Pangaea- Eden's Planet

by Tom Johnson

  "I didn't—" Colonel Peterson started. Then she blushed and looked away.

  Cooper didn't say anything. Sheri giggled under her breath, and then was silent as they left the cave to return to the ATV. Coming into the sunlight, they spotted a cluster of bright colors along the rim of the hill, and the biologist let out a whoop of her own: Look," she shouted, "flowers!"She was correct. Brightly colored flowers of reds, yellows and whites were mixed in an array rainbow effect.

  Cooper started over, saying, "Just the thing for a couple of ladies! They resemble the Texas Paintbrush."

  "Hold it Major," Colonel Peterson advised. "We don't know anything about those flowers yet, so don't go grabbing them in your bare hands. Let Sheri look at them first."

  "Evelyn is correct, Coop, even flowers might be poisonous in this place!"

  "I stand corrected by my betters," he grinned.

  "Certainly in intelligence," Colonel Peterson grinned.

  "I'm gonna forget that you just saved —" he started.

  "Hey, Coop, look at this!" Sheri interrupted suddenly.

  Smiling, the commander pushed Cooper forward, and then joined him by Sheri's side.

  Pointing to ugly looking thorns on the stems of the flowers, the biologist told them, "Those are very likely poisonous. They might not kill us, but I bet they'd make us sick if one of them punctured our skin."

  "See that brown stain on the green stem," Sheri continued. "That's the venom in the thorns. Or, if you prefer, just call it poison."

  "Say, I've got an idea," Cooper said suddenly, "let me break one of them open and smear some of that brown stuff on the tip of my spear. Just to see how potent it is!"

  "Who are you going to test it on?" Colonel Peterson asked.

  "Don't temp me," he grinned, giving her an evil glare.

  "You'd better be careful with that stuff, Coop," Sheri told him. "Don't get any of it on you. If it was to get into an open would ..."

  "Yeah, I know," he said, "I've read about the headhunters in the Amazon, and their poison darts!"Breaking the stem of one of the flowers with his boots, Cooper then rolled the tip of his spear in the brown liquid that spread from the opening. He allowed only a bit of the stuff to harden on the spear's tip before pulling it away.

  "That ought to be enough to experiment with," he said. And then, as an afterthought, "Say, wouldn't it be neat if this stuff would counteract the effects of those MREs!"

  "Bite your tongue!" Colonel Peterson told him.

  Back at the ATV, Cooper replaced the torches in the equipment compartment, and then they loaded up and started back for the Galileo Two. Just as they passed by a herd of plant eaters, a fierce Gorgon rushed out of the brush for one of the cows, but seeing the all terrain vehicle, attacked it instead. Coming up on Cooper's side, he instinctively struck out with the spear, clipping the saber- toothed predator with its tip.

  They watched in horror as the monster staggered off to fall motionless after a few minutes from being pricked by the poisoned tip of the metal shaft.

  "Coop?" Sheri questioned. "Do you still think that stuff might counteract the effects of the MREs?"

  "Whew!" Cooper ejaculated. "That stuff might come in handy if Manning doesn't get those laser pistols in operation."

  "We've only been here a short time," Colonel Peterson said, "and already we're using weapons of mass destruction! What are next, nukes?"

  "For our survival, my lady," Cooper smiled, "I would go to any lengths!"

  "Coop, you've been wanting to try a Pangaea steak since our arrival," Sheri hinted, as she nodded towards the dead Gorgon.

  "Say, you're right, you guys give me hand, and we'll throw this thing on the back of the ATV," he suggested.

  The saber toothed monster was apparently still reasonably young, only about six foot long from tail to snout, and with some straining the three were able to drag the beast onto the vehicle and tie it down.

  Cooper laughed as they finished the task, saying: "I harvested a buck when I was a teenager, and we tied it onto the back of my dad's pickup. I got my picture in the local paper, and a big write up— thanks to my dad.

  "I wonder what he would think of this kill today?"

  "He was proud of you," Colonel Peterson said. "My father did the same thing to me when my first science project won state."

  "You know, I envy you that achievement, Evelyn," Cooper told her. "Any dumb kid can kill a buck with a good rifle. The science project took brains."

  "Thanks," she said.

