Stranded (A stand-alone SF thriller) (The Prometheus Project Book 3) (10 page)

“Exactly,”
she replied.
“We weren’t telepathic. Now we are. We couldn’t sense being turned into a ghost. Now we can.”

Ryan considered.
“I guess it’s as good a hypothesis as any,”
he broadcast finally.
“We’ll have to see if it happens again the next time we cross the barrier.”

With that the siblings stopped talking, telepathically or otherwise, and focused on their surroundings.

The gravity on Isis was slightly lower than on Earth and the air contained slightly more oxygen. The temperature was comfortable, if not a little chilly. The sky wasn’t blue but instead had a reddish cast to it; similar to how parts of the sky could appear when the sun was setting on Earth. And while the vegetation was similar to tropical vegetation on Earth, yellow replaced green as the most popular color.

The Isis portal was within a section of rainforest, but they had exited this to a more open area fairly quickly. To their left, a towering volcanic mountain range seemed to go on forever. Three peaks, rising above all others, gathered rain clouds around themselves like blankets. These
clouds would provide the water to quench the thirst of the broad swaths of rainforest.

Barren landscapes broke up the rainforest periodically—areas that were in the path of lava flows. The flows were usually a few yards below the surface, but even so, little or no vegetation would grow anywhere nearby. And there were no roots to break up the array of pink, orange and black lava rocks. After the incident with Carl, the expedition knew to steer well clear of these. And other than the half-mile section they had passed through when exiting the Isis shield, they avoided the rainforest as well.

A half-mile to their right, dozens of miles of cliffs stood guard over a reddish-hued ocean far below. Glowing orange lava, mostly traveling through underground lava tubes, burst through the cliff face at dozens of locations hundreds of feet above the surf. From there it fell to the sea in thick, molasses-like waterfalls. Where it entered the ocean, thousands of gallons of seawater were turned instantly into blistering steam that rose and formed billowing sea-monster shapes above the cliffs.

Isis teamed with large wildlife of every kind, as their mother had told them. The variety was astonishing. It was as though all the animals of Africa, North America, and Australia were concentrated on a single land mass. And judging by the number of species with massive jaws, fangs and other spiked natural weapons, the planet appeared to have more than its share of carnivores.

But as their mother had promised, the humans were
completely ignored. Not a single animal attempted to approach the tram—not that this would have done them any good.

Although there were no detectable force-fields around the trams, no animal had ever been able to get within ten yards of one on any planet. No animal, that is, except humans. Whether the trams recognized humans specifically, or intelligent life in general, was unknown, but highly advanced alien technology was clearly behind this inexplicable effect.

Taking Regan’s lead, their father had experimented on the trams and discovered a small white crystal that provided power to the vehicles. The power of these crystals seemed limitless, like batteries that never died. When the white crystals were removed the trams wouldn’t move. But even without their power source, the trams somehow still managed to provide a zone of safety around themselves, keeping all animals at bay.

After they had traveled for about thirty minutes Mr. Resnick called a stop. They were about three miles away from the portal on a large, barren stretch of land that was roughly in the shape of a rectangle. One side bordered a rainforest. Behind another side a mountain range rose majestically into the red sky until it was out of sight behind wispy Isis clouds. Yet another side looked down on valleys that ended at the cliffs above the ocean. The land was flat and didn’t contain lava rocks. It was protected from the wind by several natural features. Because
it overlooked two valleys, the biologists could observe any number of species in the distance interacting with one another.

An ideal place to set up camp.

Everyone emptied out of the trams. The three physicists removed large cases in which sensitive equipment had been carefully packed in Styrofoam. They hauled the cases thirty yards away—within sight of the rainforest on that side of the clearing but not too close. They immediately unpacked and began to assemble the X-ray detector under Cam’s protective eye. He held a tranquilizer gun in one hand and the canvas emergency kit in the other.

