Chapter 23: Final Solution

William

The roar of the T-Rex had me scrambling out of the casement with my shotgun pointing the way. Rolling out of the hole, I froze as I watched the giant lizard swung its head.

Nancy was hanging from its mouth, her pack stuck on one of the creature's side teeth. Nancy was screaming like crazy as I raised my shotgun, braced it against my hip and pressed the semi-auto lever, and I started firing round after round into the creature's right knee.

"Nadil, get the packs into the casement," I shouted as I picked up Nancy's shotgun in my left hand. Flipping the lever from safe to semi, I braced the second shotgun against my left leg and started firing both guns. The rounds ripped into both knee joints of the creature, and it started swaying and went down. Nancy flew through the air and hit the water with a large splash, as the Rex thrashed in agony.

Setting the second shotgun down, I jumped from the casement and advanced on the creature. I started firing from ten feet away. My rounds ripped into its head and shredded it to ground beef. After the tenth round, its head hit the ground. It gave a rattley breath, and died. Turning I was going to run to the river, when Nancy crawled out. She was soaking wet, and she was pissed.

"Fucking lizard is going to be shoes when I get done with her," she said as she walked over and emptied the clip from her glock into the creature's head.

"Take that, you overgrown Iguana," Nancy screamed as she changed clips and fired again.

"Nancy? Are you ok?" I asked as she reloaded again.

"Just peachy," she replied as she pulled her pack out of its mouth, kicked its head and started walking to the casement.

"Are you coming?" she asked as she tossed her pack up on top and started climbing up the embankment.

"Yes, I am," I replied as I looked around and stopped. There was a camera looking at us from the underbrush. Raising my shotgun, I fired and then started climbing.

We reached the top, and Nancy picked up her rifle and pack. She went to the hole while I looked around and turned quickly. "Quick inside," I said as I ran to her as I slung my shotgun.

She started to turn towards me, but I grabbed her, and lowered her into the hole as the second T-Rex roared. The thump, thump of its feet got Nancy moving and she shimmied down the ladder. I took a quick look, and saw that the T-Rex was close. I sat on my ass and slid over. I dropped ten feet and rolled. Getting to my feet as Nancy joined us, we looked up at the T-Rex looking down at us.

Before I could say anything, I heard a cracking sound and I looked around. Using the light from the gun, I started shining it around, and then up at the roof. I saw it was cracking.

"Shit!" I said as a chunk of rock fell.

"William, we must go. It's not designed to hold that much weight," Nadil said and turned away. Her shotgun's light lit up the passageway

"I know, and Valin knows we're here. We have to be careful," I replied as I followed her.

We started down the air passageway into the unknown.

Valin

I watched as the woman was thrown free and my pet killed. On the screen, William was helping the woman called Nancy up. Turning to the room I asked, "Tovan, are there anymore of the T-Rexs in the area?"

"I have three, one is about three thousand yards away from the waste treatment plant," the engineer replied.

"Good, send it a signal to head for the plant. See if it can kill this worm William. I want him dead. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" I replied as I turned back to the monitor just as it went dark.

"What happened to the picture?" I screamed, "GET IT BACK!"

Tovan winced at the scream from me and replied, "Sending now, Sir. As to the image, William destroyed the camera."

I watched as Tovan used the implant pad and tickled the control interface. Going around the station, I came up behind him and watched the monitor change from a blank screen of one filled with what the creature could see. The implant in the creature brain sent the signal back to the base computer and allowed access to the whole body. Tovan made a horse appear on the screen and in the creature's mind, its eyes registered the horse and it charged after it. As it reached the river and the intake pumps, Tovan shut the image down and on the screen I could see William heading for the casement.

"Sir, the ship is almost finished. The construction drones are sealing up the engine room now," Zorick said suddenly.

Turning to look at my security officer, I smiled, "Good. Have everyone report to the ship. We lift off in twenty minutes," I said as my head whipped around to Tovan as he commented.

"Sir, I have them. They are entering the central air intake channel. Nadil is with them, I thought she had been executed," Tovan said.

"What?" Turning back to Zorick, I snapped out some more orders, "Find them and kill them. Bring me Nadil! How she is alive, I don't know, but she has cost me much."

"As you command, Sir. I'm dispatching squad four and five to get them, but what about the loading of the prisoners? I don't want to cut us too short on handling all those children," he replied.

