Terra

by Robert Turnbull

  With a scream such as they had never heard, Sky and her mounts crashed into the huts made of sticks and mud…the scalies never had a chance as several at a time collapsed under the crushing feet of the beasts that attacked them so brutally.

  Scalies fled in all directions and every time the rexes would go after them crushing them into the hard Terran soil. Now and then if the wind was right the scouts could hear the sounds of screams followed by snaps and cracking bones.

  Over and over, back and forth she rode until there was no movement to be seen, then she reined in her mount and the other followed.

  In the brush there were sounds of a reptilian moan and with a snap of the reigns Sky had Lady stomping the brush until only a deadly silence could be heard…not a dinosaur anywhere else in the jungle was making a sound, not close, not in the distant, they knew the sounds of death.

  “Jesus…I almost feel bad for the scalies…” one muttered as neither took their eyes off the far side of the river “I said almost.” He barely spoke loud enough to be heard, they were in shock from the horror they had just witnessed.

  “Yeah,” said the other “remind me to always smile when I see her…I do not want to piss her off.” As the scouts watched Sky slowly made several passes of the village and the surrounding jungle. Slowly she moved the kids to the center of the village, stood in the saddle and spit. She wiped tears from her cheeks with her arm and slowly sat. With head lowered, she reined Lady toward the northern shore and with Dash bringing up the rear, they waded into the river. It was as if the dinosaurs that were with her knew why they had done what they had done, and it was obvious to the scouts that Sky was filled with remorse and revulsion for her act of vengeance…yet never regretted it one bit.

  Upon reaching the other side she stopped and leaned over the saddle and looked down to the lofty camouflaged perch the scouts had been on.

  “Go home guys…the danger is over.” With a tear in her eye, she spurred Lady on toward the north, and her new home, with the still snarling Dash close behind.

  Chapter 14.

  For those at Wheel 7 time passed quickly, all save Sky’s dad, and her brother Tom. Ten years had now passed as Tom spoke in carefully chosen words to his father. Like himself, he knew more than anything that his father needed to know what happened to his daughter. Day after day, year after year Tom could see that his dad blamed himself for sending Sky, even though she was the wheel’s best pilot. Tom also blamed himself for fear that Dar had thought that he was sent along because he had confessed his feelings to the junior commander Tom. However the fact was that Tom wanted Dar along because he was level headed and would watch over Sky like he would his own sister.

  The years had worn on his dad and now retired, he spent his days on the southern-most watch platform hoping to see Sky and Dar appear along the river…but they never came. Tom walked up to his dad on his everlasting vigil and slowly spoke.

  “I’m sorry dad, I know your health is failing you.” Tom shifted his weight uncomfortably “I know you want to know for certain what happened to Sky and Dar. I also know that you’ve said time and time again, not to go, but…” he was using too many ‘I knows’ and stumbling over his words. “Christ, dad, I mean to say that…”

  His father raised his hand and motioned him to quiet down “Son, I know that you’re as hopeful as I.” his dad took a deep breath and sighed “My health is too poor to be going out after your sister, I had hoped to try and find her once I retired and you took over. However I know that you’ve been secretly planning to go look for her after I’ve passed. I also know that you turned down the chance to be the Commander so you could do so.”

  “Dad, I…”

  Again a wave of his dad’s hand quieted him “Tom…” another deep sigh “you have my blessing to go now. I know you and Harry have been sending out drones every few months, and that they only have a range of a few hundred miles.” He slowly turned away from the river to look at Tom “If Sky took the route that you figured that she would…” he pointed toward the wide river off in the distance where the ground leveled out “she’d be coming from that way.”

