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After entering the solar system, the ark traveled at
a much slower rate than light speed.
Now, as the vessel approached the planet, the bridge was cleared of
non-essential personnel. Everyone
buckled in as ordered, including Eglin, the ship’s chaplain and medic, whose
words of thanksgiving reverberated over the ark:
“Celestial Father, our benefactor, we thank you for
bringing us safely this far. We
dedicate this planet to you, because it’s part of your creation too. Guide our commander and his navigator
as we touchdown on the new world.
With your breath, you’ve deflected us from comets and blown away dark
bodies lurking in space. Now, with
your divine will, nudge our ark this way and that until a perfect landing place
is found out of harm’s way. After
hearing about this verdant world, we know the bounty will be great, but remind
our students and crew members that this planet could be, as other worlds, a
forbidden garden with unseen pitfalls and hidden dangers at every turn. Guide our steps and the fate of our
mission in the coming days. Give
us the wisdom to succeed, yet the insight to escape needless peril.”
Eglin closed his eyes after his prayer, gripping the
sides of his pod.
After
decelerating to a modest speed, the ark came close to the planet, seeing almost
the same wondrous scenes astronauts would witness during the twentieth century
on earth. At this point, during
the late Cretaceous period, the Age of Dinosaurs was reaching its final
stage. North and South American
had been united at last, and the great landmasses of Pangaea and Gondwanaland
had broken up to resemble the continents and hemispheres of today.
As the ark entered the atmosphere and continued its
dissent, all thoughts for Eglin’s message were replaced by private
prayers. Randomly, or, as the
Celestial Father would have it, by divine guidance, the navigator selected the
Western Hemisphere and, from this point on, followed the commander’s order to
select the first green mass of forest with a clearing large enough to set
down.
Soon the aliens, used to seeing bizarre and
incredible life forms, would find creatures beyond their wildest dreams. For a few moments longer during the
twilight of the dinosaurs, as the ark touched down, the third planet remained a
pristine world. Except for this
commotion in Northern Arizona, the new world would go untouched and unhampered
for yet another sixty-five million years.
******
Far below, as the helmsman brought the vessel down,
a familiar scene, played out untold times between predator and prey, repeated
itself cruelly as forest creatures looked on. After catching sight of its quarry, a big meat-eater charged
through the primal forest. The
great flesh-eating dinosaur ran thunderously down a beaten path toward a large
lake where countless plant eating denizens had gathered throughout the day. Gathering speed as it ran, it remained
focused upon its goal. As it
charged down the hill toward the river, its great body arched forward further
to avoid large overhanging limbs, until it had broken through the trees and was
racing unimpeded across the ground.
No one could be sure who was next. All creatures, large and small, gave it
a wide berth. Only a few
dim-witted brutes, who were too slow to get out of the way, were found cringing
and ducking as it passed. Peeking
through the brambles and down from the branches, were the ancient marsupials,
insectivores, and primates, who would one day claim its domain. In the clearing, at high noon, with the
ancient Arizona sun streaming down, it was for a short while, the ruler of the
forest, the greatest killing machine of all time. Its multicolored scales were suddenly ablaze in the sunlight
as it emerged from the shadows, as if millions of glistening bronze sequins
were attached to its frame.
Towering nearly twenty feet above the ground, its small, bird-of-prey
eyes darted around crazily in its gargoyle skull. Its reptilian smile, which resembled a serpent’s grin, was
made more hideous by rows of knife-sized and razor sharp teeth.
As
it advanced toward its prey, tremors passed through the earth, causing the
burrows of small rodent-like mammals to collapse along the way. A huge cloud of dust was kicked up as
it passed. Safely elevated in the
trees, insects, lizards and primitive birds remained unaffected by the
commotion below. With the
exception of a ponderous tank-shaped dinosaur moving toward the water and
ground-dwelling mammals and snakes, everything that could hear its terrifying
roar and the sound of its clamoring feet, had already fled the scene or crawled
into a nearby bush.
It was hungry and pumped up with energy, in no mood
for the swarms of pack hunters scampering through its domain. If necessary, it was quite willing to
fight them or anyone else interfering with its meal. Today, tyrannosaurus rex planned on bringing down a female
duckbill, its favorite prey, as she guarded her nest. The graceful, delicately built and gentle-natured dinosaur
was no match for the murderous fiend approaching her now. Her maternal instinct to guard her nest
should make her an easy kill. In
spite of the obvious threat facing her and the fact that she was half its size,
however, she held her ground. Her
body remained crouched protectively over her eggs. Her long tail, which was her only tangible weapon, whipped
around frantically in front of her face.
