Caleb watched as the years began to wheel past again. With insights obtained from the crazed Shard-Mind, Dr. Reeve was able to develop new and sinister technologies that solidified his link to the Shard-Mind. His growing knowledge helped him to refine the cloning of the Ne Shaazi DNA. Though he was unable to exactly duplicate the original Ne Shaazi, the new race was close enough to strengthen the growing Shard and fulfill its desperate plan. Working almost entirely from the memories of the Shard-Mind, the scientist began to recreate the life forms of the Ne Shaazi’s time. Soon, he would remake the world as it once was and allow the Ne Shaazi to continue where they left off, only this time there would be no one to threaten their power.
Caleb watched as the hidden population of Ne Shaazi continued to grow and mature. Machines and weapons were constructed, designed to survive the effects of the ancient world’s rebirth. The first of the recreated animals were released into the deep wilderness, as a test of their strength and adaptability.
Soon after the first animals were released, something new happened. Caleb could sense something stirring as the ancient beasts ran free. A flicker of clarity echoed through the mists shrouding the World-Mind. Ancient memories began to return, and soon there was a new sharpness of presence in the World-Mind, though the Shard was oblivious to this. Slowly, irregularities began to arise among the Ne Shaazi. Some were thought to be simple genetic aberrations and were killed. Others, however, were more subtle and went unnoticed until they were able to escape into the wilds.
Although these beings closely resembled the Ne Shaazi, they had no connection to the Shard-Mind. They were born instead with the voice of the World-Mind ringing in their ears, strong and clear and full of peace. As their numbers grew in the deep, hidden wilderness, their dull scales were replaced by soft feathers, and Caleb could clearly recognize them as the Hininze reborn.
Soon the Hininze had scattered to many distant corners, some changing further, until they resembled the flying Ewahi and the smaller Awaru. All the while, the Ne Shaazi population continued to grow as more machines of destruction were readied for the days to come. As the World-Mind returned to wakefulness, Dr. Reeve became increasingly fearful and paranoid. He began to distrust both his unsuspecting human pawns and his own Ne Shaazi, fearing that they would eventually reject their new human master. Many times, various humans would discover the Shard-Mind’s plan, and try to stop the man it inhabited, but by then he was too well prepared. Those that would not join his cause were slain in secret, while those that chose to live were transformed into hideous monsters and made to serve him as Commanders, thus keeping the Ne Shaazi firmly in check.
Eventually, the day came when Dr. Reeve’s plan was ready. Caleb could see him then, though he barely recognized him, for he too had become a monster, even more terrifying than his minions, who now referred to him only as “The Reaver.”
The thing that had once been a man sent forth his armies, and waited until they had hidden themselves across the globe. After the dawn of the new millennium, when people’s guard was down and no one would believe any warnings of doom, the Reaver activated his most powerful device. Caleb watched with grim recognition as a wave of darkness washed slowly across the world. The Shard-Mind had used human technology and its memories of the great extinction, to twist and reshape the earth’s magnetic field. Within the space of a single day, civilization was brought to a grinding halt. The magnetic field pulsed and surged, destabilizing every electronic device on the planet except the special machines built for the armies of the Reaver. Bitter memories flashed through Caleb’s mind as he watched the vessels of the Ne Shaazi sweep across the paralyzed world, crushing all resistance.
The wheeling blur of years continued, and Caleb watched the world change, wracked by earthquakes, floods, and fierce weather as tiny pockets of humanity struggled to rebuild what they could. As the Shard-Mind had planned, the wilderness was overrun by herds of genetically resurrected dinosaurs. They grew and multiplied at shocking speeds, fueled by an ecosystem thrown into overdrive, with plants, molds and fungi growing even faster than they could be consumed. Some of the molds and fungus even attacked and fed upon fossil fuels, robbing the remaining humans of yet another tool, just as the Reaver had planned. Still, Caleb saw that despite all the Shard-Mind’s carefully laid plans, something else happened, and the ancient species flourished even more than was expected.
Guided by the growing clarity of the World-Mind, the few species of dinosaurs released by the Ne Shaazi changed, mutating and multiplying until they became hundreds of species, from all places and ages. A new ecosystem developed to fit the changed world, independent of the whims of the Shard-Mind. Humanity changed too, as the old-bloods began to appear, made anew to survive in a new world.
