Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set

by Logan T Stark

  “It’s me,” Reece said, his loving eyes smouldering. He held a warm hand over hers for reassurance. “See, it’s me, hon.”

  “Well, don’t just stare at her like food,” an Asian woman beside Reece said. “You’ve come this far, give the girl a kiss.”

  Becca chuckled as Reece leaned in. He gently pressed his lips to hers. Becca moaned softly and ran her fingers through his hair. His lips felt soft and warm. It was the most grounding, comforting sensation she’d ever known.

  “I can’t believe you came back,” Becca said, pulling back a touch and stroking Reece’s cheeks and forehead. “You came back to save me.”

  “No,” Reece replied, his body trembling in unison with Becca’s. “No, I came back so you could save me. God, I love you, Becca Beaton. I thought I’d… thought I’d lost you… I’ll never leave you again. I promise, forever and always. No matter how far or how… anything… how dangerous, I’ll come if you need. If you need me I’ll always come. I don’t wanna be anywhere else.”

  “I know my love, my Reece. I can’t believe I’m saying your name and you’re here. This is crazy, it’s amazing. I don’t ever wanna let you go. I don’t wanna ever be without you either. I know this might sound nuts, but I’ve had a lot of time to think about this… and… it’s... it’s just, well, everything’s so short… you know… one moment people are there and then… things can change so quickly.” Her lip quivered and fresh tears glistened in her eyes. “I don’t wanna wait for things anymore. It’s over too quickly to wait for things. It changes too fast and you never know when it’s gonna happen. I’m… is what I’m trying to say is, will you, Reece Hunter, do me the honor of marrying me?”

  Reece nodded and smiled, trembling and laughing, his tears joining the streaking rain. He pulled Becca close and held her like the world depended on it.

  “That’s the best thing I ever heard. I love you to the moon and back, Becca Beaton.”

  For the Slugs

  T he thunderstorm rolled over the island and the rain began petering out as the marines scouted the area, some of them riding on the backs of incredible transforming robots, escorted by buzzing drones that swarmed in and out of the trees, projecting screens out behind them, displaying information on what they were discovering, mostly ferns, grasses, small lizards and arthropods crawling across bones strewn through the forest around the starcom bunker.

  Becca padded on a patch of damp grass, soft blades tickling her bare feet. She kept inhaling the magnificent fresh air, which filled her lungs with energizing oxygen, far removed from the stale, rancid air inside the bunker, which reeked of medical supplies and Aleksi’s head wound. She felt like an old sagging balloon the day after a party that had been refilled and given a new lease on life. She picked a fern at the base of a sequoia and smelled it.

  “So sweet. It’s so fragrant and fresh,” she said, leaning towards the sequoia and sniffing the bark. “Mmmmm, I forgot how good nature smells. Can you smell that rain too? It’s amazing. I feel… listen, you hear that… there’s life everywhere. This is incredible. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain how amazing this is. It’d just sound cheesy or like I’m being ridiculous.”

  “No, I understand,” Reece said. “I don’t think it’s ridiculous.”

  The truth was, Reece was feeling a glowing zest for life he hadn’t known in months as he watched Becca marvel at the world. It filled him with wonder, like a child chasing fireflies through tall summer grass. He didn’t want to ruin her joy by telling her the air didn’t smell quite as good as she thought it did, with all the rotting bones no more than fifty meters away, but he understood how she felt as she’d released him from a prison of his own. The freedom she was feeling was also blossoming in his heart and the tension in his stomach and shoulders was ebbing away.

  The clouds broke and sunlight streamed. Becca hadn’t felt the sun on her face for so long that it burned. It felt like she was standing too close to a bonfire, but the unpleasant sensation quickly passed, allowing her to tilt her head back and smile at the overarching sky, as wide and blue and refreshing as the ocean.

  Inside the starcom facility, Becca wasn’t sure how Reece would react to seeing Aleksi, the man who’d set off the chain reaction that had caused this whole mess to unfold, but he didn’t go nuts. He even showed concern at the man’s injuries as Etienne and Scarlet provided much needed medical care. Aleksi jabbered inanely and sobbed profusely as they worked. He kept thanking them, hugging and kissing their hands. He also babbled about gods and asked them whether they were sent to deliver him a message.

