by Pam Uphoff
Ebsa finished strapping down the small telescope and plugged it in. Down below, Hob aimed it and focused. Fean switched her small screen to it and nodded. "Spikes all around the big neck frills." She tipped the screen so they could all see the close up.
Ebsa, however, was watching the T-Rex. Crouched low and eyeing dinner. The herd shifted away, and the T-Rex crossed their path, and flanked them. Keeping his distance for nearly a kilometer, then turning suddenly to approach.
Instead of fleeing, the Styracosaurs turned toward it. Horns out.
"Thought elaborate horns like that were for battles between the bulls." Ebsa eyed the critters. Five meters long, Three meters to the top of the elaborate crests. Weighing in at multiple tons.
"Both genders seem to have them. The smaller, less ornamental could be females, or just younger. Every member of the herd has them, so it's for defense." Irgo had completely lost his drawl again.
Then a second Tyrannosaur rose up from a gully behind the herd.
It struck a smaller Styracosaur, huge toothy mouth clapping down and biting deep.
Pandemonium in the herd. The first T-Rex strode quickly forward, and the herd broke and ran.
The second tyrannosaur ripped flesh off its kill. The first joined it. Amiably.
"Holy One! Cooperative hunting!" Ufly fairly vibrated. "This is incredible!"
"Mated Pair?" Paer speculated. "Mother and adult offspring?"
"It was alone yesterday." Ebsa eyed them. "The one that was lurking in the gully, it almost looks like it's got a feather crest."
"If yesterday's was one of these. Damn, if we could get a tracker chip in them . . . DNA samples . . . track them for years . . . " Professor Ecco sounded like he was regretting his plant specialty.
Fean tilted her screen again. "Yes, they both have some sort of crest. One brown and one sort of striped lighter and darker. Male birds have more colorful plumage . . . "
Ebsa watched the T-Rexes gulping down chunks of meat that probably weighed in at a couple hundred kilograms. "They must be rare, else they'd hunt out areas in short order."
"If Brownie, out there is the one we saw yesterday, we've seen them roam about thirty kilometers in a day." Ajha was also glued to the sight.
Ebsa glanced around. Ra'd was looking the other way, relaxed, but watching all directions.
He felt his face heat and stepped back to also sweep a look around. Redundant. As usual, Ra'd is doing what he ought, instead of gawping at the sights. Which assumes he actually wants to. Ebsa stepped over. "Take a look."
A quirk of a smile and Ra'd took the offered binocs.
Ebsa concentrated on being a good guard. I need to think of the others first, not just jump in and grab the fun. Make sure all the jobs get done, not just mine.
Then back to work. The pair of Tyrannosaurs were seen striding off to the south and out of sight, and the grad students wandered a bit further afield. The team and interns were hard put to keep them under observation.
There were fewer surprises in the vegetation, as more fossils had survived the mere 70 million years before their equivalent were found on their own world.
Feathered small dinosaurs, flyers that were transitioning from dinosaurs, and the pterosaurs in all sizes from sparrow to small airplane. The grad students were having trouble keeping their eyes on the plants, and off the dinosaurs.
They took a brief trip out on the plains to examine the Styrocasaur grazing path. Ra'd stayed up in the crow's nest, but no sign of the T-Rexes. Hob offered to drive around and check the identification of several other distant moving objects but Ajha just cleared his throat over the comm and Hob sighed and drove them sedately back to the study area.
On day nine, the T-Rex returned.
"No stripes. No sign of the other one. This may be the loner from the forest." Paer was up in the crow's nest of the electronics crawler.
Ebsa was almost two kilometers north with the bunkhouse so Whti could replace the batteries in the vid recorders he had spotted all over his favorite little grove of trees, studying the very diverse small critters that lived there or visited.
The T-Rex was to the west, making a neat triangle with their two crawlers. His head turned south and he stalked forward.
"He's turning this way, everybody get aboard." Paer's crawler was roughly in the center of the study area.
From a kilometer away, Ebsa could see the students reluctantly gathered their equipment. Ufly and Alamo. Still snotty. And Ajha was having to hustle the professor from the far side. Great.
Ra'd was at the southeast corner with Irgo and Dan.
"Whti, let's get inside. Just in case the other one is around here, somewhere."
