Hunter's Moon (Cretaceous Station Book 2)
Page 43
The resonant passage marks the end of the color’s playful leaping across the mists. For a brief moment, only the comforting power of the falling waters are heard. Then the moment of silence passes with the renewed call from the evening inhabitants of the valley to the setting sun of the day. Their evening song lifts first from the now darkened floor of the valley. A thousand voices raise toward the rising patron of the evening on the opposite end of the river’s path. There she rises in her magnificence, her harsh face now yielding a soft light to bathe the earth below in the pale evening beauty of her rays.
‘Look at the moon Gabe. When I was a boy, her light would blot out the stars behind her. Look at her now! The stars around her are so bright that we can clearly see their colors even on those right next to the disk. We used to call her the hunter’s moon because those who hunt under its light could see so clearly. Oh, but we never had a field of stars to guide us like these.’
‘I grew up with stories of the moon and its life giving light. Just reaching it marked the goal and dream of our race’s forefathers. I am happy to have been a part of finally achieving a small portion of the next step in that dream.’
‘You are different though Gabe. Your dream centers on those thousands of bright lights that fill the sky so far beyond her. We’ve finally broken the ties that bind us to that setting sun and you will take us there to these new worlds. This place is unique to your destiny. Those stars, so close to us now, are your generation’s future and you are already a part of it.’
A night beetle flew by, instantly it grabbed the attention of the young boy. As he squirmed from my arms, my eyes caught the outline of her in the nearby shadows. I started up with a chill that ran across my back. I saw her draw back in fearful reaction just as the recognition came to me.
‘Ms. Clinow, I’m sorry but you startled me.’
‘No, that’s ok Corey. I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping but I must admit that I couldn’t help it. Doctor Wenford asked me to meet her here on the veranda at sunset. I’m happy to say that she is late because I couldn’t have had a better guide to the evening. Your description of the sunset was just fantastic. I’m also very impressed with your prophetic words of destiny to your son. I’ve saved the whole record and I hope you won’t object to my using it. Every company needs an inspirational mission statement that clearly defines its nature and goals. It’s time to change ours and I don’t believe we could come up with better words than yours.’
‘I’ve heard so much about you that, I must admit, I’m a little frightened of you. I see now the stories are true but I never dreamt you also had the heart of a philosopher.’
‘Please don’t turn away! I’m complementing you Mr. Zavtek! Look, this is my first evening out from the Station. Tell me about this song. It’s different than the evening song of the Hypes at the Station, beautiful and strangely so much more complex. Do they do this all night?’
‘No Ms. Clinow, they’ll be stopping soon and then the work of the evening will start in earnest. The deep complexity is there in their chorus because there are so many unique species around us. Unlike the simple bird song of our time, they interact in what Alex likes to call a cantata.’
‘Corey, I’m told that we are to drop the formalities here at the station. Please call me Debbie. Now, who is this Alex? You don’t mean that massive, strapping Blackwave soldier Alex Grissom do you? He scares me too!’
‘Ah Debbie, that soldier holds a doctorate in engineering and he is a combat specialist. However, if you want to see and hear about the beauty of this world then you need to talk with him. I’ll give you a hint, get him talking about Blackbird Valley.’
‘Anyway, I sat up with Alex one night out here last month and he told me about the song of the dinosaur. Many of them may follow the same genus as modern birds but it’s as though our surviving birds are simply one piece of the whole complex mechanism. Their full beauty is gone in our time, only a portion we call birds survive and yet we have always honored even their faded song. The structure in our timeframe is no longer whole. Their song is piecemeal and uncoordinated.’
‘The dinosaurs of this period represent the peak of a hundred million years of evolution. They interact socially during the song calling out the passing of the day. Then the song of the evening follows. You can feel it in your heart as the refrain passes from species to species. They interact, compliment and live in a world universally friendly to their needs.’
‘The whole thing makes the coming cataclysm so much more tragic. So much will be lost.’
‘Pheww, Corey! I listen to you and I see the heart of a tragic poet of old.’
‘Oh listen, you are right. The song is passing, yielding to a constant calling.’
