Terra

by Robert Turnbull

  Luke was a well-respected member of the wheel, and leader of the security watch, but he’d have to get permission for that.

  “I’ll check, we do have an empty paddock where we used to keep some of the plant eaters around back. There’s a tall, and well-built gate that takes about ten men to push open and close, but we haven’t used it in years.”

  Clark grinned “and high walls so everyone will feel safe…and a rex ran full steam at it once and didn’t budge it.”

  Luke laughed “Until he got a whiff of the flowers and vines, haven’t seen it since.” He smiled at Sky “They’ll be safe in there.”

  As it turned out, the reluctant leaders of the wheel agreed and Sky motioned for the rexes to go to the rear of the wheel where she met them. Men were trying to push open the rarely used gate that stood a good twenty feet high, but retreated when the rexes came into view. Dar motioned for them to push and the gate swung open with ease.

  She then told them to go ‘hunt’ and an hour later came back carrying a couple of large stegosaurus rear legs. They carefully walked over to the paddock wall that was made from the lower spokes from the wheel and laid the meat on the platform.

  The gate swung both ways, so following more hand signals Dash pushed the gate closed and they seemed to look around for somewhere to lay for the night.

  Dar looked at Luke and many others that had come to watch, retreat when the beasts laid the meat on the platform, and now were getting braver as the rexes found a spot where they could ‘bed down’ as Dar called it and they curled up for the night by squatting until their chests were firmly on the ground while their bodies leaned against the wheel spoke.

  “That’s how they sleep.” Dar spouted, showing off a bit for the crowd that had gathered “They can lay if they wanted to, but Sky and I think that once they grow to full height that’s how they will have to sleep…or maybe be crushed by the weight if they laid too long.”

  “They can lay on their sides, even roll in the mud to keep their bodies cool, but…yeah, we think the adults would die if they laid on their sides for too long.”

  The settlement was overjoyed for the meat and a fine dinner was provided with fruits and vegetables to go along with ‘steg-steaks’. Much talk, some drinking of fermented fruit wine, and questions flew in all directions…

  There was a loud bellow as night fell and the pilots knew instantly it was their kids. Sky and Dar dashed to the paddock and were greeted by the youngsters. Their heads laid sadly on the crushed platforms and as the pilots walked over to them loud rumbles could be heard as Sky grinned at Luke.

  “They’ve never been alone at night since the day they were born.” Dar slid over the edge and climbed to the ground as Dash followed him over to a spot the kids had picked out. He climbed up into a hole in the unused side of one of the spokes that had been moved to form the paddock. Dar carefully piled up some dry moss and other things to form a bed and as he did so, Dash settled down near the hole.

  “G’night’” Sky smiled at Luke “it’s been a long day and I guess that we’re all tired.” With that she motioned to the hole, slid over onto Lady’s head and was carried over to the hole where she stepped off and joined her friend on the bed of soft moss.

  Clark looked at his brother and chuckled “Well…guess today we can say, we’ve seen pretty much everything now.”

  Chapter 9.

  Morning came around and finally awake, the two pilots climbed to the edge of the hole and looked down at the propped up kids. A whistle and a signal or two and they got up and walked over to the gate.

  Sky shouted at the men standing atop the wheel near the gate to unlock it and with a pull of a tall lever, the steel bolds slid out of the logs and the kids pushed the gate open so they were free to go find breakfast.

  Dar broke out in boisterous laughter as he looked down through the open wall and pointed down and to the right of where the kids had slept…to a huge pile of rex dung.

  “Sniff!”

  “I don’t…wait…” she looked astonished “flowers?”

  Dar laughed “Guess those flowers and vines worked their way through their systems.” he laughed again “First time I haven’t felt like gagging.” They laughed as there was a banging on the door behind them.

  Sky smiled “It appears that the kids have metabolized them.

  It was Luke coming to get them “Saw you two let your kids out, so came to get you for breakfast.”

