Jurassic Portal

by Robert Turnbull Jr.

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  Two hours later the pair walked into the building that Harry had as his headquarters. It was a large wooden structure on the end of a wooden dock built on poles that protruded from the calm waters.

  “Aye! There ya two be…g’morn to ya!” he tossed a meaty thumb back behind him and out the window to the large ship in the harbor and boasted loudly, “Well lass what do ya think?”

  “Very nice.” Coi shrugged as she knew little of sailing ships. Jack on the other hand nodded as he looked the ship over.

  “The keel must have taken a lot of bending.”

  “Ye know ships lad?”

  “”Not a lot Harry, but I do know to bend enough wood to make a keel that size had to take a large steaming…” he looked back toward the cliffs “a steam cave I’d guess.”

  Harry walked over to Jack and slapped him on the back and roared with laughter.

  “Ye are all right laddie, and ye are right about the cave. It took us decades to figure out how to do it once the only man of the original crew passed. Oh sure lad, the man tried his best to tell others, but alas he was unable to teach as he was sick when we arrived. Far too long have we been without the wind at our backs and the spray in our faces.” he walked over to the window and smiled at the huge sailing ship.

  “But now the English have come and showed us how to make steel in our smelting process, we no longer have to depend upon the brittle iron. Aye, my friends another year and we’ll be sailing with the permission of…well we’ll be a sailing soon.”

  “Permission?” Coi asked.

  Harry slowly walked over to a large chair and plopped down in it and leaned upon his large blueprint strewn desk.

  “Ahhh lass, this old Scotsman canna tell ya, we made a promise.” both of the lovers could see something weighed heavily on Harry’s mind.

  “Oh lass, I would love to be tellin’ ya, but a promise is a promise.”

  “Harry I would expect nothing less from you.” Coi smiled warmly.

  The captain leaned back in his chair and smiled.

  “Ahhh, lassie and that’s why I be lovin’ ya so much…” and a serious look crossed his face “and why I couldn’t help ya much on yer mission.” he leaned back on his desk and gave them both a serious look “And why the only thing I will tell ya lass…” he sighed “when ya get to the eighth mesa of your people, walk over the stone arch not by day, but at night lass…a clear one.”

  Harry slowly got up and walked over to the window and stared out upon the sea beyond their cove and without looking back at them sighed again…

  “Ye will see then lass…ye will see,” he turned and smiled softly “and lass when ye do, light three large torches and place them closest to the sea on yer arch. Do the same the second night and ye will see.”

  Harry spun and looked at both of them in earnest.

  “Only the two of ye must go…not yer people or…” he paused as if catching himself wanting to say more, but honoring some vow he had sworn “heed me words lass, just ye two, no one else…down to the beach…ye will see.”

  Harry kept staring at the pair and a sadness appeared “I have to warn ya, it will be painful, but ye will understand…if…” he waved his hands in the air “I canna say more to ye two, but only do as I said if ya insist upon knowing.”

  Harry slowly paced the floor “Even then ye may not be able to find the answers…” he rubbed his head vigorously “it’s painful and sometimes the wind canna touch the mind too long or there’s the pain. That is all I can tell ya lass, and only because ye are who you are.” he grinned that huge robust grin that Coi remembered from her childhood.

  “Maybe that lad of yours…maybe the wind will speak to him. Ya two must go now, I’ve said too much. Get to yer people before night.” Harry smiled and nodded at Jack as the door opened and one of Harry’s men escorted them out.

  He led them along the beach and Jack asked him if they were building a ship why they didn’t have smaller boats, but was met with only silence. A seafaring settlement and not one small boat, just a floating, huge ship still in the process of being rigged. It was a small settlement, but still Jack felt something was not being said, and left it at that.

  Supplies filled their backpacks and within minutes of hoisting them on their backs, a basket was lowered from the mesa that overlooked the cove and while the trip up was breathtaking, the pair had little chance to enjoy it.

