Sky smiled and looked to where her husband was pointing to see a much smaller object heading northward and as she was about to speak a second object headed southwesterly.
“Holy crap guys…the comet is coming apart…but…no, not like that!”
One of the men looked pigheadedly at Sky “So you’re telling us that this comet or meteor or whatever it is, can break pieces off and send them in different angles from the direction it’s moving?”
“No Derrick I’m not.” Sky frowned “Until now I thought it was a meteor or comet…”
Luke grinned nervously “Uh-oh, here comes another but.”
Sky gave him a weak smile “BUT…those are controlled movements, just too high to see where they are going because of the trees.” And as soon as she said that both objects vanished behind the trees on the cliffs behind them.
For almost another week the object in the sky moved overhead and at almost the exact time every night. Everyone stopped wondering, at least aloud, as there was no more breaking apart that they could see.
On the morning of the tenth day since they had spotted the object, it could be seen glinting in the sky north of them in the morning sunlight. It quickly vanished north of them due to the bend in the river and the increasingly higher terrain.
Sky had been getting antsy as this land they were in sure looked more and more like that of her home; of the lands that she and Dar had flown over, before heading due west to find another wheel. She sighed deeply atop the back of Lady, loud enough to draw her love’s attention.
“What’s bothering ya honey?” Luke patted her arm and smiled softly.
“Oh, just remembering back when Dar and I started out. The commander of the security force said he thought if another wheel landed, it would be to the south or west, but what few rumors of distant terrains he had back when we had fliers,” Sky sighed again “showed land suitable for landing. He left it up to us which direction we went as we only had fuel to go one way to our maximum limit.”
“You were on a suicide mission?”
“Oh, no baby, no. We were to go as far as we could on three-quarters of our fuel, shoot straight up so our base could get a fix on us, and then head straight back along that line. The plan was to glide from altitude and using our last fuel, find a place to set down and wait for the rescue party to come get us and bring more fuel.”
“Of course it didn’t go as planned from what you told me.” Luke put his arm around her and smiled.
“I shouldn’t have listened to Dar. We were headed south and if we would have hit the river near you, we would have skimmed along it for a while, and then headed back…” she grinned “alternate plan. But of course we would have seen your wheel from our height. But Dar kept nagging me that west had to be flatter lands, less jungle and no one would land south of our wheel because of the rugged terrain.”
Luke snorted “That wasn’t our plan from what the records show. Guess it went south once our damaged wheel hit the atmosphere. We did a few slow rolls before they got it under control, but by then it became a matter of crash landing in the first open spot that didn’t have trees.”
“Where we are now.” Derrick shouted from atop Dash and Luke nodded.
Sky shrugged “If I wouldn’t have given in, Dar might still be alive. Sure, I know we both would have wound up at the wheel either way…but we would have still had our skimmers. We would have had enough fuel to return to our wheel and brought help.”
“Help?” the other man with Derrick shouted “We are doing fine…sort of.”
Luke laughed “Only if you forget about having nice hot showers and some kind of variety of food each night. Hell Brad, you’ve heard Sky’s stories of her wheel.”
“Ok guys, enough chat. It’s a little after noon by the sun, time to dismount and let the kids and the raptors go hunt while we eat.” She pointed toward a wide part of the river with a lot of large boulders for shelter…” she pointed to the cliffs and what appeared to be a steep rocky path to a ledge of some kind.
With stomachs rumbling they set the dinosaurs loose to hunt, but kept the saddles on the two-leggers for a quick get-away if needed. Sky knew that if she shot one of her old flares into the air, the kids would come running, along with the six raptors; enough to scare mostly anything away.
Knowing that the kids would be gone for a while due to the terrain and backtracking to go up to the jungle, the small party settled in for a late afternoon meal as the Darasaur grazed on the reeds and grasses to the south.
Luke pulled his fishing pole out of his pack and sat on a large boulder after baiting his hook with a small part of the yard long centipede that he’d killed.