The vision slowed as it revealed Crater Lake, with the old-blood city of Carnival blooming on the slopes of Wizard Island. For a brief instant, Caleb saw himself and his friends scaling the steps to the Council Tower, then his sight grew dark.
Caleb blinked, a dazed look on his face, as his eyes readjusted to the moonlit path where he stood. Next to him Ksogiasu stood quietly, while Krezahu sat on a stone step next to Chuck, clucking softly to himself.
Slowly, the sounds of voices and music crept back into Caleb’s consciousness, echoing merrily from the Council Tower. Caleb opened his mouth several times, but couldn’t find the proper words to respond to what he had witnessed. Ksogiasu remained still, watching in patient silence.
“What…” Caleb began slowly, “does all of this mean?”
Krezahu chuckled quietly in the background and muttered something to himself.
“You have seen the shape of the past,” Ksogiasu said, her gentle voice contrasting with the intense images still wheeling through Caleb’s mind. “Perhaps, now you can see the shape of what is to come.”
Caleb pondered that for a moment. Even as he did, answers began flooding into his mind. “The city is in danger,” he said, almost to himself. “If we simply try to remain hidden here, the Ne Shaazi will eventually find and destroy us.”
“Good,” Ksogiasu whispered. “You are seeing clearly now. My people have been hiding this place from the minds of the Ne Shaazi but…” Caleb cut her off.
“But now that one of the Destroyer-ships has fallen, they’ll be after us in full force.”
“Kuu-kuu, yes!” Krezahu hooted. “So, the Wi’im-Duzi is finally paying attention!”
Caleb shot the Awaru a wry look.
“Well?” Krezahu continued, “What will you do about this, hmmm? Can you see the answer?”
Caleb’s mind was reeling from the rush of insights brought on by the vision. He had the answer almost before he was aware of it.
“The Shard-Mind is what drives the Ne Shaazi,” he said distractedly, as if still puzzling out the details. “Since its return, the Shard-Mind has operated through the Reaver. It used to be spread out among the minds of the Ne Shaazi, but once it entered the Reaver’s mind, he wouldn’t let go of it or share it with anyone else. He wants all the power for himself.”
Krezahu and Ksogiasu waited in eager silence as Caleb began to pace excitedly.
“So,” Caleb continued, “now the Shard-Mind’s own paranoid, selfish tendencies have caused the Reaver to trap it in one brain. If we could just get rid of the Reaver, the Shard-Mind would die—or return to the World-Mind or however that works—and the Ne Shaazi and all the Commanders would be powerless. They might even regain contact with the World-Mind again… I’m not really sure. Either way, the only way to protect ourselves is to take out the Reaver.”
Caleb stood silently for a moment as Krezahu and Ksogiasu nodded in satisfaction.
“Now he sees his path,” Ksogiasu said softly.
“Yes, yes,” Krezahu clucked. “He must lead the attack on the Shard-Mind.”
Caleb blinked suddenly and looked at the others as if he had forgotten where he was. “Wait a minute…” he said, his voice taking on a nervous tone. “Who says I’m gonna’ do this? I
just barely got out of the Destroyer alive! How the hell am I going to take on the whole Ne Shaazi army?”
“You have many friends who could help,” Krezahu said cheerfully.
“Are you kidding me?” Caleb said. His voice now carried a distinct tone of panic. “Nobody even knows where the Reaver is! Even if I was crazy enough to think that I could defeat him, I wouldn’t know where to look!”
“He remains in the place where his plans began,” Ksogiasu said calmly. “He is in the place your people called ‘New York City’.” Caleb’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“New York!” Caleb croaked, his throat suddenly dry. “New York City? I don’t know if you’ve been that way recently, but anyone living on the coast of Kansas can tell you that there’s about a thousand miles of ocean between us and New York. Now maybe there’s some islands left in the Appalachians, but New York City has to be completely underwater. We have no technology. We can’t even get a damned flashlight to work. At best, we have a bunch of worn-out guns and an extremely limited supply of ammunition. How could we possibly launch an attack against a psychic monstrosity commanding a high-tech army of mutants and dino-soldiers in some secret underwater base?”
