shattered
when they hit the ground." 

"Not this one.  Look." 

--- 

While violent collisions in space are relatively rare, objects drifting
around the same area will, generally, begin to clump together.  Even 
small objects have gravity and this is enough force - tiny though it is 
- to very gradually pull them towards each other.  For the probe, the 
slow attraction of the asteroids it had been heading towards was enough 
to allow it complete its journey to join them. 

With barely any power left, the probe drifted with its new companions,
occasionally waking briefly to scan one of the rocks when it drifted 
close before becoming dormant again.  For thousands of years it 
repeated the cycle, drifting and waking, drifting and waking, slowly 
drifting towards a larger clump of rocks that gravity would eventually 
bind into a loose asteroid. 

Until something happened. 

--- 

"What is that?" Rebekah asked. 

"I don't know.  It doesn't look like a rock." 

The object was partly buried in the ground but looked like it was
roughly the shape of an egg, about twenty centimetres high.  Its 
surface was covered in blackened burn marks but seemed to be a dull 
silvery colour underneath. 

"Maybe it's a bit of a satellite or something," Rebekah said.  "Maybe a
meteorite hit it and made it crash." 

"Maybe.  Or maybe -” 

"Look!" Rebekah exclaimed.  "It moved!" 

--- 

The sleeping probe was waking up fully now.  There had been a major
change in its environment.  Empty space surrounding it had been 
replaced by a rich mix of mainly nitrogen and oxygen gases.  The 
temperature had risen very substantially, as had the pull of gravity.  
There were significant traces of water.  And - approaching fast - the 
probe detected a potential source of the energy it so badly needed.  It 
was time to move. 

--- 

"Rebekah, get back!" Alex shouted, grabbing her by the arm. As he pulled
her back two things happened almost simultaneously.  Firstly, the 
object, which had been slowly tilting itself from side to side as if it 
was trying to free itself from the earth, flew upwards with a violent 
motion before coming to a sudden stop, hovering in front of them.  
Secondly, the rain, which had been threatening earlier, began falling 
heavily, hitting them with massive raindrops that almost knocked them 
over as they staggered away from the hovering object. 

"What is that?" Rebekah yelled against the sudden noise of the downpour.


Alex shook his head and, still with his hand on her arm, moved them
slowly back a step or two away from it.  There was a sudden reddish 
flash from the object and the pair felt a brief wave of heat pass over 
them. 

Then two more things happened, again almost simultaneously.  Firstly,
the object shot up into the sky - unbelievably fast from a standing 
start.  Secondly, there was an almost simultaneous, deafening roll of 
thunder directly overhead accompanied by a massive flash of lightning. 

Instinctively, Alex and Rebekah threw themselves flat on the ground in
case the lightning came again and prayed the storm would just pass over 
them. 

--- 

Several hundred metres above them, the probe reviewed its systems after
absorbing power from the lightning's contact with its outer skin.  The 
main battery, although it would never be back to anywhere near its full 
capacity, was now partly charged, as was the reserve.  With the light 
from the sun to provide more energy when needed, the probe now had more 
than enough to allow it to carry on its mission. 

The data from the quick scan it had carried out once it had fully woken
showed what might be two living beings below.  This was the biggest 
discovery the probe had ever made.  It had rules programmed into it in 
case of just such a discovery: stay hidden, gather information and 
transmit it home. 

The probe glided away from the hill and downwards towards an empty area
where it could hide and begin to properly plan its work.  After so long 
travelling, it had a fresh purpose to its existence. 

--- 

A few minutes later, and almost as suddenly as it had begun, the rain
stopped as the cloud passed over.  This time it was clear rain, not 
red.  A moment later the sun came out again. 

Alex spoke first: "You okay?" 

"Yeah," Rebekah raised her head, grinning nervously.  "That was...
intense?" 

"It was."  Alex grinned back.  "That's one way of putting it." 

"What was that thing?  You saw it too, right?" 

He nodded.  "Yes.  But I don't think anyone else'll believe us.  Maybe
best to keep quiet about it." 

Rebekah paused.  "Maybe.  What do you think it was doing?  Did it want
something?" "No, I think it was just looking at us.  If it was going to 
do anything else I think it would have done it by now." 

Rebekah slowly raised herself up and got to her feet.  She was covered
in dirt and soaking from the rain. 

"Look at me," she said.  "I'm filthy!" 

Alex stood up beside her, wiping his hands on the legs of his jeans. 
"You got enough for your blog now?" 

She nodded.  "I've had enough for today, anyway.  Let's get home and
cleaned up." 

They headed back down the hill in the direction of the village.  As they
walked and talked Rebekah found herself looking up at the sky more than 
usual.  Whatever they had seen on the hillside and wherever it had come 
from, it seemed that it was just looking for information.  Maybe it, or 
whoever had sent, it wasn't so different from her.  Somewhere, someone 
else was nosey too.  Maybe somewhere - in some way, shape or form - 
they were even blogging. 

--- 

Author's note.  Although this story takes place a few days after the
events of my novel, A-Wolf, and also features the character of Alex 
Wolfe, I believe it can be read – and I hope enjoyed - on its own.  You 
can find out a little more about Alex's earlier adventures at: 
benlees.wordpress.com/a-wolf/ 


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