Read Hunter’s Moon
Corey woke up. Why did he feel like he shouldn’t move a muscle? Just listen. Don’t even open your eyes or change your breathing. Just listen. He could almost feel the room around him at times like this. Somehow though, this time it is different.
‘What’s that smell? A sharp odor coming in through the tent, tickling my sinus. Yes, something like ammonia but not as strong.’ With that thought, Corey opens his eyes slowly. Just a barely noticed slit, enough to see the shadows on the tent. Long dark fingers extend across the tent wall. Branch shadows from the brush projected by the moon onto the sides and top. A Hunter’s bright moon, now full and high in its path across the sky. Nothing more.
‘Perhaps if I …’ A scraping sound behind him. Along the edge of the hut’s wall behind him. He stops, frozen at the level and suddenness of the noise. His eyes are wide open. The others still sleep. ‘How could they not have heard that!’ His senses scream. ‘What is trying to get in behind me?’ The very thought is like a knife point held between his shoulder blades. ‘Should I turn? I need to turn and look! What will happen if the seal on the hut is broken?’
His hand slides out silently to the utility belt hanging from the pole by his head. He fumbles for the catch. Something warm grips his hand. Holds it there and gently squeezes. ‘Alex, yes it has to be Alex. He must have sensed it too.’
Corey freezes and the tension in his hand slowly releases. Now he can feel Alex moving, a dark shape at the edges of his vision. Slowly rising then the shadow stops, frozen in mid-stance as a second scraping sound erupts from the other side of the hut that is followed by a faint tearing sound from the one behind Corey’s back. His eyes turn but he’s afraid to move his head even though the ripping is but a few inches from his back. A hand silently covers his mouth and his eyes snap up to see Alex’s dark shade standing next to him with the dull black, deadly blade of his Ka-Bar fighting knife extending out from his hand.
Praise for Hunter’s Moon
This review is from:
Hunter's Moon (Cretaceous Station Series)
‘This is the second book in the series and picks up where the first one left off. I appreciated that the author put some effort into the internal logic of the plot. That is, there are no magical gardens and no magical doors that open mysteriously (well, there is one...)’
‘The most distinctive characteristic of the book (series) is there are chapter notes. These are left as exercises for the interested student. The author supplies a few paragraphs with each chapter describing what's accepted science, what's speculative, and what's totally made up…’
Q.Tipp, (Kindle Edition)
Author’s Note :
Throughout this novel I’ve restricted the types of plants, dinosaurs and other animals to those found, or at least their fossil evidence is found, in and around the West-Texas and New Mexico general areas. The environments depicted in the novel are therefore as accurate as can be visualized for the area and the time frame of just before the last great K-T Extinction.
Brief references are available at the end of each chapter for those interested in further reading. The reader may also find the short discussions following them interesting.
Tales based on Science Fact.
Stories suggested by experience.
Cretaceous Station Series
By Terrence Zavecz
Nodal Convergence
Hunter’s Moon
Be sure to visit
http://www.GraviDynamics.net
To my son Corey,
Engineer, entrepreneur, natural leader and
Most of all, a loving father and husband.
What more could a father ask?
Hunter’s Moon
Never underestimate life
Book II of Cretaceous Station
Terrence Zavecz
http://www.GraviDynamics.net
GraviDynamics Corporation
Mark Francis Nolen
Chief Executive Officer, Director of the Board
Dr. Matthew Zoeller
Chief Scientist, Partner
The following material is considered
confidential and proprietary.
Use is restricted to the needs of GraviDynamics Corporation and its officers.
____________________________________
Cretaceous Station Personnel consisting of 320 men, women and children as of March 27, 2132.
All material in this report has been verified for permanent records. References have been correlated to the summary of each section and their sources validated #322117-23.
Primary contributors and those mentioned in this report are as follows:
Members of the Board of Directors on Site
Robert Taylor, spouse Julia and two daughters.
Deborah Clinow
Doctor Suzan Esque
Justin Rather
Engineers & Scientists
Janet Anderson – Geo-Physicist
Anton Dotschkal – Civil Engineer
Martin Feldman – Physicist
Mary Li – Chef, Nutritionist
David Pope – Naturalist
Sara Wenford – Paleontologist
Paul Wenford – Physicist
Wenford Children:
John Wenford
Brittany Wenford
Michael Yatscho – Opticial Design Engineer
Corey Zavtek – Mechanical Engineer
Rachel Zavtek - Spouse
Zavtek Children:
Gabriel Zavtek
Crew of Argos
Adrian Lee – Pilot
Seth Sassaman – Hunter Pilot
Molly Pasteur - Communications
Crew of Essex
Maynard Dillard – Captain, commanding
Susan Shieve – Communications
BlackWave Security & Engineering
Daniel Drake, Colonel Commanding
Toshi Yakamura - Pilot
Alex Grissom – Sergeant, Engineering Specialist
Bob Brody – Demolitions, Specialist
Tom Bracken – Electronics, Specialist
Sotak Luti – Engineering Specialist
Cindy Decker – Hive-Tab Systems Engineer
Eric Beadler – Technician
Brian Folsome – Engineering Specialist
Ed Saren – Weapons Specialist
Jane Buckheit – Statistician
Dieter Chintz – Mechanical Engineering
Wei Young – Systems Analyst
Barbara Young – Systems Analyst
Daughter – Jenn Young
Hypsilophodont Familiars
Tina, Molly, Fran, Buddy, Dozi, Fozzy
Hunter’s Moon - 37 -
“The serenity of the opaled ocean sweeps over me. As I had hoped, it channels my thoughts away from the challenge of the path ahead. For just a short while, push aside the quest, elusive goals and pressures of the daily tasks and try to look back and recall why.”
