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Brent peered over the edge of the platform his foot slipped and Sterne instinctively grabbed him by his suit, preventing him from falling over the edge. ‘Look!’ cried Brent. He indicated below them. An eerie blue glow had caught his attention which was emitting from beneath the platform. Sterne removed a set of binoculars from one of his packs strapped to his side and through them he could see the blue emission clearly.
‘What can you see?’ asked Brent.
‘Not sure, whatever it is, it's either behind some rocks or buried beneath the surface.’ Sterne paused as he studied the view a little longer. ‘The glow appears to be more of a pulse. Like a heart beat?’ he suggested.
‘Here, let me take a look.’ Sterne handed Brent the binoculars. ‘yes, I see what you mean but wait, it's stopped!’ declared Brent.
Sterne snatched back the binoculars and quickly focusing he viewed the landscape beneath them. He scanned the area from left to right and back again, but could see nothing. ‘Whatever it was had gone.’ he said.
‘Come on, let's take a closer look!’ shouted Brent, who was already making his way down a ladder, down towards the surface of the planet beneath the platform.
Sterne replaced his binoculars in his side pack. Well, this is different from the usual routine, he thought and quickly followed Brent.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 Large metal girders towered above them as they continued their descent to the very foundations of the landing platform. There was very little light and both Sterne and Brent had produced their torches from their side packs to see the way ahead of them.
The beam from Sterne's torch scanned the area in front of him. He could see the pieces of twisted metal that had fallen from the platform and amongst this the light from his torch fell upon what they had been looking for.
A large silver elongated sphere lay practically buried before him. Mud splattered the surface which Sterne cautiously began to wipe off. The surface of the sphere was still hot, which he was made more aware of as rain cascaded down from the platform's surface above onto the sphere which gently sizzled and steamed.
‘Brent! Over here!’ shouted Sterne with excitement.
There was no reply.
Sterne, excitedly began to wipe all the mud away from the sphere's surface, anxiously looking for any markings that could possibly identify it. He called out for Brent again as he began to dig the earth away from around its base.
‘Brent! I've found it!’ Sterne shouted again. He took a closer look at its surface and noticed that a crack had appeared. He ran his finger along the crack as a light green liquid, almost translucent began to seep through.
It wasn't much longer before Sterne realised that Brent still hadn't answered him. He stood up and shone his torch in the direction that Brent had gone.
There was no sign of him.
He cautiously moved away from the sphere in the direction in which Brent had gone. Unknown to him the crack that had appeared on the sphere became wider and the green liquid now gushed out as the sound of air rushed in. The sound of the sphere cracking echoed around him, which made Sterne jump. He instinctively moved his torch from left to right and back again several times.
‘Brent?’ The beam of light from his torch scanned the ladder from which they had descended earlier and the surface of the planet above. The light caught something lying face down in the mud. Sterne gulped the air from his oxygen mask as his heart rate began to beat faster as he approached the figure. ‘Brent, is that you?’
As Sterne made his way across, something moved to the left of him. He stopped suddenly and shone the torch in the direction to see what it was. His heart beat faster still, so much so he could almost hear it. Panic was beginning to set in. With no answer from Brent and the eerie sounds of cracking echoing around him, he felt as though he wanted to run.
He looked upwards at the platform. Something was moving across its surface, scurrying. It couldn't be Brent, he wouldn't have been able to get there so quickly, thought Sterne, perhaps it was one of the other crew members. He couldn't shout to them as the oxygen mask prevented this and with the atmosphere being much thinner than that of Earth's it wasn't practical to remove it. With his breathing being much heavier he checked his side pack to ensure everything was okay. He looked up again at the platform. He glimpsed shadows moving across its surface.
 
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saros five page3