Caleb stared incredulously at Ksogiasu and Krezahu as Chuck rose and leaned over him, concerned by his frantic tone.
“Kuu, kuu, yes. That is a puzzle,” Krezahu said calmly, scratching his chin. “It seems to me that we will need some sort of boat.”
MORNING CAME WITH A GOLDEN BRILLIANCE that filtered in through the fabric of the tent, rousing Caleb from a deep and restful sleep. For several minutes, he just stared at the shifting light and listened to the soft sound of the wind. Eventually, increasing rumblings of hunger from his stomach persuaded Caleb to rise. He climbed slowly to his feet on the shifting, uneven floor of the tent. Being careful to maintain his balance, he unzipped the tent door and peered outside.
The first thing Caleb saw was the titanosaur’s neck. It stretched out in front of him, bobbing and swaying with the animal’s motion. The other titanosaurs were in front and to either side. The leader—whom Caleb called Boss—was in front, swinging his whiplash tail in slow, bold arcs. On the right was Ellie, and on the left and slightly ahead of Ellie was Olga. In the center of the group was the half-sized juvenile, Maggie. Bringing up the rear was Big Ben, the titanosaur carrying Caleb. Surrounding the herd on either side were massive walls of sand and stone, painted orange in the morning light. Caleb could hear crackling, crunching noises as their gigantic feet tramped across dry and brittle clay. Caleb guessed that the animals must have wandered down a large, dried riverbed sometime during the night.
Moving cautiously, Caleb climbed out of the tent and balanced barefoot on Big Ben’s shoulders. After more than three weeks spent on the beast’s back, he stood with the practiced ease of a sailor on a storm-tossed sea, shading his eyes as he surveyed his surroundings. The wind blew gently, stirring the tent and the ropes that Caleb had slung around Ben’s neck and tail to hold it in place. Despite his fifteen-foot-high perch, Caleb couldn’t quite see over the tops of the canyon walls. The riverbed wound out of sight ahead and behind them, with no breaks in its steep walls. There was no way to tell how far they had traveled down its length, or how much farther they would go before finding an escape.
Caleb ducked back into the tent and checked his dwindling supply of food and water. He had no real idea of where he was, though he suspected it was somewhere in Nevada. The dinosaurs had marched steadily eastward, crossing roads, towns and small rivers until they reached the shore of a large lake. From there, they had followed a wide river northeast until they wandered onto a highway cutting through the Sierra Nevada range. The road had allowed the cumbersome animals to pass easily through the mountains into Nevada.
By that time, Caleb had figured out that for some reason, Big Ben was completely unconcerned by his small passenger. The animal’s indifference mystified Caleb. When a flock of small birds came to rest on the backs of the other animals, they ignored them for a while, but eventually drove them off with a flick of their tails. Caleb, however, could climb about on Ben’s back and even tie his small dome tent to him without the slightest hint of protest. For a while, he had wondered if it had something to do with the strange tingling buzz that had flooded his mind when the dino-soldiers had chased them into the subway. The monstrous, mutant-looking one had said something about a “psi”. Had he meant psychic? Did Caleb have some sort of special power? Caleb had spent the rest of the day perched on Ben’s back, trying to regain that strange buzzing sensation. A few times, he thought he felt a tingle, but then a flock of crows would raise a racket, or a small animal would spook the titanosaurs and make them boom with their whip-tails, ruining Caleb’s concentration. He had reached the end of that day with a splitting headache, and decided that whatever happened in the subway, it had more to do with the dino-soldiers than with any special power he might have.