Deborah walked over to the opposite shoulder of the cliff edge. A low wall marked the safe limits of travel for the visitor and she reached down to it, ‘Show me how this works. You stand up here and haven’t even activated this walldisplay. Aren’t you excited about seeing what goes on in the valley …’
‘Debbie, forget the display and watch below us. Look down at the pool of water at the foot of the falls. Here, use these binoculars. See them? They come to feed, drink the water and bathe even at night. It’s much safer down there than by the river.’
‘Oh my, their colors! Even in the dim moonlight! I never thought they would be so beautiful. I’m still nervous about those other ones though. The demons or, what did you call them, “Black Ghosts”?’
‘Well, they are gone. If more come then they’ll be blocked and removed.’
‘… but I thought they were able to see the detectors you were using? What’s to stop more of them from coming here?’
‘We’ll be ok. Any new visitors won’t be familiar with our sensor system. They won’t fear it since they didn’t have the chance to learn from our earlier, more primitive systems. We’ll pick them up and remove them from the area before they become a problem. Your guests at the resort will be safe here Ms. Clinow.’
‘It is elegant isn’t it. I mean, Anton really outdid himself as construction went along.’
‘Yeah, most of Marks people seem to be like that. They move from inspiration to inspiration in much the same way we pass from thought to thought. That’s one of the reasons why I like working here so much. Come on out over here.’
‘Now watch, Anton and I finally have the Gravitonic field operating stably so you can use the sky walk. Step out over the edge, that’s it hold my hand if you are nervous.’
Debbie passed out over to the edge of the cliffs lining the river valley. The treehouse veranda they stood upon sat high in a group of massive trees overlooking the waterfalls below. Each treehouse provides the luxury of a fine resort accommodation with views of the swamp to the south and the river valley to their north. A glow marks the edges of the support field under their feet. In spite of years of familiarity with the technology, there is still something frightening about walking out on what appears to be nothing but thin air over a primitive valley floor hundreds of feet below.
‘Come on Debbie, pretend you are at the mall doing a day of shopping.’
‘No that’s safe. Here we have waterfalls, dinosaurs and Lord knows what might be flying in the air out there.’
Corey looked in her eyes and took her hand. ‘Don’t you want to be the first visitor to experience this? How could you go back to Earth and not be able to describe this ultimate experience?’
‘Oh, lead me out but I’m closing my eyes until we …’
‘You are already out, look about you!’
Debbie stopped. The ground felt solid below her feet but what did he say? Already out? Her eyes opened. A million points of light filled the sky around her. The dense band of light, forming this new milky way vista, flows across it’s center and looks almost solid there are so many bright stars. Then her head turns to the moon lighting the world below her.
The dense trees of the jungle glow under the soft moon. Up here, at her eye level, thousands of birds and
dinosaurs still flit from limb to limb searching for their evening meal and playing noisily in the canopy of leaves and needles.
Her heart leaps inside as her eyes look down. Hundreds of feet, directly below her feet the stream flows from the foot of the falls over toward the silvery band of the river in the distance. The open fields seem to crawl with life so dense it puts the herds of the daylight to shame.
Then her heart flies into her throat. Next to her stands a dinosaur, it’s approach unnoticed and its head about even with her eyes. It looks over toward her and their eyes meet. It has a broad, almost smiling face with a striped, down covered tail that glistens with the soft copper color of bronze in the rays of the bright moon. Yes, she’s seen these running around the Station before. It’s a Hype!
A five fingered hand with an opposable thumb reaches out to her, ‘Goodnight Miss Clinow.’ The resonant, clear voice comes to her through the song filling evening’s air.
It has almost no accent and the animal’s jaws hardly move as it speaks. ‘My name is Molly and Doctor Wenford asked me to guide you until she arrives. She apologizes for being late.’
‘Ah, are you Ok Miss Clinow? Did I do something wrong? I didn’t mean to startle you.’
‘It is customary to shake hands on greeting isn’t it? You look a bit shocked.’
Terrence E. Zavecz is a scientist, engineer and high technology business professional who has conducted most of his career in the Semiconductor Industry.
After forty years of research, development, marketing and sales around the world, he now turns a portion of his time toward fictional writing.
Terrence incorporates his experiences as well as his love of life, science and photography into what he believes is a unique prospective of popular fictional writing with just a hint of engineering exactness. Enjoy and learn.
Terrence E. Zavecz
MS-Materials,
MS-Metallurgy,
BS-Engineering Physics