by Tom Johnson
Several of the fin-tailed Dimetrodon were feeding off the fish in the shallow lake near the mud hole the biologist was forcing the engineer to wade in, but they didn't appear to be concerned with the humans. They didn't see any Gorgons in the area, but had no doubt that some were not far from the area.
"There were Darwis around the Galileo Two again last night," Cooper told the colonel. "They didn't come close, but we knew they were there, just out of our sight in the darkness."
"I wonder why they are hanging around the camp?" Colonel Peterson asked.
"Maybe they're just curious," he said. "There's no way of telling what those creatures are thinking."
“I can’t believe they were actually thinking,” Colonel Peterson said. “Creatures like that aren’t capable of intelligent thought.”
A splash and a yell drew their attention back to the mud puddle, where they saw poor Manning neck deep in the gunk.
"I'll never get this muck off me," he was yelling at the biologist.
"Sure you will," Sheri told him. "During your regular Saturday night bath!"
"Gosh, is it that time again?" Cooper laughed at Manning's expense. "You only had a bath a week ago!"
"I wouldn't draw attention to myself, if I were you, Major," the commander said. "Sheri is determined to get her specimens today, and if Manning quits, you go in the mud next!"
"Watch this," he grinned, as he aimed the rifle at a large reptile near the biologist. Pressing the trigger, the beam jolted the creature and it leaped straight at the girl, causing her to tumble into the muck herself."Oh, what a pity," Cooper laughed. "Looks like you might as well help Roger, Sheri. No need in the rest of us getting muddy."
"You did that on purpose, Coop," Sheri accused the major. "I'll get even with you for this!"
"What can she do to me?" Cooper asked the commander. "I'm stranded two hundred and fifty million years in the past, sharing the world with the god-awfulness’ ugly creatures that's ever been on this planet. How could she make it any worse?"
"I’m thinking she could make you eat more MREs," Colonel Peterson grinned.
"Now, that hurt!" he groaned.
"Why don't you quit for the day, Sheri?" the commander called to the biologist. "You should have enough specimens by now."
"Okay," the girl said. "Come on, Roger, let's go to shore and clean up."
"I'm soaked, and I'm muddy," he said. "All I want to do is get back to the bio-dome and take a shower. This gook stinks!"
"Well, you two ride in the back seat," Cooper told them. "Unless you prefer to take a quick bath in that lake over there!"
Seeing all the Dimetrodon feasting off the fish in the lake, the two answered in unison: "No, thanks!"
"Then hop in," Cooper offered, indicating the back seat. "But hold on, the colonel is driving!"
"And just what do you mean by that, Major?" Colonel Peterson asked angrily, as she threw the vehicle in gear.
The force of the g's slammed everyone hard into the seats! Automatically, they grabbed for support to hold on, it was going to be a fast and bumpy ride.
Back at the camp, the colonel stopped the ATV at the front of the bio-dome and let her passengers out.
Cooper set the laser rifle on the hood, leaving the spear in the seat as he helped Manning and the biologist from the back seat. He grabbed the laser gun just as Colonel Peterson pulled away. Remembering the spear, he called after her:
"Bring the spear with you when you come back, Colonel." He wasn't sure if she heard him or not.
"Roger, you can wash the mud off first," the biologist told him. "Coop and I will wait out here until you're finished, then it'll be my turn!"
"Yes, ma'am," Manning said, as he disappeared into the bio-dome.
"What are you going to do with those things?" Cooper asked Sheri, pointing to the bag of amphibians she had captured in the swamp mud.
"Cut 'em open, probably," she smiled through caked mud on her face. "See if they have all the regular body parts we're familiar with in our own time."
"I can't imagine them otherwise," he told her.
"We'll just have to wait and see," she suggested. "But I'm sure you're right."Involved in their conversation, neither heard the soft, slithering sounds of three-toed feet advancing from the side of the bio-dome. It was still daylight, and they weren't really concerned with creatures of the night being near their camp. They were taken completely by surprise when two man-like lizards rushed them on two back legs, long tongues flicking from ugly snouts, their front legs reaching out like human arms to grab prey. The first creature struck Cooper with its upper appendixes, just barely missing his shoulder with snapping jaws full of teeth.
