Mesozoic zigzag

Tana, listening to Holdum, gradually got herself under control and even showed her fist to Jum from behind.

At that moment someone’s footsteps rattled up the stairs. An officer from the crew entered the cabin. He nodded silently to Holdum and began to adjust the auto-landing instruments. The runabout was to land this time without the crew’s input. The officer opened the control panel cover and fiddled with the instruments for quite a long time. Nobody could see what he was doing, as they were sitting just behind his back. After that, the officer closed all the protective shields, ran his fingers over the control panel keyboard once more and pressed the buttons to activate some systems. Then the officer walked between their chairs and checked the fastening of the overload belts. At Holdum’s chair he stayed a little longer, screwed something up, opened and closed the belt lock again. Then he turned to face the boat crew.

– Well, I’ve done everything, don’t touch anything, – he said in a satisfied tone, winking at Tanya, – I wish you a soft landing!

– Thank you, Officer Mdjey! – nodded politely to the “adjuster” and said Holdum.

The officer walked quickly out of the cabin. He was heard running down the steps to the deck of the ship. A moment later, the hatch closed hermetically, hissing, and all the sounds that had been coming from the outside were silenced. But noisily enough some of the boat’s own mechanisms began to work.

– Hey, Jum, – Dak whispered, poking Jum in the side, – did you hear that? Did you hear what Holdum called the officer?

– What?

– Mdjey! Doesn’t that remind you of anything?

– Should it?

– That’s the name of the officer who killed our captain.

– That’s right. Do they know what we know? Or don’t they?

– It may be a coincidence, but we have to be on our guard. Did you see where he was tinkering? You know, what kind of equipment? And another question: Do you know how to control the boat during landing?

– I knows.

– Then be ready.

– I will.

– What are you boys whispering about? – Tana looked at them suspiciously. – Is something wrong?

– Nothing definite yet. We’re thinking about how we can manually land the ship, – Jum said, choosing his words carefully.

– Do you understand the design of this type of landing craft? – Holdum, who had begun to doze off, woke up.

– We are considering a purely hypothetical case, when it may be necessary to manually land the boat on the surface of the planet. – Dak replied.

– Well, it’s simple, – Holdum shrugged his shoulders, making himself comfortable in the overload chair. – You see that bright yellow lever on the left side of the console, the size of a finger? It’s set to “Auto Landing” now. You just move it to the top position and that’s it! You can steer with your hands as much as you want.

– Thank you, Endeju! – Jum nodded, making a surprised face while trying to portray the sincere gratitude of a student who had learned very important information.

– What? What lever? – Abis came out of his thoughts.

– Never mind! – Dak waved his hand. – Thinking how to operate this thing. – He shook his head.

– Could there be a need?

– And Zwigg knows him!

– My dear Uabju, please do not use that name in such a derogatory manner! – Holdum said sternly.

– Sorry, Endeju, it’s nervous! – Duck said, hiding a smile.

At that moment, interrupting their conversation, the engines of the transporter, on which the boat was mounted, began to roar, and it started its rapid horizontal movement to the open landing gates. In just a few seconds, the transporter’s grips clanked open and the runabout began to fall. The engines had been disabled for the time being. They should start only at the last stage of landing. Now the short wings were to open. Thanks to them, the boat, moving almost into horizontal flight, had to head to the landing area embedded in its memory.

The freefall continued.

– Dear Holdum, is our landing going well? – Jum said, trying to sound calm.

– No, my Uabju! We were supposed to go into planning flight almost immediately. But apparently the wings didn’t come out of the hull.

Hearing this, the rest of the crew looked at each other. Tana her eyes glazed with horror, stared at the windshield, which was covered with red and yellow flashes. The cabin was getting hotter and hotter.

– Jum, come on! – shouted Dak.

Jum, overcoming the increasing overload, unhooked the straps holding him in his chair and in two steps reached the boat’s control stand. His rescue plan had matured. Now he would disengage the “auto-landing” and use the brake engines to reduce the speed of the fall. Jum knew that the runabout’s emergency rescue system had an ejectable soft dome for braking near the surface of planets with dense atmospheres.

– So, this planet has a dense atmosphere?

– Yes, it does! – Holdum answered instead of Dak, realizing Jum’s intention, -My boy, you are good! This is a real chance. Now…

He tried to unbuckle his belt, but it wouldn’t budge. It was even tighter.