The message was clear even to the tyrannosaur’s dim-witted brain: she
would not abandon her eggs.
Although it seemed hopeless, she was prepared to die in order to
preserve her nest.
Inching closer and closer, its massive head poised
to strike, it was confident of its next meal. In addition to the maternal instinct working against her,
there was a dense thicket near the water’s edge, blocking her retreat to the
other side. As it began nipping
leisurely at her legs, while avoiding her tail, its reptilian mouth seemed to
draw further into its frightful grin, opening frequently to expose its
dagger-like teeth. Its great legs,
now planted firmly on the ground, barely had to move, while its tiny, almost
useless arms, wiggled daintily in the air as it toyed with its prey.
There was no hurry now; it was just a matter of
time. Sixty-five million years
ago, in the twilight of the dinosaurs, it seemed it have all the time in the
world. For just a moment, however,
its bird-like movements gave way to a more methodical pose, as if it was having
a change of heart. Within its
small brain, there had never been much room for fear, yet suddenly and
inexplicably, the duckbill’s tormentor was startled and disoriented as it
looked passed her up at the sky.
A dark, mysterious object began descending from the
clouds. Visitors from another
galaxy were arriving, searching for a place to land, with no one to greet them
but dim-witted brutes. Appearing
directly over the trees, their strange looking vessel caught the glint of the
noonday sun, blinding the large carnosaur just long enough to set its victim
free. Nothing, except flying
reptiles, had ever come out of the sky.
Now this monstrous bird cast a shadow that darkened an entire
grove. As it moved over the
ground, swallowing up in darkness everything below, its true shape took form: a
colossal bug-like vessel, bearing a remarkable resemblance to fossil trilobites
buried in the earth’s rocks. In
the meantime, the mother saw her chance, gathered her eggs into her mouth and
fled. Fleeing into the opposite
direction, the tyrannosaurus rex was confronted at last with a monster even
more frightening than itself.
******
With
the planet’s life forms moving as a pageant below them, the aliens witnessed,
on their separate viewing screens, the progress of the duckbill as she darted
around the thicket into the shallow water and ran to the other side. For several moments afterwards, while
strapped in their pods, their attention was divided between countless other
creatures fleeing the ark: flyers, runners, and crawlers—some of which were
larger than trees.
As the crewmen, technicians and students chattered
amongst themselves, Doctor Arkru took mental notes of this bounty, sharing his
observations with the commander, his officers, and the ship’s students and
crew: “Look!” he exclaimed into his intercom. “Do you see? There are advanced plant and animal
life forms on this world. I can
see a large river flowing through the jungle, green forests, and fields
stretching as far as the eye can see.
There are herds in the distance, like the dakkas on Raethia and the
samgar on Beskol. The sky is
filled with flying creatures, similar but more plentiful than Beskol. The meadows are dotted with browsers
and all manner of flittering, darting, and scampering beasts.”
As Kogin, the helmsman, sat in slack-jawed wonder,
superlatives poured out of Zorig’s mouth too: “Marvelous! Fantastic! Astounding!”
“Our main concern,” clipped Falon, “is to find a
place to land.”
“Didn’t our commander do splendidly?” chortled Remgen. “Found us an
animate planet to explore—a brand new world!”
“Yes,
splendid, indeed,” Falon smiled indulgently, “a truly remarkable event. I’ll take my bows when we’ve completed
our mission on this world!”
“Splendid,
marvelous and astounding are not adequate for what I see,” grumbled Orix the
navigator, removing his harness momentarily to visually scan the ground.
“Impossible—nay frightening—is a better word!”
As
they sat staring at their viewing screens, most of the ark’s crewmembers and
students felt excitement and wonder, but many of them were also filled with
alarm. No one, even the commander
and professor, truly understood the dangers ahead. The impact of the new world dazzled and beguiled their
minds. Orix, the only skeptic on
the bridge, sat back down, shuddering at what he had seen.
“It lifts the spirit,” the commander whispered
reverentially, “that one dull point could grow to be such a sight.”
“Aye,” the first mate nodded, “it boggles the mind!”
Orix sighed and shook his head. Now that Eglin had given the official
prayer, the professor, in grandiloquent terms, gave them his impression of the
new world.
