“Man, this is big,” she said under her breath. “I know it, they’re gonna try and hide the truth, bury it. If it’s this important, there’s no way they’ll let the world know. What the hell’s going on here?”
For the past three days, footage of the Yamamoto Industries starjet evading previously classified U.S. military F-217 Nightwraiths over the Nevada desert and Colorado River had been playing around the clock, across the globe. Tourists visiting the Hoover Dam had streamed and uploaded high definition video of the incredible aerial dogfight to a slew of social media platforms. Concerted efforts by tech companies and governments to block the footage and de-platform the uploaders had proved wholly unsuccessful. The event had gone instantly viral. It had spread like wildfire and the people’s interest was insatiable. Mary wasn’t about to allow the global appetite for truth to be silenced.
“Marcus, can you get us any closer?” Mary asked.
Marcus Kroiher, Mary’s pilot, manoeuvered the helicopter over the train tracks beside the U.N. headquarters as Aaditya’s Agusta Westland heli-plane banked towards the crescent-moon shaped buildings. Its twin wing mounted props rotated towards the sky, transforming the vehicle from plane to helicopter.
“Uh, this isn’t good, what do I do about these?” Marcus called.
“About what?” Mary said without removing her eyes from the landing heli-plane, eager to see whether Aaditya Bashar was onboard. “Don’t bail on me now, Marcus, just get us closer.”
“This is kind of a big deal. I have about twenty verdammte laser dots across my chest? I don’t much feel like getting shot. We’re too close, I gotta pull back.”
“No, they won’t shoot, they can’t. Take us down. Land… uh… there, land in the middle of the fountain,” Mary urged, leaning over her cameraman, Max Schindler, and pointing out in front of the pilot. “Right there. Get us down before their helicopters block us. You can do it, quick.” Outside, she noticed helicopters with armed military police hanging from their sides were already vectoring on their position. “We don’t have time, Marcus, they’re coming. Five seconds and we’ll be shut out.”
“This is a verfluchte helicopter, not a boat. We don’t know how deep that fountain is. Plus, you think they won’t shoot as soon as they realize what we’re up to? Let’s see how confident you feel with a chest full of soon-to-be bullet holes.”
“Marcus, please, just put us down. It’s shallow, it’s a fountain. They won’t shoot, they can’t, it’s too public. Look around, look at all the press. There are cameras everywhere. Put us down before one of the other news crews works out that’s the only landing spot available. Quick, before we miss this. This is the scoop of the century, trust me.”
“Trust you? That’s what all the crazies say. It’ll be a scoop alright, scooping up the pieces of our body meat after we crash!”
“Aaditya’s on the ground,” Max informed, his camera aimed towards the heli-plane touching down beside the main entrance to the U.N. complex. “If we’re gonna do something, we better do it fast.”
“Marcus, please,” Mary implored.
“Ich hasse journalisten,” Marcus replied, banking the helicopter into a downward arc. “Warum tue ich das. Okay, hier gehts, don’t say I didn’t tell you, this is on you.”
Fifteen meters from the ground there was a series of clanking metallic thuds, followed by a spluttering whine from the engine. Mary saw dark smoke trailing out behind.
“They actually shot at us!” The cameraman cried, bracing a hand to the roof. “They can’t do that, right?”
“Festhalten!” Marcus yelled, fighting the control column as the tail swung out, sending them into a spin. “We’re going down. Ich habe ihnen gesagt dass du verrückt bist, crazy lady!”
Mary shielded her face as they crunched through a series of flagpoles and splashed down in the fountain, her seatbelt wrenching tight, water rushing through the open door. The craft rotated almost three hundred degrees before grinding to a shuddering, watery halt.
“You okay?” Max groaned, nudging Mary’s shoulder as the helicopter’s engine crunched to silence, fatally mangled gears and pistons shredding to iron filings. “Mary!”
