Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel) (33 page)

In the main room, everyone stared at the com, waiting for someone to comment, yet not wishing to be the first one to break the silence. Kris monitored the transmission from her bed in the infirmary. Even she was made speechless by the images beamed down from
Destiny
.

“Doomsday,” Gus finally managed as he peered at two major catastrophes: gigantic plumes of muddy sediment now whirled off the Cretaceous equivalents of the Kenyan and Somalian coasts, the result of the collapse of the African continental shelf; and the huge outpourings of lava – what Kris called flood volcanism – in the Deccan Traps of India.

Amazed by the sheer magnitude of the devastation, Dawn studied the transmission. India was still an island; it would not join the Asian mainland for another ten million years. Ash clouds from the Deccan volcanoes trailed off to the southwest, obscuring part of the massive Indian isle. Despite the clouds, much was still visible on the ground. Even from such a great height, the
Destiny’s
infrared transmissions revealed plumes of lava erupting into the sky. The region was, in truth, as fiery as hell.

“How many creatures are dying all over the world right now?” Dawn asked.

“Who knows? Trillions if you consider bigger organisms, octillions if you consider all life, such as marine cyanobacteria like
Prochlorococcus
,” Harry said. “The extinction event will be particularly bad here in the Northern Hemisphere. With the demise of the marine planktonic organisms will come the collapse of the food chain in the world’s open ocean.”

Kris’s image appeared on the split/screen. “Ever heard of
Dr. Strangelove
, guys? It was a film made in the 1960s about nuclear war. Afterward, it sparked Carl Sagan to develop the theory of nuclear winter, which is sort of like what’s happening now. Sulfur dioxide and soot and all kinds of other junk are being sent into the atmosphere by the impacts and volcanoes – perhaps a whopping 8000 billion tons of sulphur dioxide alone. This will cause huge amounts of acid rain, along with heavy pollution, which will prevent sunlight from reaching the Earth’s surface. And research has shown that toxic levels of metals from the comet, like copper, cadmium, and nickel, poisoned the oceans, perhaps having an even worse effect on the plankton than acid rain.”

“How long before things get back to normal?” Gus asked.

“I’m getting to that,” Kris said. “Because of
Dr. Strangelove
, the huge reduction in the ocean’s productivity after an extinction event is called a ‘Strangelove Ocean’. Some scientists believe this almost-dead ocean lasted a long time after the K/T, especially in the open ocean, like Harry said. Other scientists believe the near-shore ocean environments were able to recover much faster, say in several hundred years. But it took generations for the descendents of surviving cyanobacteria, diatoms, and other kinds of planktonic algae to produce the same level of food and oxygen in the open ocean as before the cometary impact. That was
the
watershed event: the production of pre-K/T levels of plankton in the sea. At that point, scientists feel ecological balance was reestablished in the biosphere. The oceans – and the rest of the planet – were considered alive again.”

Gus frowned. “Exactly how long did that take?” he persisted.

“The low-ball figure is forty thousand years,” Kris said. “Recovery of the global environment didn’t occur for another half million years after that, although some scientists think it’s more like three million. That’s tens of thousands of human generations. We’d better hope an impact doesn’t happen in the modern world, because that’s a long time to wait for a return to normalcy, isn’t it? A heck of a long time.”

Chapter 25

There is in God, some say,

A deep but dazzling darkness.

~Henry Vaughan,
Silex Scintillans

Despite the chaos outside, the astronauts settled into a fairly normal routine. Between Kris’s convalescence and the care of the lab specimens, Tasha had her hands full. And Harry and Dawn, with Jean-Michel’s assistance, found themselves occupied with a whole range of biological, meteorological, and geological observations and experiments. 

It was now ten days since the K/T Event had rocked Earth. Although most of the fires had ended, the atmosphere was still choked with smoke and dust. But it had begun to lighten a little, because worldwide precipitation was clearing the air. 

The rain, however, had not been a blessing in any real sense, because a noxious combination of nitric and sulfuric acids now fell on the Earth’s surface. It had been drizzling outside the
Valiant
for two days. Gus was concerned the poisonous precipitation would affect the ship; one more reason he planned to get off the planet soon. Jean-Michel provided the crew with up-to-date weather information gathered from the
Destiny’s
global surveillance camera, and the data indicated it was raining heavily to the west, especially on the Pacific seacoast and over the open ocean. 

It was even beginning to snow in the higher elevations of the continental interior, far from the warming influences of any large bodies of water. Already, sleet splashed against the windows, along with the occasional hailstorm that pummeled the lander.

