Terra

by Robert Turnbull

  Chapter 25.

  Morning had barely arrived and the six of them were on the fleet footed mega-rexes hastily heading north while they loaded what weapons they had and Tom wished the explosives that Harry had brought weren’t lying on the bottom of the river with the remains of their barge.

  Luke sent the rest of their party off with the raptors to head back to 3 to tell everyone what had happened and to be looking for whatever those lights were.

  Fearing the worst, Sky knew 7 had protection and that whatever this was, she held hope. Tom hoped his old pals back at 7 were all safe, but seriously began to worry as night fell and they approached the crevasse that was the entrance to the compound that Murg, Lilra, and their observers lived: it was vacant! Tom looked at the rest as the towering kids slowly paced around the area looking for other dangers and walked back to the rest of the group.

  “The entrance was closed and I couldn’t get in. Lilra showed me the way to call them to the entrance, but no one came.” Dash walked over to the group as no one seemed to be doing anything, lowered down and nudged Sky with his nose. He made soft rumbles and twisted his head northward.

  “Not tonight Dash, it’s too dangerous even on your backs.” Sky smiled and patted the bridge of his nose “We’ll leave in the morning, first light.” Dash straightened and moved over to the left wall of the gap in the cliff to put himself between Sky and the open river bank. Lady leaned against the other side and between the both of them, nearly blocked the entire crevasse. Before she settled in, she looked over to the kids and shouted…

  “Hey and if you see anyone like the reptile people that look like us, don’t eat them.”

  “And they understood you?” Harry asked.

  Sky shrugged “I have no idea,” she looked at Luke and chuckled “we talk to them and they always seem to understand us. At first it was mostly training, but then it seemed that they trained us as much as we did them, now we all seem to understand each other…sort of.”

  Luke nodded “Oh, they don’t understand all of it, but somehow they always seem to get the gist of what we want.” About then Lady swung her head around, looked at Luke and snorted as if she was insulted, and then went back to trying to get some sleep.

  “See?”

  “You’ve got to be kidding?” Hans replied as he patted the long tail of Dash “They know when we’re talking to, or about them?” Dash swung his head around and grumbled as Hans pulled his hand back quickly and stepped next to Sky.

  Sky chuckled “Neither of them care for people underestimating them.” and with that both swung their heads around and cooed in their deep tones.

  Gina shook her head and smiled at the sibling rexes. She reached out and rubbed Lady’s nose “Baby, if you say you understand, I believe you one hundred percent.” Lady nudged Gina’s hand and snorted softly as she laid her head slightly to one side and closed her eyes.

  “And I never knew rexes could lay down like a…a…”

  “Like that old dog the Porters had?”

  “Yeah, like that.” Gina stroked Lady’s head “Lying on their haunches and tummy…and curling their heads around like that.” she tittered softly “But I guess when you’re that big, ya can do anything you want.” and with that Lady sounded as if she too was chuckling, as she made soft repeated clucking sounds deep within her throat.

  Luke climbed atop the resting Dash, jumped up on a ledge to climb atop the cliff.

  “Holy shit guys…you all need to see this!”

  Sky dashed up Dash’s back and he raised his head so that she could run right up to the top where her husband stood. After some prodding the rest gathered the courage to do the same, and Dash didn’t seem to mind. Once all the humans were safe on the cliff, both rexes stood.

  In the distance the sky was aglow. Sky looked at Tom questioningly…

  “Has 7 added something new? I seem to remember us having lights at night to light up the whole perimeter, but…”

  Tom slowly shook his head “…nothing like that sis? You’re right we still don’t! Can’t be fire, no flickering, too even, too steady…” he shrugged “but it has to be coming from 7.”

  “Jesus, that bright from almost…uhhh…” Sky realized that she couldn’t remember how far it was to home as she’d never been this far south.

  “About seven miles by land, about nine if we follow the river.” Harry chimed in “Look Sky, I can read your mind, ok? But in the morning we can’t go across land, even if your kids scare away the smaller raptors, if something goes wrong there is no cover to protect us or them.”

