AL Clark, Jonathan G. Meyer [the little red hen ebook .TXT] 📗
- Author: Jonathan G. Meyer
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“Who handcuffed her to the table?” Al wanted to know.
The man assigned to stay with her during the trial answered hesitantly, “I did sir...I wanted to make sure she didn’t make a break for it.”
This reply increased Al’s anger, and he growled at the man, “Where is she going to go? We are in the middle of nowhere and on a dinosaur infested planet for goodness sake.”
“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t think.”
“You’re damn right you didn’t think. I didn’t ask for you to handcuff her—you should have asked me first. Do you realize you almost caused the deaths of two people because of your lack of judgment?”
The man was obviously embarrassed and regretful. He replied, “Yes sir, I do...and they would have been killed if not for you, sir. I still can’t believe you stopped it.”
Al, feeling it best to postpone any further conversation; turned and walked away.
It was starting to register with the crowd that something extraordinary had happened right before their eyes, and questions were forming in their minds. People were standing around murmuring to each other, trying to make sense of these extraordinary developments.
A man yelled out, addressing his question at Al, “How did you do that? You put your foot into that animal and then ran faster than it did to get outside. How is that possible?”
Someone else joined in, “How did you do that?”
From somewhere in the back of the crowd, a voice was heard. “He can’t be human. He must be one of those...”
Captain Effinger saw that things were getting out of hand. He stood at the judge’s table, held up his hands, and said in a commanding voice, “Everybody! I think we’ve had enough excitement for one night. The threat is over, and it is late. We will have to finish the trial in a day or two. Go home and get some sleep. We’ll reconvene and finish this after we clean-up and make the camp safe again. All senior staff, I need to speak with you now. Everyone else is to go home.”
Al gathered with his men, told half of them to go home, and ordered the remaining half to stand watch until morning. The captain assembled with the senior staff and gave the necessary orders to have the Riktors disposed of, to repair the fence, and to begin repairs to the damage caused by the attack.
When Al finally had time, he cleaned himself up as best he could and went to find Chris and Tammy sitting at the defense table, patiently waiting until someone could escort the prisoner back to her cage. By this time the community center was almost empty.
Al walked up and said, “Come on you two, I’ll walk you home.”
They were the last to leave and didn’t bother closing the door.
“Are you two okay?” Al asked as they walked out to the jail.
Tammy answered, “Never mind us. How are you doing? You must have flown forty feet and then landed in the bleachers. That had to hurt!”
“It wasn’t as bad as it must have looked. I’m all right. The bleachers broke my fall,” Al said. While he tried to make light of the conflict he gave a discrete warning glance to Chris. Maybe he could still get away with saying it was an adrenaline rush, or maybe people would settle down and decide, with all the excitement, they had seen things they couldn’t possibly have seen.
Tammy looked up and asked, “Do you mind if I ask a question, Mister Clark?”
“No, I don’t mind—go ahead.”
“I was there, not ten feet away from its open mouth...and then it was gone. It was right in front of me, and then seconds later you were shooting it in the courtyard. How did you do that?”
Her question made him see that keeping his secret would prove next to impossible. The colonists were smart people, and it dawned on Al that he would not fool them for long.
“It’s a long story, Miss Shoemaker, but yes. I’m not an ordinary guy. I’m a human in a robotic body.”
“You’re a robot? Isn’t that like...bad?”
Al thought for a second, smiled a little, and replied, “Not from where I’m standing.”
Chapter Nineteen
Kira knew that something was very wrong. She awoke from her bed to the sound of screaming people and the roar of monsters in the distance. The first person she woke was Toji, and in a breathless voice she told him, “The Riktors are attacking the Kuthra!”
Still half asleep, he listened for a moment and asked, “Is that coming from their village?”
“Yes,” she said, “I think our friends are in trouble. The Riktors sound very angry.”
“What should we do?”
“We must try to help them.
“Can we help them?”
If we gather enough Sansi, we can.
Their decision made, they woke the elders first, they in turn woke the rest of the cave dwellers. A group of twelve strong warriors was assembled, and armed with their best spears and knives. Then they rushed to aid their gods, with Kira and Toji in the lead.
