"Good idea," Nicraan gulped.
Without preamble, the pilot backed slowly through the deckway as a thin, leathery mouth pulled back to reveal a set of perfectly formed, raggedly arranged incisors. As the two made their way back through the debris they had traversed on their way through the bay, they noticed that other eggshells were cracked as well and were being kicked apart from within.
Retho and Nicraan were immediately scared half out of their wits and they began to pick up their pace back toward the sighted cargo bay's double-door hatchway. The biocoder that Retho still held open and active was pitching up another octave.
"Will you shut that thing up before it draws attention to us?!" Nicraan whispered harshly. And then noticed their portable light beams. Turning his off, he advised his partner, "And turn off your light, it'll act like a beacon."
Immediately, Retho turned off his luminator and closed down the biocoder and returned it his utility belt. But the air was suddenly filled with another high-pitched noise, that of a screech. It shocked the two to quickly look over their shoulders at its source. The hairs on the back of their necks stood up.
Even though its source was feeble and infantile, it looked plenty strong enough to tear both of them limb from limb. And at six-retems-tall the leathery gray-green skinned baby reptile looked hungry enough to do just that. Again, it threw back its head and screeched, with a bit more volume this time. The call acted as if it were a towncrier for its siblings. All around the cargo bay eggshells began to gurgle and crack open. Within the space of a few moments, they were surrounded. Not waiting for the eventual outcome, Retho and Nicraan continued to stumble backward toward their exit without once taking their eyes off the fiendish newborns quickly appearing around them.
One thought quickly dominated both Aidennians' minds, which was of saving themselves, getting out of the cargo bay before those hungry reptiles mistook them for edibles. However, the inquisitive hatchlings quickly began to investigate their nest and all those who occupied, both kin and foreign. The only grace was that being new to the world, they were clumsily at times, stumbling over their own feet or crashing to the deck as they learned to step over debris. Although for the moment, Retho and Nicraan seemed to be hemmed in, the newborns seemed to be in no hurry. For the moment they were more interested in each other.
It was when the two Aidennians began to slip quietly out the double-doored hatchway and into the corridor that one of the little monsters came trotting toward them as if to follow. Nicraan grabbed hold of one of the half-closed doors and slammed it across till it closed with its twin, effectively locking them shut. The lizard that had followed them eyeballed the Aidennians' through the smallish window inserted in the doors seal. Nicraan reached onto his utility belt and unclipped his lasergun.
"Outside! Now!" he shouted, pushing Retho along the corridor away from the cargo bay's sealed hatchway.
Both made a mad dash down the hallway toward the nearest airlock promising salvation. Both were fast. They sprinted down toward a foyer to the next set of sectional doors. Retho let Nicraan lead the way, since he was the trained Spacecorps military officer. Pressed against a wall, he advanced them a few retems, and then peeked around the curved corner behind the barrel of his lasergun. He let out a low pained moan that signaled bad news. Retho peeked around the corner before them.
Infant lizards were everywhere; hundreds of them teeming out of their reptilian nursery through the ripped hole in the corridor wall that they had originally used to enter the cargo bay. It seemed as if as soon as they could walk, they learned to run. And run they were doing, almost for the sheer physical pleasure of doing so. Gradually forming themselves into packs.
"Our exit is blocked," Retho whispered into his beloved's nearest ear.
There appeared to be a slight hope that they could still escape, for the reptiles seemed preoccupied with establishing a kinship hierarchy -- jogging around the main concourse, circling the assembly point. But it was only a moment of glee for one of the nearest groups had a straggler that noticed them and stopped short, only a few paces away. Its long neck twisted in their direction and its slit-like nostrils sniffed at them. Nicraan stepped around the corner and fired at an emergency bulkhead's release control panel on the wall across from them. Just as the animal charged toward them, the overhead corridor-width door slammed down from its ceiling holder and along its track; the lizard was heard crashing into the metal cladding, making a rather impressive imprint at its contact point.
