Based on Camp Cretaceous by Paul Elliott/Zozergames
& the adventure “In a Strange Land” by K.G. Carlson
Zorandar designed by Aaron Allston
It had been an intense day and after classes, both Chris and Colin had immediately headed up to their rooms to drop off their iPads and books and change out of their uniforms when they saw the large ivory-coloured envelopes lying on their beds.
Neither of them was used to mail being hand delivered to their rooms’. Chris’s mother wrote him religiously every week, but that letter always arrived on a Friday, was written on Basildon Bond paper and sealed in a small pink envelope – his mother’s ever so subtle way of reminding him of his ‘birth’ gender. This was an A4 envelope and looked formal. For a second he thought the school had finally decided to expel him, before he risked it anyway and tore open the envelope.
Colin’s mum also wrote to her son, but only when she had identified another potential target for her retribution and wanted to petition him to revenge the death of his father. He did receive other letters throughout the week, but they were always left in his pigeonhole on the ground floor, and he would open them all together on a Saturday morning. This envelope lay on his bed.
Both later discovered that their envelopes contained the same thing – several consent forms and a brief letter signed by Old man Summers, which read, “Your attendance on the Challenger-Wildeman sponsored field trip has been confirmed. Please ensure that you have a parent or guardian sign the permission and insurance waiver forms (attached). In addition, your doctor will need to sign off the medical form we have included.”
The field trip was dated for a 9am start the following Monday.
They both knew that every year between four and six Special Curriculum students left to go on a mysterious school trip. The students (and one of the teachers) were generally gone for between seven and ten days, and not one of them would say where they had visited when they returned.
Cadet had missed out last year due to his apprenticeship with London Watch overlapping with the dates of the trip, so he was joining the students of Year Four on this year’s trip.
Colin knew that Commander would sign off on his forms without question – he was obviously aware of where the field trip went. Chris hoped his parents would sign – he just needed to attach a note explaining that the magic word here was ‘sponsored’ so no extra cost to them and explain the cultural advantages of the trip, maybe hint it was to Paris or somewhere that would improve his language skills..?
The only thing that bothered her, him (damn the thought of his mum for ‘reminding’ him of his unresolved gender issues) was when he discovered that the medical form included permission to give them a series of inoculations. This included amongst others – diphtheria, tetanus boosters, a cholera typhoid vaccine and an unnamed suppressant to render them safe to others who might lack their immunity. Where were they heading, the North Sentinel islands?
To their surprise, the injections would be administered on arrival, rather than the more usual several days before leaving. The other surprise was that they both had been given the opportunity to take trail bikes with them provided they were electric-powered, but ‘Ant’ Andrews caught up with them a few days before they were due to leave and recommended with a wink that they used the local transport instead as they would find it much more ‘fun’… No one would say where, or who else was going.
Monday morning arrived and they wandered down to a school minibus in the car park, bags in hand. They were in school uniform for the first stage of the journey but had been told to wear their Special Curriculum outfits underneath and to bring their ‘toys’ with them but not to bring any computers and communication devices or at least be aware that they would need to leave them with their phones at the departure point. They’d both elected to take their commlinks with them anyway, who knew whether they would prove useful?
Standing by the door of the minibus, waiting was the ‘Ant-Man’ and inside were four other familiar faces – ‘Bubbles’, Alaina Waraich, sat at the front; a massive grin across her face at being included presumably. Beside her sat Charlie Simpson or Changeling, the alien shape-changer. In the seats just behind, waiting patiently, were Patricia Sutcliffe and Lillie Ramsay, leaving them the remaining six seats at the back to choose from.
They knew that Patsy’s alter ego from Down Below was Proxy – her disguise was just a simple goggles styled domino mask that barely concealed anything. The only reason she had never been outed was simply due to her never actually using her powers up-top.
Her power was that she was capable of duplicating herself, multiple times. Beyond that, she was powerless but whatever non-organic items that were in her possession at the time she ‘divided’ was temporarily duplicated as well, which included the stunner she wore on her costume. There was also the fact that her doppelgängers, or dupes as she called them, became increasing weaker the more she reproduced and seemingly more independently-minded and stubborn, so she was presently limiting herself to becoming triplets and absorbing them back into herself as quickly as possible.
The girl sat beside her was shy, demure, little Lillie and they hadn’t got a clue who she was when Down Below.
Then ‘Ant’ Andrews stepped inside and threw his kitbag onto the back seat, claiming them for himself as he smiled and explained that they would be heading first to London before taking a flight to their final destination.
Lillie nervously asked if they should rush back for their passports, only for Mr Andrews to sit down and look at them all, “”Passports? Passports? Where we’re going, we don’t need no stinkin’ Passports!” and laughed ominously as their driver slide into his seat and told everyone to belt up….
It took an hour to get to London and they then headed towards Canary Wharf and a gold coloured 50 storey skyscraper. It was by no means the tallest building around, but its armoured windows and familiar (to them) haze that hovered in the sky above Romaine Wharf marked this out immediately as the abode of the infamous Challenger-Wildeman family. Seems this was to be their first stop.
