Chapter 23

Mack and Kathy at the bathing pool.

Mack stripped to his undershorts and jumped into the water, hoping to get the Pteranodon’s remains out of their bathing pool before everything sank. Despite his best efforts, some of the pieces sank before he could get to them. At first, Kathy only watched, but after a few minutes, she tentatively began to drag the less gory parts back from the edge where Mack had deposited them.

When he left the pool, Kathy held a towel out for him. “Sorry, it is still damp from my having used it, but it should help some, anyway.”

“Thanks,” he said, then a moment later, “Uh, I need to dry off everywhere.”

“Oh, I’ll get your pants for you while you do that,” she said as she turned away. She took a couple of steps, picked up his pants and borrowed shirt before turning back to him just as he finished drying himself.

Mack could see her glance downward, and she didn’t immediately return her gaze to his face. Grinning, she handed him his pants and said, “You saw me twice, so turnabout and all that — right?”

Mack didn’t know what to say and wisely kept his mouth shut. When he was dressed, he handed her the rifle. “Would you watch for me while I move this thing’s remains a few hundred meters downstream? It smells terrible now. I can only imagine how bad it will be when it starts to decompose.”

It took three trips, but eventually, they had the beast’s remains moved. As they returned to the bottom of the path to the cave, Kathy used the rifle’s strap to hang the weapon over her shoulder before stepping up to Mack. With one hand behind his neck, she pulled him down and locked her mouth to his in as deep a kiss as he could ever remember, though a lot shorter in duration than he would have liked. Afterward, as she stood looking up at him, their bodies still touching, “I know that a kiss isn’t much compensation for saving my life — and for me being such a bitch, but I won’t forget what you did for me when that thing tried to kill me, nor for all the other things you have done for both Thad and me.”

Mack couldn’t seem to come up with anything appropriate to say, so he just quietly said, “You’re quite welcome, but we need to get back so we can check on Thad.”

Inside the cave, Thad was sitting supported by the pillows with his back against the wall. “It seems that the two of you had some excitement to go with your baths?” he teased. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”

“No problem. So, you saw it?” Kathy asked.

“Yeah, well, what was left of it after Mack finished with it. I went outside when I heard the rifle. It was already in pieces and in the water by then. I can well imagine what it looked like as it attacked, though. I think I’ve read about them. It’s a Pteranodon, isn’t it?”

“I think so,” Mack agreed.

Turning fully to Kathy, Thad continued, “You didn’t seem to be hurt, but by the time I got to where I could see, both of you were standing on the bank.”

Kathy’s face flushed red, but both men pretended not to notice.

“You weren’t hurt, were you?” Thad asked,

“Only my pride,” she said with a tentative grin. “Nothing like taking a Pteranodon shower.”

Mack turned serious as he spoke to Thad. “Your rifle did a job on that thing. I probably shouldn’t have fired the last two pulses, but I had to be sure, and my time was ... limited.”

“Exactly what I would have done. You probably saved Kathy some bruises by blowing it apart the way you did. I heard it scream, then your shots came an instant later. Were you watching its approach?”

Mack sighed. “I didn’t have a clue. I was sitting on a rock while watching the woods and surrounding area. I never thought to look up until that thing screamed.” There was a pause before he added. “I ... I could swear your rifle helped me. I raised the weapon and was bringing it to bear when it was suddenly locked onto that thing. I could never have gotten off a shot that quickly otherwise.”

“Yeah, it saved me at least twice,” Thad agreed.

“But it didn’t do anything when I pointed it toward the alien.”

“It didn’t know you or what you wanted. Remember, it has its own very intelligent AI, and it obviously knows and obeys you now. It will assist as much as it can once it knows what you want. As long as someone is holding the weapon, it will not only try to follow the physical directions the shooter gives as he points the weapon, but it will follow his mental commands as well. It has become familiar with you and will anticipate ways to assist when possible. Chances are that it heard that thing scream and knew that you wanted to shoot the beast. Consequently, it did everything it could to facilitate your shots.”

“Have you people put AIs in everything?” Mack asked yet again.

They all chuckled about that.

“Did it screw up our bathing pool?” Thad asked.

“For today, but I noticed there were still small pieces of wing material floating about. I imagine most will go over the dam and on downstream, or else accumulate in the rocks that make up the dam. The denser parts of the beast sank, of course, but with the clear water, I was able to find most of them. I’ll go down in a couple of hours and see if there is anything else I can find. Even before I got out of the water, I noticed several fish checking out their lunch. At a guess, I suspect it will still be a couple of days before we can safely bathe there without risking smelling like a dead Pteranodon.”

