Hunter's Moon (Cretaceous Station Book 2)

by Terrence Zavecz

  ‘It hasn’t been a problem so far and Captain Dillard has been very supportive. We’ve had several attempts by Mrs. Taylor to send messages back to headquarters but there seems to be nothing in them other than personal messages.’ Molly Pasteur turned to walk over to the wall of the observation lounge as she shifted through the message file presented by her Hive-Tab. Blue eyes turned to the side with the lightest flick of her head to focus once again on Mark.

  ‘Ms. Esque has sent one missive so far and I have no idea what it contains since she has it encrypted in her personal code. I could break through it but I won’t do that without a direct order from you. In the mean time I’ve explained to both of them that the direct communications lines don’t work across the portal and we will hold all of their transmissions until the next packet probe is sent back.’

  ‘Thank you Molly and remember under no conditions is anything to go out without my personal approval and security authorization. As a matter of fact, if we get to that point I’d like to personally review everything before we send it off. Ok, how are things going on board the Essex? The message sent back with Seth has me a bit concerned, can you get a feel for the position of the crew and how much do they know?’

  ‘Most of the employees below management levels don’t know what’s going on. They are disappointed that we have held off the dirtside leaves and that by itself is raising some questions. As you instructed, I’ve told them the truth about the problems down there and that seems to have satisfied them. Situation updates, no matter how bad the news, are important. Managers all seem to be behind us. I believe that if trouble comes from the board then its going to come from outside the direct employees. That means they have supporters back uptime and we can’t know just how extensive their base is.’

  ‘Ok, good work Molly. You didn’t mention her so I assume Fran is doing well and adapting to her strange new world?’

  ‘Yeah, she’s pretty adaptable when it involves meeting new people and ideas but we’re going to have a problem when she gets back. We need to very seriously think about how we are going to deal with it later on. The crew’s been spending a lot of time with her and the topic of the coming extinction arose. It took her a while to grasp the concept and the consequences for her breed. She still doesn’t fully understand that the extinction is a thousand years in the future so I need to sit down with her and talk it out. I guess we should do that before she returns to tell the others.’

  Mark stared off into the starry abyss for a moment looking across the blue-green globe of the earth floating there with hardly a cloud in the sky. ‘I guess that’s the least of our problems for now. If we manage to succeed and establish a full starport then we may be able to prevent their extinction. Our relations with the Hypes have been growing quite close. I believe we might even end up colonizing other worlds with their help. They have a much closer affinity for working within the constraints of their environment. This is a natural talent that we are weak in and a close partnership could improve our chances of success in the new colonies.’

  He hesitated a few moments and then decided to bring it out, ‘Then again, it’s also possible that their race could travel back uptime to our timeframe. So it would not be extinction for them but rather a simple period of absence.’

  Molly turned and released a broadside smile over toward Mark that almost broke his concentration, ‘Of course, this brings to mind other factors. We’ve only been here a little less than half a year. Our interactions have been mostly with the troondons and the Hypsilophodont and both have brought big surprises. Every one of these species has been evolving for a much longer period than ours. Granted, they haven’t been challenged by the environmental upheavals that our ancestors have had to contend with. Have you considered how many other species we may encounter with similar surprises? How many of these so-called dinosaurs have evolved self-awareness over the eons but leave no mark on the planet because of their innate desire to live within their environment rather than change it. Our development as a species may be quite unique in both its speed and our desire to modify the world conform to our standards.’

  Mark set down a cup that he was drinking from and smiled back at Molly, ‘I see you’ve been talking with Sara. Yes, I’ve considered this because she pointed it out to me too. The upcoming extinction may have been more of a disaster for sentient evolution than we ever dreamed. There may be many intelligent species here, all of them operating in a manner very alien to our normal thought process. Our species developed under stress of both competitive evolution as well as millions of years of abrupt climate change. Changes that would never have provided sufficient time for evolutionary adaptation so as a result we learned to modify our own local environment. We developed fire and tool making to survive.’