Sheri wasn't as lucky. The second Darwi was on top of her before she knew it was there, and sharp teeth sunk deep into her throat as it shook her like a rag doll. A soft cry broke from her lips before she mercifully lost consciousness.
Cooper wrestled with the first monster, holding its terrible jaws away from his own throat, as it ripped his arms and chest with sharp claws. Finally, with blood flowing from several deep cuts, he was able to straddle the creature, and with all of his strength forced the reptile's mouth apart until it snapped. Still alive, the Darwi withdrew, unable to continue the attack. Finding the laser rifle, Cooper fired it at the monster trying to escape with the biologist. The weapon did little damage, but it finally dropped the girl and ran off into the desert behind its wounded mate.
Adam Cooper rushed to Sheri's side, but saw that it was already too late, her jugular had been severed, and she had lost too much blood. The little biologist was dead. He picked her up and was carrying her towards the bio-dome when Manning came out. They heard a scream, and turned to see Colonel Peterson running towards them!
Chapter Sixteen
Now We're Three
"Is she—?" Colonel Peterson asked, solemnly as she stood beside Cooper.
Nodding his head, Cooper said, "Now we're three. This violent world is picking us off one at a time, Colonel, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it!"
"Have faith," Manning said. "I can't believe that God doesn't have a purpose for us."
"God..." Colonel Peterson began, but Cooper caught her eye and shook his head, and she didn't finish whatever it was she was about to say.
"I think I made a mistake with all the other burials, Colonel," Cooper said. "I didn't make everyone come with me when I dug the graves. From now on, I think all of us should witness the burial, maybe that will leave a vivid impression on all of our minds that we must stay alert.
"Get the shovel, Roger, and join us around back. Come on, Colonel, and bring the weapons, just in case they're needed again!"
After the grave was covered with dirt, Colonel Peterson told them, "I can't be alone in the ship now. Either I will have to move my things in with you guys, or y'all move back into the ship. We need to be together now, not separated."
"We can try the ship first," Cooper told her. "If we decide to move back into the bio-dome later, we can. Roger and I will use Sheri and Doctor Terrill's bunks. We can set up a partition for privacy."
"What did you do with the amphibians that Sheri captured today?" Colonel Peterson asked.
"I released them into the desert," he told her. "The last I saw of them, they were making a direct course for the swamps."
"Take a lesson from that, Cooper," Manning told him. "Nature will always survive. If the reptiles can, then we will too!"
"There's three of us, now, Roger," Cooper argued. "Let's not allow this world to take any more of us!"
Hanging his head, Cooper said, "I'll miss her giggles," sadness in his voice for their loss.
"She kept us sane, I think," the colonel said. "Always ready with a joke."
"She could sing pretty good, too," Roger said.
"If either of you start singing, so help me, I'm moving back to the bio-dome," Cooper told them.
"Spoil sport," Colonel Peterson grinned. "When we get on board the ship," she continued, "let
me tend to those cuts, Major. They look pretty deep."
“Will it hurt?" he grinned.
"As much as I can make it hurt," she told him.
"I was afraid of that," he grimaced.
At the entrance to the Galileo Two, Cooper turned and looked back at the approaching darkness gathering around the camp. Raising the laser rifle, he pressed the trigger and cut a swath through the outer darkness with the beam. Then he turned back and entered the ship to see Manning and the colonel staring at him.
"What was that for?" the colonel asked.
"Just in case," he said. "Actually, I was hoping there was something out there in the darkness. I wanted to light a fire under it, if it was."
"We'll be in trouble if you lose it, Major," she told him. "So keep your mind clear. I want Flash Gordon able to respond in an emergency."
"Speaking of Flash, ma'am," he grinned, "you forgot to bring Alley Oop's spear from the ATV when you parked it."
