Brittany Wenford didn’t even turn her head, her gaze entrapped by the beauty of the evening’s star studded sea, ‘Yeah, the sky really is a lot brighter than it ever could be at home but then there are a lot more stars right nearby. This crowded arm of the universe, with its sparkling beauty, is partially to blame for the extinction.’ Then Brittany stopped and turned toward Molly, ‘Say, that’s the night you met your first Hype isn’t it? It was, ah, Fran! Yes she stayed out with you for your whole watch didn’t she?’
‘Yeah and we’ve been rather close ever since. There’s a real kinship between our two species even perhaps stronger than the relationship between man and dog. If you close your eyes, it’s more like a close human friendship.’
‘I wish I could have adventures like you girls.’ A third voice belonging to Jenn Young rose from the dark, whining as she threw a rock out into the star filled universe before them. Jenn is the oldest child of Wei and Barbara Young. Wei and Barbara are surface physics engineers from Renssalaer Polytech who were on the original Gravitonics program with Mark Nolen.
Molly smiled even though Jenn couldn’t see it. ‘At fourteen years old you’ve been able to travel through the solar system and then into the great Red Spot of Jupiter. Now you are taking private schooling on a plateau in the cretaceous period of the planet. Every day of your stay here, I see you watching and even playing with dinosaurs around the plateau. Just where would you like your adventures to begin Jenn?’
‘Oh come on Molly. You know what I mean. I’ve never been outside of the plateau gates. Brittany’s only two years older than me and look at all she’s been able to do? You both got a chance to see all those dinosaurs out on the mainland. You get to go places and do something significant!’
‘That wasn’t an adventure Jenn. I was scared stiff most of the time we were out there looking for Gabe.’
‘Oh, don’t get me wrong. I think I know what you mean Jenn but don’t you think that most of the time this is nothing more than, oh I don’t know, “The grass is greener on the other side of the fence” sort of thing? Look….’
‘Cool Molly, A pleasaurus. They’re really hard to spot especially at night.’ Brittany, whose mother is the Palentologist for the expedition, identified the dark shape of the creature even though it was far out in the waters.
‘Well, I was hoping to see the Jensen boat with Alex in it returning to the Station.’ Molly said as she stretched her arms and then added a little yawn at the end.
Brittany turned to her, ‘He’s ok Molly, I just know he must be ok. We knew they were having transmitter problems. They must have had to stay the evening. I know I wouldn’t want to be travelling on that river at night. We’ll probably see them coming in tomorrow. In any case Dan told me we would be sending a Hunter Recon out for them tomorrow whether they called in or not.’
‘Let’s go in, Brittany. I want to thank your Mom and Dad for dinner and the pleasant evening. Then I think that Jenn and I will have to head back to our homes.’
They took one last long look at the beauty of the ocean and the evening and then turned to go back to the house. The smell of the soft salty air mixed with the aromatic, almost sandlewood-like essence of the ancient forests around the Station.
‘Oh I love that smell, don’t you!’ Molly commented. ‘When we get back I’m going to travel back to Earth and enjoy my bonus. I’ll buy a place by the ocean and see if I can try and recapture everything the way it is right now.’
‘Well then, why go back … what’s that? There’s a strange smell in the air. Oh yech! It’s getting stronger. It’s really gross!’
‘I thought I saw something up there on the patio. Shhh! No, don’t even ask it. It’s not your Dad or Mom. Quick girls, head over this way. Maybe it didn’t see us.’
Molly ran across the lower half of the cleared lawn below the patio with the two young girls next to her. All three of them are wearing Python Pistols and they each drew their pistols as they ran, moving as quietly as they could. The personal firearm is a basic requirement of anyone over the age of twelve while on the Cretaceous Station. They wear the weapons for self-defense and know how to handle them safely and accurately through the daily classes provided by security.
‘What are they? Are you sure it just wasn’t Dad?’
