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The ark, traveling at thrust
nine to make up for lost time, entered the solar system and raced unimpeded
toward the new world. Everyone
buckled in as ordered, including Eglin, the ship’s chaplin 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 is 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 devine 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 forboding place 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 land masses 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 its
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 seemed to be just a matter of time. 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 came 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 seats, 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
anyone else within earshot on the bridge: “Look! 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:
“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 planetoid to explore--a brand new world!”
“Yes,
splendid, indeed,” Falon smiled indulgently, “a truly remarkable event. I’ll take my bows when w’eve completed
our mission on this world!”
“Splendid,
marvelous and astounding are not adequate for what I see,” grumbled the
navigator, removing his harness to visually scan the ground. “Impossible--nay frightening--is
a better word! “
Suddenly
the remaining aliens followed Orix’s example, staggering as sleepwalkers from
their landing stations until they stood, side by side, before the great window
of the bridge. Zorig, in
child-like wonder, continued to utter superlatives under his breath. Orix, the only skeptic in the group,
turned away and returned quietly to his seat.
“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!”
Although Eglin, the
medic-chaplain, now strapped in his landing station, had given the official
prayer, the professor now gave his own blessing to the new world.
“Imagine the discoveries to
be made on this planet,” he raised his arms in benediction. “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 seemed 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 the net. Millions of creatures lie hidden from
our view!”
“To think,” he turned to
Falon, as the group stirred, “this wondrous planet was not even listed on the
star charts. It was, Eglin has
called to inform us, 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!”
******
Following
the professor’s oration, they returned to their vigil of the planet. There was, in spite of the navigator’s
concern, great expectation on the bridge.
The entire ship, while strapped in for landing, were spellbound by what
they saw. The professor,
overwhelmed with a sense of history, entered his thoughts into the ship’s data
base. Pecking his wrist
communicator with inspiration, his message began his log for the new planet:
For the
first time in our long history, 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 there is 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
commanders prodding, to search for a place to land. Remgen and Zorig chattered excitedly from the bridge
with their friends in other compartments of the ship. 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 landing 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 his 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 was not the case, he would have
to limit his collection to a select number of specimens in order to fit enough
samples into his ship. They were
limited only by the amount of space they had on the ark. The challenge was great. The expectations he had from the mother
ship were high.
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. For several hours, as the ship’s company ate breakfast and
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.
“Avoid
touching anything until it has been tested and placed in a protective
environment. We don’t know how
corrosive or toxic this planet is.” Arkru hovered anxiously around those students
carrying the poles.
“Yes
professor,” they nodded in unison, intimidated by his gaze.
As
one crew member 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 wryly 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 would not 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, insisting 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 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 most of his students lacked
Rifkin, Zither, Vimml, 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 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, who shared his conformist traits. The two remaining girls Alafa and Illiakim and three
youngsters--Yorzl, Lumnal and Zeppa-- comprised a group that had become the
cheering section for Rifkin’s clique.
They behaved, Arkru had noticed on Raethia and Beskol, as camp followers
to this reckless adventurer, too timid to join in themselves and content to be
spectators cheering him on. Rifkin
was popular, but Zither was dependable.
He needed both boys as leaders among the students; he did not 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 laconic 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 several hundred feet 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, Rifkin’s
imagination soared. Arkru did not
see the fear in Rifkin that he saw in the other students’ eyes. Rifkin was not 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 Rifkin 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 Rifkin 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 the bridge. The fact that we cannot 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 the honor and misfortune 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. It’s
flora is so thick and abundant it defies description, making it, in the words
of our chaplain, “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 a 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 stressed, 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, of course, 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 buffer zone for several thousand feet 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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