by Al Macy
“I have news for you that is good.” Marbecka looked me in the eye. “Sending you back to your own world is on the agenda.”
I’d learned to read her body language the same way one learns the body language of a close pet. She was holding something back.
“Marbecka, why can’t you tell me more about the process of transporting me home? Will it be the same as when I came here?”
She ignored my question. “We’ll provide you a briefing. Surprises for you, there will be. Because we will have no favorable way to communicate once you are sent back, we must dot our t’s in advance.”
If I had feathers I would have ruffled them. “Can’t you just send a contingent of scientists to my world?”
That popped her crest. “No, that is not possible.”
“Why not?”
“It is better you remain in unawareness. I cannot explain it on this day.” For a creature uncomfortable with confrontation, she sure knew how to stonewall.
“But if—” I looked out over the hills across the valley and froze.
The vegetation of the slope below us changed in an instant. Trees appeared where a meadow had stood. A building down the slope snapped out of existence. Something big moved through the trees.
I frowned. “Marbecka?”
“Yes, Jake.” She was selecting seeds from the large spoon—the only implement used by the dinobirds.
“Didn’t you say you’d killed all the big meat-eating dinosaurs?”
“Fifty-one million years ago.”
“Well, what the hell is that?” The monster had moved out from the trees.
She froze. She whipped out her wings, but before she could fly away, I grabbed her wrist. “Wait. Tell me.”
“A new collision rift.” With a flap of her wing, she broke my grip and flew across the room to the exit.
My bodyguards, Cree and Drenast, stayed with me, but their wings quivered.
I stood and squinted toward the field. A tyrannosaur, or something just like it. Its body extended out horizontally as it jogged along. With each step, it seemed it would fall over forward before the next beefy leg crashed down. The back was only slightly higher than that of an elephant, but from nose to tail, it was twice as long. It flattened a small tree then stopped and tilted its head.
“What’s going on?” I looked at Drenast. “Where did it come from?”
“Guessing now that we better get you to safety.”
Cree pointed. “Another.”
Sure enough, another vaguely familiar dinosaur with something on its head roamed the lower slopes of Mount Diablo.
Based on Marbecka’s comment of “collision rift,” I worked out for myself what had happened. This universe and some parallel universe were colliding or interacting in a way that the two universes existed side by side. As with the earlier atmospheric disturbance, a straight line extended from horizon to horizon, with different vegetation on each side. No thunderclaps this time.
The dino with some kind of crest on its head walked over the line into our zone.
“Let’s go, buddy,” Drenast said. “There’s no shelter here. We are needing to travel to the main building.”
I rapped my knuckles on the glass. I felt pretty safe where we were. “Are you kidding? We’re going to go outside?” Maybe a tyrannosaur could break through the windows, but I had the impression they weren’t hunting for food, yet.
Drenast gestured to the windows. “Do you want to be like food in a display case? The shelter building is seconds away.”
Yeah, maybe if you can fly.
I would have liked to see huge shotguns or ray guns in the hands of my companions, but they had nothing. I’d seen no personal weapons during my time with the dinobirds. They’d zapped the gretzers. Weapons existed.
Out the door we went, against my better judgment. I sprinted along the path to the main building, and they fluttered along with me.
I turned to my companions, but they were gone. Where’d they go? There. I watched them fly up and land on the edge of the main building’s observation deck.
A snuffling noise hit me. I spun around and crouched.
A dinosaur stood twenty feet away. It had been watching the flight of my bodyguards, and now it turned its attention to me. This creature’s snout pointed straight at my head, its eyes focused on me.
Sweat slid down my sides. My heart battered the inside of my chest.
It stood a head taller than me, with a fleshy crest on the top of its snout. The crest had two flaps, like a taco shell. With the same stance as a tyrannosaur, it was slate gray with brown patches along its spine. It held its mouth open, displaying rows of glistening crocodile teeth. Its head made small, jerky movements, and its chest expanded with each breath.