  Half relieved, half worried what he might find, Tom nodded slowly “That’s the way I’ll go, along the river until I find the branch the last drone showed. It’s about six hundred miles, but I’ve modified one of the land cruisers with super solar cells on the roof, hood, and rear. I’ve doubled up on the electro-shaft motors so when one motor has to stop working to charge up, I can use the other to run the LC…” he chuckled “I named it ‘Dog’…I just pray that we can use them all the way down the river.” he sighed “But to be honest, I sincerely doubt it, it did look kind of rugged in places.”

  His dad gave him a strange look and then smiled “I’ll be damned! Tom, you put that friggin’ old computer in it didn’t you?”

  Tom chuckled “Yeah…I did, dad. Sure, it’s not very smart, but it can follow the simplest of commands, and the nav system is as good as any of the old flier navs. I figure that it can navigate along the shore line and awaken me if any life forms are headed my way. It can switch itself over to the secondary motor if power gets low, and…with Harry along and the other LC…”

  “Ok, ok.” Tom’s dad smiled “I know that you’re more than capable, just like I know that Sky’s still alive out there somewhere. Son, go find her and bring her home.”

  Tom nodded and turned to leave, but his dad gently touched his shoulder.

  “Son, if it gets too hairy out there…you come home, abort the mission…forget about getting Sky. She and Dar will just have to find their way home by themselves.”

  “Ok dad.” Tom replied as both knew without saying so, Tom wouldn’t come back without their lost pilots…or their remains.

  Tom hurried down the stairs and into the south garage area as his dad looked down upon the open ground of the inner circle of the wheel.

  A mile in diameter the grounds had been plowed and crops grew in every available space, there was plenty for all.

  They also grew crops outside of the safety of the wheel as tall lookout posts built into the giant trees they didn’t remove for their crops, gave the workers ample warning of any approaching danger. The fields ran to the edges of the distant fringes of the jungle to the south nearly six miles away.

  To the west as far as he could see also had been farmed and planted with wheat and corn, which as it turned out the plant eaters had a rabid distaste for; this kept the ‘munchers’ away. With no munchers around it was only an occasional stray meat-eater that wandered into the crop areas. Needless to say it was only the inner areas that were farmed and the wheat and corn on the outer perimeter was simply left to grow and reseed itself year after year as one more layer of safety.

  Tom’s dad also knew that Tom had been slowly stocking up his LC, or Dog as he now called it with long lasting supplies; packed to last for at least a year. If he and Harry also lived off the land as much as possible there would be plenty. His dad, Jim, sighed as he looked back to the south as the sliding steel door slid open, his last child would soon be leaving and he feared that he would die childless. Jim knew what his son had been planning for quite a while, he wasn’t the commander for nothing, as he knew everything that was going on in his wheel. Remaining silent while his heart remained torn between good sense, and needing to know his lovely daughter’s status. Like all fathers, he feared the worst, and prayed for the best.

  Below Tom pushed through all the well-wishers to see Harry sitting in the passenger’s seat, smiling. “Uh, no way pal, you…” Tom had not told Harry that he had decided against letting him join with him. Not telling him kept his friend busy helping him, and Tom reassured that Harry would remain safe.

  “You need me Tom, and you know it.” he pointed to the roof “Last night I welded on some light weight supports and stowed the extra gear under the solar panels, we can leave the backup LC here…like I have a hunch you had already planned. Hell buddy, I ran the math and we’ll just have to do a bit more
hunting…plus if something breaks, you’ll need an extra set of hands and…”

  “You’re right Harry, you can go.” Tom sighed in resignation.

  “If there is any extra lifting I can do it, or if we need to hunt in shifts I…” a slow grin appeared as Harry rubbed the back of his neck “ohhh, thought you’d put up a much bigger fight old pal.”

  “Naw, was hoping you’d press volunteering to come, but because of the chances of returning are slim to none, I wanted you to force me.” he laughed softly as he laid his hand on Harry’s shoulder “I know how fuckin’ stupid you are and figured that you’d want to come…but I would have never asked you to stick your neck out.”