As they exited the minibus at the entrance, they were quickly but efficiently passed through building security, though they were told to bag all electronic equipment into signed and sealed baggies before passing through the scanners. Unsurprisingly several mobiles suddenly appeared and were handed to ‘my name is Ben’ for safe keeping. Again, Chris and Colin elected to retain their comm-pieces. Who knew whether or not they might become useful? Deactivating his unit and keeping it concealed, Chris walked through security with it undetected. Seeing this, Colin followed suit and tailed his fellow troublemaker through the scanners and into the lift in front of them. Wherever they were going, it involved going up in the world first.
The elevator stopped at the 45th floor and they had to change lifts to precede another couple of floors to the 50th Floor, which appeared to be a hangar of some sort. Vehicles were everywhere; there were several skybikes, three Challenger Anti-Grav Transport “sky-cars” (C.A.T.s or “Kitty’s” as the Challenger-Wildeman children apparently referred to them) which exited the building through hangar doors (known as CAT Flaps). There is also a selection of experimental transports, including an anti-grav sled (known as a “mule”) and various repair equipment.
On this occasion a sleek Raptor transporter was parked in the hangar ready for departure. They were told to get on-board and make themselves comfortable. ‘Ant-Man’ then asked for three of the skybikes to be loaded into the cargo section of the transport, alongside what looked like several months’ worth of supplies.
That’s when Chris ‘remembered’ (okay, he mentally hacked into the tower’s tour database) that the top two floors of this building were in the same dimensional soft spot that the first Terminus trans-pod had used to enter Earth’s dimension years before. Dr Challenger-Wildeman, the now ex-Doctor deceased despite being uploaded into an AI construct, had apparently discovered lingering dimensional energies in and around the upper floors of the building. As a result, he had constructed a special rift-shield generator unit, incorporating elements of his wife’s original prototype, to ensure they would not spill over into Earth again using that rift (although they have anyway, on more than a few occasions).
Chris was surprised though when Mr Andrews settled himself into the pilot’s seat and began to go through the take-off checklist. Then he shouted back to his passengers, “Belt-in, next stop ‘Zorandar.”
The raptor gently rose from the hangar floor as one of the CAT Flaps opened, allowing it to exit the building, where it assumed a holding pattern around the Tower one floor down. Through the windows, they could see a dot of light rapidly expand until it filled the sky in front of them. Seconds later, the grav-craft dropped a few metres before moving forward suddenly and into the light.
Within seconds, the sudden pressure differences caused vapour clouds to form on the outside of the craft. This fog thickened until the passengers could see almost nothing outside. Ionisation however could be felt, and most of them began to see dancing lights on their retinas, even as Lillie and Bubbles both reported that they appeared to be suffering from tunnel vision. As the deafening whine of the craft’s engines faded, they could hear new sounds, of wind, rainfall and the distant cry of some animal. Then the mist rapidly cleared and it was obvious that the scenery outside had changed – they are now hovering over a jungle environment near a lake surrounded by high cliffs above which hung two Suns, one large and orange and the other smaller, yellow, almost sol-like. Below were what could only be dinosaurs; Colin immediately recognised herds of both deinonychus and iguanodons grazing by the water’s edge. Grey-skinned pteranodons could be seen swooping around the cliff face outside their portholes, and they could feel the heat of the burning suns on uncovered skin as it shone through the windows.
‘Ant’ Andrews smiled, “Now you’ll understand why people don’t talk about this place. Welcome to the sanctuary planet of Zorandar. You’re here on a ten-day secondment to help the scientists from Challenger-Wildeman’s with their work here. You will need to preserve your other identity while you are here, so wear your costumes and anonymity collars at all times. Suit up!”
The Raptor suddenly oriented itself southwards and began flying slowly towards the encampment. Through their windows they could see that the camp was secured behind two fences and was situated on a flattened area of raised ground around five kilometres from the south bank of the wide lake they had seen on entry and North of a sea or ocean. They also saw two moons in the sky (and was that another two moons, smaller, in closer orbit rising on the horizon?). Tides and weather conditions on this planet must be a real nightmare to predict…
As the students removed their school uniforms to reveal their Special Curriculum costumes underneath, Chris and Colin suddenly realised who Lillie was – her anonymity collar flared into existence, disguising her civilian identity and revealing Icicle, the ice-powered Meta they had competed against on a couple of occasions Down-Below.
Seems the rule against revealing your secret identity did not apply on field trips. Chris’ switched on his suit and Firewall flared into being even as Cadet attached his cape and prepared to disembark.
Below, inside the two fences, a group were waiting for the Raptor grav-vehicle to land. Several staff were standing nearby, eager to return to Earth. The same craft that transported them would apparently then return through the dimensional gateway, with the staff heading home on leave.
As they approached the bare strip of earth prepared as a landing strip. Andrews began to explain. “Okay, so first thing to be aware of is that you never get too close to a materialising portal unless you’re in a shielded craft like this. Early experiments illustrated the horrific results that ensue when living things and even unshielded inanimate objects are in the way of a materialising wormhole. So remember pretty hole in space, deadly hole, no fly-by’s… Comprende?” Why he deliberately looked at Colin and Chris when he said that was anyone’s guess. “Oh, and the other is not trying to feed any T. rex’s by hand… I’ll leave the rest of the orientation to the boffins below.”
The Raptor landed mere metres away from the gathered crowd, and Mr Andrews gave the order to grab their bags and disembark. Two men were waiting off to one side to introduce themselves to the heroes-in-training.
