Fort Dinosaur (The Directorate Book 6)

by Pam Uphoff

  Cylindrical body to get the most volume through the circular gate. Twelve meters long, three sets of wheels, each with its own electric motor. "How much have you taken off it?" Ebsa dropped to the ground and looked at the undercarriage. Sealed underneath for amphibious capabilities. Which, of course, meant there was nothing for him to see, other than a lack of gross damage. Six wheels and tires, always a good sign. Looks watertight.

  "Minor kitchen equipment and comestibles. Wheels at various times. Now it's got all new wheels and tires as of yesterday. Nothing else has been removed by us. But the crow's-nest and top rails are gone—field damage and removal so the crawler could still fit through the gate. It's fully functional, just been sitting here for almost two years." The mechanic's head turned as Ra'd opened the crawler door and climbed in. "We figured sooner or later someone would ruin the bottom half of a crawler. Which of course they have. Three times. And not been able to get it home."

  Ouch! And I thought we got dirty looks!

  Ebsa glanced at Acty. "It'll do for practice, while we try to get it replaced with something a bit less . . . experienced."

  "And the other three?' Acty picked up the cue.

  "Tomorrow. Or the next day. We're still running maintenance on them. And they've been out in the field and need to be cleaned."

  "And the flat." Okli put in.

  Rolled eyes. "You can have it today, but if you want the lab squishy on it, you'll have to wait."

  "Right. We'll wait. Team, mount up." Acty waved them aboard, as he tapped his acceptance on the mechanic's pad.

  The crawler was as clean as it had been when they'd last seen it—which, in fact, was when they'd finished cleaning it. Pie took the controls and took it for a spin while Ra'd and Ebsa went through it all, checking systems. They had to reset a few breakers and the kitchen was sans everything, including the basic fillers for the fabricator. But everything green-lighted with minimal fiddling.

  Ebsa typed out requisitions for cooking gear, fab base, plates, flatware . . . and wondered if he was going to need to do that for all the crawlers. I may be cooking for the whole expedition. He bumped up the amounts.

  "Handles good. Who wants the first lesson?" Pie grinned, and ceded the driver's seat to Acty.

  They didn't hit anything or anyone, driving around the warehouse section, although a few rude gestures came their way. They parked and ate lunch at the main cafeteria, then headed for the training track.

  The poor crawler added some scrapes, but after two hours, Ebsa was confident of getting five vehicles through a gate without a disaster.

  The ten bunker was mechanically ready the next day. Acty, with not too much prompting, took possession of it, and they spent the day stripping and cleaning the inside. Replacing the mattresses, as unsalvageable, ditto all bedding. At least the tiny kitchen was stocked.

  Ra'd of all people, nudged Acty into ordering chair cushions in pastel colors, curtains, a small rug in the lav area. "They're women. This sort of stuff is important."

  Acty blinked at the order tab. Shrugged and pushed the acceptance button.

  "I know it's silly, but we've got a load of precious University darlings that we really need to get along with." Ra'd shrugged. "It's not too girly, but it is tasteful."

  Pie and Howl perked up a bit and grabbed the goodies as they arrived.

  The ordinary comestibles started arriving, and Ebsa put everyone to work stowing the food and loading the fabricators. Ra'd grabbed the weapons and ammo and locked them up in the old crawler.

  The other two bunkhouses were grimy, but not disastrous. They got them both cleaned the next day, and in the evening, collected the flat with the lab strapped down, and enough room for the comm hub in a half-empty container. The five vehicles fit in the warehouse nicely, without too much complicated maneuvering.

  And for a wonder, Acty managed to think to invite the academics, the construction crew, and the action team to look over the vehicles.

  Which had each acquired a fancy logo glued to its side near the door. Displaying rather simple humor. One! Are we getting some team spirit going here? Someone had a good idea.

  Ra'd looked innocent when people started sniggering at "The Ladies Room." "Lights Camera Action" wasn't bad. "The Docs' Inn" got some grins from the PhDs. Their old reliable crawler was now "Junkyard."