“Ach, I think so,” she replied, coughing and fighting off a wave of dizziness. “Marcus, are you alright? I’m sorr…”
“Leck mich!” The pilot responded, kicking open his door and jumping into the knee-high water with his hands raised, red dots igniting across his chest. “Ich hasse journalisten. Nicht schiessen!”
“Quick,” Mary said to the cameraman, hastily unbuckling herself. No more than fifty meters away she spotted Aaditya Bashar, the man of the hour. He was looking on open mouthed, armed police charging in from all sides. “Aaditya, AADITYA!” She yelled, scrambling from the crippled helicopter, waving madly.
She waded through the water towards the man, ignoring the laser dots painting her torso.
“Camera’s dead,” Max said, wading behind her. “It’s totally fried, waterlogged. Damnit, it’s toast.”
“Mary?” Aaditya said, rushing to the fountain’s edge. “Mary Ellis, is that you? Are you alright?”
“Yes, yes, it’s me! I was at Tanegashima, the Japanese space center just over a decade ago when you sent those probes into the sun. I was one of the journalists invited to cover the story, remember?”
“Of course, how could I forget,” Aaditya said, taking her hand and helping her from the fountain. “As always, Mary, you make one heck of an entrance. Are you sure you’re alright? That was quite a thing. I think we should get you a doctor, just to be sure.”
“On your knees!” A gruff voice hollered as armed heavy-booted military police took position around Mary and her cameraman. “On the floor, put your hands behind your head and lock your fingers, NOW!”
Mary’s cameraman unleashed a panicked cry. He dropped his sodden camera and threw up his hands.
“Easy,” Aaditya said, stepping in front of the pair and spreading his arms. “They’re with me, the pilot too, let him go. Yamamoto Industries takes full responsibility. We’ll cover all damages, just calm down and take your fingers off your triggers. We’ve got actual threats to combat and we don’t have time to waste.”
The Vienna Congress
A aditya approached the rostrum at the head of the packed Congress Hall. Before leaning towards his microphone, heart hammering, he took a slow, steady breath to calm his nerves. Even after a lifetime of practice, he still struggled with public speaking. He couldn’t quite believe he was about to address the most powerful men and women on the planet. And to make matters worse, they weren’t going to like what he had to say.
Mary stood in the wings of the stage, busily jotting notes onto a brochure she’d snatched up in the lobby. Aaditya felt grateful for her presence, an independent witness should things sour beyond his control. Her cameraman remained in the lobby outside, where he was desperately trying to revive his waterlogged camera. Ahead, Aaditya’s gaze met a line of military police with guns, which he took as a sign he was essentially under arrest. He was all too aware he was top of the American President’s hit list after his role in the Area 51 heist a few days back, but so far, the world’s most powerful woman, President Knox, was showing restraint.
The Austrian United Nations AV co-ordinator, who’d been busily patching Aaditya’s laptop to the overhead projection system, gave a nod and the focal wall of the Congress Hall lit up, relaying a live feed of the star portal orbiting Earth. Golden solar wings fanned either side of the colossal structure housing the micro star, the gateway to Jurassic Earth. The array resembled a celestial dragonfly, sparkling against the infinite reaches of space.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Aaditya began, “as I’m sure you’re aware, this is Yamamoto Industries’ star portal, the gateway through time to Jurassic Earth, one hundred and forty-eight million years in the past. Three days ago, we launched a mission to rescue Rebecca Beaton, who was stranded alone on Jurassic Earth, or so we thought...”
President Knox
raised an eyebrow at Aaditya’s choice of words, which neglected to mention the heist on Area 51, which had been essential in order to liberate the starjet so his people could travel back to Jurassic Earth and rescue the woman. The American Vice President pressed his speaker button and leaned forwards, but President Knox held her hand over his microphone. She shook her head and mouthed something inaudible. Aaditya gulped so hard he was sure it had cracked around the auditorium like thunder. He tried to settle himself. President Knox fixed him with a no-nonsense stare and lifted her chin a touch.