  Sky yawned and rubbed her face as she looked at her watch “Crap! We slept so late…why didn’t someone wake us?”

  “And piss off your dinos? No frigging way.” Clark said as he caught up to his brother and burst into the room.

  The four were led into a large communal eating area similar to the large mess halls in Wheel 7. By the layout, and even after nearly four centuries of disrepair, they could tell the wheels had been closely laid out in design.

  Over breakfast they were told of most of the day to day life of Wheel 3 which peaked Dar’s curiosity.

  “That reminds me Luke, you mentioned a river a few minutes ago, is it a large one? I mean large enough for us to go east on and maybe hit the main river?”

  “Main river?” Luke replied “Didn’t know there was another.” he paused and looked at his brother curiously “Clark…maybe that expedition our father sent out when we were babies…”

  Clark picked up Luke’s thought and with a slight grin, added “…might not have been lost. My God, if there is a larger river maybe they got swept downstream and off toward that ocean that is supposed to be a few hundred miles south of us.”

  “Ocean?” Sky asked “Have read about them in school. Back on Earth they were supposed to be vast and heard they existed on this world, but…”

  “Oh it exists ok,” Luke chuckled “just that between the south bank of the river and that ocean is Scalie-land.”

  Dar frowned “Scale what?”

  “Sorry, Dar the area south of the river are the lands of a kind of humanoid creature that our scientists…back when we actually had scientists, surmised had evolved from the dinosaurs.”

  Clark nodded in agreement “You see, Terra never had a life ending meteor impacts like Earth did. Just as evolution continued on Earth, so did it here.”

  Luke nodded “But without one species being wiped out and another given a chance to take over. Those ‘scalies’ as we nick-named them, are real nasty critters guys. At one time they had parts of this area too, but after the crash, it scared them back across the river many miles south of here. We found some of their settlements or at least what was left of them after they fled. Seems like they were about the stage of building stick mud huts.”

  “Yeah,” Clark nodded “and they have webbed hands that are damned good at chuckin’ spears.”

  “My brother’s right guys. About four wars with them are what our history shows, two really big ones, two skirmishes. The bad ones they hit us and climbed the vines to nearly get inside, but we had guns and explosives, grenades, and the like. About fifty years later they hit us again, or at least the stockade we had built in and among the huge trees to the south, that the rexes couldn’t push over. It was quite a community from what I read, but somehow the scalies got inside.”

  Clark frowned “Bastards don’t just chuck spears either. Our ancestors said they dip the spears in their own excrement and humans get major infections from it. Damned things have big fuc…er, frikin’ jaws and razor like teeth. Some of our people had been eaten, or at least partially. Some we read had just been bitten severely enough to cause them to bleed to death.”

  Luke’s mother walked over and sat down. She had been listening from the next table over.

  “The worst part, about a third of the settlers were missing. Our soldiers at the time tracked the many webbed feet back to the river…and there were human tracks mixed in among them.”

  “They took hostages? Dar gasped.

  “No dear,” Ruth said “they took dinner.”

  Sky and her f
riend gasped as Sky slowly spoke “I…I…I’m sorry…to…”

  Ruth chuckled and gently patted her hand “It’s ok dear that was a long time ago. From what our men brought back it was obvious as the scalies had teeth much like a rex, but much smaller, that they mostly are leather-like with leathery scales that overlap. We guessed that a bullet would have to hit them head on or it would glance off, maybe sting, but not harm. Probably why no one ever went back to try to reinforce the fort.”

  Luke pointed southeast and swung his arm all the way to the southwest “You saw the tree line to the south? The one that can be seen from the south walls of the paddock?” the pilots nodded “Well that starts the jungle where the fort was built. It, it being the fort, is about three miles in from the fringe. At one time our fathers and their fathers before them used to hunt in those trees, but since the last major attack and two smaller ones where we drove them back to the river, no one goes there anymore. Well, that jungle about seven miles deep starting at the fringe and south to where earlier settlers said there was a small river and only God knows how far east and west it goes, has become sort of a no go zone for both sides.”

