The next beast they found had a quarry of its own. A man and woman are trying to make it to the community center and had just been caught by one of the enraged predators when Al and the captain came on the distressing scene. It was too late for the unfortunate colonists, but the captain and Al still had to deal with the murderous animal.
Al didn’t wait until the captain lowered the shuttle. As they flew over, he dropped his rifle into the shuttle and jumped on top of the rampaging animals head, pulling the always handy pistol from its holster, he shot it at close range. The beast let the people go and fell, almost crushing him as it died while falling to the ground. A blood splattered Al was picked up by the captain and they resumed their hunt once again. There was nothing he could do for the two people who had just given their lives to Avalon.
The fifth beast they came across had heard or seen his fellows fall, and mad with rage, he hunkered down and jumped, grabbing the landing skid of the aircraft. The shuttle leaned so far over that Al slid out the door and fell to the ground fifteen feet below. Either by miracle or advanced technology, he managed to land on his feet, rolled and jumped right back up to run after the departing shuttle.
With the rain pounding on his head, and his feet slipping in the mud, Al realized he didn’t have a shot. He fired anyway, but the captain had an idea of his own. He slowly took the shuttle and the creature straight up forty feet or so and stopped. The shuttle was listing badly and was almost sideways under the weight of the beast when Al saw the captain lean out the door and shoot it. The animal screamed and let go, falling to the muddy ground below, causing the shuttle to roll almost all the way around until the gyroscopes could get it level again. After a moment, the captain could be seen in the pilot’s window, smiling, and giving the ‘OK’ symbol.
They had taken out five intruders. Al thought, the beasts were trying to wipe us out and came in force.
Then he remembered that Riktors hunted in pairs. There was, at least, one more.
****
The beasts seemed determined to make it to the human gathering place, and that is where they found, what they hoped, was the last assailant. The large wooden doors to the community center were splintered and broken, laying on the floor just inside the auditorium. Standing at the hole in the wall, Al could see the back of a powerful creature as it advanced on two people in the middle of the room. He could not use his rifle. The place was full of people huddling at the top of the bleachers.
Stepping to the side, he realized the two persons being attacked were Chris and Tammy. Some idiot had handcuffed her to the table, and Chris was doing all he could to pull the table—and Tammy—away from the beast.
I need to get it outside where I can deal with it.
He decided that keeping his secret was secondary to saving his friend and the girl, so he ran up to the monster from behind—and kicked it. Hard. Hard enough to leave a good size wound in the Riktors leg, intending to get its attention and lure it back through the door. It looked around to see what had assaulted it and promptly knocked Al into the bleachers with a flip of its tail.
Al untangled himself from the wreckage of the bleacher seats and started screaming and yelling at the Riktor over the sound of the rain. He headed for the door with the beast thundering right behind him. As he ran by on his way outside, a quick thinking Officer Sid tossed Al his rifle, replacing the one Al had dropped in his flight to the bleachers. It was an excellent throw, and it probably saved Al’s life.
Once outside, it was a simple matter of rolling to face the opposite direction, and shooting the beast in the head a number of times, before it could get close enough to tear him apart. The creature fell into the mud with a final scream—and died too close for comfort.
Al, covered in mud and dripping with blood, took a moment to collect himself. He went back through the broken doorway into the auditorium and told his men to pair up and search the entire compound for more intruders and check for casualties.
Once again, the Riktor attack was over. The only problem was that this time—everyone in the auditorium knew that Al Clark was not what he appeared to be.
****
Al went over first thing and shook Sid’s hand. He told him, “That was some throw, Sid. If we ever get a baseball team together, I want you on my side.”
Officer Sid looked down and smiled, “I didn’t take the time to think about it, it just happened—but I’m glad it worked. You did way more than I could have and better than any…person I’ve ever seen. Don’t worry sir, no matter what, I’ve got your back.
“Thank you, Sid, I appreciate that. I might need all the friends I can find after this.”
Other than a few cuts on Tammy’s wrist from the stupid handcuffs, she and Chris were okay. Robot Nine was found lying in the mud with his arms broken, with a large dent in his body, repeating, “Sorry…sorry,” over and over.
No one in the auditorium was injured, save for the cuts and bruises from scrambling up the bleachers. A man and a woman would be found just outside, slain as they tried to get to the community center. Al and the captain had been too late. Other than that, the colony had survived relatively unscathed.
Now that the danger was over, the rain had reduced itself to a soft drizzle. Fate seems to work that way, giving people a break when they needed it most.
“Who handcuffed her to the table?” Al wanted to know.
The man assigned to stay with her during the trial answered hesitantly, “I did sir…I wanted to make sure she didn’t make a break for it.”
This reply increased Al’s anger, and he asked the man, “Where is she going to go? We are in the middle of nowhere and on a dinosaur infested planet for goodness sake.”
“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t think.”
