The joy was evident in Marks reply, ‘No, far from it Dan. With a simple test you’ve shown that the gravitational pull on the earth has changed. This means that either the mass of the earth has grown very significantly in our time or some of the so-called universal constants are actually variables. We know that the mass has not changed significantly so it’s now a matter of determining what variables we need to modify in our gravitonic models. Is it the gravitational constant itself or some other so-called universal constant? The point is, for the first time we know that we are on the right track and that’s half the battle.’
A larger door opened in the back of the Hunter to form a ramp to the ground. David Pope and Alex Grissom, a Blackwave security specialist, came out with the first bulldozer. The bulldozer jolted and sputtered a bit when it left the ramp while the on-board computer compensated for the change in atmospheric gas mixture. Dave motioned for Seth to join them as they headed for the thin neck of land to the northeast.
Adrian came back on line, ‘Gas test completed Dan. Other than a little less nitrogen and a little more carbon dioxide in the air, it’s pretty much as we expected and has been deemed safe. Not much in the way of pollen or other bionics either. You won’t need the masks.’
‘OK, thanks!’ Dan replied, ‘Come on Seth, let’s walk the perimeter. I particularly want to check the land-bridge to the mainland.’
The air was warm with a cool breeze from the ocean. ‘Kinda like a summer day on the Florida shore.’ Seth thought. Seth felt a lightness and spring in his step that was so strong that it took conscious effort to control it. He felt wonderful, the air filled his lungs with energy, he could see distant objects with a clarity he had never experienced before. There’s a feeling of strength and wellness that made everything about the walk seem brighter and better. If only he could get the proper balance. He had a tendency to push off a little too hard with each stride. Each step carried him a little higher and the timing just wasn’t right.
The team selected a spit of land located in what would someday be southwestern Texas as the site for the station. The spit forms a promontory located where a heavy river valley cascades down from the future Rocky Mountains, across foothills and high plains and into an eastern sea that would someday rise to form the plains of Texas and the Midwest. Three sides of the promontory boasted near 100 foot high cliffs rising over the ocean. A narrow neck of land, barely wide enough for a three-lane highway, connected them to the high plains of the mainland.
Blue mountain peaks rise on the western horizon to set off a lush green forest of trees and fields of brightly colored flowers. Low brush with scattered trees and palms covered the mainland providing a beautiful setting with clear views for security. The dozers would improve security even more when they clear all of the brush from the land-neck and some of the immediate mainland.
A calm sea of blue met an almost cloudless sky to the north and east. Birds and small pterosaurs fly in flocks over the sea to dive down onto rough, splashing circles of water and rise again with small aquatic animals in their talons or beaks. Groups of other marine animals pass in pods near the horizon. Whether they are dinosaur, mammal or reptile is unknown for now. The sea and its skies are alive with life and the beauty of creation.
The seas below them meet limestone cliffs that carry down the coast to chalk deposits several miles further south. Rocky shores on the south side of the promontory wrap around to meet narrow sand-covered beaches to the north. Shells cover the beach. Some of the larger ones, ammonites and mollusks several feet in diameter, are easy to spot from the top of the cliffs.
The sides of the cliffs are home to smaller pterosaurs or flying reptiles. The pterosaurs nest next to many of the sea birds without notice but they fly in separate groups to glide and scoop up small sea creatures like modern pelicans. The soft but colorful down of the pterosaurs contrasts with the heavily feathered sea birds. The birds sport predominant white and black coloring in this area of the coast. Some skim the surface to capture small sea denizens while others violently dive into the water to emerge hundreds of feet away often with a crab, fish or some unrecognizable small creature in their beaks.
The cliffs will provide safety from both land and sea predators leaving Cretaceous Station free to peacefully build and conduct studies of the current time segment.
‘You can’t simply push the brush over the edge here.’ David commented to Alex when they paused at the start of the narrow-neck passage. ‘Too much brush can provide a ladder up the cliff face. I’m not sure who would be climbing it but we need to play on the safe side. Over there, push the brush onto the mainland and into a pile. We’ll burn it later.’