  Within minutes they were on a cart pulled by horses that the pirates had. They had been bred from the few that they had taken as booty that fateful day that they had run afoul of the portal and wound up in this world. Coi had seen them once before during a trip here in her teens and explained that the horses were few because their life cycles had been increased like the humans. It took so long for them to mature to be bred that only the pirates had them…and there were less than a dozen.

  The cart pulled up to a strange looking contraption of pulleys and straps and as Jack examined the cable he looked strangely at Coi.

  “These look like stainless steel.”

  The Mayan that had been their escort nodded “They are, companion of my princess. There is a cable that stretches through all the trees to a large outcropping in the jungle that is ten meters off the jungle floor. We have a small contingency there that protect the cables.” He smiled and pointed to the two inch cable that was anchored above them as the cart stopped and he climbed down.

  “It took nearly two years to create using the English method, but you two must hurry.” he nodded to the stairs up to the basket.

  It was obvious that they were being hustled along for some reason, a far cry from the night before…before they told Harry of their mission to find a way home.

  As they got into the basket Jack noticed a second smaller cable and realized that this basket was not going to have to be hand pumped. A sudden jerk and the basket began a quick downward movement and over the edge of the mesa toward the jungle as it left the holding platform.

  Now speeding over the jungle it moved along just like a ski tram gone wild. The basket and the mechanism above had foot long stainless steel spikes to protect them from the various species of divers.

  Coi had explained that while not overly intelligent, the divers protected their wings above all else and had learned from the humans how spikes could shred their wings. Except for the occasional collision with a wire, like what had caused the cable over the ravine to snap, divers mostly avoided human spikes…however on the ground or climbing in the open, humans were an easy delicacy, so they were never one hundred percent safe.

  The trip took nearly three minutes and once through the jungle canopy they could see the spike ringed outcropping that was their destination. From there they would be on their own along the narrow trade path to what Coi’s people called Mesa 8. There were six mesa civilizations, but only the Mayan civilization had eleven mesas as their numbers were the greatest…it was they that had been in this world the longest…and they were about to find out that was wrong.

  Chapter 21.

  After a rather narrow brush with a spinosaurus, Coi and Jack squeezed out of a giant fallen tree and made the last two miles to arrive at the base of Mesa 8. Coi didn’t even have to pull the long rope to ring the bell at the top to lower the basket. By the time they climbed to the top of the surrounding rocky debris field, the basket was waiting for them…along with a dozen armed guards to assure that if that spinosaurus returned, it would be met with a six foot long bolt from a ballista they had built near the lift. As it turned out the spinosaurus was but one of many in this southern area of mesas. Something Jack wished that someone would have mentioned earlier. On the other hand, to Jack it showed him just how well people had adjusted to this way of life when something like a spinosaurus showed up and it wasn’t considered anything out of the norm.

  Up top, the usual crowds were there to greet royalty and Jack began to understand how important heliographs by day and Aldis lamps at night were in this land. W
ord had reached this mesa before they did. Coi filled the elders in and they only gave her strange and hesitant looks. They both knew something was being ‘not so much held back from them’, but rather uncertainness or lack of explanation…and that confused the pair even more.

  The first night it rained from sunset to dawn and by the second night who but Harry showed up about dusk.

  “Hi lass…Jack.”

  “HARRY!” Coi leapt into his arms “I thought you…”

  He lowered her “Aww lass, this old Scot had to come. I swore an oath decades ago and I never break an oath,” he sighed a deep sigh that reeked of rum, or at least this land’s version of it “so I couldn’t tell ye, but so help me, I never swore that I wouldn’t show ye.”

  “What Harry?” Coi asked in her musically excited tone. To Jack it was obvious that there was a strong connection here, and to Jack that meant only one thing; Harry was worried there could be danger.