Mark Francis Nolen
“Ah but it’s during the night that my ancestors were busy, especially on evenings such as this. Those rare nights blessed by the full Hunter’s Moon that would light the fields, casting long dark shadows revealing even the slightest movement”
Corey James Zavtek
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and
dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are
not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The references and chapter discussions in this book are real
and are, to the best of the author’s knowledge, true and accurate
.
Printing History
Ver. 1.0: Kindle Digital, March 2012
Ver. 2.0: October 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1479317424
ISBN-10: 147931742X
Hunter’s Moon
Copyright © 2012 by Terrence E. Zavecz
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions.
Prolog : Sea Home
“Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.”
William Shakespeare
"… but it was the mark of a brave man to face things that are, and seem, terrible for a man, because it is noble to do so and disgraceful not to do so."
Aristotle
‘Why do I have to go to school anyway?’ Gabriel Zavtek thought to himself as he ran out along the cliff edge high above the ocean. ‘It’s boring. There’s so much more to see and learn out here!’
Gabe scurried down beside a large fern and picked up a stone. The cobalt waters lazily beat the rocks a hundred feet below adding soft background music to the songs of the birds feeding in the surf. He took quick aim at the nearest and threw the stone. It landed far short of its mark but Gabe didn’t really mind.
A stone flew past his head and Gabe turned around, startled. ‘Fozzy, you scared me! I didn’t hear you!’
‘Hi, Gabe!’ A soft, almost girlish voice replied.
‘You’re lucky! You don’t have to sit and learn all day.’ Gabriel whimpered toward his friend. ‘Hey, let’s go over to the sandy side and see if there’s anything on the beach.’
The soft musty smell of the palms and ginkgo trees rode on a salty breeze gently lifting from the waters below as they pushed down the path. They ran inland first and then northward to the other side of the narrow neck of the land bridge that connected to the peninsula. Gabe’s home was out on that peninsula. He knew he should not be out on the mainland like this, but he’d come here a hundred times before.
Large ferns covered sections of the trail, sometimes towering over their heads. They had passed this way many times before in play, tripping and bumping each other. They pulled sticks from the undergrowth as they ran and flung them at the small lizards and ground-birds that scattered in front of them. Laughing and enjoying the warmth of the early morning. Fozzy whistled a low melody as they strolled. Gabe always wished he could whistle like that.
As they passed over a rise in the trail, they could hear the surf softly rolling on the coarse sand beach ahead. Quietly and with great care, they moved to the edge of the cliff. ‘Yes! There must be a hundred of them laying down there. Shhh! Just do as I do.’
Far below a group of grey backed bathers scampered across the beach and in the shallow waves. Adults lay nearby watching, soaking in the warmth of the morning sunlight. Occasionally a head would lift high on its long neck and bellow to the young ones, warning them back from the surf. Some rested with their white bellies turned toward the blue sky. Others adults lazily reached over to scratch at flies and sand fleas.
The youngsters in the group moved clumsily along the beach. Four legs, shaped more like flippers than feet, pushed through the damp sand leaving a long trail of footprints with a central line carved by their heavy tail. Long necks, topped with a small tooth-filled heads, swung and twined in mock battle between two of the young males. They bellowed and cried as their parents kept watch over the nearby surf.
‘We’re lucky.’ Gabe said to Fozzy. ‘They don’t usually stay around this long after the sun is up. See that big one up there. He’s the papa, my dad says he can swim so fast that he can jump completely out of the water.’
The sky is almost as blue as the ocean with hardly a cloud in sight. A thin haze forms off in the distance where the tropical clear water meets the sky. The boys watched until they became bored with the antics on the beach below.
Gabe turned to Fozzy, ‘Let’s go sneak up on the Trikes. Come on, they’re just down this trail.’
They skipped through open brush lands filled with ferns and low palm trees. The ground was soft with a cushion of dead leaves and peat moss below their feet. The trail weaved in and around small islands of brush covered in rough leaves and tall ferns. Down to a field they walked, listening to the singing in the trees, swatting at the bugs and lunging at the small ones that scattered before them with their warbled cries and long feathery tails. Ahead there is a small stream and a clearing.
