by Jacky Qian
"You mean the one who's second only to Einstein? Are you telling me that you're…"
"That's absolutely right!" Darwin said, sweeping his hair from his forehead. "I'm the one who disappeared fifty years ago."
"Well, I'll be!" said Hicks in amazement. His attitude toward Darwin changed immediately. "Mr. Speicher, it's a great honor to meet you!" Hicks was so much in awe that he could have genuflected. Catherine giggled and said quietly, "Oh. So, that's what happens to your arrogance."
Silverstar and Nicholas could only laugh.
"Cut it out!" said Darwin as he waved the sycophantic Hicks aside. "Don't you want to know what extraterrestrial space is? I'll show you."
He grasped a rope and gave it a stiff tug. A boulder hanging from the top of the tree dropped, pulling up a lift. Darwin pulled another rope to stop the boulder and said, "Step in, please. We have railings this time."
"Is this what you call a railing?" asked Catherine, pointing at a wooden stick. "It's little better than nothing!"
"Miss, try not to be so picky," said Darwin as he walked inside. The lift started to sway violently, and several passengers nearly fell off.
"Gosh! Watch out!" shouted Silverstar. "It's dangerous!"
"Sit tight!" warned Darwin before pulling hard at the rope.
The lift launched upward like a rocket, causing some of the passengers to gasp. In this process, the lift almost rubbed a huge boulder. After about twenty seconds, Darwin started to slow down the lift by pulling the falling boulder. The lift finally stopped at the top of the tree.
Nicholas coughed heavily before asking, "Can't we go any slower?"
"Come here and take a look at this beautiful scene," said Darwin. He opened his arms and breathed deeply of the fresh air. The place overlooked the entire forest, all the way to the sparkling water at the shoreline. "There's a mountain nearby. That's the place where we get our blue gold. And that," said Darwin as he pointed toward the bay, "is where we fish and eat seafood. Now, you've already seen this thing." He stepped on a raised platform for lookouts and said, "This is the place where we monitor the forest. We also have a conch here." Darwin approached the horn-like shell. "Let me show you the best invention that a human being has ever made!" said Darwin as he pressed its wooden button.
He took a deep breath and blew into the conch. Instead of a thunderous sound, it produced a beautifully mellifluous sound like that of a flute. The pattern on its surface flowed up and down with the melody, displaying colorful lights.
"Incredible!" exclaimed Catherine, "Is that the legendary song of the Atlantic?"
"Legendary song of the… !?" asked Silverstar, "What's that?"
"You need to visit the east coast occasionally." whispered Nicholas, who didn't want to interrupt the wonderful music, "It's the mermaids' song of enchantment. It's rumored that sailors on the sea would be captivated by the song and then perish on the rocks."
"Oh, right," Silverstar whispered back. "I've heard the story."
The song ended. Darwin breathed heavily and said, "I nearly ran out of breath with that one." He smiled. "Now, it's time for us to witness a miracle!"
The sky rumbled with a distant roar. It sounded like something made by a group of creatures howling simultaneously. Hicks looked at where the sound came from. Instantly, his face became deathly pale.
"What's happened to you? Are you ill?" asked Nicholas with a tone of concern.
"My God! They're fire dragons!" cried Hicks.
"Are you kidding me!?" said Darwin, placing his hand on his forehead. He gave Hicks a playful smack on the cheek and said, "How could I have such a cowardly colleague like you? I summoned the dragons here!"
"That accounts for it," said Runt, hoping to avoid the gust caused by the six approaching fire dragons. "The conch horn you made is used to call forth the dragons."
"Well, that really is a great invention!" exclaimed Silverstar. Seeing the terrified Hicks, he had to laugh.
Hicks, obviously embarrassed, stood to the side. Catherine, however, was fearful of the monsters, which were as tall as high-rise buildings.
"Don't be fooled by their terrifying appearance," Darwin said as he gave Catherine a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Fire dragons are ancestors of reptiles. We don't know their exact origin, but they're friendly and smart. So, we can all ride them."
"Ride a fire dragon?" Silverstar rushed to Darwin, "I'm looking forward to doing that! I've ridden poisonous scorpions before but never an animal that could fly."
