Jurassic Portal

by Robert Turnbull Jr.

  “You taught…” Jan waved Hank off as he sat back down.

  “Oh no…it appears that I haven’t made myself clear gentlemen, I arrived here sixty years ago, but wasn’t the first from my world, nor the last. We have the largest population next to the Mayans.

  Reality number six were buccaneers and pirates. From what we can determine they seemed to come from a portal on some small island in what would be somewhere in the southern Pacific Ocean; barely an atoll or reef. Over the years all of us that speak English have kept a log of who has arrived, how, and in what…the rest I can explain later…about languages and such.”

  “What about all these modes of transportation?” Ed asked.

  “Oh, dissembled, destroyed by the portal, some pieces passed through and were removed to their respective mesas to be used…repurposed, you know, to make life here easier.” she nodded out toward the entrance of the cave.

  “All but the bathyscaphe, we do hope that at some point in time, we can create a form of energy to power it so we can use it to use to explore the oceans of this world. Paul’s people keep it cared for and maintained in a small rocky cove on that river below that you saw.” she smiled and paused to give them time to absorb everything. She could remember how she felt the day that she had arrived. So much information in such a small amount of time and at that point, there were no theories, just life as it was going to be…now she had developed theories to add to the mix; it had to be confusing.

  “You see, high rocky cliffs keep the dinosaurs away and the few plant eaters that pass that way seem uninterested. Perhaps some of you might like to work on it as well, the river isn’t too bad.”

  “With all the giant man eating things swimming around in it?” Hank chuckled from across the cave “Don’t care much for that plan.”

  Jan became really serious and it showed as the chuckles quieted and Jack took the lead by asking. “Ok Jan, there’s more isn’t there?”

  “The oceans are about five miles beyond the last mesa that the Mayan’s use; southwest of this location, I’d guess fifteen miles from this cave. As you’ve guessed there are all kinds of horrible dangers in the ocean…” she paused and they could all see that she was hesitating.

  “There are other things in that ocean…some sort of man-like creatures. They seem to be able to breathe on land as well as in the seas, at least for brief periods. And let me get this point across, they are not our friends. They’re intelligent enough to use spears and some sort of projectile device that throws short arrow-like things and darts that use a kind of sea creature venom.”

  “Jesus!” Larry muttered “Fucking dinosaurs aren’t enough?”

  Jan chuckled “So far Larry, they haven’t been reported anywhere farther than five miles from the beaches…”

  Jack snorted softly “and there is more, right?”

  “Yes Jack…we think that they may also be able to swim and survive in fresh water. Lately there have been signs that they have been swimming upstream in the rivers that flow to the ocean. That of course, using the five mile radius rule that we use on the beach, puts every mesa within range. Our only saving grace if that they have webbed feet and we don’t believe that they can climb the steep sides of the plateaus.”

  “Then technically they could work their way up here following the river.” Sam said more as a concerned statement than a question.

  “And why we have two men watching the pools below during the days, and hiding in trees at night listening…and watching for the shimmer.”

  Jack started to open his mouth and Jan just chuckled “The creatures seem to shimmer at night, some sort of bioluminescence. We think it’s a way for them to see one another, maybe even communicate, but makes them extremely vulnerable at night to land creatures…and probably why they haven’t done anything more than send an occasional scouting party up the river. Fear of being eaten does that to people…and whatever they are.”

  Jack nodded “Somehow that doesn’t make me feel a whole lot better.” he smiled at his men “Ok gang, Jan said this world has the same timing as our all the other six realities. We still have a twenty-four hour day.” he glanced at his watch “What say we all try to get a few hours’ sleep?” he grinned “seems that we’ve chatted most of the night away.”

  Jan nodded and waved to them as she looked out into the darkness of the entrance beyond. All torches had been extinguished except for those around a bend in the cave that couldn’t be seen from beyond the entrance.

  “There is so much to learn, so much to tell, and it seems that we all have a long lifetime left to tell it. I think you’ll like most everyone, but perhaps the pirates and buccaneers; they tend to be a bit coarse by nature, and over the years we have had some minor skirmishes with them; but mostly these days, they’ve pretty much settled down.” she smiled softly “Many of the mesas have mixed races over the decades, marriages, friendships and the like.”

  Jan yawned and stretched, and then smiled at Doc and Ed.

  “But tomorrow your lessons will begin.”

  Doc blurted “I can’t wait.”

  Jan stretched again and chuckled “I wouldn’t be so eager Doc, in order to get to the first mesa, our mesa, we have to survive.”

  Doc looked at the shorts clad woman, and then at Ed with a wry grin.

  “Oh, I keep forgetting the dying part.”

  Ed smiled at his friend and looked at the lovely Jan.

  “Somehow Doc, I have a hunch our lovely hostess will keep us alive and kicking.”

  Jan slowly turned back to face the two men and sighed deeply.

  “If only it were so. We lost two men getting here for our turn to watch the portal this month and now we have sent for more to cover the portal while we take you over to ours, we could lose more.”

  Doc flopped back on his sleeping bag.