– Well! – Holdum said irritably. – What’s the matter with the lock? A few more moves and it will strangle me! And it can’t be cut! My dear Uabju, we have a big problem! I won’t be able to operate the boat.

– If I may, Endeju, I’ll try! – said Jum with apparent calmness in his voice.

– Well, go ahead. We have no other choice.

Jum grabbed the lever with his fingers and tried to pull it toward him. The lever would not budge. Jum, already realizing the horror of the situation they were in, mechanically kept pulling the switch. It did not move. Holdum, who was watching carefully what Jum was doing, seemed to realize what was the matter.

– Come on, Abis, Dak! There’s a hatch in the far corner! See the handle? We’ve got to open it!

Dak and Abis unbuckled their harnesses and rushed to the hatch. Jum from the control panel and Tana from her chair watched them in bewilderment.

They tried to lift the floor hatch cover, struggling with the overload. At last, they succeeded.

– Is it open? There should be a universal screwdriver on top. Did you find it?

– Yes, Endeju!

We have to take the cover off the remote control! – he shouted. – And release the auto-landing lever.

Dak rushed over to Jum.

He began unscrewing the fasteners, and Jum, unhooking the shroud. After a few seconds, they were able to remove it. They saw the intricacy of wires and microcircuits. Ignoring all this, Jum rushed to the part of the console where the bright yellow lever was now free of the protection. Something glistened between the lever itself and the slot in which it was to move.

It was a metal star from an officer’s shoulder epaulet.

Dak instantly picked it up with his fingers and pulled it out of the slot. Jum immediately slid the freed toggle switch to the upper position. It moved quite freely. The buzzing of the autopilot disappeared. Jum began to press the buttons he knew and enter commands. Just a moment later the brake engines came on. When the brakes came on at full power, it was as if a giant hammer had struck the boat from below. Everyone collapsed to the floor. The overload became unbearable. Tana and Holdum passed out in their chairs. Abis lay motionless on the cabin floor. Dak, grabbing the handle of his chair, tried to pull himself up and stand. But he lacked strength.

Jum, with a jolt, hit the ceiling and was thrown right to the right edge of the console. If there hadn’t been a removed cover leaning against the console on that side, it was likely that Jum would have broken the console as he fell, and the boat would have become completely unmanageable. As it was… The consciousness he had lost when he hit the ceiling came back with a terrible pain: he had obviously broken his arm. Nevertheless, Jum, using his healthy left hand, managed to stabilize the boat in the air. Half lying on the bundles of wires, already falling into the darkness of unconsciousness, he reached the button responsible for ejecting the dome and slammed his palm on it.

On the planet

Tana awoke to a palpable silence. In the darkness, in the far corner of the cabin, the wires that had been severed in the crash were sparking. There was a disgusting smell of burning. The girl’s chair was lying on its side for some reason, making the seat belts press painfully into her shoulders. She tried to move her arms and legs. Everything was intact. At that moment something rustled on the floor and a flashlight beam cut through the darkness. Everything was filled up with yellowish-blue smoke.

– Hey, is anybody alive? – came Holdum’s voice. Judging by the shifting cone of light, he had managed to free himself from the straps of his chair, which had been skewed by the impact, stood up and tried to assess the situation.

– Endeju, I’m fine! – Tana replied, undoing the straps holding her in place. – What’s wrong with the guys?

– We’ll find out! – Holdum limped toward the other members of the boarding team. – Oh! My dear Uabju are alive… And even, if I’m not mistaken, practically healthy. Dak, Abis – let’s wake up.

The team leader patted them on the cheeks. Almost immediately, they stirred next to their chairs.

– Where is Jum? – Abis and Dak asked at the same time.

– As I recall, he was standing by the console when it happened.

Holdum, shining his flashlight in front of him, approached the mangled console. A faint groan came from under its cover, which lay in the far corner, partially crumpled by Jum’s fall.

Holdum and Tana, freed from her restraints, rushed toward the sound. Under the cover, face down, with his right arm unnaturally twisted, lay Jum. His clothes had burned through in several places and scorched and burned skin peeked through the holes. But he was alive.

Holdum, with the help of Abis and Dak, pulled the panel cover aside and rolled Jum over onto his back. He opened his eyes almost immediately and tried to smile.