  After administering antibiotics and sterilising his wounds, in which they decided to leave the maggots until they got to a hospital back home due to their effectiveness, they gave him a sedative and put him to bed. They said his madness and the voices he was hearing was likely down to a mixture of shock and the result of not having had a proper night’s sleep in months. They congratulated Becca for her ingenuity in saving his life, but said the sooner the maggots were removed the better.

  When the marines had given the perimeter a thorough checking over, and had found no signs of imminent danger, they left the warhorses outside and retired to the starcom facility, where Becca was introduced to everyone. She thanked them all in turn and offered to prepare everyone a meal. The muscular man named Molotov turned down the offer flat out. He said he refused to let her lift a finger for the rest of her stay on Jurassic Earth and that she would be treated like royalty. He disappeared into the store room to prepare what he called a ‘mission success wedding celebration feast.’

  Schweighofer joined him as the rest of the squad helped each other remove their tattered survival suits, which had fibers fraying all over. Some patches were so thread bare Becca could see their white t-shirts beneath. With their suits off, she noticed angry bruises and welts covering their arms and legs. She thanked them all again, and then once more for good measure. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to stop thanking them.

  Reece explained of their mission under the Earth’s crust and of how they’d stolen the stargo-jet from Area 51. Molotov kept ducking out of the storeroom when he felt Reece wasn’t doing the story justice, much to the annoyance of Schweighofer. He gestured wildly, firing invisible weapons, throwing his hands out to demonstrate explosions, rolling across the floor like a schoolboy to show how they’d dodged said explosions, waggling his fingers in front of his mouth to mimic the creature that had attacked the Yōgan Koumori, which apparently had teeth that drilled as its mouthpart convulsed. His unintentionally hilarious imitation of that had everyone rolling with laughter.

  Lastly, and perhaps most amazingly, was when Reece introduced her to the robot which she’d thought was merely a service robot of some kind. She’d guessed it was called Denton due to the markings across its exoskeleton reading D.E.N.T.O.N. It had been sitting at the computer terminal talking with Commander Blake ever since they came in from outside. When Reece explained the machine contained a complete living download of Nori Yamamoto’s consciousness, she refused to believe it. She kept quizzing the robot on things only her and Nori had experienced, all of which it answered correctly. It even laughed at jokes only Nori would have.

  “What do I call you then?” She asked, after a quarter of an hour of quizzing. “Nori, Denton, you have the marking right there saying H.A.I.?”

  “That’s my little joke, a Human Artificial Intelligence tattoo, not that I’m totally artificial. Hai means yes in Japanese. Yes to answering questions. Yes I have databanks and lots of knowledge. Hai. Yes. It’s a positive affirmation that I can do it, whatever it is, just like I did in my biological body.”

  “Hai, ha… I like that. Which do you prefer then, what do you want me to call you?”

  “I don’t really mind. You can call me Nori, as that’s who I am, but I’m fine with Robo or Robo Yamamoto. I’m actually growing quite fond of the terms as they’re like my own special nicknames. I’ve never had a nickname. The most important thing to me is
that you feel comfortable. I would never impose anything on anyone. I’ve found imposition is not a good way to have people accept you. They either do or they don’t. You can’t force people to comply and expect them to care.”

  “Well, it has to be Nori then, since that’s who you are. And thanks for doing all this, for putting all this together to save me. You travelled through the center of a whole damn planet to get here, and fought through Area fricking 51! I don’t know how I can ever repay you all. I’m… a bit… totally... I don’t know what to say…”

  “You don’t need to say anything. I have always felt bound by honor, as are all the warriors here today. It’s the code my parents taught me to live by, and one of the qualities I search for in the people I choose to stand by my side. I could never leave someone I know and care about in peril, especially not so alone and so far away. I put you here. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d have done nothing, so it’s not all driven by gallantry. It’s so I can sleep at night also, so to speak, as I only hibernate for system repair and cooling these days,” he said, chuckling. “As the venerable Tim Skinner keeps saying, you are one of the best of us, so coming to save you was an easy decision. He’s very much looking forward to seeing you again, as is Aaditya.”

