Crucible of a Species (19 page)

“No, belay that order!” Captain Lee countermanded. “More power, we’re resonating with the waves reflecting from the cliffs. Lift us easy and push out of here, we need to rise above the cliffs.”

The Argos shook like the battered skull of a losing prizefighter, the crew hung on for dear life as she slowly continued to rise above the beach. Then as abruptly as they started, the vibrations dissipated into a strong, but manageable, wobble.

Still encased in sand, Captain Lee could only watch the visuals taken from the Hunter tracking their flight. The Argos looked like a massive plate covered by a swarm of bees as it wobbled slowly across the sky. Two spikes from the damaged areas extended above the swarm, trailing a fine mist of sand particles behind the craft.

“What we see is a coating of sand held to the hull by the drive field with an outer skin of material cycling in the spindizzy zone,” Lieutenant Anderson commented. “Those two spikes are the tips of the damaged hull. See how the field loses integrity where we have the damage from the explosion that occurred during our original transit around Jupiter.”

“Ship is barely controllable at this point.” Ensign Sassaman interrupted. “It’s all I can do to maintain stability.”

“Suggestions, Mr. Anderson?” The captain inquired.

“Take her up to eighteen-thousand feet and shut down the drives, sir.” The engineer replied. “This wouldn’t work in the vacuum of space but we’re in an atmosphere and the debris should be carried off by the winds in a short period as long as the drive field is off.”

“Do you think you can regain control afterwards, helmsman?”

“We don’t really know how the ship’s going to react around the damaged sections. That area plays hell with our aerodynamics.”

Captain Lee quickly decided, “Communications, announce all ship’s personnel. Prepare for gravity shutdown and violent flight response. She’s all yours, helmsman. Take her up and execute.”

Slowly the Argos lifted into the upper atmosphere. The helmsman signaled a last warning before cutting the drives, then there was a gut wrenching loss of gravity as the massive vessel glided for a moment and then turned to plummet towards the earth. As it fell, the starship began shaking. The violence increased as the craft fishtailed in the violent winds whipping around the damaged portions of the hull. The wobble grew stronger and stronger and then stopped as Ensign Sassaman once again turned on the drive field.

The view from Hunter Two showed the Argos, smoothly gliding along, once again in controlled flight. “Communications, open a ship-wide channel for me,” the captain announced. “All hands, stand down from emergency stations. We’re finally free of the beach. Next stop will be Argos Base in about thirteen minutes. I’ll leave the external monitors on for any who wish to watch our landing. I want to extend a job well done to everyone.”

The Argos followed the tropical coastline south. For many, this was their first view of the lands passing below. Great and small reptile pterosaurs covered the skies above and fed in the oceans below while vast colonies of their nests lined the cliffs. Life and color filled the world surrounding them.

Below their passage, schools of aquatic animals plied the waters along with several large sea predators that amazed the people of the Argos for they were not the ugly, fearful monsters that many had expected. Rather, these ancient beasts appeared wonderfully colored and graceful in their movement. It was a very beautiful day.

*~~*~~*~~*

Some meat and a bowl of wilted cabbage,
originally taken from the Chief’s Mess, sat in the middle of an open area of Docking Bay C14. Draped over the bowl were two sets of night-vision glasses, both were on and glowing.

The lights were low but bright enough that the three specialists and CPO Meecham could view anything moving in the open bay without electronic aid. Specialist Tom Denon’s head ached under the spray bandage across his face and he didn’t like sitting next to the chief. The other two specialists, placed on the opposite side of the crate, weren’t very happy either. They didn’t like waiting here while everyone else took time off to watch this new world go by beneath the Argos.

They had been silently waiting and watching for only a few minutes when Denon whispered, “Chief, I heard …”

“Shh,” was all the Chief replied. It was going to be another long and boring afternoon sitting here in the dark but Meecham insisted and you don’t buck the chief.