“Imagine the discoveries to be made on this planet,”
his voice rang out over the ship. “We’re witnessing only the top of this
world. Consider its depth and
unknown realms. Consider its
potential for our mission: a vast resource for scientists, preserve for
collectors, and reserve to replenish the ship’s hold. We will, with great abundance and diversity, fulfill a
mission goal to populate other worlds, but there is also food and possible fuel
to be manufactured here. The
opportunities seem staggering at first glance. Imagine, lads, what lies ahead when we lower the ramp and
set foot in this garden. An
exploration awaits our students and crewmen into a vast, unexplored
unknown. Hundreds—nay thousands of
species—await the cloaking field trap, dart and net. Millions of creatures lie hidden from our view!”
“To think,” he said dramatically, “this wondrous
planet was not even listed on the star charts. It was, our chaplain might agree, godsent from Izmir,
Himself, the great Celestial Father.
Perhaps God directed our weary commander’s eyes to that distant point in
space, or maybe it was blind chance, but it will, I’m certain, test us as
scientists, crewmen, and students.
It will expand our undertaking to heights undreamed of by the Fathers of
Science, whose mission statement given at the beginning of our odyssey could
not have imagined the life-forms glimpsed on this world!”
The ship’s company stirred, many from
irritation. On and on Arkru
rambled about the potential waiting for them. Nothing they had seen so far equaled what they witnessed
this hour. This was a cosmic
miracle, he believed. How else
could you explain the fortuitous manner in which Commander Falon, among all the
brighter and much larger phenomena, spotted this remote glimmer in the
cosmos? Out of nowhere, it
appeared. Now it must become
central to their destiny as explorers and collectors—the most important
discovery so far.
******
Following
the professor’s long-winded oration, silence fell over the bridge. The entire ship had been spellbound by
what they saw. In spite of Arkru’s
confidence in them, however, everyone had their own private impressions. Orix, the navigator, typified many of
his shipmates. Mingled in with
great expectation was that unspoken dread of the unknown. Perhaps the most optimist of the ship’s
company was the professor, himself.
Overwhelmed with a sense of history, he now entered his thoughts into
the ship’s database. Pecking his
wrist communicator with inspiration, his message began his log for the new
planet:
For the first time in many long months, a Revekian Ark searches for a place to land. What sort of world is this? The ground is crowded—nay congested—with flora and fauna. Because of this, everyone aboard the ark this hour is a scientist. Everyone is a poet at a loss for words. We’re all dreamers, awakening at times in dreamscapes, but this time we seem to waking up in a forbidden garden, I pray will not turn into a nightmare in our exploration of this new world. This morning, I see creatures that defy not merely description but categorization. How does one describe a world so green and teaming with life that there’s no end to it—only a mad, cacophony of movement and, I can imagine, sounds, unlike any world we’ve ever seen….
As the professor made his entry into his log, Orix
sat in gloomy silence and Kogin continued, with the commander’s prodding, to
search for a place to land.
Strapped in their landing stations, shipmates chattered excitedly with
their friends in other compartments of the ark. Following the commander’s order to prepare for landing,
everyone, from the youngest student to the commander, himself, now held their
collective breaths. With viewing
screens over every station, everyone aboard ship, though not scientists as the
professor would like to think, were spectators, sharing the same scenes. Everyone, however, couldn’t see the
details in the scenery. This
required a trained eye and the ability to adjust the viewing screen’s tracker
and magnifier before a creature darted or skittered out of range. Doctor Arkru, as many others on the
ship, had learned to use the viewing screen as a tool.
Smaller meat-eaters, at least three different
species, including monsters similar to, but smaller than, the giant killer
first glimpsed from the bridge, were recorded by Arkru in various clearings
among the trees. Several
species of large dinosaurs, including long-necked browsers, squat armored
beasts and huge flying monsters, scurried, shuffled, waddled, or glided through
the air.
He could also see, as everyone else, the more
noticeable herds of monstrous three-horned animals in the distance, as well as
more of the scoop-mouthed creatures in clearings below. But the savage killer they had seen
earlier had disappeared into the trees, frightened by the mere shadow of the
ship. This, more than anything
else witnessed this morning, had left an impression on the aliens’ minds.
Doctor Arkru was overwhelmed with these scenes too,
but he was also quite worried.
He remembered Remgen’s word for it: “mind boggling.” Considering the monsters lurking on
this planet, the task seemed staggering.
