Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel) (20 page)

By mid-morning, Dawn sat at the table nursing a mug of tea, watching Gus as he pressed them for a plan. He hadn’t touched her since he’d kissed her, and she guessed he was just as confused as she.

“Granted, we have to stay here,” Gus said as he surveyed an uneaten portion of his breakfast. “There’s nowhere else for us to go, unless we travel to ancient Mars,” he half-laughed, half-snorted at this, “so we might as well take advantage of the situation and do some exploring.”

Harry’s eyes lit up, while Tasha exchanged a worried look with Lex. 

“We need to take complete inventory of all medical equipment,” she said in an uncharacteristically soft tone. “I do not wish to sound pessimistic, but I am thinking it is very important we have everything ready in case someone is injured.”

Gus took a sip of his coffee. “You’re probably wastin’ your time, Doc, since everything else has been accounted for. We’ve got a Rover. Even our spacesuits are here.” He directed his next comments to Dawn. “Your Keeper friend included your spacesuit with our gear, too. Seein’ the way you came on ahead of us, he was pretty thorough, wasn’t he? Just one Rover’s missing, and the robot digger and our Google glasses, too. Can’t figure that out, but what the heck, the alien got everything else here, so I’m not complaining.”

Dawn nodded, recalling how she’d discarded her equipment before speaking to the Keeper. How had he done it? How had he transported all of them and their stuff here? Even the
Destiny
and Jean-Michel? It was unbelievable. What kind of powers were we talking about? Teleportation?

She thought about the implications of what this meant. Hadn’t the writer Arthur C. Clarke written something about advanced technology being so far beyond normal as to be indistinguishable from magic? No wonder she was feeling awestruck.

“Yeah, well,” Gus continued. “The Keeper also put our lander in a good strategic position. The embankment above us is quite steep – no dinosaurs can attack from that direction – and we have a good view of the valley floor from the other side. So, for the moment, I’m satisfied. I think we can relax a little.”

“Be that as it may, Lex and I wish to stay here today.” Tasha frowned. “I have had enough of dinosaurs.”

“That’s fine. I understand. No one’s forcing you to do anything you don’t want to do.” Gus turned to Dawn. “Anyone who wants to go,” he indicated her, Harry, and Kris with quick nods, “can head out with me in the Rover today.”

Dawn nodded back. “Yes, I’ll go with you.” She did a double-take. Was it her imagination, or had Gus held her gaze just a moment longer than necessary, before looking down at his mug.

“Well, you read my mind.” Harry grinned as he looked over at Kris, who seemed just as excited. 

Gus studied Harry’s expression. “Just remember something. We don’t know what to expect out there. I’ll admit I’m worried, but I won’t be held prisoner here. I think our weapons will do the trick and protect us.”

“I understand,” Harry said.

“I hope you do.”

“Hey, dude, lighten up – I do understand,” Harry said emphatically. “But the big herds are made up of ceratopsians, like
Triceratops
prorsus
. They’re harmless. All ceratopsians are herbivores – that means they eat plants.”

Gus frowned. “Yeah, I know,
dude
,” he’d loudly emphasized that last and Dawn smiled at his sarcasm, “but what hunts ‘em? Meat-eaters? Just be prepared for trouble.” He got to his feet. “Don’t love good ol’
T.
rex
too much. Warm-blooded or not, he’d eat you alive if he got the chance.” He went over to the weapons and selected a rifle and a hunting knife. “We may have to kill one, so like I said... be prepared.” 

Unsettled, yet excited, Dawn locked eyes with Kris, who grinned as she said, “First dibs on the driver’s seat.”

***

By noon, the well-armed foursome sat in the Rover. It was a clear, sunny day with only a slight breeze coming from the northwest. With Kris behind the wheel, they headed toward the valley floor. Gus rode shotgun, with the E-M cannon mounted on the rear of the Rover, while Dawn and Harry wore headsets, which recorded everything in their path. 

