Hunter's Moon (Cretaceous Station Book 2)

by Terrence Zavecz

  ‘This simple drive design lends itself well to miniaturization and may well eventually be employed as a defensive mechanism in addition to our original quest for automated detection and tracking.’

  ‘The next phase of the development will confirm this conjecture through the use of a laboratory mock-up …’

  ‘End and save!’

  ‘What the heck! Who is here now?’ Marty Feldman turned away from the workbench. A set of several thousand microscopic Hive-Bots continued the neural conversion of the frequency transponder as he turned to look across the back room of his lab.

  ‘That sounds like music in there! What the heck is going on? No one should be in there!’ Marty thought as he grabbed the half-finished lamp. ‘Maybe it’s another of the board members. Well I can at least show them this.’

  A sudden flash and screech erupts from the doorway. ‘Shit, why do they insist on walking into my lab. If they broke something …’

  Marty enters the doorway and to his surprise there is nothing there but his lab is a mess. Then something flashes into existence not more than six feet away from him and a pain filled squeal fills the lab. Marty jumps back in surprise and another shape appears lying on the floor by the microscope. Then he realizes that he has the flash lamp in his hand and directs it to scan across the room.

  The laboratory fills with sudden screams of pain and panic. A bright yellow-turned-blue beast on the floor scrambles to rise only to fall again against the optical bench. A second dull-red apparition is clawing at the far wall. The door flies open and an ear-splitting squeal sounds through the hallway as they fly out of the room.

  Marty stands there for a minute looking at the flash lamp in his hand and a smile comes to his face. ‘Well that sure saves a lot of experimental setup. Test successful, but how the heck did they get in here?’

  ‘Dan are you available?’ He calls across the Hive Tab net as he turns back toward his desk.

  ‘Not now Marty, we’ve got problems and …’

  ‘Yeah, and I bet I know what they are. I just saw two Black Ghosts in my lab. They caused a lot of damage and then headed back out into the corridor. If you stop by I’ll give you something that will help.’

  ‘You confirmed it’s them? Did you actually see them?’

  ‘Yes and you need to react now. People should not be wandering the corridors. You’ve got to get down to my section here if you want to catch them. I’d do it but I can’t leave this modification process in here. You know you still can’t rely on these Hive-Bots to work independently or they’ll ruin over twenty hours of work.’

  ‘Gotcha! I’ll put out an alarm. Can’t you follow them and find out where they are headed?’

  Marty Feldman didn’t hear the call across the Hive Tab network, it was just another distraction easily ignored. He was already at his lab bench, fully absorbed in the experiment with at least three new ideas floating before him as a result of their encounter.

  * * * * *

  ‘Well now this is exciting. It’s just like being at a Vid but the extra feeling of uncertainty is wonderful.’ Deborah Clinow favored the thought of having a resort as well as a spaceport here at Cretaceous Station. ‘Of course we can’t have it too exciting if they are planning this for the resort. Don’t want the people going away in a panic.’

  ‘I just noticed something Justin, that announcement they made, they didn’t say how to secure your room. Powering down the door should be sufficient don’t you think? There’s no way a dinosaur is going to be able to figure out a manual locking mechanism.’

  Justin Rather gave Deborah a questioning look as they walked across the corridor. Deborah had talked him into coming along on this trip. Well, actually it didn’t take much persuasion and he needed a vacation anyway. Why not take a little relaxing time off when he could also receive board compensation? At least it sounded good at the time. Truth is they hadn’t had much time for vacation-type activity. Not even a decent bar! ‘I’d like to stay with you until this clears up. I believe it’s safer if we stay together and we probably shouldn’t leave the ship to go back to our rooms. Let’s return to the lounge rather than chance the corridors. Like you said, they haven’t said how to secure your room properly and in the lounge we’d at least be in a group.’

  ‘Oh Justin! They are only dinosaurs! How much trouble do you think they are really going to give our security personnel? Still, I think this is all rather exciting, don’t you?’