“Your damn right you didn’t think. I didn’t ask for you to handcuff her—you should have asked me first. Do you realize you almost caused the deaths of two people because of your lack of judgment?”
The man was obviously embarrassed and regretful, and he replied, “Yes sir, I do…and they would have been killed if not for you sir. I still can’t believe you stopped it.”
Al, thinking it best to postpone any further conversation; turned and walked away.
It was starting to register with the crowd that something extraordinary had just happened right before their eyes, and questions were forming in their minds. People were standing around talking to each other, trying to make sense of these extraordinary developments.
A man yelled out, addressing his question at Al, “How did you do that? You put your foot into that animal and then ran faster than it did to get outside. How is that possible?”
Someone else joined in, “How did you do that?”
In the background, a voice could be heard. “He can’t be human. He must be one of those—.
Captain Effinger saw that things were starting to get out of hand. Standing at the judge’s table, he held up his hands and said in a commanding voice, “Everybody! I think we’ve had enough excitement for one night. The threat is over, and it is late. We will have to finish the trial in a day or two. Go home and get some sleep. We’ll reconvene and finish this after we clean-up and make the camp safe again. All senior staff, I need to speak with you now. Everyone else is to go home.”
Al gathered with his men, told half of them to go home, and ordered the remaining half to stand guard till morning. The captain assembled with the senior staff and gave the necessary orders to have the Riktors buried outside the village, to repair the fence, and to make repairs to the damage caused during the attack.
When Al finally had time, he cleaned himself up as best he could and went to find Chris and Tammy sitting at the defense table, patiently waiting until someone could escort the prisoner back to her cage. By this time, the community center was almost empty.
Al walked up and said, “Come on you two, I’ll walk you home.”
They were the last to leave and didn’t bother closing the door.
“Are you tw
o okay?” Al asked as they walked out to the jail.
Tammy answered, “Never mind us. How are you doing? You must have flown forty feet and then landed in the bleachers. That had to hurt!”
“It wasn’t as bad as it must have looked. I’m all right; the bleachers broke my fall,” Al said, trying to make light of it while giving a discrete warning glance to Chris. Maybe he could still get away with saying it was an adrenaline rush, or maybe people would settle down and decide, with all the excitement, they had seen things they thought they saw, but hadn’t.
“Do you mind if I ask a question, Mister Clark?” Tammy said, looking him in the eyes.
“No, I don’t mind, go ahead.”
“I was there, not ten feet away from its open mouth…and then it was gone. It was there, and then seconds later you were shooting it in the courtyard. How did you do that?”
Her question made him see that saving his secret would be next to impossible. These colonists were smart people, and it dawned on Al that he would not fool them for long.
“It’s a long story Miss Shoemaker, but yes, I’m not an ordinary guy. I’m a human with a robotic body.”
“You’re a robot? Isn’t that like…bad?”
Al thought for a second, smiled a little and replied, “Not from where I’m standing.”
Chapter Nineteen
Kira knew that something was very wrong. She awoke from her bed and could hear the roaring and cries of monsters in the distance. The first person she woke was Toji and in a breathless voice, she told him, “The Riktors are attacking the Kuthra!”
Still half asleep, he listened for a moment and asked, “Is that coming from their village?”
“Yes,” she said, “I think our friends are in trouble. The Riktors sound very angry.”
“What should we do?”
“We must try to help them.
“Can we help them?”
If we gather enough Sansi, we can help.
They made their decision, and woke the elders first, who in turn woke the rest of the cave dwellers. A group of twelve strong warriors were assembled, and armed with their best spears and knives. Then they rushed to try and save their gods; Kira and Toji in the lead.
The Sansi had not fought a Riktor in a very long time. Toji’s grandfather had killed one many years ago, but it had cost the life of four Sansi. The tanned hide from the beast was all they received as a reward. Their philosophy since then, had always been that it was better to hide than to fight. It was now time to change their thinking and do what they could to help the people from the stars.
The rain had diminished to a light drizzle as they made their way through the dark forest in the quick and silent style learned from their ancestors. Kira had been outside after dark only a few times in her life, and she found it quite disconcerting. The cloud cover and rain made it especially dark, and it was hard to see where they were stepping as the group of natives moved as fast as they could, having only the redeeming advantage of youth as their advantage.
The lights of the place where they kept the bad Kuthra’s came into view. By the noise they heard as they approached the compound, they were not surprised when some of the lights were blocked by a large silhouette of an angry monster. Outside the line of magic sticks that protected the gods, the taller than ten-foot monster paced back and forth, becoming more and more agitated as it listened to the destruction of his pack.
The warriors were resolute. They circled to both sides where the lights helped to reveal their prey and began throwing their spears, aiming to get as close as they could to something vital that would bring the beast down. Jumping and yelling they stayed out of the creature's reach, launching the stone-pointed spears with an accuracy that surprised even them.
