‘Aye, I’ve seen that. We have to be careful on several levels here. Our own bodies have been thoroughly sterilized before coming here but I still don’t want to take chances with an open wound. We wouldn’t want some of our super-generation germs invading this Cretaceous body. Nevertheless, I’m not sure about how our medicine and techniques will react with his physiology.’
‘Unfortunately we didn’t bring a veterinarian along. Even back home, birds are a horse of a different color you know. Some vets won’t even touch a bird because of their sensitive immune systems. Then again, he’s not even in the theropod family so their reactions probably differ even from birds. Here, let me see under this dressing.’
‘Hmm, nice. How did you remove the feathers from the area.’
Alex looked a bit puzzled, ‘My combat knife of course.’
‘Nicely done. I don’t see any dirt in this wound and it looks like it’s about the worst of the bunch. Ouch.’
‘Sorry Doc. I should have warned you. Buddy is a little sensitive about probing there. That’s just a little warning nip.’
‘Yes, well no harm done.’ Ian looked at the side of his hand. ‘I’ve had some patients try to bite me but it doesn’t happen often you know. Oh good, here’s John.’
John brings out a control that looks like a standard personal tablet. A faint, almost invisible blue mist rises over Buddy’s back and moves to settle onto John’s arm. ‘Great, there are over seven thousand left, not a lot but enough. There is still some information in there but there’s going to be a lot of holes in the data. Luckily I used Hamming Code check sums.’
‘You used what?’ Ian asked.
‘Oh, it’s an old Bell Labs development that goes way back to the 1940’s. Hamming Code uses the bits of a data stream to calculate a checksum value. Missing data in the message stream can be recreated from the checksum value at the end of the sequence. Early telecommunications and computers used it in situations where there was a lot of potential data loss or noisy transmissions. This algorithm I use is a lot more sophisticated but the principals are the same.’
‘All right, let’s watch on my tablet. I can’t link this easily on the Hive-Tab.’
‘Alex, you go ahead and watch. I need to start my procedure now and then I’ll get to you. Now Buddy, just lie there. This may sting just a tiny bit.’
The tablet opens and a sense thread opens on the bottom of the display. ‘See, here he can see and smell them chasing him. There’s one now.’ An orange and green shape appears in the corner of the tablet. ‘Gosh, he sure can twist fast. Oh Wow, two more and …’
‘They jumped him. There goes the collar. Looks like it saved his life when that dinosaur jabbed him with the foot claw.’
‘What’s that? The signal suddenly went fuzzy. It’s even worse than before. This shouldn’t happen that fast should it?’ Alex asked.
‘Well, that explains it, they flew off. They aren’t in a gravitonic field like we have here at the Station. Still, they flung themselves and…’, John was completely dumbstruck for a second or two. His fingers race across the screen and then stopped.
‘There it is. They actually took a command sequence from Buddy. In the heat of the fight, he thought about ripping at the eyes and face of the attackers. These were particularly violent emotions and they injected a very strong command signal into the Hive-bots. There, look on the image. They flew like projectiles into the faces of the dinosaurs as each raptor closed in to attack him. There go some more. It’s pretty obvious now what happened afterwards. They embedded themselves in the soft tissues of the eyes and nose and just dug in.’
‘Well, it saved my friends life.’ Alex mumbled. ‘Thank you John, it probably saved all our lives.’
John half listened to Alex. ‘Look I’ve gotta run. There’s some things I want to change. This opens up a whole new path of possibilities. Thank you Doctor Graeme. See ya later Alex.’
‘All right Buddy.’ Ian said to his patient. ‘You may have a little mark there but I think, by the other scars I see, you’ve had worse. Now, Alex. Take off your shirt and sit here.’
‘All right, you probably won’t have any new ones to add to your scar collection. But now Boyo, I want ya ta stop volunteering for everything. Take a day off and let some other laddie be the hero.’
‘Yo, what’s this I wonder? Sit still, does that hurt. You didn’t show this to me earlier. Here, look in the mirror. You’ve got several lines of dead tissue across your back where your skin has a deep red sore and is actually peeling. The area beneath them is sore and red. Irritated! When did this start?’