  “Coi my dear, I canna tell ya. Tonight ye will have to see for yourself. Tomorrow night it will be up to me to explain everything…” and now the worried look crossed the Captain’s face “assumin’ things go as I suspect.” Harry looked at her in a painful expression “Please lass, do not ask me to break me vow.” he smiled warmly “’cuz yee be knowin’ I would fer ya lass.”

  Coi laid her tiny hand on his meaty one and smiled warmly back “And I would never ask you to do that Harry…and you know that.”

  He smiled back and for an entire day not a thing more was said. The storms cleared and had left a heavy fog behind, but by midnight the ocean could once again be seen. Slowly they proceeded toward the rocky arch that the sea had carved out a millennia ago from the Mayan’s eighth mesa.

  Harry told Coi that her people could not come and by their looks, it was just fine with them. The tribe had kept the stone walkway clean all the way from the mesa to the end of the arch where it widened out into a huge rounded cliff and the strong basket and winch system that was built right on the center edge. Below the arch was nothing but a wide sandy beach with lapping waves about one hundred feet beyond the arch’s base.

  Jack looked at Coi and then Harry “Ok, so they keep this up and for why?”

  Coi smiled “Silly for lowering the sacrifice at the full moon. Fruits, berries, and nuts. And the seas leave…uh…coil?”

  Harry grinned as he looked at Jack “It’s a strong seaweed like stuff that is even stronger braided rope can be made from. It be like that nylon rope that Jan’s people brought with them. But ye can’t make that nylon stuff here, so…”

  Coi nodded “And we strip it down to make threads to weave strong clothing with as well as rope. Like those gowns you like to see me in…and Harry’s shirt.”

  Jack grinned “Something to import to the other mesas. I get that, so it just washes up on the beach at the full moon?”

  Harry grinned “Aye, something like that lad. It is not the full moon yet, but if…I mean things be goin’ right, all your questions will be answered. In the meantime…” Harry motioned to the small crowd and a tall thin man with curly blond hair stepped through. The man extended his hand and smiled and as Jack shook it, Harry grinned and in his booming voice added “And with a little luck Paul here will help me explain things in terms that ye might be able to understand, as I never knew some of the…” Harry looked confused and looked at Paul as this new comer began to try to explain his presence.

  “Well Jack, from what Harry told me when he sent for me, it would seem that your people Jan’s and mine are from about the same kinds of civilizations, age wise that is. Harry here, while this reality should be about the same time century wise, never developed as fast as ours did. So I’m here to sort of put what Harry relates to references that we’d know better than he does.”

  Now it was Jack’s turn to be confused “Ok, so why don’t you just tell me what…Wait, differences? Differences how? I mean why would Harry be using references…I’m confused.”

  Paul chuckled “No…no, you don’t understand, Harry will translate using hand signals, he’ll describe things he isn’t sure what they are talking about, I will try to interpret what he is trying to tell me aloud, and hopefully one of us will understand what the shim is saying.” Paul looked puzzled “However I have no idea what Harry is actually translating,” he grinned “so I’ll really be mostly confused as well,” he patted Jack on the back and smiled “but when an old friend asks for help…” Jack understood that Harry had to talk rapidly to the shims using his hand signals, and it would be much faster using the same to Paul. Paul’s people had taught the pirates their version of hand signals decades ago, and now Paul would try to tell what Harry was reading. He sighed and figured this was going to be a long night.

  Jack and Coi both looked at one man and then the other, and were obviously completely lost. But before either could ask what he was talking about, Harry broke out in a huge grin and pointed out toward the glow in the distance.

  “Out there lad…lass, out there.”

  Coi smiled at Harry “You mean the glow we call Umbra? It has always been there, my people have always wondered at its beauty.” she looked at Jack “It was written on the walls of that temple we were in back at my mesa.” She sighed softly “But it was mostly lost when the cliff gave way during the earthshaking back before I was born.”

  “Aye lass, no doubt it were.” he lit the three large torches that had been hung out over the cliff face that overlooked the beach and sea below “Ye see that was me pledge decades past…the one I made with the ‘Shims’.”

