“What? You mean just walk on out there and hit a button, and if it works, fine, and if not, then we’re in trouble?”
“Yes,” said Kii. He began to strap on the device. “Have you another idea?”
That stumped Barkham. He had no response.
“Very well,” said Kii. “Now, Takamura, I perceive you as being the most reliable of your company, and the best shot. Here is my beamer rod.” He handed Takamura the device which he had destroyed the Enforcer with. “You simply aim and press this tab,” the alien instructed. “Once before you think you’ll fire within the next few minutes. Twice to actually fire. The first pressing activates the power bulb.”
Takamura nodded. “I take it that you wish me to fire it at the guard.”
“Yes. When his force-bubble dissolves, he must be destroyed, or he will warn the others and they will return immediately—perhaps wrecking our plans.”
“Can’t have that,” said Barkham. He pulled out his Magnum. “I’ll give the guy a plug for good measure.”
Mikaela Lindstrom reluctantly took out her weapon as well, and looked at Takamura. “l was just thinking. If Kii is so practical, why doesn’t he just close up the hatch right away and rocket out of here? Leave the others behind. He has no particular emotional tie to any of them ... And it certainly would be safe for him.”
“A good point,” said Takamura, and he turned to pose the question.
“No need,” said Kii. “My powers in English have improved. l understood what you said, ...”
“So then why are you so concerned with the others in the ship?”
Kii said, “I have reasons to believe that your friends Phineas Kemp and Rebecca Thalberg have a great deal of importance to the future of your race. They must be rescued and brought aboard this ship and be taken with us to Earth ... At all costs. But let me explain ...”
“I’M NOT feeling so well,” said Phineas Kemp.
Everything began to swim about him woozily. He had to stop in the passageway they were traversing.
Becky Thalberg at his side, touched him with concern, then when she realized he might topple over, she grabbed hold of his arm. “Linden!” she called to the figure loping along ahead of them. “Wait! Phineas is ill.”
Linden had found another passageway from the radiation chamber. A passageway that led downward. He had not told them where exactly they were going. He had just told them to follow: this was a much faster way to the alien ship, docked at the main hatch.
Linden returned to them. He touched Phineas and he nodded his head. “I was afraid of this. I saw the possibility, but I had hoped that it wouldn’t happen so soon.”
“I’d like to lie down for a while, if it’s okay,” said Phineas, feeling like his stomach was full of molten lead.
“His progression toward the cocoon stage has been accelerated. Perhaps he had already received a small dosage of the proper radiation before and was thus primed for the transformation. At any rate, it seems to be proceeding along on its natural course. Everything would be fine—if we weren’t so far from the ship.”
Kemp said, “Just leave me ... Leave me here. Go on. Get off this hellhole.”
“No, Phineas Kemp,” said Linden. “This is not in the cards.”
“I can’t ... can’t move,” said Kemp. He felt paralyzed. His skin felt very coarse and odd, and a low fire seemed to be building within it.
“Of course you can, Phineas,” said Becky. “Because you have to!”
“This is correct, Phineas Kemp. You must make the effort. We will assist you.”
“No. l think I’m getting into this ‘surrender’ business,” groaned Kemp. “l think I’ll just lie here and surrender.”
“That doesn’t sound like the Phineas Kemp I know and love,” said Becky.
“It’s the new Kemp. Remember, I got zapped. I’m sick. Just let me die.”
“He must be motivated!” Linden said, looking fretful for the very first time.
“No problem,” said Becky. “You know, Phineas ... if it were Ian Coopersmith in this situation ... Well, I know that Ian wouldn’t give up.”
“Coopersmith!” growled Kemp. “That black bastard! I could beat him any day of the week.”
With great effort, he got to his feet and started walking down the corridor on his own.
Still, Becky and Linden were soon on either side of him, assisting him.
Kemp kept on walking in a daze, somehow holding back the blurriness and pain about him.