  Tom sighed “Harry’s right sis, if this is some sort of an invasion then they’d see your kid’s miles off. The river bank is much higher near the launch and dock area. From there it’s just a short distance the way those babies run. We can hit them…”

  “NO!” Sky warned rather loudly “I will not endanger the kids! We take them as far as the dock area, assuming that we see no danger before that.” she calmed down slightly and lowered her pitch “I’ll not put the kids up against modern alien weapons.”

  At that comment Lady snorted her disapproval and Sky spun to stare at her “I SAID NO, and I mean…” again she toned her objections down and stroked Lady’s cheek “no, you have only seen Luke’s people use their gunpowder guns, we have much deadlier mounted weapons.” Sky smiled and laughed softly “…’sides the two of you are too large to sneak up on anything.”

  Luke nodded “And kids? If that light is not coming from Wheel 7 we don’t want you two frightening Sky’s people half to death.” Dash looked at Lady and both seemed to resign themselves to the fact that this time they were not going to be in the middle of things.

  Dash lowered himself, moved his neck close to the cliff and grunted as Luke nodded.

  “I agree Dash, we all need to get to sleep because we’re off to an early start in the morning.” He looked at Tom’s crew “The kids need to go out at first light and hunt, and we need to not to panic and eat…it could be the last time we get to eat in a while.” he added “It should take us about three hours assuming that we don’t run into danger before then…now get some sleep!”

  The rexes settled back into the spots that they had chosen earlier before all the commotion and the humans settled in among the huge saddles and gear that they had taken off the kids. They had eaten while riding, the kids had hunted before dark. A quick bite in the morning and as soon as the rexes returned, they could head out.

  Sky laid back and settled into her husband’s arms as she laid her head on his chest. She looked over to her older brother “It will be alright, won’t it Tom?”

  He sighed and laid back as he stared at the two full moons that drifted across the skies of Terra “I sure hope so sis, I sure hope so.”

  Tom didn’t want to let on that he not only feared for them, but knew deep in his heart that if anything happened to her kids it would shatter her. Hating himself for not telling his sister about the new data they had managed to dig out of the three century old data banks that had been damaged before landing. They had figured out that their ancestors had mentioned something about an invasion. There was just not enough detail about anything to confirm it, but since the lights in the sky, and now this strange glow…

  Tom placed his hands behind his head and stared at the moons…had these aliens managed to track the humans down across the galaxy?

  Chapter 26.

  The kids returned before the humans had dragged everything out from the cliffs and after a quick pack, the kids lowered themselves to be saddled up and once again for the six humans remaining to climb up and strap in. Sky looked over to her husband on Dash and forced a smile, she knew the kids at a full run was going to be a rough ride.

  “OK EVERYONE…HANG ON!” she shouted and just as Tom’s crew looked for better handholds, the kids were off and running at a full run. The swing-like saddles kept the humans from getting the full shock of each step, but the back and forth movement along with the lateral motion caused the peop
le that were not used to the riding giant rexes to become nauseated, much to the mirth of Sky and Luke. Dash had adopted Luke as ‘his’ after Dar’s death It was Luke that filled that void and now he had full control of the giant rex. As the river bank narrowed and the rexes began to run partially into the river itself, those from Wheel 7 prayed that might slow the kids to some extent...it didn’t.

  Before long the kids had run too fast and slowed to the normal walk as they caught their breath and Sky pulled Lady alongside of Dash.

  “I recognize this area…God it’s been so long, but,” Sky pointed to a monstrous fallen tree “that’s where Louis gave me my first kiss?”

  “Louis?” Tom laughed “Louis is the wheel’s biggest drunk, been arrested for making illegal drugs, smash mostly.” he shouted back.

  “Smash? Jesus, that stuff will kill you.”

  “Nearly did…” Tom grinned as Luke whistled to Dash and the kids picked their pace up once more as Lady fell in behind along the narrow river bank.

