by Brett Vonsik
Ramirez was quicker to position himself near the blade and immediately began examining it as if he were the only person on the entire planet able to do the examination justice. Nikki perched herself slightly below the skull, on the lip of the donut hole, such that she could dig the toes of her boots into secure footholds. Once she felt safe, she leaned over the skull to get a good look at the blue blade. It was almost an inch wide, with intricately inscribed symbols, none of which she recognized, though they bore a vague resemblance to some Sumerian symbols she had studied. The blade was buried into the maxilla such that the plain oval hand guard was about eight inches from the fossilized bone. The hilt was large enough for Nikki to hold the weapon with both of her hands. The wrappings of the grip were almost completely gone, and what remained around the mounting were small pieces of fossilized material that Nikki was unable to identify. Ramirez touched the flat of the blade cautiously with his fingers, as if afraid it would do him harm. Nothing happened. With more confidence, he then ran his fingers up and down the metal several times.
“Be careful, Hugo.” Anders warned.
“It’s warm to the touch.” Ramirez almost sounded giddy. He then held his right hand in the air, palm up, without looking anywhere except the blade. “Someone give me something of metal.”
Several long moments later, Jimmy placed a small pick in Ramirez’s hand. Ramirez never took his eyes off the blade as he positioned the metallic part of the pick head against the blade edge. A surface cut mark was left on the pick’s metal after Ramirez tapped the unknown metal blade edge. No one spoke. No one breathed. Ramirez gently applied pressure on the pick against the blue blade’s edge then slid the pick head down the blade. The metal pick head was cut deep, almost completely through. Ramirez jumped back from the blade and the pick lodged on it. “Damn!”
“Damn, isn’t the half of it,” Jimmy finally said. “Dr. Anders, shouldn’t metal break down and decompose, or fossilize, if it is in the ground as long as we say this was?”
“Yes!” both Anders and Ramirez replied simultaneously.
“Then the sword couldn’t have been in the ground since the Cretaceous,” Nikki stated as if her conclusion was final and everyone should agree with her. She slid closer to the blade and pick as if they were a deadly snake poised to strike. Gently, she took hold of the pick and attempted to pull it from the blade. The head of the pick came away in two pieces. Surprised, Nikki lost her balance and fell against the fossil skull with a thud and gasp.
“Easy…Nikki.” Anders cautioned. “I don’t want you injured by that thing, too.” Anders scurried across the rock next to Dr. Ramirez. He knelt lower to examine the base of the hilt. “Look here. It looks like a gemstone -- or something like a gemstone -- mounted in the base of the hilt. It’s strange. Hugo, look at this.”
Dr. Ramirez squatted low to get a view allowing him to closely examine the gemstone. His head tilted this way, then that, up and down, then this way and that again. “That is no gemstone. The untrained eye it will fool, but...I am sure it is not. It doesn’t refract or reflect light like any gemstone I have ever seen.”
“Touch it,” Jimmy blurted. Everyone turned their gazes in his direction and looked at him if he had just asked Ramirez to stick his hand into a pot of vipers.
“Not me,” Ramirez replied with a sort of chuckle. He rose to a sitting position then looked at Anders. “Shawn, we should leave it alone until we can examine it under better conditions. Maybe get some other expert advice, too.”
“You’re right,” Anders admitted reluctantly. “Guys, let’s wrap this skull up so we can get it out of the ground. And for Pete’s sake, please take care near the blade. I don’t want anyone else getting cut -- or worse, slicing a finger or hand off.”
“We can mount a pair of wooden brackets on either side of the blade and tie them to place enough tension against the flat of the blade to hold them in place,” Nikki suggested. Everyone now turned their attention to her, looking at her as if to ask a question. “The burlap and plaster should hold the wood brackets in place and keep the blade safe for transport.”
No one spoke immediately. They all appeared to be thinking. After a short period of everyone looking at each other, Anders made several hand motions to the group of locals milling around the base of the slope with his cut hand, before pain gripped him and forced him to cuddle it again. “Damn, this hurts. Hugo, would you please ask our support crew to bring the wrapping kit and water up here?”
“I’ll take care of it, Doc,” Jimmy volunteered. He was a third of the way down the slope before anyone could say a word.