“’Where are we going?” asked Becky.
“The aliens who built this also built a transport system. Little cars running through pneumatic tubes,” said Linden. “There’s a station down here just a little way. If we can make it, we can use the car to travel to the station right by the hatch. From there, we can make it to the starship.”
“Hopefully,” said Becky. “How much longer does he have?”
“Have? Before what?”
“Before his skin starts structuring his cocoon?”
Linden looked at Kemp. “I’m afraid it will be in only a matter of hours.”
“YOU’VE got to be kidding me,” said James Barkham. “And how the hell do you know all this, anyway?”
“There are ways, my new ally, which you can have no conception of,” said Kii.
The party was making its way through the alien starship toward its appointment with the alien. The hatchway was not too far away at this point, and Takamura could feel his adrenaline level beginning to rise again.
Still, all this was fascinating ... Imagine! Kemp and Thalberg touched with the same radiation that had done that strange business with Linden. And that it should turn Timothy Linden into a new creature. What was the term that Kii had used? Neotenous. Yes! Humans were neotenous! They had the potential to turn into something different, superior.
There was hope for the human race, despite everything.
But in order for that hope to go on, they had to get Kemp and Thalberg and Linden aboard this starship!
“Sounds like quite a bit of hogwash to me,” said Barkham grumpily. “Colonel Kemp, neotenous? You make him sound like a pervert or something!”
“I’m sorry, I do not understand your meaning,” said Kii.
“I think that, like all of us, Barkham has just been under a lot of pressure lately, and is not open to new concepts.”
“Bullshit!” said Barkham. “I’m open to all kinds of concepts. I just can’t see the Colonel fitted out in a cocoon, that’s all. It gives me the goddamn creeps, that’s what it does.” In truth, Barkham looked quite a bit unsettled, thought Takamura. Perhaps more at the thought at it happening to him than to Kemp.
“I’m sure, Barkham, that it’s not contagious,” said Takamura.
Barkham chuckled, but he did not smile. “I’m just staying away from any goddamn radiation, that’s all.”
In truth, Takamura was more than a little upset himself.
Becky and Kemp. Together.
Thrown together by fate, it seemed.
It was just sinking in on Takamura the implications. Somehow, he knew that Becky ... Well, Becky would be lost to him forever now. No hope.
But to know that she would survive ...
Survive and grow and be happy ...
Well, that was the important thing, wasn’t it? That was what mattered. That the loved one lived on ...
Sure.
He somehow managed to kick the thoughts from his mind and proceed with the group, concentrating on the task ahead of him. After all, Kii had placed his trust in him. The energy rod seemed warm in his hand.
Kii wore his adjusted force-sphere generator around what served as his waist. The others held their own weapons ready.
Kii strode up to a panel of controls. “Are you ready, my new comrades?”
“Yes,” was the gene
ral opinion.
“Very well. This must be done fast. We will travel through the airlock. As soon as we are through, whether or not I see the Enforcer, I shall press this device to start. Then, Takamura, you must be sure to deal with the Enforcer before he gets to deal with us.
“Ain’t no way that bastard is going to get close with this baby,” said Barkham, holding up his Magnum. “Power rod or no power rod. It looked to me as though Enforcers take Magnum bullets just about the same way as other creatures.”
“Every little bit will help, I’m sure,” said Mikaela. She turned to Kii. “Okay. I guess we’re all about as ready as we’ll ever be.”
Kii hit the controls.
* * *
After the subdued lighting from within the alien ship, the light from the Mesozoic Illuminator was almost blinding as they reached the last hatchway door.
Takamura’s eyes struggled to adjust.
Almost as soon as they neared the entrance onto the plain, the Enforcer hove into view. It seemed larger to Takamura, terribly impressive and frightening with its crackling energy and its sense of a coming thunderstorm.
And no sooner did it arrive than it seemed to see them: immediately it zoomed toward them, turning different colors as though in rage.
