Then she recalled how the Keeper had taken pains to sound mysterious and godlike. But was he? Did he really have that kind of power? Despite what he’d already accomplished in getting them back in time, was it merely the result of alien technology, or was it something more?
In truth, she had to wonder. He promised he would speak to her again and answer all of her questions. How had he put it? “Watch for me,” he’d said. “I will communicate with you from time to time.”
Just what did that mean?
Dawn moved closer to the window and leaned in, letting her forehead touch the glass. There was so much she didn’t understand. Was the Keeper toying with her? Did he find her frustrations amusing?
He’d revealed his body had died, yet his mind still lived. If that was the case, why did he care what happened in another place and time? What were his plans for the future?
Dawn glanced back at her comrades. More importantly, she wondered, what are his plans for us?
Chapter 16
Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
~William Shakespeare, Twelfth-Night
The next day passed swiftly, much of it spent collecting biological specimens. The crew kept to the hills and valleys around the Valiant. Harry’s plans to survey nesting sites on the island would have to wait until tomorrow.
By late afternoon, the astronauts were on a last round of trapping, going after the increasingly elusive, small, predatory dinosaurs, such as the turkeylike Saurornitholestes. Much to their disappointment, so far just one specimen had been caught. Apparently, the little creatures had figured out the purpose of the snares, perhaps by sheer luck, but then again, Harry surmised, maybe because of their keen powers of observation. Smart little buggers, he called them.
Smart, indeed. Dawn would never again forget the distress cry of the young, female Saurornitholestes when they found her in the trap that afternoon. Eerie and bone chilling, it reminded her of the caterwauling of a tomcat.
Dawn frowned, recalling how she felt when the alien had first called himself the Keeper. And just who were the keepers now? Could they really justify their plans to capture animals and create a mini-zoo?
It was still a source of tension within the crew. As the day wore on, friction between the astronauts had been building. Harry and Gus, in particular, found it difficult to be around one another.
Dawn decided to put the problems out of her mind. She studied the little bird-sized dinosaur. It had calmed down, staring at the other caged animals, its curiosity seemingly aroused. A few delicately built, Cretaceous birds twittered nearby. They resembled modern birds, yet upon closer inspection, some clear differences stood out; they had short, feathered tails, three hooked claws on their wings, and jaws lined with tiny, spiky teeth. Harry also said he wanted to capture some shore birds, because he believed they may have been the actual ancestors of all modern birds, surviving in the water after the firestorms ravaged much of the planet in the devastating K/T Event.
“Chirp, chirp, chirp.”
Dawn’s gaze darted to the cage housing two shrewlike mammals. Like the birds and dinosaurs, they’d been difficult to catch. Gus joked they needed a cat, but Dawn had another idea, telling him how her terriers were natural-born ratters. She envisioned the dogs, poking their heads down any varmint hole they encountered.
There were a few other animals in the Rover as well. Unlike the birds and mammals, these specimens did not appear much different from their modern-day counterparts. Two opossumlike specimens of the pouched mammal Alphadon had been captured. Insects, including dragonflies, ants, beetles, butterflies, bees, and flies, rested in specimen jars. In a few additional cages, some smaller creatures waited quietly: hard-shelled turtles, a constrictor snake, several lizards, and various colorful species of frogs and toads.
“Hiss.”
Dawn was instantly drawn back to the little dinosaur. Scaly head bobbing to and fro, its piercing, mustard-colored eyes locked onto hers.
The dinosaur gave another long, snakelike hiss and Dawn drew back. Just what the devil were they getting themselves into?
Settling into the Rover, she tried to dismiss her fear by whispering, “Hey, you little turkey, don’t you realize we mean you no harm?”
It leaped at her and bit the side of its cage.
“Jeez, you’re vicious, aren’t you?” she said as the animal continued jumping and biting. By now, its hisses had turned to shrieks and snarls.
A moment later, Harry, Gus, and Kris piled into the Rover. Harry leaned in, watching the dinosaur. “Giving you any trouble?” he asked Dawn.
“She’s a demon. I wouldn’t put my fingers near the cage if I were you.”