Jimmy soon returned with three Bolivians, one of which was Luis, carrying bundles of tinfoil and burlap, several bags of plaster, buckets half filled with water, and two wooden blocks. Ramirez applied more acetone to the skull in the places not yet treated, giving the exposed bone a brownish sheen as Nikki cleared the area of tools and anything that might prove a hazard. Anders sat quietly, out of the way, holding his hand while wearing a grim expression. The team prepared the top side of the fossil with layers of tinfoil, then plaster-saturated burlap, before they could finish digging it out and turn it over to do the same on the other side. They placed wooden blocks on either side of the flat of the blade and secured them with twine. The tension of the two wooden blocks held it in place as tinfoil and then plaster-covered burlap were carefully applied around the entire blade and hilt. Just before noon, they were ready to start working the underside. After a quick break, they eagerly went back at it, digging out the remaining side rock, and undercut the rock beneath the skull until only a small pedestal of stone remained. By late afternoon, the temperature had risen to an uncomfortable level; most had lost their jackets, and worked in light shirts soaked with sweat. They were ready to turn over the skull. Nikki, excited that she had the opportunity to participate in the dig, hummed several different melodies the entire time she worked. Anders helped where he was able, but the pain of his injured hand seemed to grow as the afternoon wore on.
“Okay, we’re ready,” Jimmy announced as he crawled from underneath the slab of rock. “A good push, and the pedestal should separate. Nikki, you and Miguel help me on this side near the nose. Dr. Ramirez, if you and Luis and his guys would guide the back of the skull so that it rolls where we want it, I think we will be in good shape.”
Everyone readied themselves to roll the skull slab, some thousands of pounds of fossil, rock, and plaster. Jimmy positioned himself alongside Nikki and Miguel. Miguel was the largest of the Bolivian helpers, standing nearly six feet tall, and with a heavy, muscular build. Nikki assumed Jimmy had chosen Miguel for his size and strength, but still she wasn’t certain that even the three of them were going to be enough to topple this slab. Jimmy raised his hand with three fingers held high to signal to Ramirez that they were ready then set it on the slab, ready to push. Ramirez and his team had set a series of wood poles to act as fulcrums they would use to guide the slab to where they wanted it. “On three, everybody. One, two, threeeeeee!”
The slab didn’t budge. They tried again and heard a cracking of the rock pedestal, but only after considerable effort. The three of them took several gulps of air, then readied themselves again as Jimmy counted to three, again. They heaved on the slab once more with groans and growls. The pedestal broke and the massive slab started to tilt in the direction of Ramirez and Luis. Someone yelled, but Nikki couldn’t make out about what, over the pounding of the blood in her ears. She tried to guide the slab as it tilted, then rolled, but found herself useless against the weight and inertia of the slab. Nikki stood watching as the slab rolled toward Ramirez, threatening to crush him, then veered down the slope of the hill and into the spot they had hoped it would go. On the slab’s impact with the hillside, the ground vibrated with a pronounced low-frequency thud, then shuddered. Everyone remained silent for a moment exchanging nervous looks. When nothing happened, laughter broke.
“I thought the mountainside was about to come down,” Nikki laughe
d jokingly. Then she felt it...rock and stone cracking under her feet -- then she was falling.
Nikki fell for only a second or so before impacting something solid, the force collapsing her legs then sending her tumbling down a slope with the dim world spinning out of control. She slammed into and rebounded off rocks as she tumbled. Pain engulfed her body. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping the nightmare would stop and that she would not be hurt too badly. With a teeth-jarring thud, Nikki landed face down on an almost level surface covered in a powdery layer of something, softening her impact...a little. Rocks rained down on her for what seemed forever. Some small and some not-so-small rocks struck Nikki, causing her pain, but reminding her that she was alive.