I was alone and defenseless, midway between the two buildings. My chicken-hearted bodyguards had deserted me. Why had I followed their stupid advice?
The dinosaur would easily intercept me before I could get to either building.
My chance came when it took a stumbling step to its right. Apparently, it was still disoriented from the confluence rift.
I sprinted off in the other direction, toward the main building. The one with the shelter.
The something-o-saurus scrambled to change course, but it was off-balance. It slammed to the ground. I looked back but didn’t slow down.
It rolled over then scrabbled with its tiny forelegs and popped to its feet. I gave full attention to my running, channeling my college football experience. The door was only ten feet away now. A glance back told me I’d win the race. Piece of cake.
The door had a window into the dark hall. Would the dinosaur see that as a hole? Would its instinct scream that it had to get to me before I escaped into the hole?
I closed on the building, now only feet away. I’d have made it, but for one problem: Like doors at home, it opened outward. Why couldn’t it have been one of those auto-dissolving doors?
I got my hand on the lever handle and rotated it. I pulled, but resistance from a piston installed at the top kept it from opening freely. I strained, but it moved slowly.
I had it opened only a foot when the dinosaur smashed into the wall. I jumped back. He lurched between me and the door and fell onto the path.
The blundering beast was once again stretched out on the ground. It shook its head like a dog shaking off water. With the shake, clapping noises came from the crest on its head. Drops of warmish saliva slapped into my face.
It was clumsy on the ground, but I had only seconds before it would be up again. Its body lay across the door. If I could get around the corner of the building, I’d disappear from its view. Maybe I’d find another door. The building was set into the hillside. I’d gain the corner faster if I went downhill, but I’d have to pass its head. Couldn’t be helped.
I pushed off and started my run. One of the creature’s small forearms lashed out and a hooked claw slashed deep into my biceps. In a flash, the knifelike claw plowed down to my elbow. I fell to my knees. Blood poured out, and a strong metallic odor hit me.
With a huffing noise, the dino swung its head out from the wall and knocked me into the air. I came down on my butt. Using my momentum, I rolled to my feet and kept going along the side of the building.
I careened around the corner. My last glimpse of the dino showed it on its feet again.
Another door. It was only feet away when the dinosaur’s head popped around the corner. It kept moving and then skidded on the ground, having trouble negotiating the ninety-degree turn.
I had the door open in a second. Not locked. And no piston, lucky me. It was heavy, but I didn’t need to open it all the way. I got the opening wide enough for me, popped in, and pulled it shut.
Almost shut. The creature got one claw in. I pushed the door open a few inches and slammed it closed on the dino’s claw-tipped finger. Judging from the loud crack, a bone broke, and the dinosaur roared with a deep, lionlike sound. But it didn’t pull away. I tried again—open, slam—and i
t got its whole hand in, a hand with huge eagle talons. It whipped the door outward.
I turned to escape down the hall. No! I was in a storage closet. The whole room was only the size of a half bath.
The dinosaur thrust its open jaw into the space. It missed me and whacked the wall. A tooth clattered to the floor. Dizziness almost overwhelmed me. Blood from my arm dripped down to my wrist.
I searched for a weapon. A leaf rake, a trimmer. A shovel! I grabbed it, and when the dino lunged again, I jammed the sharp end into its mouth. The handle end hit the wall, and the force of the creature’s thrust set the spade deep into its throat. Yes!
The monster choked and pulled its head out, the shovel embedded deep in the throat. The dinosaur shook its head left and right, but the tool didn’t come loose. Bright red blood flowed down the handle.
The dino brought its forelegs up and tore the garden tool away. I pulled the door closed, but the monster’s foot was in the way. As it came in for its next attempt, I yanked a lawnmower-type thing from the ground. Even with my surging adrenaline, it was too heavy.
So, life was going to end for me in a maintenance closet in a parallel universe. My daughter would lose her dad.