Although the ark had much room left for specimens, it was apparent that
only juveniles and infants of such giants could be trapped, unless they were
still at the egg-laying stage on this world. On Revekia, his people were born directly from their
mothers’ wombs. Only the primitive
creepers still hatched from eggs.
Such monstrous creatures on this planet would still be too large to
collect as juveniles if their infants were not born that way. He was concerned about the creatures’
stage of development. Hopefully,
they would still be laying eggs and would therefore be, as his planet’s
creepers, much smaller than juveniles or adults. If this were not the case, he would have to limit his
collection to a select number of specimens in order to fit enough samples into
the ship. They were limited only
by the amount of space they had on the ark. The challenge was great.
A reminder for him that this was not just a dream,
was the commander’s resonant voice over the ark: “Attention all hands! Attention all hands! We’ve found a large meadow to land the
ark. Remain secured at your
landing stations until we’ve touched down!”
******
Toward
the selected clearing, over the teaming jungle, the great ark drifted, its
anti-gravity thrusters causing only a faint ripple in the trees below as it
hovered momentarily above the ground.
Then slowly and easily, as gently as smoke, the vessel descended, making
contact at last with Earth: a scientific ark to be filled with specimens,
shaped somewhat like a trilobite, larger than any single object in sight,
except the volcano fuming in the horizon.
Its great crustacean-like body, with its probes and special equipment
protruding in all directions, was visible for miles around.
It barely made a noise now as it traveled across the
sky and touched down. At that
point, the commander called out dramatically, “Touchdown! Unbuckle landing harness and stretch
your legs!” For several hours, as
the ship’s company mustered at their division stations, ate breakfast and then
prepared Doctor Arkru and his students for their first footsteps upon the alien
world, the ark’s outer sheath and thrusters continued to smolder from its break
through the planet’s atmosphere.
The natural ambience of the vessel and the electromagnetic field
generated by its many probes had created a buffer zone around the ship. With the exception of insects buzzing
mindlessly in the surrounding forest, the cacophony of noise had ceased, except
for distant hoots and shrieks. The
only sounds carried across the clearing into the nearby jungle were, in fact,
the chirping of the collector and his students as they finally disembarked from
the ark: thirteen cat-eyed aliens in cumbersome life support systems, with
bulky helmets over their strange, simian heads. Unable to breath the toxic air of Earth, they communicated
by radio inside their glimmering white suits in voices that sounded as if they
came from frogs or crickets, rather than intelligent, bipedal beings.
In
a series of whistles, chirps and croaking noises, the collector was busily
ordering his students to set up their equipment not far from the ark. Since they all looked so similar to
each other in their life support systems, each student and technician’s name
was stenciled on his or her back and chest in a writing system resembling both
Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chinese.
While the student and technician’s script was in black, the collector’s
was stenciled in gold to indicate his position and exalted rank.
Each
of four volunteers selected from the twelve students now carried a pole several
inches thick and almost as tall as themselves. In addition to these apparatuses, the collector had special
gear, carried in a small satchel hung around his neck.
“Place
the poles here, here, here and over there,” he began barking out commands.
“Yes
Professor Arkru,” they chimed, as the other students and technicians looked on.
Arkru
hovered anxiously around those students carrying poles. “Avoid touching
anything until it’s tested and placed in a protective environment,” he directed
anxiously. “We don’t know how corrosive or toxic this planet is.”
“Yes professor.” They nodded in unison, intimidated
by his gaze.
As
one crewmember began fumbling with his pole, the collector clasped his helmet
in disbelief then took the pole gingerly from his hands.
“What’s
the matter with you Rifkin?” he shouted into his face. “I pointed to there,
near that rock, not here close to the mud puddle! You idiot! You
bumbling fool? You’re my brightest
pupil. Have you forgotten
everything you’ve learned? Don’t
you remember what happens when a force field beam gets near water?”
“Yes
professor,” he bowed his head as Arkru set down the pole.
“It’s
a disaster, that’s what it is!” Arkru wrung his finger.
“I’m
sorry professor,” the embarrassed youth replied. “I’m just excited. It won’t happen again.”
“Excited? Is that what your call it?” Arkru shook
his head in disbelief. “Listen to me— all of you!” He looked around accusingly.
“Until you stop quivering like jelly, gently set down your loads. Get a grip on yourselves. The rest of you watching from the
sidelines, stop cowering in the shadow of the ship. It’s not just Rifkin who’s sloppy today. He just got caught. Admit it, you’re all frightened of this
planet. I noticed how few of you
volunteered to set up the trap!”