  Jack opened his mouth but Harry just laughed “I had to fill Paul in lad and he don’t be believin’ me so I’m not going to be trying to explain now, just you wait.” And with that a meaty hand shot seaward.

  Out in the waters near the shore there was a small glow that first appeared to be a multicolored shimmering, faint but visible. Suddenly next to it was a much brighter white glow, and then another and another until what Jack counted as twenty in number aligned to one another in perfect two by two formation and moved toward the beach.

  “Well, will ya lookie there lass, they got the message that royalty was going to be here and are makin’ some sort of ceremony of it. They don’t usually light up the sea like that…” he gave her a sly wink “’specially when they bring the coil on the dark of the moon and drop it on the beach.”

  Coi and Jack both stood gawking at Harry as the rather large red-headed scot chuckled.

  “Arrr, they be comin’ to see ya lass, I told them ya needed their help and even after hiding their existence from ya all these centuries…” he laughed “and seein’ that your people once tried to kill them, I’d be guessing they be wanting to make peace. I mean lass, after all they be tradin’ with ya all this time.”

  As they watched the calm waters below the globes broke the surface and appeared to be attached to long wooden poles and the glow reminded Jack of giant non-blinking fireflies…big fireflies that didn’t blink on and off, but stayed on to give a steady greenish-white light. It wasn’t overly bright, but nicely lit the area around them.

  As the poles came out of the water and closer to the beach, using his scope, Jack could see they were about the size of a basketball and were attached to a pole of gnarled wood that stood a good five feet up from the webbed hand that held it.

  Slowly the waters moved to reveal smooth leathery heads as they glistened in the soft lights they carried.

  Their bodies smooth like a dolphin’s skin and they were obviously hominids. Jack looked at Coi who watched through the binoculars Paul had brought. Their feet were unshod and webbed. The most striking feature about them was all along their sides, back, and head, were amazing stripes that changed colors in undulating bright pulses of blue, green, yellow, and red, it was obvious that they were speaking to each other, but so rapidly Jack doubted that even Harry could keep up. Harry chuckled as he headed toward the large basket “Jack, Coi, Paul, and me only. I’ll not wantin’ to be scarin’ them off. I be really su
rprised they showed up in the first place.” He climbed into the basket and the others followed suit.

  “You talked to them?” Coi asked before Jack could utter a word.

  “Aye lass…sort of ya see. The first boat we built near on two decades ago, pretty much come apart on us and I nearly followed the four others with me to the bottom of the sea. The Shims saved me…” Harry snorted “guess they saw me mates sinkin’ to the bottom. So they carried me to some little atoll miles off shore from our cove.” As the basket lowered Harry roared with laughter “Hell, old Harry nearly shite hisself when I came to, looked up, and saw them fishy critters. There was the problem as to how to get me back to the cove. Too far fer me to swim and the shims didn’t need boats, so they brought me fish to eat…even knew I wanted fire to cook ‘em by and brought me some kind of flint-like rocks and some jelly shite that burnt like long lasting coal. They fed me well and I gave them some of the things I had on me, like me daddy’s watch. I figured the shims didn’t want to be seen by me men, so they be keepin’ me like a pet…or so I be thinkin’.

  The next day they brought up me box with some things; tools and such. Guess that was where the trading began with us. They didn’t take much from me and finally refused anything else. They weren’t greedy ya see lass. I was there three days and that night they brought me some wood and towed me to a spot near the cove and I knew these things were smarter than I be.” he chuckled softly as the basket touched the beach “As they put me so far from the cove I knew I be right in thinkin’ figured they not be wantin’ ta be seen and all, so I kept their secret. A few days later I took some fruit and shite where they left me, and lo and behold, two days later on the dark of the moon they brought that stuff Coi calls coil…makes fine rope and sheets for that blasted ship…if we ever gets it done.”