"Just do it. Use those small dinosaurs we have implanted to herd them to the ship. If one of the kids becomes lunch, it will make the rest hurry along," I snapped out

"Yes, Sir, as you command," Zorick replied and turned back to the control panel.

'Imbecile, do I have to do everyone's work for them, ' I thought as I sat down in my chair and started going over the stations reports.

'Now, lover, don't you worry about William and that cousin of mine. When I'm finished with Nadil, she will be a willing bed companion for you. You just wait and see.'

'Serina, unless I contact you first, I would appreciate it if you stay the fuck out of my mind. Now, did you get all the genetic tissue loaded?' I sent to Serina, as I closed down the computer system.

'Yes, all the samples are loaded as are the remaining cloning tubes. We shall be ready to start forming our own army in eight weeks, when we get back home to Earth. Just make sure you get us back in our own timeline.'

'You have the clone ... never mind, how you got it I don't care, it means we will succeed. As to the timeline, I have all the calculations set up. We will appear the minute they leave for the past ... I still say we should head several hundred years into the future, ' I thought back to her as my fingers flew over the holographic keypad.

'I explained why we couldn't. The most we could do is ten years, and it won't matter if it's ten years or one year. The damage to earth is still there. With all the genetic material we have gathered it will take ten years to restore Earth.'

'I know, you told me a dozen times. We will get it done and restore our earth. I don't believe Kalib when he says it's hopeless. Now, let's get everyone to the ship. Make sure you set your timers, ' I thought to her and broke the connection.

"Report?" I asked as I looked around the room and noticed most of the crew had left.

"Sir, all grain harvesters have full loads and they are being loaded into the food replicators now. The last of the cattle have been slaughtered and processed as well. The green houses have been harvested, also. The automatic fishing trawlers have returned and emptied their contents into the replicators. The mining bots have strip-mined the northern mountain range and their cargo is being loaded into the construction replicators as we speak..."

"Yes ... yes ... yes, but what about William. Has he been caught?" I snapped out.

"Uh ... let me check sir," replied the young woman at the resource computer.

"Get on it. When you find out, contact me. I need to see if my room has been packed," I said as I walked to the door.

"Yes, Sir," she replied.

William

I followed Nadil down the tunnel. As we walked, I noticed the tunnel wasn't concrete, but some type of metallic material. We had gone past several cross tunnels when Nadil suddenly stopped at a four-way intersection. She was scanning all three directions and I noticed she was chewing on her lip and looked worried.

"What's wrong Nadil?" I asked and covered my ears from the echo a few seconds later.

"Sorry," I whispered when she looked at me in pain.

"It's ok, I should have warned you. It's the magnetic coil at the end of the intake chamber. It's sucking in all the air as well as sound. It took your voice and carried it back along the housing to the coil where it was intensified and spit back out at us. It's a security precaution and it's doing what it's supposed to do to prevent what we're trying to do. The good thing, it was only three words. If it had been more, we would have been knocked out," she whispered back.

"I don't understand," I replied.

"It's too complicated to explain right now, but we need to go left here. So come on," she replied and turned to her left.

I followed her down the passageway. There was a slight dampness to the air as we reached another tunnel. Nadil turned left again and started walking faster as she scanned ahead of her. We passed through a third intersection when the wind picked up. I was about to ask Nadil what was going on, when I heard something hit the wall to my left.

William

I groaned and rolled over onto my back. My ears hurt, and I noticed I was cold. I sat up and realized I was naked. Climbing to my feet, I spotted Nadil and Nancy on two beds by the wall. Both were naked as I was. Going over, I checked them out and saw they were alive, but Nadil was silver again. Nancy came around first and I kissed her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I don't know. I just woke up too," I replied.

"Nadil?" she asked.

"She's out, but seems ok. She's silver, again. Here, let's get you sitting up, and I'll check her again," I said and helped Nancy to a sitting position. She bent over placing her head between her knees as she took several deep breaths. Going over to Nadil, I brushed her silver hair out of her eyes, and kissed her blue lips.

"Nadil, lover, wake up," I said.

"Ohhh, what the fuck hit us," she replied as she opened her eyes and closed them immediately.

"Are you ok?" I asked her.

"No, my head is killing me and..." Nadil rolled over and vomited onto the floor at my feet.

I pulled the pillowcase off the pillow and wiped her mouth. Before I finished, she was heaving, again. The rest of her lunch ended up at the foot of the bed.