by Mark Harritt
Tom turned towards the back of the landing and whistled. Murphy and Joseph were standing on the back of the landing, close to the portcullis. Murph waved and watched, waiting for Matki to clear the tunnel. Murph and Joseph were Air Force security police that had worked in the DARPA facility on old Earth.
Mike kept watch, looking for the ancient dragon to reappear. Matki cleared the entrance, and Mike relaxed. It was a dangerous world out there. Mike heard Murph’s size fourteen boots kick the latch, and the portcullis rattled down. The portcullis slammed against the ground with a loud clang. Murph locked the portcullis closed. The trio turned and walked to the back of the wall.
One mech was always on guard. It was currently walking across the landing, Daughtry in the driver’s seat. Four mechs were in the linebacker position under the overhang, techs working to make sure they were in top shape. Behind them, the tunnel mouth stood dark, framed by the rock. A rebar cage was set into the opening, a door of rebar in the center, ready to be closed and locked if a predator made it to the landing.
Past that there were stairs on the north and south of the landing leading down to the ground. The ones on the north, furthest away from the tunnel, were notable because they looked like they had been built for giants, and in fact, they were built for the mechs to have access to the valley behind the compound wall. Between the two sets of stairs, a cobblestone courtyard had been laid.
Matki was walking back and forth, his hands on his waist, skin glistening with sweat. Michelle Trevino was standing there with Matki, rifle at low ready, just in case anything followed Matki into the tunnel.
Mike slapped hands with Murph as he walked by, “You fellas up for some combatives after your shift?”
Combatives, as the Army called the mixed martial arts style of fighting and grappling, was a popular way to exercise since they didn’t have a gym. Plus, with danger everywhere, people wanted to develop their capabilities, and develop the warrior mentality. A lot of the techs were even taking lessons. There was usually a group somewhere teaching each other different techniques. There were a lot of different styles involved, from Aikido to Krav Maga.
Murph replied, smiling, “Oh yeah, bring it. I need a good workout.” Joseph grunted, non-committal. Joseph wasn’t much of a talker.
Murph was Staff Sergeant Patrick Murphy in his previous life, a big man when he had been lifting weights, but a lot of that mass had disappeared in the intervening months. He was dark as mahogany, and his previously shaved head had hair cropped short. Murphy was a college linebacker and Joseph was a bouncer in Arkansas before they joined the Air Force. Murphy was from Detroit, and Joseph was a big, blond, corn fed southern boy. They used to be big men, with large, muscled chests and arms, though a bit soft around the middle. They were a lot thinner now, lean muscle replacing the bulky muscle they’d once had.
Mike, Everett and Tom started down the steps. Murph and Joseph stayed on the wall. Once they arrived at the bottom, Michelle walked past them. Michelle had been a Senior Airman in the security police.
“Hey Michelle, where’s Rob at?” Mike asked.
“Don’t know, not my day to watch him,” she answered.
Trevino was athletic, attractive, with long dark hair, Hispanic. She and Rob were an item at the moment. Mike wasn’t sure how long that would last. Michelle didn’t take any crap from Rob, and he was notorious for his roving eye. In the compound, that could be bad, since men outnumbered women. Michelle kept Rob on a short leash, though. A combination of indifference and passion kept him off balance. It seemed to work. Rob wasn’t used to women being indifferent to him. The team put pressure on Rob to curb his roving eye as well, knowing that things could go bad quickly.
Mike walked over to Matki, “Hey Matki, how are you doing?”
Matki grinned, “I am doing well, my friend.”
“You timed that one kind of close. The Ancient was here a few minutes before you came back.”
“You should watch that. One slip, and it’s all over,” Tom pointed out.
Matki waved off Tom’s concern, “I am too fast and too smart for that.”
Everett walked up, “I’m pretty sure that’s what you thought when we first met. Those grasnigs had other ideas though.”