The most startling effect of the climatic changes came from the J-Stars data, however; there was hardly any sign of life outside. The plains stood empty of herds, the skies clear of flocks. Only an occasional blip moved across the landscape. Harry speculated it might be a lone, starving dinosaur, or perhaps a mammal scurrying among the innumerous carcasses dotting the smoking plains. The only places where land animals or birds had a real chance of surviving were pockets of wet terrain protected from the firestorms. Along with the occasional deep canyon or sheltered valley, these swamps and coastal lands formed havens, where even now small groups of dinosaurs wandered. Harry said scientists had speculated about this, having found fossils of dinosaurs that appeared to have lived up to several thousand years after the K/T; the most noteworthy example being in a valley located in Utah. But these remnant populations had also eventually died out, leaving empty niches for the mammals, birds, and other survivors to fill.

Gus sat at the table, activating the computer table display. Since the K/T Event, he’d occupied his time with the day-to-day running of the ship, especially now that he had the luxury of rechecking everything he and Jean-Michel had prepared for the blast-off to Mars. A little more relaxed than he’d ever been before, he was letting his hair and beard grow for the first time in years. 

He rubbed his hand over his jaw, enjoying the sensation of freedom. No more military-style haircuts for him. Besides, Dawn seemed to like the way he looked now. Kind of like a hippie, she had joked, showing him an old picture of her grandfather in the Sixties. Far out, man.

Nah
, he thought wryly,
it’s definitely the reverse. Because of time travel... man, I’m really far out.

With a half-smile, Gus looked past the table to the window, yet his expression waned in the next moment, and he could not help but imagine what lay outside. Ruin. Utter, incalculable ruin. The devastation of an entire world.

But there were, he reminded himself, a few things to be hopeful about. Despite the destruction to the environment, the
Valiant
appeared to be in good shape. As far as he could tell, only a little corrosion had occurred from the acid drizzles of the last few days. In fact, there were indications the atmosphere had begun to clear enough for a launch. If that happened, he planned in the next day or so to leave the Earth and rendezvous with the
Destiny
. And then, after that, Mars beckoned. Whatever occurred subsequently was beyond his reckoning. He would have to take things one day at a time as they headed to the red planet.

Frowning, Gus let his anxieties take over again. They would land on a different Mars, a planet of an earlier epoch. He had to wonder if they would ever get back to the future. Time and space had conspired against him and his crew. They were as far from home as any humans had ever been.

With a slight strain to his voice, he whispered to himself, “I’m far out, all right. We all are.”

***

Dawn sat by Kris’s hospital bed. The women studied Jean-Michel’s latest weather report on the com-screen. There would be a temporary break in the cloud cover in the next twenty-four hours. It was the window Gus needed in order to launch the
Valiant
into orbit. If the skies cleared as expected, lift-off was set for 1100 hours the next morning.

“Mind if I interrupt?” Gus drawled as he poked his head into the infirmary.

“No,” Kris said cheerfully. “We were just finishing up. Besides, Tasha wants me to eat.” She smiled at Dawn. “Ya’all go ahead. I’ll be all right.”

“Are you sure?” Dawn asked as she indicated the dinner tray. “I could stay and help you.”

“No, go on.” Kris’s eyes sparkled. “If you see Harry, send him my way, okay? I’d like to talk to him.”

Grinning, Dawn nodded, got up, and left. She found Gus limping over to the weapons’ rack.

“Since we’re leaving tomorrow, thought you might like to look around one last time,” he said.

“How’s your ankle?” she asked.

“A little worse today. Maybe it’s the rain.”

“Do you think it’s dangerous to go outside?”

“Nope. We won’t go too far, just a little stroll around the lander. I want to check a few things out on the hull, then we can poke around some.”

After outfitting themselves with jackets, gloves, masks (to avoid breathing the ash and dust in the air), flashlights, and guns, they headed for the hatch. Dawn felt nervous as Gus held the door open for her. She looked around as she stepped into the sleet, afraid of what she might find. In her mind, Dawn visualized the clever little
Troodon
she’d followed at the nesting site, wondering how and when she had died. 

Because of the prevailing atmospheric conditions, only the western sky blazed with pink fire, which faded out to a soft, purplish gray. But here, in the vicinity of the lander, there was just dim sunlight when compared to a normal day. Dawn flipped on her flashlight, illuminating the immediate area. Directly ahead, the landscape looked much as before; most of the vegetation near the lander had been well protected by the surrounding bluffs. 

There were still needles on the pines and leaves on the bushes. Although covered with a fine layer of ash, the ferny groundcover looked remarkably lush and resilient. 

Then Dawn’s gaze veered toward the devastated plain and she was immediately reminded of old news footage of Mt. St. Helens. Huge stands of charred timber had been flattened like matchsticks. Far beyond, the river was a churning logjam of gray mud and downed trees, a roiling torrent roaring on toward the inland sea in the middle of North America. Everywhere, the ground was covered with a thick coating of dull, gray
ash. Except for the plants nearby, the environment looked lifeless.