  "Come on, Sheri," Cooper called the biologist, "you get to sit in my lap on the ride back."

  "That's good," she laughed, "I wasn't looking forward to riding in the back with that thing!"

  "Uh uh," Coop laughed, "remember what the colonel asked me a while ago, 'where's your sense of adventure'?"

  "She'll have enough of an adventure sitting in your lap, I imagine," Colonel Peterson grunted. The colonel floored the ATV as she took off, throwing them all back in their seats, causing Cooper and the biologist to grab hold of safety harnesses. There were wide grins on all three faces as the vehicle left the swamps for the desert sands. Dust flew into the wind as the wheels kicked up a cloud of sand. Neither the potholes, the sand dunes, or desert vegetation slowed them down. Evelyn Peterson was showing them she could drive!

  Arriving at the spaceship, the colonel threw on the brakes, sliding quickly to a stop near the bio- dome.

  "I hope you two enjoyed the ride," Colonel Peterson grinned at her teammates.

  "I didn't have time to enjoy the ride," Cooper complained. "I was worried about being thrown out at sixty miles an hour!"

  "The adventure, Major, remember the adventure," Colonel Peterson grinned.

  "I'm going to check on Manning," she continued. "Why don't you join me, Sheri, while the major butchers his buck."

  "Hey, aren't you guys going to help me?" he asked.

  "You killed it, you clean it," the two girls said in unison.As they left Cooper to butcher the Gorgon, they began singing the theme song to the Davy Crockett television series."Davy, Davy Crockett ..."Killed him a bear when he ..."

  Mumbling to himself, he grinned as they entered the Galileo Two "I'll get the biggest, and juiciest steak if I have anything to say about it!"He spent the rest of the day cutting meat from the creature, removing the contaminated area where the poison was injected. Surprisingly, there was quite a bit of good meat that could be carved from the bone once the tough outer skin and scales were removed from the young Gorgon. Roger Manning joined him before he was finished, shaking his head in amazement.

  "What's wrong, Roger, having trouble with the laser?" Cooper asked.

  "No, no," Manning assured him, "just curious about Sheri and the commander."

  "What's the matter with the girls now?" Cooper grinned.

  "They're singing dumb songs that I never heard before," he shook his head in bewilderment.

  Laughing, Cooper told him, "As long as women have been on this Earth, men have never understood them, Roger. I wouldn't start trying to at this late date, if I were you."

  "Think we can eat this stuff, Cooper?" Manning asked as he poked the meat the major had already sliced from the bone.

  "Well, we'll salt it down a little, maybe shoot some electric current to it to tenderize it a bit, and then cook it until it's well done over a flame, and add some vegetables from the MREs, and we'll see," he said.

  "The MREs are okay in an emergency, but I would sure like to start living off the land as soon as we can. Those meals ready to eat are going to start tasting all the same before long, and we'll need more of a variety to keep our sanity," he continued.

  "Remember studying about Moses in Bible School, Cooper? God provided for His people when they wandered in the desert for forty years, but they, too, grew tired of the meals that he sent them, and wanted more!" Manning told him.

  "And I suppose there is a moral to that story, Roger?" Cooper asked.

  "Yes," Manning grinned. "God punished Moses and His p
eople. I wouldn't be too quick to gripe about our provision, Cooper."

  "I'll try to remember that, Roger. Thanks for the Bible lesson," Cooper laughed.

  "What are you guys talking about?" Sheri called from the Galileo Two.

  "Girls!" Cooper yelled back.

  "Moses, and obeying God," Manning corrected.

  "What have we done now to anger your God, Manning? Colonel Peterson asked, as she joined the biologist.

  "Roger was just telling me not to give up the MREs too soon," Cooper grinned.

  "I agree with Manning, Major, stick with the MREs. God will be happy, and so will I."

  "Y'all aren't going to sing any more, are you?" Manning asked.

  "I thought you liked to sing, Roger?" Sheri asked.

  "Yeah, I do. Songs I've heard of, but not those things you were singing earlier," he argued.

  "Oh, the old television theme songs," Sheri giggled. "My mother used to sing them all the time, and now I find out that Evelyn knows them too!"

  "Tomorrow, there'll be another sign in the bio-dome," Cooper grunted.

