by Tom Johnson
"That’s nice," was all that the commander said.
Turning back around, the engineer began looking for another target to his front, but suddenly heard the colonel shout a warning:
"Roger, there's one of those big reptiles coming around the side of the ship. You might give it one of those hot shots you just gave the bush."
Manning, seeing the giant Gorgon approaching, instead of firing, backed up to the ladder, and quickly climbed up to the hatch, out of danger from the beast.
"Why didn't you shoot it?" the commander asked with a growl.
"I couldn't kill it, Colonel," he admitted. "It's one of God's creatures. With safety a few feet away, there really weren’t any need, anyway."
"Next time, leave one of those ray guns with me, and I'll kill the monsters if you won't," she told him.
"Yes, ma'am," he agreed.
"What's all the yelling about?" Cooper asked from the bedroom door, as he peaked out. "Manning just let a Gorgon walk up and kiss him," the commander snarled.
"How was it?" he grinned.
"How was what?" Colonel Peterson asked.
"The kiss. How was the kiss, Roger?"
"Ah, it didn't really kiss me, Cooper," he cackled out.
"He came back into the ship instead of shooting it," the colonel said.
"Good idea, if you ask me," Cooper said. "What would he have shot it with, anyway?"
"That thing on his leg," she pointed. "I think it might have killed that monster!"
"Is that your new model, Roger?" Cooper asked. "How did it perform?"
"I aimed it at a bush in the desert," he said. "And poof! The bush is gone!""What will it do on the lizards?" he asked.
"I don't know," the engineer told him. "We'll have to wait and see."
"Next time wake me up, and I'll assist you in the experiment," Cooper told him. “Heck, I want to try it out myself.”
"It sounds like the major is feeling better, Manning," the colonel said. "If I'd known he was going to be so grouchy, I would have waken him before you left the ship."
"Yep, now we're three!" Major Cooper grinned.
Chapter Seventeen
Electric Solution
"I am better, though," he told them later. "I think I'll be able to carry my load from here on. Just tell me when something is up, and I'll help."
"The new models were an unknown quantity, Cooper, and I just wanted to test it before we took them into the swamps. I figured it would be safe enough during daylight, so went outside. After all, the colonel was watching from the control room. I was completely safe."
"He had a chance to shoot a Gorgon," the colonel said, "and didn't."
Cooper gave the engineer a quizzical look, and then nodded his head. "Something to do with that God of yours, right?"
"I can't kill one of God's creatures," he said.
"I thought as much," Cooper nodded. "Next time, let me. That's probably why your God brought me along. To do the dirty work."
"And all this time, I thought it was to be a thorn in my side," the colonel broke in.
“Well, there is that," he grinned.
"It looks like the Gorgon is leaving," Colonel Peterson said, still watching its movements in the view screen.
"The cameras were definitely a good idea, Roger," Cooper told the engineer. "From now on, when one of us is outside, someone should be monitoring the screens for unwanted visitors like that monster that just dropped by."
"And no more dancing in the moonlight," the colonel grinned. "If there is any cooking done outside, we come back in to eat. That way, someone can watch the grounds from in here at all times."
Nodding, Cooper said, "We'll win this war yet, Colonel." If the reptiles are going to survive, they’ll have to become our pets.”
“Meow,” the colonel purred.
"It's not really us versus them, Cooper," the engineer said. "These creatures are just killing to eat. They're predators, but they're also God's creations."
"And we're the prey, Roger, don't ever forget that," the commander told him.
"Think about it, Roger," Cooper said. "If your God did put us here, He must have had a purpose. If so, then we have to survive to find out what that purpose is."
"I agree," the engineer said. "But I still can't kill one of them to save our lives. It is a paradox, and one that I must deal with, alone."
"Well, I wouldn't be able to live with my conscience, Roger, if I let one of you die without trying to stop one of those monsters from killing you," Cooper told him. "There is no paradox for me, you must live, and God's monsters must die. End of discussion!"
The larger reptiles were wandering farther from the swamps all the time now, and many days were spent inside the ship while mammalian predators searched for them on the grounds. Their scent must have drawn the creatures closer, or the decaying flesh in the graves was emitting an odor that the monsters could detect above ground. However, the bodies must have been deep enough below the surface to confuse them, for the beasts did not dig for the rotting carcasses.
The smaller frogs and amphibians kept to the watery swamps in the forests, feeding off the numerous insects that also selected the grasses around the mud pools near the shallow lakes and riverbank. The herbivores remained near the brush as well, and the predators eventually returned to feast on prey they could find above ground. Creatures like the crocomanders and Dimetrodon seldom wandered far from the swamps, only occasionally leaving the water for a morsel near their waterbeds.
Clouds came over the area several nights in a row, bringing a lot of rain to drench the desert, but there were no more hurricanes with howling winds. The earth shook occasionally from the rumblings of the volcano to their east, and plumes of ash billowed from the cone nightly, but there were no more violent eruptions, giving the survivors of the Galileo Two a false security. For this was a violent world, which could erupt into deadly danger from one breathe to the next.
"I need to go outside," Cooper finally said. "I can't be cooped up in here much longer. I'll go stir crazy soon."
