Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel) (27 page)

“No, they’ll only complicate––”

“Listen to me,” Dawn cut in, emphatically. “You can’t do this alone!”

“How do you know
what
I’m doin’?”

“We know what you’re up to, because Tasha did a genetic test on the feather.” Dawn’s words came out in a rush. “And, and because the DNA – if you can call it that – is quite different. The amino acids twist to the right, not to the left.”

“Say what?”

“Gus, Tasha explained it to me this way
 ... that amino acids exist in so-called left-handed and right-handed versions. Life on Earth uses the left-twisting orientation, but the amino acids on the feather twist to the right. So, they’re not from
Deinonychus
. In fact, they’re not of this world. The feather belongs to an alien. The Keeper.”

“Tell me about it,” Gus said as he heard the faint rumble of the Rover in the distance.

“Will you wait for Harry and Kris? Will you promise me?”

He scowled at her questions, then nodded.
Admit it
, he thought.
You do need help
.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll wait.” He turned as Harry and Kris came into view. “They’re here. Talk to you later, Dawn.”

“Take care of yourself.”

“I always do, darlin’. You know that.”

Through slitted eyes, Gus glanced back at the cave. Then he put away his communicator, scrambled down the rocks, and ran back to meet his crew. 

***

“Dinosauroid!” Harry shouted as Kris parked the Rover. He held one of the long-tailed turtles, waving it in his hand as he repeated, “Dinosauroid!”

“Looks like a turtle to me, bud,” Gus said flatly.

With a distracted look, the paleontologist glanced at the turtle. “Oh, no. This is a baenid. What I’m talking about––”

“Uh huh.” Gus managed a sardonic grin. “Just what are you talkin’ about, Harry?” He swung his left leg into the vehicle and sat down. “First, don’t you want to know what I’ve been doin’?”

Harry opened his mouth to speak. 

“Yes. Please, do tell us, Commander,” Kris said, giving Harry an assertive look that demanded silence. “We saw the trail and assumed you were following the tracks for a reason. You believe they were made by the Keeper, isn’t that so?”

Gus nodded. “He’s hiding in the cave up there.” He pointed to the cleft in the limestone bluff. “I got a shot off at him, but he was too damned quick.”

“You saw him? You actually saw him?” Harry looked like he could’ve jumped for joy. “So, what’d he look like?”

“Like a dinosaur-man.”

“Holy shit!” Harry exclaimed.

“I don’t see a cave.” Squinting through her glasses, Kris peered at the side of the cliff.

Gus shook his head. “You can’t see it from here.” 

“And you think he’s still in there?” Harry asked as he started to put the turtle into a specimen cage.

“Let it go,” Gus ordered him, the beginnings of a plan percolating in his brain; more specimens were the last thing they needed now.

Harry stared at him, and then, without a word, he put the creature on the ground. It slowly began to crawl off toward the stream.

They watched it for a moment, until Harry repeated, “You think the Keeper’s still in the cave, don’t you?”

“Yup. Unless there’s another way out.” Gus frowned at the thought.

Kris stared at him. “What are you thinking, Commander?”

“Suppose the cave is a passageway back to Mars?” Gus speculated. “Or even a way back to the future?”

“Hmm.” Kris nodded. “Consider what Dawn told us about the Keeper and his apparent references to a time paradox. Why would he be able to travel to the past at this time, when a few days ago, he had to inhabit your body in order to communicate with Dawn?”

Gus looked over at Harry. From the expression on his face, it was clear he too was at a loss for an explanation.

“Well, I think I’ve figured it out,” Kris said. “He’s the same Keeper, all right, but he’s from a different time period. Somehow, he’s gotten his body back – remember how he told Dawn he was dead in their initial
conversation? – but now he’s alive. He’s even found a way to make his body stronger.”

“What do you mean?” Gus asked.

“Remember when he told Dawn his species could not live on the Earth because of its gravity? Well, somehow he’s made his body more robust. It’s able to withstand the pull of Earth’s gravity. Maybe he did it through manipulation of his genetic structure. Advanced genetic engineering could produce such results, but I don’t know. Whatever’s happened, he’s found a way to journey back to this place. Perhaps the cave has some sort of passageway for traveling through time.”

“You’re readin’ my mind, Kris,” Gus said.

“That’s why the information about the dinosauroid is so important,” Harry said. “I figured it out.” He reached for his communicator. “Back in the 1980s, a paleontologist named Dale Russell came up with a unique thought experiment. Russell postulated life would have developed differently had the comet not hit the Yucatan at the end of the Cretaceous.”

“Yeah,” Gus said, “and ducks have wings. We all knew that.”

“But according to Russell, if dinosaurs had been able to evolve further, maybe one of them, one species specifically, could have developed into
intelligent
beings, which he called the dinosauroids.” Harry thrust his communicator under Gus’s nose. “Look. This is the dinosauroid model Russell used to illustrate his thought experiment.”

Gus stared at the screen. There was a picture of a middle-aged man in late twentieth century dress – Dale Russell, no doubt – with two dinosaurlike models. One looked a hell of a lot like the
Troodon
they’d captured the night before, while the other...

Gus’s gaze fixed on the creature in the photograph. It was a kind of dinosaur-man. And it looked like a smaller, more delicate version of the Keeper.

“See what I mean?” Harry asked. “
Troodon
is the best candidate for the proposed ancestral species, by the way. For a dinosaur,
Troodon’s
smart, a carnivore with an upright posture, stereoscopic vision, and opposable thumbs. Given the chance, it could have easily evolved further, become a tool-maker and gained self-awareness. No other dinosaur had this potential.” He smiled. “Just like humanity’s ancestors. Same features as the australopithecines, except, of course, that
Troodon
isn’t a mammal.”