Matki’s face grew grim as he thought about their first meeting. Matki made his appearance to the team with two ugly beasts called grasnigs chasing him. The grasnigs were fur covered lizards, with hard, curved parrot-like beaks. They were fast runners, and would have chased him down if Mickey hadn’t jumped in between them wearing mech armor, killing them and saving Matki.
Matki replied, “That was a tough time, my friend. There was danger everywhere.” Matki gestured to include them all, “You had stirred up the entire forest. There was so much noise it was very hard to hear them.”
Mike grinned, “So you’re saying it was our fault.”
Matki grinned back. Then his expression turned serious, “Of course it was. It certainly wasn’t mine.”
The team’s unique sense of humor had rubbed off on Matki. Sarcasm had been hard for him to understand at first, but with his grasp of English, and the year he had spent with them, he was quickly beginning to master the concept. He was also beginning to understand Texas Hold’em as well. Too well, in fact, to the dismay of the team.
“Well, Matki, what’s going on out there?” Everett asked.
Matki motioned towards the back of the little courtyard behind the compound wall and started walking. The trio kept up.
“How far did you run?” Mike asked.
“I had to run for a while. I upset one of the dragon females. She thought I was too close to her eggs.”
“Were you?” Everett asked.
That irrepressible grin crossed Matki’s face again, “Of course I was. I got lucky though. The Ancient was coming out as I was coming in. She had other things to worry about.”
Everett, Mike, and Tom exchanged glances. They couldn’t imagine being out there without mech armor on, not with two dragons in the area. Matki was a formidable man, his short stature notwithstanding. He didn’t even take a rifle out with him. His excuse was that it would slow him down.
They walked over the cobblestones of the courtyard. Past the courtyard, the small valley opened up. The little valley was a bowl, a natural pocket surrounded by cliffs on all sides. The area in back of the gateway was large, about twenty acres. To Mike’s right, along the cliff, was a small lake fed by a small waterfall. The water used to flow out through the opening that the compound wall now occupied. They’d diverted the water flow to pipes to bring them fresh water, with overflow directed through pipes under the new wall to drain.
The waterfall was a spring that came out of the rock wall about a hundred feet above the lake. Above the waterfall, there was still about six hundred feet of rock before you found the lowest point of the cliff edge. To the left, the cliff across from the waterfall looked like it had been sliced by a huge butter knife. The tall, thin openings were small box canyons that led back into the mountainside. Some of them ran for miles. Every one ended in a high cliff wall, with no access to the outside.
There was some industry in the valley. They had a smokehouse to smoke and prepare meat. Terror bird was being smoked, and the smell made Mike’s mouth water. There were others making soap, washing clothes, and some of the fabricators had rigged up a blacksmith forge and anvil to experiment with.
Mitchem, Mike’s old nemesis, spent his time there. The people that worked with him swore that Mitchem was doing good things. Mike had a hard time believing that. Mitchem mainly worked at the smokehouse, his backyard grill time helping somewhat. He was a decent facilitator as well. If someone needed something, he would ask around until he was able to find it, or find someone who knew how to make it. Mike and Mitchem spent their time avoiding each other.
Mike looked out across the valley and he saw Ben Davis working in the garden. Ben saw them, and waved. They waved back. Close to the lake, land had been leveled to plant food and her
bs. Ben was a nice guy and a hard worker, but Mike didn’t have faith in his efforts. Ben swore that he had a green thumb, but that capability was not readily apparent, though.
The garden was Ben’s big project. It was a good idea, but, even with other ‘gardeners’ and ‘horticulturists’ helping, it hadn’t yielded much in the way of food. Ben nourished it with love and tenderness, and like most abusive relationships, that love was neither appreciated nor returned. The garden was a straggle of weeds that was hard to discern from the surrounding vegetation. Ben wasn’t able to fend off starvation for the compound yet, but he was able to grow enough herbs to make food interesting. The spices weren’t what everyone was used to, but they added flavor to the food.