  “There’s that damned dying part again.”

  Chapter 8.

  Morning came and it became apparent that a new crew from Jan’s mesa had arrived to relieve them. She had sent word, and to the relief of Jack it meant that it was possible for them to reach the first mesa in one day as they were the closest to the area known as the waterfall.

  As the new group of men and women set up their gear, Jan’s group packed up and headed out toward the stream. She looked at the newcomers and smiled.

  “The nice thing about being closest to the waterfall, we occasionally rotate every two weeks. This gives us the chance to take any newcomers like yourselves, all the way to our mesa. We feel it makes them…forgive me, you feel more comfortable staying with those that found you all the way through your introduction to at least our civilization before moving on to your own mesa.” The men smiled and followed the small group of scouts stopping to marvel at the variety of dinosaurs scattered upon the plains below.

  The day was glorious, warm breezes, mostly cloudless sky, and distant roars and grunts of behemoths that wandered the plains and jungles below.

  Jan had explained that there was one other way up to their lofty shelf where the cave, waterfall and short stream was, just before it fell another hundred or so feet to the waiting river below.

  She showed them the steep, but makeable climb that could be used in an emergency near the second waterfall to the river below, but for the most part just beyond the trees that rimmed the small pond and stream to the west, was a slow slope downward; that was much easier and closer to Jan’s mesa. There was also several crumbling rocky ledges that made it difficult for large dinosaurs to reach the shelf.

  The not so good thing? It was mostly out in the open with only a few large bush clumps to take cover in…and Jack’s party soon found out how critical that part was.

  One of Jan’s group shouted to look to the south and Jan, without a second of hesitation, grasped Doc’s shirt collar and Ed’s sleeve and pulled them into a clump of four foot high bushes and pushed them to the ground. A few of her men dashed to another set of two bushes, while Jack and his men dashed to a large clump of brush and
laid flat…they saw the shadows darting across the landscape toward them.

  Now placed among two clumps of brush they rolled on their backs as winged reptiles dove and swooped.

  “Jesus Christ!” Hank screamed “Those bastards have to have wingspans of twenty feet or more…” he never got another word out as a smaller pterosaur, landed and hopped toward the Doc and the rest while some much larger aetodactylus soared overhead hoping that the prey would take off in a sprint toward the trees far below, then it would have its dinner..

  Jack fired a shot at the smaller pterosaur and it tumbled to the ground, which turned out to be a terrible mistake as dozens more swooped down to feed on the fallen creature. This in turn brought the larger pterosaurs diving uncomfortably close to the ground.

  A second raked the tops of the brush with its bony finger-like talons as Larry opened up on it with his M-16, and merely punched a few tiny holes in its wings.

  Jan shouted for them to stop and use their machetes if they landed, to aim for their wings, and that these creatures were overly protective of the leathery wings that their lives depended upon.

  “Cut their wings and they can’t fly, can’t fly, they become the prey and they know it.” she shouted as she watched from her clump of bushes, machete in hand.

  “Jesus, Jack…she said machetes were as good as gold around here…OW!” Sam looked at his foot to see a little pterosaur nipping at his calf. One swing and he grabbed it and tossed it down the slope, but it never hit the ground as a larger winged reptile caught it in midair and soared off.

  Everyone froze in place and soon the small bodies had been scooped up and the things vanished over the giant jungle canopy below. First one of Jan’s scouts crawled out from cover and scanned in all directions and then the rest came out as she waved it was all clear.

  “Jack,” she mentioned in a commanding voice “do not ever fire your weapons unless you have no other recourse. There are few things here that guns can seriously damage, and all you’ll do is bring curious beasts down on us.”

  Jack nodded “Ok guys, you heard the lady, guns only as a last resort.”

  Hank kicked a bloody rock “Did ya see the little one?” he chuckled “Wonder if they taste like chicken?”

  One of Jan’s men laughed softly “They actually do.” and with that they headed toward the grassy plains that leveled out and surrounded the series of jungle surrounded mesas they could see in the distance. Some of the trees were actually taller than the mesas themselves.

  “Jesus guys…will ya look at the size of those trees sticking up through the canopy of the jungle.” Sam muttered loudly.

  “Bigger than the ones we saw back on the plateau.” Larry replied.

  Doc chuckled “The ones we slept under were probably just babies by the look of those giants.”

  Jan walked over next to Ed and Doc as Jack and his guys caught up.

  “Several of the mesas have lifts that we’ve built over the decades, one larger one to the southwest has had residents for a century or more. They’ve mined a series of stairs and landings through the center with just a little opening to get in, much too small for even the skinniest raptor.

  The man that was leading glanced back and smiled “Most of the mesas have vine nets to hide people from the flying reptiles that we call ‘divers’. Even our lifts have camouflage over the operators as well as the baskets so divers can’t see us.”

  “So these divers are common?” Pete asked nervously.”