Kii fumbled at the device on his waist. His digits found the right controls, and there was a harsh keening sound, a staticky escape of power. Takamura felt his hair rising all over his body.
The force-field sphere stopped dead.
It changed colors, and the sparks stopped snapping.
Then it crashed down onto the ground.
The energy ball shuddered, became translucent, dissipated. Standing before them was a naked Enforcer, all teeth and claws. Enraged, it charged at them.
“Shit,” said Barkham, and he shot at the thing ... and missed.
“Takamura!” said Kii “Fire.”
The bulb at the end of Takamura’s energy rod was already pulsing: the weapon was primed. But Takamura had frozen for a moment at the sheer physical impact of the force-field sphere’s presence. The raw memory of his previous run-in with the things bloomed in his mind, freezing his nerves a moment.
But Kii’s cry and the sound of Barkham’s shot thawed him rapidly. He pulled the weapon up, aimed, fired.
A stream of energy flew out with incredible force, smashing into the Enforcer and blowing it into a similar array of gory pieces as its previous victim.
“My God,” said Barkham as the smoke from the remains dissipated. “That thing sure packs a wallop.”
Mikaela shuddered. “I’ll say. But I don’t like it ... That blood is going to attract predators. It’s not going to be safe here ... not safe for very long at all.”
“Yes, and we must wait for Kemp and Thalberg,” said Takamura grimly as he lowered his weapon.
“I shall not await the meat-eaters,” said Thesaurus. “I must go now. Go now, to be with my people!”
“What about the others ... the ones who are still aboard the alien ship?” said Barkham.
“I trust them to your care,” said Thesaurus. “Perhaps there will be a reunion sometime in the future. Now there is no time to release them.’”
“Yes, you’re right,” said Takamura. He held out a hand and Thesaurus shook it. “Farewell, good friend.”
“Farewell,” said Thesaurus. “And good luck.”
Without further ado, the Saurian scampered off into the vegetation.
“What’s to become of the Saurians?” fretted Mikaela.
“It will be all right with the Saurians,” said Kii. “They are more to the Enforcers’ tastes in the way of civilizations. They will be assimilated.”
“Now, what’s become of Kemp and Becky?” said Mikaela, looking as though they’d pop up from some part of the panorama at any moment.
“They shall have to get here very quickly,” said Kii. “I fear that the guard Enforcer has been able to beam a message out to. the others. They shall soon be on their way back.”
“But that, surely, shall take them some time,” said Takamura.
“They are very fast, these Enforcers,” said Kii, shaking his large head as though sadly.
“Have you any idea at all where Kemp, Linden, and Thalberg are?” said Mikaela. “I mean, with your vaunted extra powers, and everything.”
“I shall attempt to discern.” Whereupon the creature closed his eyes.
Barkham said, “So we get to just sit around with our thumbs up our noses while we wait for the big critters ... or worse, the whole gang of Enforcers ... to get here?”
“I guess so,” said Mikaela.
Suddenly Kii opened his eyes. “They are near. They are on their way. We must wait.”
“Wonderful!” said James Barkham, clasping his gun firmly. “Meantime we’d best be ready for other visitors.”
Takamura checked to make sure his power bulb was still pulsing.
It was.
“PHINEAS. Phineas!” A voice came to him through the swaths of fog that seemed to be wrapped around his head. “Hang in there, Phineas. Don’t go under! Hang on!”
It was Becky’s voice. He recognized it.
“Becky?” he murmured, lying back in the oddly-shaped seat. “Becky?”
“That’s right, Phineas. It’s me. Becky Thalberg. I’m here, and we’re well under way. We’ll be there soon. We’ll be at the ship, and you’ll be fine.”
“Nice to hear,” he said. “I think I’ll take a nap in the meantime.”