Jean-Michel monitored them in the
Destiny
; through VR, he saw the same sights as his fellow astronauts on Earth. The Frenchman had patched in data from the J-Stars, so the crew could detect any approaching animals, especially important as they moved toward the largest dinosaur herds.

“Do you see them?” Jean-Michel’s voice burst into Dawn’s headset. “Look over there, to the southwest.”

She focused on the small viewing lens attached to her headset, located in front of her right eye. A large blip moved across the lens’ map projection, heading toward the northwestern part of the screen. 

“Wow!” Harry pulled off his headset and tilted his head, staring up. “Take a look at that.”  

Dawn adjusted the VR zoom for a closer look, catching sight of the migrating flock, hundreds of gray bodies knifing in V-formation, standing out against the clear sky.

“Man, look at the size of those birds,” Gus said.

“Not birds,” Harry corrected him. “They’re pterosaurs – flying reptiles. You’ve heard of ‘em, eh?”  He was now looking through his binoculars. “Average wingspan seems to be about six or seven meters,” he said, rattling off statistics. “And I think... yeah, this species is called
Pteranodon
longiceps
. Notice the heads are longer than the bodies, give or take a half meter.”

The pterosaurs’ heads
were
large, perhaps man-sized, Dawn noted, with long, toothed beaks. She adjusted her headset, using the zoom for an even closer look. Even more intriguing were the cranial crests resting on the tops of their skulls. Of differing sizes and shapes, they were unique to each creature. 

“I’m clocking them at thirty-one kilometers per hour,” Jean-Michel said. “They move like the wind!”

Kris stopped the Rover as the pterosaurs flew directly overhead. In the shadow created by the huge flock, the astronauts waited. Soon a cacophony of echoing, hornlike calls filled the air as the pterosaurs alternately flapped their wings and then glided on the wind. 

“Heads slightly down, five joints per wing ending with a megafinger.” Harry’s voice broke slightly. “God – yes! Yes! We thought they’d fly like that.” He lowered his binoculars and grinned. “Fur, they’re covered with fur. We knew it was so from the fossils, but to actually see it is just awesome.”

Dawn stared. Soft, gray fuzz covered the wings and bodies of the pterosaurs.

“I thought only mammals had hair,” Gus said.

Harry shrugged. “They’ve probably evolved a light down that’s sort of hairlike. Their bodies need insulation to prevent heat loss when flying in the cool atmosphere. Also, it might act like sunscreen. One of the reasons bats can’t fly in the daytime is their wing membranes have no protection from UV rays. They’d burn up and die.”

The swarm passed over the Rover, and the sky opened up once more. Kris started the engine and drove toward a herd of
Triceratops
by the river. 

Dawn decided to use her binoculars to study them. The brown, leathery-skinned creatures were feeding, their huge, tri-horned heads moving slowly back and forth over the flowering bushes. The adults had big rills sweeping back from their foreheads. Covered with keratin, the rills of the males were brightly colored in swirls of orange and fiery red, the females less showy, brown with a hint of red. Many of the bigger males had scars on their rills and hides, probably the result of battles with their horns for sexual dominance.

Harry pointed out how their horns stuck straight out from their brows as an indication of maturity, while the smaller juveniles’ horns curved into the air. Additionally, there were several youngsters near their mothers, probably only a year or two old, and the little guys didn’t have any horns yet, just nubs on their foreheads. Their rounded heads and big eyes reminded Dawn of baby birds.
Survival of the cutest
, she thought, remembering how all baby animals shared these traits, fostering parental protection.

She also noticed something interesting on several of the adults; wrinkles and lines within their rills appeared to change colors, getting an even brighter red as the Rover approached. She asked Harry about it.

“Yeah, I see it. It’s probably happening where their blood vessels come near the surface, undoubtedly a reaction to the noise the Rover is making,” he speculated. “They must view as really weird, eh? I wonder what colors they exhibit when a
T-rex
shows up.”

“Don’t wanna know,” Dawn said.