  Acty shrugged. "It makes it clear who belongs where. Now, doctors, if you have any bulky gear that won't easily fit in your crawlers, we do have some space on the flat. You need to get everything here early in the morning. Get your last minute shopping done by lunch and, everyone needs to be here, with all your luggage, by eighteen hundred. We'll roll out then, and wait. Our gate is scheduled for twenty-two hundred but we'll move up if there are cancellations. I'd like to arrive on site in the daylight."

  Ra'd was ignoring the Teamers. They eyed him, a few fists clenched, but nothing was said.

  Acty put on his best Boss posture. "And everyone is going to get along very nicely."

  The Action Teamers shrugged, and took their crawler with them to load up.

  Chief Ignu nodded his approval of their vehicles. "I've got everything loaded and ready. See you at the gate."

  Everyone was nervy. Well, apart from Ra'd, who was calm and relaxed as he headed for the Action Division storehouse to retrieve his gear. Not that it bulked much. "Pity I didn't have more of my stuff there, instead of in their warehouse. I can write all that off." He dropped off a footlocker and left again to collect stuff he'd stashed in Ebsa's car, which had been in storage for months, shopped for field uniforms and boots, then he kicked back and relaxed.

  Ebsa sorted out his own field clothes and boots, and stowed it all in the Junkyard. The good suit and shoes and such could stay here. He prepared a dinner for the entire expedition, and froze it. And strolled about, trying to be available for any questions from the academic types or his own team, then finally just kicked back himself.

  Acty wandered over and joined him. Trying to look casual. "What order do you think we'll go through in?"

  "Oh . . . most likely the construction crew first—they have the bulldozer, after all. Then the four crawlers and the flat with the lab last. Let's see. Does the Action Team have a driver?"

  "Yes, very experienced."

  "Good. Then you can put your best four drivers behind the wheel and off we go." Ebsa shrugged. "My only worry is having enough space on the far side. But the construction crew is experienced and should leave us plenty of room. Ditto Pie and Howl. What do you think? Leave the least experienced drivers for last, so if we foul up, we'll only leave behind two vehicles at the worst?"

  "Yeah, that's about what I figured. But I think I'll send Action through right behind the engineers, in case of dinosaurs at the gate area. Then Pie in the Ladies Room, Howl with the Inn, you in the Junkyard, and Ra'd with the flat."

  Ebsa nodded. "Sounds good. Damn that's going to be a long gate. Bet it ate half the budget."

  "Yep." Acty shook his head. "If they really are that worried about those Helios cannibals, you'd think the Council would allocate more money this direction."

  "Probably a turf war, Ministries versus Directorates." Ra'd snorted. "Idiots."

  "Or just a lag time problem. Pass the bill. Get specific spending requests from everyone involved. Authorize the expenditure. Order the equipment and recruit the personnel. It just can't be done fast, so they're scrambling to fully utilize every damned asset they can scrape up." Ebsa scowled at their convoy. "And forgetting about training. Well, that one afternoon at the track has us fixed up for the gate transit. Once we're Across we'll find out if there's other stuff we ought to have done."

  "We have another gate in a week. We can get more stuff. Of course, anything we order won't get back to us until Disco deigns to set up a permanent gate." Acty got up and shoved his chair back up to the table. "And the scientific brigade has arrived."

  They all pitched in and got everyone's luggage sorted out, with a few noses out of joint because two of them
had to bunk in the Junkyard. The two men who were lowest in the academic pecking order grumpily carted their gear to the older crawler.

  At least one of them volunteered to sleep in a seat, over there. Else I suspect I'd be doing that here.

  Ebsa produced trays of snacks and non-alcoholic drinks. Cleared away trash.

  He glanced at his wrist. "Is everyone here? How about the Action Team?"

  "I called them. They said we were being ridiculously early and they'd meet us at the gate assembly area."

  "Typical. I almost hope they miss the gate." Ra'd stood and stretched. "So. I get the flat and the tail position? Good."

  "Guess it's time." Ebsa looked around. Nothing sitting around unloaded. He followed Acty over to The Docs' Inn.