  ‘Let’s get a move on. We shouldn’t take any chances. Look Debbie, do it for my sake, OK? I insist. Come on, let’s take the central elevator back down.’

  ‘All right. At least they have a decent communications center there. So, what are your thoughts on the Station so far. Do you now see the possibilities as I do?’

  ‘Look Debbie, I’m not going to go along with a takeover …’

  ‘No silly. That’s not what I’m talking about. You don’t upset the cart if it’s moving along smoothly. There’s no way I’m going to go along with Suzan and Robert just so they can stuff more of the take into their own pockets.’

  ‘I’m more interested in the long view here. This place is a double whammy! We can begin moving people here using their exotic resort vacations to pay for the spaceport construction and marketing. Then we gradually begin moving in settlers. We’ve got a thousand years before we should abandon this world and who wouldn’t just jump at the chance for a simpler, cleaner life style.’

  ‘Look Justin, there is gold in these hills and I don’t mean the stuff they found beneath this plateau. That’s minor compared to the potential for growth and profit in this timeframe. Imagine how it will influence our investments at home? It’s like having a second track for all of our investments!’

  ‘Ok, here’s the elevator. Ladies first!’

  ‘That’s just one of the things I love about you Justin. You still follow the most beautiful of our ancient customs. Thank you.’

  ‘As to your earlier question, yes, I do believe the resort concept will fly. I also believe we need it if we want to guarantee positive cash flow for the early days of the project. Ah, the lounge is this way Debbie.’

  ‘Upp, you’re right. I get turned around in these corridors. So, you already ran a cash-flow simulation?’

  ‘Yeah, I had the models already set up and I tuned it during the trip here. Not much to do on these corporate trips you know. I wonder how Mark manages to continue to manage his holdings with such a long absence? Heck we can’t even Hive-Mail anyone!’

  ‘The net results are very good if we can secure the site and insure a medium of vacationer safety. Consider this, for the first time we have a deep-space destination that will be attractive to whole families of travelers. Why, the home-space transport industry market should quadruple in size in the first three years!’

  ‘I anticipated that Justin. I’ve already redirected some of my investments into the industry.’

  ‘Good, I hope you used discretion in your purchases. These stocks have been nonperforming but solid for years now. No one expects them to suddenly jump in value and if they see you buying up large blocks you’re going to ruin it for all of us.’

  ‘Oh Justin, stop worrying! You know me better than that. Look, let’s hold off on this conversation and I’ll show you …’

  ‘Wait a second! What’s that? It sounded like someone is having a problem in the side corridor.’

  ‘What? Well don’t investigate it! Let’s get into the lounge.’

  ‘Wait a second Deb. We should see, someone might need our help. Come on, you said you like the excitement and …’

  A scraping noise rose from the darkened hallway. Justin moved over to the wall and ran his hand over the service panel. The ship queried his Hive Tab and illuminated the narrow corridor.

  The corridor ended about twenty feet down. Three closed doors filled the plain walls. The scraping sound came from the door nearest the dead end. Deborah stayed at the intersection, clearly worried as Justin walked quietly down to the
door.

  ‘The door appears to be unlocked Debbie.’ He said in a loud whisper, ‘I’m gonna open it. Get ready to run if anything happens.’

  ‘Justin … No!’

  Justin commanded the transponder to open and the door suddenly disappeared. Lights came on inside of a near empty room that looked like a laboratory storage area. Justin carefully looked inside, ‘Nothing, there’s nothing inside.’

  ‘What made the noise then?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ He said as he turned to walk back to the main corridor. ‘The room is empty, not even anything inside.’

  The lights went off as he left the room and the door started to close but stopped and opened back up. Justin didn’t notice the slight blurring of the air that filled the doorway as he walked back toward Debbie. ‘It must have been something in the ventilation system. Come on, let’s get over to the lounge. I could use a cup of coffee.’