The Riktor was a large elder creature, with a roar that shook the trees nearby. His tail thrashed and slapped the ground next to the always moving warriors. But the Sansi were nimble, and their tactics were relentless, harassing the beast and generating enough fear that it retreated to escape into the human settlement. Crossing the downed security fence, it headed into Camelot; towards the jail.
****
Al finally received an alarm from Watcher One, but the images displayed on his monitor were distorted and grainy. He was just beginning to think the drone had malfunctioned when the raging dinosaur burst into the light illuminating the prison gate, followed by the harassing natives.
Al’s enhancements had worn off hours ago, and with all the excitement and exertions of the previous attacks, he was not at his best. He was so slow in his response, that by the time he pulled his sidearm the beast was screaming in their faces.
The Sansi were all around it, and still throwing spears into its blood stained hide when it did something strange. It spun around and appeared to plead with its attackers. Its spinning stopped as it was facing the three humans and Al thought he detected a look of confusion cross its face. He shook his massive head, trying to clear the growing lethargy from his mind. The Riktor was dying, and it didn’t understand, even as it fell, that the fight was lost.
The Sansi had succeeded in their attempts to stop the last remaining monster, and it fell to the ground with a crash not ten feet from the three surprised humans. Chris, Tammy, and Al owed the Sansi their lives, and the natives were more than happy—they were ecstatic; jumping up and down like the children they were not long ago.
Chapter Twenty
Al convinced Kira that the beast they had killed had to be the last of the creatures and thanked them all for their bravery. The jubilant Sansi bowed to the people that they had thought of as gods, but now knew were as mortal as they, and headed home to begin telling the tale that would go down in Sansi history as one of their finest moments.
Chris, Al, and Tammy were exhausted. With the stress of the trial, and then almost losing her life, Tammy wanted only to lay down in her bed and sleep, so the two men led her into the habitat jail and said goodnight; leaving her in the care of her guards.
On their way back to the village, Chris wanted to know all about Al’s experience.
“How did it feel to be enhanced again? Did you find out anything new?”
“I have to tell you, Chris; it’s like nothing you can imagine. It makes me feel like I can do anything. I had to be careful after the attack, that I didn’t accidentally hurt someone until it wore off.”
“Did you learn anything new?”
Al smiled at the memory of the feeling. “It seems I can see pretty well in pouring rain—in the dark. My legs can survive a fifteen-foot drop—with no ill effects, and my foot could be classified as a lethal weapon.”
“From what I saw, I’ll have to remember never to ask you to kick me…you know…if I do something stupid.”
They walked for a while, both deep in thought. Chris remembered the look on Tammy’s face, as she watched Al assault the monster and lead it outside. He remembered the entire village watching.
“Do you think this is going to cause you trouble?”
“Up until I went into the auditorium, to get what I thought was the last creature, I think no one would have been the wiser. Now, with all that happened, I think I’ll have some explaining to do.”
“So…what are you going to do?”
“At this point Chris, I have no idea. But, I have a feeling, when everybody gathers together to finish this trial, the village will be judging two people; Tammy Shoemaker and Al Clark.
****
Things were different for Al after that night. People on the same sidewalk as he would turn and go the other way. He would sit down at a table in the cafeteria, and people would appear uncomfortable, and then move to a different table. The colonists that weren’t afraid of him had a thousand questions, and he grew tired of trying to explain himself. He began to throw himself into his work. He gathered his men, and told them his entire story, leaving nothing out. They assured him they were there for him, and would do what they could to try and make his life a little easier.
The on
e thing that didn’t change was the support from his real friends. They gathered to discuss his situation the night after the attack, to let him know they would do everything they could to persuade the colonists that Al was not a threat to the colony, but an asset.
Elizabeth Morris had converted her two habitats, placed end to end, into a comfortable place to live—or visit. She had kept the parts printer’s busy on-board the Excalibur producing window shades, louvered cabinets, dishes, and numerous other home furnishings. Cloth curtains framed each window, ready to be closed when the sun became annoying, and as most women seem to enjoy having pillows about, there were plenty to go around.
“I’ll sit with you when you go to breakfast…if you want?” volunteered Liz, “Actually, I like that idea. They’ll know I’m on your side.”
“That is an excellent idea,” Ana said, “How about we all join you. We should probably join you for all your meals. We can’t have you eating alone.”
Kayla, Cody, and the captain agreed. Chris was at the jail keeping Tammy company.
Liz confessed with just a hint of a smile, “I was hoping to have a nice quiet breakfast, just Al and I.”
Doctor Cody laughed and said with his Haitian accent, “Now Elizabeth, there will be plenty of time for that once we convince the good people of Camelot that Al Clark is a good man and not someone to fear.”
They made arrangements for them to meet for breakfast, and slowly everyone said their goodbyes and left to go to their homes, except for Liz and Al; left sitting on the love seat—together.
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