‘Shh! They’re always in here.’ He whispered to Fozzy who was nibbling on a small twig from one of the bushes.
Carefully, they walk up to the clearing and peak around the bush. Nothing is there.
Gabe stood up, ‘Oh darn. They’re always here! Come on, let’s go over along the stream. We’ll catch some frogs.’
They ran over to the edge of the shallow stream. A few, sparse blades of low grass evaded the shade of the ferns to cover the wet banks. ‘There’s a leopard frog! Get him!’
Fozzy jumped into the water and grabbed the frog. Then he looked at Gabe and plopped the frog into his mouth.
‘Aw, why do you do that all the time Fozzy?’ Gabe grumbled as Fozzy chewed and swallowed the crunchy critter whole.
Then they hear a soft rustle in the bushes back down the trail. Gabe freezes at the unexpected noise and watches as Fozzy quietly edges over to the bank of the stream.
‘Gabe, come now!’ Fozzy says in a wheezing whisper as he tries to pull Gabe away.
‘No, wait a second Fozzy.’ Gabe whispers back.
‘I go, you come too!’ Fozzy says as he pulls on Gabe’s shirt with greater force but Gabe doesn’t move a muscle. Fozzy gave up. Quickly he turned, his head plumage drawn down tightly to form a sparkling golden brown ridge down the back of his spine. “Gabe come now!” He desperately whispered and then quietly lowered down onto his hands and feet, and scurried silently down the trail toward home.
Gabe froze and stared to where they heard the sounds. She emerged from the low shrubs less than fifty feet down the trail. She stood up straight, about seven feet long from tail-tip to nose with a fine coat of small black feathers that open into beautiful plumage spread at the tip of her tail. She stands taller than Gabe by at least two feet. A ring of yellow feathers run thickly around her neck to frame a head crested with a beautiful, almost gaudy yellow plume. As he watches, she warbles a low tune. She turns her head and stretches as she sings and the warble climbs up the scales in a melody very familiar to Gabe. With her cry, Gabe can clearly see her thin-boned jaws lined with rows of inch long sharp teeth in the front and flat ones in the back. As he watches she reaches up with a three fingered hand and grabs a branch. She pulls it down and bites off some of the coarse leaves.
Then her eyes flicker down the path and she turns her gaze directly at Gabe standing there. She slowly cocks her head from side to side. She doesn’t move but watches him with bright yellow eyes for a few moments. Gabe can see her moment of decision as their eyes hold the lock and she slowly begins to walk over toward him.
Gabe remembers! The memories rush back and he remembers all! This is the one! A smile fills his face and once again he wishes he could whistle like Fozzy as he tries to mimic the calls taught to him so long ago.
The raptor picks up speed and runs down at him as Gabe raises to his full height. He charges forward, arms fully extended, almost knocking her over as they meet.
‘You’re back! I missed you so much.’ Gabe shouts as she wiggles in his arms. She never was fully comfortable with the hug but she still whistles a low greeting call to him as her short arms join in this strange embrace. She tussles his strange hair and nuzzles his neck in fond greeting. The tender memories return, unfolding in droves to both.
‘Come on, we have to go and find Aunt Sara!’ he said as he turns to lead her back to the peninsula. They walk back down along the main trail together. This is her first time back onto the peninsula since the humans came. She is both excited and very nervous.
Gabe’s Mom and Aunt Sara emerged from the main gate with pistols on their hips and rifles held bef
ore them. Gabe could feel the tension rise within his friend. ‘Fozzy must have told on me.’ he says to her. ‘Well, I don’t care because you’re back again and I missed you so much.’
His mother Rachel and Sara stop when they see them coming down the trail. A look of anger and frustration fills Rachel’s face. Sara smiles and raises her head to bear her throat in a whistled greeting that she had learned from her work with them. Slowly she raises her hand and the dinosaur grabs it gently as she had done so long ago.
Sara can now hear the familiar songs of the family rising off in the distance. It is a sweet, musical answering warble of greeting from afar to her call. The Troondons have returned to the peninsula and to their remembered friends the scientists and explorers of Cretaceous Station.
Chapter 1: Cretaceous Station
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed."
Albert Einstein
The serenity of the opaled ocean sweeps over me. As I had hoped, it channels my thoughts away from the challenge of the path ahead. For just a short while, push aside the quest, elusive goals and pressures of the daily tasks and try to look back and recall why. Milestone after milestone has fallen before this expedition. Unbidden discoveries vie with anticipated objectives in importance, all driving us to this radical decision.
You win one battle and another always appears to challenge your advancement. Simplicity understood yields complexity. Then too, it is strange how technology can sometimes seem so uncomplicated compared with trying to control human perceptions. Perceptions that I must bend and shape, for now I again need their support. I need to win their help. How much should we disclose to draw them here? What best be left shrouded?
Hunter's Moon (Cretaceous Station Book 2) Page 1
