Silence and Debate

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The explosion rocked the hallways of the building. People ran and scattered, the sound of screaming filled the once quiet rooms. Bits of metal and debris broke off and hovered around the building. The air rushed from the rapidly, widening, hole in the wall. People were lifted off their feet as they tried to look for anything they could to stop themselves from flying to their deaths.

Then came the silence.

Most silences are comfortable ones. Ones born of peace and relaxation. Even the ones that are uncomfortable only last for a little while before they are filled again. But this was different. As the alarms cut off people began to gather around the hole. The blueish light of the forcefield that sealed the hole was the only thing lighting the once bright room. Everything was silent as people began to come to terms with what had just happened. The lights in the room flickered on, and the computer's voice crackled over the intercoms.

"Life support has been re-established. All personnel in the vicinity of the breach are to report to the medical lab immediately for a full body scan." There was a long pause as everyone stared frozen at the foreign piece of metal lodged in the wall of the base. It was a sharp contrast to the whitewashed, angular, walls and padded tubes that ran about the room's walls and roof. The metal was perfectly sleek and without a scratch even though it had just rammed its way through six layers of Nextel, six layers of Kevlar and a protective layering of aluminum on top of that.

"Warning, unidentified lifeform breaching the base."

"What is going on!? What happened? The computer did not report a weakness in the interior of the..." he froze, staring at the object surrounded by the forcefield. His blond eyebrows disappeared into his matching hair, as he scanned the room. Registering what the computer had said, he put together the pieces most of the other scientists had.

"Let's get a team out there. We don't have time to wait for earth to send us back up. If there really is something in there, we can deal with it ourselves."

Nervously, some of the scientists made their way towards the door, grabbing space suits from the walls as they went.

"What do we do if it's hostile?"

"Ya, we can't go in there blind!"

"How do we talk to it?" People started to panic. Those who had started putting on space suits froze halfway into them and started yelling at each other.

"Warning, life signs are dropping"

"Enough already! You all heard what the computer said-- do you all really want to be responsible for its death?! Come on! It is obviously hurt. We have to do something, we can't just let it die!"

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