"We can retrieve it tomorrow," she told him. "Right now, I want to look at those cuts, so remove your shirt!"
"Well, that's a switch," he laughed, as he began removing his shirt.
The colonel had a bottle with a clear liquid, and a cloth, which she dabbed with the contents, and Cooper held his nose with one hand.
"What is that stuff?" he asked.
"Alcohol," she told him. "I found it in Doctor Terrill's medicine cabinet. It may not be as pleasant as the stuff they used on us in the war, but it's great for killing germs."
Slapping the cloth over his cuts, she cleaned them thoroughly with the alcohol, bringing a gasp of pain from the macho major.
"This hurts me worse than it does you," she smiled.
"That'll be the day," he snarled.
The next morning, he was delirious and running a high fever. Colonel Peterson sat by his bedside with a pan of water and a stack of towels, trying to keep the fever under control. Manning busied himself around the ship and on the grounds while Cooper lay in a semi coma. Every now and then the engineer would enter the room to ask the commander a question, which she hardly noticed, and then leave again. For a week his mumblings were incoherent, but finally a word or two made some sense, and she would smile at some little joke only she understood.
Finally, on the seventh day, when the engineer entered the room, she told him, "The major is going to make it, Manning."
"I know," he told her. "I've been praying for him."
She wanted to say something about his foolishness, but instead just laughed and nodded her head, "That's good, Manning," she told him. "I'm glad."
"Why don't you take a break, ma'am," he told her. "You've been sitting with him for a week now. You should get some rest."
"Maybe you're right, Manning," she said, as she stood up. "I think I will lie down for a while, but you'll let me know if there is any change, won't you?"
"Yes, ma'am," he assured her.
Colonel Peterson slept for ten hours, and when she awoke, she rushed into the major's room, to find Cooper and Manning laughing about something.
"Well, I'm glad to see that you're feeling better, Major," she told him.
"Thanks," Cooper said. "When I awoke just now, I was so darned weak and hungry, the first thing I asked for was a package of MREs. For some reason, it started Roger to laughing, and I guess his jocularity carried over to me.
"Say, how long have I been in this darn bed, anyway?" he asked. "I feel like I've got bed sores."
"A week," Manning told him.
"Have you been sitting up with me for a week, Roger?" he asked.
"Yes, he has," said Colonel Peterson. "I've just been checking on you every so often."
"Well, if someone will help me out of this bed, I'll go get those MREs myself," he suggested.
"You'll do no such thing," the colonel argued. "You stay where you are, I'll get them for you. Roger, help him set up in bed while I'm gone."
"Yes, ma'am," he said.
"Roger, my fever isn't the only thing that broke," he said. "Why don't you help me into the bathroom while she's gone?"
When the colonel returned with the MREs, Cooper was sitting up in bed, a tray across his stomach that Manning had brought from the Doctor's lab, which would work as a table for his food.
"What's been going on while I was out of it?" Cooper asked, as he ate his first meal in a week.
"I took some lighting systems and cameras from the bays, and put them around the Galileo Two and bio-dome, and run wires to a circuit in the ship's system," the engineer said. "I think we have a lighting system that will illuminate the area around the camp at night. And with the cameras, we'll be able to see anything moving out there. It will also help when two of us are working outside. The third person can watch the cameras from in here, and warn us if anything approaches."
"Roger, you did all of that, and sat with me, too?" Cooper asked, incredulously.
"No," Roger began, "the colonel—"
"The colonel thinks that's a good plan, Manning," Colonel Peterson stopped him. "But I don't think the major will be up to going outside for a few more days yet."
"I'll lose my bronze tan if I stay cooped up in here much longer," he argued.
"Doctor's orders, Major," she said. "And today, I'm your doctor! Besides, much more tan and you’ll be as black as me."
“But not as beautiful,” he grinned.
It took Cooper several more days before he was able to move around on his own, and he was angry at the delay. He was anxious to be doing something again, and he didn't care what.
"How are the plants in the bio-dome, Roger?" he asked.