‘No, it wasn’t your father, he doesn’t move like that. Also, did you smell that odor? Quick, let’s circle around the front of the building.’
‘Brittany, what’s going on?’ Paul Wenford called across the Hive Tab net to his daughter. His comforting voice arising from the networks automated alarms sent out by her distress.
‘Oh Dad, be careful. There’s something out here and we can’t get back into the house. I’m going to try and head over toward …’
‘Wait for me, I’ll be right out! Where are you?’
‘Dad, we’re outside the front of the house now but don’t come out! There’s something out here, it’s between us and the front door and it’s really hard to see. You’ll be heading right into it and we don’t even know if there’s more than one.’
‘How big is it, what does it look like?’
‘Dad don’t come out. We haven’t been able to get a look at it yet but remember that smell that Eric and Cindy had on them? The same smell is out here now.’
‘Brittany stay right there! Your mom and I are coming here out now. Watch for us.’
‘No, you don’t even have armor on. If they attack you, it’ll only take one surprise swipe and you are gone. We’re headed over toward Molly’s. We’re half way there already.’
‘We’re out here too now. Just watch where you are firing in the darkness. Remember your training and make sure it isn’t one of us or some other friendly.’
‘I can hear them behind us.’ Jenn whimpered. ‘They are gaining on us.’
‘Jenn, you move ahead of me.’ Molly shifted position by slowing down just a little. ‘I saw something following. I was hoping it would be Britt’s parents.’
‘Come on, my building is right up there. Quick run! Run for all your lives.’
A cry lifts through the night sky. It’s the sound of a woman screaming, but eerily different with a tone that is somehow melodic. The wail forms a chilling background to the beating of their hearts. Brittany runs up to the door and, sensing her Hive Tab identification, it opens before her. Jenn reaches for the door and swings it open a little further. Her foot lifts to cross the threshold and suddenly something digs deep into her shoulder.
A black mass descends on her, flipping her back out into the stony soil of the pathway and away from the safety of the dormitory. She lands hard on the ground and, through the sheet of pain engulfing her shoulder, she see’s Molly lying in the bushes with something standing over her. It hovers over her with its arms around her waist in a strange embrace. Despite the pain in her shoulder, a chill rushes down Jenn’s spine as its tongue flicks out to wrap around Molly’s neck and then savagely pulls back in a flash of blood and a cry of pain.
Another cry comes from the doorway. So much is happening in this, her stunned, pain-filled universe! From the corner of her eye, Jenn can see Brittany trying to come outside. Something is holding the door closed. Then the pain resurges within her shoulder and her sinuses burn with a head wrenching odor. She cannot breathe and her body trembles as panic sets in. Her arms flail wildly as she grasps and thrusts to hold her sanity. Trying to grab and pull back on anything as she feels her body bumping across the sharp stone path. The sounds of the evening grows softer and then she floats on the sea of despair, slowly slipping away to nothing.
Brittany screams with a fury unknown as she shoves the door as hard as she can. She can’t budge it! Then she sees her father Paul coming up the path. Her mother is running right behind him. She has to warn them! Her father fires his Python and a bright flash of raw, deadly plasma fills the evening. Her father suddenly bends down.
Brittany gives one last push and the door flies opens. She runs out and over to where Molly is lying
on the ground beside her father. ‘Dad, did you get it? Where’s Jenn?’
Sara Wenford runs by Brittany, barely hesitating but without saying a word. She tracks over to the house and sees a small pool of blood. ‘Oh Paul, I think it took Jenn!’
Paul bends down and picks up Molly. Her head droops to the side and fear grips Brittany’s heart. ‘Quick, help me with the door and let’s get into the building.’
‘Don’t move her, she may be …’
The tone of the wailing changes to a furtive, sobbing sound. It floats across the darkness enveloping the bushes covering the plateau. Strangely calling, sobbing cries rise and seem to come from every direction.
‘…no, go, go and get her inside.’