  Ruth smiled “They might have an ambush waiting for us somewhere in there, maybe they figure the same, who knows. We haven’t seen any of them from here, and believe me we do have lookouts scattered all throughout the prairies around our wheel.”

  Sky nodded “We spotted your lookouts from the jungle north of here, we thought there were some kinds of nests built in the trees.” she smiled “They were too far off for us to see clearly, besides we were focused on your wheel at the time knowing our rexes would protect us.”

  “Oh Lordy, so that explains where you got those beasts of yours. All that area north is Rex Country and swamps. They come out of the jungles and forests to hunt our prairies when the food is scarce in their haven.” Ruth sighed softly “That’s why the platforms, long wooden spikes, you know, rex-protection. Damn things are smart too, some of them anyhow. They actually learned to pull the spikes down once they figured out how to push them to one side and bite them so they weren’t stuck by the point.”

  Clark laughed “And that’s why nearly three hundred years ago we started growing vines and training them to grow all over the outsides and the tops of the wheel. Of course the huge mesh of vines help hold them in place as well as our platforms.”

  Sky was sitting there so quiet and seemed lost that she got a gentle reminder that she was sitting at a table where people were trying to talk to her.

  “Oh, sorry…” she sighed and smiled “didn’t mean to be rude, but I was wondering perhaps if we could get south to that river…with the kid’s help.” she smiled so pretty that Luke wished that he was about ten years younger.

  “We might be able to get to the river and head east. Once we make the main river which I guess to be about one fifty, maybe two hundred miles east, we can start the trek home.” she sighed as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders “We know the river that flows past our wheel, runs due south and then makes a slow bend westward. I’ve seen old drone photos when we tried to decide which way to start searching for other wheels…”

  “…and before the last of our skimmers could no longer be repaired.”

  Sky gave a snort “And we did so well with that part of the plan didn’t we Dar?”

  “Well we did find a wheel, now didn’t we boss?”

  “Stumbled into it more or less, but I guess you are right Dar.” She looked at Ruth “So if we find the river we can go to the main river, assuming that this is the river that goes to the main river.”

  Ruth leaned toward Dar who sat across the table from her.

  “Honey? Is your friend completely nuts?” Ruth winked at Sky and smiled as Sky grinned back.

  “No ma’am, just homesick. You see we ride the kids on saddles we’ve made from Spanish moss and other vines and some hides that we tanned. Once we taught them not to fear water that is too deep for them to normally go…” Sky chuckled “or maybe they taught us.”

  Dar laughed “Like the regular size rexes do not like going any deeper than their knees. Sky got the kids used to wading into water that’s neck deep and it sure as hell has saved us, well them, a few fights with other rex packs. In the swamp we had them wade out when we were attacked by a pack of rexes and no doubt our kids could have taken them, the water made them believers as we waded across the swamp and the rexes were left standing there screamin’ their fool heads off…we didn’t want the kids to risk getting hurt.”

  Sky nodded “Soooo, I was thinking that with the kids, maybe, just maybe we could scare off these scalies assuming that they are in the jungle buffer zone. Either way, if we can get to the river, maybe then we can get to the main river and eventually home.”

  “Honey,” Ruth gently smiled “You’re but nineteen Clark said, much too young…”

  Luke reached over and laid his hand on his mom’s “Mom, remember Sky and Dar have just come from several hundred miles north of us, found and are raising two giant rexes, and have trained them. Not to mention managed to befriend us and teach us about smarter dinosaurs. I think that this nineteen year old…”

  “Twenty!” Sky muttered barely audible “Twenty, today is my birthday…I think.”

  About then a good twenty people that were seated at the long community tables on either side of them shouted “HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKY!” which made her blush as she shoved her hand into the air and waved thank-you.

  Clark laughed “Sounds like we’ve been holding an interesting conversation.”

  Luke was just sitting there looking strangely to which his mother snorted.