As soon as they stepped out they knew they were no longer on Earth, the gravity was slightly lower than they were used to giving them an unexpected skip to their step, the Sun (Suns?) felt too strong, the air smelt both sweet and sour at the same time, and there was a sharp smell similar to that of chlorine.
An elderly man with a white, untrimmed beard and circular lensed glasses immediately approached them and shook each of their hands in turn as he introduced himself as Director Anton Kubert. His middle-aged, balding companion who seemed more suited to the outdoors was Professor Henderson.
As Director Kubert then walked back to the Camp, Professor Henderson gathered the students around. “Welcome to Camp Cretaceous and Zorandar, ladies and gentlemen. Before we allocate you your sleeping quarters, please let me give you the good and bad news of your stay. One downside of portal travel is that there can never be any communication between the Camp and the other side. Radio waves do not travel through portals and we have no idea where in space Zorandar is located or how to contact Earth except when a transport arrives through from the other side. The portal can only be opened from Earthside, and all visitors are isolated until transport from Earth arrives. If there has been some terrible catastrophe, or a serious illness that needs immediate hospitalisation beyond what we can supply, those in need of rescue would have to wait for a scheduled wormhole to be generated on Earth, something that occurs only twice each week, on a Monday and Thursday afternoon. The good news is that Zorandar is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. During your stay with us, you will be helping to discover how a planet that was first terraformed only about 300,000 years ago is filled with lifeforms that went extinct on Earth 65 million years ago or how the various sentient lifeforms arrived here… In fact, we have creatures from the Jurassic and Cretaceous eras living alongside smilodons and humans. Exciting, no?
As for the bad news, Doctor Morris will need to give you your inoculations now before she departs for a couple of well-earned days off, back on Earth.”
Chris couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Sentient lifeforms, Professor, what types of sentient life?” “Oh, there are tribes of Homo sapiens, several species of early hominids as well as reptilian life that may have evolved from the dinosaurs or may have become extinct on Earth at the same time as them, we don’t know. We have agreed to follow a Prime Directive whilst here, one that prohibits us from interfering with the internal and natural development of native or alien civilisations as much as we possibly can. All contact with the locals is forbidden until such time as we can safely manage first contact.”
At that, a weary looking, middle-aged woman stepped away from the crowd waiting to board the Raptor and was handed an inoculation gun by a young woman barely a year or two older than them. The woman approached them and muttered, “Okay roll up your sleeves, this is going to hurt, a lot. Just don’t get sick or have an adverse reaction until I get back on Thursday…”
Rubbing their sore arms, Cadet and Firewall had then been shown their hut with its curved roof, like something from the Korean War, able to sleep ten but only occupied on this occasion by them and Mr Andrews. Thankfully for Chris, each bed had a curtain they could pull round it to give some privacy.
Afterwards they wandered the camp. To their surprise the whole site was bare earth, not even a blade of grass grew inside the compound itself. In fact, they used steam to sterilise the ground everywhere within the Camp to a depth of two metres to prevent any ‘unexpected surprises’ or so they were told. This despite the number of local animals including troodons and small velociraptors apparently kept as pets.
The Compound they discovered was secure behind two fences, each of which were twenty metres apart, ran around the entire camp and was empty apart from the landing field. The fences were made up of steel bars, not chain-link, and the bars heavily welded. Not only that, but each of the fences were double layered, separated by thirty centimetres, with the inner fence bars aligned in a different direction to the outer. Steel buttresses have been sunk against the inner fence every five metres. Both fences were fifteen metres high and topped with a series of steel blades mounted on a free-moving roller, which aims to deter dinosaurs from attempting to climb over or gain some kind of grip on the top of the fence. They were informed that twenty metre sections of the outer fence could be electrified from a control box mounted at waist height next to that section.
So far the defences have proved most effective, with the carnivores coming now and then to scout out the camp at night, but otherwise leaving the humans alone. With their machines, lights, generators, strange colours and smells, dinosaurs simply don’t recognise humans as food. They were warned several times as they inspected the camp, that all changed though when anyone stepped outside the compound and especially when they stepped out of their vehicles!
Entering both fences was achieved by negotiating heavy security gates. Anyone arriving from outside the Camp had to pass through the Outer Gate – the weakest spot in the perimeter fence. A standard swing gate, no matter how thick or tall, was a liability since a large and aggressive dinosaur could force it off its hinges or buckle its frame. Instead, a steel box had been built, a cage constructed with steel bars driven deep into the ground that provides access through the fence. On its outer face, the box was just wide enough to accept the largest of the vehicles used at the Camp. A heavy steel gate doubled as a drawbridge, which dropped forward to allow access across a concrete ditch filled with hundreds of sharpened steel spikes.
When the gate was raised, a dinosaur would have to step into the spike pit, risking serious injury, and would then have to ram the raised drawbridge which had behind it the full strength and resilience of the entire gateway box, anchored as it was into the ground by a score of steel posts. Since the box pierced the fence, the full height of the perimeter defences soared above it. The gateway was operated from a small control booth that was always manned by an armed guard. As an extra measure, the gateway area was always floodlit at night. A second set of gates, this time swinging outwards, were mounted on the inner face of the box to create a sort of ‘airlock’ system. On entry, it was only after the inner gates were closed that the outer gate was opened. In this way the vulnerable interior of the camp was never exposed directly. The inner fence had a normal gate in place though the director admitted that he would like to put a similar system in place as used on the outer gate at some point.
