by Tom Johnson
"Well, all that I've seen so far are frogs and lizards," Captain Mercer said. "I'll be surprised if anything else exist this far back in time.
"Manning, I always thought the Bible spoke of your God creating man before all things," he continued. "Why isn't man around yet?"
"No," Manning shook his head, "the Bible is clear on that point. God created the sea first, then the animals, and much later He created man."
"Well," Tony Mercer laughed, "I thought God created them a day apart, or something like that!"
"One day to God," Manning told him, "is like a thousand years to us."
"Or a million, maybe? Major Cooper asked.
Or even a million," Roger Manning agreed. “We don’t understand God’s time."
"Then that's how you can accept evolution, I guess?" Captain Mercer asked. "That a million years in which the animals are evolving is only a day to your God?"
"Of course!" Roger Manning nodded. "Even a tree must grow to maturity before it can bear fruit. The garden we planted in the biosphere won't produce vegetables immediately, they must grow from seed to plant, and then become what they were intended to be. Just like us."
"How can you argue with that?" Major Cooper laughed.
"I won't even try," Tony Mercer grinned. "Manning has an answer for everything."Hearing sounds from behind them, they turned to see Sheri Thompson dancing towards them with a smile on her face.
"What are you so cheery about this morning?" Major Cooper asked.
"I'm alive this morning," she laughed. "Isn't that enough?"
"The day ain't over yet," grinned Captain Mercer. "Why don't we wait and see what Pangaea holds for us today. If we're still alive tonight, then I'll join you in celebration."
"Are the other girls up?" Major Cooper asked.
"Evelyn was in the shower when I left," Sheri said. "Barbara was getting dressed. "What are you guys doing up so early?"
"Manning left the shades up on the windows," Captain Mercer laughed.
"What windows?" Sheri asked.
Again, Roger Manning burst out laughing.
"Now you've done it," groaned Major Cooper, "you started Manning laughing again!"
"We've had it," agreed Tony Mercer, "he won't stop all day!"
"I think I'll go watch Colonel Peterson take a shower," Adam Cooper smiled.
"Watch me do what, Major?" Colonel Peterson's voice called from behind them.
"Just letting my mind wander, Commander," he laughed.
"Well, you'd better keep your mind in check, Major," the commander ordered.
"Wow, Colonel, what have you done to your uniform?" Tony Mercer ejaculated.
Whistling softly, Major Cooper smiled, saying, "I do declare, Miss Scarlet, I think I'm in love!"
"Keep your comments to yourself," Evelyn Peterson said.
"I forgot to mention that the Colonel did a little alteration to her uniform last night," Sheri giggled. The colonel had cut the trouser legs and arm sleeves out of her uniform, leaving her legs bare from just above the knees and her arms completely bare. No longer was the tunic buttoned all the way to the neck, but hung open to just above her breasts. She had also removed the silver eagles from her lapels.
"Major, you're staring, stop it!" Colonel Peterson ordered.
"Wh-what -?" he asked.
"You're staring. Stop it!" she ordered again.
"Wh-what -?" he repeated.
"Snap out of it, Major," Sheri laughed.
"Come on, Manning, let's drag the major back to the biosphere. I think he needs another cold shower," Captain Mercer laughed.
"Make it a long one!" Colonel Peterson ordered.
"Ah, you broke the spell, Evelyn," Major Cooper laughed. "The new you had me mesmerized for a minute.
"Say, I just had an evil thought—"
"Another one?" Colonel Peterson asked.
Grinning, he continued, "I think you girls aught to make that the uniform of the day!"
"Oh?" Sheri growled. "And what about you guys? If we're going to be sex objects, then you boys have got to do the same!"
"I knew it was a bad idea to cut up my uniform," Colonel Peterson groaned.
"No, no," Major Cooper laughed, "you guys have me all wrong. I just meant that we would be more comfortable in cut offs."
"That was your evil thought?" Colonel Peterson asked with a scowl.
"No," he laughed, "the evil thought was getting Doctor Terrill in sexy shorts like that!"The thought also brought a grin to Colonel Peterson and Sheri.