"You mean Rey de los insectos?" asked Darwin, "You dared to ride a creature that big?"
"Sure!" the boy replied. Silverstar stole a look at Catherine nearby and said with a flourish, "I even acted as a dragon trainer on the fairy island and rode 'Rey de los insectos,' as you mentioned. I even escaped from the jaws of La ultrarrápida cazadores."
One of the dragons howled as if to urge them to be quick.
"Okay, then," Darwin said. "Let's get our passenger compartment mounted." A globular cabin was wheeled out of a cavernous garage nearby. The compartment resembled the cockpit of a fighter jet, but it had four seats. The left seat in the front row was reserved for Darwin, who would operate the controls. There was a long, extremely broad strap on the top of the cabin, and Darwin climbed onto one of the creatures to secure the cabin around its neck. He dropped four leather belts as a pair of men walked out of the lift toward him. Darwin introduced them by saying, "These two guys are Jack and Darren. Silverstar, you met them yesterday. Well, what are you two looking at!? Get over here and help me!"
"Right, boss!" said Jack, and he rushed over to help. Darren looked at Jack with contempt and said, "Boss, you didn't see what he was doing then. Without the help from Heaton and Veale, he would probably have been hanging around Autumn. Although Autumn didn't even look at him, he simply wouldn't leave. He acted like a hooligan.
Jack struggled to buckle a lock catch, after which he punched Darren in the face.
Darren dropped what he was doing, cussed mightily and gave Jack a swift kick. Seeing the dogfight, Darwin was forced to knock them down with a few moves. He shouted, "Behave yourselves! We need to bring new members out to extraterrestrial space for some fun."
The lead dragon, with a roar, spread its wings to welcome its passengers on board. Darwin said, "Jack, you go with the two doctors. I'll go with the three kids. Meanwhile, Captain Simons, who's dressed in plant fiber, is with Nemo and Darren."
Silverstar greeted the two with a wave of his hand. Darwin explained, "Let me explain this: The fire dragon will take us to outer space, and we'll remain in a vacuum for 30 seconds. It's a test of breath-holding capacity for the fire dragon, but don't be afraid. It'll all be fine. In case anything goes, we'll head back immediately."
"Won't we burn to ashes as we penetrate the atmospheric layer?" Catherine asked. "I've already seen fire caused by friction with the air."
"Possibly," replied Darwin with a mischievous smile. Given that reply, Silverstar was tempted to jump out of the cabin. However, he had already fastened his seat belt and put on his oxygen mask. Darwin secured the cabin door and said, "This will be an adventure, anyway." Nicholas took a deep breath. Silverstar said, "Let's just do it!"
The trio of fire dragons gave a mighty roar in unison and leaped from the ground. They spread their vast wings, causing a gust to blow the leaves off the canopy of foliage. They raced across the sky like a flaming meteor. Flapping their wings – which were even bigger than their bodies – the dragons went forward at an incalculable speed.
A Trip to Outer Space
The fire dragons flapped their wings, rocketing ever skyward. The gravitational pull tugged at Silverstar and the others, but magically the dragons could defy it. Darwin continually announced, in a broken voice, such data as the height and air pressure, and he regularly warned his fellow travelers to control their breath. Just as Ark had admonished them earlier, it felt as if their stomachs would burst. On a plateau, one's belly could inflate like a Mylar balloon. A fighter pi
lot could suffer a cerebral hemorrhage and blood-vessel explosion amid the plummeting of his jet. Silverstar simply couldn't manage his thinking correctly. He could still lift his hands, but they were freezing. After all, they were already 10,000 meters in altitude. It was beyond belief that the fire dragons could hold their breath for such an amount of time.
"They can do it because their lungs are the size of buses. They can store tons of oxygen, and that supply allows them to fly to outer space and back." Darwin answered their questions almost before they could be asked, as if he were a mind reader.
"Ouch!" cried Hicks over the phone. "Jack! We have to head back! My wrist hurts too much!"
"He's had a relapse of his illness due to the air pressure," Runt said. "It has caused his blood vessels to burst. He was wounded not long ago, so we need go back!"
