CHAPTER 6: CRYOGENIC SURPRISE
     
     
          Everyone turned around, Vicki and Robert came out of the
     lab.
     
          "What's going on?" Asked Robert.
          "The lift went down with nobody on it." Dan said.
          "Don't go near the lift," this was Captain Freeman's voice 
     crackling over the receiver, "I'm going to lower the camera, to
     see what's on the next level, so turn on your monitor." 
     
          This Rick did and the camera hovered through the hole in the
     floor.  
     
          "Your images have been getting pretty distorted," said
     Captain Freeman, "there's heaps of magnetic interference in that
     place."
          
          The camera found itself in a corridor of sorts, with a row
     of almost triangular, large metal objects on each side.  These
     were actually banks of machinery extending down the sides of the
     lift area.  The camera turned into one of the wide spaces between
     them, the machinery had silvery, elliptical panels along its
     length.  These were frosted over with ice crystals, with wisps of
     cold vapour hugging the ground around the base.  The temperature
     readings fluctuated.  The air was fairly warm, kept that way by
     some kind of heaters, though the machinery's temperature dropped
     below zero.
          
          Seeing no signs of life or harmful gases, the team decided
     it was safe to descend into the next level.  
     
          "How are we going to get down there?" asked Clara.
          "Good question," said Rick in reply.
     
          As if the lift had known their predicament, it rose up
     slowly to greet them as if it had a mind of its own.
          "What's going on here?" remarked David, "this thing is
     acting weird."
          "Yes, very weird," said Rick, "We'll just have to be
     careful."
     
          They boarded the platform and went down to the next level
     where the camera was waiting for them.
     
          Had they looked up they would have seen a discus-like object
     eject from a depression in the ceiling above their heads and
     descend through the aperture to lodge itself in a similar      
     concavity above them.
     
          Somewhere else on the planet, an unseen figure in a brightly
     lit room was watching the scientists on a wall screen outlined by
     jagged edged crystals which formed the glowing walls.
     
          Rick walked to the end of one of the blocks of machinery, he
     rested his hand on the metal and drew it back in pain.
     
          "Christ that's cold!" he remarked.
     
          He found his heavy gloves in one of the pockets of his
     spacesuit and put them on his hands.  He leaned back again, his
     hand shielded from the sub zero temperature of the surface. 
     There was a click as part of the machinery where his hand was
     resting was slightly pressed into the wall.  He immediately took
     his hand away and stepped back, fearing he had done something he
     shouldn't have.  There came a low buzzing sound and along the
     side of the machinery the elliptical panes shimmered, the
     silvery, metallic lustre rippled and disappeared, leaving them
     clear and glass-like.  The team looked on at this spectacle, now
     that the panels were clear of their silvery tint and sheets of
     ice crystals, rows of vapoury chambers were revealed behind them. 
     Inside these chambers, connected to the machinery by assortments
     of flexible pipes, were a range of large, lizard-like creatures,
     dinosaurs!  
     
          "Dinosaurs!" exclaimed several members of the group in
     unison.
     
          Those who were dumbfounded just stood in wonderment.  After
     a few seconds they started to walk the corridors between the
     cryogenic chambers.  The inside walls of the chamber and parts of
     the dinosaurs themselves were coated in a jelly-like substance.
     This was riddled with rubbery, bulbous strands of some unknown,
     kelp-coloured substance which was puffed out at regular
     intervals.
     
          "The aliens must have lived at the time of the dinosaurs and
     taken specimens like those animals we saw in the flying disc,"
     said Rick.
          "That's not all they've taken," said Dan.
          "What do you mean?" asked Rick.
          "Up in the lab we found on the last level, there was a 
     viewer which showed the cell structure of a human being.  Also
     there were a number of Xray pictures, there must be some form of
     life still here somewhere."  
          "Let's just hope it's friendly!"
     
          Captain Freeman was registering everything the scientists
     were seeing.  He had instructed the wide eyed pilot to explore
     further along the seemingly endless corridors with the remote
     controlled camera.  When he was satisfied there was nothing else
     but the blocks of cells containing the frozen, and probably still
     living dinosaurs, he told Grey to turn back for the lift.
     
          Clara peered at a ferocious looking Tyrannosaur baby in one
     of the cryogenic chambers, above its head was a form of
     electronic graph, each cell had one of these, obviously for
     monitoring the internal machinery.  She moved along the row
     towards the lift and was startled by the sound of the camera
     hovering over it.  
     
          "You startled me," she spoke into the lens, "This place is
     amazing..."
     
          She stared at the lift as it descended once again to another
     floor.  The camera turned to see what had made her stop, and
     seeing the hole, hovered through to the next level.
     
          While left unguarded, the aperture in the floor was accessed
     by the alien surveillance device.  It hovered down, hid behind a
     bank of chambers and waited patiently for the scientists.
     
          Clara sped around the corner to find the rest of the group. 
     
          "Rick!" she gasped as she found them, "The lift's gone down
     again!"
     
          They followed her to the opening in the floor and Steve set
     up the portable viewer which Rick had placed on the floor.  The
     next floor was the same in appearance as the cryonic suspension
     gallery they were in now.
     
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