Read The Black Planet for Free Online

our foe.’
    ‘That is a very good point Tapper and I haven’t forgotten it.  As soon as we have enough information, I am going to send a complete, and as comprehensive report as I possibly can back to Earth.  This is really a military problem now and I am well out of my depth.  From this point on you and the colonel will guide me on what you both think needs done.  That means you talk to each other and discuss things before one of you come to me.  Colonel Howe, I will also expect you to lease with military authorities on Earth.  I will not accept any secretive stuff either, am I clear on that?’
    ‘Yes sir,’ both men answered.
    ‘Good in that case let’s get our teams together and find those people.’
     

Chapter 8
    Steven led the way to a lower tier and the lights began to blink on.  Row upon row of cylinder was revealed as the lights came up.  Buzz stopped beside Steven and shook his head, ‘there's more than a thousand cylinders here Stevie.’
    Steven nodded, ‘looks like it.’
    ‘Will they be alive?’
    Steven shrugged, ‘I don’t know Buzz.’  Both seemed frightened to approach the cylinders.
    ‘What if they are dead Stevie?’
    ‘We leave nothing for these people Buzz; one way or another.’
    ‘They aren’t people Stevie.’
    ‘Figure of speech Buzz, chill man.’  He took a deep breath, ‘let’s go look.’
    Amanda Freeling was walking right behind them.  When Steven and Buzz looked into the first container they went pale and seconds later they began to vomit.  She pushed past the puking men and looked inside, ‘Oh!’  Was as much as she could think of to say.  The unit was filled with body parts, including a head with no skin on the face. 
    Colonel Howe looked inside and anger infused him, ‘what the hell were they doing?’
    ‘Experiments with different parts of the body trying to extract enzymes according to the data Babes retrieved.’  She told him offhandedly.  Howe frowned and turned away.   
    Steven stood up straight, ‘Colonel take your team and go find that pod.’
    ‘Yes sir.’  With a wave of his hand his team followed.
    There was row upon row of these ghastly cylinders.  They moved from cylinder to cylinder with a sinking feeling in their guts as they went.  All of a sudden it no longer felt like an adventure.
    It didn’t take Howe long to find the pod room.  It was on the same level but down a different corridor.  Lights on a console still flashed brightly.  ‘No one touch anything,’ he warned.  ‘Babes have you ever seen one of these before?  It looks solid!’
    ‘It is a simple transport pod colonel, it is not self-propelled as the captain thought it might be.  It would be raised to the surface and picked up by a ship that would accelerate the pod then release it.  It would quite simply keep going until picked up on the other side of the barrier.  Once it was near its designated coordinates it would set off a homing beacon and be picked up.’
    ‘Simple but effective.’  Howe mused.  ‘Now how do we get into them?’
    ‘Mr McGuire has a cutter; they are cut and shut as you would say.’
    The colonel looked round, ‘Mr McGuire, would you like to do the honours.’
    ‘With great pleasure Colonel.’
    Matt took out his cutter and under Babes guidance began to cut open the pod.  ‘Like a hot knife through butter,’ Matt grinned.  He cut round the base first then the top as high as he could reach.  Then he cut the cylinder into panels.  When he was finished he gave the panels a bit of a bash with a hammer and the men jumped back as they fell away.  Grey internal cylinders were revealed with a glass face.  They were frosted up.  Colonel Howe moved forward and wiped the first.  It revealed the face of a man.  He wiped more of the glass.  The man was naked and looked to be asleep.  The men moved in to the other cylinders.
    ‘Oh Wow!’  Cookie exclaimed.
    The colonel moved to his side and gave him a push, ‘stop staring