Crucible of a Species (21 page)

Ensign Petrika broke into the conversation as they entered the kill zone of the berm, “Thank you, Private. Unfortunately, we think the AutoSentinel system itself may be attracting the predators. Just keep alert. You never know when they might try another penetration.

“Turn off this section of the barrier and open the gate for us. We’re going out there; heading down into the valley. We’ll be taking the waterfall trail we discussed in this morning’s briefing.”

“Are you sure you want to go out there, sir? Hsu’s right, you know. The defense line of the AutoSentinels is stopping them for now but it also seems to be drawing whole packs of them to the area. There are some mean animals out there, we can hear them squabbling with each other all the time. Those we’ve managed to spot come in all sizes and some look to be as big as a house. The jungles are crawling with these guys.”

Martel picked up his rifle and started walking towards the berm, “We don’t have much of a choice. Pass on the word to the next watch to make sure the sentries listen for our return. We plan to be back before dark and I don’t want to be stranded outside of the berm. No slouching off or taking any coffee breaks without leaving someone here to watch for us.”
             

“Aye, aye sir. We’ll watch. Your problems start right outside that gate even if you can’t see them yet. You should be okay if you can make it to the trail and start heading down the cliff. The trail’s narrow enough that only the little ones can get down it. Good hunting and bring back some steak.”

As the gates shut behind them, Ensign Petrika grumbled, “Is there anyone who doesn’t know about the supplies shortage, Sarge?”

The dense jungle quickly closed in around the small group of humans as they pushed deeper into the dark green foliage. Travelling here was very different from the relatively open brushlands of the plateau. The clear blue sky was gone, replaced by a dark canopy of leaves that drenched them in a humid, darkened passage of green. Animal calls saturated the air and the rustle of small, fleeing feet filled the underbrush as they pushed onward.

The forest canopy opened slightly as the patrol passed across a soft moss-covered patch of ground. Sgt. Martel halted the team to examine some of the tracks across it. “There’re so many prints here it looks like they were having a dance. Most of the three-toed tracks are bigger than my foot and seem to be heading in towards the berm.”

“Three-toed means predator, Sergeant.” Dr. Shieve whispered, “Oh shit!”

Startled by the physicist’s unnatural profanity, they all turned to follow her gaze. At the opposite edge of the small muddy patch was another section of tracks, deeply imprinted by the passage of heavy, three-toed feet. These imprints were larger than a single human stride and the most recent of them still had the swampy groundwater oozing back into the depression.

Ensign Petrika watched the color withdraw from Sandra’s face but the only thought that rang through his mind was,
We were that close and didn’t hear or see a thing.

It was then he noticed she wasn’t looking at the ground anymore but up into the trees. The team instinctively froze in position as the soft moss cover under their feet quivered in response to the passing of several monstrous tyrannosaurs. In spite of their massive size, their movement through the undergrowth, a scant few yards away from the humans, was unexpectedly quiet; the controlled impact of each two-ton footstep barely audible above the cacophony of calls surrounding them. A dense leaf-cover made it impossible to see the entirety of any single body as the monsters blended into the background, carefully weaving around the larger trees and pushing through the low brush. They were heading right towards the humans who now stood frozen in their tracks. One huge foot thumped deeply into the moss, narrowly missing the sergeant, and then withdrew with a sucking sound just as a second head partially emerged from the leaves behind and far above it. The sergeant was so close he could smell the nose-tickling, hot powder down of their bodies.

Ensign Petrika stared in stunned amazement as the powerful beast walked right by them,
There’s no way they couldn’t have known we were here. They didn’t see us but they must have smelled us. We’re too small and our scent must still be too alien for them to identify. God, we won’t be so lucky next time.

The deadly predators faded into the jungle behind the humans as silently as they had appeared. Dr. Shieve felt a tap on her shoulder and jumped with a small yelp. Sgt. Martel was there, silently motioning her to move on. Sandra turned but her legs could not move. She began shaking uncontrollably as the still fresh memories of her experience at the berm rushed over her.