David jumped from the dozer and walked over to Dan and Seth. ‘There are game trails all over the area here but nothing looks really large. The trails are most likely used by small scavengers after bird and pterosaur eggs. I saw some prints on a few of the trails. All of them have been three-toed. Sara identifies them as smaller dinosaurs, which she says, may be four to six feet high. No signs of any mammals or anything really big so far. We may want to leave some brush near the cliff edges for a wind barrier, the rest of the area we’ll clear for travel and let this ground cover take over. Not much in the way of grassland around here, just these tangles.’
‘Sounds good, let’s do the neck here first.’ Dan turned to look one more time at the mainland, ‘OK Alex, take care near the edges. After you clear it, I’ll want a curved berm with the ditch facing toward the mainland. Leave a fifteen-foot wide clear passage in the center. We’ll seal it later with a gate.’
Another tractor was just coming out of the Hunter along with a pallet of larger man-held and tripod-mounted weapons. Adrian went back aboard as soon as they cleared the perimeter. The Hunter returned to the Argos to bring more personnel and some perimeter security fencing.
A flock of birds screeched and followed the bulldozer as it cleared the ground cover. Some smaller dinosaurs scurried across the ground to snatch the newly uprooted food. Occasionally they snapped at the birds and gave out hoots and trills sounding much like the birds. Those Pterosaurs flying wildly over the heads of the work party did not seem interested in the land activity, they seemed to prefer fish. ‘Pretty much like home’, Dan thought to himself. ‘Of course, the birds do look a little strange. Not sure just why, maybe just a little rough at the edges. Kinda unfinished.’
Dan turned and called, ‘Seth, break out that second pallet. I want two men to set up two AutoSentinels over at the berm-side of the land-bridge. Set them to fire on any man-sized or larger mass that approaches from the mainland and have the automatics put out a few warning signs to remind our guys just in case. One AutoSentinel on each side of the entrance, please. Also, put one man at each edge of the sea-cliff with laser-directed Pulsars. Remind them to keep an eye out for airborne visitors. Don’t worry about sea-borne threats just yet. Use the second dozer to make a small clearing for each of the guard stations. I don’t want them standing in the bushes, there’s no need for stealth. Make sure the men have enough water. Remember keep everyone within sight, teams of two, no less and keep hydrated.’
* * * * *
Jonas Buckwheat, the team all called him Jon, emerged from the second Hunter along with Sara and Brittany Wenford. He didn’t like babysitting. He was after all, a security guard with five years experience in Blackwave. ‘Well,’ he thought, ‘I’ll get this over with and then I can get back to more important work.’
Jon has two saucer-like packages under his arm along with two pistol belts. He turned to Sara and Brittany, ‘There’s a small cleared area by the cliff-edge. You’ve gotta be qualified with these before you can work on the teams or be outside here. Follow me.’
They walked a short distance over to the cliff. The ocean was like a blue topaz crystal, clear and sparkling under the cloudless sky. Birds, small pieces of wood and palms are everywhere, floating in clumps extending out to the horizon. Jon set the saucers and pistols on the ground.
�
�Orders are we never travel in groups smaller than two. Everyone also must carry at least a sidearm.’ Jon picked up one holster and removed a small black pistol from its holster. This is the GraviDynamics MA2 Python. You cannot buy these on the open market yet but it’s a sweet little weapon. I hope that you had time to read the notes on it while we were travelling. This is the pistol version of the heavier weapon. We also have a larger, shoulder-fired version that we still call a rifle even though the barrel is no longer rifled. Slug still spins.’
‘There isn’t much to this pistol on the outside. No clips, slide, ejector or gas vents. You load it by pressing this button to release the ammunition case from the handle.’ Jon rummages in his knapsack and brings out a metallic bar that neatly fits into the casing and then pushes it firmly into the pistol’s frame.
A section of the frame clears to reveal a gas-gage type indicator that now showed full. ‘The pistol has two safety switches that your hand depresses when you are ready to fire. One is here on the back of the handle and the other is located on the trigger itself. There is no need for chambering a round or cocking the pistol. It’s ready to go.’