The dino drew its head back for a well-aimed lunge, then turned skyward. It snapped at a pair of fluttering dinobirds harassing it from above. Cree and Drenast. I guess they finally grew a pair. Two pairs.
I pushed off from the wall of the closet and streaked past the dinosaur’s legs and down the hill. I passed the vegetation line between the different zones and kept going. I expected the pounding footfalls of a panting dinosaur behind me. I staggered behind the trunk of a tree and looked back.
God, no! The dino had the tip of Cree’s wing in its mouth. She fluttered desperately while Drenast dove and pecked at the creature’s eye.
Then, the monster snapped out of existence. So did Cree, Drenast, and all the buildings.
CHAPTER TEN
The parallel universe disappeared, taking Jake with it. Marbecka squawked and flew into the air. This couldn’t be happening.
Still reeling from the shock of seeing the dinosaurs magically reappear, the prospect of losing the indispensable alien almost paralyzed her. The control room dissolved into chaos.
Marbecka spoke into a microphone, her voice filling the control room. “Focus. Everyone focus. We’ll refer to that new universe as … uh … Dinosaur-1.”
She mentally reviewed the disastrous events. First, a confluence rift opened, replacing strips of her universe, Celano-1, with strips of universe Dinosaur-1, one in which the meat-eating dinosaurs hadn’t been expunged. Second, Jake had been attacked by a konrato and had fled into Dinosaur-1. Finally, the rift collapsed, stranding Jake in Dinosaur-1.
Jobex flew over and perched beside her. “Do we have a holoview of him?”
Marbecka’s crest popped up. “Only up until the collapse, of course.”
“It could help us locate him.”
“But that won’t help—”
“If we can concentrate the paratransit beam on one spot, maybe his implant will guide us.” Jobex flipped his wings. He brought up the holovideo, derived from several exterior cameras.
“There!” Marbecka pointed. “He’s running straight down the hill. The konrato isn’t chasing him, but Jake doesn’t realize that.” She paused the display and called out to Exerb, who flew over and landed beside her.
“Oh, no! Look there,” she said. “See that bleeding. Is that bad?”
He moved the video forward and back, zooming in more. His crest popped up. “Yes. That’s a mortal wound. He’s going to bleed out.”
They watched him run down the hill and over the boundary from Celano-1 to Dinosaur-1.
“Goddamnit, Jake!” Marbecka screeched, flaring out her tail feathers. “Why did you go there? We were so close.”
She made a hurried final entry into the video diary. “Jake is residing at this moment in a third parallel universe. He’s injured and will expire soon. If he dies, we will be able to send neither him nor the chest of documents back. We aren’t ready, but we must—”
“Marbecka—” Jobex turned to her.
“I know.” She took a deep breath. “Which of our aircraft ended up in Dinosaur-1?”
“A defense ship and a research vessel. The one that brought Jake in.”
Marbecka ruffled her feathers, relieved. “Good, good. Falbex is an excellent pilot and smart. He will go right to Jake, perhaps keep him alive.”
Exerb flipped his wings. “Maybe, but not for long. Our artificial blood won’t work on a human. Falbex could bind his wound, but it would probably be too late.”
Marbecka watched the holovideo again. “He was right at that tree. It doesn’t exist in Celano-1, of course, but if we can determine the exact spot—”
“No.” Jobex tilted his head. “Wishful thinking. He wouldn’t have stayed there. He’d have run or hidden.”
“He couldn’t have run far with that much blood loss.” Exerb rewound the holo. “See, he’s already staggering here.”
Marbecka rocked back and forth in her distress. “At least that might keep him from coming back up the hill. If he did, then even if the rift happened again, he’d remain in Dinosaur-1. If he stays where he is, and the rift returns, he can just walk back across the border into Celano-1. Or we can go get him.”
“Again, wishful thinking. There’s some chance the rift will reform, but we don’t know when,” Jobex said. “And we don’t have time to set up the paratransit device for Dinosaur-1.”