‘Here, set her down on the lounge. She’s alive, oh what did it do to her neck and face. I can’t stop the bleeding!’
‘Wha…. What did it do to her?’ Brittany sobs, ‘I was just talking to her and then I looked back and saw her lying on the ground with something standing over her! Dad, No! Don’t go out! You can’t go …’
‘Now settle down. You’ve gotta help your mother with Molly. Jenn is still out there, we can’t just leave her.’ Paul Wenford unholstered his pistol and stepped out the door. ‘Watch if anyone comes in. Remember what happened to Cindy, they can sneak in …’
‘Oh God, do you think it’s those dinosaurs again! I thought they were being hunted far away on the mainland.’ Sara whimpered.
‘I don’t know but all of the indications point to them being back here. That is, they or something like them are back. I don’t even want to think about what may have happened to those in the hunting parties. We haven’t been able to contact them.’
‘I’m going out after Jenn. You stay here with the girls. Try and get in touch with Ian as soon as you can, I can’t seem to find him on my Hive Tab.’
* * * * *
They remember this place with its strange life force. They also recall that they were unpleasantly driven from this den with its strange, tempting odors of lost prey that could be touched but not tasted. That prey was one of their first full tastes of this new hot blood here on the hunting grounds. It had a blood that burned as it coursed through their bodies with unbelievable energy. Addicting and unbelievably fulfilling. To have it taken from them and then to be found again here, inside this den in the strange tunnels, provided an excitement and challenge rarely found. Then, they were driven away at the last minute, a disappointment soon to be rectified.
Perhaps there is more food inside but this time there is no easy way in. It doesn’t matter. There’s more of the hot bloods here, the plateau teems with food and the thrill of a challenge. Most of all, such a small barrier doesn’t matter because they aren’t here for food this time. There is a need to control. A need to dominate and beat them down to acceptance. Repayment for the arrogance of prey resisting.
The old scent trail leads inside. Their prey is not here any longer, the all powerful, easily followed scent is gone. There are others inside, they just can’t get at them. Return! We will return later but for now, the night is young and already exciting and successful. If only the pulsing of its life force would have lasted a little longer.
Night shadows move along the trails of the high, water-guarded plateau. Here the worn trails of the prey’s daylight travel seem to scream with the hot blood scent. It drives them on like an opiate, an opiate to enhance the senses and electrify the body. It has a strange addiction never before felt that binds their racing minds and nerves to this new prey just as it drives their desire to subdue and dominate. They of course couldn’t know just what this desire is but their prey have a name for it and have used it for a million years. The hot-bloods call the methods “domestication”.
The scent-trail is hottest down here with the many traces of their comings and goings. It glows with the scent and, at its end, it is lit with the lights that they now know warn their prey of intruders. These hard lights took them so long to learn how to manipulate and mimic. Now they can move easily among the warnings. Even these new ones are now easy to learn and deceive.
This place it not like the others, it is not of the sand and soil. The base scent is as different as the hot-bloods. Watch and listen to them move within it and learn! They stop and talk with it before the cave tunnels open to them. There are so many within! It speaks with everyone who enters and each seems to reply differently. Strange, the replies are similar but each is different. Ah, there is the difference! It is in their very nature, their hot-blood.
Silently they move to the now hidden tunnel entrance. The lights are stronger here and harder to mimic. Their bodies tingle with the unpleasant sensation of trying to follow the rapidly changing patterns. The call comes to them so strongly that they almost forget their crafted response. First one is queried and then his brother!
The tunnel suddenly opens before them, lit with the rays of … of daytime? How strange to see the lights so oddly shifted from the true radiance of the day’s light.
No matter, they are here and their evening’s task lies before them. They freely, almost effortlessly enter the hot tunnels of their prey.
* * * * *
‘First you frighten our families with these ridiculous calls and warnings across the Hive Tab net and now you have us bottled up inside again! Inside, outside, go here go there!’
