Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set

by Logan T Stark

  “It’s my dog, from when I was a boy,” Nori said, burying his face into the animal and ruffling its fur. “It’s Daisuke, my darling Daisuke.”

  Daisuke went from bewildered person to person, licking their hands and enjoying the fuss, yipping and merrily wagging his tail. Even commander Blake seemed temporarily softened by the remarkable creature, despite his efforts to disguise his feelings. As the hardened veteran nonchalantly brushed the animal with the back of his hand when it nuzzled his thigh, Reece was sure he saw a smile creak into existence before it was forcefully suppressed.

  “He’s warm,” Hadley said. “He feels real.”

  “Why a dog?” Scarlet said. “Why teleport us across the stars to meet a dog?”

  “Suke’s in his name, help,” Nori said. “I think they can manipulate matter. That’s how they built all this. They’ve recreated him from my memories, to help us.”

  “How can a dog help?” Scarlet said. “I don’t get it?”

  “Right now, neither do I,” Nori said, chuckling and giving the dog more fuss. “Daisuke was my best friend as a child. I didn’t get out much and was schooled at home. My parents bought him for company. He’s the most loyal friend I ever had. I think they used my memories to give him back, so he could be our guide.”

  Daisuke barked at Nori and sat on his haunches, as though confirming the sentiment.

  “Wait, d’you understand what we’re saying?” Reece said, stooping to the dog’s eye level.

  Daisuke barked again and chuffed at Reece.

  “Curiouser and curiouser,” Scarlet uttered.

  “What’s that thing inside your memory files saying?” Commander Blake asked, his features stern. “You sure it’s not dangerous, can you delete it if you need to?”

  “It’s gone quiet,” Nori said. “I can’t access it. It’s light years beyond our technology. I don’t even know where to start. It’s scanning multiple file systems, my memories, historical files of Earth… also spaceships. It’s scanning schematics of theoretical designs my team at home’s been working on for a craft that might one day supersede the starjet technology, vehicles with interstellar potential.”

  “That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” Commander Blake said grimly. “What if it’s trying to learn how to kill us, and by us, I mean all mankind?”

  “It’s not,” Reece said. “It’s trying to help build a ship to take us home. We stumbled on something not meant for us. Maybe we triggered an alarm system and were sent here accidentally. Is what we do know is it’s scanning spaceship files and has sent us a dog, a guide. Trusting whatever’s happening here is a gamble we have to take. It’s only our lives we’re risking, and they’re lost anyway if we can’t get home.”

  “And if we’re taking something dangerous back with us?” Hadley said. “What if that voice inside Nori is a killer A.I. that wants to launch all our nukes? Things didn’t work out too well here. Look around, man, everything’s dead.”

  “Then I will sacrifice,” Nori said. “If it’s malicious, I give you authority to terminate me. Wait… wait… it’s giving me another word… shinrai… trust…”

  “Well, color me surprised,” Commander Blake said. “Right on cue.”

  Daisuke whined and scampered towards the window overlooking the underwater kingdom. The dog jumped up, placed his paws on the windowsill and pressed his snout to the glass. Daisuke bared his teeth and issued a low growl, then stared back at the group, whining and tilting its head, ears flattening back. Daisuke barked a high pitch yip, then turned back to the window, whimpering.

  “Something’s coming,” Schweighofer said, reaching for her rifle. “I think we’re about to meet whoever frightened off the locals.”

  “Be ready, slugs,” Commander Blake said. “Fan out and be ready.”

  “We’re just gonna trust the dog?” Hadley said as weaponry met the hands of the Renegades. “What if it’s a trick?”

  “Right now, it doesn’t look like we have much choice,” Commander Blake replied. “I think we’re in for a fight.”

  Nestroy

  T he Renegades charged towards Daisuke, who was backing away from the window, lips peeled back in a snarl. The dog turned and whined.

  “What is it, doggo?” Fang said, pulling up and stroking the animal’s head. “What’s got you so spooked?”

  Daisuke responded with a frightened yip. The animal took Fang’s hand in its teeth and gently tried to tug her away from the window.

  “Easy,” Fang said. “It’s okay. What’s out there, what’s scaring you?”

