The day was hazy with tropical humidity, even though Linden kept the open OTV away from the jungle areas. He knew that he could be stuck in this hell for a very long time—and he knew that he would never get totally used to the oppressive heat, pulsing down from the Illuminator rod ... the shaft that bisected the interior of the Dragonstar and created an Earth-like day/night cycle, switching on at “dawn” and dimming at “dusk.” Even now, with the breeze created by the OTV’s speed, he sweated. It was not at all like this in the desert. The heat there was dry and omnipotent, like the presence of Allah, and the body adjusted to it. No, here was a great deal like hell.
“That juncture of hills up there,” said Alexandra while she consulted the. screens on the dashboard in front of her. “The overlay map is picking up the type of radiation we’ve been reading. From behind those rocks, Tim.”
“Excellent,” said her partner, adjusting the direction of the OTV accordingly. “I must admit, this does intrigue me. The spectrum readings on this radiation have been quite interesting.”
“Do you think that this is the sort of radiation that’s been escaping and affecting the beasts?” asked Alexandra,
“That’s what Jakes thinks. See any strange-looking creatures about, my love?”
“Absolutely nothing,” she said, after a survey of the area with her field glasses. “Which is odd.”
“Could be smart—could be avoiding this radiation. Maybe we’d better get the life-support suits.”
“I don’t see anything on the screens that would warrant that,” said Alexandra. “Nothing the suits would keep out, anyway,”
“Oh, that’s nice to know!”
“Hey, cheer up. Those things can be hot!”
“So, my dear, can be radiation!” They were approaching the rocks. “Looks to me like the terrain up there is going to be too rough for the OTV.”
“Which means we walk?”
“Which means we walk.”
He stopped the vehicle and got out his rifle. He wore a portable analyzer, which by now was going crazy with blinking arrows and numbers.
“I kinda think that old Jakes is going to like what this thing is recording,” she said.
“Should I radio back and tell him to get out here?” Linden asked, checking his weapons.
She laughed. “Oh no. There may be things we find that we may want to keep to ourselves.”
“Funny, you don’t look like an A-rab spy,” said Linden, affecting a southern twang.
“Funny, you don’t, either,” responded Marshall. “And you TWC people ain’t supposed to have a sense of humor, either!”
Alexandra Linden shrugged. “Allah chuckles from time to time, I suppose.”
“If Allah truly exists, I suppose indeed he does.”
“Oh, come off those stupid doubts of yours!” she said, suddenly harsh. “You really can’t afford them, Timothy,”
”I don’t know. I suppose it was a perverse luxury back a couple of years ago ... enjoying the luxury and life-style of the West, while nurturing a big secret in your heart. But after getting called up—” He gestured expansively at his surroundings. “And certainly after all this—one begins to wonder.”
“Too true. But there are too many oaths, too many duties and obligations ... too much inside us that is of the Old Lands to allow doubts to have any effect. Who is to say, my Hasan”—which was her secret name for him— “we may have truly been swallowed by a djinn, and we walk in some desert mirage ... This perhaps is some test of our faith!”
Linden looked at her skeptically. “Stow it, daughter of the desert. We do what we do because we’ve been trained to. I don’t need to hear the damned theology.”
She shrugged, her face all business again. “All right. Now, I think that if we take that pathway up there, we can get to the source of these readings.”
“Okay. I’ll go first.”
They threaded through a couple boulders, then found the narrow stony pathway that Marshall had indicated.
“I figure only about fifty meters,” she said, looking up from her board.
“Yeah, but with this kind of zigzag path, it will take a little while.”
Which it did.
Nor was it truly a pathway. They found themselves often having to climb and crawl over considerable obstacles, from rocks to boulders.
“I hope that Jakes is damned grateful,” said Linden, sweat dripping down his face. “This is work!”
“And let’s hope the TWC is grateful!”
“l didn’t know they got grateful.”
“If we ever get back, we’ll get our reward, I’m sure.”
“I’ll just settle for staying alive right now, thank you.”
Finally the pathway opened up into a large clearing, perhaps forty meters in diameter. Marshall’s readings indicated that the radiation emanated from the other side. But what lay between them and it was of much more obvious interest.
It seemed, at first sight, to be an allosaurus, stretched out on its side. It appeared also to be dead. But no scavengers were present, feasting on its flesh ... and upon further inspection, it proved to be still breathing, its thick sides rising and falling regularly .
“Be careful,” said Linden, holding up a warning hand after clicking off the safety of his rifle. “What do you make of it? Think this radiation has affected it?”
“Nothing indicates the radiation is harmful ...”
“Doesn’t have to be harmful to affect something ... Damn! Do you see that?”
The allosaurus spasmed a little, twitching as it rolled over, revealing its true nature.
It was an allosaurus, all right ... both Marshall and Linden had seen them before.
But it was an allosaurus with two heads.
Two heads, to say nothing of the extra limb that grew from its side, and the rudimentary tail that sprouted midway from its original tail.