Sky no sooner sat next to him when a shot rang out and both leapt to their feet and looked back to camp…and their friends were looking back toward them from the cliffs.
“If they didn’t shoot…” Luke sputtered as he looked at Sky, grasped her arm and hurried toward the part of the cliffs that had crumpled. Perfect for cover, Sky saw their two friends scampering for the pile of granite boulders as well. Within seconds upon reaching the boulder fortress they pulled their weapons in time to see four people running along the riverbank from the north.
“Humans!” Derrick shouted as he dashed out to wave them toward the safety of their stony bastion. The group of humans turned and dashed toward the boulders as a pack of velociraptors sped from around the narrower part of the riverbank.
As the humans ran, Derrick and his friend that now joined him knelt and began firing. Sky and Luke clambered up the boulders to shoot from a higher position.
The strangers sprinted by them gasping for air, but never slowing and as Derrick’s friend turned to follow the four that passed them. In his desperation he tripped and Derrick tumbled to the ground over him. Neither got to their feet before the raptors reached them, it happened so fast there were but a scant few screams. Sky’s heart sank as she looked below to see the four newcomers scampering in among the boulders below their position thirty feet above the riverbank. The rest of Sky’s party headed toward the river and the huge boulders that were partially submerged in the river. They jumped and climbed out into the water but kept their weapons aimed at the raptors darting along the boulders on the river bank, but never fired out of fear of drawing attention to themselves.
Luke motioned the newcomers to come up and shouted “Those things can jump and climb, but not this high. Use the narrow path through the rocks and help each other up to this ledge, we’ll hold them off. The crack of Sky’s rifle finally brought one down that had been hit more than a dozen times; Derrick and his friend had hit them many times before they were killed.
Another raptor met the same fate after taking nearly three more shots to its upper chest, the river crew had decided to fire…and their guns fell silent as they ran out of bullets.
The third raptor slammed into the narrow wedge of rocks and stopped as the forth slammed into it and both tumbled to the ground.
Luke had returned to the front of the ledge and joined Sky in killing the last one on the bank as the one jammed into the rocks, met its end as several shots rang out from behind them. Sky and Luke spun to see all four firing down at the last raptor below and looked for the other two that were running around below.
“I’m out,” Luke shouted “all the rest of the ammo is below in the packs.”
Sky shouted back as she watched the raptors scampering back and forth as they looked for a way up to the humans. From behind and the right she heard one of the newcomers screaming as another pulled to straighten her twisted leg. The two others ran to the sides of Sky and Luke and looked at them and their strange reptilian clothes. The large man smiled at Luke “Thanks much for the assist…and sorry about your friends. I heard shouting in English…” he gasped for air and let it out slowly “we were on a barge that slammed into some rocks, must have had some rain in the mountains.” He sat and took a deep breath “River came up so fast, our little e-motor couldn’t steer in that much current,
Christ, all our ammo, supplies…”
Sky’s eyes got huge, her mouth agape, as she stammered “Did…you say…e-motor? My God are you from Wheel 7?”
From behind her she heard someone shout “SKY?” she turned to see a handsome man helping a woman with her leg bandaged and splinted. Tears formed in her eyes, there was no mistaking his good looks and rugged smile.
“TOM!” she flew across the wide ledge and into his arms being careful not to knock the woman over.
As Gina hopped over to a rock and sat, Tom picked Sky off her feet and swung her around like a little girl…just as he had done growing up. Brother and sister now reunited, hungry raptors below, along with their supplies and ammo...and they didn’t care.
After the hugs stopped Tom looked down upon the carnivores below and sighed “Don’t think we’re in too good of a shape up here. They can’t get us, but no shade and this is hottest part of the day…Aw Sky, I wish we hadn’t found you. Christ we led them right to ya…and two of your friends died saving us.”
Sky hugged Tom again and smiled “Tom, this is my husband Luke, he’s from another wheel…Wheel 3.”