– Here we are! – he whispered faintly. – Quite noisy, though. Did I break the boat?

– My dear! You saved us all. We’re on the surface of the planet. It’s an honorable thing to do. Really, I see it didn’t go well for you, did it? – Holdum jerked his head towards Jum’s hand. At that moment Tana tried to examine his hand with the utmost caution.

– We’re going to need an anesthetic and a splint. It looks like a fracture! – Tana said in a businesslike tone.

Everyone looked at her face, which was illuminated by the lantern beam.

– Why are you looking at me like that? It’s okay to know ancient first aid techniques. There won’t always be regenerators and medical analyzers around!

Jum winced in pain during all these manipulations, but did not utter a sound.

Finally, the anesthetic was given, and with the help of a piece of the long-suffering dashboard and the emergency first aid kit, Jum’s arm was secured in the area of the likely fracture and strapped to his body with two straps cut from the seat.

The emergency food kit lifted everyone’s spirits and gave them strength.

– And now let’s think quickly how to go on living, – said Holdum, who was still in good spirits. – Thanks to our hero’s efforts we are alive. And we are on the planet. The runabout, by all appearances, will not be able to take off. To get out through the warped hull, we’ll have to open the hull plating. We don’t know what’s waiting for us out there. I don’t think we’re in any danger of fire, so let’s have a good discussion before we stick our noses out.

The team sat down on the floor. The lantern was placed in the center of the cabin. Its light struck the ceiling. Dust flecks played in the beam, and a haze still lingered beneath the ceiling. Jum was leaned with his back against the wall.

– No one, I hope, had any doubts that they were trying to destroy us? So? So! Any thoughts? – Holdum said in a completely calm voice.

– Well, yes, there are thoughts, – said Jum, with a sidelong glance at his friends. – Since they tried to kill you, too, I think we can trust you. You see, we witnessed the murder of Captain Benaip during the flight. Not only that, but it turns out that most of the ship’s crew are conspirators involved in some kind of global operation to eliminate the Emperor. We think this is the reason for the staged runabout crash. Although we were very careful!

Tana, Dak, and Abis nodded in agreement. From the look on Holdum’s face, it seemed to the boys that he obviously knew something.

– Okay… so it’s likely that they think we’re dead. The question is… didn’t you think that it wasn’t really because you?

– What do you mean? – Jum raised his eyes in bewilderment.

– I suppose they might not have known that you’d heard or known anything. You haven’t been on their radar, have you? Maybe it’s something else. And that scares me even more. They could have tried to destroy all the landing boats!

– Endeju, – Abis interrupted him, – when we witnessed the crime, we heard another strange phrase from the mouth of the ‘new’ captain. He spoke of some mysterious person, who is, as we realized, among the members of the expedition. This unknown person himself does not know – who he is and the conspirators certainly do not know him, so to speak, “in person”. But he is in danger from them if he is discovered.

– It doesn’t get any easier from hour to hour! – Holdum muttered. – So, they’re planning to solve several problems at once?

The boys looked at each other in bewilderment.

– What do you mean, Endeju? – Dak expressed a general question.

– Just thinking out loud… Good! Since things are moving so fast, I don’t see the point in hiding it from you… Allow me to introduce myself – an employee of the Investigation Department of the Imperial Counterintelligence Holdum.

The whole team’s mouths dropped open at that confession.

– Of course, I can’t tell you everything yet. I’ll just give you a general outline, so to speak. You’re right. There is a deep-cover anti-government conspiracy. It involves many of the highest ranks in the metropolis. Army units are no exception.

– Tell me, is Admiral Obahh a traitor? – Abis inquired casually.

Holdum shuddered and looked carefully at the young climatologist.

– What makes you think that? Oh, yes, I was told about your team’s analytical skills. Don’t be surprised, we brought you together on purpose. Why? I can’t tell you yet. But I promise you’ll find out soon enough. The conspirators have enough money, but not enough influence to commandeer large ships to move troops to the center of the Empire. They don’t have much time either. Apparently, they felt they might be exposed soon enough, so they rushed in. Decided to expropriate the ships of long-range expeditions, so to speak. Wouldn’t you agree that’s a good move? By the time the information about the takeover reaches the edge of the Galaxy… According to my data, almost all such ships have embedded conspirators. Eighteen! Eighteen big ships could already be in their hands! That’s why we’ve had to look into these cases. I will not deny that I have something to counter the traitors. But in order to do that, I have to make sure that the expeditionary part of the crew is dead. That’s the way things are.