"There's no way we can stop them from wandering over here," Colonel Peterson told him. "Our odor must be drawing them from the swamps."
"Given time," the engineer said, "we could build a wall around the compound. That would be sufficient to keep them out."
Nodding his head, Cooper muttered, "Time may be something we have plenty of, Roger. But I'm not sure I want to spend the rest of my life erecting a damn wall around this place. Besides, we'd still be prisoners in this place. No, we need to take charge, show these damn lizards we're the boss around here."
"That's telling him, Flash!" the colonel said.
"Roger knows what I mean, Colonel," Cooper told her. "He's said it himself, his God sent us here for a purpose. Well, if that's the case, then we have to be the ones to run things. The lizards sure as hell can't!"
"Then we'll have to find a way of teaching them to fear us," the commander said.
"Yeah," Cooper agreed. "But how will we do that? Their brains appear too simple yet to feel any kind of emotion, fear or anything else."
"Have we forgotten the hotfoot application?" Manning asked from the sidelines.
"The hotfoot?" Cooper and the commander both asked at once.
"We can use the rifles," the engineer suggested, "and start blasting them whenever they get close to our camp. They will learn through instinct, and instinct can be taught through repetition. Thus, the hotfoot every time they come near us."
"And that's why God sent us Manning," Cooper laughed. "Roger, you're a genius, my friend."
"I'm glad someone has a head on their shoulders," Colonel Peterson grinned.
"I still won't kill them," the engineer argued.
For the next week, they took target practice from the hatch, firing lasers at the creatures that came within range of the portal. They aimed at the snouts, but the weapons were not accurate, and their beams often went wide of the mark. But the heat from the beams was enough to discourage the mons
ters from sticking around for long. Unfortunately, instinct was slow in kicking in. The monsters never stayed away for long.
"At this rate," Cooper growled one day, "we'll run out of patience long before we run out of those damn lizards!"
Once, when Manning was firing at a group of gorgons in the compound, the ray must have angered one of the creatures and it turned on the monster next to it and attacked with its long tusks. When the fierce fight was over, one of the predators was dead, and its companions commenced feeding off its carcass.
"Well, you've done it now, Roger," Cooper laughed. "You had a hand in killing that beast, you know?"
"I didn't mean to," the engineer grunted.
Laughing, Cooper slapped him on the back. "It was just one of those things, Roger. Something that might have happened whether you shot it or not."
After two weeks of the hotfoot program, they were about ready to give it up as a losing strategy, when the engineer came up with a second solution.
"I was reading up on cattle ranches before the war," he told them, "and it seems they had a system that worked to keep cattle within a certain area."
"What was this system, Roger," Cooper asked, "besides fences?"
"The hotfoot," he grinned.
"Manning, you're going stir crazy," the commander told him. "That's what we've been trying the last couple of weeks!"
"No, no, this system is different," he told them. "Listen to this: we run a thick cable completely around the compound, stripped of insulation, just high enough from the ground that the reptiles will have to touch it. We hook it up to our electrical system, with just enough power to cause a mild shock, and it'll do more good turning the beasts away from camp than our laser rifles."
"Our son may have something there, mother," Cooper grinned at the colonel, and got a scowl back in return.
"It's worth a shot," the commander said. "Do you think you can set the system up, Manning?"
"With Cooper's help," he said. "He can keep the creatures away from me while I work, and you can monitor the view screen while we're outside, Commander."
"Smiling, she said, "Or I could guard you while the major watched television," she suggested. "Yes, ma'am," he said. “That was going to be my next suggestion.”
It didn't go as smooth as they hoped. The reptiles made a nuisance of themselves while they were outside running the cable. Colonel Peterson went out with Manning first, just taking one of the rifles, and the heat ray had little effect on any of them for long. Luckily, Cooper could pick the monsters off from the open hatch of the Galileo Two long enough for the team to get back inside safely.
"We'll have to pick our times to go outside," the colonel said finally. "We'll wait until most of the monsters are back in the swamps."
"And take more firepower with you the next time," Cooper suggested.
Nodding her head, the colonel admitted the major was correct. "I should have been better prepared, that's for certain. I will be next time."
"We were okay, ma'am," Manning told her.
Finding periods when only a few reptiles were around, the engineer was able to run cable for a distance from the ship to the bio-dome, allowing them enough room to move around outside in safety, with both sides of the area protected against intrusion. The naked wire reached far enough on each side of the bio-dome that nothing could sneak up on them. Even if it didn't stop the monsters, the contact would cause sparks and warn them that a predator was near.
As soon as the wire had been strung to the poles, the engineer waved towards the Galileo Two, and Cooper, who was watching the view screen at the time, flipped the switch that turned the power on. The outside team then quickly returned to the ship and they waited and watched until evening, when the reptiles began gathering at the edge of the lighting system. They knew it wouldn't be long now.
Sure enough, before they had waited more than an hour, they could see activity within the darkness at the edge of camp, and shortly a fierce Gorgon ventured closer, striking the naked wire guarding the grounds. There were geysers of sparks cascading outward from the contact, and the reptilian monster swished backwards instantly, rubbing its injured snout into the sand. Another large creature climbed over the first and rushed for the wire, not understanding that this was what had caused the initial excitement in the first place.
