But there was a major difference between modern-day swamps and this place, because Harry warned them huge, freshwater sharks, along with deadly champsosaurs – creatures superficially resembling long-snouted crocodiles, but much larger – patrolled the area. Just in case, Gus aimed the laser cannon at the water, but to his relief he didn’t spot anything.
Kris gunned the engine, sending sprays of water sideways as they headed over the river rocks. A six-ton male Triceratops wallowed nearby, but didn’t seem to notice the ruckus.
“He’s one big guy,” Harry happily said. “Maybe twice the size of a rhino.”
In the distance, more of the male’s kind browsed on ferns, using their parrotlike beaks to nip off pieces of the fronds. Kris parked the Rover just as grunts and squeals filled the air, and Harry speculated it might be females laying eggs.
With guns drawn, Gus and the others followed Harry, picking their way through dense vegetation. Every so often, there was a loud crunching sound, as someone inadvertently stepped on eggshells from the previous season.
Harry steered them toward the grunts. Behind a screen of ferns, Gus halted, straining for a better view.
“Over there,” Harry whispered, pointing. Two female Triceratops stood with their rear ends hanging over a shallow pit of sandy soil. As Gus lowered his weapon and watched, they took turns laying eggs in a concentric circle within the nest. Cypress fronds, along with some old bits of eggshell and plant debris, had been mixed with soft earth to cushion the eggs.
“They share nests?” Dawn asked.
“Apparently so,” Harry replied. “We’ve suspected as much for a long time, ever since the 1920s in Mongolia, when Protoceratops nests with up to thirty fossilized eggs were discovered. We’ve found sites with hundreds of nests, much like any bird colony. Raising baby dinosaurs was... I mean is a communal effort.” Harry turned to Lex. “You gettin’ this, Doc?”
Nodding ever so slightly, Lex had started filming the nesting activity with his VR headset.
As soon as the egg laying was completed – by Harry’s count, twenty-four eggs now rested in the nest – the females used their snouts to push dirt over the clutch. By the time they’d finished, the nest had raised edges protecting the sunken middle, which was covered with a thick blanket of soil.
Without a glance backward, the females lumbered off into the bushes.
“Where are they going, Harry?” Dawn asked.
“Who knows? I doubt they’ll go far. Many dinosaur species care for their young after they hatch, and I bet Triceratops does, too.” Harry watched the females disappear into the woods. “You know, I’d like to get one of those eggs.”
Dawn frowned. “What if the females are watching?”
“You know, I have to agree with Dawn,” Kris said. “Leave the nests alone for the time being.”
Harry frowned. “What do you think, Doc?” he asked, turning to Lex.
But Lex wasn’t listening. Gus followed the path of his stare and caught something lurking on the opposite side of the clearing. Five pairs of aquamarine eyes studied them from behind some shrubbery.
One of the dinosaurs moved forward, heading toward the nest. Gus raised his gun, getting it in his sights. The thing was man-sized with a turquoise-blue feathered head, perched atop a slender neck ringed with bright red plumage. It walked on two legs, having a long-legged, birdlike body, which was also brightly colored with yellow and blue feathers. But it was distinctively different from a bird because of its powerful arms, ending with three clawed digits on each hand.
“My guess is Struthiomimus,” Harry said. “One of the ostrichlike dinosaurs.”
Gus noticed only the lead dinosaur had bright feathers; the ones bringing up the rear were dull brown with a little blue on their heads, sort of like male and female ducks.
“Incredible, freakin’ incredible!” Harry seemed positively exultant as he turned and saw Gus’s raised gun. “Aw, come on, they won’t bother you. Lower your weapon.”
“Not on your life, Harry.” Gus kept his finger resting lightly on the trigger.
Heads bobbing around, the dinosaurs walked with little, jerky movements, their tails thrust out stiffly behind.
“Hey, look,” Lex said, filming again. “They move like chickens.”
Kris shook her head. “No, more like emus.”
“I wonder what they taste like?” Dawn asked brightly.
“Probably like chicken,” Lex said, to laughter.