‘As another safety feature, the pistol is keyed to your hand so only you can fire it without re-keying. To key it, take the pistol as though you were going to fire it. Then reach over with your other hand and, with your thumb on the inside like this, grab and squeeze these two pads on the frame just below the rear site. The grip is intentionally unnatural but you can do it fast if you need to re-key someone else’s weapon.’
Brittany and Sara had never used the Python but they were both good shots with a standard pistol and this was supposed to be easier to use. For one thing, it had no recoil or explosive kick. You could also set the size of the round; a “three” setting in this model was about a 50-caliber slug. She noticed that this control could tune the pistol up to a very powerful ten.
‘Yeah, I read the manual.’ Brittany mentioned as she examined one of the pistols. ‘The Python is a spin-off technology from the Gravitonic Drive. It doesn’t create a field big enough to move whole objects at once like the drives do. The field is too small and the controls too simple-minded. Like the drive, it generates an intense fluctuating magnetic field to create a small gravitonic source. The shot of a Python releases a train of flash-field pulses to shave electrons from the bar and accelerate them for a split second by the emission of a gravitational radiation pulse. Molecular monolayer-by-monolayer the flash accelerated electrons carrying their molecules with them as a plasma along the spiraling field lines. The molecules exit the barrel of the gun as a rapidly spinning plasma. They immediately solidify as a slug, properly shaped for hypersonic flight and spin stabilized by the magnetic field. There are no wasteful explosive gases and the pulse is highly efficient. All of the gravitonic-released energy goes into forming and accelerating the slug for that tiny fraction of a second. The only sound you’re supposed to hear is the slug passing through the air.’
‘Oh, yeah sure. Well, at least someone did their homework.’ Jon said sarcastically. ‘Ammunition for the python is a simple metallic rod placed into the handle of the gun. The rod is metallic only because you want some material density in the pistol slugs. There’s no casings, no powder and no mess. In a pinch, you could even fill the load chamber with sand or fine stones. The Python will fire as long as it has an initial charge to start the magnetic field.’
‘This setting controls the amount of material in each slug fired by simply increasing or decreasing the number of gravitonic flash pulses in the shot. The pistol is self-powered after the initiating charge. A small fraction of the released shot energy is captured and stored back into the circuit each time it’s fired. This charge fuels the generator for the next couple of shots. The smaller the slug you fire, the more times you can fire without having to refill the load chamber. Loading is a very quick task if you have pre-sized rods for the pistol.’
‘Watch that log floating in the seaweed over there.’ Jon set the pistol to its lowest setting and fired. There was a solid whoosh of air and, out about 80 yards, a chunk of the log exploded. ‘This is the lowest setting for the Pulsar and it ejects a mass about the size of a 25 caliber round. The damage you see is caused by the kinetic energy of the round traveling at over seven times the speed of sound.’
Jon passed a holster to Sara and let her load a bar into her pistol. ‘Aim directly at the log. At this range, there is no noticable drop in the flight path of the slug. You probably won’t see any drop for any of the targets you can fire at with a pistol.’
Sara fired and a large splash of water rose just behind the log. ‘OK, that is really odd. No kick at all and hardly any shot noise. How rapidly can I fire safely?’
‘As fast as you can pull the trigger. After about fifty shots, the pistol begins to heat up if you fire continuously. There’s no exit friction with the slug because anything in the barrel is still a plasma and it’s energy is contained in the field. I’m told the heating comes from the recharge bleed-off. You can get about seventy shots from one bar at this low setting. Up at eight it drops down to six or seven shots. One final control over here lets you select between a solid or hollow slug. Use hollow slugs on soft targets; you also get more rounds per bar at this setting. Use solid slugs as penetrators. You try it Brittany.’
Brittany squeezed off two shots, one grazed and the other directly hit the log.
‘One more thing, don’t lead a moving target like you normally do. These rounds are fast.’ Jon squared up on a group of flying pterosaur and fired four rapid shots. Three of the flyers dropped into the ocean.’
‘Don’t do that. What’s the matter with you?’ Sara yelled. ‘There’s no reason to kill like that.’