“Another wheel? Damned if dad wasn’t right about…” Tom’s face changed to a puzzled half-grin “husband?” he stammered “You did say husband? But you’re only…”
“Twenty nine, almost thirty big brother…remember?” Sky snuggled into Luke’s arms “Now how about introducing the rest of your friends…and tell me, how’s dad?”
Chapter 24.
“Dad’s ill Sky, but alive. I’m sorry but I’ve seem to have gotten us into this mess,” he pointed to the raptors below “Maybe we should…”
Gina elbowed Tom and hopped forward to shake Sky’s hand “Remember me?”
“No…yes, Gina! My God how you’ve…changed.”
Gina blushed as Tom put his arm around her and filled Sky in on their decision to see what happens between them. As the minutes passed Tom began to look around again and Sky knew why. She told him of how Dar died nearly ten years ago, how the people of Wheel 3 took them in and as she was about to tell them more, the raptors below began making strange noises. Everyone stopped and watched as the remaining raptors began to look around…and then came the familiar roar that shook their insides as it echoed throughout the wide cliff-lined ravine.
Within seconds Dash and Lady raced around the stone faced cliffs at the north end of the bank and the color of Tom and his crew’s faces turned pale.
“My God,” he sputtered “they’re twice the height that we’re at…HIDE!” he frantically searched for adequate cover and found none.
For a split second Sky was puzzled and then she realized that all this catching up, she’d never mentioned the kids. As Tom grasped Gina’s arm and tried to run toward the backside of the ledge, Sky latched onto her brother’s arm and laughed “It’s ok, they’re with us!”
Before Tom could argue and with the giant strides the kids were taking, both the giant rexes sped past the tiny humans on the ledge as Tom and the rest of his friends stood there awestruck.
The two remaining raptors hurried to the south end of the rocky canyon the river cut through and just as they reached the end six much larger raptors leapt from their hiding place and were upon the smaller attacking raptors in seconds as the two rexes pulled up to look back and made sure their friends were doing ok. With satisfied grunts the giants turned and slowly walked back followed by the six large raptors that Tom had never seen before, the attack was over just that fast and none of the smaller raptors lived.
“I’m guessing that you’re going to tell me those guys are with you as well?” Hans sputtered as Harry pushed past and gawked at the sight of two rexes and six raptors walking along side by side on the river bank.
“Now I’ve seen it all.” he muttered as he slowly began to back step as the kids got closer. Finally back pressed tightly against the cliff wall as all of Tom’s people, including Tom, realized there was no place on that ledge to hide even one person…and prayed that Sky was right.
First Lady walked up to the ledge and leaned down to sniff Sky and she patted her on the head and hugged her lower jaw as Lady cooed in vibrations so low that Tom, six feet away, could feel his insides vibrate. Dash followed suit, but afterward swung over to Luke and Luke patted him on the bridge of his nose as he repeated his greeting.
There were grunts and squawks from the large raptors and the rexes turned. Everyone looked at the bodies of the attackers and those of Luke and Sky’s two friends as the rest crawled out of the river. The raptors bend down and made sounds as if they were moaning.
Tom gathered the courage to walk up next to Sky “Are those…creatures crying?”
Sky nodded sadly “They helped train the raptors and their parents, they are mourning in their own way.”
Gina stood behind her lover and hugged him from behind as she peeked out from behind Tom and quietly asked “They feel…ummm, they are attached to humans?”
With some convincing Sky and Luke talked Tom’s crew down off the ledge as Harry acknowledged that there really wasn’t any place to hide where they were and that they would have already been eaten if the rexes had a desire to do so.
Once on the ground and in the much cooler shade of the boulders, Sky began filling Tom and his friends in on what transpired for the last decade or so, since she and Dar crashed. By the time she had finished and Tom reciprocated, it was time for dinner and even with their prehistoric escorts, they never traveled at night.
