PLEASE READ PART-1 TO REALLY ENJOY THE STORY UNFOLDING.
Captian Lisell assuaged her passengers that they were in no danger once more. And it was just fifteen minutes after the shuttle was directed towards a less used corner of the landing facility accompanied by five hovercraft full of soldiers. The crew had stopped answering questions about what and why and how long ago, on her orders. She called the Ground Control only to be told to stay put.
Finally, two airboats landed on the tarmac the shuttled had vacated more than an hour ago. Essentially huge floating trucks, the airboats were hovercraft tweaked to carry large and heavy loads securely. One of them disgorged techs and medical personnel and a lot of their gear; while the other was set up as the on-site lab. Everyone including Lisell were escorted to the now empty airboat, which was converted to a lounge, with recliners and a couple of mobi- loos.
The techs swarmed the shuttle with a variety of sensors- thermal,radioactive, bio-sensors, electrical and magnetic gauges, optical lenses and sensors to detect chemicals, and so on. While the shuttle was being taken apart, each of the passengers and crew were individually escorted to the lab for medical tests, scans and a variety of tests and reports including their statements regarding the pink flash.
Techs and doctors and engineers and physicists swarmed the crater, everyone having a go at the Symmetrical Egg with different machines, sensors and scanners. People on the space station were busy collating pics and readings they may have picked up. After the first four hours all initial tests found nothing except that the egg had emitted a very low powered electric pulse. After six hours the people on the shuttle were taken to a secure facility to eat, change and rest, still out of touch with the world. After twelve hours the techs working on the shuttle reported nothing amiss or worth investigating further. After thirty hours the techs at the Egg reported that the pulse was in a series of ten, one every forty minutes. Starting with a short very low power emission to a much longer clear pulse. After two days and dozens of tests by different people, repeated at least three times. After giving their statements individually and in groups of four and five, the people on the shuttle were allowed to leave L3 but they still were not allowed to leave the Moon.
Jr. Lt. Koram was the first one to figure out what the series of pulses could be- numbers 1 to ten. The length and intensity increasing by one unit every time. He was informed that the shuttle flight was recreated, using an airboat but nothing happened and the Commander insisted that he should be there with the team when they monitor the second recreation using the original shuttle.
The second recreation ended the same way as the first. The brainstorming session that ensued was about to end in a mess, when Koram -the junior most among them- suggested a wild idea- a final recreation with the same pilot, same crew, same passengers and the same amount of fuel, etc but with a bunch of sensors on board. The next day all the people were brought on board and the shuttle took off as before and followed as exactly as possible the same course and again the pink flash lit up for three seconds. The conference room from where the flight and the Egg were monitored erupted in cheering- old men waving hands and hooting along side women, even the soldiers and officers breaking into smiles; all except the techs at their stations working hard to understand, to organize, to cut and collate data for dispersal to the team.
The media went wild with the story -"ALIEN ARTIFACT RESPONDS".
The next day was a let down with the sensors reporting no change leading to the the flash of pink light, nor afterwards. The only data they had was that the craft was a fraction over ten miles from the Egg at the time of the light show. A new team, of medical experts, neuro-scientists, bio-electrical technologists was sent to L-3. By this time the L-3 team had made arrangements for one more pass- in a military airboat. Seventeen eminent minds and a few others like Jr. Lt. Koram watched the flight on six huge screens, each from a different perceptive while the audio reported directly from the pilots "alcove" in the nose of the craft. The Egg glowed pink again, much to the satisfaction of the observers. Though they soon became off balance, as the electrical pulses which had started, now stopped.
The passengers were again quarantined as the new team started with their tests and scans with an eye for highlighting whatever anomalies they could find and sorting through the data later. Team-2, they were tagged and shifted to a separate building emptied for their use. The older team, now Team-1, not one to be seemingly left behind planned a visit to the Egg. With historical data and current readings at hand. As the armored vehicle bearing Team-1 neared the Egg a blast of power surged from the Egg stopping the vehicle dead and those seated in the front row died- fused and charred in their suits. While many of those behind suffered burns where their hands gripped the metal handles, those in the last rows escaped without harm.
The Military assumed full control, as much as possible, because no one knew what had happened. For the next few days, while the tests and scans of Team-2 were allowed to proceed, they tried to go near the alien Egg. Eventually, after many false starts, they came to the conclusion that metal was the problem. Not much more than a few pounds was "allowed" near at any time. The exact amount varied with the power storage systems and radioactivity. Four people in suits carrying small scanners was okay, even with a few firearms. But two people with a portable laser scan were repelled. The popular opinion was that some sort of a defence mechanism was triggered.
The passengers were not in a good state. Some assaulting the soldiers, others beating up the co-pilot. Even the crew was frazzled. The doctors kept the passengers isolated most of the time and sedatives were prescribed to maintain some calm. The Captain however was one of the few still in control and fairly co-operative. She along with one of the stewards, Adam were in charge of the group at times when they were allowed to mingle. When all the tests and scans failed to show anything of note, cruder methods were suggested.