Ignoring this, Harry turned to the dinosaur. “You’re just lonely, eh? I think I’ll have to find you a mate.”
The creature threw itself at the cage, spitting, ferociously hissing.
Harry blinked in shock and then fell back, staring.
***
Hours later, Gus and Dawn stood outside the Valiant. The sky held a crescent, a wisp of Moon, the small slice of light rebounding the Sun’s distant glow.
“Come here,” Gus said as he put down the last cage and reached out, taking Dawn by the hand. In the deepening shadows, they stood together and watched the velvet-blue twilight.
Dawn leaned back as Gus’s arms enveloped her. She focused on the Moon for a moment longer. With the passage of time, friction from the tides of the world’s oceans would cause it to move slowly away from the Earth. But in this epoch, it was closer to the planet; even the crescent Moon looked a bit larger than the modern-day view.
Yet, the difference wasn’t jarring to Dawn’s senses. Watching the Moon dip beneath the horizon, she said, “I can almost believe I’m home.”
“But this isn’t home,” Gus said sincerely. “It’ll never be. Just listen. You won’t hear dogs barking, or a coyote howl. Only monsters.” As if in response, a series of high-pitched, unearthly hoots floated on the breeze, joined by some fierce snorts.
Gus’s gaze flicked to the sky, then back to Dawn. “Look at the stars. The constellations are all different, a hodgepodge. Even the Moon isn’t the same. No one’s ever been there.”
Dawn nodded. In this epoch, the Moon was pristine, untouched by astronauts or business consortiums. There weren’t any lunar science stations yet, or helium 3 mines at the South Lunar Pole, or radio telescopes on the far side. And no human footprints had been planted in the lunar dust. As difficult as it was to believe, there wouldn’t be anything artificial on the Moon for another sixty-six million years.
She sighed. “I know, Gus. Nothing’s the same. But I can pretend, can’t I?”
***
Dawn’s voice sounded sad. Gus looked down at the ground and kicked at the dirt with his boot. Why the hell had he opened his big mouth?
“Listen... pretend all you want,” he quietly said. “I’m sorry. I keep forgetting what a homebody you are.”
“How would you know about that?”
“I just know. ‘Most everyone feels the same way.”
Dawn nodded. “Tasha and Lex miss their sons so much.”
“Yeah, well, the only one I'm not so sure about is Harry. I think he’s found a new home here. One thing’s for certain, Harry’s idea of a good time is different from mine.”
“And just what is your idea of a good time?”
Now there was a welcome challenge in Dawn’s tone, and Gus smiled at her change of mood. “Darlin’,” he drawled in affectation, “I don’t think ya’all would care to know.”
“And why not, fly-boy?” She turned and embraced him.
His head bent to meet hers for a kiss. Her lips were warm and yielding, and he leaned against her, reveling in the feel of her soft breasts, her thighs.
He drew back and looked into her eyes. “That should give you some idea.”
She put her arms around his neck. “Kiss me again,” she whispered.
The door of the hatch suddenly opened and Kr
is came out, saw them, then hurried back inside.
“Oops, I guess we’ve been found out,” Dawn said, smiling.
“Uh huh.” Gus wrapped his arms around her. “Somehow, everything will work out.”
“I know it will,” Dawn said. “With you here.”
He felt touched by her trusting nature. He wanted to make love to her, but he knew he had to hold back. He did not want to treat her like a conquest. She was different.
Like Char.
Gus’s mind drifted back to the days of his youth. When he was in his early twenties, he’d loved another woman, his first wife, Charlotte Rose Cummings-Granberg. She had insisted on the hyphenated name much to his parents’ chagrin, and he loved her for it – she was no pushover and had a mind of her own. They’d been college sweethearts at the University of Texas. But Char died in an auto accident, killed by a drunk on her way to a night class. They’d been married only a year when it happened. She had been all of twenty-one on the day of her death.
Devastated, Gus had gone on a long bender, but then he woke up one morning, hung over, still sick with grief, yet ready to move on. He’d thrown himself into school, concentrating on his studies to the exclusion of almost everything else. After graduation, he’d gone on to the military as a naval aviator. The astronaut program beckoned after that, and by then he fit into the mold of your typical fighter jock; he loved speed, practical jokes, old brandy, and young, good-looking women.
