Terra

by Robert Turnbull

  “Way to go…daddy. See, you make a great daddy.”

  Dar plopped down and snorted “Fuck you Sky.” he rolled on his side and pulled the blanket over his head to a plethora of Sky’s giggles.

  “G’night daddy.” she smiled and settled back as she lowered the light so things were barely visible. “I sure hope they don’t wake up and get frightened.”

  From the dark on the other side of the cave she heard another snort and a muffled “As long as they don’t expect us to take them for a walk….now get to sleep.”

  “Get to sleep ‘ma’am’, you mean, I am your commander.” Sky chuckled softly.

  “Sheesh, I know what Tommy meant by you being a pain in the ass…ma’am.”

  Sky smiled and closed her eyes, it had been a long day and she was bone dead tired. Through her mind ran the questions about how smart were these babies? Then the nagging question, how the hell was she going to feed them when all they had were small side arms? Sidearms were not going to bring down very much in these forests and jungles…better yet, how were they going to eat when their food ran out? At the rate these babies ate, if they didn’t find food fast, their emergency supplies wouldn’t last long.

  The weary Sky drifted off with the day’s events running through her mind and as sleep overtook her, her eyes popped open; ‘what if she couldn’t protect the baby rexes?’ She rolled over to look in their direction, but she could only make out slight shadows to the rear of the cave, as well as the silver blanketed Dar. She closed her eyes once again…and they popped open once again as Dar started snoring…and then both rexes joined in.

  Sky smiled and sighed as she muttered softly “I’m too young to have a family.”

  Chapter 4.

  Sky felt a hard bump and it startled her so that she sat up abruptly. As she tried to clear the cobwebs from her mind she looked to her side to see Lady’s back smack dab where her back had been and Lady was sound sleep curled up next to her.

  She reached down and stroked Lady’s side and a soft reptilian sigh ensued. She was going to try to awaken Dar to show him but as she looked over, saw an empty blanket. A sudden fear ran through her and just as she started to get up she heard a grunt and turned to see Dar walking back around the corner...with Dash.

  "Fucker had to take a piss…acted just like my old dog Duke, remember Duke?”

  Sky rubbed her face “Duke…yeah, your cloned mutt.”

  “Yeah, he did just what Dash did…you know, that ‘I have to pee dance’? Looked like Dash was afraid to go out…” he sighed “so I took him.”

  “Softie!” Sky teased as Dar snorted a laugh and watched as Dash walked in circles and plopped down on Dar’s blanket. No sooner had Dar walked over and tugged enough thermal blanket out to sit on, Lady was up and ‘dancing’.

  Sky shrugged and smiled “My turn I guess” and out toward the entrance they went to the amusement of Dar.

  Dar settled back in as he sat back against the cave wall and watched Dash snuggling deeper into his blanket. “Well boy, looks like it’s light now…just couldn’t wait could you?” To which Dash rolled his head around to look at Dar with huge eyes and a soft snort.

  “Yeah, you’re welcome. Guess it’s time to make breakfast.” he chuckled and pulled out a foil pack to which Dash jumped up and swished his tail slowly as he cocked his head.

  “Jesus, you sure learn fast don’t ya fella?” But this time Dar broke the lump of compressed food in half and sighed “Guess we both go on a diet now until we get some real food…” a sad look crossed his face and Dash noticed and looked sad too “assuming that we ever find some real food.”

  Tossing Dash half his ration of food didn’t seem like a good idea, but damned if he wasn’t beginning to like this baby mega-rex. Somewhere in the back of his mind Dar knew that the two portions the rexes had eaten would not be enough for growing dinosaurs, he began to work on a plan to trap some of the turkey sized two-legged lesothosaurus. They were the closest thing to what Earth had back in its primordial ages. The scientists and teachers had come together to name the dinosaurs back nearly four hundred years earlier when they arrived on Terra. The ones close, garnered old Earth names, the ones that were new to humans, got pretty much whatever the finder decided to call them. The lesothosaurus was turkey sized and had patches of feathers about its neck and along the back, wasn’t exactly Earth-like, but it stuck as a general sub-name wound up being shortened to leos. Why, Dar figured it was just easier to say. There were smaller leos as well and between the two known sizes, provided the humans with the ability to raise them as other humans had raised chickens created from the millions of frozen embryos of many of the Earth animals that had been brought along on their journey…sadly not all of the species survived. Anyhow a leo would make a good meal for his new pet…or was that son? Dar cracked a grin as he watched Dash watching him as he cocked his head one way and then the other.