“Did Dawn see this picture?” Gus asked, still studying the screen. “Did she see any resemblance to that thing she spotted the other night?” 

“Yes to both your questions,” Harry said, putting his communicator away. “Except you’ll recall she said her creature had feathers on its head.”

Gus whistled. “Then tell me this... if what the Keeper said was true, if his species did evolve in another part of the galaxy, then how come
he
resembles a dinosauroid?”

“Ever heard of convergent evolution?” Harry asked.

“Can’t say that I have.” Gus glanced around, suddenly feeling vulnerable. “Before you launch into one of your lectures, we should do something about our position. We’re sitting ducks if some predator comes this way.”

On Gus’s orders, Kris started the engine and moved the Rover to a secure position near the cliff-face, but away from the area by the cave entrance. Gus decided to ride shotgun, manning the E-M cannon as he watched the bluffs for any sign of movement. Harry had his back to Gus, his gun ready if anything came up the other way. 

As soon as they were in position, Kris turned off the Rover and reached for her weapon. “Just in case,” she said as she placed the gun in her lap.

“Regarding convergent evolution,” Harry said, “well, it’s the process where––”

“We don’t have time for this now,” Gus said, cutting him off. “It’ll have to wait until later.” He opened one of the Rover’s storage compartments and fumbled around for a flashlight. “Who wants to volunteer to go into the cave with me?” he asked, glancing back at Harry and Kris. 

“I’ll go,” Kris said. 

Harry sighed. “Me, too. I’ll wear a headset. Even with the rocks above our heads, Jean-Michel might be able to monitor us.”

“Good idea,” Gus said, “but we’ll all wear them. We can affix flashlights to our guns and headsets. That way, each of us will have two lights. No matter what happens, we’ll be able to see and communicate with one another.” 

He looked down at his T-shirt and shorts, then glanced over at the storage bin in the rear of the Rover. “Are the jackets still in there?” he asked.

Kris nodded. She reached down, popped open the lid on the storage bin, and retrieved three jackets.

While Harry and Kris readied the equipment, Gus reached for his communicator. “
Destiny
, do you copy?”

Jean-Michel’s image flickered onto the screen. “I copy, Gus.”

“I copy, too,” Dawn said.

Gus fiddled with the visuals until he stared at two split/screen images.
“Roger that,
Valiant
,” he said as he gave Dawn a nod, then told them about his plans for exploring the cave.

“Do you think you should take the risk?” Dawn asked.

Tasha moved into view, momentarily sharing the screen with Dawn. “I think you should come back. We must leave planet soon.”

“We’ll be back in plenty of time,” Gus told her. “But first, we’ve got to see what’s in the cave. Even if the Keeper is in there, well, the cave could be our ticket out of here. Maybe we can get home.”

“Communication may be a problem. Interference because of the rock walls will probably prevent our speaking to one another,” Jean-Michel said. “You will be on your own then, Commander. I agree with Dawn and Tasha. I think you should go back to the lander.”

“Please, don’t do this because of some vendetta, Gus,” Dawn pleaded.

“Don’t say that to me,” he gently admonished her. “I’m doin’ what I have to do. This is for all of us. For our future.”

***

Harry, Gus, and Kris stood by the entrance of the cave, silent but for their breathing, hands gripping their guns. The broken rocks beneath their feet would make it a difficult trek into the depths. Because they had two ropes, a small pick, and three collapsible shovels, along with their headsets, lights, and weapons, Harry felt cautiously optimistic about their chances of making a safe exploration of the cavern.

“Jean-Michel, do you copy?” Harry asked as he adjusted the viewing lens of his VR headset and poked his head inside the cave. The air was cold and dank. He took a few steps forward and looked back at Kris and Gus.

The reply sounded faint. “I copy that,” Jean-Michel said. “I’m able to track you with the ground-penetrating radar––” 

Suddenly, the pilot’s voice faded to static, replaced by a grating
buzz
. 

“Damn it,” Harry said as he walked back into the sunlight. He saw Gus gazing at the sky.

“Jean-Michel, keep trackin’ us with radar,” Gus said. “Since it seems we won’t be able to talk to you, we’ll have to take our chances inside.”

“Roger that. And good luck.”

Gus turned on his lights and then signaled for Harry and Kris to move forward. Slowly, they slipped into the cave. From somewhere in the distance, they heard soft, tinkling noises, the sound of water flowing over pebbles in an underground stream.

The com-link between their boots and headsets kept track of the distance they traveled. When they had moved about two hundred meters
inside, they reached a narrowing in the passageway. The trio halted when they spied the low ceiling, which looked too small even for an average-sized woman to crawl through.

Gus frowned. “I’m not sure if I can fit past this without clearing some of the rocks.”

Harry nodded. He was nearly as big as Gus, and he knew he couldn’t make it, either.

“I think I just might be able to slip through this,” Kris said. 

Harry exchanged a concerned look with Gus.

“Ya’all can stop the macho crap now,” Kris said cheerfully. “I’d like to go on. I’ve done some caving with my buddies, even some cenote diving in Mexico, so I know what I’m doing. This is what we call a crouchway. It should be easy for me to make it through. What do you say?”

“I think it’s a big risk,” Harry said, frowning. “You’d be all alone once you get on the other side.”

“Not really. You guys will be with me because of the VR. Just tie me to the rope. I’ll be all right.”

“Let her go,” Gus said, with a degree of reluctance. 

Harry felt undecided. Kris smiled at him, a determined glint in her gaze. He knew she wouldn’t give up. She was like that. Stubborn, smart, absolutely sure of herself. 

And he realized he wouldn’t have her act any other way.

“The minute anything feels wrong,” Harry said, “you turn around.”

Nodding, Kris grinned as she raised her arms. Harry and Gus went to work, fixing the rope around her slender torso.