  “I know Tom, I know.” he smiled back “It’s also why over twenty people have wandered up and asked to volunteer as well,” he looked around the small crowd “all of them here today.”

  Tom climbed into the driver’s seat and waved “My thanks to all of you for asking, but as you can see, we’re a tad overloaded as it is now.”

  Harry was not a small man, but Hans, who was much larger in every dimension stepped forward and shook Tom’s hand. He nodded toward Harry who was buckling in.

  “That jerk pulled rank on us, but we have a little surprise for both you.” Hans began to walk toward the huge garage door and out into the searing sun as they followed in Dog.

  Hans sat on the large front push-bar and pointed toward the river that was a half mile away and had the short road protected by miles of wheat. As Dog neared the highest point in the trip to the river, Hans jumped off, stood on the rise that looked down to the wide life-giving river and pointed to a large object floating next to the dock.

  “We can’t all go, but we can damned well escort ya half of the way. We can put Dog on now, but may not be able to get it off later on…but using the barge is still better than driving.”

  Tom and Harry looked stunned as another crewwoman walked along side.

  “We can’t ride, so all of us built that ferry out of…”

  “Let me guess,” Tom grinned “all those old spent fuel tanks from the old command module.”

  “Had to fix them up a bit,” Hans added “But they’ll float well enough to hold your ‘Dog’ and those of us that are going…” he looked a bit frustrated “but we can only take you about half way to the tributary that you’re after. After that getting’ back could be a problem. Gina over there figured out how to get back through this swifter part of the river as if flows by the docks.”

  Gina nodded “Hans figured the power and even with the solar rechargers, it’s going to be a stretch, but by leaving most of the people behind, four of us can use the motor...mostly, until we run out of juice.”

  Harry laughed “But there is a backup plan.”

  “But we can pole the rest of the way back,” Hans added “up here the river near shore is shallow enough and…”

  “What if it rains and the river gets high?” Tom asked with a questioning glare “you can’t pole then, did anyone think of that?”

  Through the crowd the new wheel’s commander stepped up to the four wheel drive LC.

  “You’ll run out about three miles of spider cable Tom. Drive a long stake into the riverbed and tie a floating buoy on the cable.”

  “Spider cable? Jesus, that shit is a rare commodity Commander, and who’s fuckin’ great idea was that?” he began looking around “Harry? Gina? Hansssss…” his gaze fell upon their commanders “oh…sorry sir!”

  The commander grinned “Gina came up with the idea, but no way to implement it. I knew we’d been working on creating some as extra perimeter security. That stuff is thin as string and strong as heavy Bucky-ball cable.

  “Exactly why it shouldn’t be…”

  The commander waved his hand “Just take it and anchor it like I said when it plays out; it’s already attached to the barge…I saw to that.” he looked at the cobbled junk parts and chuckled “or whatever the hell you all are calling THAT thing.” he nodded toward the road “Now get…and come back alive, that’s an order.”

  Tom gave him a little salute and he headed back to the wheel with his escort; no one left the wheel without an escort, even with all the wheat around, raptors still occasionally wandered in. Soon everyone that wasn’t going left and the rest headed down to the raft. Carefully moving along the make-shift ramps Tom managed to get Dog on the barge without driving it into the river. The creaky old ramps didn’t break, which faired that the mission was going well. He chuckled as the mid-sized barge was pushed away from the dock and out into the open river.

  “Well, so far, so good. Now assuming nothing really big with teeth doesn’t swim up to us and take a sample.”

  Hans grinned “It’s built to take it, don’t look like much boss, but…”

  “I’m not your boss any longer Hans.”

  Gina smiled “You’ll always be our boss…boss. Now as Hans was saying we built those spikes to be lowered to the sides or lower if they have to be. Besides, there hasn’t been a sharpie seen in the waters in decades.”

  Everyone grinned satisfied with the sturdiness of their transportation…until Tom added, “And what about down river where we’re headed? You do know the river gets wider and deeper…right?”