The four biologists pulled pad computers from their backpacks, with built-in camcorders, and wandered off in search of the perfect place to observe their favorite wildlife. Miguel watched carefully for any signs of trouble.

Ryan and Regan wandered off on their own, but their mother caught up with them ten minutes later. “I want to show you something,” she said. She pointed to a valley below them to the south and motioned for them to follow her. “I’ve spotted a herd of animals that are very unique. We call them—”

A scream pierced the reddish alien air! A shrill shriek that was earsplitting in its intensity.

The members of the expedition were spread out, but
everyone jumped at once as though they had received an electric shock.

The scream repeated.

It was coming from just inside the rainforest.

And it was unmistakably human.

C
HAPTER
10
Attack

E
veryone rushed to the rainforest to investigate, with Miguel and Cam in the lead, putting on an impressive display of pure speed. The unnerving screams continued as the two members of security passed the tree line and entered the thick yellow forest. They searched frantically for whoever was doing the screaming but saw no one.

Where was the screamer? The screams were coming from the area in which they were now standing. They were sure of it.

Within thirty seconds the other members of the expedition, who had come from different parts of the large clearing at different speeds, had all joined the two men.

The screaming stopped abruptly. As quickly as it had begun.

Yet they had still failed to find it source.

“Are we sure it was a human scream?” asked Cam anxiously.

“No doubt about it,” said Donna Morgan, still breathing hard. “It was a woman’s scream. But it wasn’t one of us. Was another expedition here ahead of us?”

Cam shook his head. “There’s no one else here. I’m positive.” He raised his eyebrows. “No one from the Prometheus Project at any rate.”

“Could whoever was screaming have been dragged off by an animal?” asked Miguel.

“No,” said Amanda Resnick. “The animal life here ignores humans completely.”

“Let’s spread out and comb the area,” said Miguel. “Look for anything that might help us understand what just happened.”

The search had only begun when Bob Zubrin shouted, “I found something.”

He was under an exotic tree, with circular yellow leaves the size of Hula Hoops. Everyone joined him in seconds. He picked up a strange, tan-colored object that was roughly spherical and about the size of a soccer-ball and handed it to Miguel.

It seemed to be nothing more than a makeshift, uneven ball of padding. Miguel examined it. A black electronic device was buried inside this cushioned cocoon, which was open on one side so a speaker on the device would not be blocked. Miguel reached in and ripped it free of the tape that held it.

It was digital tape recorder! It was on but no sound was coming out. Miguel reset it to the beginning and hit the “Play” button. Nothing. He moved it ahead five minutes and tried again.

A shrill scream emanated from the recorder at such high volume it almost deafened him.

Miguel had a sick look on his face as he quickly hit the “Stop” button.

Someone in their group had done this! They had neared the tree line, activated the padded recorder, and tossed it into the dense growth. It had run for four or five minutes until it reached the long stretch of pre-recorded screaming, which it had broadcast with chillingly realistic sound quality.

But why would someone do this? There were only two reasons Miguel could think of. As a sick practical joke. Or to create a diversion!

Miguel had a very bad feeling about this. He hastily took an inventory of the people around him. Two were missing: Michelle Cooper and Nathaniel Smith. “Let’s get back to the trams,” he ordered. “Now!”

As the group turned to retreat, three animals emerged from behind trees, heading straight toward them. They were about the size of wolves with thin gray fur and gleaming silver eyes. Unlike wolves, they didn’t have elongated snouts—or snouts of any kind for that matter—which only seemed to leave more room for massive mouths filled with sharp, jagged teeth. They had four
legs that ended in feet that were padded and clawed like those of a leopard. They issued a low-pitched clicking sound that was as intimidating as a rattlesnake’s rattle.

Cam and Miguel pushed the others in between them and raised their tranquilizer guns.

“So the animals here ignore humans, Amanda!” said Miguel angrily. “Is this what you call being ignored!”