The entire pack of ostrich dinosaurs halted. “Oops,” Kris flinched, then smiled. “I bet they heard us.”
Everyone stood still, barely breathing. A moment passed, and then, in unison, the dinosaurs sniffed the air and started toward the nest again. Once there, they put their heads down and began digging. It took only a few seconds before each of them had an egg. They cracked open the shells, and the sound of slurping filled the air.
“Doc,” Harry told Lex, “move off a little and get closer. We need to get all of this.”
“Gotcha.” Lex inched forward. The pack was at it again, digging for more eggs. Then Lex suddenly turned, focusing on his comrades. “Hey, everyone – smile!”
“Are you getting my good side?” Kris joked. She stood a little taller and grinned, waving to Lex. “Hi––”
A deafening roar split the air, and Gus saw a Triceratops crashing through the brush. Head down, the beast burst into the clearing, her tri-horned rill now streaked with flaming red. She charged the pack of ostrich dinosaurs, her large horns catching two of them and flipping them into the air.
Instinctively, Gus fired off three rounds, hitting the Triceratops in the shoulder, but the beast kept moving. As her thunderous bellows continued, he fired again, to no avail.
Now she was coming straight at them!
“Move it!” he shouted as he grabbed Dawn and Kris’s arms and made a mad dash for the Rover.
***
Lex watched as the others bolted, but he stood frozen, unable to move. The enraged Triceratops saw him, wheeled about, and charged.
There was no time to react – the horns hit him like a freight train, and he was hurled high above the female’s head.
He was flying. For a brief moment, he felt like he was weightless.
Then, with a blinding jolt, he hit the ground. Pain burst through his chest. He coughed uncontrollably as the sharp, metallic taste of blood flooded his senses. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t breathe. He gasped for air, his agony unbearable.
He gazed at the sky as another wrenching spasm shook his body.
No! Tash––!
“My Alexander, my Sasha.” Somewhere, from a distance, he heard her answering voice, quiet, lovingly whispered, the way she used to speak when they were young, when they were newlyweds.
Oh, Tash, my Tasha, oh, hon, I love––
He saw his boys again. Nick and Mike. Their smiles warmed his heart, and then he felt Tasha’s arms around him, holding him tight.
His thoughts ended as a deep, serene blackness enveloped him, and the world slipped away.
Chapter 17
Time does not relinquish its rights, either over human beings or over monuments.
~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Elective Affinities
Tasha hummed as she finished up her chores. She’d always loved working by herself; since childhood, she was proud she had the self-discipline to do things without anyone’s prodding. Today, for the first time in months, she was alone, a luxury on any spacecraft or mission. Oh, she was half-listening to the chatter of her husband and his comrades, coming over the com-link. But no one talked to her now. Even Jean-Michel would be out of range for a few minutes more.
She happily sighed, glad she’d given in and let Gus and Lex go off to see the dinosaurs. After taking a seat, she poured herself some tea. There were leftover cookies on a tray, Lex’s favorite Fig Newtons. She nibbled at one, tasting the fig jam, then decided that even after all these years she still couldn’t bring herself to finish it. Russian desserts
were so much better and she resolved to make some prianiki for tonight.
Suddenly, Lex’s voice boomed over the com. “Hey, everyone – smile!”
Tasha laughed. Lex always fancied himself an ace photographer. She took a sip of her tea, listening to Kris’s chatter. “Are you getting my good side? Hi––”
A bloodcurdling scream, then a roar burst from the com-link, causing Tasha to start. She leapt to her feet, spilling her tea, and raced over to the table, fumbling about with her hands until she brought up the visual transmission from Lex’s headset.
In disbelief, she stared at the image. A huge, tri-horned monster had burst from some bushes, charging straight at him!
“Alexander!” she shrieked. There was a shout, and then some sort of thunderous reverberation. Was that gunfire? Had the dinosaur been shot? But then, she saw it was still coming, running in a full bore assault.
She heard Gus yell, “Move it!”
The huge beast was now almost upon Lex. Why hadn’t he moved?
