‘I talked the whole thing over with Sara before I took the steaks. The diet for these birds is different. She was dissecting a couple of them and found a lot of leafy greens in their gut. So we know they aren’t strictly meat and mud eaters like the Blackbirds. If you noticed, there were actual fields of sweet grass around the clearing. The meat should be a lot better.’
‘Come on Tina.’ Brittany’s voice came from behind them. ‘I want to show you that we are moving. We are up in the air. We call it flying. Now don’t be afraid.’
A very nervous Tina followed Brittany, hand and paw joined together. Adrian noticed that Tina’s long legs easily traversed the tight passage. She moved with a sureness and grace that caused her downy feathers to glisten a deep golden brown in the artificial lighting of the cabin. Tina’s broad face inched forward and saw Seth. Recognition dawned on her. ‘Hi Ssseth! You run up here? Oh, what that?’
‘Hi Tina, welcome aboard!’ Seth turned toward her. ‘Come on up. That’s the river. We are moving toward the ocean. Right over there, you can see it just over the trees. We should be home very soon.’
‘Home? So fast?’ Tina Said.
‘Can you fly out over the ocean so she can see the plateau?’ Brittany asked.
‘Yep, no problem. Hunter Two, this is Hunter One. I’m gonna break formation and take a quick tour of the plateau so that we can touch down from seaward. I’ll be pad-down ten minutes right after you.’ Seth lowers the Hunter to a couple of hundred feet above the cliff-tops. Below them, the expanse of the inland sea grows as they move from the river valley and the horizon fills with the deep blue tones of tropical waters and coral reefs.
Seth taps the dinosaur on the shoulder and says, ‘Tina, I’m going to turn on the remaining viewscreens. You’ll see sky and open air all around you. Don’t worry, we are safe and we won’t fall.’ Seth slowly enhances the viewscreen images.
A side glance at Brittany, ‘How much of this do you think she really understands?’
‘I don’t know but sometimes she really surprises me. Other times it just never sinks in. Guess she’s learning.’ Brittany confirmed.
As they talked, the cabin around them transforms slowly from opaque gray to a blue clarity of the surrounding sea and sky. Tina tensed and unconsciously squeezed Brittany’s had tightly. She looked above at the clear blue sky. Behind them the river and jungle of the plateau are rapidly receding. Then she looks down. Panic begins to well up within her.
‘Easy Tina, its ok. You won’t fall. Easy. There, see? You can’t fall.’ Brittany says as she puts her other arm around the dinosaur.
Tina relaxes and then stiffens again as Seth turns back toward the plateau. Tina’s mouth is open in amazement. Then, she recognizes the plateau as Seth lowers the Hunter further down toward sea level. The Hunter slows to a hovered position near the edge of the Cliffside. Several Hypes and two human children are at the tunnel entrance on the cliff, waving.
Quietly, very softly, Tina begins to whistle and sing. The melody of the song fills the cabin as her head moves to take in all around her.
Brittany whispers over to Adrian, ‘That’s something like their morning song! It’s keyed lower but the melody is the same.’
Seth swings the Hunter around south. Skirting the cliffs and passing slowly over the surf and rocks below. ‘Hey, what’s going on? Look at all the Hypes down at the tunnel exit for the mainland. They’re pushing rocks and ground and anything else they can over the path way?’
Tina turns to Seth, ‘Block trail now. They come.’
‘Ok, whatever that means.’ Seth says as he pulls the Hunter up over the plateau and Sara’s new home. ‘I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Fun-time is over.’
Seth lifted the Hunter and brought it over to the landing pad. They pulled in next to Hunter One.
‘More? We go again? Fly over sea?’ Tina chirped to them.
Seth knew a hit when he saw one. ‘No Tina. Sorry but right now we have some work to do. I’ll take you up again, soon.’
* * * * *
‘That son of a bitch actually hit me!’ Jonas Buckwheat said as he unloaded a carton of free-flow fencing from the Hunter.
‘Ugh, yeah.’ Todd Rangle grunted as he shifted a box so that the loader robot would have an easier time grabbing it. ‘Well, maybe you shouldn’t have gut poked him with the crow bar.’
