Land Of The Thunder Dragon

by Dave Williams

  A distant drone could be heard, and Timothy pointed out to Skye, that he could see Priscilla, climbing through the valley.

  Skye connected to Lauren. “Lauren? Can you guys maintain as much distance as possible and still establish an internet link with Lurch? We are filming a statement from OSNB that we want to publish. We will let you know when we are finished.”

  Lauren looked at Rajid in the pilot’s seat and said, “Who the hell is OSNB?”

  Raj shrugged his shoulders and banked the plane away to port, taking them as close to the valley wall as he dared.

  “I suppose we are about to find out. I will put up a live feed from Lurch on the screen.”

  When the display went live, she saw David, sitting on a rock with prayer flags all around him, the Takstang Monastery could be seen in the background.

  “When myself and my cousins, Skye, Flynn, Timothy, Wayne and Lurch arrived here in Bhutan, we were taken to visit a Lama, to receive our Buddhist names. These names are not so much names to be called by, but a direction in life, a code to live by perhaps.”

  David continued, “We were sent here, with another opportunity to complete the mission that my Grandfather could not complete ninety one years ago, when he had just turned Twelve years old, as I did a few days ago. The mission was to activate a device, somewhere in the Takstang Monastery that you can see perched high on the cliff behind me. I was successful in activating the device last night.”

  Rajid and Lauren looked at each other. “What the fuck is he doing? Should we cut the feed?” said Rajid.

  “No Raj,” said Lauren very calmly, “I know exactly what they are doing. They just saved their own lives.”

  “I want to apologise to everyone and every faction who has tried to kill us in order to prevent this from happening. It was only after activating the device, that I found out what it really does.”

  “This device is like a giant planetary reset button. We, my cousins and I, and I presume every person on this planet will soon be given a number of tasks to complete. If these tasks are completed successfully, the environment of Earth will be reset for the benefit of every living thing here. If we fail, the environment will still be reset, but minus human beings.”

  “Knowing this, is why we forgive those who have tried to stop us before today. We understand that you wouldn’t want to trust a bunch of kids with your future. But we are in this together now, the device has been activated. We must see this as an opportunity, because regardless of this, humans have a limited time left on this planet. We have stuffed it up too badly.”

  “We will upload details about our journey so far, there will be no secrets. We will continue to update you with our progress, and I assume, ask for your help in the missions ahead, once we receive them.”

  “My name is,” David said with a smile, “Outer Space Nature Boy.”

  “CUTTTT,” yelled Lurch, “That’s a wrap, got it in one.” He high fived a bemused looking Flynn.

  “Oh My God,” said Timothy to Flynn, “What have you created. How embarrassing.”

  Chapter 35

  “The Naked Truth”

  The command staff all sat together on the lookout of the floating former space craft, The Conservator. What crew couldn’t fit on the deck, had made their way to other lookout points as they were to share this meeting while experiencing their first spectacular Soomian sunset.

  Everyone was sitting quietly, reflectively, as they took in the meaning of ‘Outer Space Nature Boy’s’ broadcast that they had all just seen.

  Molly stood, looking out over the railing at the first sunset she had seen in eleven years. Not that it felt that long, she had been in stasis and completely oblivious to what had happened since they had left Earth.

  There was a gangway that allowed her to walk out over to the edge of the ship, still high above the water. She walked out to the end.

  Molly was struggling. How could she reconcile abandoning her baby. Now seeing him, twelve years old, but seemingly already a man, or at least with the responsibilities and demeanour of a man. He had obviously become an incredible intelligence, and apart from her genes, she had contributed nothing towards it.

  Molly looked down at her body, clad in her plain ship suit. She felt heavy and sick, the effects of long term stasis. Her body had wasted, she was very thin. She felt like she would never be healthy again.

  Almost unconsciously, Molly’s fingers on her right hand found the zipper at her neck. On a flight suit, the zipper runs from the neck, all the way down and then veers down the right leg, all the way to the ankle. In one swift movement, the zipper ran all the way to the bottom and her ship suit virtually collapsed to the deck around her, as it was intended to do. She stepped out of it, completely naked and climbed to the top of the safety railing, swinging her arms for balance.

  Molly threw her arms forward, and dived gracefully off the railing. She pierced the water, shocked, not by the cold, but by the surprising warmth. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she was expecting the cold that she had experienced of her last swim in an Earth ocean. But no, the temperature was perfect, not overly hot like tropical water, but nicely cool.

  Molly went deep, as she rolled over and looked back up, she could see a myriad of bubbles, sparkling a golden orange against the brilliant sunset sky. An amazing calm came over her as she just hung there, suspended in the beautiful water, her golden hair floating all around her. She laughed as she realised that there was eleven years of golden hair growth floating around her.