  * * * * *

  The sunlit waters of a cobalt blue ocean extend out to the horizon. A nearby dark patch of water marks a place where seaweed has clustered. Upon it, a thousand brightly-colored bodies jostle in the green and brown weeds as they float on the lazily rolling waves of the ocean. A salt breeze carries the cries and song of the small flying dinosaurs that sit and run across the raft of seaweed.

  Janet Anderson walked over, highlighted the area around the noisy patch of ocean, and opened her hand to magnify the image, ‘These aren’t Pterosaurs nor are they birds but they are dinosaurs. We haven’t been able to identify the species and they may actually be something new, well at least to our known fossil record.’

  Janet is a Geophysicist but she is also an expert on Cretaceous landmasses. A large part of her free time has evolved into paleontology as an assistant to the over-burdened Sara Wenford. Janet turns to face the two young Taylor girls who seem to be enjoying their vacation immensely. They rush over to the image and zoom in the area around one of the blue and gold dinosaurs that has just emerged from a long underwater dive. ‘I want that sequence for my school project files. They are so cute!’ The youngest girl chitters.

  The older daughter snuggles up to her father, ‘Daddy, can I take a Hype home? I would really like to have one and I could use it for my school report every year. We could talk about its world and her life in it and how she adapts to our home.’

  Robert Taylor smiled at his daughters, ‘Images are one thing but we do not have any right to take possession of a Hypsilophodont. You can’t treat them like some pet animal. I’m sure you are old enough to understand, we still aren’t sure about how they will be classified. Taking “pets”, as you call them, could end up with all kinds of problems rising from animal activists to accusations of slavery.’

  A door to the upper balcony of the lounge opened and their eyes turned upward. Mark Nolen and Matt Zoeller entered and began walking down the central staircase to the main floor of the lounge, ‘Robert, we need to discuss a few very important items that have unfortunately risen.’

  Mark abruptly turns around as three Blackwave security personnel enter the room just behind him and Matt, ‘Please, everyone is to stay in the lounge area. We have a problem on board. Apparently two of the dinosaurs have gained entry to the Argos. These are very dangerous animals so for your own safety do not leave the room or walk off on your own.’

  Robert turned to Mark, ‘What about Suzan? She left to go back to her stateroom a while ago. Can you send someone for her?’

  ‘We’ve found Suzan. Well, I might as well tell you, she is dead. We believe these dinosaurs entered her room and killed her. As of now, they are roaming somewhere on the ship so until we can either drive them out or eliminate them, you must stay together here. There is safety in numbers.’

  A groan of anguish and fear passed through those in the lounge. ‘She was just here with us a little while ago! What about Deborah and Justin. They just left here right after Suzan. Can we send someone out for them!’

  ‘We have people trying to contact them. They must be in a part of the Argos where we cannot link to their Hive Tabs. There are several sections near the center of the ship that are network dead zones because of the drive research going on.’

  The doors unexpectedly open on the lower level. The lighting under the balcony walkway is subdued but the forms of several humans are clearly visible. Two Blackwave guards walk in along with the two missing board members, a half dozen other crewmembers and three researchers.

  ‘Debbie and Justin! We were just expressing our concerns about you. Thank God you made it back here. Good job Mr. Stanford. One less worry, now how many more do we need to bring in?’

  ‘There’s four more. Three are on their way in and the only problem is Doctor Feldman. He says he’s busy and can handle the situation himself.’

  ‘Hmm, well we can’t spare the personnel to go after him. We’ll have to let him go for now. When will you begin the sweep.’

  ‘We still have to bring over twelve more of our people if we want to do it properly. There are a lot of corridors in here and I don’t want anyone working alone. We’ll station personnel at the major exits as we clear the level. Most of the people are …’

  The entry to the lower level opened again for a moment and then closed.

  ‘What the heck was that?’ Robert asked. ‘I can’t see anyone. These entries don’t just open and close. This is a starship, there are intelligent overrides!’