“Run!” she shouted, hoping he would hear her through the com-link.
Shaking, she moved her hands over the table, attempting to bring up the feed to his link, desperate he should hear her voice. “Run, Alexander – my God, do you hear me? – Alexander! My Sasha!”
With an electronic hiss, the com-screen went dark. Mouth falling open, Tasha stared at incomprehensible blankness. Why was there no transmission from Lex’s headset?
Tasha sat there in stunned silence as Jean-Michel’s face flickered to life. “Valiant,” he said in a sonorous voice, “this is Destiny. Do you copy?”
“What happened?” Tasha heard herself shriek.
“Doctor?”
“Oh, Mother of God!” She gasped. “I think he is dead!”
“Who?”
“Alexander!”
Not waiting for a reply, she jumped to her feet, ran to the hatch, and flung it open. In her panic, she lost her footing and tumbled down the steps. When she picked herself out of the dirt, she was only vaguely aware her left knee had started to throb.
“Nyet! Nyet!” she screamed as she staggered mindlessly toward the plain.
It took a moment before the years of training took over and she ground to a halt. What are you doing? she berated herself. Just where do you think you’re going?
She knew she had to get organized if she wanted to help. Perhaps there was still a chance for Lex. After all, she hadn’t seen what happened after the transmission went dark. He would need her help – and quickly.
She looked down at her bloody knee, at her torn clothes, and realized she had not grabbed her medical kit. Durachok! she thought in disgust. Oaf!
Squinting against the sunshine, she started back to the Valiant, cursing herself, hating herself. Sweat poured off her body by the time she got inside the lander and grabbed everything she needed. She looked at her watch. How long had it been since Lex’s transmission ended? Whatever the case, she knew she needed to move.
With the medical kit strapped to her back and her headset in place, she opened the hatch. This time, she had the forethought to close it before she left. With a far steadier gate, she walked down the stairs.
Her communicator was on a chain beneath her shirt. She took it out and asked, “Jean-Michel?”
“Oui?”
“Do you know how much time has elapsed since...?”
“One minute, twenty-eight seconds.”
Horrified, Tasha almost stumbled, but then caught herself. “I, I am heading to them now. Tell Gus if anything happened to,” she swallowed hard, choking back the great lump rising in her throat, “if my husband has been mortally injured, Gus must get his body cooled down to preserve brain function. If he dies,” she struggled to keep her mind on the task at hand, “if that happens, Gus must act swiftly – before four minute mark passes, otherwise brain cells begin to die.”
“Roger that. Gus must replace Lex’s blood with the coolant.”
“Pray this works, Jean-Michel.”
There was a moment of silence. “I shall do that, Doctor.”
Taking a deep breath, gulping against the rising tide of emotions, Tasha made the sign of the cross, then turned west and started to run.
***
“Destiny to Mars Rover, do you copy? Come in! Come in, Mars Rover!”
When Jean-Michel started frantically hailing them, Gus came out of his stupor and looked around. Everyone had crouched down next to the vehicle, listening to the turmoil in the clearing. Based on the frenzied roars, the Triceratops was still on a rampage.
Jean-Michel repeated, “Destiny to Mars Rover, do you copy?”
“This is Granberg.”
“Commander, what happened to Lex? I cannot get a read from his homing beacon. Are you with him now?”
Gus closed his eyes. The last he’d seen, the Triceratops was charging Lex. “No, Jean-Michel. I had to get the others out of there. We can’t risk going back yet.”
“You must. You have very little time to save Lex. Apparently, Tasha watched everything over the com. She said to get Lex’s blood drained and cool him down before four minutes pass.”
Gus felt sick. “Okay, but––”
“Commander, you know the medical protocol. Help Lex before it is too late. You have a little over two minutes, depending if and when he died.”
That got Gus moving. He grabbed the medical kit from the Rover, then looked at the crew. Both Kris and Dawn were shaking. Harry had his head in his hands.
“Harry, get up,” Gus demanded. “We have to help Lex.”
“Lex... yes,” Harry muttered as he grabbed his gun and started to rise. Dawn and Kris rose, too.