  “No,” she replied quietly “they tend to flock and migrate around the various areas, the smaller ones leave to go elsewhere and the larger ones usually follow. One of the scientists seems to think they are beginning to form a primitive migration habit, perhaps for a favorite food source. We try not to go out when we see them flocking…we prefer that to migrating as they flock only for a few weeks, return, and pass to another direction for a few weeks.” he chuckled “Right now, they’re flocking in our area.”

  It almost took the entire day as they ducked and dodged large herds of creatures that even the distinguished professor didn’t recognize. Jan explained it as crossbreeding for eons of portal creatures and local beasts, but Ed just couldn’t believe it even though he saw it. Some species showed certain changes that crossbreeding might explain, but here and there he saw scattered dinosaurs that couldn’t have belonged to any known species…and he was seeing them first hand and in living, breathing color.

  There were dinosaurs with shimmering scales and leathery skins that at times looked translucent. Others had strange feathery plumage covering various parts of their bodies, as others had arrays of glorious colors; people had to keep prodding Edward along every time he’d stop and stare. Now and then one or more would glance in their direction, but he decided, couldn’t see them, or didn’t see them as a threat and went on about their business of feeding. They walked nearly a mile around a smaller herd of brachiosaurus as Jan explained the creatures had a tendency to trample small threats under their gigantic feet, so the long way around wasn’t argued.

  Walking up to a long woven rope that Jan explained was woven dinosaur rawhide, she gave it a couple of hearty tugs and soon from an overhanging clump of trees came what appeared to be a large woven basket covered in vines began to lower. After several minutes it landed softly in front of a small crack in the cliff face.

  “We’ll have to take turns going up, it only carries four or five people at a time depending upon size. If something comes, we have shelter through that crack. My men will go up first, then some of yours Jack, and then the rest of us will follow once you all are up.” As she spoke many of her people squeezed through the crack and headed toward the long stairs up. Jack figured by the time all of them made the trip in the basket, that walking bunch would beat the last basket to the top.

  Sam was the largest of the crew, but did not like heights and his squirming all the way up, had everyone in the basket chuckling, but somehow even with Sam’s basket shaking, they reached the top.

  As they disembarked the woven basket they were stunned by the beauty of what lay under the trees of the plateau. Walls fifteen feet high walled off the open areas and fields of the plateau. Beyond were fields of crops and what looked to be huge windmills that brought water up from below on the other side of the mesa.

  Houses of wood and adobe stood among the giant trees that protected them from winged creatures and throughout the ‘growing fields’ as they were called, tall trees that had been cleared of all foliage to let in the sunlight, but their mostly bare outstretched and sharpened limbs protected those below from divers.

  Under the trees people went about their business and children played and laughed in carefree tones. Somewhere in the distance someone played what sounded like a guitar.

  Doc leaned over to Jack.

  “Did we just land in Utopia?”

  “I don’t know Doc, but guess it could be a hell of a lot worse.” Jack replied as Jan and Ed climbed out of the basket.

  “Do you like our home gentlemen?” she proudly asked “Isn’t it amazing what a little knowledge can bring to…” she waved her hand around and behind her. For the first time the men turned and looked over the surrounding lands and their jaws dropped at the splendor…and potential danger that awaited them if they let their guard down for even the briefest of moments.

  This could indeed be heaven, it could also be a living hell one distant bellow reminded them.

  Chapter 9.

  The evening was spent teaching the party about Jan’s people and how they survived daily life in what she believed to be something akin to the mid Jurassic age. As it turned out the flying creatures that had nearly killed them earlier, did not fly at night as they also used wind currents to assist them and the currents seemed to diminish after sunset. This provided a great walk along the small settlement’s streets under a huge golden moon.

  They were introduced to the townsfolk and many of the trades, ways of living, and general survival skills were told to the new
comers.

  There were small taverns with tasty locally distilled ales from local flora that also served as various herbs and as the men tasted the varieties of food available, they found that it appeared that dinosaurs had different flavors as well as appearances.

  Sam who also doubled as the cook grinned at the guys and Jan as they headed back to the moderately sized visitors dwelling that was made of adobe.

  “Man oh man, I couldn’t eat another bite.” he beamed a wide grin “I have to remember this; Kentrosaurus and their species taste like venison, Allosaurus and most two legged creatures tastes like chicken, and Achelousaurus and Triceratops, like pork and the water creatures are like various fishes in taste…maybe I’ll open me a BBQ joint.” That drew a few chuckles as they headed into the rooms they shared.

  It had been quite the eye opener, a crash course in living in prehistoric times with modern brains…and as they found, not only interesting, but extremely useful.

  The men sat around the common room before heading to the rooms that they doubled up in to sleep. Jack nodded and gave them a half smile that they had seen too many times before, he had thinking to do.

  “Ok, guys let’s get some sleep, but stay away from asking about those sea dwelling humanoids they call Aquatics. I’m sure you all noticed that every time we asked about them, people changed the subject. Even up here they seem to be frightened of them.”

  “Did you notice those watch towers in those huge trees that lined the river?” Larry asked.

  Hank nodded “Yeah, geez, they had crossbows and those wooden chutes to drop boulders on the river.”

  Sam snorted “Guess they don’t like visitors that swim very much.”