Chapter Seven
Dragonbirds? You’re Kidding, Right?
“I’m Vincent Weatherly,” Uncle growled. “These are my two nephews, Luke and Andrew, and my niece, Storm. If you know how we feel then let us out of this damned bird cage!”
“Yeah, and what are we doing here, anyway?” Andrew wanted to know.
“What are you going to do with us?” Luke challenged next.
“When can we go home,” I added weakly, wanting home and my own bed with a physical pain unrelated to the throbbing that intensified the longer I stood on my feet.
I glanced at Julius. Our eyes met. What is your problem, Surfer-boy, I thought at him, totally miffed at his continued rudeness. Sheesh. Do I really look like a specimen under a microscope?
I saw the barest flicker of an acknowledgement on his face before he erased it. I was such an idiot! It should have already dawned on me. He could read minds; like Luke. Can you? I screamed at him mentally as hard as I could think.
A flash of surprise crossed his features before he turned away. The mountain ranges in the distance seemed to capture his interest suddenly.
Humph! I felt my temper burst into life again. If you’re reading my mind, Surfer boy, tell Grandpa I need to go to the bathroom.
Julius flushed under his tan as he whipped his head around towards me, appalled. What, these people here on this planet didn’t need to go to the bathroom?
Several other students and Luke as well, were suddenly coughing, clearing their throats, or snickering openly under their breath. Apparently, I had committed a social gaffe with just my thoughts. Did everybody here on this stupid planet read minds, I thought, frustrated--and embarrassed, too, even though I had no idea what I’d done.
I glanced around only to see that about half the students understood my thoughts. Worse yet, Dr. Spinner looked directly at me and he held up his free hand to silence mine and Julius’s little mind games. He could read minds, too. Sweet! I’d just embarrassed myself in front of the whole damned planet.
“Not quite the whole planet,” Dr. Spinner smiled, eyes twinkling merrily, and I cringed. “If you can’t think kind thoughts, my dear,” the gentle eyes rebuked me like the lash of a whip. “Don’t think anything at all.”
It took me a moment to realize Dr. Spinner hadn’t spoken aloud, until he did. “To answer your question, the use of the latrine must wait a little longer.”
I let my head drop onto my chest, totally humiliated. I refused to raise my eyes, even to see if Julius still watched me. I concentrated on breathing shallowly. Every minute away from the warm stone floor made the pain in my side more unbearable. I had no more mental energy for Julius or anything else. It barely registered that Dr. Spinner still spoke.
“The most pressing thing right now is your decontamination. Dardara has strange ways of dealing with even the tiniest, most innocuous, life-forms.”
“Decontamination?” “Life forms?” Uncle and Andrew both asked at once.
“Ah yes, Americans. Ever curious, you are,” Dr. Spinner chuckled to himself.
“What about the force field?” Luke asked.
Dr. Spinner, instead of answering, leaned his staff towards an open space between the columns, and I saw the twinkling of a thousand tiny lights. Then he stepped up on the platform with us.
“I forget about the force field,” Dr. Spinner commented abstractedly, looking around. He let his eyes lead him upwards towards the friezes. I heard something akin to awe and respect in his voice as he continued speaking.
“This is a gateway to the universe,” he remarked, lifting his arms out from his sides as if in supplication. “It has been here for eons of time--longer than you can possibly imagine.”
I shuddered as he spoke, feeling the untold misery that must have been held captive within these deceptively open walls; brought to this planet unwillingly--as we had been. Of course, Dr. Spinner heard me.
“You’re so very right, my fiery-tempered young lady,” Dr. Spinner glanced my way. “You must be empathic to have felt the lingering aura here. This gateway, once upon a time, would have brought you here as slaves."
“Why?” I agonized, wanting to flee this place. “Why bring anyone here?”
“The planet’s oral legends tell of a very ancient, malevolent race of beings that discovered this planet eternities ago--and its unusual properties.”
“What unusual properties?” Uncle grumped.
“Imagine, Mr. Weatherly," said Dr. Spinner. “Discovering a planet composed of crystal ore that contains supernatural energies within it. Energies that can effect changes within the DNA of living organisms. Energy that can heat, heal, strengthen. How much, do you suppose, something like that would be worth?”
Uncle looked down at his arms. “Yeah, I can imagine that.” I felt certain he was remembering picking me up as if I weighed little or nothing. He looked up at Dr. Spinner. “Something like that would be priceless.”
“Exactly. That is why they came. The Masters exploited this planet in most ghastly way. Dardara was still very early in its evolutionary development back then. Nowhere near enough for there to be living organisms on the planet. The masters changed all that. Disrupted the natural evolution of the planet.
“Add to that, building gateways wherever they chose. They built them both here, and on any other planets that contained beings suited to their purpose. The horror those poor devils must have felt. To find themselves transported here in the blink of an eye,as slaves, to mine that crystal ore.