  “I can’t wait to see them too, so badly, and I don’t know about the best of us, I seem to keep making stupid mistakes, and what you did is gallant, incredibly gallant. You’re my actual knight in shining armor.” She chuckled. “I never thought I’d be rescued by one of those.”

  “Please,” Nori said, hanging his robot head bashfully.

  Becca kissed the metal of his cheek and whispered,

  “Any greatness I have comes from people in my life like you who believe in me. Without foundations, we all fall.”

  “Careful, you’ll make him overheat and blow a fuse or something,” Razak said, making everyone laugh.

  Eventually, after an hour and a half of preparation, Schweighofer and Molotov brought out a feast that consisted of half the contents of the storeroom, most of it laid on platters made from torn up boxes since there weren’t enough plates. Everyone partook, except Nori and Commander Blake, who continued their discussion by the computers.

  “Got any booze?” Fang said, stuffing noodles into her mouth, followed by a cracker, only half of which fitted, the rest crumbling across her t-shirt. “I’d …ove some …ooze,” she said, chewing eagerly.

  “No, sorry,” Becca replied. “I wish.”

  Fang’s eyes widened and she swallowed.

  “You’ve been here how long and you haven’t made any booze? That’s just crazy. You can ferment pretty much anything you know. Vodka’s just potatoes. You’ve got heaps of them back there. There are tribes in the Amazon that use spit as a fermenting agent.”

  “I was more concentrating on not going crazy. I think sitting alone drinking my own spit might have been the straw that nudged me over the edge.”

  “Fair enough,” Fang said, shovelling in more noodles, nodding and chuckling. “Can’t argue with that.”

  “I’d like to say,” Molotov said, standing up and raising a glass made out of a washed out MRE packet filled with water, “to all of you, my friends, my brothers and sisters in arms, and to new friends alike,” he added, nodding at Becca, “I love you all and, man, this has been one hell of a ride. I feel so lucky right now.” He stopped and drew a shuddering breath, then chuckled and flapped a hand in front of his eyes. “I promised myself I wasn’t gonna get all emotional…. Man! This has been the wildest ride of my life. What we came through, what we did, what we will do. I can’t think of anywhere I’d prefer to be. There’s no people better, no port safer and no home where lights are more welcoming. I love you slugs. This is for us… for the slugs!” He roared, thrusting his makeshift beaker aloft.

  “For the slugs!” Everyone cheered, losing most of their water in the rapturous toast.

  “C’mere,” Schweighofer said as Molotov sat down. She angled his chin towards her and gave him a kiss. “Sometimes, only sometimes mind, you make everything worth it. You make everything seem the rightest it’s ever been.”

  “You love me,” Molotov said, laughing and waggling a finger, then kissing her back. “Even though there’s enough of me to go round, it’s all for you, baby. It always will be.”

  “I hate you too,” Schweighofer said, kissing him again. “Just do one thing for me.”

  “Anything, yummy lovely,” he replied, gazing fondly into her eyes.

  “Next time you offer to make a meal for the five thousand, how about you actually do it instead of jumping around playing war while I slave in the kitchen, okay?”

  “Oooooh, burn,” Hadley said, snorting laughter.

  “Yes, ma’am, that’s an affirmative,” Molotov said. He kissed Schweighofer on the tip of her nose, then turned to the group and mouthed ‘it’s not’ whilst shaking his head, which earned him a loud slap across the back.

  The Ones we Need

  A fter much merriment, when the feast was over and Becca’s face ached from laughing and chewing, everyone lethargically hunted for pillows, quilts, mattresses, even packets of food to make up beds in the main room. No one wanted to bed down in the sleeping quarters due to the gag inducing stench Aleksi was giving off, which seemed to ooze through the room like invisible slime. Etienne gave the man a quick once over, then closed the door after diagnosing he was as well as could be expected and sleeping soundly.