Jon stood back as the robot grabbed his carton and took it to the storage shed. ‘It was a reaction! I was trying to push off that damn big bird and he surprised me. He didn’t feel it anyway, he still had his armor and webbing on. He had no right to hit me like that. Luckily, Mark saw the whole thing. I’m gonna get Alex doing punishment detail, you wait and see. Then when he least expects it, we’re going to get rid of him completely, nice and clean. He’s a pain in the ass and we would be better off without him.’
‘Watch it, here comes the mighty Colonel himself.’
‘Good evening Colonel Drake. We’re almost through here.’ Jon said with a hidden wink toward Todd. ‘Is there anything else you want or can we take off now.’
‘I have a few things to discuss with you two. Besides, where do you have to go so badly?’
Todd directed the robot loader over to the last box. ‘We’ve been at it for most of the day. We’d like to take a shower and have a little R&R. You know eat and see a movie or something. At least take a shower, it’s hot working out there.’
Dan looked around the compartment. Not exactly neat. There were loose boxes on the floor and some things piled up in a corner. ‘Look, I’m going to say this real friendly like. I’m not sure how or why you guys came along but we are stuck with each other. We’re going to be here for several years and you knew that before you signed on.’
‘All in all, this is light, easy work. You’ve got a great place to stay. The whole place is like a tropical resort. Of course, we haven’t been able to go swimming in the ocean yet but things will come around.’
‘The point is, why make it hard on yourselves? You definitely need a change of attitude. Enjoy the easy life for a few years and then go back and collect your back pay and bonus. Hell, have you guys even thought about what we’ve been able to accomplish?’
Dan saw the look on Jon’s face, ‘Oh, forget about the scientific breakthroughs and things the eggheads have been discussing. Consider this, Mr. Nolen signed you up with a contract for the duration. You get nice pay for signing that piece of paper. Did you read your contract?’
Jonas thought about it for a second. Where was the trap? ‘Yes, I read it very thoroughly. It clearly states we can leave any time after two years and still get our bonus. We plan to be here five years. So, that clause does us no good.’
Dan looked a little closer at him, a little smile on his face. ‘No, that isn’t what I was referring to. Did you see anything in there about story rights or confidentiality?’
‘No, I didn’t but what good does that do for us?’ Todd asked.
‘Look at it this way. There’s about three hundred plus men, women and children here. Most of them either have their noses in their lab books or daily chores like everyone else in the universe. A few of us have a unique opportunity.’
‘Consider, how many of us have been off-base here at the Station?’
Jon was getting annoyed, where was this idiot going? ‘Oh, you mean like having to cart munitions around to all the sites. Like getting jumped and mauled by some Riki-saurus or blackbird on steroids? Like playing bus driver for some dumb six foot pheasant and then getting punched out for trying to keep him in line? Unique opportunity shit!’
‘These idiots.’ Dan thought to himself, ‘They’re so stuck up on their own viewpoint they don’t know when they have it good.’
‘Look Jonas, Mr. Nolen saw that incident personally. Alex gave you what you deserved and it ain’t going to go any further. Besides, we have the Hive-Tab record, right? Let it drop and figure you got off easy on another one.’
‘All right, let me try it another way. Just
why did you guys sign up? Hold it before you say anything. I know your military experience is forged. You guys just don’t cut the mustard for boot camp much less special forces. Right now I don’t give a crap about it, anyway that’s my fault. I gave into the pressure and didn’t vet you guys properly. Now we all have to live with each other and its going to be for several years unless you do something really stupid and buy the farm. So bottom line! Why?’
Jon simply stared at Dan for a few moments. ‘We were hoping to get stationed on Europa. There’s a lot of asteroid miners coming in through there plus who knows what’s going to come out of that station. They’re finding new minerals all the time and people are getting very rich. We were hoping to get in on a find and make a few bucks from the assignment of shares. Shit, nobody said anything about going out on a field expedition to darkest, meanest Africa!’
‘Oh, I get it. You wanted to get in on a mining startup. Get rich quick, huh?’ Dan replied and smiled at them for the first time. ‘And you still don’t see it, right?’