At the heart of the camp was the operation’s hut, a prefab building containing a couple of offices, two briefing rooms and a control room filled with radios and a couple of standalone computers. The director, his assistant and a permanent staff of three worked from here. To Firewall’s horror, he discovered that there was no network or internet anywhere for him to hack into. Communication was by line of sight and Wi-Fi did not exist.
Around the operation’s hut were scattered various ancillary buildings, (all prefabricated) they included a set of offices for scientists, dormitories, a power plant, water recycling plant, refectory, several workshops and vehicle shelter, toilet and shower blocks (again thankfully with separate cubicles and changing stalls), a common room and equipment shed. In addition, there were two or three storage units and a number of tents, some pitched by individuals or groups not wanting to sleep in the dorms, others were simply open-sided rain shelters, where staff could meet and chat, or where outdoor activities can be carried out – whatever the weather.
They had an orientation session just before tea given by Professor Henderson and the young ‘nurse’ they’d met, who insisted they call her Mandy. She was actually a veterinary assistant, but Terran biology was the same the universe over… She started by asking if any of them had experienced any symptoms such as disorientation, breathing problems and vision changes such as myopia since they had arrived. Lillie and Bubbles’ hands went up. She went on to explain that the atmosphere of Zorandar had over 50% more oxygen than Earth’s air. The air was supercharged with oxygen, just as Earth had been during the Cretaceous era. Symptoms resulting from that would pass in a day or two, though the oxygen taint, the sweet and sour taste in their mouth, might linger a bit longer.
Professor Henderson went on to explain that this, in part, explained the tremendous size of some dinosaur species – in particular, the ungainly flying dinosaurs like the pteranodon. The metabolisms of creatures that had evolved to live in such an atmosphere were radically different from our own. Forest and grassland fires were a common occurrence here, any fire started by lightning would spread rapidly and burn more vigorously than on 21st century Earth.
He almost glowered at Firewall as he said that. Then he felt Mr Andrews hand on his shoulder in a reassuring way as he lent in and whispered, “Don’t take it personally, he’s just concerned about your powers…”
Professor Henderson continued, “With incendiary levels of oxygen present, any fire burns fiercely here and is extremely difficult to extinguish. Even a rogue spark from equipment or vehicles can initiate an uncontrolled conflagration. Flames used for cooking require only a trickle of fuel and must be well protected and with such high levels of oxygen, almost anything can catch fire, including clothing and tents. Most clothing and equipment sent through the wormhole is made fire-resistant as much as possible and motors (not only those powering vehicles, but also generators) are either electrical or burn diesel, which does not require a spark to initiate combustion. Smoking is prohibited, and both matches and lighters are carefully controlled items. Likewise, lightbulbs must be of the LED type rather than those using electric filaments and only ‘flameless’ cook boxes are allowed to be used while out in the wilderness.”
That night they watched the pterodactyls (okay, more correctly pteranodons), whirl overhead on the end of day thermals as they ate and watched the four moons pass overhead, some orbiting much faster than others. It was still fairly light, as it seemed that night was almost non-existent at this time of year.
Next morning having showered and dressed back in costume they headed for the refectory only to be stopped by Professor Henderson. “Morning boys, do you fancy some eggs for breakfast?” They both nodded. He smiled, “Good because we need you to bring back a couple of eggs from a pteranodon nest that is located on the cliff face over-looking the lake near the portal entry point. Getting down to the nest will be the main challenge. A secondary challenge will be bringing the eggs up undamaged. You up for it?”
He went on to ask if they had been approved for skycycle flight as that would be the easiest way to get to their site. One of the scientist’s would be nearby just in case they got into trouble but wouldn’t interfere otherwise.
They had ridden grav-bikes before but only in the simulator, so that would be fun, even if Chris’s stomach was rumbling in hunger. “Smashing!” he said as Colin muttered, “I hope not.” Nearby, they could see Mr Andrews chatting to the girls as he handed them a metal net and heard Patsy’s voice as she almost screamed, “You’ve got to be joking!” even as she tripled herself and the net.
If they were getting the eggs for breakfast, did that mean they’d been allocated collecting the ‘bacon’?
They mounted the skybikes that had travelled to Zorandar with them and gently rose into the air before orientating themselves towards the North and their earlier entry location and headed off. After about ten minutes, they arrived at the lake and observed the gliding antics of their long beaked, leather winged adversaries as they protected their nests on the cliff face. Several of the eggs were in the process of hatching as they watched, and they saw the rubbery egg sacs that were the shells being pierced from the inside by the infants’ tiny beaks. Okay so they needed to identify some freshly laid eggs and for that they needed to get high above and look down as they planned out how to get to the eggs without being attacked by the adults. Of course, the pterandons would not take kindly to their eggs being stolen and they could, would attack.
They flew up as high as they could, well above the heights reached by the soaring winged dinosaurs and used magnifying goggles to select an appropriate nest currently unoccupied by a parent, whose eggs looked recently laid and happily containing multiple eggs. They then landed back on the clifftop, but away from the edge in the shrubbery.
It was unrealistic to think they could just fly down and collect the eggs without being attacked so instead Cadet proposed switching on his chameleon circuitry and climbing down the cliff-face using his grapple, slowly, carefully so that he would hopefully be unseen, stealth being the operative work. His suit and cloak now matching the cliff top, he slowly and methodically headed to the cliff edge, fastened his grapple to the top of the cliff and began rappelling down.