  After nearly fifteen minutes Dar began to worry. His worries got worse when he saw Dash run back to the rear of the cave and crouch. Panic filled Dar’s mind as the ground trembled and loud trumpeting could be heard from without.

  “Shit! Sky!!” he shouted over the thunderous din of whatever was stampeding. The din was followed by louder roars and Dar recognized those as a family of rexes hunting…and by the looks of Dash, he wanted nothing to do with those smaller versions of himself.

  With the rumbling lessening Dar headed to the two giant boulders that mostly blocked the cave. He saw nothing and peeked out to be slammed to the ground by Sky tumbling over him. She was followed by Lady who tumbled over both of the humans, rolled to her feet, and dashed back to join her sibling at the rear of the cave.

  There were screams and then silence as the four of them decided the rear of the cave was the best place to sit this fight out. After nearly two hours of silence the two humans became brave enough to peek out.

  Back the way they had come the day before was a corpse of what appeared to be a hadrosaur or duckbill as they were commonly called on Terra. Mostly eaten the two humans ran the half mile or so to it and carved large slabs off, and then ran back.

  As they neared the cave, outside stood their two babies and they looked like they were dancing from one leg to the other.

  “That’s the pee dance.” Dar muttered as the slab he carried over his shoulder was getting too heavy and he had to slow to a walk.

  “Apparently it’s baby mega for a number of things.” Sky chuckled back as she too was getting tired. “I sure hope they appreciate what we’ve done…” the rexes ran to them, ran circles around them squealing all the time in soft quiet sounds just loud enough for the humans to hear, but not from too far off. Surprisingly neither baby grabbed for the chunks of fresh meat.

  “They’re glad to see us.” Sky muttered.

  “I think they’re afraid they might hurt us,” Dar responded in amazement “these critters are smarter than we thought.”

  “How so?” Sky replied as she squeezed between the boulders.

  “Think about it Sky, they can see each other, they can see us.” Before Sky could ask ‘so?’ Dar smiled “Look at the way they played earlier, slamming into one another, but not us.” he could see the confusion on her face and chuckled “Don’t ya see Sky? They know we can be hurt, we aren’t like them, and even as babies they can figure that out.” He laid the slab down and cut off a few large chunks and took turns tossing them at each rex. Not one bit hit the ground, they’d catch it in air and didn’t try to cut the other off as they waited patiently for the next bite to be tossed in their direction. When it did come it was one chomp and swallow. Dar cut the bites bigger and the tikes chewed more before swallowing as Dar grinned and commented that it would last longer this way.

  Sky smiled and tossed the slab she had carried at the feet of the babies and in between them. One leaned down to take a bite and as if the other knew the slab would move, held it with its talon shaped claw so its sibling could chew off a large bite. To the human’s amazement, a
s one rex stood erect to chew and swallow, it placed its claw in the meat to let the other take its share.

  “Hoooolllllyyyy shit, Sky will ya look at that.” he looked over at the woman that he so admired “A day old and they knew how to share, how to figure out we’re different and not eat us.”

  “And trust us.” Sky picked up the rest of the other slab and tossed it. Amazingly both rexes stopped after finishing their slab and looked at the humans.

  Dar stared momentarily and then as if a light bulb lit, he walked over to his backpack and pulled out one of the foil packages.

  “We eat these guys, go ahead and finish your meal.” and with human jaws nearly hitting the dirt floor, they babies looked at each other and proceeded to finish the slab of meat as they had done before. Regaining their composure Sky ate half of her packet and joined Dar who explained that he had already eaten.