Once they had come down out of the mountains, the herd resumed their eastern course, passing by the outskirts of Carson City. The city itself seemed to be in ruins, but Caleb saw telltale signs of survivors in the area where the dinosaurs passed. As the herd marched down an open stretch of roadway, Caleb had seen a crowd of people gather atop the roofs of the surrounding buildings. At first they just pointed and stared, but Caleb was unable to resist the effects of all the sudden attention. Soon the people were cheering as Caleb waved at them, perched boldly on Big Ben’s back, his tent flapping in the breeze behind him. A pair of young women, maybe twenty years old, had shouted crazily in excitement at the sight and threw down several cans of food and bottles of water, despite their friends’ protests. One of the cans almost beaned Caleb on the head, and a couple more were dropped, but Caleb still managed to catch several. He was deeply thankful for the gift in the days that followed, as the herd wandered across the cool but arid desert, grazing hungrily on sagebrush and a strange sort of fern that seemed to be popping up in patches all over the place.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t the water that proved to be the lifesaver, but the food. In the dry desert conditions, Caleb’s thirst made quick work of the small bottles, but they had lasted long enough for him to devise another method of survival. Becoming more and more bold about moving around on the dinosaur’s back, Caleb soon learned to climb down Big Ben’s neck with a water bottle dangling on a rope. When the dinosaur leaned down to drink at the occasional stream or water hole, Caleb could easily fill two or three bottles. From then on he had little fear that he would die of thirst.
The food, however, was different. Trapped on Ben’s back, with nothing in sight but dry scrubby brush, there had been no real opportunity for Caleb to forage. Hunting was also out of the question. No animals came close to the titanosaurs except small birds, and they were too fast to be caught by anything Caleb could throw at them. Caleb refused to eat just a portion of a canned dinner—if the can was left open for more than an hour, anything remaining would be completely covered with the mysterious mold. As a result, he had eaten rarely, hoping that some other source of food would present itself before his supplies ran out.
Now Caleb surveyed the remains of his canned food. He had one large can of spaghetti and meatballs left, and a small can of chicken noodle soup. He wondered how long it would be before the dinosaurs found a way out of the riverbed, and how long after that before they got anywhere near Vernal. Caleb headed back out onto Big Ben’s shoulders and sat on his folded jacket, watching for a way out.
Late that night, Caleb stirred in his sleep, half-wakened by the sound of something tapping and splattering on the roof of his tent. Not quite opening his eyes, he mumbled softly and drifted back to sleep.
The sound began like a low, hissing rumble, or a soft, distant roar. Caleb twisted and turned in his sleep, but didn’t wake. When the dinosaurs began to quicken their pace, Caleb sat up suddenly, eyes wide in the dark. He could hear the noise growing rapidly, coming from somewhere outside. Caleb scrambled out onto Ben’s shoulders, sl
ipping on the shifting floor of the tent and looking around for the source of the sound.
The moon was high in the sky, peeking through a break in the thick, dark clouds that seemed to have come out of nowhere. A light sprinkle of rain fell on his face and shoulders as he looked up and down the winding riverbed. The sound grew louder, definitely coming from behind the herd. Caleb nearly slipped off of Ben’s wet back as the animal thundered along, his massive feet making squishing noises in the newly wet clay. Suddenly, Caleb could see movement far behind them.
With a hiss of rushing water, a dark mass came surging down the riverbed, glistening brightly in the moonlight. Before he could draw another breath, the racing flood rushed beneath the herd, submerging their feet in a wash of muddy water. Caleb’s eyes widened as the roaring sound increased. He could see the water level rise at an incredible rate. In moments the dinosaurs were splashing through water up to their knees.
Far behind them, lightning flashed, followed by a deep rumble. Caleb slapped his hands to his ears as the dinosaurs lashed their thunderous tails, as if answering the distant boom. The water was now well past the dinosaurs’ knees. Caleb spun about, almost slipping again as he dove into the tent and began tossing things into his pack. He would have to leave his tent and rope, as well as his sleeping bag, which was under the tent serving as a cushion against Ben’s knobby hide. The sound of the water grew ever louder as Caleb tossed his shoes into the pack and climbed back outside.
Caleb clung desperately to Big Ben’s neck with one hand as he tightened his pack with the other. The water was now past the dinosaur’s belly, rising up to his hips. Ben began to slip and slide forward as the rising rush of water started to carry the massive beast along. Ahead, Boss and Olga, the two largest, still remained steady on their feet, but Ellie was being swept ahead in the surging rapids. All four animals were now bellowing in fear, calling out to the fading cries of little Maggie as she was carried away by the unstoppable flow.
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