“I… uh… erm,” Aaditya stammered, pulling at his collar. He closed his eyes and fought to find clarity. “We, uh… okay, to cut a long story short we… well… our mission discovered something other than Becca back in time. Our team picked up a transmission, something not of… something… you should probably all strap in, this is going to get wild…”
Aaditya paused and looked around the chamber, allowing the bank of translators in the back row to feed the opening address to the earpieces of the non-English speaking contingent. There soon wasn’t a single face whose undivided attention wasn’t focused forwards.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Aaditya continued, finding his composure, “I know this won’t be easy for many of you, but we’re all going to have to put our differences aside and work together on this one. We don’t have time for arguments, ideologies or egos. This is too urgent for that. Humanity is in grave peril. Please trust me on this. First, I need to bring you up to speed. Let’s start at the beginning. This all started three days ago…”
Three days Ago
F lames engulfed the viewscreen as the starjet punched through the atmosphere of Jurassic Earth’s southern hemisphere, above the snow-covered continent of Gondwana, an enormous landmass breaking away from the southern tip of Jurassic Earth’s main Pangaean supercontinent. Nori was working fast, robotic hands flitting across the navigational controls, busily plotting a virtual corridor that illuminated a path ahead, towards the source of the mysterious transmission. An alarm pinged and the starjet rattled as they passed into cloud, water droplets and steam replacing the streaking flames.
“Flying blind,” Reece said, gripping the shuddering control column and following the virtual tunnel on the viewscreen, through graying lobes of cloud. “I hope this approach isn’t gonna lead us into the side of a mountain.”
“Me also,” Nori responded.
Shocked, Reece wheeled to face Nori, whose robotic eye lenses contracted as his mouth rippled with light, which Reece now understood to be a sign of amusement.
“Funny guy. You think with all that advanced technology inside that tin head you could at least simulate a laugh when you’re telling a joke.”
“Where would be the fun in that?”
“Excellent, sarcasm as well as jokes. The first robotic human in history and he’s a comedian.”
“Relax,” Nori said, bringing up topography on the central console, which displayed mountainous terrain many miles below and out ahead. “I’ll plot a course around any mountains, but they’re the least of our problems. Our main problem is going to be ice. This jet’s not designed to fly ice heavy. She was built to fly into stars, not freezers, at least not for extended durations.”
“Would you quit it with the jokes,” Reece said, noticing ice crystals forming at the edges of the viewscreen, which was now also being buffeted by fat flakes of snow. He turned, expecting to see Nori’s robotic face displaying further signs of amusement, but there was only an appearance of concentration as the human machine busied across the controls. “It’s a joke, right, Nori… right?”
“To stay airborne the flight computer is constantly adjusting the airframe to maintain an aerodynamic lift profile. I’m manually cycling movement on all panels to prevent ice build-up. Right now, we still have a thermal surplus from re-entry, so should be fine. I feel very confident.”
“Thermal surp… confident? What about after we land, it’s the damned Antarctic, the Jurassic Antarctic. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the main thing about it is ice, everywhere you look… ice, ice! You might even say it’s its main feature!”
“Sure,” Nori replied, “but just as it’s late summer at the Jura base in the northern hemisphere, here it’s early winter. My calculations put our landing zone just within the fringes of the Antarctic Circle. The sun will be skirting the horizon all day and night. We’ll enjoy constant twenty-four-hour sunset for the next two weeks at least. We’ll have plenty of light, heat and time. Even with the odd ice storm it shouldn’t stay cold long enough that we can’t fly, minus sixty or so. I’ve run the numbers and the risks are almost zero.”
“Hallelujah, why didn’t you say almost zero to begin with? Excellent. I feel so much happier now I know there’s only a small chance we might become stranded on a lethal dino world we just barely managed to escape, searching for the source of a transmission that may or may not be broadcast by three-headed devil monsters from a galaxy far far away, who I’d wager good money will enthusiastically accommodate us just north of their seven sphinctered ani. Sounds great, a fun day out for all the family. Bring the kids, they’ll love it! Oh wait, we already did that and we all know how that went. You know what they say about insanity, right?”