It was a long time ago that her people had fought a Riktor. Toji’s grandfather had brought one down many years ago, but it had cost the life of four Sansi. The tanned hide from the beast was all they received as reward. Their philosophy since then, had always been that it was better to hide than to fight. It was now time to change their thinking and do what they could to assist their saviors from the stars.
The rain diminished to a light drizzle while they made their way through the dark forest in the quick and silent style learned from their ancestors. Kira had been outside after dark only a few times in her life, and she found it quite disconcerting. The cloud cover and rain made it especially dark, and it was hard to see where they were stepping as the group moved as fast as they could, with only the redeeming advantage of youth in their favor.
The lights of the place where they kept the bad Kuthra’s came into view. Because of the angry roar they heard as they approached the compound, they were not surprised when lights were blocked by the silhouette of a towering monster. Outside the line of magic sticks that protected the gods, the taller than ten-foot beast paced back and forth, becoming more and more agitated as it listened to the destruction of his pack.
The warriors were resolute. They circled to both sides where the lights helped to reveal their prey and began throwing their spears, aiming to get as close as they could to something vital. Jumping and yelling they stayed just outside the creature's reach and launched their stone-pointed spears with an accuracy that surprised even them.
The Riktor they fought was a large elder creature, with a roar that shook the trees nearby. His tail thrashed and slapped the ground within inches of the always moving warriors. The Sansi were nimble, and their tactics relentless, harassing the beast and generating enough fear that it retreated into the human settlement to escape. It crossed the downed section of the fence and headed into Camelot; towards the jail.
****AL RECEIVED AN ALARM from Watcher One, with images that were distorted and grainy. He was beginning to think the drone had malfunctioned when the raging dinosaur burst into the light of the prison gate, followed by the harassing natives.
Al’s enhancements had worn off hours ago, and with all the excitement and exertions of the previous attacks, he was not at his best. He was so surprised and slow in his response that before he could pull his sidearm, the beast was screaming in their faces.
The Sansi were all around it and still driving their spears into its blood stained hide when it did something strange. It spun around and appeared to plead with its attackers. Its spinning stopped as it faced the three humans, and Al thought he detected a look of confusion cross its face. He shook his massive head, trying to clear the growing lethargy from his mind. The Riktor was dying, and it didn’t understand, even as it fell, that the fight was lost.
The Sansi had succeeded in their attempt to stop the last remaining monster, and it fell to the ground with a crash not ten feet from the three overwhelmed humans. Chris, Tammy, and Al owed the Sansi their lives, and the natives were more than happy—they were ecstatic, and jumped up and down yelling like the children they were not long ago.
Chapter Twenty
Al convinced Kira that the beast they killed must be the last of the creatures and thanked them all for their bravery. The jubilant Sansi bowed to the people they thought of as gods and headed home to begin telling the tale that would go down in Sansi history as one of their finest moments.
Chris, Al, and Tammy were exhausted. With the stress of the trial, and then almost losing her life, Tammy wanted only to lay down in her bed and sleep, so the two men led her into the habitat jail and said good night; leaving her in the care of her guards.
On their way back to the village, Chris wanted to know all about Al’s experience.
“How did it feel to be enhanced again? Did you find out anything new?”
“I have to tell you, Chris; it’s like nothing you can imagine. It makes me feel like I can do anything. I had to be careful after the attack, that I didn’t accidentally hurt someone until it wore off.”
“Did you learn anything new?”
Al smiled at the memory of the feeling. “It seems I can see pretty well in pouring rain—in the dark. My legs can survive a fifteen-foot drop—with no ill effects, and my foot is a lethal weapon.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to remember not to ask you to kick me...if I do something stupid.”
They walked for a while, both deep in thought. Chris remembered the look on Tammy’s face, as she watched Al assault the monster and lead it outside. He remembered the entire village watching.
“Do you think this is going to cause you trouble?”
“Up until I went into the auditorium to get what I thought was the last creature, I think no one would have been the wiser. Now, with all that happened, I’ll have some explaining to do.”
“So...what are you going to do?”
“At this point, Chris, I have no idea. I have a feeling when everybody gathers together to finish this trial; the village will be judging two people—Tammy Shoemaker and Al Clark.
****THINGS WERE DIFFERENT for Al after that night. People walking on the same sidewalk as he would turn and go the other way. He would sit down at a table in
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