  “Oh Lord Luke…you are, aren’t you?” she nodded toward Clark “But not him!”

  Sky and Dar looked at Ruth almost comically; they were lost but Ruth slowly turned and sighed as she looked at the younger pilots.

  “Luke was thinking that if you two go, he’s going as well. My other idiot sitting next to him is also thinking about going…HE IS NOT GOING!” Ruth looked at her youngest son.

  “I’m sixteen mom. I go on hunting parties with Luke.”

  “You go because Luke is there, or I wouldn’t let you!” she reminded him sternly.

  “Well…” he puffed out his chest “Luke ‘IS’ going to be there…and we need to establish contact with Sky’s Wheel 7.”

  His mom sighed “You’re right, you can go.”

  “…and if we can establish trade…wait…did you say ok?” Clark muttered as if he figured out whether or not his mom was joking.

  “No, you’re right Clark, Luke is right, we do need to figure a way for these two to get home. A way to talk to those in Wheel 7.” she smiled at her boys “Luke is one of the best hunters and trackers we have…” she looked at Sky and Dar “Clark here sometimes is the smarter of the two.”

  “Thanks mom.” Luke snorted with a grin.

  Ruth looked at her boys and then the pilots “You two need a week or so to rest up, get some good sleep, we’ll make up some drags for you to pull your supplies behind you and…”

  “Excuse me, Mrs. Turner? Uh, I, uh, we appreciate the offers, but drag…if it is what I think that you mean, uh, well…we have two mega-rexes. Please trust me when I say that they can pretty much carry whatever you give us.” Sky smiled sweetly.

  Dar added “But with the help of your people, perhaps we could create better saddles and ways to quickly load and unload the packs for the kids. You know, in case we are attacked, the kids have to be able to defend themselves and us quickly, without burdening them.”

  “They protect you too?” Ruth asked in a stunned tone.

  “That they do ma’am…that they do.” Dar chuckled.

  Chapter 10.

  The ‘few’ days, turned into nearly three months and the kids were sprouting like weeds. With plains full of plant-eaters and open waterholes that were spring fed, they grew…and grew…and more time passed.

  Approaching the kids first birthday, even Sky and Dar were
amazed at the size to which they had grown. According to one dinosaur specialist that had been studying prehistoric creatures since he was a young lad, he suggested that they’d still grow for as many as four or five more years, but nothing like they had been growing.

  Now standing a good ten feet higher than any t-rex they had ever seen, Sky figured it was time to take a few quick trips out toward the southern jungle and see what got stirred up…or out.

  During the months they had delayed their trip, the four humans had become close. Planning, preparing, and now the first leg of the planned trip…the old stockade where the massacre had occurred. Luke figured that if they were to reach the river that they should make sure there was nothing lying in wait in the southern stretch of heavily forested lands between them and the river they sought.

  Old logging wagons had been outfitted with harnesses and the mega-rexes taught to tow the wagons at a much slower pace than they were used to. Now sided with wood to stop a spear, and spiked well enough to protect the riders within should the rexes be cut loose to fight, or flee; the latter no one figured would ever happen. Sky and Luke prayed that they were really ready for what lay beyond the fringe to the south.

  The day was like every other Terran day, hot and nearing three digits, high humidity and a beautiful deep blue sky. Luke and Clark who were both great craftsmen, sat in the new covered saddles to protect the riders from the sun. Along with their new friends were large wagons filled with armed men and women bent upon retaking their old fort that had fallen so long ago. The big problem was the fact that due to the mega’s long tail, the wagon had to be towed far behind the rexes to avoid the occasional tail twitch. This left the wagons on a very long braided vine that was more that strong enough to pull the heavily laden wagons. However without a tongue the wagons were susceptible to being pulled or deflected off in a different direction. This had led to a fairly well designed steering system at the front of each wagon…the problem was Lady and Dash had to move at an uncomfortably slow pace, young mega-rexes did not like to stroll.