Nikki felt dazed from the fall and pummeling. She heard distant voices echoing from everywhere. With a groan, she prepared to push herself up by taking a deep breath of air, but only found herself gagging and coughing. Stale, rank air, thick with dust, unexpectedly plunged into her lungs. Her body convulsed, racked with pain, as she coughed uncontrollably. Nikki’s nose, throat, and lungs burned. She had to get it out. Had to make the burning stop. Panic gripped her, but all she could do was cough and gag. After what seemed an eternity of disconnected pains, Nikki heard distant voices echoing unintelligibly all around her. She seized upon the voices, trying to pull herself to safety. Her numerous, intensely-sharp pains gradually gave way to painful aches as the moments passed.
Nikki opened her eyes to a dusky gloom with a circle of bright light high above trying to penetrate the cloud of dust she looked through. Her eyes started to burn, and tears ran freely down the sides of her face. With an effort, she rolled onto her side with a groan then pushed herself up into a sitting position. Her body ached and her head hurt. The smell of sulfur was thick with every breath. She looked around through tear-blurred vision, but saw little except vague shapes and shadows. Blinking, Nikki’s vision cleared a little. She had fallen some fifteen feet from the roof of this cavern, then bounced down a sloping wall another twenty feet farther, as best she could make out. She shuddered uncontrollably for a moment with the realization that she could have been seriously injured or worse. Pain from bruises and lacerations covered much of her body despite her thick clothing.
After a quick flex test of her fingers and toes, her panic and fear lessened, as nothing seemed to be broken. She ran her hands over her body to check for injuries not announcing themselves with pain. Blood, mixed with dirt and dust, stained her fingers after she passed them over exposed skin on her arms, neck, face, and head. It wasn’t much blood, and she was relieved. All in all, she survived the fall fairly well, she concluded.
“Nikki! Can you hear me?” Anders’ voice echoed throughout the cavern. “Nikki! Nikki! Are you all right? Jimmy! Are you okay?”
“I think I’m okay,” Nikki replied, tilting her face up to the circle of light above, her shaky voice echoing off the cavern walls. “I don’t know how, but I don’t think I broke anything.”
“Is Jimmy okay?” Anders asked with thick concern, again his voiced echoed.
“I...I don’t know.” Nikki looked about. “I don’t see him.”
“I can’t see down there,” Anders anxiously stated.
“Let me look around.” Nikki painfully rose to her feet. Her whole body hurt, and her legs were unsteady. Worse, she had a blinding headache. After a few moments and steps, Nikki spotted Miguel, dazed and sitting on a large rock just a bit higher up the slope from her. He looked to be in fairly good condition despite a nasty cut on his right shoulder that bled freely. She asked Miguel if he was all right several times, but the disoriented man only looked at her with unfocused eyes. She feared he had a concussion. He would have to wait until she found Jimmy. Nikki called out to Jimmy. No response. She called out again. A low, almost inaudible, groan a bit farther up the slope caught Nikki’s ear.
“Nikki? Is that you?” Jimmy spoke with a weak and shaky voice.
“Don’t move, Jimmy,” Nikki told him. She reached Miguel and gave him a quick look-over to make sure he didn’t have a life threatening injury; then she started to climb to Jimmy after she was satisfied she could do nothing more for the strongman. “Hold on. I’ll be right there.”
Nikki climbed to where she thought Jimmy lay. He was somewhere near the point of impact where he fell through the cavern roof. She looked around for him once she was at the top of the slope. Another low groan drew her attention to a dark area off to the side near the cavern wall. She squinted hard before making out Jimmy’s outline. He lay just out of the direct rays of sunlight, and was difficult to see. She knelt next to him to get a better look at his condition. Blood covered much of his face from a gash over his left eye, and the little finger on his right hand was bent in an unnatural position. Jimmy held that hand gingerly, protecting it. She could not tell if anything else was wrong with her colleague and friend. Nikki winced at the sight of him, but managed to put on what she thought was a comforting smile when Jimmy looked up at her.
“How bad is it?” Jimmy asked bluntly, in a voice stronger than Nikki expected.
“Well, ah...you have a pretty nasty cut on your head, and I think your finger is broken.” Nikki could not see any other obvious injuries.
“Then, I’ll consider myself lucky,” Jimmy joked. Nikki didn’t see the humor in it. “My mother always said it’s better to be lucky than good.”
“How is everyone?” Anders’ voice echoed through the cavern, again. The light above Nikki and in the surrounding cavern dimmed slightly.