A vice-like grip seized the physicist’s arm, wrenching her out of the fit. The rough, calloused hand painfully swung her around to stare into two brown eyes. A second hand slapped over her mouth, silencing her scream before it could emerge. Sandra willed the rising panic down forcing self-control back into her body. Steve looked deeply into her eyes for a moment and then nodded before releasing her, silently urging her forward to follow in the fading steps of the others.

Onward they pushed and fear edged their souls for they realized that stealth held little safety, their survival or death depended solely upon chance encounter. Quickly moving through the woods, the soft patches of ground grew in size and frequency as they neared the area of the stream.

Sandra jumped as a small creature ran past and quickly disappeared in the foliage ahead. Three more small dinosaurs closely followed, screeching loudly as they passed. Martell was urging them to move faster when a third and then forth larger group of animals fled past in the same direction. Something was pushing them onward and it was coming directly towards the team.

A baritone call shook the forest, its coarse notes slamming through the trees and into the dumbstruck team members. As they listened, the call transformed to the low, rumbling sound of ball bearings rolled in a giant hollow drum. “Something big has our scent. Move, move, move!” The sergeant shouted, “Hurry, we have to make it to the cliffs.”

The sound of trees snapping and shattering filled the jungle behind them. They threw all caution to the wind, driven on unerringly by the alien, fresh scent of the humans. They knew the monster was rapidly gaining.

A flicker of movement ahead caught the eye of the running ensign. He noticed it shift ever so slightly a second time as his eyes adapted to the change in lighting and could just make out the camouflaged predator waiting in ambush. It was a small one, barely taller than a human and …yes, there were others behind it waiting for the blind onrush of their human prey.

Without missing a step, the ensign sprayed a Pulsar burst into the brush. One predator collapsed but two others charged. Paul’s head snapped to the side, buffeted by the compressed airwave of a series of deliberate shots that rang out from behind to bring down the second. The third tyrannosaurus’s charge transformed into a leap aimed directly at the young ensign who was unable to bring his Pulsar to bear. The monster flipped in mid-air, shredded by a second, deadly accurate burst from behind.

The rapidly flowing stream ahead passed across a rocky bed less than ten-feet wide. Over the ages, the tumbling waters managed to cut a sharp groove into the rock in its final plunge across the small clearing before tumbling over the edge of the cliff. As they watched, the last of the small, fleeing dinosaurs disappeared in an apparent suicide as they followed the trail, leaping over the cliff’s edge.

The humans shifted direction, following the stream down a wet, pebble-strewn pathway. Behind them three adult tyrannosaurs emerged from the dense foliage into the open forest and bellowed their challenge anew as they spotted their prey.

The team charged down the trail towards cliff looming ahead of them with heart-stopping abruptness. Without a look behind, the ensign threw himself over the edge of the cliff, trusting to the descriptions he had heard of the trail.

His feet slipped and slid down a narrow, loose-stone filled path in a flight that was much too fast, eventually catching his balance at a point where the path leveled and turned to lead away from the waterfall. Petrika slid to the side, catching the arm of the journalist. Dr. Shieve and the sergeant appeared, closely followed by a massive black head that swung out over the abyss. Immense jaws snapped the air where the sergeant had been a fraction of a second before. It stopped and stared, baleful yellow eyes filled with the lust of the chase and the frustration of lost prey. The tyrannosaur left out a high-pitched screech that ripped the clear air of the valley.

A shower of pebbles rained down the face of the cliff followed by a small tyrannosaur slipping on the loose gravel of the steep pathway. Martel’s Pulsar blew it across the face of the cliff. He turned to a second small one watching from above. The marine’s motion attracted its attention and the little beast stared at them for an instant before pulling back out of sight. Without comment, the humans stopped and sat down on the trail, catching their breath in the precarious safety of their new location while their eyes monitored the paths above and below.

