Jasper Flint and the Dinosaur Saddle

by Jack Geurts

  She laid her arms out on the arm rests, looking something like a queen in her throne, and suddenly, the whole thing powered up with a smooth, mechanical whir. She hadn’t touched anything, pushed any button or turned any key – not that there was anything to be pushed or turned. It just started.

  Io looked back at Jasper, who was standing there by the top of the ramp, gazing about himself in wonder.

  “What is this thing?”

  “A Flight Pod,” she said. “Please, sit.”

  Io gestured toward the passenger seat beside her. He went over and sat down, followed the entire way by Dia’s squinting eyes.

  The chair was surprisingly comfortable. Despite being made of the same metal as the rest of the Pod, it yielded under his weight and changed shape to match the contours of his body, like some kind of memory foam. He put his arms on the armrests and settled in, still not quite believing where he was or how he came to be there.

  “Belt,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Put your belt on.”

  Dia appeared by Jasper’s head and screeched, like a drill sergeant telling him to do what he was told. Jasper started with fright. He quickly pulled each belt from one side to the other and clicked them in. Dia slunk back behind the chair, satisfied but suspicious.

  Just as it did so, the ramp began to lift with a pneumatic inhale. Jasper looked back, watching it raise up and lock into place with the rest of the hull. It formed a perfect floor behind them as if no door existed there at all. Again, this didn’t seem to be triggered by any apparent action of Io’s. It was almost like the Flight Pod was doing these things on its own.

  Before he could ask her what was happening, Jasper felt the Pod lift a little, his stomach drop. They hovered there, and from below, he heard the telescopic legs retracting into the hull. Again, Io was just sitting there while all these things were happening, looking straight ahead through the window.

  Distracted as he was, Jasper didn’t notice Dia’s head appear above the chair behind him, rising like a gopher from its hole. In one quick move, the Archaeopteryx snatched Jasper’s hat in its jaws, yanking it off his head and disappearing once again behind the chair.

  “Hey!”

  Jasper tried to turn and see where Dia had gone with his hat, but he was belted in tight.

  “Please refrain from turning in your seat,” Io said, with the indifferent tone of a flight attendant. She was apparently ignorant of her pet’s theft.

  When the legs were fully withdrawn, the Pod began to move forward, surging through the air. Jasper felt himself pushed back into his seat by the sudden acceleration, teeth clenched, knuckles white on the armrests. The vessel continued to pick up speed and he looked out ahead through the window, seeing the darkened land pass by.

  “Prepare yourself,” she said, and before he could ask what for, the Flight Pod around them simply vanished.

  Suddenly, the two of them were sitting in mid-air, hurtling across the desert at frightening speed, with nothing in between them and the ground rushing past below.

  Jasper cried out in shock, and clutched the invisible armrests even harder. He felt his stomach drop a second time, felt himself falling. But he didn’t hit the ground. He didn’t move down at all, in fact, only forward. A tingling numbness started in his chest and spread out to his fingers and toes. His eyes went wide, taking in the earth below, the sky above. The world was visible in every direction, as if he were simply flying.

  He looked at Io floating weightlessly beside him for some explanation, but she kept her eyes front, relaxed, like they were going for a Sunday drive. Indeed, she had the same vacant expression people got when they were driving a car – aware of the world, but not especially interested by it. Focused only on the road ahead.

  As Jasper acclimatised to the new translucence of his surroundings, he reached out to touch the wall. He felt its hard surface under his fingers, but to his eye, there was nothing there. He felt his boots pressed flat against the ground, but to him, it seemed like they were dangled off the edge of a cliff, or some kind of roller-coaster.

  It was like everything around them was made of the clearest glass.

  “What is your name?” Io said, as if they were strangers making small talk.

  The boy took a moment to find his voice again. “Jasper. My name’s...”

  She looked over and noticed his fear, his awe. His complete and utter bewilderment.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, fine, fine. I’m sitting beside an alien in her invisible spaceship, flying to find the man who brought a dinosaur back to life and rode it like a horse.”

  Jasper realised he must be in some kind of shock now. Just saying it out loud helped him come to terms with how crazy his situation was.

  In the process of looking around, he saw his hat upturned on the invisible floor beside him. Nestled inside the crown was Dia, curled up like a cat and sleeping soundly, feathered tail covering its face.

  “I understand this must be strange to you,” Io said.

  “Strange?” It was perhaps the single greatest understatement Jasper had ever heard.

  Io seemed to hesitate before continuing. “I feel I must tell you that my mission is not find the rider.”

  Jasper looked over at her, but she kept her eyes front. Realising he’d been at least partially deceived, he said, “Then where are we going?”

  “We are going to find the map.”

  Yet another piece of the puzzle he could not hope to understand. Jasper opened his mouth to ask what the map was, but then thought better of it. He simply sighed and shook his head and leaned back into the invisible chair.

  For now, he was content to just be silent, to think about what had happened, what was happening and what might happen next.