The lizard slammed against the door again with a loud Bang! as the monster threw its body weight against the obstacle. Crash! Crash! Crash! permeated the tense air and they suddenly realized that the newborn killers behind the emergency door were anxious attacking the hatch en masse; their pack instincts in full swing. The once smooth surface of the hatch became quickly misshapen and rough with reptilian impressions.
"Okay, fun's over," Nicraan announced. "Now it's time to leave."
"This way," Retho shouted, his techcoder opened this time and it's small screen alive with a library file. "Last time I was here, BeeTee and I cataloged and mapped this derelict. Main Computer has plotted an alternative route."
"When did you have time to pull that thing out?" Nicraan huffed.
"Quick hands.... and don't go there!" Retho quipped as he set off at an easy jog.
Together, the two began to run; leaving behind the predatory lizards and their efforts to give chase behind a solid alloyed door. But it wasn't a few moments of their escape that they heard the dreadful sound behind them of renting metal and then the clickety-clack noise of long claws on the deck darting unnerving on their heels. The stampede of saurians heading their way caused Retho to narrow his focus on the tracking techcoder in his one hand; with the other he instinctively withdrew his holstered gun.
"Through here," he quickly shouted leading the way down a dim corridor, through more sections, over and around structural debris, and down travellator tubes until they were within eyesight of a painful shaft of light framed by an opened airlock. But the blood-lust aroused within the packs of lizard infants had them determined to hunt down their prey. They easily tracked the two fleeing hominoids through the confines of the rotting and rusting hulk their parent had chosen as their nursery. They surged as one body through the derelict in constant pursuit of their meal.
Retho and Nicraan were just as determined not to become an edible for the pursuing wall of razor-sharp teeth and claws at their backs. They darted without apprehension through the outer hatchway and turned as they gripped the askew door semi-wedged on its track to close off their exit. To end the pursuit. From deep within the black abyss came the sound of claws and the snap of teeth getting closer and closer.
With combined effort, Retho and Nicraan managed to complete the door panel's journey along its track and seal the outer airlock's hatchway. It came at the precise moment that the pack of lizards surged against the door, pushing with ever-greater force. The lizards began head-butting the inside of the panel, forcing it to buckle and rip each time. And they did not stop with the door panel, some of the pack began attacking the actual internal hull frame, doing likewise with it as some continued to do to the airlock hatch. Eventually there was success as a section of the fuselage broke and a razor-tooth monster poked its head outside. The jaws opened and that horrible screech filled the air once again. The rusting hull metal wasn't strong enough to hold back the tide of rambunctious hatchlings.
Nicraan, with feet spread wide, had his lasergun blazing from his aiming hand. The laser retorts sliced through bone and sinew -- in a blur of flesh, the first wave of reptilian hatchlings shattered with a violent phuf! Almost as quickly as the shards of lizard bodies exploded outward, the secondary shoulder-to-shoulder line of lizards became startled and darted back into the derelict's bowels. While he held them back, Retho dashed over to the parked aerofoil and set about activating its portable atomic motor.
The pilot was drenched in sweat and reptilian blood and his legs b
egan to feel like rubber as he began to follow Retho while he still fired away at the breach in the derelict's hull. The mangled corpses of baby lizards lay in the hull breach and on the ground just outside the gaping maw, strewn around the gigantic fuselage. He had used every ounce of his strength to fight his way out of the nest. He was sure he couldn't run another step. As he saw Retho bolt inside the parked aerofoil, he overcame his urge to rest and catch his breath and surged toward the humming Getabout.
"Run!" Retho was shouting from the driver’s seat as he assumed his position behind the acceleration controls. His lasergun was out and blazing at the breach to cover the Major's escape into the Getabout. The monstrosities quickly recovered from their initial fright and began rushing toward them in another ferocious wave.
"I am!" Nicraan yelled back in a breathless, all-out sprint. He ran across the short distance of waist-high grasses and dove through the opened passenger seat’s door.
