The Voyage of the Minotaur

by Wesley Allison

  “It’s called an ankylosaurus,” said Augie.

  His brother looked at him in surprise.

  “I’ve been here before, remember? I wonder if it could be domesticated. I’ll bet that thing could pull a pretty heavily laden wagon.”

  Captain Dechantagne shrugged, then stopped and pointed.

  At the far end of the clearing, the foliage parted and a massive red face pushed its way into the open. It was followed by the rest of a large blocky head, twenty five feet above the ground. Slowly the entire creature emerged from the woods. Two tiny forearms dangled uselessly, but two giant, clawed hind feet carried the beast, a great black body, balanced at one end by the enormous head and at the other end by a long, sweeping tail. It gave an awful roar and rushed forward to take a horrendous bite out of the back of the closest iguanodon. The iguanodon honked balefully and ran several steps, but it was wounded so grievously that it sank to the ground from shock and blood loss. The reptilian tyrant strode over to its victim and administered a killing bite.

  “Bloody hell,” said Augie.

  The steel dragon suddenly launched itself into the air. The chain attaching it to Senta pulled taut and jerked her off her feet. As she fell to the ground on her knees, a weak link in the chain parted, sending the dragon flying up toward the trees in the general direction from which they had come. Senta jumped to her feet and took off running after her wayward charge.

  “Come back here!” she called.

  The little dragon paid no attention to her as it flapped its way through the redwood branches. Senta ran as fast as she could, but was soon outpaced. She ran down the embankment that they had walked up earlier, but then turned as the dragon flew parallel to the shore. With a flash of steel, he shot up into the canopy and she lost sight of him. Stopping, she looked around.

  “Come here boy!” she called.

  She waited but there was no reply. She called again.

  “Squawk!” The noise came from her left and she turned to view its source, but it wasn’t the dragon. It was some kind of bird, just a little bit too short to look Senta in the eye. It was covered with hairy feathers, yellow near its small arms, green everywhere else. Its tail stretched straight out almost five feet behind it. Each of its two feet had a five inch claw, curving upward, totally useless for locomotion, but frightening. Its long, flat, very unbirdlike snout was filled with large, widely spaced teeth. Senta had never seen a bird with teeth before. It looked rather like a killer turkey. The beast cocked its head to one side and regarded her with a large black eye.

  “Squawk!” it cried again.

  “Squawk!” came an answer. Senta turned and saw another bird to her right. Then she heard rustling behind her and turned and saw a third and fourth bird. The second bird hopped toward her and snapped its jaws. The first bird hopped closer too. It perched on a large rock and the big claws on either foot clicked against the stone as if it were testing them or sharpening them. She didn’t hear them, but Senta thought that the other two were probably moving closer as well.

  “Uuthanum!” she shouted, pointing her finger at the first bird.

  At the same moment she cast her spell, the creature and its closest companion both launched themselves at her. A cone of frost spread from Senta’s fingertip spraying the first small creature, covering it with ice and knocking it to the ground near her feet. The second beast was knocked out of mid-air by a metallic streak shooting from the sky. The steel dragon latched onto the bird’s neck with its needle sharp teeth, sending them both tumbling across the ground.

  Senta looked down at the half-frozen bird by her feet and the one struggling to free itself from the grasp of the dragon, now holding onto it with all four feet in addition to its jaws. She completely forgot about the other two behind her until she felt a weight on her shoulders and sharp claws digging into her skin. She expected at any moment to feel the mouthful of teeth or the big upward curving claw. Instead, a flurry of gunshots rang out through the redwoods.

  The bird let go of her shoulders and fell to the ground dead. Senta turned to see the Dechantagne brothers and two riflemen. They had shot the bird off her shoulders. They had also shot the other bird behind her and the half frozen bird that had just been able to stand up before it was killed. They hadn’t needed to shoot the beast fighting with the dragon. It was already dead.

  “Gawp!” said the dragon, licking the blood from its whiskers with a long forked tongue.