Matki walked past the courtyard, walked out onto the grass, and stopped where there was a bare patch of dirt. He squatted down, and motioned for them to join him.
Everett got there first, and sat straight down, cross legged on the ground. Mike and Tom joined him.
Maria Roberts, one of the techs, yelled over at them, “We have some chairs up here if you want them.”
Mike waved at her, “It’s okay, Maria, we’ll be fine.”
“What’s up, Matki?” Mike asked.
“Nothing good, Mike,” Matki replied, still a little bit breathless.
Mike’s head cocked, “What’s up?”
“The Ancient. I don’t know what he’s up to, but things are strange out there,” Matki answered.
“Strange how?” Everett asked.
“He has three brooding females in the valley.”
Mike was dumbfounded, “Three? Are you kidding me? I thought you couldn’t get three brooding females that close without violence and death.”
Matki nodded, “Yes, ordinarily, that is true. But, I don’t think anything about that big dragon is ordinary.”
They waited, but Matki wasn’t forthcoming. Tom was the first to speak, “You goin’ to expound upon that position there, Matki?” Tom asked, his southern drawl lengthening the words.
Matki grinned again, “Yes, my friend, I will ‘expound on my position.’” Matki was proud of his grasp of the English language. Matki had learned a lot of their language, more than they knew of his. This didn’t surprise Joan or Joel, the neurologists. Hunter-gathers usually had much better memories than their more civilized cousins. They didn’t even need the A.I. translator anymore to understand Matki.
Matki continued, “That is a cunning dragon. The other dragons, they don’t like him, but they listen to him.”
Mike put out his hand to stop Matki, “Uh, what do you mean, other dragons?”
Matki’s face grew serious, “I mean, there are other dragons out there. Not just the brooding females.”
Matki used his hand to smooth the dirt in front of him. He traced the outline of the larger valley beyond.
“This is where we are,” he placed an x where they were located along one edge of the drawing. “This is where the three dragon females are brooding,” he put three dots on the drawing. He moved his finger across where the great valley opened onto the plains beyond, “Here, there are four younger dragons.”
“And?” Everett asked.
Matki wiped the rough map away, “And, I don’t know. The ancient one, he has some hold on them. I don’t know why this is happening.”
Mike was confused, “How? How can he do this? Are you telling me that those mindless monsters can think and plan?”
Matki place a hand behind him onto the ground as he sank from his squat to take a seat, “I honestly don’t know. This is beyond my experience with the dragons. I have seen them fight for mates. I have seen them hunt prey. I have seen them hunt each other. I know everything about them from when they hatch and swarm, to when they are ready to mate. But I have never seen so many in one place not trying to kill each other. I think though, that they don’t like you. They don't understand you. You confuse them. They don’t like things they don’t understand. You are a thorn in their sides.”
Matki leaned back, “I think,” Matki paused, “that this is an unexpected thing. When dragons stop acting like dragons, it is a very dangerous thing indeed.”
“Have you been able to warn your people about the dragon spawn?” Everett asked.
Matki nodded, “Yes. Since I told the council about you, they have left a scout closer to the dragon valley. I was able to warn him that there were a lot of dragon spawn there.”
Matki had been slipping back and forth between the old Earth compound and his tribe. He still held the position of dragon watcher, to keep an eye on the dragon spawn that would issue forth from the hatched eggs of the female dragons and to warn his people. When the spawn went hunting, nothing was safe. They were the size of pit bulls, hunted in packs until they grew larger, and were just as dangerous as their parents.
Matki’s travel to his tribe had the added benefit of his bringing salt back to the compound. It wasn’t much, but it helped. His tribe had a salt lick close to their home. What he’d been able to bring back was sorely needed at the compound. Mike just wished they could figure out a way to get more salt. They only had enough Freon for the combat suits. They didn’t have enough Freon to make refrigeration units. Salt would help them preserve their food from spoilage.
“What do you think they will do?” Mike asked.