  "Any last minute problems?" Acty looked like a leader. "Pie and Howl are the most experienced drivers. They'll drive your crawler and the Ladies Room. As I said, we're early, so just make yourselves comfortable in a crawler, grab a drink, or a nap. We head for the assembly area in a few minutes." He waved at the door of The Docs' Inn. "Ladies? You can ride here, in the Junkyard, or in the Ladies Room. The assignments are just for sleeping. And gentlemen, the crawlers are not your abodes. Don't do anything stupid or criminal."

  The male scholars all looked offended. The female scholars were all old enough to be sensible, well, not that rapists were picky, but Ebsa doubted risky behavior was a part of the women's repertoire. But then dangerous men probably weren't part of their usual crowd, either. He trusted that the ladies had noticed that Acty hadn't included the Action Team's crawler in his list.

  He climbed into the Junkyard, and checked all the lights. Everything green. Batteries fully charged. He looked over his shoulder and counted heads. All five of us here.

  Acty stepped up to the raised driver's deck. "I may go through with the Chief. We'll see what he has to say when we assemble. For now I'll ride with the scholars, make sure they don't interfere with the driver."

  Ebsa waited until he'd climbed aboard The Docs' Inn, then turned on the comm system.

  He flipped on the group channel. "Fleet's ready for you Admiral!"

  "Ha. Pie? Lead us to assembly. The Action Idiots ought to meet us there. They'll be just ahead of you. Howl next, then Ebsa, and Ra'd. Move out."

  Chief Ignu was already there, three lines of vehicles. Five vehicles, five, and four in the third line.

  "Damn it, where's the Action Team?" Acty fussed.

  "Well, we are pretty early." Ebsa tried to keep his voice matter-of-fact. "At least it'll be easy to slot them in behind the last construction Crawler."

  "Right, Pie, start the next line. They can be there or be last through. And they'd better damn well show up early enough."

  Atta boy! Sound tough and you've got half the problem solved. The easy half . . .

  Acty decided to stay with the scholars, so Ebsa just had Okli, Ulte, and Ijdu aboard. Ebsa pulled out his comp and started reading. "You guys bring books? We may be sitting here for three hours. Although Acty's probably checking in with the controllers, so we'll have some idea about cancellations."

  Okli looked at the green light on the com panel and just shook his head.

  Ultimate grinned. "No doubt." He left the raised driver's deck and settled down in a more comfortable chair.

  Acty's voice came over the comm. "They've had several cancellations today, so we're already up two hours. I've sent that on to the Action Team."

  "Pity." Ra'd's voice, of course.

  Chief Ignu snorted. "You won't say that, once you see a dinosaur up close."

  Several snickers, especially from the Exploration Team.

  Time passed. Ebsa had trouble concentrating on his book. Another small group cancelled . . . the Action Team showed up with fifteen minutes to spare.

  Right. I've done this before, no big deal. The inside-the-gate dimensional limbo is practically unnoticeable, and so long as I don't do anything stupid like stop, the gate doesn't shred us and expel us as shrapnel and quivering red globs.

  The controllers waved the chief forward, and his crew followed like experienced little duckies. The action crawler lagged a bit, and Pie gave them a bit of extra distance as well. She doesn't trust them to know what they are doing. I ought to have had them out at the practice track too. Or maybe I would have just insulted experienced people and caused a problem where none existed. He pulled out, and knowing his own lack of experience, doubled the recommended following distance. Gate time may be expensive, but hey, it's not my money.

  The Chief, in the first construction flat, grunted. "The trees don't look too bad, we won't have to split the column."

  Ebsa bit his lip. Having half the vehicles dodge to one side was the usual way to fit a lot of vehicles into a smallish arrival area. He spared a glance at the small screen showing the view from a cam mounted high on the first flat. The tree trunks looked marginally thicker to the right. There was a flicker of light from low around the bulldozer . . . lasers? No wonder the Chief wasn't worried about the trees. They just have to be small enough that the dozer can shove them aside once they're cut.

  Then the screen blanked as the flat crossed.

  Ebsa concentrated on following Howl as close as he dared. Which wasn't very. Felt the wheel guides and lightened his grip. Nasty twist and jerk and he was going through. Brake lights ahead. He tapped his to warn Ra'd.