The trouble was that Firewall couldn’t see Cadet’s progress from his hiding spot in the bushes and scrub, and so he barriered up and headed to the cliff edge. Down below, he noticed that Cadet had managed to avoid being seen, but he’d climbed down too far over from their selected nest and he needed to swing about 3 metres to get to the ledge where the nest was. His swing though was causing the rope to screech against the stone of the cliff and that attracted attention though not to him but to Firewall above! A large, aggressive pterandon soared towards him and he fell to the ground before the impact against his energy barrier caused him to try free-falling off the cliff. ‘Damn, it was Colin stealing the eggs but he was being used as the target for the angry parents’ he thought as yet another of the flying lizards tried to sweep in and bite at him.
He needed a distraction until Cadet could get the eggs and start climbing back up. He pulled out a smoke grenade he had with him and, rather than throw it, ignited it in his hand. Thankfully, the smoke was the result of a chemical reaction and not heat-related, as he found himself surrounded in a much blacker and foul smelling plume of smoke than usual. The extra oxygen does make a difference, he thought as he popped his rebreather in and hoped it would filter out the fumes.
It at least kept the remaining attackers away as the pterandons, fearing a fire, scattered. Then a quiet voice from below, “Ah, I’ve got the eggs but we, I forgot to bring a bag. I’m having to hold them, which means I can’t pull myself back up. Any chance of a hand?”
Despite the smoke getting in his eyes, he tried to smile around the rebreather and touch-felt his way to the edge of the cliff, feeling for the cord as he tried to pull a clambering, chameleon-covered Cadet to the top. Thankfully, the grapple unit’s rewinder took most of the strain and within a minute, he saw a hand appear through the smoke holding out one of the leathery eggs for him to grab followed seconds later by Cadet single-handedly pulled himself back over the edge of the cliff clutching the other egg.
Time to leave – each clutching an egg, they rushed back to their skybikes as Firewall tried to extinguish the smoke emanating from the activated grenade. He couldn’t leave it behind, and in the end was forced to pull out the cartridge and leave a smoke trail behind him as they rode back to meet up with their observer and head back to camp.
Inside the perimeter, they were met by a smiling Professor Henderson. He looked at their trophies and offered to swap them – for chicken’s eggs. “How did they like them?” Cadet asked for his scrabbled and Firewall settled for poached with his bacon as the Professor carefully carried their prizes over to an incubator and placed the two eggs inside.
Meanwhile, the girls had returned with a semi-conscious microraptor (a tiny bird-like flying reptile with four feathered wings) and a shivering small dinosaur, seemingly a troodon, as their prizes. Lillie as Icicle was boasting that it seemed dinosaurs really do not like the cold.
That afternoon they were again assigned tasks – they could choose between trying to weigh an alamosaurus, there being a herd recently spotted down by the Equatorial Ocean 50 klicks south of the Camp, or head back to the lake and try to tag a triceratops. This time it would be their turn to be accompanied (admittedly from afar) by Mr Andrews. “No contest, we want the triceratops,” said Firewall as the three of them again mounted the skybikes. Best make the most of them; it would be for the girls to choose what transport they wanted tomorrow.
Professor Henderson explained that he wanted the students to fit a radio tag to a triceratops to assist him with his study into their migration routes. The kit for this mission would include a single dart gun and six darts filled with powerful etomorphine, an anaesthetic that should be strong enough to knock out a single triceratops. An adult triceratops must be drugged, the radio collar fitted, tested to ensure that it worked and then kept under observation until it awoke. It wouldn’t do for a hungry pack of deinonychus to attack the tagged creature before it was back in the safety of its herd.
A triceratops herd was known to water at the western edge of the lake they had visited before. They were warned not to get too gun-happy and fire all the darts into the same animal. Five of the darts were back-up, provided in case the first shot missed and the darts couldn’t be retrieved from the undergrowth.
The girls meanwhile had collected a series of ‘crush plates’ and headed to their skimmer, ready to head out and find their alamosaurus herd.
It took about an hour of flying around the lakeside to track a triceratops herd about to water, and after landing near the bay, they began to wonder how best to separate one of the massive beasts from its family. If they tried to dart one now it would collapse in the middle of the herd making it difficult for them to get to it and tag it or worse, it could cause a stampede and risk injuring the creature.
They thought about trying to separate one from the herd by bribing it with food, but how do you do that with a leaf-munching herbivore when it was surrounded by trees? In the end, they decided to approach the last one through the chasm that led to the water’s edge and delay it by tripping it up using Cadet’s bolos. It meant some very quick adjustments to the length of the cord; in fairness to Cadet, he’d never tried to hobble a tank-sized culprit before.
Prepared, they flew in behind the herd and before they could panic, Cadet unleashed his bolo at a young males’ rear legs. The bolos flew and tangled round its back legs, causing it to stumble and fall. Unfortunately, its cries immediately caused several of the larger, adult creatures to gather round it and, like a herd of elephants, tried to get it once again back on its feet.
In the end, Firewall elected to drug the captive male by firing a dart into the back of its neck beneath its fringe and then reluctantly take out two more in the hope that it would give them a chance to approach the first one down and tag it with the radio collar. It appeared to be working as the two adults sort of collapsed against each other and prevented the rest of the herd, currently watering themselves, from seeing what they were up to. Cadet immediately retrieved his bolos as Firewall began to fit the collar. That’s when everything went crazy.