  Bellies visibly full, everyone lay back and chatted, bursts of laughter rising from pockets here and there. Molotov and Schweighofer fell asleep first, cuddled in the corner, nestled amongst bags of dried pasta. Scarlet and Fang were playing Twenty Questions and Hadley was being quizzed by Aroon about his father, the infamous Dan Wilson, who apparently owned Iowa’s largest wildlife preserve. Fox was spread out on his back where he’d been eating, mouth open wide, snoring.

  Becca rested on a pillow propped against the wall and Reece laid on her lap. They chatted about everything and anything, as though absolutely no time had passed whatsoever. She stroked his chest, enjoying the sound of his voice as thunder crackled and the rains washed the world of its sins.

  “So… tired,” Reece said, yawning, his eyelids drooping. “Don’t wanna sleep. I’m scared I’ll wake up and you won’t be here. I lost it, Becks, without you…”

  “Same here,” she said softly. “It’s definitely not a dream. I’d know, I’ve been living a nightmare for so long, trust me I’d know. I know it’s hard to believe, but this is real and it really is this good.”

  “Promise me you’ll never leave again, that you won’t sacrifice yourself even if the whole world depends on it? I love how heroic you are, but I can’t take it again.”

  “Never,” she said, lifting and kissing his hand. “There isn’t a power in the universe that could tear me away.”

  “What’s the first thing you wanna do when we get home?” Reece said, his eyes sliding shut, his voice practically breath.

  “First, we’ll spend three days lying in a bubble bath, eating lovely fresh food and planning the wedding, mmmmm fresh food, then who knows, find somewhere peaceful where the animals don’t wanna eat us for starters.”

  “That sounds good,” he said, chuckling. “Places where the animals don’t wanna eat us are my favorite… … … Becks?”

  “Mmmhmm.”

  “Did I ever tell you how much I love you?”

  “Did I ever tell you how good it feels to hear that?”

  “Won’t we get all wrinkled in a bath if we stay in that long?”

  “We’re gonna grow wrinkly together either way, so why not start early, ey? No surprises, get what you paid for.”

  “Sounds perfect,” Reece said, rolling to his side and exhaling a weighty sigh. “I can’t… so… mmm… best...”

  “Thank you again,” Becca whispered sometime after Reece’s breaths became steady and heavy, stroking his hair. “Our kids are gonna have the best daddy in the world.”

&
nbsp; When Reece began to softly snore, too energized to sleep, Becca gently slipped her arm from under him and headed for Nori and Commander Blake by the computers. On seeing her approach, Commander Blake tried to put the screen he and Nori were watching to sleep, but he was too slow to shut down the graphs and bouncing equalizers Aleksi had made a habit of ranting at.

  “D’you know what that is?” Becca said. “Or was, before you shut it down. You think I don’t know? I’ve been here a lot longer than both of you. What’s the point of trying to hide it?”

  “It’s nothing, don’t worry,” Commander Blake said, waving a hand. “Go back to sleep. It’s okay.”

  “I’m not tired and I’ve been here watching that maniac in the other room scream at that incoming static every time there’s a storm. Is he right, is there something out there? Does that stuff mean something?”

  “Honestly, don’t worr…”

  “We don’t know,” Nori said, interrupting Commander Blake. “There’s definitely something. I’m not sure what. It’s being amplified by the electrical storm. I can’t unpack it with the equipment here. All I know is it’s a repeating ultra-high frequency X-Band type broadcast, like the kind we use back home to communicate with distant satellites. It’s almost definitely what’s been interfering with the starcom uplink, why this station never worked properly. The signal could well have been broadcasting before we arrived.”

  “Before we arrived, like before humans arrived?” Becca said, looking between machine and man. “So… you mean… ?”

  “Don’t jump to conclusions,” Commander Blake said. “We don’t know what it is, so it’s best you keep this to yourself. We’ve had enough drama for one mission.”

  “I’m not jumping to conclusions, but if that’s a broadcast, Aleksi was right, there’s someone out there trying to, I dunno... Was he right?”