They all looked at their wrists, and on each there was a bulging artery that resembled a drinking straw. Darwin turned on the air conditioner. Although they could gradually acclimate to the extreme environment, at any moment their blood vessels could rupture.
Silverstar couldn't hear Darwin's announcement of their altitude, but outside there appeared the perfect circular edge of the planet. The rapid ascent led to an insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain. Silverstar's head was in chaos.
"Silverstar! Look!" Catherine shook Silverstar. He opened his eyes. They were flying inside the cabin. A screw flew up and hit him right on the nose. There was a deep-blue mass outside the cabin, and below there was a vast primordial continent, with its origin from the original land mass. Yuri Gagarin, the first Russian cosmonaut, would have said the world was the purest blue and green if he were to have seen such a spectacle. Given the complete absence of satellites, space stations or any man-made debris, nothing glinted in the darkness but celestial bodies. The moon looked iridescent, like a pearl, and the scorch trace of the lunar mare was highlighted in a deeper gray. The Pacific, along the edge of the earth, shone with beautiful blue light as it reflected the sun's rays.
"This is Heaven," Nicholas said softly.
Catherine added, "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Silverstar gazed outward in astonishment. The earth below was so rich and vital that he was completely without words to describe it.
Darwin had a 30-second countdown, after which he issued a warning: "Sit tight, we're heading back." The fire dragons stopped flapping their wings and allowed the gravity to pull them down.
"Spread your wings! Angels!" Darwin cried exultantly. They dropped toward the earth, plunging through the atmosphere like a roller coaster.
The Great Rift Valley
"This is how it feels when we return to the earth from space!" Nicholas clenched his teeth, as he imagined the dragons did. The dragons spread their huge wings. Violent shaking followed. The dragon descended on its belly, which helped reduce the resistance. Its wings caught fire. The dragon could still endure the flames, though, because they were relatively minor. Everyone on board just had to fart, as did the dragon in response to the decreasing air pressure. They were still twenty thousand feet above the ground. The dragon rotated its wings from time to time to make sure that they would land properly.
The cabin suddenly slipped off due to its loose binding with the neck of the dragon and caught fire immediately. It seemed that Darwin wanted to say something, but nothing was heard because of the all-consuming noise.
With a roar, some creature skipped behind the dragon, seemingly in the hope of snatching the cabin. Luckily the dragon seized the cabin with a swift, thoroughly acrobatic dive. However, its claw slashed open the top of the cabin. It was a serious problem because they were fourteen thousand meters above the ground! It was very likely that they would freeze.
Silverstar began to shiver, and the flames went out. The fire dragon was engaged in battle with some unnamed creature. The creature had a silver-white crest and a pair of wings like those of a bat but the color of bleached bones. Its tail was full of quills like those of a hedgehog. Its two legs were like those of an insect. Its hands were small, and its small head – like that of a dragon from Chinese mythology – had jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth.
The creature flew toward the fire dragon with a roar and kicked its adversary in the head with its huge foot, leaving a bloody slit on the dragon's head.
The fire dragon roared with a rage and puffed a flame. But its opponent wasn't harmed in the least. The creature bit and ripped into the neck of the dragon. At this moment, Silverstar found that the head of the creature was twice as big as that of the fire dragon. But the fire dragon wasn't to be trifled with. With the claws on its wings, the fire dragon dragged the creature off its neck, doing so through brute force. Though the fire dragon had been injured somewhat, it wasn't beaten. It launched another fusillade of fire and caused an explosion inside the throat of its opponent. The creature, oozing transparent blood, fled in panic. As they descended through the cover of clouds, they saw a desert full of canyons, big and small. It was then that the silver-white creature, undeterred by its wound, attacked again. Flapping its wings, the fire dragon leaped onto the huge body of the creature, prying open the latter's mouth and dislocating the lower jaw. Then, into that gaping throat the dragon blasted more fire. The creature burst into flames and hurtled earthward. It plunged into a rift, creating a yellow cloud of dust, rubble and shattered bone. The fire dragon landed slowly and folded its wings. It ripped the red-hot cabin off its back. The leather strap made of special heat-resistant materials was already as soft as cotton.