"They're growing faster, and larger than anything we expected," the engineer told him. "Cornstalks are reaching for the roof, seven and eight foot high, and the ears are long, beautiful and yellow. No bugs to ruin them, or bad weather to stunt their growth.
"Tomatoes as big around as a softball, soft and juicy. Squash, okra, beans. Anything will grow in there, Cooper, I swear!" he said. "This world is young, and the soil is so full of nutrients, it's just begging for seeds."
"When I'm well enough, I want a tomato with my next steak," Cooper told him. "And corn on the cob, my man!"
"How about the squash and okra?" Manning asked with a grin.
"As long as they ain't treated with you-know-what, Roger, I'll eat anything from your garden," he said.
"I'll see what I can do about that, Cooper," Manning promised.
For the next several days they did eat more steaks from the butchered Gorgon, as Colonel Peterson felt that the meat and fresh vegetables would build Cooper's strength back up faster than the MREs. Manning did the honor of cooking, and the colonel gathered the tomatoes, squash and okra from the garden, while Cooper stretched out on a blanket under the hot sun.
"I wouldn't stay out there too long without your shirt, Major," the colonel told him. "That sun is liable to peel your skin off instead of tanning it nice like mine."
Flexing his muscles, he grinned, "It is reviving me, colonel, and filling me with an energy I haven't felt in weeks!"
"Well, don't complain if it burns you," she said. "We don't have any ointment to put on a sunburn."
"I guess you're right," he grinned, standing up. "I'll move into the shade for a while. Like I was telling Roger some time back, we're becoming acclimated to the heat. I'm starting to enjoy the hot days!"
"That could be dangerous," she intoned. "Even if we don't notice the heat any more, it can still do us harm."
"I'll reserve a moonlit night for our next dance, then," he smiled.
"Oh, and I was planning on singing that night," she said. "I guess you'll have to ask someone else for that dance."
They still ate plenty of MREs, and they knew the meat from the Gorgon would be gone before long. Unless they harvested another reptile soon, they would be eating MREs permanently. Cooper was anxious to go hunting again, but he wasn't sure he had recovered sufficiently as yet. And killing one of the monsters Gorgons with a spear could be tricky.
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Manning was working on the original plans for the laser rifles, hoping to produce a smaller but more powerful weapon. The longer it took Cooper to recover his full strength the engineer could spend that much more time working on the problem. The initial design of the rifle helped advance the second model, which Manning was able to build into a smaller piece of equipment. But the result was still a gun larger than a pistol, even if it did have a more destructive ray. How effective it would be against the monsters of the Permian would have to wait for a practical demonstration. With these in place, the engineer went about designing a new holster for the guns. Since they were too big and clumsy to actually fit inside a holster, he created a system to attach weapons to the hip with a Velcro fastener attached to a leatherback that fitted to a belt. This makeshift contraption seemed to work well enough to secure them to the wearer's side.
Strapping one of the new models to his waist, the engineer found Colonel Peterson, and told her, "I'm going outside to test this new piece of equipment. I'll be back soon."
"Stay close, Manning," she told him. "I'll keep watch on the grounds while you're outside, just to be safe. But you be alert to your surrounding always."
"As you wish," he said. “There isn’t much to distract me out there.
"Where's Cooper?" he asked.
"Resting," she told him. "He's still a little weak. Do you want me to wake him?"
"No, no," he told her. "I'll be okay. I just wanted him to watch the experiment."
"We'll tell him about it when he wakes up," she said.Nodding his head, the engineer went out the hatch and descended the ladder to the ground, making sure the holster held the weapon in place. Once on the ground, he looked for a possible target, and spying a desert bush some sixty feet from camp, he pulled the new gun from his side, aimed and fired a beam of light. The bush disintegrated before his eyes.
"Wow," he whispered softly. "It's more powerful than I thought!"
"What was that?" came a voice from a speaker mounted nearby that he had set up with the camera system.He held the new gun up for the colonel to see through the view screen, and then gave a thumb's up signal, showing that the experiment was a success.