“Now
keep the four poles on flat, solid ground.” He looked over warily at Rifkin as
he spoke. “Dig down and scrape away the top soil until it’s level. Use your surface meters to make sure
its flat. All of the poles must be
exactly the same height and the same distance from each other for the trap to
work perfectly. We need a perfect
square, not this jumbled mess.
Above all students, move quickly but carefully. And don’t dally. There’s a million ways to die
here. You don’t want to wind in
the bellies of these beasts!”
For several moments the student volunteers set and
reset their poles until they were certain they were correct. For some reason, which they thought
perverse, the professor did not interfere. He stood there alongside of his technicians quietly watching
them as if he wanted them to bungle it badly at this stage, perhaps as an
object lesson for the class.
The
effort they had to expend in their bulky life support systems was much greater
on this toxic world. They had to
dig holes with tiny shovels supplied by the collector, anchor their poles so
that they sat firmly in the ground and then make sure they were calibrated exactly
with the other poles in the square.
Arkru appreciated their efforts, but he did not trust their
results. They were still
children. They had spent much of
their childhood in space being tutored by himself in the disciplines of
science, but they had much to learn.
The
trap they were using on this planet today had been used sparingly on other
worlds. He had made major
improvements on its design, which made it more difficult to calibrate after
stationing it in the ground. Today
the revised version, which featured cloaking capabilities, would make its
debut.
For
the benefit of the younger students as well as the older students and
technicians who may have forgotten the basics of trap operation, Arkru decided
to give a brief summary of the Model 7 Cloaking Force Field Trap. As he talked, he examined with various
meters, the height and position of each pole, whistling under his breath each
time he found something wrong. He
could scarcely believe how far off the student calculations were.
“To begin with,” he explained, “the four poles are
not perfectly aligned with each other.
Three of the poles were not calibrated correctly, although they were
planted firmly in the ground.”
Rifkin, whom he had berated earlier, was the only
student who had installed his pole perfectly into the ground. Arkru felt pride for his most gifted
student but also irritation that he could do so much more. Why hadn’t he seen that his perfectly
calibrated pole was not aligned with the others? The trap still wouldn’t work. Rifkin, the errant adventurer, was an underachiever,
preferring childish exploits to true feats of science.
Rifkin,
he noted with sympathy now, stood with his head hung low, toying with a stick,
while the other three volunteers, Zither, Vimml, and Rezwit, anxiously waited
for a sign of approval for their poles.
“Our
first trap,” he said, looking in disbelief at Zither’s calculations, “will be a
test trap. It will capture
anything tripping the beams as it passes between two of its poles. After activation, the poles change
color automatically to match the setting so that creatures enter unaware into
the trap. On this verdant world
the poles will naturally turn green or brown to match the leaves and dirt
below.”
“Theoretically,”
he continued, shaking his head at both Vimml’s and Rezwit’s poles, “the invisible
beams from pole to pole will, when tripped, become an impregnable force field,
holding even large and unfriendly creatures briefly until they are tranquilized
for transport to our ship.”
“Such
a trap,” he said, nodding with approval at Rifkin’s pole, “was not designed
with this planet in mind. It was
designed for swarms, hordes or packs of smaller animals moving mindlessly over
the ground. Only occasionally have
they been used for solitary captures of predators or larger animals stupid
enough to pass between the poles.
Until now, though, large has meant creatures only moderately bigger than
ourselves. Until now our traps
were designed for the relatively brainless slug-like and segmented creatures on
planets less advanced than this world.
More advanced species on previous planets could be lured into the traps
by clever ruses and quickly tranquilized before they attempted to escape. But on this planet there are
unbelievably monstrous creatures at every turn, and even the juveniles are
probably too large to be taken in our traps.”
During
his discussion, Arkru chose the key word “traps” to pause and field questions
about the device’s mechanics and operation.
Rifkin
wanted to know how wide the trap’s square could be made to encompass the most
creatures. In answer to Rifkin’s
question, Arkru quoted Emgor’s Rule: “The larger the square of a force field
trap, the weaker will be its ability to act as a trap if the source of power
remains unchanged. If there’s
enough power, such a field could entrap an entire world.”
“An
entire world?” Rifkin looked back at him in disbelief.
“An
entire solar system if need be.” Arkru gently laughed.
“But
how would we anchor the poles?” Vimml asked, trying to fathom such a trap.