  As they stood to figure out their next move Dar reminded Sky of his old boyfriend’s knowledge “A duckbill means we’re near a river or lake…maybe even a swamp.”

  “Hope it’s a river, then maybe we can build a raft to take us east to the main river.” she smiled “We get to that, we can pole upstream if it isn’t too swift.”

  “And our babies?” Dar really looked concerned.

  “Well, we sure as hell can’t build a raft that big, guess they’ll have to trot along the shore if they want to follow.” She looked over to the babies that were looking at them and cocking their heads as if trying to understand.

  “If they leave, I’ll sure miss them, but Dar, it’s our duty to try to get back to Wheel 7.

  “Yeah, I know…but,” he smiled sadly “they do kinda grow on ya, don’t they?”

  Chapter 5.

  Finally being able to coax the youngsters out for more than a few yards from the cave they followed the trail back along the trampled ground that the family of rexes had chased the duckbills until they came to a slow bend in the path to the south that lay between a series of hills. The foliage began to change slowly at first…

  “Has to be a swamp.” Dar muttered softly taking care not to show the hope in his heart. Swamps had been reported from past explorers and it seemed that where there were swamps, there were rivers.

  Sky was leading and she stopped as she topped one of the smaller hills that they had to go over. Below them was a sight to behold. A small winding river wove its way through grasslands and in the distance to the far south rose a swampy jungle to which, at first, they decided that they should keep away from. That meant dangerous grasslands with grasses high enough to hide deadly raptors.

  “You know Dar, swamps are dangerous and can hide just as many dangers, but raptors usually don’t go into swamps because they don’t swim…at least that’s what the professor said.”

  “Yeah, I remember, I also know that since crashing, we’ve learned a lot of shit that none of the instructors knew, or at best suspected. If I get a vote, I say we stick to the edge of the swamp. I figure it will give the babies somewhere to hide…not sure if their scent would keep raptors away and doubt if they can outrun them.”

  “I doubt if we can outrun them Dar. We can always dive into the water, but what about…” she looked over as they walked and the babies were looking at them still trying to figure out what their adopted parents were making with their strange grunts and squawks. The looks and tone sounded serious, and this caused the babies to give them serious looks.

  “Maybe we should try to chase them away?” Sky muttered thoughtfully “They’d probably stand a better chance in their own forest.”

  Dar looked at the shoulder high rexes and then at Sky “So let me get this straight, to protect them you’re going to what? Hit nearly human sized dinosaurs with razor sharp teeth with a stick?”

  “Yeah…when ya put it that way.” she sighed “I’ve been training since damn near birth to be a flight leader, how to survive, how to…” she spun and looked at Dar “SHIT! I’m nineteen years old, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.” Tears formed in her eyes as Dar walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulder.

  “Wow, easy there Sky.” he stroked her hair gently “Look we’ve grown up together and I don’t expect you to know everything there is to know. Hell, I don’t even expect my flight leader to know half of everything.” he grasped her gently and turned her to face him “But as my flight leader…Sky, never let me hear that you don’t know, fake it. You give a command and I’ll follow it, give me a task and I’ll do it, but do not tell me you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing…never!”

  Sky sobbed a loud laugh and buried her face into Dar’s chest as he comforted her. They felt a bump and then a second to find they were not alone, both babies had come over to them and pressed themselves against the two humans.

  Sky sniffed “Awww, group hug.” and put her arms around the two baby dinosaurs as she looked at Dar and smiled “Sometimes I wish you liked girls Dar. I know you’re a year older than I, but at one time I had such a crush on you.”

  “I know you did, but by then I already knew the path I was taking…” he chuckled “and then you overheard me telling your brother I had a crush on him. I was devastated that you over heard.”

