when we have the technology to open it? We don't know what lies inside do we. It might be a simple casing, or it might be the walls to a sub-surface city. We might never get in? And then, have you ever thought that we might find something which could destroy us?"

"If we find a treasure chest, I'll be happy!" joked Ralph.

"Treasure?" said Paul, "It may be treasure, and it may not be. What is precious to one man is poison to another."

Phillip was the only one who felt the pressure of responsibility coming irresistibly down. He realized that he was on the brink of something too big to handle. If he tried to cover it up and forget it, his conscience would scream at him. If he tried to ignore it, his curiosity with never leave him alone. He was trapped. He couldn't put a name or face on the creatures who had built this metal shell, but he almost cursed them. They had tricked him, and the human race, into a corner from which they could not escape.

SEVEN

The mood at base had changed slowly over the last few days. Even Ralph wasn't so complacent. What irked all the men was the feeling that they were the first humans to know for certain that there was some sort of intelligent life in the universe, besides their own. It was a matter if simple logic to go from this conclusion to several others.

If there was another form of intelligent life 'out there', was it belligerent? Condescending? Patronizing? Would it come back? Could humans communicate with it? What had the false moon been planted for? What was inside it?

For hundreds of years people on Earth had joked about aliens. There were many great movies about them. HG Wells had had his War of the Worlds produced and re-produced many times as each generation played with the idea of some other life in the universe suddenly making itself known to humans. An anti-alien organization had been very vocal too, afraid that if Mankind broadcast its presence, it might attract an invasion!

But the idea had always been fun to play with. For centuries no contact had ever been made, and only theories and assumptions had been presented by the scientific community. Not too many people had really thought about what would happen if it was really, absolutely true. What significance would human life represent if life could evolve elsewhere? What if creationists were wrong, and all life needed was a pool