Chapter 16 - Part 2

Anthony investigated Ebbe's pale, angular face for any hint she was taking the piss. If she were, it was out of character, and frankly, her face seemed the picture of reason. Her eyes unwavering in their piercing intensity, seemingly boring a hole through the dumbstruck Carter. 

If there were any humour in this scene, it was certainly seeing that fatuous politician reduced to a mumbling fool by this petite framed woman. Anthony saw the switch of power jump like a spark of static electricity. In that split second Carter's shoulders had slumped from being taught and proud, to quivering and frail. Ebbe, in contrast had seemingly grown in stature, commanding the attention of the room like a conductor.

"Let me see," he finally spoke, wanting to understand what had so shaken their esteemed leader. He knew better than to immediately question the frankly bizarre assertion that they were not on the planet earth. That was a tad too much to comprehend, no matter what he had seen of late. Let's peek through this magic telescope of hers before I make myself look stupid, he decided.

Ebbe said nothing, only gesturing to show he was more than welcome to see for himself. Slinging his gun over his shoulder, to rest on his back, he stepped towards the eyepiece with unexpected trepidation. 

Fear no man, fear no beast, fear no unknown, he repeated an mantra his dear old mum had cooed to him as a young boy to allay his concerns about the unseen terrors in the dark recesses of the bedroom at his grandmother's farm. I am fearless leader, he added, which brought forth a little smile to his lips. 

Crouching to squeeze into the sculptured seat, he glanced at his colleagues, all watching him as if he were walking to the gallows, to be strung up by the neck until dead. Their eyes wide, like deer who've just heard the hunter step on a twig. 

His eye wrapped around the black scope and he took a few seconds to adjust to the view. For a moment his brain couldn't discern anything noteworthy. He could see white and grey contours, dappled with black pits. It was only when he pulled his eye away and looked up at the blackness above that he understood it was a portion of the moon within the eyepiece. With renewed understanding he looked back and concentrated on the image. It struck him as odd that Ebbe had focused on a hunk of the moon, and left a portion of black space in the lower left corner. Was it the moon, or the area of space she had been aiming at? What was he missing? Had the scope been adjusted since Carter peered through it and immediately saw something that drained the blood from his smug face?

No, it was no toy telescope that could be bumped by a careless elbow. This beast would only move if its master, Ebbe, commanded. And the master was not one to make careless mistakes. She aimed it where she did for a reason, and it was he, being a layman who could not see the stars for the solar system who was missing what was presumably in front of him.

But wait, there! The segment of space within the viewfinder was not the simple black void he had first imagined. There appeared to be an image, some sort of structure, or design, faint, but definitely discernible. Was it behind the moon? Or opposite? Impossible to tell without understanding the scale, but it appeared to be some sort of honeycomb configuration. The more he stared, the more obvious it became, until the pale white glow of the moon started itself started to look more like a two dimensional overlay upon this structure. 

He forced himself away from the telescope to discover he had begun to shake. He clenched a fist forcefully, physically rejecting the nerves that the unearthly sight had started to instill.

Unearthly, he pondered, staring out at his team through a light, hollow head. Unearthly. That was exactly what Ebbe had said. But what did she mean? Surely there was some other explanation, a space station, or satellite, maybe, yes, maybe an alien craft. Maybe the telescope is simply defective. Surely that was it, the lens was structurally damaged and the honeycombing was being falsely projected back to their ignorant eyes to mis-comprehend.

But Ebbe was no fool. Ebbe would know if it were faulty equipment. That would be the first thing to check. It's what he would do too. 

"Could it be the lens?" he asked, wanting to be sure she had eliminated the obvious.

"First thing I checked," she responded patiently, just as he suspected.

"Why do you say..." he stumbled over his words. It sounded too far fetched to be discussing the concept this was not Earth. Because if it's not Earth, then what in God's name is it?

"Call it an educated guess," Ebbe answered, clearly understanding exactly what he was trying to ask. "The discovery of the control room only further backs up my theory that we are living on an unnatural construct."

"Day to night," Anthony mumbled, marvelling at the thought that buried beneath the English countryside was a machine that could determine the time of day in the sky above, his head giddy with an influx of thoughts, his stomach churning like a raging sea.

"I can't be sure, of course.The technology beneath our feet is beyond all my wildest comprehensions. It's akin to seeking the Holy Grail and instead finding God himself," Ebbe enthused, gesticulating with wild-eyed enthusiasm. 

She enjoys this, Anthony chuckled inwardly, finding the thought somewhat comforting. 

"So, o' fearless leader," he began, forcing himself to make light of the moment, for fear of losing his sanity in an abyss of the unknowns that were encroaching upon him like dark demons, "what do we do now?"

Ebbe's eyes lit up, and her mouth curled into a sly grin, which reminded Anthony of the look a shark gets as it's about to kill. 

"Carter here is going to get me a spaceship," she declared dramatically.