  Sky smiled and kissed Dar on the cheek “By then I had already guessed it sweetie.” she laughed louder than she had intended “About that time at Becky’s party when the three of us were in the kitchen and her tits fell out of her blouse. She asked you to help her put them back and you told her you weren’t interested.” Sky roared with laughter “Jesus was she pissed and stormed off.”

  They both laughed as Dar patted the babies “Even if I wasn’t gay, I wouldn’t have touched them with Tom’s hands Sky…Jesus, can you imagine all the hands that have been on those?” the sadness was over and chuckles abounded as the small party of humans and rexes headed toward the swamp. Once again, good old Dar had saved the day with old memories. Now all Sky had to do was figure out how they were going to get across that damned winding river. She knew she and Dar could swim, but what about the babies? Sky had decided that she would not leave them behind…no matter what.

  It was nearly noon as they reached the river and she realized that it was wide but not too deep. Under the water she could see long tendrils of river weed that many marsh creatures loved, that meant that there would be predators around to feed on the plant-eaters. Sky didn’t want to be there when they came around.

  “Ok Dar follow me into the river, let’s show these little guys how to wade.” She stepped into the water and waded out into the crotch deep water, got her feet tangled in the riverweed and took a header into the clear waters.

  Before Dar could laugh or run to help, both baby rexes leapt from the bank, into the water and rushed to Sky. Both snapped at the riverweed as Sky struggled to her feet and told the babies that she was fine. Seeing her upright and smiling both turned their heads to the far bank and within seconds of looking there, off they went at a good sprint. Even when they hit the water that was shoulder deep on them, they moved with amazingly good speed.

  Dar waded out to her and laughed “Jesus, who’s baby-sitting who? Did you see those things go after the weed when they though it was attacking you?”

  “I know…unlike other dinosaurs, these babies don’t appear to have that natural fear of water.” She muttered as they grasped each other’s hands and waded through the thick riverweed. There was a moderately high dirt bank on the other side which the babies had little problem with as their claws dug in…the humans on the other hand were glad that nothing was chasing them as it took them minutes to climb a five foot, sloped river bank covered in mud.

  At the top both flopped over on their backs and took a breather. Sky and Dar looked at each other and were trying to promise each other to do better with their judgment calling, when something slimy and wet hit Dar in the chest. Whatever it was he didn’t wait to see, with a muffled shout he rolled sideways and all the way over Sky. She sat up sputtering out mild expletives until she saw what Dar w
as rolling from…and roared with laughter.

  There on the ground beside him was a small leo. She looked up to see Lady with a leo in her mouth who quickly opened her mouth and dropped the chicken sized leo at her feet. She looked over to Dar and laughed “Why honey look, the kids brought dinner.”

  “So that’s why they took off like that? Christ, they much have terrific hearing…or smell?”

  Sky picked up her ‘chicken’ and smiled “Probably both.” she looked at the rexes “We’re not hungry yet?” and tossed it back. Lady picked it back up in her mouth and handed it back to Sky to Dar’s mirth.

  “Looks adamant to me boss.”

  Sky smiled and looked around at the swamp’s fringe and spotted a huge tree similar to a mango on Earth. The multi-forked roots were larger than a regular tree and even from nearly a mile away, the three hundred foot tall tree looked immense. She hoped that they were like the ones by the river near their wheel. Over a dozen and a half humans had hidden in them from a version of a raptor that was in between a rex and a velociraptor. It dug, ripped, clawed at them and never broke one root. The roots withstood the attacks until the armed rescue party from the wheel came. If this tree had roots like that, they had a ‘hide’ for the night.

  Upon reaching the trees, Sky had been right, the tree itself was a good two hundred feet high and the root system was so dense that the babies barely squeezed through the roots that were a good five feet in diameter. It was a tight squeeze until they got to the center of the root mass and hacked out some elbow room among the much smaller roots.

  Dar started a fire once the area was cleared and after a few exploratory singes, the babies learned fire was hot, yet they didn’t fear it. Sky assumed it was more that they had created this fire thing and if their adopted parents did it, then it was ok, so they sat and watched.