“Where would you put them? There’s
no anchor point in space. There’s no ground!”
As
interest mounted for the trap, Arkru began recalibrating it, beginning with
Zither’s badly calibrated pole.
Zither, Vimml and Rezwit were eager to redeem themselves. Rifkin, who saw his chance to upstage
Zither, joined in Arkru’s labors.
To underline the older student’s incompetency, Rifkin was already on his
knees with his shovel digging out Zither’s pole. Arkru said he would use Rifkin’s pole as the standard for the
other poles. The fact that they
started at Zither’s badly calibrated pole would demonstrate, Rifkin hoped,
Zither’s ineptness in the professor’s mind.
Arkru,
however, was not fooled by Rifkin’s motives, and insisted that Zither do it
himself. Each of the three
volunteers would, in fact, with Arkru’s guidance, recalibrate their poles. Together, Arkru promised, they would
make the trap a perfect square.
Rebuffed as Arkru’s chief assistance, Rifkin found comfort as Arkru
calibrated the others off of his perfect pole. During the recalibration, Rezwit was curious about the
trap’s cloaking abilities, and Alafa, a female student, wanted to know how easy
it was to operate the trap. Arkru
promised to let Alafa turn it on and off herself. He gave Rezwit an overly technical explanation about
cloaking, but promised to give them both a demonstration when the trap was
set. Zither wanted to know what
type of tranquilizer worked best on the beasts, darts or stunners—a question
Arkru could not answer until they tested out their guns. Rezwit and Alafa’s questions would be
answered during the demonstration Arkru would give today, but Rifkin and
Zither’s questions would have to be answered when the trap, darts and stunners
were tried out on the beasts.
Arkru
was happy that he had generated interest for the trap. He was, however, alarmed by Rifkin’s
attitude toward Zither and was concerned that the other students lacked Rifkin,
Zither, Vimml, Alafa, and Rezwit’s zeal.
Arkru saw problems ahead in Rifkin’s rivalry with Zither and the
complacency evident in the remainder of the group. Unlike the students showing interest in his trap, Omrik,
Grummel, Illiakim, Shizwit, Yorzl, Lumnal, and Zeppa stood on the sidelines and
watched, content it seemed to bide their time until it was time for recreation
and dinner on the ship. That
complacent classroom mentality he had been unable to shake out of many of his
pupils was still strong. It would not work on this world!
In
addition to complacency, an unwholesome rivalry, at least on Rifkin’s part, had
grown up among the students, dividing them into three recognizable groups. Rifkin’s colleagues, who admired his
style, included Vimml, Rezwit and Grummel. Zither had attracted the scholarly Omrik and the introvert
Shizwit, another female student, who shared his conformist traits. The two remaining girls, Alafa and
Illiakim, and three youngsters—Yorzl, Lumnal, and Zeppa (also a girl)—comprised
a group that had become the cheering section for Rifkin’s clique. They behaved, Arkru noticed on Raethia
and Beskol, as camp followers to this reckless adventurer. The spirited Alafa, had she not been a
girl, would be part of the first group, but Illiakim and the children were too
timid to join in themselves and were content to be spectators cheering him
on. Rifkin was popular, but Zither
was dependable. He needed both
boys as leaders among the students; he didn’t need adversaries in the group.
Arkru
made a mental note to break up Rifkin and Zither’s cliques and create three
established teams before the expeditions began. There would be a youngster, such as Lumnal, and a girl, such
as Alafa, in each of three groups.
He would separate Vimml from Rifkin’s bad influence and put him in
Zither’s presence to give the bookish Zither some grit. The reclusive Omrik and Shizwit, on the
other hand, might come out of their shells around Rifkin. Grummel, whose behavior was erratic
required a hard worker such as Rezwit, who would become the third leader in the
group.
Stopping
to type into a communicator strapped on his wrist his stream of ideas, Arkru
added to this list the questions the students had asked about the trap. Inside his helmet his cat-like eyes
seemed to be frowning, and his wide simian mouth appeared to be drawn into
scowl as he looked up from his wrist.
Organization and planning, as always, would be the key. There was great potential in these
diverse personalities, he believed.
He would make scientists and
collectors out of them yet!
It
had been a long morning for his students, he realized sheepishly. Many of them were excited by the new
world, but they were obviously burdened, as he was, by the bulky life support
systems they wore and having to breath from those heavy canisters on their backs. As he labored, himself, to breath the mixture
flowing into helmet, Arkru took this opportunity to compliment the four
volunteers for helping him to create a perfect square. They would do better on
their own next time, he was certain.