“Shut up and pay attention!” she shot back as four more of the animals emerged. “We’ve seen these a dozen times. They’ve ignored us completely. They’re pack animals,” she added as five more animals joined the rest, circling the group of humans threateningly.

“No kidding!” snapped Donna Morgan. “Thanks for the news flash!”

No one other than Cam and Miguel were armed. Ryan had the same pocketknife he always carried on camping trips in his right pocket, but knew it would be useless in this situation. Instead he searched the ground around him hastily. There were a number of fallen branches in the area and he scooped one up to use as a club. Bob Zubrin and Donna Morgan noticed this and did the same. With the only useful sticks taken the others looked for rocks to use as potential weapons.

More and more of the clicking gray predators continued to emerge from deeper in the woods until there were seventeen in all. The circle of carnivores tightened slowly around the humans. Their silver eyes gleamed with an unearthly malevolence and they bared their ferocious
teeth, leaving no doubt as to their deadly intentions.

Miguel shot one in the chest with a tranquilizer dart. It yelped and backed off along with its pack-mates but they returned to their positions only minutes later. Miguel and Cam quickly squeezed off six more shots. Again the animals backed off, but only temporarily. The tranquilizers had no effect.

“Who chose the tranquilizer that was put in these darts?” shouted Cam.

“I did,” said Bob Zubrin. “It’s very potent.”

“Maybe on Earth animals, you idiot!” yelled Cam. “Next time test it on
native
animals! It doesn’t do
squat
here!”

As he yelled, he and Miguel continued to fire into the pack until they had run out of darts. Several of the animals now looked like pincushions, but the darts did little more than get them even angrier. Their clicking grew louder and louder and they continued to tighten their circle.

“Didn’t you bring any real guns as backup?” yelled Ryan from within the mass of humans that had crammed together ever more tightly.

Before Cam could answer a few of the creatures leaped at him. He knocked one to the ground but the other bit deep into his arm. Screaming in pain, he dropped the emergency kit he had been holding and slammed the animal against several others, knocking it off his arm
and stunning its mates. Blood streamed down his arm and poured onto the forest floor.

Miguel was kicking at the nearest beasts and began to wade into them in a blind rage, twirling around to block attacks coming from multiple directions.

Miguel and Cam had ceased being human and were now creatures of pure instinct, battling the threat with animal ferocity. They were protecting the rest of the expedition for now, but the pack was relentless. And when the pack broke through Cam and Miguel, the clubs and stones held by the others wouldn’t hold them off for long. In only a matter of minutes the entire expedition would be torn to pieces.

And there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to stop it.

C
HAPTER
11
Stranded

R
egan was terrified, but also angry for some reason she couldn’t quite understand. Perhaps it was just determination. One thing the past few years had taught her was to never give up. They needed to find a weapon and they needed to do it fast. She forced herself to ignore the powerful emotions boiling inside her and concentrate.

Her mind raced. Early man had managed to survive in a world filled with deadly predators. With weapons almost as pathetic as the ones they were using. But how? How could any primitive human have survived in the wild for even a week?

Regan gasped as the answer hit her squarely between the eyes. Of course! She knew exactly what she had to do.

She reached for the emergency kit that Cam had dropped to the forest floor as the battle raged on around her. She snatched it off the ground. But as she was pulling her arm back one of the predators managed to slash at her with its front claw. The claw stabbed through her cotton jacket and shirt and deep into her forearm. Regan ignored the blood and the explosion of pain and managed to continue her motion and hang onto the canvas bag.

“Ryan, give me your stick!”
she demanded telepathically.

“Get your own!”
he snapped back.

Regan reached into the emergency kit and grabbed a self-igniting flare. She yanked the cap off and fire shot from its end. Billowing orange smoke gushed from the flare an instant later and rose in the sky. She held the flare out and waved it at the nearest predators that were attacking Miguel. They backed off immediately and considered this new threat.

“GIVE ME YOUR STICK! NOW!”
shouted Regan telepathically at her brother.