‘See what?’ Todd’s frustration was now overriding his normal desire to stay quiet and in the background.
‘You idiots. When we all get back to Europa there will be only one year of elapsed time back home. For that, you’ll have five years of accumulated pay and bonus! And that’s the peanut income you jerks!’
‘Shut up and consider this. We just traveled through time and landed on a planet full of dinosaurs and beasties the world hasn’t seen for almost a hundred million years. Do you know how many movies and books have been written about this shit? Well Hell’s Bells! You’ve actually been here. Not only have you been here, but you’ve been in the bush with the local wildlife! Just how much money do you think your story is going to be worth to the Net-Vids? Just how famous do you think you’re going to be if you can only get back? I’m talking about book-rights, 3-D’s, maybe even sponsorships! You’ve got it made! By your own dumb luck, you dropped into a hole that you think is filled with shit but it’s not. It’s money, honey! You’re going to be both famous and rich!’
Jon and Todd stood there, their mouths open and confusion filled their eyes. Then slowly the truth of Dan’s words came to them and Jon turned to Todd. ‘Why the heck didn’t you think of this?’
‘Enough said.’ Dan walked over a few feet. ‘Now, I want to see a change of attitude. I don’t really care if you guys are happy or not but you are going to be very unhappy if you don’t shape up.’
‘Police this area before you leave it looks like a pig sty. Then I want to see you over at supplies. Withdraw standard field gear but don’t worry your little pea brains, you won’t be leaving the safety of our fine plateau home. You’ll be taking the first watch tomorrow morning at first light at the Hype mainland tunnel entrance. Talk to Alex if you have any questions but don’t give him a hard time.’
* * * * *
‘Alright, I just checked out the coordinates.’ Paul Wenford said as he entered into Matt Zoeller’s laboratory. ‘There’s nothing there for some of the locations and others are close to a star we can identify but not exact. So either these aren’t stellar coordinates or we are missing something.’
Adrian looked at the paper-like object in front of him. ‘Well, how about this other display?’
He ran his finger over the coordinates and the printing on the page changed into a two-dimensional schematic of a building. ‘Also, how does the display interact like that and where is it getting its power?’
Matt took a sip from his coffee mug. ‘The structure of this so-called “paper” you men brought back resembles the bio-nanostructure and genetic layout of the Hive-Bot robotics that Paul’s son has been having so much fun with lately. The Nano-Bots are field encapsulated in this paper sheet and programmed to reconfigure based on your selected input to create the display of any pertinent data. I haven’t been able to find a central processor, so the analysis may be communal, rather like the Hive-Bot subroutines are.’
‘The power supply is more interesting. I don’t see any modules for generation or storage. I also couldn’t find anything that might serve as a fuel supply. I did however come across this set of behavioral synapses.’ An image of a helical molecule and two basic gravitonic wave equations appeared in each of their Hive-Tabs. ‘This is the basic Hsu Principle Equation for Interstellar Magnetostriction, with a slight twist. The neat thing here is the anisometric tensor is used to bias the gravitonic …’
Paul broke in, ‘I’m so sorry to interrupt Matt, but we do have guests and I’ve heard you go over this before. Adrian and Seth, let me simplify. The device, for I hate to call it paper even though it seems to be a display that is designed as a consumable…. Oh now I’m doing it.’
‘Wait, let me start again without going off base. The paper uses gravitonic wave theory to strip small amounts of energy from the universe’s ether of gravitonic waves. We essentially do this for power on the Argos but the circuitry is much larger. However, we don’t utilize the magnetic component and this simple looking device here takes advantage of that to generate internal power for the circuitry. It’ll never run out of power and just turns on whenever someone needs it.’
Seth picked up on the concept immediately, ‘So it’s essentially a use once and throw away tablet computer.’
‘Yes,’ John replied. ‘and I agree with your first impression. It does seem to be some sort of flight document. What we can’t decipher at this point is the language and the destination.’
‘Well, the language is an Indus derivative. Rather like the difference between Anglo Saxon and English.’ Matt commented. ‘It looks like we should be able to read it. Too bad we didn’t foresee the need for a linguistics expert.’