*~~*~~*~~*

The bright yellow orb
of the late day sun was already losing its intensity but could still cast long dark shadows from the cliffs. A careful observer could see their inevitable advance as the dark shadows slowly crept across the sands and into the white surf like some apparition drawing down the shades of evening. Above the sea’s eastern horizon the soft hues of a cobalt blue sky deepened in color, saturating the image of bright-white cumulous clouds floating high above distant waters.

A wide river delta split the high cliffs under the passing craft. Here, the waterway ended its long meandering journey through a gorge cut millions of years ago on its path to the ocean. The Argos turned to follow the river inland. Ahead of them, they could see their destination as it emerged from behind a bend hidden by the cliffs. Their goal was a long, rather thin plateau of red rock that towered above the river’s turbulent waters. The long finger of stone was all that remained of a mighty bastion that for ages had forced the broad waterway to meander far to the side before continuing on to the deep blue waters in the east.

Communications Officer Li broke the stillness on the bridge as the Argos rose in its final approach, “Sir, I’ve not been able to raise Argos Base. Hunter Two also reports no communications with the plateau since before our liftoff.”

“We’ll be in direct visual range in a few moments, Ensign,” Captain Lee replied. “Continue to monitor the channel. You can stop active queries.”

“Sensors are reporting movement on the plateau, Captain,” Commander Dalmas announced. “Some are identified as human but thirty seven are tagged by the computer as large birds.”

The captain’s attention focused on the sensor map of Argos Base, “Bring us around into stationary position west of the area containing the humans I’ve tagged. Place the sun to our backs.”

“Aye, aye sir. Stationary due west of plateau,” the helmsman replied.

“Hunter, circle the group. Let’s see if we can figure out why they are not responding.”

Ensign Dailey confirmed the order and redirected his craft in towards the plateau, “They haven’t noticed us yet, Argos. There’s no apparent threat so we’re moving in to minimum safe distance.

“They appear to be chasing something, Argos.” The Hunter Recon reported, “Looks like an Arkansas pig catching contest but they ain’t chasn’ pigs. By God, I do believe they’re trying to catch some dinosaurs.”

“Repeat again, Mr. Dailey. They are being chased by dinosaurs?”

“No, Argos. Our people are chasing a whole flock of dinosaurs. Little ones, about waist high.

“Request permission to set down on the plateau, Argos.”

“Permission granted.”

Hunter Recon Two settled onto the same open field they left only a few hours ago. As they descended, Lieutenant Ester Esperanza and another marine were already running towards their landing zone. The officer jumped in as they opened the crew’s port on the Hunter, “Back inside and button her up right away. Move it. I’m not fooling around, Ensign.”

“All right Lieutenant, keep yer shirt on. What the hell’s going on out there? You know you have to have someone on communications at all times. The captain’s gonna be ….”

“Our communications are down. Those damn …”

A sudden rapping on the hatch interrupted them. Dailey looked over at Middleton when a bull-strong voice carried through the hatch, “Ensigns, open this damn port now.”

“It’s Colonel Drake.” Middleton shouted as he lunged for the port control. The door opened and the colonel and Dr. Shieve tumbled in, “Close it, close it quickly.” Sandra said breathlessly.

Colonel Drake was already moving towards the cockpit, “Lieutenant, double check and make sure that nothing managed to sneak past us. In case you are wondering, we are not all friggin’ insane. Those damn things … those …. What the hell did you call them …”

“They are Saurornitholestes, captain. A cousin of the Asian velociraptor and …”

“Shit, I’ll never remember. They’re all raptors as far as I’m concerned. I thought dinosaurs were supposed to be big. These look like half-plucked chickens with a mighty nasty spike on each foot. For some damn reason they’ve taken a real liking to our electronics.” Drake went on as he moved over to the communications console, “Argos, Argos.”

Ensign Li’s image appeared on the control display, “Colonel Drake? The captain would like to speak….”