  Captain Dechantagne rushed forward and scooped Senta up into his arms. He looked at the tears in her dress and the tears in her skin beneath.

  “These don’t seem too bad,” he said. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

  Senta shook her head.

  “Looks like we got here just in time,” said one of the riflemen.

  “Velociraptors,” said Augie.

  Zurfina stepped out from behind a tree, walked over and picked up the dragon, which wrapped itself around her shoulders just as it had Senta’s before. Captain Dechantagne sat Senta down and faced the sorceress.

  “You’re this little girl’s guardian,” he said angrily. “She shouldn’t have been brought ashore.”

  Zurfina stepped toward him and placed her forefinger on his chin.

  “Guardian,” she said derisively. “My dear Terrence, we’re going to be living here. Children are going to be eaten.”

  The captain’s mouth dropped open.

  “She’s fine,” said Zurfina. “Let’s get back to the others.”

  The five of them, six counting the dragon, walked back up the rise and through the woods into the opening. The big dinosaur, which was identified as a tyrannosaurus was still eating its kill. The iguanodons were staying away from it, but had gone back to clipping leaves and branches from the trees. Apparently as long as the predator was not hunting, they did not concern themselves with it. Several ankylosaurs grazed along amid the larger beasts. The sailors and other riflemen were waiting.

  “These animals are big, but they’re on the skittish side,” said Augie. “I’ll bet we could chase them off this promontory with a few rifle volleys. Shall we give it a try?”

  “What about the big fellow?” asked his brother. “I don’t know how many shots it would take to bring him down, and I don’t want to try and find out when he’s charging me.”

  “I can take care of the tyrannosaurus, if necessary,” said Zurfina.

  “Very well,” said Augie. “One volley over their heads. Ready. Fire.”

  Eighteen rifles fired in unison. The herd of dinosaurs honked unhappily and began moving away.

  “Another volley,” said Augie, then a moment later. “Ready. Fire!”

  With the sound of the second volley the dinosaurs began to run. Even the tyrannosaurus roared defiantly and then began striding away toward the hills beyond the peninsula.

  “All right, we begin unloading the ship immediately,” said Captain Dechantagne. “We’ll start with the saw mill, because the first thing I want done is a defensive wall across this hill, dividing the peninsula from the mainland. And until it’s done, I want to two squads of riflemen on guard duty at all times.”

  “Right-oh,” said Augie, saluting.

  “This child is to return to the ship immediately,” continued the captain. “And no women or children are to come ashore until that wall is complete.”

  “We’re leaving already,” said Zurfina. She took Senta by the hand waved her other hand over her head. The world around them disappeared and Senta found that she and Zurfina and the dragon were once again on the deck of the H.M.S. Minotaur.

  “Come on,” said the sorceress. “We need to get those cuts healed.”

  Still holding Senta by the hand, Zurfina walked through the hatch and down the nearest stairway. They found their cabin, this time it was on deck four, and went inside. After setting the steel dragon back on his stone plinth, the sorceress had the girl take off her dress as she examined the six puncture marks with associated scratches.

  “You wouldn’t
let them eat me really, would you?” asked Senta, as Zurfina poured a small measure of healing draught on each of the wounds.

  “You must rely on yourself, you know,” said Zurfina. “You can’t expect some handsome soldier to rescue you all the time. You should have used your spells to better effect. If you’re still upset, there’s a bottle of blessudine in the cabinet.”

  “I don’t need a happiness potion.”

  Senta lay down on the bed and after a moment was fast asleep. She dreamed that she was being chased by velociraptors. These dream dinosaurs grew as they chased her. Losing their feathers, they evolved into larger eight-foot tall dinosaurs with scaly skin the color and texture of the iguanodons. One of the monsters jumped on her and forced her to the ground. She opened her eyes and found the steel dragon sitting on her.

  “Gawp,” it said.

  “Get off.”