As Kathy busied herself straightening up their campsite, Mack sat thinking about the lush fullness of the woman and how she had felt while in his arms. He hadn’t actually seen that much, because he was focused on the remains of the Pteranodon and also wondering if its mate was circling for an attack. He was certain the artist’s conception of the beast that he had seen had flattered it immensely, because it was bigger and far uglier, not to mention more dangerous than the sketches depicted — and that didn’t even consider the smell.

When Kathy had the dirt floor swept and their things arranged the way she wanted, she stood looking out through the bars while running her fingers through her long hair. Mack wondered again about such perfect beauty and marveled at a face that was the most exotic he had ever seen, enhanced by a body that was beyond perfect. He suspected that genetic engineering was involved and wondered about the society she came from. Whatever the cause, the result was standing, stunningly, before him.

“Yes?” she asked.

Caught staring, he could feel his face turning red.

“Nothing. Sorry,” he mumbled while wanting to kick himself.

As evening neared, Kathy and Mack sat just outside the cave talking while Thad slept.

Kathy stretched her legs out while abruptly changing the subject. “Thad hasn’t even teased me about running out of the bathing pool naked.”

“Why should he? I can’t imagine staying in the pool with that thing in there with me.”

“You don’t know Thad the way I do. He would tease a rogue elephant. He even teases Mr. Kessler.”

Mack laughed. “Is Kessler worse than a rogue elephant?”

Kathy giggled. “Not exactly. He’s a nice man. But then again, maybe from Thad’s viewpoint...”

“Don’t Thad and Kessler get along?”

She hesitated while thinking about her answer. “They get along ... But sometimes it’s... noisy. That said, I think they respect each other, at least to some extent.”

When Mack didn’t say anything, she continued. “Mr. Kessler has a lot of responsibility — many things that have to be done — and not enough personnel, or facilities, for that matter, to get those things done.”

“And?” he prompted.

“And,” she continued, “Thad wants things done his way.”

“Who’s right?”

She stopped and turned to him. “They both are. That’s the exasperating part. I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of weeks. I never could understand Thad’s viewpoint before. He was always wanting things, screaming that this, or that, wouldn’t work. Always griping about the Ops’ lack of equipment, and so forth. I usually took Mr. Kessler’s side, but I’ve already told Thad that I can now understand why he sometimes raised such a ruckus. Maybe it’s like Thad says, and it has been too long since Mr. Kessler has been in the field.

“They’re both headstrong,” she continued, understating, “but Mr. Kessler is also right. He has to juggle everything to keep things going. Power is crucial to us just now — and even if we had ample power, one chamber isn’t enough. But we don’t have the personnel, or the resources, to stop and build another chamber...”

“Like a dog chasing its tail,” Mack said with a chuckle.

There was a period of silence before Kathy turned to him and in a tense voice, said, “We need you, Mack. It will all come apart if we don’t get some help. It may already have ... We’re not prepared to fight the Others. We didn’t know what we were getting into. If they manage to get inside Temporal ... we’ll all be dead. We only have a few security guards — none of them armed the way the things we saw were. We wouldn’t stand a chance. We have to get back to Temporal and warn my people. The way you move through time, you would be worth a half-dozen more chambers — and it wouldn’t cost us any more energy, either,” she exclaimed, voice rising as the shakes set in. “We could stop the changes that these ... these... things are causing.”

Without thinking, Mack pulled her to him while hoping to help stop the trembling. He didn’t know whether her problem resulted from worrying about Temporal, or was just nerves after her brush with the winged apparition that had chosen her for its lunch. She was nice to hold, whatever the reason, but she wouldn’t look up at him, just sniffed and said, “I’m acting like a baby.”

They stood quietly for a few moments before she pushed away to stare into his eyes. Before she could say anything, Mack spoke, “You know that I’m going back with you, but not until Thad is well.”

“We can’t wait, Mack,” she quietly said. “We have to get back to Temporal before the Others do, and I just told you why. I don’t want to return to Temporal to find all my friends dead.”

“But what difference does it make how long we stay here? The time will still be the same when we get to Temporal. I can time it to get us there just after you left. If I can find Temporal,” he added darkly.

“Mack, Temporal is outside the timeline, suspended. I’m told that the very nature of the fields assures that its time stream will be linear and in one direction only. That’s why we can’t go back and just not send an Op out should he or she be hurt or killed. We can change things on the other end, but not at Temporal. Whatever amount of time we stay here will be that same amount of time at Temporal. Thad’s worried too. He thinks the Others have developed a way to find us when we go somewhere in the chamber, and it seems logical that they’ll try for Temporal next.”

“Are you saying that you want to try to go back now with Thad barely able to walk?”

“We have to,” she insisted. “We have to warn Temporal before it’s too late.”