Fortunately Whti had the last vid in hand, and placed it back in the tree. Trotted back to the crawler. "We can't see much from here, what with the crow's nest gone."
Ebsa followed him inside. "I'll bet they've got cams on him. Or her." He closed the heavy door, latched it. Headed for the front.
Hob looked around. "They're all taking pictures of it. The professor's complaining about his bum knee and Ajha's sounding exasperated enough to pick him up and carry him."
"I can't see!" Whti moved from window to window. "They're too far away."
Ebsa had to agree. The scattered trees were blocking the best view of the beast. The students were finally moving back. And suddenly running.
"It must be getting close to them." Ebsa cast a look back. Whti was up the ladder and opening the hatch. "One! Hob, don't move the crawler if anyone is up on top." He jump off the drive deck and swarmed up the ladder after Whti. The idiot was standing out there, balancing on the curved roof.
From the open hatch, he caught the sound of rapid gunfire.
Paer's voice on the comm. "I think everything's bouncing! It twitched once! Ajha, everyone else is inside, but it's coming toward the door side. Get up the other side and . . . Fean, back the crawler up. One of you idiots shut the door!"
Ebsa shot up the ladder, focused on the other crawler, as Fean tried to back and block a dinosaur taller and longer than the crawler. Paer was crouched low, probably standing on the ladder, still shooting, to no effect.
The dinosaur rounded the back of the crawler and focused on the two moving men.
And Paer ran down the length of the crawler and leaped.
She landed perfectly, straddling the T-Rex's neck. She swung the long gun around awkwardly.
Ebsa couldn't tell, from this distance whether she was trying to shoot through the ear or eye. But he did see the toss of the huge head and the gun flying through the air.
The dinosaur refocused on the meal that was trying to run around behind it.
Paer grabbed one side of the crest feathers and pulled. No effect. She released one hand, drew her stunner and applied it to the T-Rex's head.
That got its attention. Paer jerked the stunner away from the Tyrannosaur's head toss as it turned to snap that direction. And stepped, forward, circling away from Ajha and the Professor.
Paer swapped hands, waited, then hit it from the opposite side. It turned, a hint of stagger in its footwork.
"Please, please let it work." Ebsa scrambled to not slide off the roof. "Whti, get back inside, we need to get out there." Couldn't take his eyes off Paer trying to steer by switching which side of the T-Rex's head she shot.
Ajha was half carrying the professor, disappeared behind the crawler. It stopped briefly, then swung around to follow the T-Rex. The third crawler roared into sight, moving fast, Ra'd in the crow's nest.
The T-Rex staggered . . . stopped . . . staggered off balance and sank to the ground. Paer leaped up and scrambled along its back. The lab swung alongside, Paer leaped, grabbed the rail, swung herself up to the top, and sprawled, looking back at the dinosaur as it rolled over on its side.
The electronics crawler turned and retreated, the lab slowed to a sane pace, and Paer scrambled over to the crow's nest and followed Ra'd down and out of sight.
"I think I'm going to thro
w up. Let's get off of the roof. They hunt in pairs, you know." Ebsa looked over at Whti.
Whti was staring the other direction. Wide-eyed, mouth wide open in a silent scream. Throwing himself down . . .
Ebsa spun raising the gun as he turned. Pulled the trigger. Not that he could miss, but the Tyrannosaur didn't even notice as it rammed the crawler, reaching over and snapping as Whti slid out of his reach. Ebsa backed as the head swung toward him. He staggered as his foot hit thin air, then he crashed down the crow's nest hole, grabbed the ladder enough to not break anything. Threw himself at the gun safe.
:: Whti! Roll under the crawler. :: Ra'd's diamond hard mental voice.
BFG 3000, he'd joked about it . . .
Snatched rounds. Slammed one in. Two in the pocket. Opened the door to see the high movement, the tail disappearing around the front of the crawler. He jumped down, ran forward, around the crawler.
Whti screaming, cringing with arms wrapped around his head as the dinosaur's jaws snapped down, engulfed him.
Raised its head with a little toss, to swallow.
Ebsa leaned into the gun. Aimed for the upper spine. Pulled the trigger.
A blossom of blood and meat, high up above the shoulder. The Tyrannosaur leaped, crashed down on its side, arms pawing, jaw clamping on bloody human legs.