“Some kind of freak?” wondered Linden.
“I don’t know,” said Marshall. “But whatever it is, I’m getting a picture of it.” She pulled out her special Leica for a shot. “Mikaela Lindstrom will certainly want to see this!” The device clicked twice. Alexandra Marshall adjusted it, and then moved closer to get better shots of the creature’s extreme abnormalities.
“Alexandra, you don’t have to get too close.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll be careful. Fascinating, isn’t it? Like something in a horror movie!”
“This whole month has been like something in a horror movie,” said Linden. “Okay, that’s close enough. We’re going to have to skirt the thing to check out the radiation ... I don’t like it being here. Maybe we can just get the necessary readings—”
The thing moved with lightning speed.
In less than a second, it had thrashed its way onto its feet. The heads moved in amazing synchrony, swiveling around, both sets of eyes leveling fiercely upon the exploration team. Those eyes were pure red, pupilless, seeming to flare like a double set of glimpses into hell.
“Get back, Alex!” Linden cried as he jerked his rifle up to eye level, aiming,
But his companion seemed frozen in her tracks.
Linden pumped a round into the beast’s chest. Flesh and blood spurted, but it only seemed to madden the monster. It lunged forward, straight for Alexandra.
Linden fired again, wildly, running at an opposite angle in hopes of distracting the allosaur, but his shot missed.
However, the explosion did bring Alexandra to her senses. Her training had her gun in her hand instantly, and she fired two blasts into the dinosaur before trying to run away from the thing.
But it was too late.
The allosaur took an incredible leap into the air. It landed just meters from her, and dipped down with one of its heads, even as another rifle shot from Linden slammed into its larger tail.
Alexandra screamed as she saw the thing’s jaws close down on her.
There was a loud snap as teeth crushed bones and human blood gushed from the allosaur’s mouth.
“No!” cried Timothy Linden,
He fired the last of his ammo into the beast’s neck, still in shock over what he’d witnessed. The death of his lover ... the end of his companion ... It was too much to take.
The allosaur jerked about with his new sting of pain, and its pair of heads seemed to have a single mind. A severed arm and a hank of blond hair hung from one set of jaws; the other set snapped in Linden’s direction.
He threw down his rifle and pulled out his handgun. The allosaur was already advancing as he fired at one of the beast’s heads, but only grazed the skull.
The allosaur charged on toward him.
Desperately Timothy Linden ran for the cover of the rocks. On fire with adrenaline, he did not even think this was where the radiation emanated. He became a soldier, retreating for survival.
The rocks formed a crevice and instinctively Linden ran for this cover. The allosaur snarled as it bore down upon him. Linden took a moment to fire into one of its eyes, rupturing it. The allosaur roared with pain, halting for a moment and digging with a claw as though to pluck the bullet from its extra head.
Linden seized the opportunity, to retreat farther into the crevice, into the shadows, back-first, watching the great wounded beast that wished to kill him. Blood trickled from the ruined eye as the allosaur jumped after him, just able to squeeze its large body into the crevice.
Again, Linden fired into the wounded head, and didn’t wait to see what damage he’d done. He moved back farther into the dimness, sensing an emptiness.
The cry of the allosaur echoed into the darkness behind him.
A cave!
It was some sort of small cave—protection enough, surely, from this aberration. Linden ducked into the small opening, moved back into darkness, away from the allosaur,
The creature knew he was there, no doubt about that. It could smell him still. But there was no way now it could get at him. All to the good ... at least for the time being.
Linden leaned against a cool wall and rested, letting the reality of his situation sink in. The place was curiously dry for a cave, and Linden sensed it went farther back, which meant there might be another exit. He could wait here for a while—he knew that the beast wouldn’t linger long at the entrance—or he could try another way out.
The former method seemed the safest. But then, as he sat there, his grief for Alexandra began to build to a point past bearing. No, he thought. Better to keep moving.
Besides, this cave virtually invited exploration—and he was here, after all, to discover the source of the radiation. Too bad he didn’t have the necessary gear ... but he did have a small flashlight on his belt.
He unclipped it and turned it on.
The small cone of light played over moistly gleaming rock , over stalactites and stalagmites in the distance, over a narrow path that dived down into further darkness like a gullet into the ground.
The pained roar which echoed through the narrow cave reminded him that a pair of gullets waited for him outside.
He decided to use this opportunity to explore.
After checking to make sure all of him was in order, and he didn’t have any wounds he was unaware of, he did just that, cautiously moving down the steady incline. He was quite aware there might be other creatures down here—but this was far better than sitting and listening to the growls of the thing that had killed Alexandra. wrapped up in his grief and fear. Besides, he was here to explore, to discover the nature of the radiation. He didn’t have the equipment, but he did have his own superior observational abilities and intelligence. That would do for now.
