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| Tsv-02-100 The Illusive R-Wing Chapter 1: Treezine Agent Chapter 2: Lisa Chapter 3: Unexpected Visitors Chapter 4: Knowledge is Power Chapter 5: A Piece of Sky Pie Chapter 6: The DGP Governor Chapter 7: Point Kapex, Lunaside Chapter 8: The Scenic Route Chapter 9: The Temspace Refraction Chapter 10: The Age of Aquarius Chapter 11: To Ride the R-Wing Chapter 12: Effects of the Tuniverseo |
Chapter 8. The Scenic Route
Something went wrong with the Martian transverser on entry to the Earth's atmosphere. They managed a controlled flight down to the edge of the ionosphere and something went wrong with the stabilizing jets. They crashed 5 minutes later off the coast of New Zealand, and Madkro had the opportunity to escape. He didn't like being led about by Exo and Xik and he was happy to be back home. So he took his chances, while they were recovering, winded out against the forward consoles, tipped down under the water-line. He moved up the tilted floor to the back of the bridge, climbed through the door to the midsection, and looked up at the ceiling, at the back of the midsection, near the engine room. He recalled his ray-gun, found it in a side-compartment, took it out, and climbed the rungs by the back wall to the hatch. He heard Xik cursing as he recovered his senses, opened the hatch with all his strength, and climbed outside. He was in luck. They were in the shallows, off land about 200 meters away. He stuck the gun in his jacket and dove off the top of the transverser, into the cold ocean water. It was unclear if it was either an hour after sunrise or an hour before sunset, but he thought nothing of this, and swam for the land. 20 minutes later, he rode the surf in and collapsed on the beach with exhaustion. During the last leg, he had begun to see memories of his distant past flashing before his mind's eye, as if on the brink of death itself. He fell asleep shortly, on the beach, as his heart stopped pounding and pulsing within his ears and regained his breath. Minutes later, he awoke from a nightmare, and quickly arose. He recalled that Exo and Xik were out there, and had an urgent need to escape them, to get far away as quickly as possible. The land reminded him of the climate. It was temperate low, somewhere in New Zealand, he guessed. He walked directly inland, into the cover of a mixture of evergreens and Yucatan palms. As he went inland, the land sloped upward, the trees became larger and thicker, but the underbrush became less jagged and more subtle. Great beds of moss and purple flowers covered the curvaceous land. He followed the edge of one of the moss flower-beds and reached the top of a hill, where the land leveled off. The sun was setting, on the horizon, as he followed the land in through more and more forest. He began to think he might not reach civilization and wondered about the denizens of the night. He had his ray-gun, so he would manage somehow. But it was all very eerie. He had no idea where he was. Somewhere on Earth but exactly where he could only guess. New Zealand was his best guess. A trip from there to Australia could get him to the states in hours by jet. But it could also be elsewhere, he did not know for certain. It might possibly just be a very large island, somewhere in the south Pacific, for all he knew. Finally, after 30 minutes of moving quickly through the trees, he slowed down, changed gears, and decided he was well enough away from Exo and Xik. Two minutes later, the land sloped up again, and he reached the top of a large cleft of land over-hanging a great ravine. To the left about 60 meters was a waterfall; in the midst of the ravine was a large reservoir of water, to the right, the ravine widened into a canyon. He rested at the base of a huge tree, and realized he had managed to catch up to the sun for a moment, and bought himself some more light. He gazed into and across the ravine to the other side, and decided to sit down for a rest. He was about 5 km inland, by his reckoning, and as he did so he recalled the amazing run through the strange land, and wondered, as he closed his eyes, where on Earth he was this time. ----------------------------------------------
Unbeknownst to Madkro, Gulok was angry and looking for vengeance of some sort, a way to get even. He had agents out looking for Madkro and had him traced to the estate in New York. But somehow, Madkro managed to slip out before they could catch him, and the estate was empty when they got there. Lisa had found the keys to the vehicle they planned to take on their drive, on the ground, by the flower-bed at the corner of the garage, with a flower plucked and left upon it. She looked around for Madkro, could not locate him anywhere on the estate, and knew something was wrong. She called the KNP, let them know, and took the vehicle, packed to go, away to another safe-house. Gulok arrived after she had left and had the house searched for an hour, to dig up all they could on Madkro, and finally got a tip; a receipt for a delivery on a special cruise and brochures for Japan and France. "Of course, we must've just missed them," Gulok decided, with wickedness, and ushered every one out. --------------------------------------------
Madkro awoke, late at night, with a moon in its third quarter, high over the land across the ravine. His eyes slowly adjusted an enhanced night vision, along with the moonlight, and he saw the edge of the ravine sloping down to the right. As it sloped down, it curved to the left, and edged into a bunch of high steppes in the distance, leading down into the canyon. He waited for hours, for the sun to rise and give him clear direction. As it did so, and the light broke through the trees to the east, he looked over the land again and realized his late-dusk picture had been lacking color and depth. For now he found himself in an amazing natural preservation without a sign of civilization anywhere. He absorbed it all for 20 minutes with wonder, got on his feet, and followed the edge as it sloped to the right. --------------------------------------------
Exo and Xik gathered their senses, and didn't realize Madkro had escaped until after a preliminary check of the ship's systems. As Xik searched the engine room, and returned to the midsection, he found the com-part in the wall open and the gun gone, and then looked at the topside hatch. "He's gone out the hatch," Xik told Exo as he returned to the bridge. "The fool, he doesn't know what he's done," Exo said, shaking his head. "I just checked the transverser’s tem-coordinates. We got thrown back to the prehistoric intersection somehow. He's got himself lost in time." Xik checked topside, as the ship gently moved on the waves, in the direction of the land. He returned and reported to Exo. "There's land about 100 meters away," he said. "If we can get the booster jets to give us a kick, after we lift our nose a bit..." "Good idea," Exo agreed, "let's do it." They resumed the stations and worked the problem out for 5 minutes, then followed the movement through. An under-nose jet blasted into the ocean water, lifted the nose up above the water, and the aft jets kicked in. The transverser turned into a large speedboat, and carried them to the land. --------------------------------------------
Interesting point: One colony existed at 2990 AM, at the prehistoric intersection on Earth. It was seeded by the Tranquans for the benefit of Mars, because of the planet Mars' desperate need for resources. Ultimately, the Martians took complete control, and proceeded to exploit the Earth, but that was not until 8 years after 2990, around 2998 AM. The 2990 intersection was not a physical but temporal intersection, between alternate universes. All 4 known alternate Earths developed along different tem-lines, and evolved independently through time. Madkro followed the edge of the ravine as it curved west into a lower land with tundra and patches of jungle about a winding river-valley. The ravine had widened quite a bit, the river was larger, and there were no visible signs of civilization as far across the canyon-valley and northward as could be seen. He saw some birds, across the valley, in the distance, and heard a few oddly fascinating sounds that had rhythm and pattern, suggesting nature's animal denizens. He'd never been so far and alone from civilization and still wondered where he could be. Then he saw the dinosaur. It was a long-neck brontosaurus, a vegetarian, committed to subsisting upon the foliage and fauna, the tops of trees. It was then that he began to realize just how lost he was. The dinosaur didn't bother him, didn't seem to notice him, as he moved along the edge of the tall cat-tails and tundra, under the fronds of tall palms and eucalyptus-like trees. He was in the valley now, at the very edge of the mountain. The stones could be seen ten meters to his left, between the trees, and jutting out again ahead. Just inside the edge of the trees, around the corner of the ridge, he located a cave. It was at the top of a steppe which over-looked the vast river-valley. |
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