  Mark called, ‘Everyone over here. Security, watch the shadows for any …’

  Portions of the far wall in the dim lighting briefly shimmer and dance. Like looking at a landscape across a campfire, the walls, pillars and archway move ever so lightly for a brief second. The flickering distortion glides across the back wall, briefly forms a dull shadow and then is gone.’

  ‘Pull back, this way toward the kitchens.’

  Two of the guards move up toward the far wall. ‘Shh, listen! It’s over …’

  A black shadow appears for the briefest moment and slashes across the torso of the nearest guard. He falls back, his body armor is hardened and marked by a wicked slash. The second guard draws his pistol.

  ‘No, Jim wait!’ Mark Nolen cries. ‘You have no idea where that slug is going to ricochet to, these walls are hardened!’

  The guard draws back and pulls a Kay-Bar fighting knife from his leg. A low warbling, almost whining sound fills the air of the lounge and two yellow eyes suddenly float into existence by the wall display, then they are gone.

  ‘Quick, move over here, we need to move into the kitchen. Come on girls …’

  A sudden shrill whistle and the guard falls to the ground. A dark black figure is visible leaning over him. They can all hear the now visible, white teeth skitter across his helmet. Jim leaps at the two wrestling on the floor. He is swatted from the air by a second figure that then leaps on top of him.

  Mark Nolen sprints across the room. ‘Matt, keep them moving back into the kitchen.’

  Mark passes by a table and grabs a small glass container. He pulls the lid off and swings it at the figure nearest him. A mass of dark blue jelly flies out and spreads across the shadow coving a small portion of what now looks like a shoulder and neck. The shadow turns toward Mark and then Jim, still lying on the floor reaches, reaches up to grab and twist the exposed arm with its deadly claws. Caught off balance, they roll across the floor and into the other two combatants.

  Mark grabs a chair and swings it at the nearest Black Ghost. The dinosaur turns and twists causing the blow to glance off without real harm.

  ‘Cheez Mister Nolen’, Jim screams up at him from the floor. ‘Get the hell out of here. You don’t even have armor on.

  A snap fills the air followed by an angry scream that ends in a gurgle. Mark turns and sees the first guard on his back. The Black Ghost managed to grab the guard behind his neck and below the helmet. Jim screams and then yells, ‘Mark get them the hell out of here. I can’t hold them back by myself.’

  ‘I’ll be right back Jim!’ Mark yells as he
sprints back across the lounge. Matt has them inside the kitchen and Robert and Deborah are helping him pull a table over to block the doors. ‘Block and latch those doors, quickly. We can’t rely on the auto-locks, we have to physically block this doorway. That’s it, set the bolt. Now push. Hurry, do the same for the other one!’

  Deborah is crying as she shoves the table over to the doorway. Janet is near hysteria. ‘Mark, what about Jim?’ she asks as he crosses the brightly lit kitchen.

  Mark lifts his head too look out the small window but he can’t see Jim. The other guard is lying very still on the floor, there is surprising little blood in the area. A noise rises from the stairway to his left.

  Jim is running up the steps, he manages to swing around a column on the top platform. As Mark watches, he flips around it to kick back at something barely seen behind him. A squeal rises and Jim darts off toward the lounge entrance and plows through the door. The door slams behind him.

  ‘Jim made it! Come on, they will be coming this way. Get this door closed.’

  They push the table in front of the door and jam it into the frame.

  A deathly silence fills the room. Mark listens but all he can hear is some whimpering behind him and the air circulating through the ventilation. The young girls are behind him, sobbing in the arms of their mother.

  ‘Look for knives, cleavers anything you can hit with.’ He whispers loudly and with that the two girls begin to cry openly. ‘Shh, listen!’

  A scraping and then the door suddenly shakes and rattles. The handle turns slightly. ‘Shit, I didn’t think they could do that!’ Robert blurts out.

  ‘Shh, we have young girls here. Watch your language.’ Matt comments as he leans over to grab the handle. It twists from his hand and the door slides opens slightly. Robert slams his fist on the door and the barrier slips back into its frame.