Alex grabbed for his shirt. ‘I don’t know where that’s from. They began a few days ago and they hurt and itch a little. I was going to stop in but …’
‘Have you been working with radioactive materials Son?’ Ian asked. There was real concern in his voice as he walked over to the cabinet.
‘No, we don’t have anything open. Maybe it’s just an allergic reaction to something….’
‘There, it is an exposure burn, about 48 or 50 microrad. Enough to cause burns and skin slough. Right about where your backpack would ride and…. Oh ho! What’s in your pocket. NO! Don’t put your hand in. Take your pants off.’
‘Aw come on Doc.’ Alex pleaded.
‘I’m not fooling Alex. Take ‘em off.’ Ian grabs the pants from around Alex’s ankles and cuts the pocket with tweezers and a scalpel. A pocket knife and a golden nugget falls to the table top.
‘It’s the nugget Alex. How long have you been carrying this right next to your testicles?’
‘I found it on the path. Since about this morning.’ Alex replied.
We need to check this out right away and start treatment. Hopefully we won’t have to regrow them for you.’
Alex looked down at his legs, a worried look on his face.
‘And you found enough to put them into your web pack? Alex, you need to come clean with me. The radiation burns on your back don’t form in a day, this is a cumulative burn wound. This gold and wherever you got it from is radioactive. The levels aren’t all that high but you will need some treatment for the cell damage.’
‘Aw Doc. Come on. Give me a break.’
‘No. Look, this is serious Alex. You need to treat these with all precautions. You’ve handled radioactive materials before. This isn’t anything near weapons grade but you still need to respect the power of the radiation damage to accumulate and do harm to your body. Untreated you may have to undergo cancel treatments or worse.’
‘Wait a second. There is more developing here than finding a few pebbles on the path, isn’t it. Who else is involved? For their own health and safety Alex!’
‘Molly Pasteur, Tom Braken and I found a vein of the gold. We’ve been mining it. The digging was easy. We were going to take our share and then tell the Colonel about it. As a matter of fact, I was going to tell him about it this week but things got a little crazy.’
‘Yes, I guess they did get a little crazy. You realize this means a major clean up. I hope you didn’t store the gold anywhere near our food supply or sleeping quarters.’
‘No sir. We have it in a tunnel beneath a hard supplies shed. About two hundred and ninety or more pounds of the stuff.’
‘Alex, I’ve known you long enough.’ Ian said as he salved down Alex’s back and gave him a med-pad. ‘I want you to go and see the Colonel now. No, don’t call him. You need to talk with him directly for this. I’ll have Molly and Tom come over. I’m amazed none of you turned this in for treatment earlier.’
‘Like I said Doc. Things have been busy.’
Alex slow trotted over toward the command quarters. The Hypes and other dinosaurs where singing their night song as the first of the stars peaked out of the heavens. There are about forty homes as well as two dormitories, administration and a common hall constructed at this point. Somehow, the beauty of the sunset didn’t interest him today.
‘What the hell, any day is a good day to be alive!’ Alex said as
he crossed into the command quarters.
‘Colonel Drake, I need to speak with you.’
‘Hi Alex, at ease and please sit down. You’ve had a hard enough day.’
Dan sits back as Alex retells his story of the visit with Doctor Graeme. The smile fades from his face and then slowly returns.
‘So now you expect me to rip you a new one and take what you worked for?’
‘No Sir, at least I hope you won’t sir.’
‘Alex, we aren’t in the service anymore. We’re polite mercenaries. You just had a great joke pulled on you by the greatest jokester of all.’
‘Tell you what I’m going to do. First of all you will have to lose the gold. There’s more down there you say?’
‘Yes Sir. As I told you, we were going to turn the rest over to the company.’
‘I’ll talk with Mark and Matt about this but I think I can get you compensated for your loss. Sort of a finders fee. You can’t take the gold you mined because the stuff is deadly with prolonged exposure. Mark however is a businessman. You should get compensation plus this puts us ahead of schedule or … Well strike that. We still have to purify and decontaminate the gold.’