  She felt something nudge her in the small of her back. A little panic started to set in, but then she relaxed, if something decided to eat her right now, why should she care? It nudged her again, and then a constant pressure came, and she realised that she was being pushed back toward the surface.

  There were silvery shapes all around her peripheral vision, it didn’t register with her at all as to what they were. They flashed in and out of her consciousness. Telepathically, they were trying to connect with her, to ask if she was ok. But Molly couldn’t quite accept that help yet, she didn’t know if she was ok. She didn’t know if she wanted to reach the surface and breathe again. She didn’t know if she could face being twelve light years from her amazing son who was in so much danger. She didn’t know if she could be that strong again.

  There were more pressure points in her back, pushing.

  Molly’s face gently emerged through the calm surface of the water. Her body involuntarily took a breath, and her eyes focused on Evan who was climbing over the railing and dove into the water with a very large splash.

  He surfaced alongside her with a massive ‘What The Fuck?’ expression on his face.

  “Are you ok?” he asked quietly.

  Molly looked deeply into Evan’s eyes, more deeply than she had ever done before, and kissed him.

  “Yes, I’m ok,” she finally replied with a mischievous look in her eye. “Disappointed, but ok.”

  Evan looked at Molly questioningly.

  “You promised me,” she continued. “That you would go skinny dipping with me when we got to Gamma Cygnus Three. And you still have your ship suit on.”

  They laughed together, as the water erupted with the pod of dolphins all around them, and other naked bodies started falling out of the sky.

  “No secrets on this mission hey?” She laughed at Evan, as she saw all the skinny naked people swimming and playing with the dolphins.

  There was a large crack of thunder and the dark shape of Druk flashed over them as one of the dolphins leapt into the air, sacrificing itself to her.

  She shot out over the land, and banked slowly right, making a slow turn and eventually landed on the observation deck which was now devoid of crew members. They were all in the water. Flimsy ship suits that had been discarded on the deck, blew away in the wind from the downdraft of her wings as she landed.

  “Oh Oh,” laughed almost everyone together.

  “This is going to be awkward,” laughed Molly.

&nbs
p; Evan gave her a wink, “Not for me,” he said. As he made his way to the ladder, to go and speak with Druk. “Care to join me?”

  Chapter 36

  “I Believe I Do”

  Two snipers sat camouflaged in different locations with a clear view of the clearing at the base of the Takstang Monastery trail.

  They observed a man and two women who had been sitting for quite a while near the large prayer wheels, waiting for something.

  The first sniper peered through her scope as she noticed movement at the base of the trail. Twelve people emerged from the forest clad lower slope and raced to the man and women, embracing wildly.

  In the mayhem, she couldn’t pick out her target. She had to keep her scope widely on the group and hope that the target would stay still long enough for one of them to take the shot.

  ***

  They raced to meet Grandpa Jack. The joy of meeting their Grandmothers for the first time was overwhelming. Skye felt pure elation at the feeling of being safe for the first time in days. Finally, she could relax. Enjoying the embrace of Sonam, her Grandmother, was every bit as comforting as she always thought it would be.

  While enveloped in the security of her Grandmother’s hug, Skye had a vision. A vision of a lady’s finger, with a ring on it. The ring had five sparkling stones. The finger was sitting lightly against the trigger of a gun, it began to very slowly squeeze against the curved black trigger. The five stones sparkled in the sunlight.

  At that moment, Skye realised that she had let the shield down, having believed that they were now safe.

  What most people don’t realise, thanks to Hollywood, is that when you get shot at, you don’t hear the shot and then get a chance to duck. Bullets travel faster than the speed of sound. So, if you get hit, you are going to get hit before the sound of the shot arrives.

  Skye’s vision happened in very slow motion, before the shot was fired. She saw the ringed finger, the same ringed finger that had fired on them with the car mounted machine gun a few days earlier. She instantly recognised that they were all in danger, again.

  Skye focused, she knew she was taking too long. A bullet whipped through the group, just missing. It went on to hit one of the prayer wheels as she formed the shield over her Grandparents, cousins and the young monks. None of them had noticed anything was wrong.

  A second bullet ricocheted off the shield and shortly after that, the sound of two very loud shots came to their ears. Everyone noticed that, and instinctively ducked. Swearing was heard, some in English, some in Bhutanese.

  David called out to see if anyone had been hurt, there was no reply.

  Skye looked up to where the shots came from. Her vision also showed the ringed finger moving to activate an ear piece, and she heard the words, “Abort, Abort, Abort.” The vision ended.

  Grandpa Jack was moving to get everyone safe, but Skye motioned to calm him, and everyone else down. “It’s ok,” she said, “It’s over, they’ve been called off.”

  Wayne shouted, “How can you know that Skye? They just shot at us.”