All through the night the raptors and rexes took turns prowling the ends of the camp and Tom and his people were awed at how tame they were. Sky laughed musically, the laugh that Tom had not heard in about ten years “Tame? Silly, they aren’t tame, they’re smart. I told you they have a language they all seem to use among the more evolved dinosaurs.” She nodded at the Darasaur that was come back after the raptors when and found it…and escorted it back to the camp. “Even the more evolved plant-eaters back at Wheel 3, like the Darasaur, are one of several species of omnivores that communicate the same way.”
Luke nodded “Our scientists seem to think this language has been around since before our ancestors landed on Terra.”
“Yeah, makes sense,” Tom muttered thoughtfully “Lilra and Murg mentioned…”
“Lilra and Murg?” Sky looked puzzled.
Gina laughed and laid her head on Tom’s arm “Boy do we have a story to tell you.” So for the next hour and a half Sky and Luke listened to the meeting of the two races.
“So let me get this straight…you two had sex with lizards?” Luke chuckled “So which of you two are going to lay the eggs.” Sky and he chuckled softly.
“They bear their young just like we do.” Gina quickly added “We’re genetically unable to crossbreed…” she looked at the two sitting across from the four of them and the sly grins on their faces. She leaned over to Sky and whispered for nearly a minute and then sat back next to Tom with a grin on her face as Sky’s huge eyes stared back at her.
“Oh my God, really? …Seriously?”
Gina simply grinned as Luke asked “what the hell was going on?” Tom stood, helped him up, and as they walked out of the light of the fire and into the darkness…
“Holy shit!” a short pause in the dark and… “She could do what?” another pause and then a chuckle “We are talking about the lizard lady right?”
Gina picked up a clump of dirt and threw it into the darkness. There was the sound of a thud and two voices shouting something about not being nice…then laughter.
The guys started to return and got just back into the flickering light of the campfire when there was a loud “BOOM!” that shook their surroundings. All eyes went skyward as a brilliant light flashed across the sky and much lower than what they had seen the nights before.
This time however the light grew and tripled in size as Sky warned them that it was coming in their direction. No sooner had she managed to get that much out, the light slowed and headed north, and fina
lly out of sight.
“Ok guys that is some kind of spaceship.” Sky confidently stated “The high orbital light we’ve been seeing has to be the main ship, the other ones possibly a scout or landing craft. This one is much larger…much more frightening.”
Tom slowly sat and rubbed his forehead as he fretted “Jesus…Sky, that whatever it was, is headed in the direction of home. Maybe it was another wheel finally coming down after all these...”
“Too small Tom and you know that.” she replied.
Luke looked afraid to speak but it only took one look from his wife and he slowly tried to say what he feared “One of the few things we salvaged from old data banks…” he sighed nervously as he looked at Tom’s group “was something about invasions…or an invasion, or something like that. My God, could they have found us here?”
Sky quickly pulled some of the logs out of the fire as Luke helped. She now looked nervous as well “So tonight we keep the fire low, really low, tomorrow we move at top speed.”
“We’re a good two and a half weeks of walking distance from 7 Sky.” Harry moaned “Too long to help and we lost our barge when it hit that boulder.”
Sky pointed to the dimly lit saddle-benches that she’d explained about riding on the kids “They’ll sit three on each easily. The kids can move at a fast pace and will only need to stop and rest a couple times a day.” She nodded to the faint shape of Dash lying against the side of the cliff face “They need to eat and hunt, but at that pace two, maybe three days.”
Tom nodded and sighed “Dinosaurs against spaceships? Christ, and that’s assuming that 7 isn’t wiped out by the time we get there. Luke, perhaps you should take one of the raptors back to your wheel and warn…”
Luke smiled “I go where my wife goes, besides we are well hidden in the jungle fort we told you about…I just hope those still in the wheel get out if they are attacked. Whichever, I’d never get back in time that way either…man this is going to be a long night.”
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