‘Ah, it’s just a damn dinosaur.’ Jon replied as he pulled out his pocket GameTime. ‘OK, let’s get this over with. You two go plink away. I’m going to sit over here and do a little work.’
Sara and Brittany worked with the Pulsars for about twenty minutes. ‘This is really comfortable.’ Sara thought to herself. ‘You do not need ear protection and my arm doesn’t get sore.’
Jon, in spite of Marks orders, chose to walk over to Alex leaving the girls to go on their own. Sara and Brittany returned to the Hunter by taking one of the game trails. Sara wanted to examine a series of burrows she had spotted on the way out.
Half an hour later, Dan and David stood on a small rise watching the brush clearing. Sara came over to Dan with a small, brightly colored animal tucked in her arm. ‘There’s a small colony of Hypsilophodont burrow-nests over on the east of us with chicks. I saw two of the parents sitting in them. They didn’t really seem upset when we approached. I’d like to keep a perimeter around their nesting area. Youp! Here comes mama now! Relax, we seem to be getting along just fine, ain’t that right Molly?’
Molly, a larger, more heavily feathered version of the youngster, came at an easy gliding run. She gave a soft yodel as she slowed to approach Sara and nuzzle the chick. Molly stands at five feet tall with a broad, almost smiling face and a striped down-covered tail that was as long as her body. The muzzle was shaped somewhat like a beak but only partially feather covered. Unlike a beak, her mouth contained rows of teeth. Not the sharp, cutting incisors of a predator but a mix of sharp and flattened teeth, more like those of a human. Her hands were surprising. They had five fingers with an opposing thumb.
Dan examined her warily and noticed that the dinosaur has a soft glistening bronze down covering her body that reminded him of Korean Pheasant feathers. Brittany came running over behind Molly with an odd glide-like movement mimicking the dinosaur. Brittany also has a small down-covered bundle in her arms.
‘Mom, I thought only the amusement park had soft, furry dinosaurs. Do you think we could domesticate one of these? I also thought Hypsilophodont’s were herbivores, you know, eating only leaves and stuff. Molly picked up one of those mice back there and ate it before running over here.’
‘Well, I guess there’s a lot we don’t
know about these guys. We do know that meat is not their primary diet.’ Sara replied.
Dan looked carefully at Brittany and Sara. He eyed Molly a bit apprehensively. ‘I guess you girls have learned to cope with this lower gravity. Brittany had no trouble running over here. As for Molly and friends, I don’t like the idea of leaving the nests there. As you said, apparently there’s a lot we don’t know about these animals.’
David had been examining Molly. She stood at almost five feet tall and ran on her hind legs like a meat eater. She had a tendency to move her head in sharp, quick motions and was attracted to any quick movement. The front paws are soft and articulated like a hand with five fingers. Molly can in fact grab branches and hold the branch while eating it. She has a beaked mouth something like a bird but with teeth. Her hips are side jointed as is characteristic for a dinosaur. Her colors are just beautiful, much like a pheasant but with a blue-black crest at the top that ran down to her back.
David reaches out to touch the crest and Molly jumps to the side in surprise. Molly careens right into Brittany and bounces off the young girl as though she had hit a rock wall. Molly lands on her side on the ground and quickly jumps back up on her feet yelling at David.
Brittany’s eyes were as wide as saucers with surprise, ‘Oh I’m sorry Molly. Are you OK? I didn’t hurt you did I. In fact, I hardly felt the jolt. It was like a branch hitting me.’
Sara examined Molly as the dinosaur stood up, ‘We do know that some dinosaurs show very light bone structure. Their frames are very similar to birds. I’d love to be able to measure her weight but I don’t think I’ll try it right now. Molly hasn’t shown a tendency to bite but that beak with its teeth could be nasty. I don’t think there’s much to fear Dan. Give us a chance to work with them for a while.’
‘Yeah well, OK. But at the first sign of trouble we’ll push them out of the area and dig out the dens. Dan would have preferred fuse-solidifying the whole area into a safe, clean surface but it was smart to be on the good side of Brittany and her Mom. Anyway, Sara’s instincts seem to be reliable so far.
Nodal Convergence (Cretaceous Station Book 1) Page 8