“No. Colonel Kemp!” said Linden, looking over at him from the controls of the tube-car. “If you lose consciousness, we will not be able to rouse you. And you are far too heavy to carry. You must remain mobile.”
As promised, Linden had indeed led them to a pneumatic-tube station. And, as promised, there was a streamlined car waiting for them with ample room for them all. Kemp had slumped through the door, immediately collapsing on the first thing that resembled a chair. Becky attended to him while Linden scrutinized the control board. In less than a minute, he had somehow analyzed the operational systems with his new powers. A touch of the fingers, a wave of the arm, and a push to a pedal and they were on their way, sliding through the winding tube system with Linden monitoring their direction, making sure they would end up at the hatchway.
Linden’s words did not do a great deal to encourage Kemp. He had always been a light sleeper, and it was seldom that he had difficulty jumping out of bed, alert and ready for action. Now, however, he was having severe problems. It felt as though a heavy weight rested on his whole body. A weight with invisible needles through which drugs were being pumped into every cell. Drugs that deadened him, made him very sleepy, sleepy ...
“Phineas!” said Becky sternly. “You keep those eyes open, do you hear me?”
“Hmmm? Open? Okay. Just let them rest a little, then I can keep them open.”
She slapped him.
He barely felt it, but the simple shock of being slapped by a woman roused him a bit.
“Sorry, but I don’t have any Aqua Velva,” she said.
“Huh?”
“Your line is supposed to be ‘Thanks, I needed that!’ ”
“Lines?”
“Forget it, Phineas. Just stay awake, all right?”
“Only a few more minutes to go, Colonel Kemp,” said Timothy Linden. “If you can just hang on, I’m sure we can shoot you up with something when we get there. From the medical supplies.”
“How about a cup of coffee?” he said groggily. “I could really use a nice cup of black coffee.”
“So could we all, Phineas,” said Becky. “Look, why don’t you just visualize it?”
“Visualize?”
“Yes. Pretend there’s a nice, bracing, steaming cup of black coffee in front of you. Take it up in your hand—”
“Ye
s, yes, Becky. I’ve got it!” He found it very easy indeed to actually see the cup of coffee before him. Was this one of his new powers? There it was, in a white mug with the letters lASA printed on it: his favorite cup! He picked that mug up and he put it to his lips and he sipped.
“Euuch!” he said.
“What’s wrong?”
“Becky, you never could make a decent cup of coffee!”
She laughed. “Nice to have a little touch of domesticity in the midst of drama and revelation, huh?”
Kemp chuckled and found his faculties returning to him somewhat. “Yeah. Domesticity. You give good domesticity, did I ever tell you that, Becky?”
“Well, I’m terribly flattered ...”
“And Ian Coopersmith never had to look at you in curlers, did he?”
Becky shook her head. “Yes, you’re right. Out there in the middle of the Mesozoic Preserve ... If Ian had gotten a good look at me in my curlers and night cream, he would have booted me right out of the tree to the carnivores. I’ll have to give you that, Phineas.”
“I can feel the lethargy coming on again,” said Phineas Kemp, although he was feeling much more awake. “You’ve got to help me, Becky.”
“What can I do?” said Becky.
“How about a kiss?”
She sighed and harrumphed. “How about another slap, Phineas. I thought Linden said you were supposed to be ‘enlightened’ now.”
“Darling, you would make the Buddha himself horny!”
She laughed. “Well, I guess you do have a sense of humor ... perhaps a little wit. Very crude, perhaps ...”
“So refine me!”
She shook her head. “Really, Phineas, I don’t think this is the time or the place ...”
“You’ve got to keep me awake, right? This kind of talk always keeps me awake!”
“Don’t you feel just a little bad about forgetting about Mikaela?”
“Christ, Becky, you think Mikaela is going to want to have sex with me when I look like that?” He pointed at Linden.
“Phineas, how do you even know that human beings kicked out of their neotenous phases are going to want to have sex, anyway?” said Becky sternly.
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