  As she always did when she got up from bed, Senta found a new outfit laid out for her. This one was a simple black long sleeve dress that extended to just below the knees. It had two white stars on the breast, one just above the waist and two more at the hips. Along with it were thigh high white stockings. Senta put them on, along with her black sandals.

  “How come you don’t have to wear weird clothes?” she said accusingly to the dragon.

  “Pet,” he said, climbing back up to his stone plinth.

  Senta left the cabin and the dragon and went back up to the deck. Dozens of people were standing along the railing looking at the shore. Senta pushed her way between them to see what was going on. The portion of the shoreline where the iguanodon herd had wandered as the ship sailed into the bay was now occupied by a single dinosaur. It was more than thirty feet long and ten feet tall, about the same overall dimensions as the iguanodon, but much heavier built. Around its neck was a large bone frill and jutting out from its face were three large horns, one above each eye and one on the nose. It was tossing its head up and down as if challenging the ship.

  Pulling back behind the crowd, Senta made her way to the opposite side. Here, two boats were being loaded with cargo from the ship, and another was being loaded with settlers, all of them men. A fourth boat filled with men was being rowed toward shore and a fifth was already there. On the shore armed men were standing guard while others could be seen through the trees assembling some large pieces of equipment.

  “My Da’s over there,” said Graham, stepping up behind Senta.

  “Oh? What’s he doing?”

  “He’s setting up the saw, so they can start cutting trees up into wood.”

  “Huh. Did you eat yet?”

  “Sure,” said Graham. “I’ll eat again though.”

  This comment didn’t surprise Senta who had gone plenty of days without eating at all. They walked back to aft deck and were the last two to get into the luncheon queue. Black pudding and beans was both a surprise and disappointment for her, because the meal usually served at breakfast was not her favorite. The steel dragon would not have been disappointed. While he didn’t care much for beans one way or the other, black pudding, made from cooked blood, was his favorite. Senta sat down on the deck with Graham. She scooped some of the beans into her mouth.

  “Hello Senta,” said Miss Lusk, sitting down with her own plate of beans. “Who’s your friend?”

  “This is Graham.”

  “Hello Graham,” said Miss Lusk. “Do you and your family have everything ready to set ashore?”

  “Sure,” said Graham. “But my Da says it’s going to be days before we can get off the ship.”

  “I’m sure that’s correct.”

  “But I’m sick of being on the ship.”

  “I’m sure you are. I know that I am. We must wait until Captain Dechantagne feels that everything is safe enough for the colonists. There could be any number of dangers in this new land.”

  “You got that right,” said Senta. “Even the birds are scary over here.”

  There was a sudden eruption of machinegun fire from amid ship. Women screamed and men shouted as they heard the heavy “bratta tatta tatta, bratta tatta tatta” for the first time. Senta and Graham jumped up and ran to the railing so that they could look forward and see what the gun was firing at. Miss Lusk followed after them.

  “I’ll bet it’s that Freedonian airship!” shouted a woman.

  The gun had not been firing into the air however, but into the water. Some great beast, perhaps a kronosaurus like the one which had butchered the giant turtle while the Minotaur was still at sea, perhaps something a bit different, but equally frightening, had come too near one of the launches. Whatever it was now was dead. The great body floated on the surface, though its tail and head were still submerged, making identification impossible. Red blood spread across the surrounding water. Within a few minutes, the water around the beast was splashing with sharks, other carnivorous fish, and smaller marine reptiles.

  “Wicked!” said Graham in awe.

  “Yeah,” said Senta, though without as much excitement.

  “This whole place is scary,” said Miss Lusk.

  “Yeah,” said Senta again.

  She nodded goodbye to her friend, walked back and picked up the last of her lunch, and then carried it into the hatch and below deck. For the first time, she felt something drawing her, as if she knew how to find her cabin, something that she had always been unable to do without Zurfina’s help. The feeling led her to deck five in a forward corridor. There were a dozen doors here, but she knew that none of them was the right one.