"She'll never do it," Sheri shook her head.
"I'll try to talk her into it," the commander said. "In the meantime, are we ready for our excursion into the swamps today?" she asked.
"Just as soon as Manning and I can get the ATVs ready," Major Cooper agreed. "Come on, Roger, give me a hand."
Five minutes later the sound of spinning tires on the sand alerted the rest that the ATVs were operational. Besides his garden, the ATVs appeared to be Manning's ultimate pleasure. He had a wide grin on his face as he brought the vehicle to a stop near the commander.
"Same riding arrangement as before," Major Cooper called as he pulled to a stop next to Manning's ATV.
"Tony, you ride with me," he continued. "Evelyn's sexy legs would be a distraction for me!"
"You talk like my legs are only a distraction for you, Major," Colonel Peterson said. "What about Manning?"
Laughing, Major Cooper said, "He's immune to your charm, Colonel. Right, Roger?"
"Right," Manning agreed, then: "Oh, sorry, Colonel. Did you want me to be distracted?"
"Oh, shut up, Manning. You too, Major Cooper. Let's get this safari on the road!"
The desert had several varieties of beautifully colored flowers blooming after the heavy rains, as if the plants had been hiding underneath the surface just waiting for the moisture to help them sprout forth with bright petals. Many strange looking insects were scurrying from one stem to the next, while small reptiles chased after them.
The animal life became more varied—and larger by the time they reached the margin of the forest. The larger reptiles of the Permian now replaced the smaller lizards, many three to six foot in length, all of them with vicious looking teeth in long, ugly snouts. And once they entered the swamps, even that changed. Beasts that were as large as cows, and weirdly resembled mammals, were grazing on the plants that grew close to the muddy ponds.
Gasping, Captain Mercer said, "If those things lost their lizard tails, and grew longer legs, they'd almost pass as mammals."
"The reptiles are evolving," Sheri told him. "We'll probably see more reptilian-mammals as we proceed."
"The mud looks like it's boiling in that area," Colonel Peterson pointed to a large mud patch.
"Good Lord!" Captain Mercer ejaculated. "That looks like worms wiggling around in the muck. Six-foot long worms!"
Grinning, Sheri told him, "Just like the jellies and sponges were the first creatures to appear in the sea, Tony, the worms and moss-like creatures were the first to crawl onto the land. The farther back in time, the more primitive the life forms. It has always been thought that the mammals were trying to evolve by the time of the Permian. Now, we can see that process first hand."
"The mass extinction of the Permian wiped out almost all life," Major Cooper added, "including the evolving mammals. A few of the reptiles survived, and life began all over again, taking millions of years for mammals to reappear once more."
As they watched the worms stirring up the mud, one of the three foot long reptiles Sheri had named a Seymouria crawled up to the mud hole and dove in, coming back up a second later with a five foot long worm wiggling in its mouth.
"What's that over there?" Colonel Peterson asked suddenly, pointing at a large, squat mammal-like reptile with long tusks.
"Ah," Major Cooper sighed, "there, if I'm not mistaken, is the Permian's answer to the T-Rex. The gorgonopsia. It predates the Smilodon by two hundred and fifty million years, yet here it is, tusks and all.
Scientists have named it the Gorgon after the mythical Greek monsters because it was so damn ugly!"
As they watched, the saber-toothed creature attacked another reptile with a violence that made them shudder. The monster had short, stubby back legs, though its front legs were somewhat longer. It had a large reptilian head, and the white tusks became blood red from the gore of its prey. Strangely, none of the other creatures appeared to notice the violence around them. It was as if they had no thoughts of fear or danger, just a need to eat and reproduce. The primitive minds of the monsters had yet to evolve beyond the lowest form of instinct.
"Did you notice its feet, Adam?" Sheri asked.
Major Cooper looked more closely at the Gorgon's feet, and then nodded his head, "Yes, you're right, I think that's the thing that has been prowling around the ship at night. Or very similar."
"Do you mean that monster knows where we live?" Colonel Peterson asked.