When the first reptile approached the wire again, the second monster had made an error in judgment and tried to cross the electrified cable. Another splendid array of red sparks lit up the surrounding night, and the two monsters collided in an angry fit of rage, snapping powerful jaws at each other's long forearms. It quickly became a fierce battle of fang and claw as they fought, thinking the other had caused it the pain the electrical charge had inflicted. Before the fight was over, a dozen more lizard-like Gorgons joined the fray in a primordial orgy of violent death.
Three silent spectators observed the battle from the safety of the spaceship's view screen, marveling at the incredible show the night predators were giving them. While in the distance, a young volcano spewed its gaseous clouds of smoke and fire high into the sky, and the ground gently rumbled and quaked, rocking the ship just enough that the occupants could feel a slight vibration. And overhead a meteorite storm swept across the heavens in a dazzling display of an astronomical beauty.
"Prehistoric," Cooper inhaled softly.
"Mankind has never experienced such primordial beauty as this," Colonel Peterson sighed.
"Its ugliness does have a certain beauty," the engineer said. "But it's timeless, actually. Beauty of some kind must exist even in times of war, or great catastrophes on the Earth."
"Have you found your answer, then, Roger?" Cooper asked.
"Ah, yes," Colonel Peterson said, "Manning's journey to find an answer. I had forgotten that, Major.
"Well, have you Manning? Have you found the answer you were seeking when you came on this mission? Have you reasoned how your God could allow such death and sorrow on the Earth?"
"Perhaps, Commander," the engineer told her. "Our Lord had to die before His followers understood the real reason for His First Advent. There was pain and suffering then too. I guess there has always been death and suffering among us, and will be until His Second Advent. Maybe that's the answer I needed."
"And we can't stop it," Cooper said.
"Professor Plymouth, Tony Mercer, Barbara Terrill, or even bright, happy, Sheri Thompson. They died to show us the way, I think," Colonel Peterson said.
"Yes," Manning told her. "Our Lord showed us the way once before. This time it was our close companions. If we look at it that way, then they didn't die senselessly."
"But for the short time I knew them," Colonel Peterson said, "I think I'll miss them the rest of my life!"
"That's the way it should be, Colonel," Cooper told her. I'm certainly starting to believe Roger now, when he says we're here for a purpose. But like Doctor Terrill used to say, 'I sure wish someone would tell me what that purpose is'!"
"Look," Manning ejaculated, "they're trying to find another way in!"
The creatures were circling the wire now, as if they knew it could harm them, but every so often one would accidentally shove another into the electrical fence, and sparks would fly and monsters would scatter into the darkness again.
"They're getting smarter," Cooper reasoned.
"Instinct," Colonel Peterson corrected. "Once bitten, twice shy, as the old saying goes."
"Well, I'd like to rev up the juice just a little, then they'd know they'd been bitten," Cooper grinned.
"This will work, Cooper," the engineer told him. "You can see their reaction to the wire already.
A few weeks of this, and they may quit coming around here all together."
It was several weeks before they really noticed a difference, but eventually the beasts did quit coming to the ship, except for an occasional straggler. But when they encountered the electrified fence, the monsters quickly departed for the swamps again, leaving the Galileo Two survivors in re
lative peace.
But with the absence of the vicious predators came the frogs and small lizards.
Chapter Eighteen
Plague of Frogs
"What is that movement on the ground?" Colonel Peterson asked one morning when she started into the view screen.
Cooper and Manning rushed to her side, thinking the Gorgons had returned. However, the view screen was unable to show clearly what was moving on the ground far below the cameras, and they had to stare for several minutes before the engineer finally sputtered:
"Frogs!"
"He's right," Cooper said. "And some kind of small lizards, I think. Maybe those Seymouria things Sheri told us about."
"They came in under the cable," the engineer told them. "If we want to stop the smaller reptiles, we'll have to lower the wire, I guess."
"My question isn't necessarily 'what are they'," Colonel Peterson said, "rather than 'why' are they here?' Shouldn't they be staying near the swamps?"
"Good question," Cooper and the engineer said in unison.
"I don't think they would normally migrate away from the swamps," Cooper said. "And there hasn't been enough rainfall lately to attract them this far from the lakes and riverbed."
"Then something has driven them from the swamps," Colonel Peterson said with a groan.
"That's scary," Cooper admitted. "What could possibly force water dwelling creatures from their natural habitat?"
"I think we had better find the answer to that in a hurry," the commander said.
"That means another trip into the forest and swamps," Manning told them.
"It can't be helped, Roger," Cooper told him. "If there is a danger that might affect us, we need to know about it."
As they ventured outside later in the day, Colonel Peterson and Cooper avoided tripping over the reptiles, while observing that the frogs had disappeared under ground, where they would probably remain until the next rainstorm. However, the lizards flitted from one spot to another, always in search of another insect to capture and eat. The larger creatures, like the thick bodied Seymouria, caught and ate the smaller reptiles.