  ‘Sara pointed out that the predators of this era, the theropoda like our big troondon, are the only dino species to survive the extinction and evolve into our modern birds. This line of speculation lead to a conclusion that the survival and evolution of birds is tied to the fact that they have already evolved the survival-critical base characteristics of working together and problem solving through their hunting and tracking development. They, as a species, have a little more edge on adapting to the rapid environmental changes that will be coming than our Hypes do. They aren’t any more intelligent than the Hypes, just different in their application of the sentience. Ok, well that’s enough blue skying.’

  ‘All right Mark, at least we’re on the same page here. On another slightly different topic, how is Alex? Have you heard from them?’

  ‘Haven’t heard a thing since they went out of the Hive-Tab net. Their last contact told us they were moving into a tunnel complex and we would lose contact. Even if they emerge into the open the chances are they’ll still be outside the net. We’ll need to wait until they can reestablish contact, I have a Hunter Recon ready and waiting for them. We’ll find them.’

  Molly looked back up at Mark, ‘Oh, thats right. It’s the middle of the night for you. I forgot.’

  ‘Yup, I’ve been up all night so I’m going to sign off the net and see if I can get an hour or two of shuteye before our guests wake up. Keep up the good work and don’t hesitate to wake or call me if you think it necessary.’

  Molly responded with a natural “Good night Mark” as the image alongside of her faded. She didn’t even see it go as she stared out at the blue globe down below her. Her thoughts focused on Alex, wondering and praying for his safety.

  * * * * *

  Two men worked feverishly down on the sandy beach below the cliffs of the plateau. Anton was still pissed having missed the raptors three times now and it showed in every move he made loading the boat. David Pope picked up a backpack and a jerry can and carefully took a wide birth around his friend as he headed for the Jenkins boat. Anton was grabbing two hundred pound boxes and lobbing them over into the boat like they weighed only thirty pounds. David knew that he didn’t want to get in Anton’s way when he was in one of these moods.

  David placed his items into the boat and then turned back up the sandy dune toward the cliff where a third pallet of equipment and supplies hovered in the air before him. Ed Saren was up on top lowering the pallet down to the beach from the plateau using the sand-crane. It sure would have been easier to use the zero-grav pallet transports but they can’t function off the top of the plateau since the Gravitonic field doesn’t extend this far down. He noticed that this pallet isn’t quite full so that must be the last of the supplies. Ed would be jogging down the steep trail any minute.

  Dave liked Ed and he knew that Anton also like to work with him. Ed Saren joined Blackwave Security almost eight years ago as a Civil Engineer. Dave knew he was also a weapons specialist and could rework and even modify almost all of the heavier armament here at Cretaceous Station. Ed had been one of the first Blackwave members to arrive at Europa Station who was not strongly involved with station security. Ed had spent many hours engineering the complex construction of the mining and res
earch station under the horrendous environmental conditions of the frozen moon of Jupiter. He is a good man at your back when in a tight situation and he’s also a very competent engineer.

  David turned when he heard a muffled bang from the boat. A low curse and a few choice words floated above the sound of the waves on the coarse sand. As he looked up he saw a large circular object about eight inches thick and close to three feet wide flying across the waves and up onto the beach. ‘Take it easy Anton. That’s an ammonite! I know people who would pay big money for one of those things back home.’

  ‘Well then the damn thing should stay out of my way. Come on! Let’s get going! What’s holding Ed up?’

  ‘I’m right here Anton. Now calm down, you know acting like this isn’t good for your blood pressure. This is the last pallet. Grab these bags and we’ll head out.’

  ‘Did you bring the scoped rifles Ed? I haven’t seen them yet and I told you I wanted them!’

  ‘Anton, calm down. These are scoped. Where have you been anyway? We don’t use hard optics anymore, all you need is the targeting application for your battle helmet. You’ll get full zoom capability and perfect alignment at up to five thousand feet with slug weights up to six.’

  ‘Hummph, sounds like you gotta have your helmet on to use ‘em. Well, we won’t need anything as heavy as a six-slug. I think a good old 32 caliber will do just fine for these bastards so adjust them to the three setting. Come on, what are you waiting for. Grab the boat and lift it into the surf.’