"Yes," Major Cooper told her, "or very similar to that thing. The feet appear the same as the prints we found around the ship."
"Damn!" Evelyn cursed. “I don’t like that idea one bit.”
"We'll be okay, Colonel," he told her, "as long as we use our heads, and don't get careless.
"That goes for here and now," he continued. "None of us gets far from the ATVs, or each other, and always be aware of our surroundings. Those monsters may be ugly, but I bet a bullet will stop one of them. And our vehicles should outrun those lumbering, tail dragging things easy enough. Just be on your toes at all times!"
"There, on the tree line," Sheri said suddenly, see those reptiles eating fruit from the lower branches?"
"Reptilian herbivores," laughed Captain Mercer.
"They're probably reptilian mammals," Sheri said with a smile. "Regardless, they appear to be herbivores. And what they can eat, maybe we can eat also."
"Shall we rob the local food bank?" Major Cooper grinned.
"If that thing will let us," Sheri laughed.
But as they approached in the ATVs, the sound must have attracted the monster, for the creature rose up on its hind legs suddenly, and it brought a gasp from the interlopers. For not only did it resemble a reptilian mammal, when standing on its back limbs, it could almost pass for a humanoid. It actually looked as if it had hips and shoulders, its front paws forming something more closely resembling hands instead of claws, and its face—though reptilian—was strangely like that of a man. The long, scaly tail was certainly out of place, though, as was the long snout.
"I didn't think man existed this far back," Captain Mercer grunted.
"They don't," Sheri told him. "That thing isn't a man. What you are looking at may be the forerunner of the ape or monkey. It will eventually lose the reptilian tail and replace it with a hairy appendage for swinging in the trees."
"Given another hundred million years, that thing might give rise to the homo sapiens," Major Cooper suggested, "but it will disappear in the Permian Extension, and whatever gave rise to it in the first place will try again, this time giving the apes to the world."
"There's a difference in this thing and the other animals," Colonel Peterson said suddenly.
"What's that, Evelyn?" Sheri asked.
"That thing notices us," Colonel Peterson said. "It's looking right at us. The other monsters never gave us a glance."
"You're right," Major Cooper said.
"Could it have some form of intelligence, Sheri?" he asked the biologist.
"Not intelligence," she shook her head, "but maybe a curiosity, and that could be just as dangerous."
Without warning, the creature let out a strange vocal sound, completely different from the animalistic growls they had heard thus far from the other animals in the area, and then it sped off on all four limbs towards the thick wooded area of the denser forest. After it disappeared within, they heard more yelps from more of the monsters hidden in the brush.
"I think it's safe to gather some of the fruit now," Major Cooper suggested. "Colonel Peterson and I will stand guard, while the rest of you pick some of it. Just get the fruit from the lower branches, though. Don't try to reach the higher clusters. It might be too dangerous."
"Why don't we know anything about these man-like creatures, Major?" Tony Mercer asked.
Shrugging his shoulders, the major told him, "We've only discovered a portion of the creatures that existed in the Permian Period, Tony. It's not surprising we've never discovered fossils or footprints of these things. Hell, there's no record of most of the things from this age."
Nothing interfered as they picked the large melon-like fruit from the tree. After gathering about a dozen clusters, they put them in the back seat of the ATV, and then loaded up to leave, taking a last look around for the man-like reptiles.
"What would you call those things, Sheri?" Major Cooper asked the biologist.
Thinking deeply for several seconds before answering, Sheri finally grinned as she calmly said, "To keep it simple, until we can study them more thoroughly, why don't we just call them Darwis after Darwin, who did the best known research into evolution!"
Smiling, Major Cooper said, "Very appropriate, Sheri. After all, they may also be the first line of our evolution."
Leaving the tree line, they had to pass close to the swamps again, but swung far out to avoid the mud pits. Their ATVs almost collided with several mammalian reptiles grazing on the grasses, and once they had to dodge a charging Gorgon that must have thought they were prey. The beast struck the fender of Colonel Peterson's vehicle, causing her to spin sideways for several yards, but Manning was able to straighten it up before it overturned when Major Cooper bumped the creature with the front end of his vehicle. There didn't appear to be any harm to the monster, and the ATVs continued on their way.