"The Masters rapine of this planet," here Dr. Spinner paused to shake his head. "That selfish act still has repercussions today, millenniums later, as you and I are all too aware. That has to be the most irresponsible act ever committed, by any sentient beings, anywhere.”
“You’re telling us the Bermuda Triangle is a gateway on the other end, then?” Uncle asked. “How is that when it’s in the ocean.”
“Probably not at the time the gateway was built. It all happened a very long time ago, remember. Land sinks, oceans rise.”
“That makes perfect sense," Uncle exclaimed. I always knew the Bermuda Triangle was real. I knew it," he repeated, feeling vindicated.
“Who were they—these Masters, as you called them?” Andrew asked, spellbound. He would. His thirst for anything sci-fi was unquenchable.
Dr. Spinner shrugged. “All we know is what we have been able to unearth in artifacts they left behind. The slaves knew them only as The Masters.”
“They used the force field like a holding cell or something?” asked Luke, puzzled.
“Yes, and to keep the slaves from leaving the planet through it.”
“You mean the gateway works both ways? Can it return us to earth?” I asked anxiously.
“It once did.” Dr. Spinner sighed, “Not anymore.”
“You mean it’s broken?” I felt like crying.
“Yes. Unfortunately for all of us, Miss Weatherly.”
Now, the force field serves to prevent any further contamination of the planet. Azul only knows, even the tiniest, most benign life forms imaginable could metastasize into a real threat to the inhabitants already on this planet. But I digress. We really need to be moving along now.” As he said this last part, he glanced askance at the sky.
He waved his hand, and three young students hurried up onto the platform. They handed each of us a robe similar to the ones they were wearing, then rushed back down to join their peers.
“Come now. Put these on and follow me. Don’t forget to put the hood up. I will explain more on the way to the Monastery.”
The robe given me felt lighter than silk. It had an attached hood that came up to cover my head. I had difficulty putting it on because of my broken ribs. I tried to ignore the presence I could feel touching my consciousness. Do you mind, I thought, a little privacy here, please, I added to make sure Julius got the point; surprised when I looked up to find he had extended the courtesy of turning his back.
Andrew and Luke fumbled with their robes, trying to get them on correctly. It caused no end of tittering among the female students--to my brothers’ intense embarrassment. The females didn’t seem to notice that Uncle and I struggled every bit as hard as Luke and Andrew.
The robe they’d given me, swallowed me. It must have been four sizes too big. Unused to the feather-light material, I fought the robe. It fought me back; slithering anywhere but where I wanted it to go.
I finally managed to get the slippery thing on--despite my broken ribs, and my voyeur. I pulled the hood over my head. It promptly fell down over my face, narrowing my field of vision down to a peephole in front of my face.
It was at that moment I heard the students start screaming, "Dragonbird! Dragonbird!"
I heard Dr. Spinner order his students, “Run! Run for the stairs!”, but I couldn’t see a thing because of the retched hood.
Fighting with the slippery material to get it off my face aggravated the pain in my ribcage. I sighed with relief when someone finally pulled the hood back so I could see. Julius, of course. He had leapt up onto the gateway with us instead or running for the stairs. Meeting my eyes for only a second, his gaze lifted skyward. I looked up and saw a huge--I mean, Boeing737 huge--flying beast diving straight for us.
“What the hell is that?” Uncle shouted.
I tried to move, and caught my foot in the too long robe. It pitched me forwards into Julius’s chest. For a moment, I could smell the woodsy tang of some scent he wore. Then his hands shot out to set me on my feet and I could no longer smell that enticing mixture of a forest and something else wholly Julius, but I knew I would always associate the scent with him.
“That’s a dragon?” I squeaked as the pterodactyl—looking bird flew by overhead. Uncle grabbed my arm and pulled me down next to Luke and Andrew, and then squatted protectively over all three of us.
I heard a hiss from Dr. Spinner as he pointed his staff skyward and mumbled under his breath. A bolt of blue lightning shot out from the crystal on the end of his staff.
The dragonbird saw the bolt coming and dodged it as it swooped down so low I thought it would hit the birdcage. The dragonbird stretched out its talons, like landing gear dropping from the underbelly of a jumbo jet, as it reached out for one of the straggling students. The small pink-skinned girl.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to see what happened, but reopened them when I could feel a humming in the air as Dr. Spinner shot another lightning bolt at the dragonbird.
This time it hit the beast full-force in its chest. Smoke and flame flared from the point of impact on its chest. For just a moment, the dragonbird hesitated in mid-air.
I thought we would see it drop from the sky. But, no. The dragonbird shook off the blast from the lightning bolt. Giving a piercing shriek that hurt my ears, the dragonbird withdrew its talons and flapped its wings desperately, fighting to gain altitude.
