Author’s Note: This is an unedited and incomplete scene from Reapers chapter 9. I wrote this and then decided to go in a different direction with it. There actually is a revelation about something they discover in this scene at the end of the book, but it’s different than what’s here. As with other deleted scenes that I post here on the site, this never happened in the story and is not part of the canon. I’m simply posting it here for the interest value. In this scene, Charles, Richard, Giles and Savaric are taking sensor readings on Purgatory.
[hr width=”65%”]
“All right, let’s see now…”
“Anything interesting?”
“Nothing we haven’t seen before. They’re aware of the drone and they seem to be curious about it, but…”
“But what?” Giles asked.
“They’re flying up to it, like moths to a flame. How strange.”
“Why would they be doing that?”
“No idea. Only some of them are doing it, but there seems to be more and more interest in it the longer it’s there. Perhaps they’re mistaking it for one of the reaper drones?” Savaric suggested.
“Could it be giving off some sort of a signal that’s attracting them?” Giles asked.
“It never attracted them before.”
“The only two we were ever really close to with it was the one that possessed Charles, and then Diedre’s. They were both too busy to pay much attention to it though.”
“I know. I just wonder what effect this would have on the drone if I didn’t have it shielded from them,” Savaric said.
“No idea, but it is odd.”
“I’d better bring it back. Do we have all the readings we need on the other equipment?”
“Everything except for the dead sun,” Giles said.
“Can you remote view it to find out if it’s truly dead?” Savaric asked.
“Sure, just a moment,” Giles said as he opened his mind to remote view the dead sun. “It’s…”
“What?”
“I’m sensing movement…reaction. I feel like it’s fully active,” Giles said.
“Fully active? How’s that possible?”
“I’m not sure, but it does appear to be active. The absence of light led us to believe it was dead, so we went with that assumption and never looked into it any deeper, but I’m sensing what appears to be a normal level of solar activity.”
“And yet there’s no light?”
“Perhaps there’s something different about this sun and the energy it’s giving off,” Giles suggested. “Maybe it’s giving off some form of energy on a wavelength that we can’t see visually.”
“Or maybe it’s actually creating darkness instead of light,” Savaric said more to himself than to Giles.
“How is that even possible?”
“It’s probably not. Hang on,” Savaric said as he send the drone high up into the sky, leaving the swarming energy forms to go about their business, just as they’d been doing before it arrived. As soon as the drone passed through the upper atmosphere and went into orbit over the planet, the screen lit up.
“There it is,” Giles said as he looked at the display on the remote along with Savaric.
“And yet none of the light is getting through, nor did I see the sun on any of the displays on that ship I was on.”
“So what’s the deal here?”
“Hang on, let me bring the drone back down into the upper atmosphere for a moment,” he said as he manipulated the drone with the remote. “Ok, now it’s starting to make sense.”
“What is it?” Giles asked.
“Look at this. What do you see?”
“I don’t know. What is that?”
“It’s some sort of a dense concentration of particles that shouldn’t be there. I noticed a bad drag on the drone all of a sudden before it went into orbit,” Savaric said. “If I had to guess, I’d say we just found our answer.”
“You think something happened here that sent a bunch of particulate matter into the atmosphere?” Giles asked.
“No. I think it was done on purpose.”
“On purpose? What do you mean?”
“Look at it. There’s no variation in the particles at all. If there had been some kind of a massive nuclear war for example, the materials in the atmosphere would have some sort of a variation to them, but these particles are all exactly the same material. Whatever it is, I think they were placed there intentionally,” Savaric said.
“To what end though?”
“Apparently to block out the sun.”
“Why though?” Giles asked.
“Perhaps their atmosphere wasn’t filtering out enough of the sun’s radiation and they pumped this material into the upper atmosphere to help compensate for that,” Savaric suggested.
“The rest of the readings look normal though.”
“Well, we don’t know when they’d have done this. It could have been so long ago that the atmosphere’s had time to repair itself.”
