But what about that blast? a rebellious mental voice piped up, causing Yuri to freeze once more. He wracked his brain for possible explanations and found none. Anything aboard the UFO that could have exploded would have done so forty years ago when the thing was sunk. He hated to think that he could have imagined it, and it had certainly felt real enough...
Speaking over the short band radio, he tried to contact the other team. "Frost, you see anything strange just now?"
"What are you talking about, boss? Nothing going on here. We're still searching for another entrance," Frost's voice came back, calm and steady.
Roper was not so restrained. "What's going on in there? Tell that asshole, Tower, to stop fucking with us!" his voice crackled over the radio.
Yuri's expression hardened. He was feeling more secure in his situation with the knowledge that the rest of his team were okay and hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. "Tower, you better respond to me right this minute, or we're going to leave you behind on the ocean floor after this prospect, you hear me?!"
The seconds ticked by with no response.
Swearing under his breath, Yuri turned around to backtrack the way Tower had went. He was going to give that son of a bitch such an asskicking for this stunt.
"Boss... we just spotted something strange," Roper's voice came over the shortcomm, sounding remarkably subdued for him.
Yuri felt his throat clench, and had to swallow before being able to respond. "What do you see?" he asked hoarsely.
"I'm not sure... it's about 50 metres away from the UFO, on the opposite side from where we landed. Can barely see it, but it's definitely big and metal. And not alien alloys, the colour is all wrong... almost yellow" Came back Roper's reply.
Yuri tried to think of what it could be. All of the alien UFOs were the same silvery metal colour, and the human produced craft based on alien tech tended to be the same except the Avenger series, which were purple. And alien alloys didn't rust, so that wasn't a possibility. "Okay, Frost, you keep searching for an entrance to the UFO. Roper and Jackson go get a closer look at that thing. Wallace, I want you to swing round the other side of the UFO to meet up with Frost and look for entrances on your way. Clear?"
"We're on it," Roper and Jackson both answered at the same time in an eerie double effect.
"Understood, boss," came back from Frost.
Yuri waited a few seconds and his expression grew more and more concerned. "Wallace, did you copy that?" he tried again.
"Goddamn, Wallace, that's some lameass shit. You're copying Tower's joke?" Roper said snidely over the radio.
"I... I'm not so sure, man. I think this yellow thing is another UFO, and it don't look like it was shot down if you catch where I'm going..." Jackson put in nervously.
"Shut the fuck up, Jackson. The aliens all died forty years ago. This thing is probably just some rusty old submarine," came the agitated response from Roper.
"No way, man. They don't make subs like that," Jackson shot back, his voice rising slightly and intersperesed with rapid and shallow breathing.
"Jackson, calm down!" Yuri commanded harshly. The guy was hyperventilating, and even if they had nearly two hours worth of air each, it was still bad practice for any diver worth his salt. "Now just relax and tell me what you see. You should be closer to the unknown object now, right?"
With an effort that was audible over the comm, Jackson calmed himself somewhat. "Sorry, boss. I dunno what came over me... uh... it looks about half the size of the UFO... I can see rivets and bolts all over it, yeah, so it's not a UFO, right? Those things are always real sleek, aren't they?"
"Yeah, this is probably just some experimental sub that got junked. The design sure ain't familiar. I can see what looks like an airlock, though. You want us to go check inside, boss?" Roper asked, sounding not at all enthused with being asked to do so.
Yuri shook his head, even though the action wouldn't be visible to his team. "Forget it. I doubt a crashed sub could contain anything half as valuable as what's in this UFO. Get back with Frost and resume searching for another entrance. I'm gonna backtrack and check on Wallace. Kid's probably got a bust radio, I doubt he'd pull the same shit as a certain other retard on the team who is soon to find himself abandoned on the ocean floor, ain't that right, Tower?" he raised his voice at the end in hopes of baiting Tower into a response, but recieved nothing. Grumbling quietly, Yuri turned around and started heading back towards the entrance.
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(Posted Wed, 06 Aug 2003 00:46)
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