  PART II

  THE FORGOTTEN SHORE

  CHAPTER SIX

  Across The Sea

  They had left behind the north-west coast of Australia and were flying over the Indian Ocean when Jasper spoke again.

  “You said we were going to find him.”

  “I said I could find him, not that that was where we were going.”

  “So you lied to me?”

  Io took offence at this. “I did no such thing. But I am sorry if I misled you.”

  “I want to find the man who killed my parents.”

  “I know you do,” she said, and he could feel the sympathy in her voice. Like she was speaking from experience. “But that is not the most important thing right now.”

  “No? And what is, then? This map?”

  “Yes.”

  “What map?” Jasper’s voice was louder now, his ignorance turning to frustration. “What are you? How do I know you’re not working with that guy? You look the same...”

  “I do not!” she said, blatantly offended.

  Jasper was surprised by her outburst. “Okay, maybe not the same, but...similar. You’re both aliens. You’re both tall. You both have that...glove thing.” He held up his hand and turned it several times to illustrate his point. “I’ll admit he was a bit more scary-looking, but...”

  “A bit? Was that Janus you came in contact with or one of my people?”

  “Is there a difference?”

  “Yes, there’s a difference. My god! How would you feel if I asked whether there was any difference between you and an ape?”

  Jasper was a little taken aback. “Well...I don’t know. I guess we kind of look alike. We’re evolved from the same species.”

  “As are we.”`

  “So, he’s like the ape version of whatever you are?”

  “I wouldn’t put it so crudely, but yes.”

  Far in the distance, Jasper saw a cargo ship lit with a hundred floodlights, maybe more – alone on the vast, black sea. From the time he could make out the ship on the horizon to the time it passed beneath them, it had only been a matter of seconds – such was the speed of Io’s plane.

  She had pushed it to full velocity while they were still
over land. Within minutes, they had cleared the coast and rocketed out over the ocean, headed for a place known only to one of them. It took him a while to get used to – part of it being the intense acceleration, part of it the invisible spacecraft – but now in a kind of floating stasis, he felt his senses coming back to him.

  “Will you just tell me what’s going on?” said Jasper, resigned.

  “Of course I will. What would you like to know?”

  “For starters, how about where are you taking me?”

  Io didn’t miss a beat. “The place you now call Iraq, but which was not always so.”

  Jasper wasn’t sure he heard right. “Iraq?”

  “It has gone by many names. Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Mesopotamia.”

  “I know what it is,” he said, a little defensive. “But why are we going there? The place is a war zone.”

  “Not the part we are going to,” Io said. “Though it has seen its share of wars in the past.”

  “And why are we going to this particular war zone?”

  “Because that is where it is said the map begins.”

  “What map? And who says?”

  Io remained calm. “My people. The Precursors.”

  “The...Precursors?”

  “That is our name, for we came before you. And why we refer to your species as the Progeny.”

  “Progeny?” Jasper said, shaking his head in confusion. “Your...offspring? Your children?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes. We walked this earth long before you did. You inherited it from us.” Finally, she turned to meet his eye. “It was our saddle you found.”

  Jasper considered all this. “So, you’re telling me...that your people...rode the dinosaurs?”

  Io nodded, like it was nothing. “Yes, but we didn’t just ride them, we co-existed with them. In the same way your people have ridden horses, or used livestock to plough your fields, or kept dogs and cats as household pets. The same way we still do.”

  “Still?” said Jasper, before remembering the Archaeopteryx curled up beside him in his cowboy hat.

  “Well, yes. When we left, we took many of them with us.”

  “When you left?”

  “When the asteroid hit.”

  Jasper let out a breath, reeling from all this new information. “Where did you go?”

  Io looked up at the stars, scattered like diamonds in a black and purple quagmire. “According to current human estimates, there are approximately forty billion earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone. These planets have the potential to be habitable, both for your kind and mine.”

  “Yeah?” Jasper said, waiting for her to continue.

  “So...yes, one of those.”

  “Which one?”

  “I am not allowed to say.”

  Jasper frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because we are not supposed to interfere in matters on earth.”

  “What do you call this?”

  “I am here because Janus is here,” she explained. “If he did not do what he did, then I would not have been sent. If we do nothing, then your people may never find what was left behind for you to find.”

  “Left behind by...you?”

  “By my ancestors. At a certain point after the dust had settled, they returned to earth and removed any trace of their existence. Their towns, their cities. Anything that remained, so that it would appear as if they had never lived at all. I imagine they could not have removed everything, and I am sure there are remnants still out there to be found. But this saddle was the first.”

  Jasper thought hard, trying to put it all together. “So they did all that, got rid of everything...What did they leave behind?”

  “Well, nothing at that point. They simply erased what was left of their civilisation, and returned to their new home. But many millions of years later, they came back...and left the map.”

  “Why?”