“Ditto,” added Gus.

Before Dawn could comment further, she spied something huge and white beyond the herd. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was a colossal ribcage, bleached by the sun. She nudged Harry with her elbow and directed him to look at the bones. 

“Probably died several months ago,” he said. Along with the ribs, there were dozens of vertebrae scattered over the fern-covered ground. “Possibly the remains of a sauropod, like
Apatosaurus
,” he explained. “You might know it by the old name,
Brontosaurus
.”

Dawn nodded, unable to remove her gaze from the remains. With a
sinking feeling, she found herself wondering about the future. She lowered her binoculars and closed her eyes. Would she and her fellow astronauts somehow find their way back home, or would they share a similar fate with this beast? If the worst were to happen, would their skeletons lie exposed on the fern prairie, or would they end up in the gut of some huge meat-eater like
T-rex
?

She stirred and glanced around. They were almost upon the herd of
Triceratops
. A few of the animals stared at them and displayed their red rills, but most didn’t seem to care. Looking something like rhinos, their thick forelimbs were positioned in a sprawling stance, as if they dared the Rover to try for a closer approach. With five blunt digits on the front foot and four in the back, they left elephantine tracks in the soil.

Kris stopped the vehicle around thirty meters from the nearest beast. Dawn noticed the animals were mostly clustered by the river. In the distance, a large, tree-covered island stood in the middle of the water. More ceratopsians foraged there. Hundreds, maybe thousands.

“Now what do we do?” Gus asked as he watched the milling herd through squinty eyes. Dozens of small, white pterosaurs darted among the big beasts. Apparently welcomed, the little flying reptiles would land on the backs of the animals and peck at parasites. 

“Hey, I’ve got an idea.” On impulse, Harry hopped out of the Rover. Before anyone could stop him, he trotted off toward the herd.

“You watch. He’ll start a stampede.” Gus leaned over the side of the Rover and spit on the ground. “Just in case they charge, we should keep the Rover between us and them.”

“He’s just excited, Gus,” Kris said, sounding cross. “Remember that fossils are Harry’s life. He’s seeing real, living dinosaurs. Give him a break.”

Here we go again
, Dawn thought, recalling the tension before the landing on Mars. “Hey, guys, cut it out.”

“No, Dawn,” Kris said hotly. “This is between Gus and me. Stay out of it.”

Dawn saw the startled look in Gus’s eyes, but he held his tongue, so she decided to do the same. She couldn’t figure out why Kris had so vehemently come to Harry’s defense, but it wasn’t worth an argument. 

In uncomfortable silence, they watched Harry’s progress toward the
Triceratops
herd. Much to their surprise, the animals didn’t seem to mind his presence, like they had the Rover. Kris reminded them there was a parallel in the modern world; in the Galapagos Islands, there were no natural predators. As a result, the animals had no fear of being hunted and they ignored everyone, even the tourists.

“Since these animals have never seen a human before,” Kris said, “they don’t recognize us as a threat. We probably shouldn’t chance it all that much, but I’d guess few if any of the herbivores will find us all that interesting. I bet we can walk among them with no problem, just like Harry’s doing now. That’s why it was so easy for pirates and sailors in the old days to kill wildlife in the Galapagos.” She gave the commander, a Navy man, a pointed look. “The sailors were ruthless, you know. They killed birds, tortoises, seals – whatever struck their macho fancy.” 

Gus’s mouth tightened in irritation.

“Even on the HMS
Beagle
,” Kris went on, “Darwin and the crew took tortoises for use as food on the long voyage home––” 

“Darwin?” Gus cut in. “So a scientist could be
macho
and
ruthless
, too?”

Kris stared at the faint smile on Gus’s lips. “
Touché
, Commander.”

“Uh huh.” He turned away and watched as Harry picked his way through part of the herd.

The paleontologist eagerly waved to the group. Kris drove the Rover forward to meet him. 

Gun at the ready, Gus looked around. “Just be prepared,” he cautioned.