He gave Rifkin recognition for doing so well with his pole but pointed
out quickly that the trap still would not have worked unless it was a perfect
square. Now, because of their
teamwork it was just right, ready to trap this planet’s denizens when they
stumbled in.
Pausing
to scan the meadow on which their ship sat, Arkru led his students a short
distance away before turning briefly with his controller to turn on the
trap. At that moment, because of
its chameleon-like characteristics, the trap became almost invisible in their
sight.
In
response to Alafa’s questions about its operation, he let her turn it on and
off a few times, its normally yellow sheen blinking on and off each time she
punched its button.
Young
Yorzl, Lumnal, and Zeppa screamed with delight.
“It’s
so simple,” Alafa marveled, “like operating my viewing screen or setting my
clock.”
“In
answer to your question about cloaking,” Arkru turned to Rezwit, “the poles are
light-sensitive so that when they pick up the emanations below them, they
change chemically to match the ground.”
“Like
the umgi on Beskol?” exclaimed Rezwit, taking a turn himself.
“Exactly,”
beamed Arkru. “It works just like I
planned.”
Rifkin
grabbed the controller out of Rezwit’s hands. The girls jumped up and down with glee.
“You’ve
done it,” Zither formally congratulated his teacher. “Your Model 7 Cloaking
Force Field Trap is a smashing success!”
Arkru
could not help cringing as the controller was passed around the group. Each one of the twelve students had a
chance to turn the trap on and off.
When the youngest female student in the class, Zeppa, had her turn,
Arkru took his controller back protectively in his hands. Making a shushing motion with his
finger at his mouth, he playfully whispered to his pupils “Now let’s see what we’re going to catch!”
******
With the exception of Rifkin, who was big for his
age, and Zither, who was taller and older than the others, the students
following behind Arkru were at least a head shorter and much thinner than
himself. Their bald, earless and
almost noseless simian heads beamed with awe inside their helmets as Arkru
looked ahead soberly at their task.
Rifkin, who was also unusually husky and sure-footed for his age, lagged
behind the others as he explored the ground for bugs and creepers slithering in
the leaves. The centipedes, beetles
and snakes he saw stirred his imagination as he contemplated this world.
Careful not to lead them too far into the forest,
Arkru selected a point a safe distance from the ship. As the students gathered on a flat rock that rose ramp-like
from the ground, Arkru looked back to count heads and motioned impatiently for
the laggard Rifkin to catch-up.
“That
daydreaming fool!” he murmured irritably as Rifkin played with a snake.
Rifkin
dropped the snake at Arkru’s signal and trotted obediently toward the
group. Looking beyond the rock at
the edge of the forest where much larger creatures dwelled, his imagination
soared. Arkru didn’t see the fear
in Rifkin that he saw in the other students’ eyes. He never seemed to be afraid. He had, in fact, never seen the headstrong student so
excited about a new world. Rifkin
was a daredevil and troublemaker.
Between reckless exploits and teasing his classmates, he daydreamed when
he should be listening. He was
often performing for his admirers instead of keeping his mind on his work. As he watched him take his place in the
group, Arkru also recalled that he was a natural born leader who worked
tirelessly to gather specimens on his own initiative and at great risk. Under normal circumstances the small
snake he picked up and discarded would have been placed in a container and
taken back to ship. But there was
plenty of time to gather specimens, the professor thought. He had selected a vantage point on this
ancient lava flow to both survey the activated trap and lecture his students on
what lie ahead. With Rifkin in
mind, he decided to caution his students against acting foolishly or being
complacent on this world.
“This
planet,” he began, looking askance at Rifkin, “is a hostile world, nothing like
the planets we’ve landed on before.
There are dangers everywhere we look. We saw this at the very beginning from our viewing
screens. The fact that we can’t
breath this planet’s air and have to wear these cumbersome suits makes it that
much worse.” “I need your utmost cooperation and attention at all times.” He
looked down on their upturned faces. “There can be no random walks such as the
unscheduled nature hikes you’ve taken in the woods or deserts on other
worlds. Until now, my students,
you’ve been on one long, seemingly endless excursion. You’ve even been allowed to breath the atmospheres on most
of the previous worlds. You’ve
been allowed to play like children as you learned.”
“But
the long vacation away from our dying planet has ended,” he continued sadly. “Here
on this planet childhood’s end has come.