  At this, Io grew uncertain. “It has been so long since the map was laid, so many wars fought amongst my own people, that the Mapmakers’ exact instructions have been lost. All that survives is myth and legend passed down through generations. The starting place is all that can be guessed with any certainty.”

  Guessed? Jasper thought.

  Before Io had said that, he simply assumed she knew everything – where they were going, what they had to do when they got there. The confident way she carried herself, the way she spoke, the way she piloted the Flight Pod – all of it led him to believe he was in good hands. Now, he felt himself becoming less and less sure.

  “And what if you’re wrong?” he said.

  “I do sorely hope that I am not, for then the outcome looks very grim indeed.”

  “The outcome? Of what?”

  “Of the human race.”

  Jasper went silent, feeling a pang of dread in the pit of his stomach.

  “It is said,” she began, “that the Precursors recognised a change in the Progeny. A shift in their very nature. On the surface, it was the decision to abandon their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle to adopt agriculture. To settle in villages and raise crops and livestock, rather than foraging in the wilderness. But really, it was the beginning of the end. Now, people did not have to hunt and gather every day. They had more than enough crops, so more children could be born. Slowly, the population grew, and people began trading with one another. They bartered at first, but as camps became villages, then towns and cities, money was introduced. Certain people took control and grew rich. Suddenly, they were not equal any more. People banded together to defend their crops, and fought with each other over the most fertile land. In this way, armies were born. So, too, were kings and slaves. Poverty, disease, famine, war, the ruin of your natural world – all of this can be traced back to that time when people dropped their spears and picked up a shepherd’s crook.”

  Jasper listened, taking it all in.

  “It is said,” she went on, “that when my people saw this change occurring, they recognised it for what it was. So they came back, and laid out a map for the Progeny to find. A map that would allow them to save themselves and their planet when they were advanced enough to find it, and follow it. A map that has since been lost or buried.”

  “Then how do you know where it is?”

  “It is said...”

  “By who?” Jasper was growing annoyed by the phrase. “Who said? Who’s saying all these things?”

  Io shot him a look. “My people.”

  Jasper scoffed and her glare intensified.

  “You think I am lying?”

  “No. I think you’re basing whatever it is you’re doing here on a story that, if you’re not making it up, is over ten thousand years old.”

  “So?”

  “So...you don’t think it might have gotten twisted in that time? Y’know, like Chinese whispers.”

  The idiom was lost on Io. “Chinese what?”

  “Don’t worry.”

  Io tried to figure out what the strange phrase could possibly mean, then shook her head and went back to piloting the Flight Pod.

  “For your sake,” she said. “I hope the story has remained true to its original telling.”

  Jasper sighed with frustration. Io took note of this.

  “Our people have existed continually for over a hundred and fifty million years, Jasper. Even counting from your earliest ancestors, you are less than three million years old. Will you not trust that I know what I am talking about?”

  Jasper sat up a little straighter. “I just don’t think something like that can be known, especially if it wasn’t written down or anything.”

  “I see your point,” she said, nodding. “But this is the only clue that remains from that time. If there is nothing there, I will admit I was wrong, take you back, and you will never see me again.”

  At this, Jasper looked away, out over the night-time world. It suddenly dawned on him that he didn’t have a whole lot to go back to, and a part of him hoped that he was wrong, that
this map did exist, even if only to delay his return home.

  “Why did you bring me along?” he said. “Why not just leave me there?”

  “I could not just leave you there. And I did not think there was any reason for you to stay.” She paused, a little sheepish, then went on, “Also, I...read your file.”

  He looked over. “My file?”

  “The file my people have compiled on you, as they have compiled on every person since the dawn of your species.”

  Jasper didn’t even try to comprehend. At this point, he was beyond being surprised and had just settled into a state of constant disbelief.

  The idea of some enormous bank of information containing profiles on every human being ever to have lived was unfathomable. He wondered how thorough they were, and briefly toyed with the idea of looking up Ramesses the Great or Julius Caesar – seeing what they looked like, how they behaved behind closed doors when the history-writers could not see them. Things only an outside observer like a Precursor would know.

  Io went on, “As soon as I saw you standing there alone, I brought up your file. It said you are very well-read in human history, and your intelligence is far beyond what would be expected of someone your age. I thought you might...be of use.”

  “You mean in helping you find this map?”

  She nodded. “While I can speak your language and have a basic understanding of your culture, there are many things about this planet I do not know. Many things you may be able to help me with. And besides, the map was always meant to be found by your people, so perhaps it is fitting I should not do this alone.” She looked at him. “Since you are not in a position to refuse, I would be glad to have your assistance on this mission.”

  Jasper knew he was in no position at all to refuse. He also knew that this girl was the only chance he had of finding his parents’ killer.

  “So...” he began. “What is...said...about this map?”

  Io smiled. “It is said...” She paused for emphasis. “...that the map begins in the place where your civilisation began.”

  “In Iraq?”

  “Yes, but more specific. The place where it began. The oldest city. The first city.”