  “The mistake we made was thinking that everyone who mattered would see David’s broadcast straight away. I suppose these things take time. Even though we shared it to the major news agencies, it would take time for them to watch it, have a meeting about it, then decide what they were going to do about it. This threat is now over, I can guarantee that. But there might be others. We still need to be careful.”

  Grandpa Jack cut in, “What broadcast are you talking about?”

  Skye said, “See what I mean, these guys haven’t seen it yet.”

  “Ok,” said Wayne, “Point taken. So, however we go forward from here, we still need to assume, at least for a while, that someone out there still wants to stop us. I wonder who the shot was meant for?”

  Grandpa Jack cleared his throat, “So does anyone want to fill us old people in on what you’ve been up to?”

  “Sorry Grandpa Jack,” said Flynn a little sheepishly, “There has been so much happening and so many ideas flying around amongst us. It will be best if we just show you. Lurch?”

  Lurch walked around behind one of the big prayer wheels to a section of white washed stone wall. He projected an image onto it and David appeared. “My name, was David Matson……..”

  They all sat and watched the replay of David’s broadcast to the world. After it had finished, Grandpa Jack leaned back against the trunk of a pine tree, thinking.

  “Druk has told me,” Grandpa Jack continued, “That I must visit the Princess. Can you tell me what the device’s instructions were to you David?”

  David beamed a big smile at him. “It looks like we will be travelling together, I must visit the Princess as well Grandpa Jack. It looks like you will finally get to show us those mountains of yours. I am presuming that we talk of the same place, The Princess of the Himalaya, Jomolhari?”

  An excited buzz of whispers went around the group. They would all be travelling together, that was great.

  Sonam and Pema both spoke together, “Yes, that’s what we believe too. But we don’t know what it means exactly. Jomolhari is a mountain, referred to as ‘The Princess’ because it is one of the most beautiful mountains in the Himalaya. But we know of no-one who lives up there other than a few yak herders who graze their beasts up around Jangothang and Jomolhari base camp, near an old ruin. The mountain itself is still quite a long way from there.”

  Timothy gathered everyone in close. “Grandpa Jack? I presume you know the way? I suggest we keep moving, we can work out the meaning along the way as we chat. Let’s roll. Skye? Can you keep the shield active for now, I presume David is still the main target if someone is trying to stop us.”

  It was a bit weird as everyone looked at David in the middle of the group, surrounding him as if to protect him with their own bodies, despite knowing that Skye’s shield was already doing exactly that.

  “I suggest we walk back out to the road,” Grandpa Jack said. “We should be able to hitch a ride as far as Drukyel Dzong. From there, we should be able to catch a train.”

  Everyone stopped walking and looked dumbfounded at Grandpa Jack.

  “Train?” they all said together, thinking that maybe Grandpa Jack had finally lost the plot.

  “Of Course,” replied Grandpa Jack, happy that he had received the desired response. “The Yak Train. You’ll see.”

  Grandpa Jack walked on laughing to himself.

  “You know he’s happy when the Grandpa jokes start up again.” Skye whispered to Sonam and Pema, who were each holding one of Skye’s hands as they walked on. There was not enough room on the path for the three of them to walk side by side. It was a bit awkward, but neither of them was prepared to let go.

  “Nothing has changed in seventy years Skye,” Pema laughed. “Point your Grandfather in the direction of the mountains and watch his face light up.”

  They were almost back to the road when Grandpa Jack called a halt and took his backpack off. He rummaged around in it for a minute and asked everyone to come closer.

  “Everyone hold out your hand please.” Asked Grandpa Jack. “You too Lurch.”

  Grandpa handed out eight acorns and took a ninth one for himself.

  “It will take us three days to reach Jangothang. That used to be called Jomolhari base camp. It just so happens, that thanks to David, I have twenty seven acorns. At each camp along the way and here, I want each of us to plant one acorn in a random location. Hopefully that will mean that we will establish three new populations of these very rare oaks along the way. Later, they will be accessible for further seed collection and we can start more remote populations.”

  Grandpa Jack chose a location and dug a small hole in a sunny spot away from the path. He showed them all how to bury the acorn and its orientation to help it have its best chance of germinating. Before burying it, a tear fell from Grandpa Jack’s cheek and landed on the dusty acorn in the hole. They all saw it sparkle in the sunlight before the acorn drew in the moisture thro
ugh its hard outer shell.

  Grandpa Jack covered it back over and then went to each of them as they planted their own acorn.

  He knelt down alongside David, just as he covered his acorn with earth.

  “You have no idea how much this means to me David,” Jack said tearily.

  “I believe I do, Grandpa Jack, I believe I do.”

  David was privately astounded, that despite their uncertain future, Grandpa jack was very much focused on the future, and that it would be worthwhile planting these acorns. He remembered Grandpa Jack explaining to a friend once that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. But the second-best time, is today. He took heart from that and decided that he too, must maintain this attitude.