Out of the water rushed a massive crocodile or alligator-like creature but one with four long legs, apparently able to run as fast as or faster than a dog.
The fact that the herd only saw it when it attacked showed it was obviously a very efficient swimmer as well as one that when it clambered ashore was also capable of running at speed. It was now running towards the rest of the herd, who panicked and immediately withdrew from the bay.
Great, that left them and their three semi-comatose triceratops close enough to be croc food. Their attacker was seven metres long at least, had three sets of very sharp tusks and an armoured snout; it must weigh in at least four or five tonnes and was a serious risk to their drugged triceratops. Suddenly, as it lunged towards the five of them on its long legs, dinosaurs no longer seemed to be the most dangerous thing around.
Firewall muttered over their concealed comms, “We need to keep these beasties safe from the crocodilian crocodyliform until they are able to join the herd, any ideas?” Cadet nodded and rushed forward, throwing a tear gas pellet into the advancing croc’s open mouth. It stopped in its tracks as the pellet began to erupt with CS gas, but it merely twitched its neck and dropped the noxious object into the sand. The gas did cause it to stop its advance as it tried to avoid the foreign object and its foul smelling concoction, yet it refused to leave.
Firewall checked on the downed triceratops, confirming that the anaesthetic was already starting to wear off.
“Just need to keep the hungry croc-delicious, crocadileo occupied and away for a few more minutes” and immediately tried to throw one of his smoke pellets into its mouth. It landed short, but the billowing smoke caused it to stagger back. He immediately threw a second pellet, which also exploded into a cascading wall of black smoke, cutting the lake off from the rest of the herd. “Smoke gets in your eyes” he quietly sang under his breath as her pulled out the three darts he’d used on the triceratops and looked to see where the galloping crocodyliform had gone. They couldn’t wait beside the dinosaurs much longer, as they began to come round and clamber awkwardly to their feet. They both jumped on their bikes, even as Firewall ran a quick diagnostic on the tracker collar and immediately flew into the air. Seconds later, two large horns pierced the space where he’d been. The smoke barrier still separated their three from the rest of the herd and that snapping monstrosity was still concealed in the water ready to get the first of the herd to get too close to the water’s edge.
In the air, they could both see the risk. They had to distract it until their three had managed to get past the lakeside and rejoin the herd. Firewall used his skycycle to dive through the billowing smoke at the lunging long-legged croc and managed to fire a dart into its scaly underbelly. It hit, but whether it would work…? It lunged at him out of the water, its speed belaying its size and weight only for Cadet to buzz its head and distract it allowing Firewall to fly back behind the now dying curtain of smoke. In the distance, they could see Mr Andrews seriously consider intervening, but instead he gave them a thumb’s up, trusting them to resolve this dilemma on their own. Before they could think what else to do, the three triceratops rushed past, one stopping just long enough to headbutt the crocodile several metres into the air, as they ran towards the rest of the herd.
In amongst their family, the herd turned and immediately headed back into the forest, looking elsewhere for a safe drinking spot as Firewall quickly gathered the remnants of their defence, the pellet shells and fallen dart before flying to rejoin Mr Andrews and head back to base.
It was several hours later that they began to realise that something was wrong. The girls and their pilot had been due to return a couple of hours ago but these tests weren’t exactly precision operations and often overran, just never by this long. Mr Andrews was pacing up and down, muttering to himself and glancing over at his bag as though it might contain some answers.
Then Director Kubert approached him and they overheard their conversation. “It’s been too long, we need to check out what’s happened. It’s possible that the skimmer has hit some trouble and is downed somewhere, but we’re too far away here to receive any signals. The only other grav-vehicles we’ve got are a couple of ‘Mules’ which would be too slow. You’ve got those cycles but, I’ve no staff trained in how to fly them. Only our pilot Pierre and he’s with your students. Do you three want to try and do a flyover of their proposed start site and see if..?” He got embarrassed and failed to finish his sentence, as Andrews immediately signalled to them both to head to the bikes and mount up.
An hour later, they reached the coastline and discovered that one of Zorandar’s sudden and terrifying tropical storms was battering the shore. The alamosaurus herd they’d been stalking would have immediately left to head back towards the Western plains, as the 50-metre-high waves could have washed them out to sea. Staying as far back from the storm front as they could, Andrews hypothesised that the there was no way an experienced pilot like Pierre would have risked getting close to the storm and since they hadn’t returned and there had been no evidence of a crash on the way here might he have agreed to follow the alamosaurus back and away from the coast?
Still it was getting dark and that storm could penetrate far inland before it blew itself out. Better to head back and try again later.
The ‘boys’ agreed, but secretly both decided to stay out as they really weren’t happy about the girls being out here on their own in the dark. They knew Andrews would never agree, so as soon as the storm clouds rolled in they flew low and headed off together, sending a single message in the hope that Andrews had also kept his comms-unit. After all, as a teacher he was as much a rebel as they were… “Sorry, expel us later if you have to, but were not returning without the girls. We’ll head inland following the alamosaurus herd’s trail of destruction and hope the girls did the same. We’ll be back as soon as we’ve checked it out or found the herd.”