  ‘Wait a sec, Anton.’ David reached into the Jensen boat and ran his finger across the controls. A flick of his wrist and the entire boat began to vibrate.’

  ‘Ok, now lift and push. The mass of the boat and its cargo shifted and then smoothly floated into the waves. Tiny sprays of water flew out from the edges where the vibrations threw them in all directions. The vibrations cut off as they climbed into the boat and started the engine to pull them through the low surf.’

  ‘Well, that’s a nice feature. Really simplified pushing this thing into the water.’ Anton seemed to be calming down.

  ‘Yeah, I’ve been grateful for it many times. These things aren’t cheap but when you’ve got a heavy loaded boat like this it’s nice to have. The vibrations cut down the static friction, almost making the boat float on the sand. As you saw, it’s easy then to …’

  ‘Yeah, yeah I can see how it works. I said it was a good idea! Come on, those boys are waiting for us and I’ve got a score to settle with those two so-called black ghosts. Don’t know why Dan couldn’t let us have one of the Hunter Recons.’ Anton grumbled as he turned and pulled the control to back them out into the shallow sea that surrounded Cretaceous Station.

  The sea is shallow and sandy-bottomed on this side of the plateau. The boat pushed out into the clear blue waters with little more than a low humming sound. Small birds and multi-colored reptiles flew in their wake, diving into the sea behind them for the thousands of small creatures churned up by the jet drive of the boat. They cawed and screeched, fighting for the tender bits of fish temporarily confused by the blast of the jet.

  Anton opened the drive and they sailed across the calm ocean surface. David watched the seabed drop as they passed the headlands of the plateau. It is hard to recognize the types of fish and reptiles below when they moved so quickly across the surface but he can easily see them pass under on the bottom that is now over sixty feet deep in this section.

  The seabed gradually began to rise as they neared the coral shelf that marked the edge of the rapidly flowing river water’s entrance where it had dug a deep channel over the eons. Anton turned landward, heading for the broad delta that formed the mouth of the river.

  ‘The ocean and river interaction here is amazing. We can see so much sea life in the clear ocean by the cliffs. Then when you cross into this stream, it gets cloudy from all the silt washed into the ocean by the river and the variety of animal life we find there makes the clear ocean look like a barren desert.’ David commented to Ed who was sitting beside him, also watching down into the depths. ‘I’ll bet we can still see a good forty or fifty feet down here.’

  Suddenly the boat pushed ahead even faster. ‘You guys get ready. I just picked up something on our tail and its coming this way.’ Anton called back. ‘It’s gaining on us!’

  The small wavelets of the open sea diminished in size as the boat pushed upward into the current of the river. They flew across the water, moving toward the hoped-for safety of the shallow river.

  ‘It’s still gaining on us.’ Anton called back.

  ‘I can see a wave crest. Good grief, that thing is travelling this fast under water!’, David called as he pulled up his Python Rifle and set the caliber dial to a hefty six and the fire control to three burst automatic.

  Anton jinxed the boat to one side but the wave crest still followed. He turned the boat sharply; it skidded across the waves, turning in a sharp curve that sent a long wave far out across the surface. A broad flat fluke like that of a whale but upright like a shark’s broke the surface sending a spray of water hundreds of feet into the air. The grey predator easily moved to track their turn all the while slowly gaining on them.

  David is holding on for dear life. ‘I can’t take him out like this. The hypersonic slugs will simply ricochet off the top of the water at this angle.’

  A grey and black mottled head suddenly broke the surface of the water thirty feet behind them and the monster’s speed seemed to double. The grey jaws are at least ten or twelve feet long and filled with white-hard teeth! ‘The beast must be at least sixty feet long! It’s a Mosasaur but not for long.’ David called as he lifted to draw a bead on the head.

  The Mosasaur suddenly launched from the water and David’s shot went wild as he flinched. The sky seemed to fill with a long grey body, wide flippers and a white underbelly.