  One of the doors opened up and Lieutenant Dechantagne stepped out. A woman followed him into the hallway, and though she was completely without clothing, she didn’t seem to care if anyone saw her or not. She wrapped her arms around the Lieutenant and gave him a deep, long kiss. When the woman pulled away, Senta recognized her as Dr. Padgett Kelloran. With a final caress of his cheek, she left Augie standing in the hallway and returned to her cabin.

  Augie took two steps and stopped short in front of the girl.

  “Hello Senta,” he said. “It seems as if we’re always meeting in hallways.”

  She nodded.

  “Are you going topside,” he asked, offering his arm. “I could be your escort again.”

  She shook her head.

  “All right then.” He saluted with two fingers aside his slouch hat, and then strode down the hallway and around the corner.

  Senta shrugged, and then looked around some more. She still had the feeling that the cabin belonging to Zurfina and herself was nearby.

  “Blechtore Uuthanum,” she said.

  A portion of the wall began to glow. A few seconds later she could make out the outline of a hatch, and a few seconds after that, it became a hatch all the way. Senta opened the door and found herself once again in her own room. The steel dragon sat on his plinth looking at her.

  “Pet,” he said.

  “Here.” She held out the plate with the segments of black pudding and a few stray beans. The dragon immediately gobbled them down.

  Chapter Fourteen: Founding the Colony

  Iolanthe Dechantagne had carefully chosen the dress to be worn on the day she set foot in Birmisia. It was a lovely olive green herringbone weave, finished with a line of twenty-four filigree buttons. The bodice was wool, with the lighter cotton overskirt gathered together into a bunch over the bustle, and the polished forest green foundation skirt peeked out from beneath it. She would have been as fashionably in style as any woman in Brech, had she been standing in the center of Hexagon Park. Here on the deck of a battleship, thousands of miles from civilization, amid several hundred travelers who had been locked up for fifty-five days, she was like a goddess.

  She surveyed the view of the land from the prow of the ship. The dark blue waters reflected the beautiful redwood forest like a mirror. The rocky shore was scarcely moistened by the calm waters of the bay. A number of small birds, brown with flashes of black on their necks, hopped along among the rocks finding insects or small crustaceans.
A large tract stretching from the coastline all the way up to the promontory had already been denuded of its trees, both large and small. The great chug of steam engines and the intermittent whine of power saws filled the air with so much sound that not even the throaty cries of the monstrous forests beasts could be heard above them.

  Terrence Dechantagne stood slightly behind and to the right of his sister. His khaki clothes were stained at the knees with mud, around his waist with the chlorophyll of plant life, and upon the thighs with small streaks of blood, where he had wiped his hands. His sleeves were rolled up and his forearms were scratched. The perspiration that had made trails through the dirt on his face, had long since dried. It was the first time he had been back aboard ship in two days.

  “Report,” said Iolanthe, with every bit of the hard nose and hard shell of a hard case Field Marshall.

  “I’ve increased the standing guard to three squads. I’ve just finished taking two platoons up, around and back down the peninsula, chasing out the big animals. We had one casualty. One of the men, Dawson, tripped and fell down the embankment and those vicious little raptors were all over him before anyone could get down there. I think the fall killed him though. Augie left with two platoons first thing this morning to make contact with the natives. The remaining few men are supervising the construction of the wall.”

  “How much of the wall is completed?”

  “About a fourth.”

  “So three more days?”

  “Maybe four. We’re talking about a wall that’s almost three miles long. But I think we can let people come ashore the day after tomorrow. The gap can be guarded until the rest of it is built.”

  “Zeah?” asked Iolanthe.

  Zeah Korlann stood behind and to the left of her. His grey suit enhanced his stiff, tall form. He was every inch dignified, though lately his demeanor was less the dignity of a head butler than that of a skilled diplomat and administrator. He wore a white flower, native of the new continent, on his lapel.

  “We have nearly one hundred men cutting timber and sawing it into lumber. Almost all of the rest are building the wall. Those women who are available are loading cargo into the launches. Captain Gurrman’s men are then unloading it.