Ebsa raced forward, leaped over the spasming tail. Ran around huge twitching claws. Called up the slice spell, but the angle! He jammed his hand against the hinge of the lower jaw, angling toward the top of the beast's head and sent a surge of power. Grabbed the jaw and pulled. Not enough. He shoved his left arm in between the teeth as they separated. Past what was probably Whti, all the way across as the jaws closed. Pain. He sliced again. This time the lower jaw gave, fell open.
His arm screamed as he forced it to grab to haul the man out of the beast's throat.
Running feet.
Hob skidded to a halt. "What do I do? What do I do!"
"Support his legs, grab his belt and haul him out of there." Ebsa grabbed shoulders and heaved.
Whti popped loose. Thrashing, coughing, choking. Ra'd was suddenly there, supporting his legs as they carried him away from the T-Rex.
"He can't breathe." Ebsa tried to remember what to do.
Ra'd rolled him to his side, knee against his back, and hard shove up under the ribcage.
Whti wretched, spat out gobs of whatever, and screamed.
"Oh shut up, and stop moving, you're doing more damage to your legs." Ra'd reached and touched Whti's temples.
"Ah . . ah?"
"You aren't feeling any pain. You are still very damaged. Hold. Still." Ra'd pulled a knife from his pocket and started slicing bloody cloth. "No abdominal punctures. Good." :: Full leg splints. :: He sliced down the pant legs and paled a bit. "No arterial bleeding." Cut off the shoe and held his foot for a moment. "Strong pulse, and nerve response."
Paer ran up, leg splints in hand. She helped immobilize his right leg, and rolled Whti on to his back. Ra'd sliced cloth away from the other leg.
Paer had her hands on the first leg and glowed with power. Ajha set a medic kit down and knelt beside them, not interfering.
Fean walked around and picked up the BFG . . . the 20 mm . . . and looked around, glancing back occasionally. "What is she doing?"
"Micromanipulation and calcium crystallization. She's sticking the bone back together." Ajha's voice was nearly a whisper. "She's already reinforced the damaged areas of the blood vessels. And the tendon damage . . . now the muscles. Damn."
"I learned on horses." Paer whispered. "Endi taught me." She shifted her hands to Whti's lower leg.
"What is she doing?" Whti whimpered.
"Better injury repair than I've ever seen." Ajha placed a hand on Whti's forehead and he relaxed, blinked sleepily. "And Ra'd is damn good at the injury assessment. And first aid."
Ebsa got up and stepped away. He fished in his pocket as he walked over to Fean and held out the two rounds. "I was in a hurry, want more?"
"Oops." She checked the gun quickly. Nothing. She took the two rounds, grinned. "Bring me another six and never tell Ajha I was on guard with an unloaded gun."
Ebsa scanned around, then headed for the gun cabinet and scooping up the 12mm dacca from where he'd dropped it on the floor. Ammo for both guns. I'll shoot the big ones, Fean can shoot the huge ones.
Ra'd had Whti's other leg splinted and Paer was working on it.
Ebsa walked out and stood guard. Another attack would be three too many, and this way I'm out from underfoot.
Why did I let Whti stay up on top of the crawler so long? I ought to have . . . I should had the 20mm with me . . . I . . . failed to look around. Again.
"All right. Time for the docbox to take over." Ajha's voice behind him, sounding relieved. "Damn good job guys."
"Hey!" Whti's wavery voice. "You guys . . . I . . . I . . . expect roast T-Rex for dinner, you hear?"
Ra'd laughed. "Guess you're going to live after all."
Ebsa braced himself and turned around. "We'll make it a contest. You'll be the judge, Whti, since you're the only man I know who's ever been eaten by a T-Rex."
Whti's grin was a bit forced, as Ra'd, Dan, Hob, and Ajha grabbed the stretcher and took him off to the lab.
Paer looked shaky and Ebsa stepped into the crawler and grabbed a couple of boosters.
Winced as he tried to open one for Paer.
"Ebsa? Are you hurt too?"
Ebsa blinked down at his left arm. "I umm . . . Yeah?"
Hob popped his head back out of the lab. "He reached into the T-Rex's mouth and sliced his jaw open so we could get Whti out."
"Ebsa!" Paer's eyes went wide.