We have both he honor and responsibility to gather specimens on this
world. I have a feeling of destiny
about this planet. It’s my opinion
that this young world’s fate may be greater than our own. I’ve never seen so many incredible
animals both large and small. Its
flora is so thick and abundant it defies description, making it, as Eglin
called it, a forbidden garden where explorers, such as ourselves, must carefully
tread.”
“But here we are” he cried out dramatically, raising
his arms as if in blessing, “in this forbidden garden—visitors from a dying
planet, ready to steal life from its forests and disseminate it on another
world. “Be careful my students!”
he counseled huskily. “…. Be ever watchful! May the great god Izmir and the spirits of the celestial
lights protect us now in our mission on this world!”
In a more academic fashion, after pressing home his
point, Arkru summarized his goals for this expedition, which he implied were
preliminary at this stage.
“Although the first trap set so near the ship was
only intended to be a test, I am planning in the near future to capture as many
of the creatures on this planet as possible before reaching the maximum
carrying capacity on the ship.
Timing is an important factor.
Exact planning at each step will be the key to our success.
“Due to the hazards we face, we won’t attempt to
snatch offspring of the larger beasts or meat-eaters until we’ve learned about
their behavior. Frankly, I’m excited
but not encouraged by what I’ve seen.
Although some of them might not be the smartest creatures we’ve
encountered, many of this planet’s predators may be too cunning for our traps
and might have to be tranquilized immediately after being caught. Other creatures, who are simply too
large for our traps, will have to be netted after being tranquilized. Unless the parents are relatively small
to begin with, I’m afraid our collection of monsters might be limited mostly to
their eggs and hatchlings, which can be stolen by hand without the benefit of a
trap since they are most often found in a nest. We will, of course, capture monsters with traps whenever
possible if it can be safely done.”
“In
reality, however,” he smiled crookedly, “smaller creatures can be stored more
abundantly on the ship. Smaller
creatures, after all, grow into larger creatures. Our ship, after all,
is not a zoo!
“In
spite of the limitations they pose, our emphasis will, I repeat, be on the eggs
and the offspring of the monsters, themselves: the great long-necked beasts
seen earlier and perhaps a few assorted specimens of the horned and
scoop-mouthed creatures spotted from the sky. But most of these creatures will have to be young juveniles
that are captured by net and require heavy sedation and much more effort than
smaller animals lured into our traps.”
Arkru’s
unspoken hope was, in fact, to obtain a juvenile-sized collection of this
planet’s killers, including the monster seen from the bridge. No one spoke of the big meat-eater,
itself, but the collector was certain that this was on all their minds. He could even hear Alafa and Illiakim
murmuring excitedly amongst themselves.
Zither, who was normally so circumspect, was also anxious to bag himself
a beast. Even the reserved Omrik
was excited now. During the lull
in Arkru’s conversation, Rezwit whispered with excitement with his previous
team members Rifkin and Vimml.
Rifkin’s old teammates then surrounded their fearless leader listening
to him boast of his accomplishment on other worlds.
Finally,
after a slight motion of his hand, Arkru found himself leading the students
back to the ship. His discussion
and lecture had excited many of them, but their adventures today had worn most
of them out. Setting up a test
trap and listening to his long-winded lectures had been enough for one
day. It was time to take off their
cumbersome life support systems, eat dinner and maybe take a nap.
The boys, with their brave words, he realized with
both amusement and alarm, were trying to muster up courage for the task. For the next few days they would all be
lulled into a false calm as the planet’s denizens left them alone. It was, Arkru sensed, their ship’s
startling appearance, which had made the jungle so quiet. The longer their ship sat unmoving in
the meadow, the more the surrounding rain forest would come alive. It would, he was certain, get used to
their presence. The normal
ambience of the alien vessel and its gigantic shadow had given them a degree of
protection on other worlds. He had
hoped that the very presence of their monstrous ship might create a large
buffer zone around its perimeter, but nothing could be certain on this
mysterious world. The trumpeting
of leviathans could be heard in the distance: creatures barely comprehensible
to Revekian minds. Every inch of
this verdant soil was covered with plants and crawled with all manner of scaly,
fuzzy or segmented things. The
rustle of these smaller creatures—lizards, small snakes and insects—grew
increasingly louder, in and around the shadow of their ship. The clicks, squeaks and buzz of life
were now accompanied by the eerie bleats and hoots and sudden screeches of more
distant jungle leviathans as the forest awakened from its shock.
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