Saucer

Saucer Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: Saucer Read Online Free PDF
Author: Stephen Coonts
Tags: Science-Fiction
handprint!
    Just like the ones he had left in the dust on the skin of the ship… a handprint in the rock.
    He blew all the sand from the print. Placed his own right hand in it.
    The print in the stone was just a tiny bit smaller.
    He sat down and stared at the print, trying to understand.
    Finally he covered the print with loose sand, then packed the sand in hard.
    He had the compressor going and was jackhammering rock under the saucer when the others arrived in the Jeep. He heard them drive up when he paused to move the hammer and rearrange the handkerchief he had tied over his mouth and nose.
    Rip Cantrell grinned to himself. Yes. Today was going to be the day!
    About nine that morning the men took a break from moving rock and rigged the tent, which was really a large tarpaulin without sides. An hour after they resumed work they uncovered a corner of the hatch in the bottom of the saucer. It was just aft of dead center, the thickest part of the ship.
    The hatch cover joined the rest of the fuselage in a joint that was so fine it was easy to miss. As usual, Rip noticed it first.
    They worked feverishly to break the rock loose from under the rest of the ship.
    Panting from exertion and excitement, Professor Soldi crawled in and lay on his back, looking up at the hatch, which was about two feet above his head. Rip and Dutch lay on each side. In the center of the hatch was a drumstick-shaped cutout. At first blush, the cutout channel looked like an engraving. It was no more than a hundredth of an inch wide, if that.
    Soldi wiped his hands on his shirt, then used his fingers to wipe the dust from his glasses. “Look at the workmanship,” he whispered.
    “Should we open it?” Dutch asked.
    “You’re assuming that we can,” Soldi remarked.
    “Of course we can,” Rip said, his voice reflecting his optimism. “I’ll bet this whole ship is just the way they left it. There isn’t a speck of rust on it.”
    Soldi reached up and caressed the hatch with his fingertips. “We are on the threshold of a new age.”
    “Let’s do it,” Rip said. He was out of patience.
    “Relax, Rip,” Taggart rumbled.
    “Perhaps we should wait for experts,” Soldi muttered, probably just to rag the young man beside him, who was almost quivering.
    Dutch Haagen was kneeling beside a landing gear skid. “I really don’t want to meet anyone who claims to be an expert on flying saucers,” he said. “Let’s just get on with it before Qaddafi’s boys arrive and run us off. Besides, the suspense is killing me.”
    Soldi reached over his head. He pushed gently on the small cutout. Nothing. Pressed on one end, then the other. “This is like pushing on a bank safe,” he said with his teeth clenched.
    He pushed, tugged, pried with his fingers. Nothing.
    “There’s gotta be a trick to it,” Dutch remarked.
    “I’m sure there is,” Dr. Soldi agreed.
    “Let me try.” Rip bumped his hip against the professor, who glanced at the youngster’s eager face, then moved over.
    Rip put his hand against the cutout and held it there for a moment. Then he pressed on the large end. It gave. The small end moved down away from the fuselage.
    “How about that!”
    “It’s sensitive to the heat of your hand.”
    “How did you know that?”
    “It just makes sense. Doesn’t it?”
    Carefully Rip grasped the handle. He applied pressure downward, then sideways. Finally he tried to rotate it. Now the handle turned, then the rear edge of the hatch moved inward.
    The hatch opened slowly, making a tiny hissing sound.
    When the sound stopped, the four men laid frozen looking at the gaping hole in the ship’s hull.
    “Oh, man!” Dutch exclaimed.

C HAPTER T HREE
    Professor Soldi crawled toward the open hatch and sniffed the escaping air. “It is air, all right,” he said, “but the aroma is a little strange…”
    “That hatch has been closed for a very long time,” Dutch Haagen remarked, more to himself than the others.
    The professor stuck his head
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