The Menagerie 2 (Eden) Read Free Page B

platform situated on a marine terrace beside the structure. I would suggest that you get some sleep. After tonight there’ll be little rest since we’re within a budgeted time frame.” He tipped his head in valediction. “Ms. Moore, Mr. Savage, do have a good evening. And please see the ensign regarding your accommodations for the night. I’m afraid they’ll be quite spartan, seeing this is a naval ship and all.”
    “We’ll be fine,” said Savage. “And thank you again, O’Connell.”
    “My pleasure.” After giving a second nod, the DOD official turned and descended the stairway, leaving John and Alyssa to themselves.
    On the horizon the sky turned various shades of different colors, going from orange to red to mauve, finally evolving to complete and total darkness. Above them a canopy of stars glittered like a cache of diamonds spread over black velvet. Below them, glowing eerily from beneath the water’s surface, were numerous banks of lights.
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    John and Alyssa leaned against the ship’s railing and noted the tinsel-and-glass glitter of the peninsula’s surface which reached out of the star-lit sky in the distance, the sky and the water blending into a gorgeous horizon of pinprick lights and gentle swells.
    Alyssa drew closer to John, who corralled her with a sweep of his arm. “There’s no way I’m going to sleep tonight,” she told him. “There’s just no way.”
    “Like a little kid on Christmas Eve, huh?”
    “Think about it,” she said, looking down at the muted lights beneath the water’s surface. “Down there is a remnant of what scientists believe to be the bolide that collided with Earth nearly sixty-five million years ago when, in fact, it’s nothing of the sort, but something celestially created. Can you even begin to imagine the level of intelligence of this race? Or even comprehend their capability to manufacture such a craft nearly six miles across?” She looked at him. “O’Connell said this race was perhaps above us on the evolutionary scale as we are to the amoeba.”
    “And he’s probably right,” he said. “Remember when a team of scientists got excited over the discovery of a block of ice on Mercury? A block of ice. When all along a race of beings existed sixty-five million years before us, and perhaps a race sixty-five million years before them, and there’ll most likely be another race sixty-five million years from now—after us.”
    Just then they followed the tail of a star crossing the sky. Instead of making a wish, Alyssa considered other aspects. “Who’s to say that right now, as we stand here, that a meteorite carrying an inert species of microbe just landed in some planet’s ocean. And then its life was jumpstarted the moment lightning struck the surface of the water?”
    Savage said nothing.
    She leaned her head against his shoulder and looked downward, into the lights. There are writings down there, she considered, ancient script similar to the ones discovered in Eden. So was there a correlation between the two? Did Eden share ties with this vessel? Even when the distance of time separated them by nearly sixty-five million years?
    Tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough , she thought.
    Not fast enough at all .
     

 
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    The sleeping quarters, at best, and as O’Connell stated, were very spartan. It was a small area with two bunks, a desk that divided the area between the bunks, a closet, and lavatory. Alyssa lay there with her eyes staring up into darkness, listening to John’s slow and even rhythm as he slept on the adjacent bunk. I’m glad someone can sleep .
    When morning arrived, Alyssa was in the lav getting ready while John slowly sat up and planted the bottoms of his feet against the cold-plated floor, then rubbed the morning itch out of his eyes with the heels of his hands. His hair was in a wild tangle and a bearded growth was beginning to emerge.
    “Morning, sunshine,” Alyssa said, returning toiletries to