Niles started walking away and Alice watched him go. As she turned to reenter the tent she couldn’t help but realize the world was changing fast, and she knew it was time for her and Lee to leave it for what it was to become. Her own end was maybe a few years down the road, but Garrison’s was soon, and in the manner he would choose-not her manner, not Niles’s nor even Jack’s, but his way. She would allow Lee that one and only advantage in their relationship. He would go the way he wanted.
As Jack was on his way to the cave-in, an excited Charlie Ellenshaw came running over.
“Colonel, you’ve got to see this!”
“Whoa, Charlie, take it easy,” he said as he was joined by Sebastian and Carl Everett.
Charlie placed his hands on his knees and tried to get his breathing under control.
“It’s over there. Pete and I found a building that was out of place underneath that giant outcropping of rock. It looked like it was originally a German Quonset hut, but some modern scientific equipment was inside.”
“Okay, Charlie, lead the way,” Jack said, as Ellenshaw turned and they followed.
Just as Ellenshaw said, the Quonset hut was old, but in good shape. As Jack stepped inside he saw Niles, Appleby, Dubois, and Pete Golding standing around a large lab table. Niles stepped back and allowed the three men to see what they had discovered.
“Well, this is what we were looking for,” Niles said.
On the table, secured by some stainless steel clamps, was a rifle, but one the likes of which Jack, Everett, and Sebastian had never seen before. It was about three and a half feet long and had a thick barrel of what looked like steel. Just like the pictures from the Moon, there was a crystal installed on the tip. Only this crystal looked to be shattered. The stock of the weapon was broken and was the only thing that told the weapon’s very old age, as none of them recognized the material. There was a sighting aperture and what looked like a magazine.
“I suspect this thing here,” Appleby said, pointing to the magazine Jack was looking at, “is the power source. It looks like a large battery. This thing must be very heavy.”
“Look at this,” Ellenshaw said. He was standing in front of a thick rectangle of steel. There was a perfect hole in the center of the plate and it had what looked like a small rivulet of molten material running from it. Jack walked over and looked at the target. He sighted through it and saw that it lined up perfectly with the barrel of the strange weapon.
“Someone got it to work,” Jack said and stepped back around the steel plate.
“Yeah, make that past tense. Look at this,” Niles said, pointing out the smashed crystal. “It looks like some kind of overload.”
“McCabe?” Everett asked.
“Odds are that it was him or someone he’d been working with. It looks as though this may have been the only weapon they found in this gallery. Hell, maybe the Germans originally found the damn thing.”
“The thing is, gentlemen, whoever found it got the thing to work.” Appleby stepped up next to Jack and looked through the large hole. “And work impressively.”
“Colonel?”
They all turned and saw SAS Captain Mark-Patton standing at the open door.
“We’ve found a way into the second gallery.”
As Jack and the other officers went off to get the search element ready for the incursion into the second gallery, Niles, Pete, Ellenshaw, Appleby, and Dubois remained behind in the makeshift lab set up by McCabe and his benefactors. They found no research paperwork on the weapon that had been tested, but they did find small granules of what looked to be the mineral. After removing the power pack from the receiving unit of the weapon, it was Dubois, the MIT engineer, who discovered the ground-up meteorite dust inside. It was blackened and hard to the touch, but to everyone’s amazement it was still warm months after testing had been completed.
“The way it’s packed inside this sending unit, it’s just like a battery,” Niles said, as he held the thick magazine-like unit. “These must be conductors of some kind.” His index finger probed two copper wires that protruded from the thickened mass of hardened meteorite dust.
“I don’t understand how the power is converted to light,” Appleby said while examining the receiver where the magazine was inserted.
“You know, hanging out with Colonel Collins and Captain Everett of late, I have had a chance on several occasions to examine our own weaponry. The receiver for the M-16 rifle is basically a port. The real magic is in the ammunition. The gun itself is nothing more than the dumbest of tools. In this case,” Ellenshaw said, as he lowered his tall frame to look down the barrel past the smashed crystal, “I would say that this weapon is just as simple as an M-16. It’s the power that makes it special. Introduce a heat source or electrical source to the element inside the receiver and allow the material to be trapped inside, and this trigger releases the built-up energy that’s dying to get out.”
“I’m not following, Charlie,” Pete said. He pushed his glasses back up his nose and followed Ellenshaw’s example, looking down the barrel.
“Pete, the crystal that you are looking at is nothing but an amplifier and a lens. Together, they create light. Inside the receiver, once you break it down-which, from the shavings on the tabletop, it appears someone actually did-I believe you will find nothing more than a cooling port, and possibly a small light emitter. That is, you will find a lightbulb. A strong one, to be sure, but basically just a long-life lightbulb. Send power to this light source, a lot of power, and then release it to the only open port available, the barrel end of the weapon. It passes through this crystal, where it is amplified in strength just like the reflector plate on an old-fashioned oil lamp, and pow! You have a handheld laser device capable of doing that,” he said, pointing to the steel plate hanging from the ceiling.
As Ellenshaw straightened, he felt eyes on him. He looked at Niles, who was shaking his head.
“Can I ask you what the hell hanging out with Jack has done to you?” said Niles. “That’s amazing for just a five-minute examination.”
Ellenshaw looked embarrassed, not really knowing if Niles was pulling his leg or trying to make a point about concocting a theory without the least bit of proof.
“Actually, I think along the lines of forensic evaluation, as in my field of work there is very rarely any evidence to examine. I guess I have to use my imagination far more than my colleagues here.”
“Well, I for one think it’s one hell of an accurate theory,” Appleby said, looking closely at Niles. “Just who the hell are you people?”
Jack walked up to the area at the base of the cave-in. Several soldiers were removing the last pile of rocks from its base. As the top row was removed, Collins couldn’t believe his eyes. Underneath the uppermost portion, about fourteen feet off the gallery floor, was what looked like a lighted sign, long dead, its face smashed by the explosion that had sent the ceiling crashing down. Jack could guess the meaning of the bright red letters, but turned to Sebastian anyway.
“Galerie-zwei Gar keine Elektronik,” Sebastian read aloud.
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense, Major Krell. What does it say?” Everett asked.
“Gallery Two-absolutely NO electronics,” the German said, his own words giving him the chills.
Jack remembered the strange vibrations he and the others felt every time they used their radios.
“Well, then, if that’s what it says, I believe we’ll heed the warning,” Collins said as the men removed the rest of the blockage.
Soon they were staring at a set of double steel doors. Jack examined them closely and became uneasy at the sight.
“Well, the explosions really warped these things. They’re battered all to hell,” Everett said, running a hand over the steel plate of what looked to be a portal large enough to accommodate a small truck.
“This is worrisome,” Jack said, stepping back to take in the full length and width of the doors. Then he stepped forward and ran his hand over the battered material. “All of this damage is from the other side of the doors. Look,” he said. His hand rose as his fingers passed over a large indentation.
“Maybe rocks battered it from the other side,” Sebastian offered.