  “There,” Scarlet said, pointing her rifle out the window. “Third tower out, ten o’clock. They’re coming.”

  “I don’t wanna meet theys,” Hadley said. “Theys are gonna be bad. Theys killed everything.”

  Reece squinted into the ocean haze. Dark shapes were pouring from behind a distant tower, hundreds of them, knifing through the water like a swarm of sharks tracking the scent of blood.

  “Shit, there’s so many,” Fang said.

  “If we’re gonna trust the dog, let’s trust the dog,” Hadley said, backing away from the approaching swarm. “Let’s move, let’s follow the dog.” Daisuke barked anxiously, then dashed to Hadley and tugged at his glove. “See, he wants us to leave. Hey, you don’t need to convince me, it’s this lot that are too dumb to get it. They’re coming, yeah I know, I can see them too. I don’t wanna stick around either.”

  Reece noticed an oily chromatic halo spreading from the approaching swarm. The creatures appeared to have armored, domed bodies, similar to crab shells. He quickly realized the silvery trails snaking behind the creatures were cavitation voids, which could only mean one thing, they were propeller driven machines.

  “Machines,” Schweighofer announced, the exact same instant Reece joined the dots.

  “Old machines,” Scarlet corrected. “All that rainbowing, they’re spilling oil. They’ve been worked hard, engines pushed to breaking.”

  “To death,” Schweighofer said, “just not their own.”

  “There’s too many to fight,” Fang said, backing away from the window with Hadley. “What do we do? There’s nowhere to go.”

  “Too many isn’t the problem,” Hadley said, Daisuke barking ever more frantically. “They’re gonna smash through this glass in no time. Too little oxygen, that’s gonna be our problem, drowning. Listen to the dog, follow the dog! You wanna trust him, let’s trust him. Let’s go, come on!”

  “Son of a gun,” Commander Blake said. “I can’t believe I’m saying these two things, but Hadley’s right, follow the dog!”

  Daisuke grumbled in what might have been exasperation, then sprinted into the chamber. The squad followed the canine guide through a forest of helical stone pillars. The neon orange lights threading through the impressive supports illuminated their lofted heights, a ceiling emblazoned with stone stars carved out of the rock, alongside images of fantastical sea creatures, festooned with ornate decorations. Patches of the elaborate masonry was missing. The rubble from the collapsed sections lay in craters across the impacted flagstones, forcing Daisuke and the squad to weave as they sprinted.

  Great pools, tiled with green and blue mosaic-work, were spaced at intervals throughout the cathedral-sized cavern. Their rims were encrusted with white crystals, which Reece guessed was salt. The inhabitants of the abandoned kingdom must have been amphibious, or mammals, like whales or dolphins, air breathing. Perhaps the pools led to water-filled passageways that opened to canteens or sleeping quarters for the workers who’d run the reactor.

  A colossal crunch rocked the chamber. Reece glanced back over his shoulder. One of the machines had reached the glass, which was speedily filling with mechanical monsters, streaking from behind, becoming larger by the moment. Thick cables sprouted from the beast at the window, each tipped with an aggressive point. The creature used the mechanical harpoons to spear the glass, puncturing deep, allowing the technological terror enough purchase to butt the glass with demented fur
y, oil spilling like squid ink, cracks spreading through the fragile divide.

  “They’re coming through!” Hadley cried.

  “We need an exit!” Fang panted.

  “Eyes forward, follow the dog,” Commander Blake shouted. “Keep running. Don’t stop.”

  Behind the machine attacking the glass, tens of hunters were transforming, sprouting cables the girth of tree stumps. Their limbs reminded Reece of camera tripods, ribbed and poseable, easy to twist in any direction. The newly arriving machines charged the window, pointed tentacles harpooning, more cracks splintering across the glass. They too began furiously ramming their domed bodies like raging rhinos, thumping jackhammers, the enormous sound they were generating, terrifying.

  Daisuke barked and Reece span back to the dog, who turned left and scampered towards a raised section of circular rock. The dog dashed up the few stairs leading to the platform and sat facing the group, panting, looking incredibly pleased with itself.