“Of course he wants to speak with me, Ensign. Put him on.” The colonel started just as the captain’s image appeared. Drake didn’t give the captain a chance to comment, “Listen Adrian, we have a problem here.

“Our communications capabilities are gone. There’s some damn dinosaur down here that is ripping apart anything that’s electrical including our transmitter. These little demons are fast and unusually well camouflaged. Do not land down here without enforcing high security measures to restrict all access to the Argos.”

“They selectively targeted your transmitters?” Captain Lee asked.

“It’s worse than that, anything powered up seems to draw them. Dr. Shieve believes they may be attracted to the electrical field emissions. They attack everything from communications to wireless data repeaters by just ripping the equipment to shreds. Even the AutoSentinels at the berm initially had problems until the little buggers realized that was sure death.

“It would be best if you could remain aloft for a little while captain. The area is not secure. We have some fencing and the engineers are using it to isolate an area around the Hunter that will be large enough to include the Argos. I want to burn the grass and brush inside the perimeter to deny cover to these pests before you land.”

“All right, Colonel. Let us know when you’re ready.”

Captain Lee had just turned towards the helmsman when the communications officer cut in, “Sir, shots reported in the Section C docking bay. CPO Meecham is waiting to speak with you. It may be about the …”

“Thank you Ensign. Switch him over to my personal link.”

“Captain, I’m responsible for the shots just fired. We had a problem here in the docking bay but it has been resolved.

“I reported earlier seeing something down here. We were going through the containers remaining in the bay and this animal popped out. It’s pretty big, about knee high and fast. It easily squeezed through some amazingly small openings. We couldn’t corner it and eventually had to resort to lethal force.

“I don’t really know how it boarded us unless he snuck in while we were loading the Hunter. This is the only one sighted so far.”

Captain Lee didn’t hesitate a moment with his reply, “Argos Base also reports damage to electrical systems by animals similar in description. Seal off the area until you are sure it’s clear. In addition, do a search of adjacent areas and immediately report sightings. We can’t allow them access to the ship.”

“Aye,aye sir. I’ve just received reports of two more sightings.”

“Don’t let me hold you back, Chief.

“Ensign Li, send out a message to all departments informing them of the problem. Have them search their areas for any intruders. Monitor motion sensors and take immediate action if any more are spotted.”

Red light flared across the command center as the fenced-in portion of the plateau erupted in cleansing flame. “Colonel, we have multiple intruder sightings onboard, we’ve been boarded. We’ll delay our landing until we’ve completed a sweep of the Argos.”

“Understood, Captain. That will give us a few minutes to stabilize the residual ash in the landing area and complete the security gate. I’ll let you know as soon as the site is ready.”

The landing was secure in under an hour and the Argos began its descent. Personnel on the ground swung torches and beacons marking the enclosure’s perimeter. Gracefully Argos settled into the birth that would be its home for the next months. Most of the crew would spend one more night on board before disembarking. A select group of twenty mission-critical crewmembers managed to set foot for the first time on this young world.

The clouds above blazed in red glory as they pushed down the ship’s ramp and the first bright stars of the night sparkled overhead. As if in greeting, a song emerged from the surrounding jungle as they descended and the humans paused to listen in amazement. The experience was reminiscent of the evening birdsong of home but greater in complexity and richness. It arose as a melody born of many throats enveloping them in a thousand unique strains that rose in unison to separate and then entwine again in concordal harmony. Sections soared through the octaves rising above the capabilities of human hearing while other cadence dwelled below the audio range imparting a strange vibration in the ears of those listening.

The melody faded from the earth along with the light of day. Its passing left most of the humans with an unexpected sadness, a feeling of loss.

So began the second night of a human presence in this young world. Outside of the ship, the perimeter remained secure from the terrors of the evening, protected by the cold artificial intelligence of AutoSentinel barriers and the bravery of men who dedicate their lives to the protection of others.