Dr. Spinner shot another bolt from the staff, this time hitting the great beast in the wing. Smoke rose from the flapping wing, but it did not stop the dragonbird from gaining enough altitude that it could fly safely out of range of Dr. Spinner’s weapon.
Uncle jumped up and pulled me up beside him. “What the hell was that thing?” He demanded, pointing at the receding bird.
Julius stepped protectively closer to Dr. Spinner when he heard the tone of Uncle’s voice.
Uncle had taken a step towards them without even thinking about the fact that Dr. Spinner still held a weapon, which he whirled around to point at us faster than our eyes could follow.
Julius took a fighting stance at the same time Luke, Andrew and I grabbed Uncle.
“Hey chill, Uncle,” Luke said. Then unable to contain his curiosity, he turned to Dr. Spinner. “What kind of weapon is that!” he stared curiously at the staff pointing at our chests.
“Yeah, totally awesome weapon, dude!” Andrew added, also intrigued by the weapon.
Wow, a shiny new toy for my brothers to play with, I thought sourly. A ray gun, no less. Although, I should be thankful. Their curiosity had diffused the situation. Dr. Spinner lifted his staff towards the sky. Uncle calmed down and to step back.
The students rushed back up the stairs and over to us, all of them talking at once, like a flock of excited seagulls.
“Calm down. Everyone!” Dr. Spinner blurted in a voice that boomed out across the hilltop.
Everyone froze for a second, and in the silence, I could hear the echo of Dr. Spinner’s voice bouncing off the mountainside.
“Damned Dragonbirds!” Dr. Spinner sputtered, darting an angry glare at the now empty sky.
He looked back at Uncle. “They are a scourge and a menace. They decimate our zoie herds, steal our newborn gatzus, and like you saw, do not hesitate to eat children if they can get away with it. You would never think that on their home planet of Nintuk, they’re no bigger than a small falcon, would you?”
“What. Are. Dragonbirds?” Uncle gritted his teeth.
“Well, that’s what they’ve been nicknamed here on Dardara,” Dr. Spinner attempted to explain. “You see what they look like in the sky. It's not too far-fetched to think of them as dragons. They have some other unpronounceable name in Nintuk.”
Dr. Spinner tucked his beard back into his belt and straightened his robes, trying to regain some dignity. “Can you believe they kept them for pets there, much like humans keep pet parrots back on earth?”
“H-how? Why? W-what” Andrew stuttered, unsure what to ask first.
“On Nintuk, Dragonbirds are no bigger than a Cockatoo, believe it or not. As you can see for yourself, Dardara has some very adverse physiological effects on life forms. I cannot stress enough the importance of decontaminating every living thing coming into contact with this planet.”
While he had been talking, Dr. Spinner stepped down from the gateway and began walking across the small plateau. He just expected us to follow.
“Those Dragonbirds are just one such example I could point, to prove my point,” he turned his head to make sure we followed.
Assured we did, he continued forward. “Now. Where was I? Oh yes. Taking you to get decontaminated.” He stopped by a large outcropping, and paused in his litany while he waited for us to catch up.
Only after we came around the edge of the outcropping, could we see an ancient stairway clinging to the side of the hill. The stairway looked as if it had been chiseled into the very bones of the hillside eons ago. It made me dizzy just looking at it.
“Please don’t touch anything, not even the stair rails, if you please, until you are decontaminated,” Dr. Spinner commanded as we started down the stairway.
“And pull up your hood,” Dr. Spinner glared at me. “Don’t you realize how many bacteria grow on the human scalp?”
I did respect Dr. Spinner’s caution—in theory—and, of course I didn’t know how much bacteria grew on the human scalp. But I didn’t like being bossed around by a perfect stranger.
I started down the stairs wondering how they were going to decontaminate us. Call it a feeling, but I didn’t think I was going to like it very much.
My fear of the unknown just exasperated my pain. The steep downward inclination of the stairs, did the rest. Every step down, jarred my ribs. Nausea choked me. What a time to discover I had a fear of heights.
I Stumbled along behind Dr. Spinner, angry at no one and everyone, and tripped over my stupid robe. Feeling like I’d been stabbed from the inside, I started falling. Of course the damned hood chose that moment to fall down over my face. Unseen hands reached out from behind to steady me.
I knew at once whose hands they were by the tingle of electricity all over my skin. I could feel the warmth of his hands through the thin silk-like material, but I was too upset--so totally out of my element—to care.
I‘m not going to make it--not down those interminable stairs, I thought inwardly. The pain in my side had become a white-hot poker. I couldn’t breathe.
“Uncle!” I cried out, no longer able to hide my agony. “Help me!”
Then several things happened at once. The feel of my knees buckling. The feel of unfamiliar arms scooping me up against a rock-hard chest. The hood settling over my face like a shroud.
My last thought was of Julius. Had my touch contaminated him?
Then everything went black and I knew no more.