Keeping low to avoid detection, they followed the trail of devastation left by the passage of several ginormous creatures fleeing a storm. It was a ‘Hail Mary’ pitch at best, as the most likely scenario was that the craft had been caught unexpectedly by the storm and washed out to sea. Still, they refused to give in to those defeatist thoughts.
Thankfully, the four moons were all risen and reflecting light from that orange hellhole of a primary star, illuminating the forest below quite clearly. Half an hour later, that forest now bordered a large grass plain covered in unbelievably long-necked monstrosities happily grazing the edge of the forest. Then Firewall shouted out pointing at something reflective on the ground a half kilometre to the North, “Check out the glint there, Clint!”
Sure enough, there was something metallic glittering in the moonlight, as well as several flashes of intense light. Could it be signalling?
They rushed in closer and from their vantage point, high above, they could see the crashed skimmer. What had brought it down was uncertain, but it was now the scene of a battle. Surrounding the vehicle were what looked like human-sized reptiles armed with spears and waving chunks of crystal around from which erupted fire, almost like some form of gun? These presumably sentient creatures for the most part were mounted on what looked like giant iguanas. On top of the ship were the remnants of the defenders, three of whom looked like Amazonian natives, with long dark hair and heavily tattooed skin. These were armed only with spears, and it looked as though there were another four of them on the ground, either dead or dying. What really caught their attention however was their apparent leader, a white skinned, scar-covered, athletic-looking man in a loincloth, his hair shorter than his fellow survivors.
They were vastly outnumbered, though it did appear that they had downed twice as many of their attackers, looking at the unseated giant iguanas and the reptilian corpses on the ground.
The reptile people were clearly humanoid despite their unblinking eyes, scaled skin, tails and forked, darting tongues. They had only three fingers and a hooked opposing thumb, but otherwise their overall physical configuration was of a similar evolutionary design to humans, remarkably so.
Still, Prime Directive or no Prime Directive, they couldn’t just turn their back on what was going on below, not least because their fellow students may be hiding inside the crashed craft.
Firewall reacted first – he flew his skybike down, landing it on the roof of the downed craft, and immediately turned insubstantial – his shape glistening with electricity. Jumping off, he ran inside the open door of the craft and… It was empty, though it was clear that someone had rapidly tried to search it for something or someone. The search had seemingly been methodical, but had obviously been done in great haste. He poked his head back out the hatch and saw two parallel furrows in the soil and crashed grasses heading off into the distance. It looked like someone had dragged a sledge into the forest.
As he tried to focus, several shots pelted the side of the ship, starting numerous small fires, fires that could decimate this entire forest if they didn’t manage to put them out quickly. To do that, though, they needed to end the attack.
Cadet however had an idea – telling Firewall to get back on his bike and resubstantialise himself, he’d seen a possible advantage that the serpent people lacked – a way to knock out several at once. He quickly explained his idea to Firewall and then gave one end of his grapple line to him and retained the other. If this was to work, they had to keep the line taut and fly in formation. With the cable stretched between them, they flew either side of the gathered mounted attackers, so the cable was at head height, flying fast to avoid being hit. The taut cable knocked five of the attackers to the ground in the first flyby and immediately emboldened the human defenders. It was also a non-lethal attack, but at the very least it dismounted them and dazed them, if not necessarily disarmed.
Up close, the white man with the lean athletic body was clearly covered in scars. Life on this planet was obviously dangerous. He suddenly leapt for the nearest attacker and pulled out what looked like an original Bowie Knife, which he tried to use to slash at his opponents’ neck. The wound bled but it had obviously missed any major arteries as he then threw him to the ground. Another of the human natives, up close he looked like a native of the Amazon down to the skin tone and facial features, grabbed another of the serpent people who’d ridden too close to the ship and snapped his neck. The other serpent people responded by trying to stab at the survivors or unleashing more blasts of fire from the chunks of crystal in their hands (or should that be claws?)
Several blasts were aimed at both Cadet and Firewall as they prepared for another flyby. They missed them, but one of their thrusting spears killed a native with a stab through the neck, while another of the defenders was staggered as a blast of crystal energy knocked him to the ground. Cadet and Firewall again tried their cable, trick flying in at a 90-degree angle at the mounted attackers. This time the first two riders managed to dodge, knowing what to expect from last time, but the next three weren’t as lucky as they were catapulted from their saddles as the cable caught each of them under the chin. Time to follow it up with another attack thought Firewall as he unleashed an energy burst at the mounts. The wave of energy washed over the attackers, staggering four more of the reptilian warriors and unfortunately spreading the fire at their feet, causing several of the now riderless ‘mounts’ to stampede.
The remaining defenders suddenly attacked. Cadet had an idea; he poured the entire supply of flash bombs into his hand and proceeded to pepper the mounted troops with blast after blast of disconcerting explosions from above. It was enough; those still mounted turned and fled while those on the ground that could, either ran or scrambled to climb back onto their iguanas and ride away, screaming something that sounded like “Viracocha.”
Immediately, the white male ignored his companions and immediately headed over and began stamping out the various fires, in his bare feet!
The two boys landed and jumped off their bikes then approached the tall, lean man proving he had asbestos soles, “Ah, do you understand me? Speak English, parle vous Français?” asked Firewall almost as a reaction.