– Tell me, but you could have died, too, couldn’t you? Didn’t you realize that? What good is a dead scout? – Tana said hotly.

– Unfortunately, I didn’t see any other way to keep the conspiracy alive. I wish I had the information you have. I mean the information about the captain’s murder. Then surely, I would have acted sooner. If you had informed Thabit…

– Yes, we wanted to, but you must also understand. We didn’t know who was friend and who was foe! – Jum said in an apologetic tone, making his sore arm more comfortable. – What if Thabit had been a traitor?

– I’m not accusing you of anything. It’s just the way it is. All right. The general situation is clear. Let’s get back to reality. We need to get off the runabout, locate our position and the rest of the expedition. Only two of them have a medical regenerator. I foresee a long and dangerous hike through an area with unfamiliar flora and fauna.

Leaving Jum, despite his protests, to sit near the wall and ordering Tanya to take care of the “temporarily disabled member of the expedition”, the rest of the team, led by Holdum, began to open the jammed hatch. Eventually their superior strength and a pinch of explosives from the emergency kit did the trick. Through the cloud of smoke a bright light struck their eyes. A warm breeze blew into the cabin, bringing with it the smell of vegetation and the sound of the surf.

It’s awfully beautiful here!

Holdum was the first to get out of the boat with his paralyzer, followed by Abis and Dak, squinting and inhaling new, unfamiliar smells. Tana led her charge, gently supporting him by his healthy arm.

The boat lay at the beginning of a “surf” slope of small pebbles and loose rocks. The lower part of the craft was deformed. The brake engine nozzles were twisted outward, and the landing struts, which had not fully emerged, were flattened by the bottom. The parachute that had been shot off just in time was being carried by the wind along the hill. Below, the shoreline began, extending far to the right and left. On both sides it ended with rocky capes, hardly visible from here. Ahead, the turquoise-colored water stretched to the horizon, glistening under the rays of the yellow light high in the sky. Small white clouds floated across the sky. Above the boat, the steepness of the slope began to grow and blocked the view in the opposite direction from the shore. But that was where the strange smell of what they thought was the local vegetation was coming from.

– Well, that’s not bad at first glance, – said Holdum with a smirk.

– You know, I’ve read somewhere that these are the kind of planets where you have to keep your eyes open! – Jum said cautiously. – They’re relaxing and distracting in appearance, and then one day some creature eats your head!

Abis and Dak nodded in agreement.

– I agree, let’s not relax. We know nothing about fauna and flora, – agreed Holdum.

– And yet it is terribly beautiful and breathes well here! At least for now, – Tana sighed.

– Let’s go up the hill, shall we? I’d love to see what’s on the other side. And where does that wonderful smell come from? – Jum said excitedly.

– Well, if you can walk, – said Holdum doubtfully, – then let us walk. Wait a minute, though. Abis, would you mind fetching my luggage? It’s next to my chair. It’s strapped to the wall.

Abis rushed back into the boat and five minutes later pulled out a plastic box of “scouting gear”. It contained two optical enlargers, a positioning device, a water supply for everyone, and signal light “shots” in a set with military-style paralyzers.

– We won’t go far today! – said Holdum in a confident tone. – We’ll make a small reconnaissance of the area, determine the location, audit the equipment and everything necessary for survival, and then set up a temporary camp. Jum, how are you?

– I’m okay, thanks. I don’t know if I can walk much, though.

– Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. After all, am I a scout or what? I’ve got something among the loaded equipment that can be very useful in our situation, – Holdum smiled contentedly. – I just need to check that my cargo has survived the landing.

– So this suitcase is not all your cargo? – Dak exclaimed in surprise.

– If you look at each box separately, an uninitiated person will not say that there is something not quite necessary for a geologist or a climatologist, but if you screw a part from one box to a part from another box, you get… Anything can happen! – Holdum smiled again. – Shall we go for a walk? Dak will help Jum up the hill, for our lady is already tired. And you, Tana, take a good look around and appreciate the structure of this part of the land. Abis, the most important part of your research begins now. Here’s a optical enlarger. Observe and try to study the local wildlife. Our future lives may depend on you! – Holdum handed the device to Abis and, saying something in his ear, pointed to the crest of the hill. He began to climb up the hill at a brisk gait, getting a little bogged down in the small stones.