  Pie's horrified voice. "Don't stop!"

  Was he clear? Turning while still engaged with the gate was almost as disastrous as stopping in the gate . . . Howl and Pie were both cussing. The crawler ahead started to swerve right, Ebsa waited till the last moment, closing in on them, then jerked the wheel left. Kissed their bumper, floored the throttle pedal. Bounced over felled trees, smacked into and over a mid-sized standing tree, twisted the wheel back to avoid an even larger one, then spotted the thinner growth and took aim at his old road. A quick glance showed Ra'd stopping behind him.

  He tapped brakes, slowed and stopped. "That was not the best crossing I've ever experienced." He heaved a sigh of relief. And spotted Ra'd getting down from the flat. "Crap. Okli, you drive." He vaulted out of the driver's seat and hustled for the door. He could hear Pie cussing out the Action team for stopping short, and them yelling about her hitting them . . .

  He managed to intercept Ra'd. "Don't. You hang back. I will go back up Acty."

  "They are either too stupid to live, or they just tried to murder me. They stopped short and could have killed us both."

  "And we need to be sure it is seen as such, not Wqlw starting a fight in the field. Stay. Here. Err, please."

  Snort. The cold determination in Ra'd's eyes warmed into a spark of humor. "Yes, Nanny."

  Ebsa walked forward. Howl was out, looking at the front of her crawler. Touching the Doc's Inn, off to the right.

  She looked around, teeth on edge. "Sorry. I gave you as much room as possible. But I didn't have enough room to dodge with these trees."

  "Yeah. I had a nasty moment there, when I saw the size of the tree I had to hit. Just as well the flats are a bit shorter than the crawlers. Ra'd managed the turn better than I did." He followed the sound of raised voices, walked on forward to where the Doc's Inn had clearly made hard contact with the Action. Pie was further forward, in a screaming match with the entire Action Team. Acty was hovering and Ebsa tapped his shoulder. "Let's go see why the Action Crawler stopped, before we join the scream fest."

  They waded through the underbrush and out to the front of the crawler. The bulldozed path was clear for another twenty meters or so before the last construction crawler. The chief met them there. He glared at the open stretch. "Your driver is an incompetent idiot who needs to never go Across again."

  Acty sighed. "Unfortunately he's Action Team. They'll keep him no matter what."

  "But they will definitely be bringing up the rear next week on your return trip." Ebsa looked over his shoulder. "I think we'd better get this sorted out, and the crawlers checked for damage."

 
"Damage? You actually collided! Fucking shit!" The Chief shouldered past them and charged into the crowd. "What idiot was driving this crawler?"

  Ebsa looked at Acty. "Order one of the others to move the crawler up and run diagnostics, then send Pie back to do the same. We need to de-escalate this mess quickly."

  "Right." Acty wisely ignored the man the Chief had backed up against the side of the crawler and wasn't quite making contact with, while he explained about what happened to drivers who killed people. Acty pointed at the closest Teamer. "You! Move the crawler up ten meters and run diagnostics. Now."

  The man looked relieved to have a reason to escape the Chief's wrath and hustled for the door.

  Acty snagged Pie. "Leave him to the chief. Move your crawler up five meters and run diagnostics."

  She glared, but hunched her shoulders and shifted back toward the Ladies' Room.

  Ebsa stepped forward into the space of a Teamer who was reaching toward her butt. The man jerked around and Ebsa got into his face. "Don't."

  The man sneered. "You think a desk jockey can intimidate me?"

  Ebsa smiled. "Tell you what. As soon as we have the time, we'll work on our training with a friendly bit of hand-to-hand. Then I won't get into trouble when I beat the crap out of you."

  The teamer started smiling. "Oh yeah. Great idea."

  Ebsa walked away. And really, really wished he'd spent more time at the dojo the last few months. Practicing once a week doesn't cut it, at this level. And the fencing lessons? Not applicable to what action teamers usually want to do.

  Ra'd was hovering, just out of sight behind the corner of the crawler, Howl beside him.