  A rapid burst of fire erupted from behind David. The head of the giant reptile imploded like a mellon hit with a rock; half of it disappearing in a cloud of red haze. The body flipped and landed partially on the back edge of the Jensen boat, spinning it and flipping the aft section into the air.

  The boat landed sideways on the broad surface of the river, skipping across the surface. Anton cut the power and a huge wave flew over them, soaking the interior. For a few seconds, the craft rocked like a cork in a crowded bathtub until the jet thrust restarted and stabilized them with the forward push.

  David picked himself up from the low deck covered with salty seawater, blood and slime. He raised his head to view the horror around them, ‘My god, there’s blood and guts over the whole area. Thank God you were on the ball Ed, nice shooting.’

  Ed is just raising his slime-covered head and sees Anton slumped over the controls. ‘Anton! Are you ok buddy?’

  Anton turns his head and waves his arm as he looked over, ‘Yeah, give me a few seconds. I thought we were going to flip over for sure, I gotta calm down a bit. That would have been the end.’

  ‘Oh man, what did you do to your eye?’ Ed crawled over to Anton. ‘Here, let me see that.’

  ‘Aw, cut it out!’ Anton shouted, ‘I’m ok, just need to rest a few seconds. I must have bumped it and …’

  David shouted across the boat, ‘We have to leave here now, right now! Look out over the water.’

  The Jensen boat was slowly drifting backwards out to sea in the rivers current as it pushed over the waves filled with blood and long strings of torn flesh. Body parts floated in the waters around them and as they watched, the surface of the ocean began to boil with the thrashing of small and not so small feeders.

  ‘There’s going to be a feeding frenzy here. Get that motor up and get us out of here now!’ David shouted.

  Ed looked seaward in awe at the level of carnage, ‘He must have slipped off the boat and directly into the path of the jets when we flipped out of the water. The jets blew most of the sixty-foot body apart. Oh Cheez, look at what’s coming!’

  David looked over toward the ocean
and could see a black mass moving under the waves. The surface thrashed violently with thousands of smaller fish breaking the surface before it on a path leading directly towards them.

  ‘It’s forming into a feeding frenzy. They smell the blood! Look, Megladons!’ David called and pointed toward the southern side of the channel. The waters seemed to be filled with black mounds moving just under the surface and tall dorsal fins that rose eight feet out into the air as they shot in toward the three men in the boat.

  The engine suddenly came to life. David slipped and was again thrown into the slime and gore at the bottom. He pulled himself up and could see Anton holding onto the controls for dear life.

  The boat flew across the waves but seemed to crawl into the safety of the river as it left the floating slick of carnage on the ocean behind it. David called out, ‘Ok, I think you can settle down to a reasonable speed Anton.’

  ‘Just a little further in. I remember there’s a drop-off up ahead and I want to get beyond it into the shallower waters. There, see it?’

  ‘All right, that’s enough excitement for…’

  A shadow drifted across their bow and then a large, leathery shape covered in sparse feathers hovered over the bow of the rapidly moving boat. It screamed at the humans, grabbed a piece of mosasaur and flew off.

  David shouted, ‘The pterosaurs are being drawn to the fresh blood. Ed, get …’

  Three massive reptiles suddenly appeared out of nowhere, their six foot wings beating the air, buffeting the humans. One beak struck down at Ed knocking him to the side. Ed managed to hold onto his rifle and lifted it. A hypersonic crack ripped the air as he fired a bust. One of the massive fliers exploded less than then eight feet above their heads.

  ‘You gotta tune down the slug size Ed!’ David called as he shouldered his rifle and fired. The calls of the pterosaurs echoed off the canyon walls on either side of them. David suddenly felt the racing boat settle into the water but he couldn’t stop his firing to look. The air above them is filled with brightly colored pterosaurs, the massive twelve foot wingspans of the newcomers racing in from the cliffs less than a thousand feet away. David fired and fired burst after burst and the waters behind them began to fill with dead and dying pterosaurs. The carnage didn’t seem to even faze the others coming at them.