‘I’ll do what I can. Now, we need to get someone down there and block off the vein. I also want the area checked for more radioactive material. The grotto may not be a very healthy place. You, Molly and Tom are not to go down there. You’ve already had too much exposure.
* * * * *
Dan sat back in his chair and looked at David Pope. ‘Well, you don’t look too much the worse for wear. You’ve still got one good arm and in a day or two, if you go to Ian’s treatments, you’ll even have that shoulder back. Other minor bangs and scrapes are, well, part of the job.’
‘So you think a storm is coming?’ Dan took another sip of his coffee. ‘If the troondon are gone, why would anything move back in? Hunting grounds are hunting grounds.’
David found it hard to sit with the dull pain in his shoulder. He was tired and that didn’t help at all. ‘We have several sightings that predators are moving, in mass, to alternate hunting grounds. The prey animals, like the hadrosaurids, oddly enough aren’t moving at all. We’ve had several indications of this that I outlined in the report. We also checked locally and at Blackbird Valley. The T-Rex seem to be the exception. They aren’t moving like the rest of the theropods. They seem to be happy to stay with the food-herds.’
‘There is a relatively narrow migration area and a cyclical pattern to their movement. This may be a way for nature to simply reduce pressure on their food supply since each type of predator has a preferred prey. Therefore, when you swap areas with another predator your favorite food source has a chance to build up again in the area you just left and you minimize predator-to-predator conflicts. Personally, I think the T-Rex just don’t give a damn. They do what they want with impunity. Sort of like the eight hundred pound gorilla jokes.’
‘Finally, we believe something is coming here because the Hypes are blocking off the mainland exit tunnels. I know you don’t give it much credence, but Tina has also told us “they” are coming and the Hypes are concerned.’
Dan set down his cup. ‘So why haven’t the Hypes moved out?’
Sara looked up from her tablet, ‘They aren’t theropods. They are quite different in behavior and are, in fact, omnivores. They eat plant and occasionally some meat. Oddly enough, unlike almost all the other dinosaurs they have articulated hands with five fingers and …’
Dan cut in, ‘I’m sorry Sara but we have to make a few decisions here and need to stay on track. So what more do we need to do? We’ve got the tunnels covered. We fortified the entrance to the plateau with the AutoSentinels and have the two heavy gun emplacements. The ditch, berm and fencing in front of the automatics are all fully installed. We have a fortress set up on this little plateau.’
Mark broke the silence. ‘All right, we’ll raise the alert level for a little while but that should be sufficient.’
‘I want to make one announcement before we break. Alex, Molly and Tom have been gracious enough to give us a gift. We now have over three hundred pounds of gold on site. This is more than enough for the test equipment. This also puts us ahead of schedule for our studies. The ore removal and refining at Blackbird Valley has been going well but they are now the gating factor.’ Mark said as he raised his eyebrow and looked directly at Dan.
‘This is another milestone for the project and we should all meet in the new common hall on Friday night at 6 pm for a little celebration. As usual, Hypes are invited.’
‘Oh, one final thing. I’m happy to say that Gabriel Zavtek is back safe and sound with his family. We have the troondons to thank for that as much as we have to thank the valiant efforts of our local security team and of course David and the Hypes Molly, Tina and Buddy. We’ll need to review our relations with the troondons when they return.’
* * * * *
The sun was rising from the eastern horizon as Dan and David emerged from the south Hype tunnel. Song filled the air above them and the sea birds and pterosaurs screamed and yelled as they began their early morning flights. Dan had picked up a piece of plexicast crating from the floor of the tunnel and waved it lightly at David Pope. ‘I imagine they recognized this as stronger material for wall building than the sticks normally found on the plateau. You’ll see they’ve closed the entrance for all but a very small opening, large enough for a single Hype to walk through. They also set up a nesting area by the entrance. I don’t know if you want to call it that but I assume they are setting up their equivalent of a guard station.’