And not necessarily in that order.
He hadn’t always been so cocky, though, at least not when he knew Char, but the old cliché held true; time had a way of changing the way you looked at things. The past decade in particular had been filled with a mixture of hard work, thrills, and the vagaries of fame: three extended missions to Earth’s Moon and one to the asteroid Eros, a daring rescue to save the crew of a crippled Earth-Moon transport ship, a hero’s welcome back home, numerous public appearances, and even a well-publicized fling with a Brazilian supermodel.
But now, Gus realized, those days were over.
He held Dawn close, suddenly feeling unsure of himself. How would she react if she learned of his feelings for her?
But it was time. He wanted to settle down with Dawn.
Gus took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. “Dawn, what would you say if I told you...?”
Inexplicably, his voice failed, and his vision blurred. His ears filled with an extraneous, high-pitched noise, like the whine of a jet engine. The sound got progressively louder, making him feel dizzy and nauseous.
And then, quite suddenly, the noise and vertigo ceased. A gray, misty curtain rose up before his eyes, then darkness fell, and he drifted off toward a great silence.
***
“What did you want to tell me?” Dawn asked Gus with considerable interest.
His fingers dug into her like steel. “I – must – speak – to – you.”
The voice was cold, forced out in little snaps. It was only a faint, mechanical-sounding shadow of Gus’s usually vibrant baritone.
Wide-eyed, Dawn looked back at him.
“It is I. The Keeper.”
She pulled away and backed off several steps. Even in the shadowy light, she could see Gus’s eyes. Only they didn’t belong to him. They stared at her blankly, the pupils huge and black, fully dilated. They were remote eyes, alien eyes, pitch-dark against the night.
“Do not be afraid, Dawn Stroganoff,” the voice grew less mechanical, “for I promised I would communicate with you again. This is difficult for me. I have only a short amount of time. You must tell the pilot...”
“Wh – what do you want?” Dawn croaked.
He took a deep breath, slowly working his jaw. “It has been so long. To be alive! Ah!” He reached out for her. “Come here,” he said, echoing Gus’s previous words. “Dawn, what would you say if I told you...?”
She stumbled back. Just how much did the Keeper know about her and Gus? “Tell the pilot?” she asked in panic. “What about the pilot? Tell the pilot what?”
“Dawn, tell your pilot to wa – watch––” The strange voice broke off, and he collapsed to the ground.
Gus groaned, holding his head, and rolling around in pain.
“Help! Tasha! Lex, come quick!” Dawn shouted. “Someone help!” She stooped down. “Gus! Gus, are you all right?”
He stopped moving and winced. “What the hell just happened?”
“Oh, Gus, it was the Keeper! He was here. He took over your body.” Dawn looked at the lander again and shouted, “Didn’t anyone hear me? Help!”
The outdoor floodlights flicked on, illuminating the entire area. Finally, someone was coming. Dawn turned back to Gus. “Don’t move,” she told him.
“What did you mean... the Keeper was here?” he mumbled.
“I think he was inside your head.”
“I, I don’t understand.” Gus flinched when he looked down at himself. “Shit,” he swore as he attempted to sit up.
Dawn noticed the dampness on the crotch. “Gus, it’s okay.” She glanced back just as Tasha and the others hurried toward them.
“Did he have seizure?” Tasha asked, seeing the urine stain on Gus’s pants. She looked into his eyes and then pressed her finger to his neck. “Help him up and get him inside,” she ordered Harry and Lex.
As they slowly walked Gus to the lander, Dawn started to follow, but then she held back, searching for an explanation. “It wasn’t a seizure, Tasha. It was more like Gus was possessed. I know it sounds crazy, but, somehow, I don’t know how, I think the Keeper––”
“What?” Tasha swung around and stared at Dawn.
“The Keeper talked to me. It wasn’t Gus. I could tell.”
Eyebrows knitted together, Tasha mumbled something in Russian about demons, then hustled off after her patient.