That beast, thought Linden as he carefully navigated his way down the incline. That beast was quite remarkable. They’d seen nothing like it ... Was it an older mutation ... was it born that way? Or was it like the others—had it been a normal allosaurus affected by the changes in the Dragonstar’s interior so that it grew new limbs, grew that extra head? God knew that something was going on ... something, for example, that had rendered a whole portion of the saurian populace into bloodthirsty savages who had killed and eaten that science fiction writer.
If he could be the one to discover this secret of the Dragonstar ... If he alone knew what was going on in the depths of the machinery that ringed this cylindrical ancient world, then that secret might help him get back to Earth. And that secret might be used for the benefit of the Third World Confederation.
All these thoughts buzzed in his head as he descended, working hard to keep from thinking about Alexandra in those awful jaws.
Then, below him, he heard a buzzing sound.
It was more a subliminal bass hum than a buzz, actually ... and Linden could feel it in his feet, beginning to travel up his legs like an attenuated shiver.
Oh yes ... by God, there was something down here.
It gave him a spooky feeling ... a feeling of the numinous. If he left everything up to his natural instincts, he knew he would turn tail, go back up to the mouth of this tunnel, and just wait until the two-headed allosaur was gone. But Timothy Linden had above all a strong training and a strong sense of duty ... to say nothing of his natural scientific curiosity.
So after only a short pause to strengthen his resolve, he continued downward.
The walls at this point began to widen, and the stalagmites and stalactites on the floors and the ceilings began to disappear, creating more the resemblance of an esophagus.
And then, Linden no longer needed his small flashlight. Faintly at first, and then more strongly as he descended, the walls began to glow.
He switched off his light as the tunnel angled abruptly and he walked into greater luminescence.
He realized then that the tunnel was no longer of rock.
It was of metal. A dull grey metal that at first could easily be mistaken for stone, but metal nonetheless. The light emanated from strips in the walls and it shone softly, perhaps even gloomily.
This continued on for some meters. Then, up ahead, it steeply angled down. Linden progressed cautiously, unable to make out what lay ahead because of all the angling and uniformity.
Then suddenly the floor slipped from underneath him. With a yelp, he fell and began to slide down an abruptly steeper angle, feet-first.
It seemed as if he slid for only a short time, but he wasn’t sure, he was so involved in trying to stop himself.
The chute dumped him all asprawl in a small round chamber.
It was the end of the tunnel. There seemed to be no other way out. The walls around him were curved and shiny, almost of a translucent glassy nature now.
He stood, and just as he began to despair from the thought of dying down here of thirst and hunger, unable to clamber back up that chute, the walls began to change.
And then Timothy Linden began to scream.
LOOKING OFF to his left, Mishima Takamura took a moment to appreciate the way the terrain of the Mesozoic Preserve in the distance faded away, misting into muted, pastel colors. Like the work of a Kyoto artist, nutshell-browns and minted greens dappled with watercolor oranges and grays. But instead offending at the horizon, it surged upward, curving in upon itself and rising skyward until it hung suspended over his head, sixty-five klicks distant.
Inside the closed world of the Dragonstar, there was no such thing as a horizon.
Like time in a bottle, a piece of the Earth’s history had been locked away within the immense cylindrical vessel. Mishima looked out upon a perfect reproduction of the Mesozoic Era.
Takamura maneuvered a four-man omni terrain vehicle down a rocky hillside, toward an artificially created stream. Seated in the back seat was a muscular black man—James Barkham, an IASA small-craft pilot, who h
eld an HK-99 heavy assault rifle at the ready, scanning the nearby foliage for any unwelcome predators. In the front passenger seat sat Rebecca Thalberg, monitoring readouts on a portable scanning device.
Becky was the most attractive biomedical specialist Mishima had ever seen. Long, curly hair, shining blue-black like a raven’s hood, and naturally thick lashes accenting her dark almond-eyes, Smiles came easily to her full lips, and her wit gleamed sharp and bright. Mishima found her totally captivating, and he wished that she would eventually notice how he felt.
Sure, it looked like he might be able to have something going with Kate Ennis, the holo-journalist from NBC, but there was something about Becky Thalberg which made her special. Mishima couldn’t pin it down, but it might have been her mental toughness, her ability to survive under some of the worst conditions any of them had so far endured. Not that she was not a gentle person, though. Rather, Becky possessed a will, a spirit, that was seemingly unbreakable. Whatever the world wanted to throw at her, she always appeared ready to catch it and throw it back with equal force. Mishima liked that quality in people, and when combined with a woman so sensuously attractive, it made Becky irresistible.
“Something up ahead,” she said, not looking up from the screen of the scanner.
“Animal, vegetable, or mineral?” asked Barkham. He wiped some sweat from his shining black forehead with his sleeve.
“Animal. Looks like a carnivore from the size of it. Moving pretty fast, too. Coming this way.”
“You want to put up the dome?” asked Mishima. He had cleared the rocky slope and was moving along an alluvial plain toward a crisply running stream. The plan had been to follow it toward its source in the hull, or at least discover how its fluid, dynamics had been constructed.
Dragonstar Destiny Page 3