  The confident smiles vanished as they slowly moved along the lazy river.

  “As I said the mission is going well…so far.”

  Chapter 15.

  Just a little past noon the barge dropped anchor as the nearly three mile long spider-line had played out. The pole was driven into the river’s muddy bottom and the line attached to a buoy. The buoy was then attached to the pole with a ring so it could rise and fall with the river’s surface. It wasn’t quite the three miles the commander had figured, but it was close enough…and just short of where the river began to widen.

  As they had come down the three miles, they had seen twice that small hidden streams flowed out from under the jungle vegetation on the far side to feed the clear waters of the main channel.

  As they slowly followed the western shore line as close as they dared, it did two things. First; it gave them a quick out should anything large enough to swim up to them suddenly appear. Secondly; anything big enough to hurt them would have to come from one of only two ways, up river form the unknown waters downstream or across shallower water from the western shore, and they had an out either way as long as it didn’t come from both ways at once.

  Everyone that wasn’t actually involved with the running of the motorized barge stood on the dock next to the spiked pole sides with ever searching eyes. The one hope they had in any emergency was that spider line which also could be used to carry communications, as they already were too far away for the smaller radios that they carried, could call for help. The one larger radio in the barge was limited to about seven miles, ten on the river…and Hans and Gina knew they were going far beyond that…they just hadn’t told Tom and Harry that part of their plan.

  Now disconnected and free from the tether, they floated down the moderately deep river that this time of year, was lazily meandering along. The speed was slower than Tom had hoped for, but on the other hand he hoped that the rains wouldn’t fall in the mountains far to the north of the wheel and they hadn’t. If the river raged, they would have to go to shore and wait it out, waiting it out meant a better chance to be attacked by any number of meat-eating dinosaurs that roamed either shore. The one thing they had in their favor was the fact that the river was too deep for the deadly velociraptors that prowled the shores in this area, or any of the various larger species of raptors except the huge rex and allosaurus-like beasts. The beasts stayed away from going into water higher than their ankles out of their primal fear of drowning or getting stuck in the occasional sticky ooze that plagued many of the rivers and streams on Terra, so once in the river’s murkier waters where they couldn’t see the bottom, the land based giants wound not venture.

  With the afternoon sun slowly slipping behind the trees in the west, Tom began to look for a pl
ace to shelter for the night. Anchoring on the river was always an option, but occasionally one or more of the behemoths decided to swim up river, if so, in the night they’d be without hope as they carried nothing large enough to bring down one of the giant sea and river creatures. So he looked for shelter in the form of boulders…big ones to protect them as well as the barge.

  As the sun slipped half way behind the trees Gina shouted and waved toward the western bank to a large outcropping of some sort. From where they were upstream from it, it was huge. At least seventy feet high, rocky fascia, and trees that grew hundreds of feet high covered the top and back as far as they could see. As Hans swung the barge toward the west bank Harry peered through his binoculars and shouted an alert that he had found something.

  Tom rushed over to look and sure enough there was a large split in the face of the cliff just large enough for humans but nothing much larger. Better yet, as they rounded a slight bend in the river with high banks, they saw many of the boulders had fallen to form not just a fairly safe cove in which to anchor their barge, but a nicely slopped landing and scattered boulders throughout the water to keep large beasts away from investigating their curious ride.

  “We can anchor three points to those boulders guys.” Hans shouted as he grasped one of the anchor ropes while Gina deftly steered the barge among the larger stone giants. Finally reaching several well placed boulders the guys jumped out and wrapped the ropes around the stone moors, and then swam back.

  Tom told them to grab enough provisions for the night and they all clambered into the tiny four man inflatable that they towed behind them and headed toward the narrow shore and the cliff face about twenty yards beyond.

  “Now as long as there isn’t something in that crack that’ll eat our faces off,” Harry chuckled “maybe we can get at least our first night of sleeping done without dying.”