“Well, we have to try.” Marbecka flew off toward the paratransit room. The others followed.
The device hadn’t been used for a year, but the transport team had been busy preparing it for sending Jake back to his universe, to Human-1.
The three researchers flew in, surprising the technicians. Jobex was in charge of paratransits. “Okay, guys, listen up. We have to recalibrate. Instead of a paratransit from Celano-1 to Human-1, we need one from Dinosaur-1 to Celano-1—”
“We’ve already started,” the head tech fluttered over to them, “but it will take at least a day. Dinosaur-1 has never been a target.”
“We don’t have a day,” Exerb said. “Jake’s going to bleed out in less than an hour.”
* * *
Not again!
Here I was in yet another parallel universe. This time totally alone. I looked around the tree again. Yup, all the buildings were gone.
And with a bleeding limb—a dinner bell for all the meat-eating dinosaurs. Come and get it. Gumbo ketchup. Come, Bozo, catch up.
I slapped my face. “Wake up!” Nausea crept up my guts.
I blinked and checked the gash the dinosaur’s claw had made. Damn! Down to the bone. It was bleeding too much. At least that dinosaur was gone.
I found a bush that had grown by the root ball of a downed tree, and I squeezed under it.
I removed my belt, the same belt I’d put on the morning of the lunch so long ago. To think my main concern then was dealing with too many friends at once. I shook my head.
Fastening the leather belt above my biceps, I pulled it as tight as I could. The blood still pumped from my arm, but more slowly. My mind drifted. It wasn’t looking good for getting back to Charli and Sophia. I’d been so close, but thoughts like that didn’t help.
Better to drift away than die in the jaws of a something-o-saurus.
Can’t keep my eyes open. I’ll just curl up here. My head dropped to the ground.
* * *
“Nothing else matters.” Marbecka flared her tail with anger. “If he dies before we can get him back, the whole project will have failed. He must be alive or the paratransit won’t work.”
Without the holo-overlays, the control room would have looked like a mostly empty chamber with modular panels on the wall and perches on the floor. But as it was, colorful control surfaces and displays filled the room.
The paratransit device, with its matching dishes on the floor and ceiling
, hummed.
“Yeah, but if we fry the machine, we won’t be able to send him back to Human-1.” Kollet, the head technician, kept working as he talked. “I can cut three hours off if I—”
“Do it,” Marbecka said.
The technician flared his tail.
“I have a lock on him.” Jobex tossed his hologram to the center of the room. An orange, wire-frame figure lay on its side with legs bent. Jake. A green lattice indicated the ground. He was apparently lying in a small depression in the earth. The system displayed his vitals on a virtual chart by his shoulder, with a blood pressure of ninety over sixty highlighted in blue.
Marbecka pointed to it. “Exerb?”
“That’s not good. It’s low because of the blood loss.”
“Kollet, can you transport him now?”
“No. It doesn’t matter that we have a lock, we won’t be able to transport him until I finish setting the Dinosaur-1 parameters.”
Marbecka’s crest raised halfway. “And I hope you’re not exercising your normal, high level of caution?”
Kollet paused only briefly. “No. Correct.”
“If we were to get him here, how long would it take to set things for the transport to his world, Human-1?”
“Less than a second. All that information is stored, and I have a button dedicated to it.” He pointed. “I push that button there and we’ll be all set … I need to concentrate now.”
Marbecka stretched tall and flapped her wings.
Kollet stopped working and turned to Marbecka. “Okay.”
“Ready?”
“No, no. I’m just available to talk now. The computer needs to run simulations to improve the accuracy. Right now we’re at only a”—he looked over to the display—“fifty-meter granularity.”
Marbecka leaned forward. “If we transport him here, will we … is there any chance he’d end up somewhere else?”
“No. We’ve solved that problem. Even if he grabs on to something else, we have his body’s parameters in the system. He will end up in the dish. All the uncertainty is on the other side. In Dinosaur-1.”