“No,” Gus told the women. “You two stay here.” When Dawn opened her mouth to protest, he pointed to Harry. “I’m dead serious about this. Only he goes with me. If anything happens to us, find Tasha and head back to the Valiant, then blast off for the Destiny.”
The women looked at each other and nodded.
Satisfied they’d follow orders, Gus cocked an ear. Was it his imagination, or were the roars of the Triceratops getting fainter? “Time to move,” he said as he set off into the brush, Harry on his heels.
A minute later, Gus stopped amid the ferns. Half way across the clearing, Lex’s body was sprawled in the dirt flat on his back, limbs splayed haphazardly. Gus studied the area. There was no sign of the Triceratops.
Gun raised, he started forward, Harry right behind. They came upon a dead Struthiomimus, stepped to the side of its carcass, and moved on. From somewhere in the distance, the low, rumbling call of a dinosaur echoed a warning.
Gus listened to another faraway roar, an answering call, as they came to a halt by Lex.
“Maybe he’s still alive,” Harry said unconvincingly.
Gus swallowed. There was a bloody hole in the center of Lex’s chest. No one could survive that.
He had to be sure, though. Stooping over, he placed his forefinger against Lex’s throat and waited for some sign of a pulse. But it was immediately obvious to him – from the fixed, blank stare, dilated pupils, and slack lower jaw – that his friend had suffered a massive hemorrhage, probably from a punctured aorta. If Lex wasn’t already dead, he was nearly so.
“How long since it happened, Jean-Michel?” Gus asked into the headset.
“Three minutes, thirty-two seconds, Commander – if he died instantly.”
Gus yanked open the medical kit, hoping Lex had hung on for a little while. As Harry stood guard, Gus fumbled with the blood replacement pump, then, after ripping open Lex’s T-shirt, affixed the pump to his neck.
The medical robot automatically pierced the skin and started draining what remained of Lex’s blood, while replacing it with the oxygen-rich plasma coolant. Meanwhile, Gus put pressure on the wound, hoping enough of the fluid would get into Lex’s circulatory system to do its work. But bloody fluid gushed out, covering Gus’s hands. Still, he refused to give up, setting up another robot when the first one quit, keeping pressur
e on Lex’s chest, until Harry said, “It’s been over ten minutes.”
Grim and despondent, Gus wiped his hands, then closed Lex’s eyelids for the last time. Despite his resolve to keep his emotions under check, a few tears spilled down his cheeks. With a curse, he brushed them aside, then slung his gun over his right shoulder. He spotted Lex’s headset, resting on the ground nearby. He retrieved it and lifted the body, heaving it onto his left shoulder.
After shifting the corpse into a more comfortable position, Gus glanced at Harry as he leaned over the Struthiomimus carcass. The paleontologist had his knife out. What was he doing?
“Harry?” Gus asked in disbelief.
He looked up. “I was just thinking we could take some tissue.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“But...”
“You’ve got about a second to get movin’ before I––” Choking back the rest of his thoughts, Gus didn’t wait around to see Harry’s reaction. Lex’s body felt heavy against his shoulder as he turned and left. Within moments, he felt a patch of dampness on his back as blood and coolant soaked into his shirt.
Gus swore viciously. This was his own goddamned fault. He’d allowed everyone to behave like kids in an amusement park, filming the dinosaurs and joking around as though the beasts were senseless robots. As for Harry, he should have known better, too. Dinosaurs weren’t the be all and end all of existence. There were more important things to consider here. Lives were at stake, human lives.
Gus pushed on toward the Rover, refusing to turn around and see if Harry brought up the rear.
But somehow, he knew the paleontologist was there. After all, Harry’s so-called paradise had just gotten altogether hellish, too.
***
The Mars Rover raced on, Kris at the wheel. Dawn sat on the passenger side, numb, pondering all they’d been through, the aching tragedy. For much of her professional life, she had dealt with death clinically. An archeologist’s job was to uncover the places inhabited by persons long ago and to excavate their tombs and burial mounds. But now...
Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel) Page 19