“We won’t be staying long. This is a short stop mission, a quick in and out.”
“I think I’m finally beginning to understand you,” Reece grumbled, reaching up and routing power to the landing gear. “You’re like the guy in the film that goes back for that last piece of treasure as the cave is collapsing, just one last fistful of sweaty gold. It never works out too well for that guy. They always buy the farm, every time, pockets full of treasure and eyes full of regret. I’m telling you right now, if I think this is getting too dangerous, if I even sense the air surrounding Becca is becoming hostile, I’m calling it, we’re evacuating. I have a wedding to get to, with a woman I can’t believe looks at me the way she does. It’s the greatest miracle of my life and there’s no force in the universe getting in the way of that, we clear?”
“I hear you. I’m looking forward to the day also. And, just so we’re clear, we’re not going back for me only. I’m curious, obviously, but our main objective is to buy everyone back there in the cargo hold’s freedom. A single artefact proving pre-human civilization would achieve that ten times over. We’re renegades, remember, Earth’s most wanted? We broke into the most secure government facility on Earth to liberate this ship. We all have bounties on our heads, every one of us. The main goal of this mission is to pay that off. This isn’t just about me, that’s not fair.”
“… I know. I just…”
“It’s okay, I get it,” Nori said, resting a metallic hand on Reece’s shoulder, the soft pads of his fingertips applying gentle pressure. “Out of the nine billion people on planet Earth I chose you to head operations on the Jura base, humanity’s most distant outpost, not only because you’re qualified, quick thinking and fearless, but because you have an enormous heart that puts the safety of everyone else before yourself, not that you display it freely. But, all of the greatest magicians keep their most amazing secrets concealed behind the curtain.”
“You do know that two thirds of those nine billion people are kids and old people, right? Most of the other third spend half their time sitting in their underwear playing computer games. Plus, if you saw me in Vegas a week ago, you wouldn’t be so complimentary. I was a mess, buried in a bottle, or seventeen. My hands are still shaking. I’m barely holding it together, buddy.”
“We all fall from time to time,” Nori said, chuckling and returning his attention to his console. “In Japan we have a proverb, Nana korobi ya oki. Roughly translated it means fall seven times, stand up eight. All great warriors have this ability. I always had faith you’d stand back up.”
“I’m no warrior, pal,” Reece said, scoffing laughter. “Now that’s funny. You sure are one funny guy, Noriyuki Yamamoto.”
“I think the people back there in the cargo
hold would disagree, as would the Jurassic Five, not to mention the future generations that are going to benefit from your sizeable donation to the Polar B.E.A.R. Foundation. Like it or not, to a great many people you are and always will be a hero.”
“Okay, okay, easy. Any more smoke up my ass and I’ll pop. And you say I’m the magician behind the curtain. I see you there working those levers, Mr Oz.”
“Accepting flattery on the other hand, abysmal,” Nori said, belligerently jabbing buttons. “Ability to acknowledge one’s merits, fail. Recognizing your…”
“Hey, what happened to the hero stuff?” Reece said. “Why not just leave it there, let it hang for a moment? No need to open a window just yet…”
“So you do like flattery?”
“Man,” Reece groaned. “It’s like having a conversation with my little brother. Let’s just drop it and get this over with? The sooner we land the sooner we leave.”
“Very good. Make it so.”
“Is that Star Trek? Are you doing Star Trek?”
“You got that?” Nori said, chuckling softly. “I wouldn’t have taken you for a Trekker.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but spend as many years buried in the bowels of an aircraft carrier as I have and you end up watching pretty much anything and everything to pass the time. You know where that phrase comes from, Piccard’s famous line, make it so? It was used by captains in the British Navy when they addressed the first officer, the XO. Make it XO became make it so, but I guess you already knew that.”
“I may have the entire lexicon of human knowledge and information stored in my data banks, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy talking about things I like. I’m only human after all.”
Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set Page 42