‘How about that rock and the rooms we found in it?’ Adrian asked.
‘That simple little jaunt of yours turned into something quite complex.’ Matt answered.
‘The door mechanism is not simple at all. I’ve examined the Hive-Tab recordings. The doors simply materialize or dematerialize as needed. It has a straightforward protection mechanism. So no chopping off a hand or nose when they close. This, again, is beyond our present technological implementation state.’
‘After a lot of argument, we now think the stuffed animal heads are early Triassic in origin.’ Paul said.
‘That’s why I didn’t recognize them.’ Adrian commented.
Paul continued the thought pattern. ‘The whole facility is highly functional but abandoned. All of the raw materials are local and the exterior design is very eco-friendly. The structure is highly wear resistant, almost indestructible and yet there are obvious wear marks. We need to examine it closely and try to find its true age. My point is, if you hadn’t been looking in the area with the Remote Mass Concentration Analysis Sensor, you wouldn’t have seen the building. It would have looked like any other rock in the area.’
‘Building?’ Seth smiled, ‘Ok, let’s call it what it is since it has doors and rooms. Still it didn’t look like any building I’ve ever seen. No windows and no recognizable exterior shape.’
Paul looked at Seth, ‘Have you bothered to look at some of our newer homes? Look at mine for instance. We designed it to be eco-friendly even to the point of having it made from the local silicon based sand. Heck, even the architecture blends right in with the plateau environment to the point that it looks like it’s part of the landscape. We used all local minerals and materials, no wonder everything blends so well.’
‘Consider these three dolls. You could have looked at them a little closer for the Hive-Tab record Seth. Even better, you could have brought them back. However, two are familiar. A human and this is definitely a Hype. Some child’s lost toys I would guess. The third is either a play toy of some storybook character or a replica of an actual creature that we have yet to encounter.’
‘Finally, did you have time to actually examine the mass data? You were in a very small part of the building. We’ll need to get back to it and finish the job. Unfortunately I don’t know how
long it’s going to be around.’
‘Why, what is the problem?’ Seth asked.
‘It’s located on a newly active volcanic region, geologically speaking of course. Unfortunately, it’s right on the side of a very active cone. It could go at any time.’
‘Ok, so we need to get back. Look, take a wild stab at it. What do you think it was for and who built it?’
Paul stepped up for that one. ‘It’s pure speculation of course but it appears to be a resort of some kind. A hotel, hunting lodge or actual resort. Who knows?’
Matt commented. ‘Well, if you consider this piece of paper, it may have been a layover for a spaceport. Judging by the layout, what you found in it and its apparent age, it may be very, very old… Well maybe I shouldn’t speculate too far…’
* * * * *
‘No, just wait! There’s got to be several thousand of them still in the feathers.’ John Wenford pleaded with Doctor Ian Graeme. ‘You can’t just go into a sterilization field until I’ve had a chance to extract them.’
‘Laddie, this fellow has been cut up and chewed on. I don’t want to be a nigh responsible if a major infection sets in.’ the ship’s doctor replied.
‘But I need to know what happened!’ John countered. ‘It’s pretty obvious that something ripped the chain off his neck. I’m amazed it didn’t do more damage. But the Hive-Bots, they should not have simply dropped off. I need to find out what happened to them and there might be enough information in the ones that are left to find out. If you sterilize him, you’ll kill all the remaining Hive-Bots or at least damage them. This is critical, please!’
‘All right, I’ll tell you what. How much time do ya need?’
‘Give me five minutes to return with my base interface and I’ll clear them off in about a half a minute.’
‘Ok, go and be quick.’ Ian then turned to Alex. ‘You applied the standard field dressings I assume.’
Alex wasn’t very comfortable, his face and arm were beginning to hurt badly. Rubbing his shoulder he looked up at the doctor. ‘Yeah Doc, I gave him my full attention for ten minutes or so while we waited for pickup. He’s lost a bit of blood but I didn’t see anything pumping like an artery. His neck is pretty chewed up.’
Nodal Convergence (Cretaceous Station Book 1) Page 31