“They will retreat to the higher caves. They have no choice. They will have to limit their hunting, and the distances that they travel. They will tell the other tribes that there is great danger here.”
A concerned look crossed Everett’s face, “What did your council say when you told them about us?”
Matki grinned, “Well, I told them about your metal wealth. Of course, they didn’t believe me. At least, not until I showed them this,” he patted the knife on his side. The fabrication team had been busy making tools, not only for the compound, but Matki as well. Matki continued, “and these,” he pointed at his atlatl and arrows. The atlatl was polished hard wood, the center drilled out and filled with iron. The atlatl could be used to launch arrows, and it could also be used as a club. The arrows were tipped with iron arrowheads. “They are very interested in trading with you,” he finished.
Mike hooked a thumb back towards the wall, “What do you think we should do about the Ancient?”
Matki shook his head, “I am not sure you can do anything short of going out to hunt him. But, you would have to deal with seven or eight other dragons as well.”
Mike thought for a moment before he spoke. He looked at Everett and Tom, “I don’t want to go out there and attack the ancient with that many dragons out there. The most we’ve tackled is three at once, and they were tough to kill. I’d hate to think about fighting eight of them. We don’t have that kind of firepower on the mechs.”
Everett spread his hands, “Why do we have to worry about them? They’re out there, and we’re in here. They can’t get in here.”
Mike paused, “I don’t know, Everett. I don’t have a good feeling about this. I think, we need to bring the entire team in. I think we should warn the techies as well. We need to prep.”
Everett held up his hands, “Whoa Mike, what the hell. Don’t you think that’s a little rash?”
“What do you mean?” Mike asked.
Everett pointed back at the compound wall, “We have that big damn wall over there. Hell, we built it to keep them out. The dragon swarms can’t get over the top, and they sure can’t get through that iron portcullis that the fabrication team built. Even that gigantic dragon can’t get over it. And that’s the biggest damn thing I’ve seen since we’ve been here.”
Mike shook his head, “I don’t know Everett. There was something there. I looked into its eye, and I saw, well, I don’t know what I saw.”
Everett turned to Tom, “What do you think?”
Tom was a quiet man. He only spoke when he had something that people needed to hear. Tom spoke in his typical laconic style, with few words, and straight to the point, “I think, that if Mike’s c
oncerned, we should probably listen to him.”
Everett struggled with the idea that they may be in danger again, then nodded. He looked at Mike, “What do you want to do?”
Mike shrugged, “I don’t know. I’m worried about those three brooding females and the spawn.” Mike hooked a thumb in the direction of the wall, “That ancient has a reason for what he’s doing. I have no idea what it is, but this turn of events worries me.” Mike turned to Matki, “How many eggs do the females have.”
Matki leaned over and put his hand on Mike’s shoulder, “I don’t know. I couldn’t get close enough to find out. I don’t smell like them, so I couldn’t chance it. The dragon that I watched, the one that you killed, it had anywhere from forty to fifty, sometimes more.”
Mike ran his hand through his hair, “I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling about this.” He stood up, and brushed off the dirt, “Well, Everett, you and I have a meeting anyway. We can talk to them about this.”
They all stood up with Mike. Matki parted from them and headed toward the smoker to get some food.
“Uh, do I need to be there?” Tom asked. Tom hated meetings. He hated them more now, because it usually involved more mundane items like sanitation. If the meeting didn’t involve weapons, whether shooting or fixing them, he didn’t like to participate.
The expression on Everett's face turned serious “Well Tom, since we’re going to be talking about the dragons, we may need your expertise on weapons. You should probably join us at the meeting.”
Tom’s face fell. Everett grinned and Mike laughed. Everett let him off the hook, “No, Tom, we don’t need you there. You can go back to working on the weapons.”
A broad smile appeared on Tom’s face. He looked like a little kid with an ice cream cone, “You got it. It’ll give me a chance to show a few things to Latricia.”