They stopped only for a few moments to get their breath then Sergeant Martel stood and turned to the ensign said, “we should be moving, sir.” travelling across the face of the cliff, the trail reversed direction, swinging back at a lower level. Dr. Shieve took the opportunity to examine the path below. The precipice was so steep she could see most of the narrow footpath as it meandered back and forth across the shale filled face but couldn’t find the body of the predator they’d shot. A few minutes later, they resumed their journey.

“Watch your footing,” Martel called out after his foot slid on the steep trail. “The loose gravel collects at the switchbacks with each rainstorm and washes away the edges where the trail turns. Footing is treacherous.

“Notice how worn the path is? That’s a good sign, it tells us the trail has been used hard and it’s a good indication it will be open all the way down.”

Eventually, the narrow trail leveled off to follow a long stretch that held them just above the tops of the trees rising from the valley floor. Though still too narrow for comfortable travel, the evenness of the path provided a welcome break for sore calf muscles. They were amazed to see the treetops supporting a magical community of unusual animal life. Multicolored, giant insects mixed with small, brightly colored gliding dinosaurs flitting from limb-to-leaf to create a fantasy world. Bird song filled the air adding to the exotic scents already assaulting their senses with the heady fragrance of ancient gymnosperms mixed with many other ancient plants. Flowering, leafy trees were new to this world but their species were quickly spreading through the protected valley. For the first time since their arrival it felt a little bit like home.

The tranquil jungle canopy was a veil of deceit. The travelers froze as malevolent calls cut through the peaceful canopy like a knife ripping through silk to unveil the hidden terrors passing just below. Beneath this beautiful curtain lay a world of raw violence conducted on a scale never experienced by humans.

A sudden realization came to Dr. Shieve,
Humanity has had only a million years to develop to their present state of evolution. Most of the animals below, ranging in size from a small mouse to those that would be a match for a tank, have been evolving along the route towards Darwinian perfection for more than a hundred and fifty million years. They are very different from the animals we know. Every one of them moves with a smooth, flowing grace. The biodiversity is so much greater than in our time. Unfortunately, the predators have also excelled in perfecting their skills over the long ages, survival is not going to be easy.

The dusty trail resumed its descent, carrying the team below the canopy. A wide, worn path crossed the dark forest’s floor until the dense growth thinned and suddenly broke open to a broad sandy beach that bordered a blue tropical sea. They saw nothing of the animals who had uttered the fierce cries just minutes before.

Birds and other even more exotic flying reptiles filled the skies above and before them the strong flow of a distant river cut across a wide, white sandy shoreline pushing clear fresh water into the low waves of the shallow sea. The colors and majesty of the world merged to form a landscape of beauty. A splendor that hid the true nature of this world.

“Okay, everyone remember where this trail starts.” Ensign Petrika said as he slung his Pulsar rifle up onto his shoulder and reseated his backpack without missing a step, “Now Doctor, where did you say you saw the nearest herd of hadrosaurs?”

*~~*~~*~~*

A clarion-clear song
lifted above the green palm canopy filling the river valley with a melodious, high-pitched refrain before running down the octaves and abruptly ending. A second, distant melody mimicked the call, echoing in reply from the steep cliffs on the other side. Then a third, more nearby answer joined in. Its tones escalated into a complex set of chords before transforming into a sharp, rolling piercing sound like the rumbling growl of marbles spun in a steel drum. The calls stopped as abruptly as they had started leaving only the sounds of the sharp rustle of branches pushed hastily aside.

Below the dense green canopy, a small dinosaur, about the size of a human and distantly related to the triceratops, ran upright on two legs through the low brush undergrowth of the palm-filled jungle. Running openly in the dense undergrowth is typically not a smart survival tactic for such a small animal but there are times when open flight is more important than stealth and this little dinosaur was very frightened by the calls that had just answered its cry.