  Although it was an hour ride by boat from the dock area, the kids cleared the distance in a little over fifteen minutes. Luke slowed Dash as Tom told him this was close enough. Any further and the giant rexes could be seen from the wheel.

  The dock and surrounding area was vacant, which in its self was rare as there were always someone fishing or taking out one of the small boats to net fish. Tom became worried even more as he dismounted and Sky and the three on Lady’s back joined him; there was no one around when there should have been.

  “No sign of wet, no mud…sis, no one’s been around here for at least a day, maybe two for the sun to bake this ground like it is.” Tom was in line to be the wheel’s leader but passed it to the next in line so he could hunt for Sky, but his crew had not done a lot of fighting. Sky and Luke on the other hand had seen combat, survived out in the jungles and plains of Terra, so Tom ceded to Sky’s more experienced leadership. Sky knew the area, while Luke trained his people in combat, so he had no problem with taking orders from his wife. Sky nodded to her husband and added a quietly concerned ‘be careful baby’ as he slid out of sight into the dense brush at the top of the high embankment.

  The rest slowly followed after giving Luke time to get ahead as they moved up the long winding road to the top. He’d be their eyes as they progressed and twice Sky had to signal the kids to stay back at the dock and finally they seemed to accept the fact that ‘mom’ was not going to give in this time and settled down to be content with standing watch at the rear…and Luke could have sworn he heard Dash snort something that sounded like a cuss.

  “Christ, I think I’m actually beginning to understand these kids.”

  The terrain slowly rose to the level of the wheel and as they neared the top Luke darted out of the brush near some large trees and waved them over to where he was.

  “You all are not going to believe this shit.” He pulled the tall brush branches apart to reveal the two story wheel and its three and a half story center that was the command hub in the distance.

  To the field west of the wheel and about a half mile from the wheel was an immense spaceship that had to be six stories high…sitting directly in the middle of where the closest corn field was. They couldn’t see the base of the ship because of the wheel, but Sky didn’t see anyone atop the lookout posts that dotted the top of the wheel.

  “Oh-oh,” Tom muttered as he looked at Luke “That’s not good, no one leaves their posts lest raptors sneak up on our people that are outside of the wheel.” Tom sighed “You see occasionally raptors get colds and when they are sick like that, the wheat and corn doesn’t seem to bother them.” Tom began a crouched run through the open area between the high brush that they were hiding in and the side of the wheel nearly half mile away. Quickly the rest fell in behind Tom at a full run…until Tom slammed into something that threw him backward nearly four feet.

  Tom landed nearly at Han’s feet as Sky ran up to her fallen brother and helped him up. He looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face “Holy Mother of God!” he shook his head “It felt like I hit an invisible elastic thing that…”

  Luke, who had kept running faster than the rest, now flat on his back, as did Harry whom had vaulted over Luke and hit the invisible wall himself. All but Gina that not only hit whatever it was and flew backward, but did a backward summersault and landed on her feet...before falling backward in shock.

  “What the fuck was that?” she shouted and then clasped both hands over her mouth as she rolled onto her side and struggled to get back onto her feet. As the rest helped each other up someone shouted from the top of the wheel…

  “It’s Tom…and he has others with him!”

  “Hi Bill!” Tom shouted as Harry pointed to the other lookout post.

  “There’s Bob…and Del.”

  Bob cupped his hands and shouted something they couldn’t hear at that distance, but Bill relayed the message.

  “They’re turning off the force field…” he looked back and then shouted “it’s off, come on in!”

  By now all six were looking at one another in disbelief at what had just transpired, but Tom was the first as he pushed Harry forward, just to be sure. Harry didn’t bounce off this new force field, so Tom grinned and walked to the front.

  “Ok, guess it’s safe now.” he snorted “Problem is Sky, we don’t have a force field, we never had the power, nor the technology since you left.”