  "And just what sign are you going to put up, Major?" Colonel Peterson asked.

  "No singing allowed!" he snapped.

  "Then we just won't come into your stupid old bio-dome," the commander told him.

  "What if you want another shower?" Cooper snapped at the colonel.

  "Say, I've heard you singing in the shower, Cooper," Manning said.

  "Oh," Sheri laughed. "What was he singing, Roger?"

  "I closed my ears," he said. "It was nasty!"

  Groaning, the commander shook her head, "That figures," she said. Sheri just giggled.

  "That does it!" Cooper said suddenly. "That's the last meat we can get from the bone.

  "Roger, give me a hand, and we'll drag what's left into the desert for the scavengers. Bring the ATV, while I pile all these scraps onto something we can pull with a chain."

  When Manning returned with the all terrain vehicle, Cooper had the scraps piled upon a metal slab from one of the bays in the Galileo Two. Using one of the chains from the bio-dome, they tied the slab to the vehicle, and the major jumped into the seat next to the engineer. With the whoop of a rodeo cowboy, Roger put the ATV in gear and they raced off into the desert with the remains of the prehistoric predator.

  Returning shortly, they were minus the scraps and the slab, having left everything for the scavengers to clean up for them.

  "Where's my steak?" Cooper asked the ladies.

  "Whoa," Colonel Peterson began. "You didn't expect us to cook that thing, did you?"

  "Well, I killed it," he grinned.

  "You killed it, all right," Sheri agreed.

  "And you butchered it," Colonel Peterson nodded her head.

  "I guess you get to cook it, too," Manning grinned.

  "That ain't fair," Cooper argued.

  "Sounds fair to me," Colonel Peterson told him.

  "Me, too," Sheri agreed.

  "Don't you say a word," Cooper warned the engineer. "Okay," he agreed, "I'll cook the steaks tomorrow!"

  Chapter Fourteen

  A New Danger Close By

  "Don't forget your vegetables," Colonel Peterson said, as she handed out the MREs containing salads to go with the steaks that Cooper was removing from the temporary grill he'd built over a fire outside the bio-dome.

  "I suppose that stuff is in the vegetables also, right?" Cooper grunted.

  "We made sure of it, Major," the commander said, as she grinned at Sheri.

  "That stuff will ruin a good steak," he told them. “Among other things.”

  "It certainly smells good," Manning smiled, sniffing of the meat that Cooper had cooked to a dark brown.

  "I hope it taste as good as it smells," Sheri said, holding her plate out for hers.

  "I hope your Gorgon steak doesn't make us sick, Major," the commander said.

  With steaks and MREs passed all around, they set down to sample the local reptile meat. There was silence for several minutes as each one chewed the steak slowly, savoring the odd taste with each bite, hardly touching the green vegetables from the packaged meals from the ready to eat containers. Finally, Cooper said:

  "You guys know what this taste like?"

  "Don't you dare say, chicken," Colonel Peterson snapped.

  Grinning, he said, "No, believe it or not, I once tasted a piece of alligator in Florida, and this meat has that same flavor."

  "I don't know," Sheri said, "I heard that alligator tasted like chicken."Manning started laughing with his odd cackle again, while the commander gave them both an angry look.

  "Have you ever eaten rattlesnake, Major?" Colonel Peterson asked.

  "Actually, yes," he admitted. "During survival training, we had to kill snakes and insects and eat them before the instructors would pass us through the course. However, there isn't enough meat on a rattlesnake to obtain a good taste. How about you, Colonel?"

  "I went through the same course," she admitted. "I think they were a little harder on women, though."

  "Remember the grub worms?" Cooper asked.

  "Grub worms?" Sheri asked.

  "We had to eat them for their fat content," Colonel Peterson told her.

  "Please," Manning begged, "not while I'm eating."

  "Tell me, Roger," Cooper asked, "shouldn't a Godly man like you be strictly a vegetarian?"

  "Some religions teach that people of their faith should not eat meat," Manning told him. "Fish is usually acceptable, but no red meat at all. Especially ham."

  "But not your faith?" Sheri asked him.

  "No," Manning shook his head. "I believe that God purified all foods for our consumption, even this Gorgon the major killed. Why would He put us here, and not allow us to eat the food that is available? If we consider that He provided the Gorgon for us to eat, then we should obey."