“Jimmy has a good-sized cut on his head, and a broken finger,” Nikki spoke loudly for everyone to hear. Then she looked up to see the dark silhouette of Anders at the edge of the gaping hole. “I think Miguel has a concussion, but I can’t be sure.”
“I be all right.” Miguel’s strained voice rose out of the darkness below, his Bolivian accent thick. His speech seemed a little lazy to Nikki. “I have bump on head. I be okay.”
Luis’ voice echoed from above. He spoke in his native language and with sharpness Nikki was unaccustomed to hearing from him. She couldn’t follow exactly what he was saying, but she heard Miguel’s name spoken and words referencing “big” and “idiot,” she thought. Miguel responded to Luis’ words and tone in the manner he usually did, harsh and loud. They argued without being able to see each other; it had been obvious from the first day Nikki was in camp that Miguel and Luis did not like each other very much.
“Gentlemen!” Ramirez broke in. “Let’s get them out of there before they rot.”
Ramirez said something in his native tongue; Luis hurried off and Miguel fell silent. “Ricks! We’re getting rope to get you out of there. Just don’t do anything until we’re ready.”
“Easy for you to say,” Nikki replied then spoke under her breath. “What would I do, anyway?”
“Don’t worry about me, Doc.” Jimmy’s voice was strong and sarcastic. “I’m okay. It’s the first break I’ve had all day.”
“Don’t start thinking you’ll get paid for laying down on the job,” Anders joked.
“That supposes the premise that you pay me at all, Doc,” Jimmy replied with a smile on his face that Nikki caught in a glint of sunlight.
“Good thing we’re almost done with this field trip,” Jimmy laughed, but cut it short with a curse as he clutched his injured hand to his chest. “Between the doc and me, we won’t have many fingers left at the rate we’re going.”
Jimmy sat up with a groan and mumbled a curse. “Nikki, the sulfur smell is pretty thick down here. The geology of this place doesn’t make it likely that it’s naturally occurring. Where do you think it’s coming from? I mean, the area isn’t rich in the stuff, and this cavern smells loaded with it.”
“I haven’t a clue,” Nikki replied absently. At first she dismissed his words, but then thought about the sulfur. “I suppose the dirt could be contaminated from a pocket of sulfur concentrated in the strata, but for all I know it could be leftover debris from the same event that killed
off big ugly up there. Highly unlikely, huh? It probably seeped into the cavern from the surrounding rocks.”
“Doesn’t make sense,” Jimmy replied with a grunt. He was coming out of shock, and feeling the pain of his injuries. “What if it’s the left over pulverized sulfur-rich rock from the Yucatan region? If it….”
“Señior Jimmy and Señorita Ricks,” Miguel’s echoing words broke into their conversation. “Come to see what I found. Hurry. Come see.”
“What is it, Miguel?” Jimmy asked skeptically.
“I found more blue metal,” Miguel replied.
Nikki and Jimmy stared at each other without speaking for what seemed a very long time. A blue metal sword embedded in the jaw of the carnivore was strange enough. The scientific world was to be turned upside down if it proved to be sixty-five million years old. The significance of the blade alone would be felt around the world...after it held up to intense scientific scrutiny. But more material in the same location? Nikki’s thoughts raced. What happened here? What was this metal and how did it involve dinosaurs? Especially a carnivore at that, and a whopper of a big one? Jimmy scrambled to his feet in a flash of movement, startling Nikki.
“Let’s go!” Jimmy urged without waiting for Nikki to respond. “Doc, you better get down here. Miguel thinks he found more of that blue metal.”
“What?” Anders questioned in disbelief, his word echoing in the dim light of the cavern. “What did you say...more blue metal? What the hell is going on down there? No. Wait. I’ll be down as soon as Luis gets that damned rope up here. Luis! Get a move on it. Hurry, man, hurry! And bring lights. Lots of them. And my tools. Hurry!”
Jimmy snickered as he used his shirt sleeve to wipe the blood from his eye. He had some trouble performing the task without the full use of both hands, so Nikki helped him by pulling the sleeve down. Jimmy wiped his eye again with better success. He still bled pretty good. “What are we waiting for? After you, Nikki.”