  “That big assed ship?” she pointed to the spaceship that towered over the wheel even from there. She started to say more, but the southeast garage door opened and many smiling people flooded out waving and cheering. As they stopped, they parted, as a tall thin man pushed his way to the front. Tears filled Sky’s eyes and she trembled as she shouted…

  “DADDY!” Running at full speed she slammed into her father as the rest caught up and ‘daddy’ reached around her to shake Tom’s hand and then pulled him into their small group hug.

  “Damn pop, glad to see you’re alive.” he beamed a wide smile “Never thought that you’d…er...uhh..”

  “Be alive when you got back?” he chuckled “I can thank the doctor from the ‘Wells’ for that miracle.”

  Sky leaned back in her father’s arms as she and Tom simultaneously asked “Wells?”

  Daddy pointed at the ship in the distance “The Wells, it’s a replica of the ship that led our people to Terra kids. You see…” there were two body shaking roars as the twin rexes came raging over the top of the rise from the river and as the people from the wheel screamed while some ran others raised their weapons. Sky and the rest all ran out from of the guns and held up their hands as motioned to lower the guns. Tom ran between the security and the approaching rexes and shouted for ‘no one to shoot’.

  Sky ran past her brother and well out into the field holding up both her hands. She began moving her arms one way and then another. After several movements both the rexes slowed and began to walk normally toward Sky, as Tom reassured the rest the giant dinosaurs would not harm them.

  This of course did not sooth all the fear his people felt and most ran back inside of the garage. Sky’s dad Jim, stayed next to Tom as he quickly tried to fill his father in on what had transpired since running into Sky.

  Sky spoke to the twins as they bent down to hear her, now and then one or the other would look up at the small group of humans standing there with their mouths agape and bewildered looks on their faces as she’d stroke one rex on its cheek and then the other.

  Finally Sky turned and slowly walked toward the group as the twins followed. Tom was suppressing the urge to laugh at the awe that was quickly replacing the fear as his friends and father watched his baby sister walking along with two giant behemoths following her like puppies…and the top of her head didn’t even reach their ankles, yet they were ever so careful not to come close to stepping on her.

  “They listened to her?” Jim muttered softly to his son as he was busting with pride that his daughter had trained such beasts.
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  “No dad, she didn’t train them so to speak, they’re smart. Those dinosaurs actually understand many words and signals and Sky and her husband understand some of their sounds and body movements.”

  “Incredible son. Why I’ll…” Jim turned toward his son “did you say husband?”

  Tom chuckled “Yep! Threw me for a loop too pop, but she’s been married nearly ten years now.” he sighed and started to say more but Luke quickly picked up on Tom’s hesitation.

  “And we’ve lost two children…” he smiled softly “we miss them, but…” he chuckled softly and held out his hand to the tall thin man with silver hair “Pleased to meet you sir, I’m Luke.”

  The giants stopped as if they knew a closer presence would cause distress among the humans, but as they lowered and rested upon their chests in a low crouch, a strange thing happened; the humans began to come out of the garage and as Harry walked over to Dash and patted his cheek. Some of the residents of Wheel 7 walked gingerly over to the two rexes and began petting them. Cautiously, one by one they began stroking them until there were people on both sides of the twins stroking them and talking to them as they laughed…until Lady rumbled and they all jumped back.

  “It’s sort of their way of purring.” Sky laughed “They like all the attention.”

  Slowly the humans began to pet them again and within seconds both ‘kids’ were making the purring sounds as more and more people emerged from the wheel.

  Jim put his arms around his children and motioned Luke to come and he moved to Sky’s other side. Jim nodded to the platform for the lookouts atop the two story wheel.

  “Guess we’ll have to make that thing bigger.”

  “Why dad?” Tom asked “With this new force field of yours I doubt if…”

  Jim roared with laughter “So our people can pet your sister’s pets.”

  “They’re not my pets daddy, they’re my friends. Sort of an extended family…kids…sort of hard to explain.”

  Her dad laughed as he nodded back at the growing crowd around the greenish Dash and red hued Lady “They’re going to need somewhere to stand to pet your kids.”