  "He always makes sense, doesn't he?" Cooper asked.

  After finishing their meal, Cooper said, "I did the cooking, ladies."

  "Meaning what?" Colonel Peterson looked up at the major with a stern glare.

  "I'll wash the dishes," Manning told them with a grin.

  "I think that's only fair," the commander said.

  "How did we get outnumbered, Roger?" Cooper asked.

  "A wise man once told me, Cooper," Manning said, "that we'll never understand women."

  "Yeah," Cooper grinned, "I think I heard that somewhere."

  That night, as they lay in their cots, Cooper asked out loud, "I wonder how the women are tonight?"

  "I don't want to think about them," Manning said, turning over and falling asleep almost instantly.

  "I'd better have a double portion of MREs tomorrow," Cooper grumbled as he also rolled over, and soon began snoring loudly.

  At breakfast the next morning, Colonel Peterson asked, "How did you boys sleep last night, Major?"

  "Like a log," Cooper growled.

  "He thought about you ladies a lot," the engineer said, as a matter-of-fact.

  "Oh?" Sheri asked. "Was he very restless, Roger?"

  "Please," Colonel Peterson begged, "I'd rather not hear the details."

  "Actually, I dreamed about the Dodgers winning the World Series," Cooper told them. "And you girls were selling beer and hot dogs in the stands, wearing miniskirts!"

  Putting his head between his hands suddenly, Cooper told the engineer, "Roger, bring me two MREs this morning. Ham and eggs, with lots of potatoes!"

  "What's with the potatoes?" Manning wanted to know.

  "Don't ask, Roger, just do a dying man a favor, please," Cooper begged.

  "He's having evil thoughts again, Manning," the commander told him. "Make sure the major takes a cold shower when he returns to the bio-dome this morning."

  "And don't let him sing that nasty song when he does," Sheri giggled.

  "Y'all aren't being nice to a dying man," Cooper told them.

  "Ham and eggs, with lots of potatoes!" Manning said, returning as quickly as he could wi
th the prepared MREs.

  "Just in time," Cooper said. "You're an angel, Roger."

  "We are Saints, actually," Cooper," Manning corrected. "Angels are beings that God uses as His messengers."

  "I think I already knew that, Roger," Cooper told him. "It was just a silly phrase."

  After their meal of MREs, they were disposing of the containers the meals had come in, when Sheri raised her bare leg and asked, "Evelyn, how does my wound look this morning?"

  "Why, Sheri, I think it's healing absolutely perfectly," the commander said. "I did get all the mud off my thigh, didn't I?" Evelyn continued, as she raised her own bare leg up for inspection.

  "Oh, hell," Cooper grunted, as he jumped up from the table and rushed from the spaceship.

  "Where you going, Cooper?" Manning yelled after him.

  "The showers, Roger," Cooper's voice trailed back. "A cold shower."

  Both girls were giggling as the engineer departed also.

  "I still don't understand, Cooper," the engineer was saying, as the two men stood some distance from the Galileo Two.

  Cooper was holding the rifle-like contraption up to his shoulder, trying to sight the barrel on a distant rock in the desert.

  "Distance isn't a problem with the laser," Manning continued.

  "No, but accuracy is, Roger. The barrel doesn't seem to be exactly lined up with the shoulder stock or something. I can't aim as correctly, as I would like."

  "Well, it still doesn't make any sense to me," Roger told him. "All you're going to do is give the target a hot foot. It's not like you really need pin-point accuracy with this thing, especially at long distances."

  "You're probably right, Roger," Cooper told him. "But with the next model you produce, try to align the stock with the barrel better."

  "If you say so, Cooper," the engineer said.

  Cooper pressed the trigger and a laser beam shot from the barrel suddenly, flashing towards the rock some distance from them. The beam struck a long-stemmed plant in the sand several yards from the rock.

  "See what I mean, Roger," Cooper grunted. "The aim is off by several yards!"

  "I'll see what I can do, Cooper," Roger told him. "Let me take it back to the lab, and I'll work on it some more."

  Turning back for the spaceship, Cooper asked, "Notice how we've become acclimated to this heat now, Roger?"