Once at the top, Abis took a close look at the surroundings through the optical enlarger, staring for a long time in the inaccessible for other direction beyond the crest. After ten minutes of observation, he waved to the others to come up. Taking a second enlarger, a signal shot, and a fully loaded paralyzer, Holdum, Jum and Dak, and Tana crawled to the summit ten minutes later, out of breath.

They could see the plain that began on the other side of the rampart. A dense, bluish-white fog swirled over the plain, stretching into the vast distance. At the foot of the rampart, where the fog was not so dense, one could see some brown scaly sticks of varying height and thickness sticking out above its surface. Some of them had a bunch of thin twigs or narrow leaves of a dark green color at the very top. To the left, very far away could be seen the mountains. But the mareva, coupled with the misty blanket over the plain, made their shape and color so erratic that it was impossible to determine their height or the presence of any vegetation.

– Wow! This is some terrain! – Jum, after a little breathing, said admiringly. – Do I think that this wonderful smell is coming from those broomsticks over there? – He pointed with his healthy hand to the plants sticking out of the fog.

– Maybe. I’m willing to bet that under the layer of fog there is a swamp that emits a completely different fragrance, – Abis said thoughtfully. – Did you notice those mountains over there? I tried to take a closer look at them: there was no obvious vegetation on them.

– It’s strange that this planet has so much oxygen with so little vegetation! – Dak joined the conversation.

– The atmosphere can be oxygenated by non-biological means. Under certain conditions it can also be released from rocks! – Holdum said instructively. – Now, since the atmosphere gives us a possibility to breathe without spacesuits, which, you must agree, is a great luck in our situation, and our inoculations and “techno-immunity” against alien microorganisms and other stuff are still working, let’s think about our salvation.

– May I say something? – Jum spoke again, carefully sitting down on loose stones, setting an example for the rest of the tired travelers. – Today I propose not to go anywhere. And it’s not even about my hand. It’s just that we need to take a good look around before we move. We’ll set up camp on the crest of this rampart. It’s safer. We’ll try to study the local wildlife. You know, so we know what to watch out for. We’ll get our bearings. Tomorrow we’ll move towards the main group’s landing site. If we can find one!

– Good suggestion! – Holdum noted with satisfaction. – For my part I can add the following… After setting up the camp we will establish a permanent duty. We will take turns in duty. I propose to exclude Tana from this list.

Tana shook her head indignantly.

– Well, all right, all right. Then Tana and Jum will be on duty together. Is that okay with you?

Everyone nodded.

– Okay. Next. I’ll need to bring all my suitcases along with the domes. There’s something I have to do. It’ll make our future a lot easier. Unless, of course, the instruments in those suitcases were damaged on landing. What we have in our first aid kit won’t heal your bones instantly, Jum, but it will do so for the foreseeable future. There don’t seem to be any complications. Unless the bone heals crookedly. It’ll give you that extra bit of glamor and make you look like an astronaut. What? No? I’m kidding. If something like that happens, it’ll be fixed in five minutes on the ship’s stationary instrument.

– Are you sure we’ll ever get to the ship? – Tana asked with hope in her voice.

– Almost one hundred percent!

– To be honest, I was beginning to fear that we wouldn’t be able to leave and would have to stay on this strange planet forever.

– Well, you just haven’t seen any strange planets yet, Uabju. This one’s pretty good. Trust me. Gather your strength! Well, let’s get started!

First Camp

For the rest of the day, Abis and Dak, bending under the weight of crates and drenched in sweat, hauled their loads to the crest of the hill where Holdum was leveling the camp site. By evening, two lightweight metal-plastic domes stood on the site. One consisted of two rooms – cabin for members of the expedition and a common dining room. The second dome contained the devices that Holdum had assembled with the help of Dak and Abis from a suitcase constructor and very small means of transportation over the planet surface. Like a magician, Holdum, who had been fiddling with the hardware for a long time, brought out of the small dome a square platform that hung above the surface of the planet at knee height. Smiling Jum and Tana followed him out.