As the aerofoil moved on a course away from the hulk, Retho took specific aim at the derelict's fuel pods on the fuselage's aft module. They were halfway across the distance that would take the aerofoil out of the forest when the wrecked spacer blew apart by the force of blinding flares of light. The Getabout's back was away from the expanding mountain of flame coming from the derelict that had, a moment before, been the reptilian hatchlings nest. As the remaining chunks of hull crumbled and collapsed, a gruesome noise filled the air -- the painful screams of infant lizards broiling alive. Their tortured cries echoed through the empty jungle like the shrieking of condemned souls. The sound slowly died away as the aerofoil banked on a new course out of the vicinity of the red-orange calderas that was once a trans-galactic spacer and back to its berth.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Lightning walked across the twilight sky. Twisted legs of living light, actinic arcs danced on the northern horizon. As though in chain reaction, new bolts shot southward, giving life in turn to another volley of sizzling energy until the unbridled electricity disappeared on the southern horizon. A grinding rumble, like the sound of mountains colliding in midair, barely reached Retho's ears before another barrage of spidery bolts lit the sky.
"Mercy!" Nicraan tugged the collar of his bloodstained flight jacket high around his neck as a moist gush of wind ripped across the plain.
Thunder rolled and the sky went blue-white again, lightning illuminating a churning front of clouds that approached from the northwest. Retho squinted to find the tops of the massive monsters. He couldn't. Even though the aerofoil was now many mets from the burning hulk that had served as a nest for those carnivorous lizards, Retho still shivered over the experience. He sat in the Getabout's driver’s squab rubbing his head as if the cranial massage would rub away the memory of what had just transpired only bitter moments ago. His emotions were mixed when he realized that it was all over. He was glad that the nestlings had been destroyed before they had a chance to eat Nicraan or himself; but at the same time, he was sorry that those members of such a spectacular species just might have been sent into extinction -- even though it might have been rotates before the natural progress of this solar group's demise. If only there was more time, a better understanding of what was happening beyond the atmosphere of this planet, then perhaps this species (like others on this world) could be saved.
"Are you okay?" Matasire asked him. Like the lieutenant, he had bruises all over after that long tumble with the lizards.
"I'm fine. Just a little shaken up, but not injured."
The pilot noticed that the lieutenant was staring at him with an expression he didn't recognize. "You look a little funny. Are you sure you are all right?"
"No, I'm fine," he assured him, trying to wipe dried reptilian blood from his uniform. To no avail. "It's just that ... somehow I never imagined my life would be this exciting, this dangerous."
Another skyward fiery display provided just enough light to ignite Retho's imagination. The thunderheads loomed upward to the very boundary of the upper atmosphere. Another gush of wind sent a shudder quaking through the aerofoil. He shivered with the realization that the storm wasn't that far off.
"Merciful Ancients!" Nicraan cursed again. He shook his head when another series of lightning bolts raced from horizon to horizon. "We've got to stop and get the top up."
The car settled gently on its landing gear into the shoulder-high grass of the flatlands as Retho halted the aerofoil. Nicraan activated the automatic mechanism that unbundled the metaline canvas top and stretched the accordion of pseudo-metal fabric over the aerofoil. Once the roof was in place, it automatically secured itself with a series of snaps and the mini-motor shut off.
Retho activated the windows' closing control.
"One thing I can tell you: that storm isn't going to help us one bit. It's going to be rough enough navigating over this terrain without having rain and wind to contend with," Nicraan lifted a brow and gave his intimate a clever wink.
Retho touched the aerofoil's engine control. As the Getabout elevated itself via its air propulsion unit, he eased the driving throttle forward. The aerofoil responded and they were rushing toward the flaring furnace of vapor.
Subconsciously, Retho slipped his free hand into Nicraan's. The pilot took notice and gave a reassuring pressure to the grasp.
Nicraan understated their progress over the plains, Retho thought. Rough didn't begin to describe the slow pace at which the aerofoil was forced to hover over the endless gullies and ravines that time, wind, and water cut into the land. The Getabout's almost-solid metaline fabric covering obscured most of the haggish forks of lightning that danced downward to touch the prairie with their fiery touch. Had it not been for rain held in the thunderheads, Retho was certain flames rather than water would be the problem confronting them.