‘This isn’t too unusual, even for animals.’ Dave replied. ‘The Hypes seem to be at the low tool implementation stage. They may have been stuck in this stage of development several million years we just don’t know at this time. I’ll have to talk with Sara about this.’
Dan tucks the piece under his arm as a Hype races by, ‘Here we are, … oops. Don’t want to get in the way. They are really pushing this construction. Let’s move aside here.’
‘Alright, they set up a good kill hole. I assume that whatever is coming must be as large or larger than a Hype.’
‘Why is that?’ Dave replied.
‘You don’t leave a Hype-size passage if your attackers can run through it easily. No, whatever we are watching for will be about the same size as a Hype or larger.’
‘Around this next bend is where the tunnel opens onto the cliff trail. We’ll set up our guard post on the outside of the entrance and put an AutoSentinel in over here. Maybe we should consider some manual detonated Brodsky Mines at the cliff side.’
David looks down over the cliff edge, ‘What’s a Brodsky Mine?’
‘They’re directional like a Claymore but they send a tighter sheet of shrapnel out at waist lever rather than a full, conical fan. They’re smaller, easier to handle and cheaper. All right, let’s head over to the main gate. Oh, hi Tina. How are things going?’
‘Ok! Easy now not worry top door.’ The Hype said.
‘You mean the main gate. Yes, we have that set up well. What can we expect from them? How big will they be?’
‘Big? Like Molly,Molly.’ The Hype answered.
‘Alright, twice as big as you are. I guess they will be pretty easy to spot. Ok, here comes Todd and Jon. Good morning gentlemen. Glad to see you up bright and early.’
‘Good morning, Sir. We were told to set up out here. If you’d rather have us inside we could do that instead.’ Jon commented to Dan.
‘No, follow your original instructions.’
‘Yes Sir.’ Jon answered as he watched Dan and David pass down the path. ‘Well this shouldn’t be too bad. Bring that AutoSentinel over here and we’ll put it right at the entrance.’
Todd wasn’t really happy about the whole arrangement, ‘I thought I told you last time that it was your turn to carry the gun.’
‘No, now stop griping and put it over there.’
‘Say Todd, I was talking with Ma
ry Li at mess and she said that Alex and Tom found gold right around here.’
‘Yeah, I heard it too. Then they went and turned it in right away. What a pair of bozos!’
‘Hey, watch out you stupid bird! Why did they have to put us in with these guys. Watch it, they bite you know.’
‘Listen Todd, this is an opportunity. Alex was with us the whole last two days. If he found gold then it must have been outside, someplace on the trail when they went to look for that kid.’
‘Yeah, I bet that’s why Dave and the Colonel ran off that way. That’s the same path that Alex took when they left.’
‘Here’s what we do …’
* * * * *
A cool breeze flares across the bright red comb on his back as he runs, the sun warmly shining on his feathers. New scents and sounds assault his senses. Everything around him is different. There is an open glade and clear paths in which to run, fast and free without hindrance. He runs far ahead of the pack yet close enough to hear the keening trill of the elders. No more steep slopes or dense brush, the obstacles fall to nothing before him! Then a curious sound, faint but crashing like a mighty brook, but different. The low scrub brush before him parts easily in his passing and his heart fills his chest with its beating. He can feel the rush of air through his bones, exhilarating, firing his hot blood in excitement to even higher levels. The thrill of the hunt pushes him on. It’s an open vastness beyond belief. The very sky reaches down to touch the water with an amazing taste of new freedom. Water, like a pond but greater than any he has ever seen flows out before him. Water the same color as the sky, reaching out to touch the very sky so far away.
‘This way, this way!’ the call changes and he swings down along the edge of the cliff high above the open water. The scent of the others is here but it is old. Too bad, they would have been an easy meal for the pack. Other food is still here and so much and … wait, something strange fills the air. A new smell, odd and alien. Not the sharp warning scent of the big ones but a smooth, deep, thick odor that fills and clings to the path and leaves. Is this food?
Nodal Convergence (Cretaceous Station Book 1) Page 32