‘What is the meaning of this Colonel Drake?’ Suzan Esque stood in the lounge of the Argos along with the other board members. ‘We’ve been herded around like cattle, taken on guarded tours of inane interest and pacified with luncheons and all the while Mark Nolen refuses to meet and discuss our plans for this venture. If we are going to continue to provide funding for this … this…, circus I guess you would call it, then we have to be informed of your true plans and whatever progress you’ve made.’
‘Mrs Esque, I’m sorry about this. I realize just how frustrating it must be for all of you. Unfortunately your surprise visit not only leaves us unprepared but …’
‘Why would you need to prepare if you are not hiding something?’
‘We have nothing to hide but our situation here is unusual.’
‘Of course it’s unusual …’
‘Mrs Esque, please let me finish! Pardon my saying so but your timing is very poor.’ Dan felt a guilty flush of satisfaction at the surprised look on Suzan’s face. She obviously is not used to being talked to like this but what the heck, damn the torpedoes!
‘If you had only come a few weeks or a month before this we would not be in this situation. We could have …’
‘We came in response to your returned report!’
‘It was a report and not an invitation. Still you would have been welcome under any other circumstances …’
‘What circumstances?’
‘We are under attack! We have had people killed and our security breached. This is …’
‘Oh come on! These animals can’t really be a threat as long as we maintain our security systems. We’ve been able to travel all over, just look at Africa and the parks of India. The danger is just an illusion. My God! We have the benefit of millions of years of evolution for our intelligence to grow beyond the level of these dumb brutes. You are hiding something and I want to talk with Mark Nolen right now!’
Colonel Daniel Drake stopped just for a moment as he tried to control his words. This is nothing more than the politics of industry and business. ‘Please have a little patience and stay inside for the night. Look, we can bring the families into the cafeteria and set up a full interactive theatre but we need to insure your safety.’
‘Colonel Drake, there is nothing that you could bring to the theatre we would be interested in. All of your entertainment is seven months out of date!’
‘We could run through the explorative files that were taken from our members Hive Tab recordings. They don’t have the full interactive capability of a theatre but I’m sure you would find them exciting.’
‘Please just have Mark come down and join us. W
e’ll wait here for half an hour. I don’t understand why you don’t simply let us have direct call privilege on his Hive Tab. It would make everything so much simpler.’
‘Mrs …. Ok, I’ll go and talk with Mark and see if he will break away.’ Dan noticed that some of the coffee and refreshments were being distributed to the small group. He rather expected that this is a good time to retreat.
* * * * *
They moved through the long tunnels. Movement is easy because the walls are so smooth and plain, so easy to blend into. Prey fills the tunnels but they leave them pass by unmolested. They remain hidden, learning the ways and movement of their prey. Observing, learning … some tunnels magically open as their prey approaches. The hot bloods pass through and the tunnels close again? How do they know where they are?
Ah, yes! The markings on the wall were also at the other entrances. They show the prey where to move and then entry is so simple. A simple light and response and the tunnel opens. So easy to mimic and enter!
Strange, there is only a single, plain chamber in here? It has no long tunnels or maze of passages. No, what is this? Small entrances exist at the sides and the strong scent of a hot blood is in there. It rests unaware and removes the day light. An opportunity without fear of discovery!
* * * * *
‘Statisticians are never fully appreciated around here.’ Doctor Jane Buckheit once again felt the frustration of living at a time where behavioral control models for science overshadow the simplistic approach of statistics. ‘People still use statistics! It’s the basis of all of our probability theory and mass capture estimations. Where does Marty Feldman get off saying my profession is as useful as studying ancient Greek and Latin?’
‘Next time I’ll tell him! There are times when you don’t have the ability to perform a full study or gain an understanding of a situation. You can only approximate the results. It’s better than nothing and not everyone is capable of adapting ancillary models to these situations.’
Hunter's Moon (Cretaceous Station Book 2) Page 33