  A mighty crunch mixed with the sound of pressurized water hissed through the cavern. Reece tore up the stairs, Fang and Scarlet flanking him. They stopped and turned as the remaining squad members filed in. A machine was squeezing through a fractured section of glass, water spraying around the mechanical bung. The machine wriggled free and flopped to the floor, its scrabbling limbs struggling to raise its body with the water rushing through the hole it had created. The flailing beast was washed a few dozen meters into the cavern. With the water slackening, the mechanical arachnid rose up and shook itself dry, oily rainbows spreading wherever the droplets landed.

  A second machine was squeezing through, then a third. They dropped to the floor and struggled clumsily amidst pressurised jets of flooding water. There were tens of cracks streaking through the glass now. It was surely about to give way to the army of ramming, raging machines. A point of light illuminated in an orifice on the domed body of the first beast that had been washed into the chamber. A brilliant laser beam flashed from the monster, which staggered, the beam slicing through half the pillars in the room.

  Unable to bear its weight, the roof caved downwards, squeezing the compromised pillars in place, arresting the chamber’s immediate collapse. The stone roof creaked and groaned, fists of masonry splashing down. A chunk pinned a leg of one of the approaching machines, which wailed and screeched, trying to tear the limb free. It dropped to the floor and beat its legs, twisting and turning, kicking up spray, shrieking horrifically.

  “The roof’s coming in”” Scarlet yelled.

  The ceiling quaked and a pillar toppled, slowly at first, then gaining momentum, cleaving great chunks from pillars in its path, raining dust and debris that splashed into the surging flood. The stone at Reece’s feet illuminated red as the enormous window shattered and the machines flooded in, flailing arachnid limbs clawing at the raging white swell.

  As had happened in the glass pyramid at Gondwana, little lights rose from the floor, warm and tickling where they brushed Reece’s skin. A cocoon of red light flashed up around the squad an instant before the wall of water struck, bubbles and swirling froth obscuring the view of the approaching monstrosities. When the maelstrom calmed slightly, Reece saw they were ascending, protected in a bubble of crimson light, the pursuing machines torpedoing through the water once more, their legs retracting, propellers engaging, the chamber collapsing around them, pillars falling as though in slow motion.

  They quickly passed out of the crumbling chamber and into a narrow shaft, algae covered walls flashing by.

  “Did we actually just survive that?” Hadley said breathlessly, his features unbelieving. “The dog saved us. I told you to follow the dog. Alright, Daisuke!”

  “You the dog, Daisuke, c’mere,” Scarlet panted, stooping and petting the animal. “You big, beautiful bundle of amazing.”

  Daisuke closed his eyes and lifted his snout, relishing the praise.

  “You definitely the dog,” Reece said, ruffling between Daisuke’s ears. “You’re helping us get home aren’t you?” Daisuke barked, jumped up and placed his paws on Reece’s chest, then merrily licked his face. “There’s a good dog. Who’s gonna get a pile of chow when we get home. That’s right, uh-hu, yeah, it’s Daisuke, that’s right… all the chow you can eat. I owe you one, buddy,” he said, cupping the animal’s cheeks and staring into his soulful eyes. “You understand, don’t you? Thanks for giving me a chance to see Becca again. I mean it. I owe you one, buddy.”

  Daisuke yipped and licked Reece’s eyes, nose and mouth, tail wagging.

  “Ooohh, haar… puuuth,” Reece said, spitting slobber and playfully fending off the overexcited mountain of fluff. “You got some heft behind you, boy.”

  “I’m receiving more information,” Nori alerted. “They’re building us a ship topside. This elevator’s headed for the surface. There’s a molecular fabricator up there, a bigger version of the one that created Daisuke. The ship’s nearly complete. It should be almost done by the time we reach the surface.”

  “So, we’re actually getting out of here?” Hadley said. “For real? We’re saved?”

  “And there was me hoping to watch you eat booger meat,” Fang said, grinning at Hadley, her chest rising and falling as she caught her breath.

  “Ditto, Fang. For your next birthday, I’m taking you to Paris and ordering you a bucket of snails. This isn’t over. Some dreams you shouldn’t let die.”