***
While Gus slept, Dawn related the incident to the crew. As she spread her hands before her, she realized she couldn’t stop her fingers from trembling.
Lex put a mug on the table before her. “Here. This’ll help.”
Dawn sniffed the drink. Yuck. Chamomile. “Lex, you know how much I hate the herbal stuff.”
“Drink it. Doctor’s orders.” Lex pushed the cup a little closer.
Reluctantly, Dawn blew on the surface of the steaming liquid, then took a sip. He’d put a lot of honey in it. That only made it worse.
She took another sip and made a face. “The Keeper tried to tell me something. I think it was about Jean-Michel. He said he wanted the pilot to watch something.”
“Hmm,” Lex muttered.
“I know. It sounds crazy.” Dawn paused, debating whether to say anything about the Keeper’s paraphrasing of Gus’s words. Her hands still shook as she placed the mug back on the table. At that moment, she decided to keep quiet, because it was too personal.
As if reading her thoughts, Kris asked, “Did the Keeper say anything else?”
Dawn hesitated. “No,” she hedged. “When his voice cut off, Gus collapsed.”
Jean-Michel said over the com-link, “I’m to watch something, but what?”
“Wish I knew,” Dawn said.
“Oui. I do not understand.”
Tasha sat in Gus’s private cubicle. She rose to her feet, walked through the door, and came over to Dawn’s side.
“How is he?” Dawn asked.
“Gus will be fine,” Tasha said. “I have given him sedatives, enough to knock out T-rex.”
Dawn didn’t smile. “I have a bad feeling about this. If we just knew what the Keeper wanted.”
“Ah, I think this is what you Americans say is a ‘wake-up call’, but I am not certain why the Keeper needed to make such a point,” Jean-Michel said. “I watch everything already, no? However, I will just have to be more vigilant. I’ll make certain nothing escapes my attention.”
Tasha nodded. “We Russians believe in guardian angels.” She glanced at the com-screen. “And Jean-Michel shall be ours.”
***
Tasha bustled into the room. “I am thinking you should not go anywhere today, Commander. Stay here and rest.”
Gus gazed into his coffee mug, feeling the urge to argue. “Why? Whatever happened last night, it isn’t bothering me now. I lost consciousness, then I woke up to a rip-roaring headache, but it’s gone. I told you – I’m okay.”
“Okay? I think not.” Tasha used her most authoritarian tone. “You must stay here.”
He glanced up at her, frowning. “Not today, Doc.”
Tasha glared at him. “Need I remind you, Commander, I am ship’s doctor. I can countermand any order.”
Gus shot Lex a look. Save me, will you? Although he was still feeling a little weak, he was not getting left behind. No way in hell. Even Lex was going on today’s outing. Besides, the idea of spending a whole day alone with Tasha gave him the willies.
“Come on then, Gus,” Lex said, over his wife’s objections. With a grin, he gave her a peck on the cheek. “He’ll be fine, hon. Don’t worry. I’ll watch out for him.”
“I don’t want either one of you to go.”
“Now think about it, Tash. The boys would never forgive their ol’ dad if he didn’t go out and see the dinosaurs. Harry said he found nests. Maybe we’ll get an egg or two.”
“Humph,” Tasha huffed.
Ignoring her, Gus got to his feet and followed Lex outside. The air was crisp and clear. In the distance, the Rockies stood golden-pink in the sunrise. Dawn, Harry, and Kris were already waiting for them near the Rover.
Kris hopped into the driver’s seat, while Dawn sat next to her, Harry and Lex taking the back seat. Dawn’s face lit up when she saw Gus, and he forced himself to smile. He was glad he was riding shotgun again, because he felt embarrassed about what had happened last night, most especially about pissing himself. He kept his gaze locked on the distance the whole time they crossed the plain.
It took an hour to reach the river, where they found a pebbly crossing that would allow easy access to the island. Beyond the shallows, old logs, bleached bones, and mats of vegetation clogged a big sandbar. Groves of bald cypress trees hugged the shoreline, reminding Gus of the great bayous of the southern U.S.
Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel) Page 18