Ra'd snorted. "I thought you had better sense . . . but then it would not have occurred to me that Whti could actually still be alive."
"I think it was more hysterics than sense." Ebsa sat down suddenly. Tried to not wince as Ra'd sliced up his shirt. What mom will say about the state of my wardrobe! Thank the One XR field khakis are cheap.
"Nasty big puncture wounds, some crushing and bruising . . . " Paer sounded a bit remote.
"Drink first, magic later." Ebsa eyed her worriedly. "I'll be fine. Mind you I'll be having nightmares all night long about you jumping on the other T-Rex . . . " He jolted upright. "The other one!"
"Still stunned!" Irgo's voice from up on top of one of the other crawlers.
Ebsa sank back, jerked and yipped.
"There, all contaminants removed. Xen calls it debriding." Paer stepped over to the medic kit and returned with a roll of fabric. Talking as she turned him into a partial mummy. "And you can joke all you want, but is that thing actually edible?"
"Only one way to find out." Ebsa tried for cheerful, and she glowered at him.
"And your judge won't be out of the docbox for at least a day. Probably two."
"Good. Twenty-four hours of brining will reduce the gaminess."
"And then a pit for slow roasting." Ra'd looked thoughtful. "Bar bee que, my dad called it. I've got dibs on the ribs. How about you, Ebsa, a nice rump roast? Paer? Surely you're game to try."
Paer snorted. "Well, dinosaurs are supposed to be related to birds. About the only decent recipe I know is for breaded and fried chicken nuggets."
Ebsa snickered. "We'll get you the, ahem, nuggets."
"Men! Guess you're not too badly hurt." Paer finally smiled a bit. "I wonder if dinosaurs are like reptiles and keep their, er, nuggets inside?"
Butchering a T-Rex proved difficult and messy. And unrewarding. Paer walked up and eyed their efforts. "I hate to tell you this. But from what I can see, this looks like a female."
Ra'd and Ebsa looked at each other. Gory and splattered . . .
"Well, in that case . . . "
With fifty pounds of meat in either salt brine or something that Paer had concocted, Ebsa cleaned up and headed for bed. And was redirected to the lab.
"Ajha wants a medical scan on you. Go." Fean pointed, and Ebsa turned away w
ith a moan.
Ajha's going to skin me alive. I did everything wrong. Whti . . . is he going to be crippled for the rest of his life? How not, with muscle and tendon damage. Hopefully the bones will heal, but in the long run, they're the least important.
The lab crawler was crowded, with the docbox deployed, completely closed up on Whti.
"He's not . . . going to die, is he?" Ebsa kept his voice down, even though he knew Whti would be sedated, sleeping, with complete life support available at need.
"No, thanks to your quick response." Ahja pointed at a chair.
Ebsa sat. "I did everything wrong."
Ajha eyed him, nodded. "You are not the commander of this expedition. I am. And I'm the one who did everything wrong. I ought to have hunted down and killed such an obvious danger as two T-Rexes as soon as I saw them. But I didn't. I saw them hunting, and didn't take sensible precautions like all of us sticking together. Your T-Rex was too far for even Ra'd to shoot, but you got him. And saved Whti with your fast action. I'm . . . I still don't believe we're all alive."
The older man, and he really did look older, and stressed, sighed and picked up a medical scanner. "Now let's take a look at your arm . . ."
Ebsa leaned back, suddenly tired and about three million aches and pains suddenly making themselves felt. Why is my right shoulder so . . . oh. I don't even remember the gun kicking. The hiss of an auto injector made them all go away. "How's the professor?"
"Oh, One Hell. Someone else I've overlooked." He waved the scanner over Ebsa's upper arm. "That girl is good. So why don't you just sleep for about a century, while I check the professor?"
Ebsa let himself be guided to a lower bunk and didn't really remember much after that. He woke once to find Paer crowding in with him. Shivering. He slung an arm around her, and tried not to wince. "'S all right, now."
A shaky breath. "Yeah." She tried to burrow in closer. He got a blanket around her and just held her until she stopped shivering and her breathing slowed and softened. Then he let himself sleep again.
And awoke to an "Eep!" in his ear and a sudden absence of warm Paer. The sound of the hatch opening. When Ajha stepped in, Paer was wrapped in a blanket checking the readouts on the docbox registering Whti's progress.