There was no warning; no mist, no preliminary drops of tentative rain. A solid sheet of water struck the aerofoil, sending a quake through the vehicle's frame.
Retho's left hand found the windshield-wiper contact point and tabbed it to high speed. The soft-tipped blades raking against the syntheglass did little. The instant they swept away a sheet of water, another deluge washed over the windshield. Retho eased the acceleration control and lowered the aerofoil's altitude.
Retho pressed his forehead against his door's syntheglass window to increase his visibility. All he saw was rain.
"We could stop and wait till it passes," he suggested.
"That could be nodes!" Nicraan's voice came like a low growl. "If we stop here, then we could be at risk of delaying Pioneer Four's launch."
"Better than driving blind into a gully." The youth's tone attempted to soothe the pilot's frustration. "I don't want us getting killed. Our sensors and scanners are having a hard time with all this interference, visibility is near nil; and, I'm losing the Pioneer Four's homing beacon."
Nicraan nodded, giving in without further protest.
Retho eased the altitude throttle forward and the aerofoil settled to a stop, its purring engine cooed off at his touch.
"I'll give it half a node or so," he said.
Retho studied the fighter pilot as he sat there, shoulders slumped, and eyes focused on the torrents that washed down the windshield. The world about was milky gray. For a beat, Retho studied the aerofoil's passenger, and then he cleared his throat. "Nic, there is something I don't understand."
"What's that?" Nicraan asked quietly, his chiseled features illuminated momentarily with the clarity brought on by lightning.
"If the Elders were in harmony with the Matrix of the Universe, then how could they not have seen this future time-line coming?"
"You nor I can understand. Not completely, anyway. But we can begin to. And a beginning grasp is all is needed here."
"What do you mean?"
"Time is not a continuum. It is an element of relativity that exists vertically, not horizontally. Don't think of it as a "left to right" thing -- a so-called time line that runs from birth to death for each individual, and from some finite p
oint to some finite point for the universe. Rather, ‘time’ is and an ‘up and down’ thing. Think of it as a spindle, representing the Now."
Retho was staring as though transfixed at Matasire. His expression was an odd mixture of fear and fascination. If it was possible, it appeared that he was being hypnotized.
Nicraan was going on, "It is right now that everything is happening --."
"You mean time travel?"
"Indeed -- and many of the Echelon Elders have. In our philosophy, all of us have, in fact -- and we do it routinely, usually in what we call our dream state. Most of the non-echelon are not aware of it. They cannot retain the awareness, unlike we Echelon."
"You still haven't answered my question."
Nicraan looked out the forward viewshield, back to the grayness that lie beyond and then back to Retho who was watching him narrowly. He said, "Since we have always been, are now, and always will be, there has never been a time when we were not -- nor will there ever be such a time. The Elders embodied this belief as are we Echelon -- perhaps..."
"Yes---?"
Nicraan's tentative response and darting nervous glances around the aerofoil cumulated into a whisper, "Perhaps that is why the Mira Probe Mission was allowed to commence and each of us were selected as we were..."
Retho said, "That's impossible, Nic."
Matasire nodded with a winsome grin, "Our ancestors were enterprising enough to leave Terra before it's destruction and found the first planets that eventually formed The System."
There was a gasp from Retho and Nicraan's eyes tracked round to him. The lieutenant was tense, quivering with a curious emotion. He said, "This whole war, the annihilation was foreseen, and the Elder's solution was to send us to Mira Four? What makes you say that?"
Nicraan was looking at him enrapt as though seeing him for the first time. He nodded in confidence. He was inspired as he explained. "You've heard the Codes of Echelon, read the Ancients' inscriptions. The Terran Elders took the seed with them to Thessaly. They found a new world. Then others followed as the seeds spread and grew. All was foreseen and came true. How could our present day Elders do any different seeing the inevitable?"
Sidereal Quest Page 14