  “Deal, but we’re getting a bucket each. First to paint the floor pays the bill?”

  “Oh, you’re on.”

  “Gross, heathens,” Scarlet said disapprovingly.

  “We’re not out of the woods yet,” Nori said. “They’re saying we have an important mission to fulfil. They seem highly agitated. They’re saying humanity is in peril, that we’re their only hope.”

  “It’s they now?” Commander Blake said, his finger sliding to the trigger of his rifle. “I thought that A.I. inside your head was an it, singular?”

  “It’s not an A.I.,” Nori replied, glancing down at the Commander’s poised finger. “It’s them, talking to us from a star system in the Orion constellation, the same beings that transported us from the temple. We saw their spaceships, remember, those cigar-shaped vehicles made of rock? I don’t know how they’re doing it, but they’re talking to me in real time. Their technology is like… magic is the only way to describe it. They’ve managed to learn multiple human languages in minutes, digest our entire history. It’s incredible. I thought quantum computing was powerful, but its child’s play to them, like a windup toy compared to a Ferrari. More advanced than that even. I don’t even know where to start.”

  “Say we do trust them, what’s this mission?” Commander Blake said, relaxing his finger to the trigger guard. “Convince me my instincts are wrong.”

  “They say escape is our main priority. They want us to focus. Getting off-world isn’t going to be easy.”

  “I’m not in the mood to be toyed with. Convince me now.”

  “They’re pleading with us to trust them. We need to escape so we can help the people of Earth.”

  “What if we don’t obey, what are they gonna do, set their machines on us again? Whatever’s in your head is hiding something and I wanna know what. Trust is earned, it’s not a right.”

  “They say they know you’re hurting after what happened to Fox and Aroon, that you’re only trying to protect everyone, but they’re begging us to trust them for the good of all Earth. This is bigger than just us. They’re saying they want us to focus all our efforts on escaping the planet, not to get distracted. We’ll be topside any moment.”

  “We have to trust them,” Reece said. “They’ve already helped by sending Daisuke. They’re building us a ship. Trust is the only way we’re getting home.”

  “Until I see this ship with my own eyes, that’s just wishful thinking,” Schweighofer said. “I’m with the Commander. This feels like a trick, I mean, they sent us a dog. Who doesn’t love a dog? It’s like giving candy to a kid, an easy bribe
. Who’s to say they’re not watching right now? Those machines could be them, we could be heading to a gladiatorial arena to fight something up top. Wait, wait, no, it’s definitely a trick,” she said, her eyes igniting with grim revelation. “They messed up. They said humanity is in grave peril, but there’s no people on Jurassic Earth, no civilization. There’s no humanity to be in peril. It can’t be true. What they’re trying to convince us of… it’s not possible…”

  The Renegades’ hands tightened around their weapons as the reality set in.

  “They’re saying…” Nori said, pausing as though receiving more information. “Okay, they’re telling me that temple we found on Jurassic Earth wasn’t for storage. It’s not an ark, it’s a prison. They trapped something inside, an interdimensional being, something incredibly dangerous. Just as nuclear radiation destroys cells or electronics, this thing destroys minds, corrupts them, sends people crazy. They thought containing it far away from Venus would…”

  “Woah, woah, woah, Venus?” Scarlet interrupted. “This is the planet Venus, as in the second planet from the sun… our Venus?”

  “Yes, but that’s not important,” Nori said. “Please listen, we’re going to breach the surface any moment. They thought concealing the entity on Earth would neutralize its effect on this planet, on their people. They quickly discovered its radiation was impossible to contain. No matter how hard they tried to shield it, it’s effects still seeped through. The nearer you are to the containment facility the worse the effect. It doesn’t decay or fade like normal radiation. The area of influence spreads beyond the borders of our solar system. Most worryingly, it radiates through time. It sends out branches that connect with points in the past and future. They’re as good as next door in terms of relative distance to the source. It’s a fifth dimensional being. The analysis the Venutians have conducted indicates the radiation is polluting our time in the Twenty First Century, corrupting people’s minds, just as it did theirs. This thing destroyed an entire civilization, an entire world, and it’s going to do the same to ours.”