The man turned and looked at him with cold, grey eyes. “Yes to both. You are from the dead world, yes? From my cousins?” he had that perfect BBC pronunciation that only comes from learning the language from tapes or from being taught by English teachers abroad. “Cousins?” Firewall inquired. “Yes, they are the Challengers, they come here from dead world at times. Are you with them or from the encampment that their book learners set up? I am Zandar, Zandar Challenger.” Firewall smiled, “Yes, we’re with the Challenger-Wildeman family, sort of. Do you know what happened to the people that were in the craft when it crashed?”
Zandar ignored them as he grabbed hold of an emergency first aid kit taken from the downed craft and pointed north.
Several minutes later, they set off on their bikes with a whooping Zandar on the back of Cadet’s bike, flying with both arms raised as though he was riding on a roller coaster. The surviving natives, the Accala according to Zandar, would deal with the survivors (they really didn’t want to know what that meant in connection with any surviving attackers) and would make their own way back to their village on foot.
Time however, he assured them was of the essence as they flew above the massive forest towards a settlement high up in the trees, which consisted of several circular treetop huts accessed by rope bridges. This was the native’s home and where the survivors had brought to after the crash when the Satha (his name for the serpent people) had downed the ship with one of their fire crystals. Firewall just wished he had thought to grab one from the crash site as they obviously had ‘unusual’ properties.
Hovering some six metres above the native settlement, their passenger suddenly grabbed the medical kit, shouted “Zandar!” and jumped off the bike down into the trees towards the huts below. A second later they saw him wave through the hole in the foliage to confirm he’d landed safely on one of the walkways round the huts. “Bit impetuous” said Firewall, “Confident I’d say”, replied Cadet as they slowly made their way through the trees and finally parked on the ground before, slowly, making their way up the braided ropes to the huts above.
Finally, reaching the central hut, despite being surrounded by curious natives and their children who instinctively poked at their costumes, they found that all the girls were alive inside though Icicle was unconscious – a metal spar from the shattered ship had pierced her body when it crashed and it had damaged several internal organs. She had finally resorted to freezing the wound before the shock had rendered her unconscious. Thankfully no-one had tried to remove the spar which would have resulted in massive blood loss and death. The only others injured were the pilot Pierre who’d hit his head badly during the landing and Proxy who had broken her arm. While Bubbles used a number of bandages to seal the wound and secure the spar against accidental movement, Proxy projected two of her dupes to bandage up her broken arm and Cadet bandaged Pierre’s wound.
Radio contact was line of sight only so they had no way to tell the Camp that the missing people had been found and they needed to get Icicle medical attention as quickly as possible. Thankfully the medical kit was well-equipped and they were able to administer an anaesthetic to both of the injured girls and use a spray of medical foam to seal Icicle’s wound.
Finding a sheet of canvas taken from the ship they decided that they needed to get back to the Camp as soon as possible and it would be best if they could take Lillie with them so they decided to rig the sheet of canvas between them and in unison fly her back between them. Zandar offered to accompany them so he could guide a rescue party back to the village.
Ten minutes later they set off, precision flying to ensure the canvas stretcher stretched between the two bikes remained safe for their unconscious passenger who was strapped in. A sombre Zandar sat on the back of Cadet’s bike guiding them through the twilight towards the dead worlders camp.
Despite the limited visibility, two hours later they arrived at the camp and demanded medical attention. As they explained to an extremely angry Mr Andrews and a frustrated Director who kept on and on and on about “breaking the first contact protocols with the natives…” what had happened.
Zandar it appeared was known at the Camp and he immediately offered to guide the staff back to the Accala village to retrieve the others.
Unfortunately Doc’ Morris was on Earth temporarily leaving Mandy alone as sole medical advisor and she did not feel confident to undertake the necessary surgery needed by Lillie, so the decision had to be taken to wait until the portal opened on Thursday. Meanwhile, Lillie was placed in an artificial coma and the wound monitored while they pumped her full of antibiotics to fight off any infection.
Between retrieving the remnants of the downed skimmer and the other staff, the rest of the planned tasks were put in abeyance. They knew Mr Andrews intended to lay into them about heading out alone at some point but also knew he was also aware that if they hadn’t Lillie would likely be dead.
Zandar continued to make himself useful by accompanying them back to the village and acting as their translator with the Accala People. To Firewall’s annoyance the fire crystals had all vanished by the time they reached the crash site. Whether taken by the Accala or the Satha, was anyone’s guess.
Thursday morning dawned and the time came for the gate to open but there was nothing, no mist gathering in the air, no sign of the shuttle. The portal had not opened and it looked as though the injured girl had only a few days at most before she would require major surgery otherwise she would die. For hour after hour, they kept watch but there was nothing. No portal, no rescue. They were stranded on Zorandar.
The next day Zandar took the two boys aside and explained that the only other “path” back to Earth that he know about no longer led to “Dead World” any more. Something or someone had recently closed down the link. Zandar wondered if whatever caused that gate to close might also be responsible for their own gateway failing to open.
He offered to lead them to speak to a “magic woman” he recently discovered by a nearby volcano in the hope that she might have an answer. At the same time, something has spooked the dinosaur herds and they had begun to migrate to the north from the Equatorial Sea – a journey that would apparently take them through the camp.
They approached the Director but he decided to wait and see if the gate reopened on the following Monday and to focus on the situation in and around the Camp rather than undertake some foolish journey to visit some local witch.
To be continued
Growing up Meta, UK-Style! 