Studying the ground, Dawn realized the sleet had dampened the earth just enough to create the perfect conditions for fossilizing animal tracks. She recalled Mary Leakey’s Laetoli prints, which had contained the jumbled tracks of dozens of species, but then she realized the ground beneath her was different, almost pristine. With the exception of her own footprints and a spattering of raindrops, there was nothing in the Cretaceous ash. More than anything, the empty landscape showed just how many creatures had died.

Gus came up and grabbed her hand. Together, they stood gazing at the barren plain. 

“I’m going to check the hull,” he said. “Want to come with me or stay here?”

“I’ll stay here,” Dawn said as he squeezed her hand and set off.

She searched an area near the pine trees, looking for anything other than raindrops, when a small, shrewlike mammal darted in front of her, its dark coat gleaming against the ashy soil. It was fast, scurrying off into the brush, too swift to catch without a trap.   

“Hello!” Harry said, his mask muffling his voice as he approached Dawn. He still looked funny; with the mask covering his mouth and his still-healing broken nose, his features consisted solely of two black eyes. 

Stooping over, Harry used a spade to dig in the ground, taking soil samples.

“Did you see it?” Dawn asked. 

Harry glanced up. “What?”

“A shrew, or maybe a mouse.”

“Yeah, thought I saw something,” Harry said. “They’re starting to leave their burrows. In the next few weeks, there will be an explosion of mammals. Same with the ferns. Fossil evidence indicated the K/T clay layer was filled with fern spores. We believe they did very well in the charred soils of the post-K/T world. In fact, I bet the whole Earth is going to be covered with fungi, ferns, and rats sometime in the near future.”

The ferns, even the fungi, sounded all right. But rats? Dawn frowned, recalling something similar was happening inside the lander. A few of the mammalian lab specimens had already produced litters. According to Tasha, this was good news. It meant there would be plenty of food for the captive dinosaurs, including the pregnant
Troodon
.

“Of course, it’s going to happen after we’re gone,” Harry said. “The rats are probably already starting to eat dinosaur carcasses, seeds, buried eggs – anything that’s edible. If we decided to stay, we’d be up to our
ankles in them.”

Dawn felt a jolt of revulsion as the wind came up. Despite her mask, the sickening stench of scorched earth and rotting flesh caught in her throat. They needed to leave. And fast.

Yet, gazing out at the polluted landscape, Dawn felt sad and homesick. This was Earth, after all. She realized someday the planet would heal, but she wouldn’t be around to see it. 

Where will I spend the rest of my life? On Mars? Will I ever get back to my own time? What about my family and dogs? My home in Oak Creek? 

She glanced at the dismal-dark sky, feeling drained of any real hope, then watched Harry as he moved off, passing Gus, who walked toward her.

“Oh, Gus,” she said bleakly. “What’s going to happen now?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. I hate to say this, but we’ll be in trouble if we don’t leave by tomorrow. The corrosion on the hull is worse than I thought.” He hesitated. “I’ve been thinking ‘bout something. The Keeper hasn’t appeared again, has he?”

“No. What of it?”

“Maybe he traveled back to the future, or maybe he died in the landslide. Hell, I just barely got away. I don’t see how he could’ve survived all those rocks.” 

“So, you think he’s dead?”

“Who knows? If there was some sort of time portal, then it was destroyed by the cave-in. And then there’s the matter of the dinosauroid. She saved me for a reason. You know, I believe she gave her life for me.” 

“Why do you think that?”

“The dinosauroid’s still back in that cave, facing certain death now, if she isn’t dead already. I bet she’s trapped. There may still be dangerous creatures in there, things that’ll eat her alive if she’s not careful. Even if she does get out of the cave, what will she find? A devastated planet? How will she survive? She wouldn’t have risked her life for me unless she believed we had a future together. I mean you and me, Dawn.
We
have a future now.”   

As Dawn considered the possibility Gus was correct, she found herself gazing into his eyes. In the scattered light, the hazel changed and looked as deep green as springtime grass. Gus was so strong, a take-charge kind of guy. Together, she knew they’d make it out of here, no matter what.

But why had the Keeper sent them to Cretaceous Earth in the first place? Dawn stiffened as she gave in to private doubts. Gus’s arguments did not answer some basic questions. Something just didn’t add up.

“Gus, why were we sent back to
this
time?”

He cast a glance at the surviving pines. “I think the Keeper had some kind of plan, but it’s been changed or ruined by our actions.” His gaze veered back to her face. “Look here. We’re about to take off for Mars. Whatever he wanted us to do, it’s not going to happen. If he wanted to capture you––”

“He
had
me when we were on Mars. Why would he need to capture me now?”

He shrugged again. “You’ve got a point there.”

Dawn sighed. “I guess we have to hope for the best.” 

“You might be right,” he said softly. 

Dawn couldn’t tell if his voice had been blurred by the mask or by his emotions. “I know I am, Gus.”

He took off his mask and smiled, perhaps a little desperately, then placed his arm around her and held her close, without speaking. 

“No matter what happens, Gus, we’ll be together. I’ll never leave you.”