Sheri pointed suddenly towards a large body of water, probably a shallow lake, and cried excitedly; "Look at that fin-backed creature in the water over there!"
"What the hell is that thing?" Captain Mercer wanted to know. "It looks a lot like that damn crocomander thing we saw earlier, but this one has a sail like fin all the way down its back!"
Suddenly the monster, which must have been twelve foot long from the tip of its nose to the point of its tail, dove into the lake and was out of sight for several minutes. When it came back to the surface, it had a large, fat fish in its mouth.
"Oh," Sheri gasped, "that has got to be a Dimetrodon, another of the big predators of the Permian Period!"
"Whew!" Captain Mercer explained. "It looks like many of the damn dinosaurs I've seen in movies!"
"Well, yeah," Sheri laughed, "I think Hollywood did copy their design when they filmed some of those old classics. But the Dimetrodon is definitely from the Permian Period, not the Age of the Dinosaurs. One of the best studies ever done on the species was by a paleontologist down in Texas, who spent most of his work in the fossil beds. He taught students on actual digs, not in a stuffy classroom."
They quickly left the area, though, deciding to return to the Galileo Two for the day. But malevolent eyes watched their departure from the safety of the forest. An angry growl rumbled from a scaly belly, and evil teeth gleamed from a face that was strangely man-like. Several more similar creatures joined the first. Their eyes may have been lacking in intelligence, but they held the shine of a jungle predator stalking its prey.
Chapter Eight
Terror In The Night
That evening they sat beneath the stars again, but this time the doctor did not brew her special alcoholic drink, so they were content recounting stories from their past. Barbara Terrill refrained from discussing her life with her husband, as it brought back memories best left in the past. Roger Manning admitted that his life had been without interest or incident. After college, he had gone to work for NASA, working on rocket technology, and was excused from military service.
"You are a veteran of the war, aren't you, Tony?" Major Cooper asked the captain. "How did you end up in NASA?"
"Yes," he nodded, "I was a nav
igator for one of the larger class bombers—the ones responsible for dropping the nukes. Oh, I didn't actually drop the bombs, but I made sure the planes were on target when they did drop them.
"Towards the final destruction period, we were dropping nukes everywhere. I guess the President decided it was time to end the war. The plane I was on didn't turn away quite fast enough on one of the last missions. I don't know, maybe the pilot wasn't trying, or maybe the plane just wasn't responding properly, too sluggish or something. The radiation cloud caught us, and engulfed the plane with us in it! Just enough to give us a case of radiation burn. The crew spent some time in the hospital, but the doctors were happy to report that the only effect the radiation had on us was that it left us impotent!
"Impotent," he laughed. "Hell, I'm not even a man any more. I can't have children. And no matter how hard I try beautiful women don't even excite me. Impotent? No, that last bomb we dropped killed us, too. We just didn't lie down and die like we were supposed to."
"I'm sorry, Tony," Major Cooper said. "I had heard that you were wounded in the war, but I didn't know the story."
"When NASA requested navigators for training on the Mars missions, I asked if there were any women on Mars, and they told me, no. So I signed up."
Grinning, he added, "I didn't know you ladies were going on the mission with me. But even the Colonel's sexy legs don't affect me.
"To be honest, I even considered the possibility of remaining on the red planet when the Galileo Two blasted off for the return trip to Earth. But I don't guess any of that matters any more," he smiled. "Manning's God pulled a left turn on us when we were heading to the right."
"We are certainly an odd assortment for Manning's God to choose for this mission of His," Sheri Thompson sighed.
"God didn't pick us," Manning said. "NASA did. God just uses those who are available to do His will."
"Well, He could have at least asked me if I wanted to be a part of His plans," Sheri shrugged. "I signed up for the Mars mission, not this—what ever this is!"
"What ever it is, Sheri," Major Cooper said, "it was not planned, we had an accident in space, and we're here now. We have to make the best of things."