"I'm calling Darren and others to come," Silverstar said. Darwin halted him on the spot, saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You just stay here. The rift valley is so hot and dangerous."
"Why is there a desert like the one we see in this warm era?" Silverstar wondered aloud. The existence of so desolate a place, in that era, puzzled him. What could have caused that region of Earth to look like Mars?
"It is a miracle! Incredible!" Runt said with great excitement. "The fire dragons could follow human instructions and can even cross through the atmospheric layer without getting burned to cinders! You know…" He began to share his observations from the perspective of biology.
"You're conducting another research study, aren't you?" asked Nemo. Dr. Runt couldn't contain his enthusiasm.
"Definitely!" he shouted in response, startling Simons. "Biology is a great science! If you want to explore the mystery and range of life on earth…"
"Well, I just can't take that anymore," Nicholas said with a sarcastic roll of the eyes.
"After all, what is this monster?" said Darwin as he looked at the dead beast with a trickle of transparent blood flowing from its mouth. The three fire dragons, meanwhile, sat and licked their bodies like cats. Darren and Jack didn't say a word. Silverstar said instead, "Usually, this kind of creature shouldn't have existed. It's also extremely unusual for something to have wings like those of a bat."
Hicks yawned lazily. "It's a mutation caused by some chemical experiment."
"Come on!" Runt shot back, glaring at him contemptuously. "What would you know about it!?"
"The dark haunters we encountered earlier are very unusual," Hicks said, defending his position. "There's also this vast rift valley. It must hold some secret that we've yet to discover."
A wine glass collided with a chair armrest, ringing with the clarity of a bell. Abruptly, Ossien rose to his feet. In a dark surveillance room, a wide screen showed what was happening in that valley. The dead monster and Runt were in full view, and what he said could be heard. A bright light cast into a soft silhouette the words etched into the wine glass: Life's End, which was also the name of the wine.
Gurgling, Ossien took another gulp of the liquid. He said, "Villers, the silver-bone dragon has been defeated. Use a nerve message to summon split-bone beetles."
"Yes, sir!" replied a voice, suggesting low transmission power for the nerve message in order to prevent it from being detected by the Time Police.
"Wel
l, that is excellent!" Ossien sat down slowly, "Now…we shall all wait and see."
"Hey, guys," Simons called in a tone of concern. "This place isn't good for a long-term stay, just like the forest."
"The fire dragon will be exhausted soon," Darren answered. "It needs return to the forest for water."
Just as Nemo was about to say something, his facial expression changed. He shouted, "Look out!"
With a horrible scream, a monster approached at lightning speed, causing a gust. It had a pitch-black shell and sharp claws on raptor's feet. It was as huge as the silver-bone dragon, but this beast had a tail full of quills and four wings, each of which was tipped with sharp claws like those of the fire dragons.
The monster screamed and opened its six hands, all pointing at the people on the ground. It moved with great speed. The fire dragon was caught by surprise. Darren took the lead in stopping the monster, and together they disappeared in a cloud of dust. The monster seized several people and launched into the air. Amid the commotion, Darwin cried, "It's a split-bone beetle! Catch it!"
Unfortunately, Silverstar was seized. In the rapid ascent together with the split-bone beetle, Silverstar lost consciousness.
The Summit
"Silverstar, wake up!"
Silverstar sat bolt upright, only to knock heads with Nicholas.
"Ouch! What're you trying to do? Kill me!?" Nicholas stood there with a hand against his forehead. "I'm seeing many silver stars."
"Where are we now?" asked Silverstar as he rubbed his aching head.
"A summit." answered a voice listlessly. It was Darren, who was busy tending to his wound. He continued, "That damned monster brought us here. The eastern peak is 7,600 meters up, and the western one is 8,900 meters. I don't how high the summit is. Son of a bitch!" He kept cursing the split-bone beetle.
"Hey, what happened to you!?" asked Silverstar. "Jeez, that's an awful wound!"
"He got a bad scratch on the ground when the monster picked him up." explained Nicholas. "Gosh, though!" uttered Nicholas when he looked at the wound. He didn't have the guts to stare at it.