Reapers – Deleted Scene From Chapter 9
Author’s Note: This is an unedited and incomplete scene from Reapers chapter 9. I wrote this and then decided to go in a different direction with it. There actually is a revelation about something they discover in this scene at the end of the book, but it’s different than what’s here. As with other deleted scenes that I post here on the site, this never happened in the story and is not part of the canon. I’m simply posting it here for the interest value. In this scene, Charles, Richard, Giles and Savaric are taking sensor readings on Purgatory.
[hr width=”65%”]
“All right, let’s see now…”
“Anything interesting?”
“Nothing we haven’t seen before. They’re aware of the drone and they seem to be curious about it, but…”
“But what?” Giles asked.
“They’re flying up to it, like moths to a flame. How strange.”
“Why would they be doing that?”
“No idea. Only some of them are doing it, but there seems to be more and more interest in it the longer it’s there. Perhaps they’re mistaking it for one of the reaper drones?” Savaric suggested.
“Could it be giving off some sort of a signal that’s attracting them?” Giles asked.
“It never attracted them before.”
“The only two we were ever really close to with it was the one that possessed Charles, and then Diedre’s. They were both too busy to pay much attention to it though.”
“I know. I just wonder what effect this would have on the drone if I didn’t have it shielded from them,” Savaric said.
“No idea, but it is odd.”
“I’d better bring it back. Do we have all the readings we need on the other equipment?”
“Everything except for the dead sun,” Giles said.
“Can you remote view it to find out if it’s truly dead?” Savaric asked.
“Sure, just a moment,” Giles said as he opened his mind to remote view the dead sun. “It’s…”
“What?”
“I’m sensing movement…reaction. I feel like it’s fully active,” Giles said.
“Fully active? How’s that possible?”
“I’m not sure, but it does appear to be active. The absence of light led us to believe it was dead, so we went with that assumption and never looked into it any deeper, but I’m sensing what appears to be a normal level of solar activity.”
“And yet there’s no light?”
“Perhaps there’s something different about this sun and the energy it’s giving off,” Giles suggested. “Maybe it’s giving off some form of energy on a wavelength that we can’t see visually.”
“Or maybe it’s actually creating darkness instead of light,” Savaric said more to himself than to Giles.
“How is that even possible?”
“It’s probably not. Hang on,” Savaric said as he send the drone high up into the sky, leaving the swarming energy forms to go about their business, just as they’d been doing before it arrived. As soon as the drone passed through the upper atmosphere and went into orbit over the planet, the screen lit up.
“There it is,” Giles said as he looked at the display on the remote along with Savaric.
“And yet none of the light is getting through, nor did I see the sun on any of the displays on that ship I was on.”
“So what’s the deal here?”
“Hang on, let me bring the drone back down into the upper atmosphere for a moment,” he said as he manipulated the drone with the remote. “Ok, now it’s starting to make sense.”
“What is it?” Giles asked.
“Look at this. What do you see?”
“I don’t know. What is that?”
“It’s some sort of a dense concentration of particles that shouldn’t be there. I noticed a bad drag on the drone all of a sudden before it went into orbit,” Savaric said. “If I had to guess, I’d say we just found our answer.”
“You think something happened here that sent a bunch of particulate matter into the atmosphere?” Giles asked.
“No. I think it was done on purpose.”
“On purpose? What do you mean?”
“Look at it. There’s no variation in the particles at all. If there had been some kind of a massive nuclear war for example, the materials in the atmosphere would have some sort of a variation to them, but these particles are all exactly the same material. Whatever it is, I think they were placed there intentionally,” Savaric said.
“To what end though?”
“Apparently to block out the sun.”
“Why though?” Giles asked.
“Perhaps their atmosphere wasn’t filtering out enough of the sun’s radiation and they pumped this material into the upper atmosphere to help compensate for that,” Savaric suggested.
“The rest of the readings look normal though.”
“Well, we don’t know when they’d have done this. It could have been so long ago that the atmosphere’s had time to repair itself.”
By Duane • Bonus Scenes (Unseen Things Series) 0