Session 4

Jet climbed over a tree branch that speared the outer wall and half blocked the hallway. Rays of sunlight illuminated bare footprints on the grimy floor. More specifically he followed steady paw prints. Ein followed that girl everywhere. He grumbled to himself about the tight spaces picturing the acrobatic girl swinging in-between the debris. Wiping sweat from his forehead he was glad he didn't have long sleeves on. He longed for the climate control of the Bebop. Before he could go back there he now had to find the rest of his crew.

How typical, what a mess. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, thirst killing him. When I find those two I'm going put both of them on leashes.

At last he came to a half open door. The prints went in, but didn't come out.

A shriek carried through the window. Jet spun around with his gun wielded and faced the moister-riddled glass. One of the bright feathered archeopteryx spread its wings, peering beady eyes at him. A moment later another landed. Then another.

Jet took a nervous step back. The savage stares of the tiny dinosaurs set his scalp throbbing. "Not again." The glass separated them at least. Not turning his back, he stepped into the room bathed in a soft, flickering light. An effected voice pattered on, something about the consonants came out wrong, rather like someone trying to speak baby talk in a language foreign to them. He turned to find Ed and Ein seated in front of a large projection screen, enthralled with the image of a large purple … was that supposed to be a dinosaur? He squinted. It sort of looked like one, maybe all bloated up by an allergic reaction to something. But it looked … just … disturbingly wrong.

Ed grinned into the flicker images, rocking back and forth as the thing on the screen spoke.

" … that's right, boys and girls. Reptiles are lazy in the cold. They need lots of warmth from the sunny sun sun or they won't get up in the morning. Hehe. However, in this park the extra-duper-super smarties who made us for your safe entertainment … "

Jet lowered his gun. "Entertainment? Park?" He glanced around the class room lined with tables and what looked like mock-ups of bone embedded in stones, nests with eggs as large as his head, diagrams of cute looking dinosaurs grinning hung on the walls. "Who the hell would build something like this?"

With a cat-hiss, Ed turned to him. "Shh! Ed is watching." In a split second her eyes returned to the screen and she clapped her hands along with the ridiculous sing-song.

Ein padded over to Jet, the computer wobbling back and forth on his back. He pawed and whined at Jet's ankles.

Bending over, Jet discovered the computer strap was a bit loose. He tugged it tight. "There you go, boy. Now, you and me gotta come to terms here. No more wandering off. This place isn't very safe."

Ein yapped back, that earned the corgi a hiss from Ed. His ears shot back.

On the screen, the voice yammered on. " … as the mascot of this doodleyum place it's my job to introduce you to all my funtastic friends. When you go downstairs don't forget to stop by the duper-super special tank and shake flippers with my friend the elasmosaurus. Way way back in time he swam through the seas and snapped up lots of proto-fish in his jaws. But he won't bite you. Nope. That's because the duper-super smarties in the labs that made him told him and all my other doodleyum pals that biting people was a no no. So don't be scared, just look for pillars with the big hand print like mine for information on my buddies. And always remember the dinosaur song. I adore you. You adore me. We're a household un-it-y. With a friendly smile and a hidey how you do? Loving people's all we knew. Have fun and buh-bye boys and girls!" The screen turned black.

Jet cringed as the song lodged itself in his head. "Ok, whoever wrote this shit was either a moron or an evil sicko." He walked over to Ed and picked her up, she flailed, screaming in protest. "Knock it off. You watched all there is. Clearly there is power in this place. So we might be able to find water."

Hanging limp from her shirt, Ed cocked her head and pointed over to a large machine lined with bottles. "You mean like that?"

Jet set her on the floor and darted to the dark glass. The power was off, the surface room temp. But inside the bottles seemed to have been protected from the elements. He glanced behind and the device was plugged into the wall. The buttons did nothing, no matter how hard he punched them. "Well, this is odd."

Swinging from an exposed pipe in the ceiling, Ed chanted, "Power on in some, nothing sent to some. Breaker breaker, broken. No juice. Weee!"

He huffed a breath, she was right but did she have to sing it so cheerily? Now that damn dinosaur's song paraded through his mind driving him nuts. There were no other outlets close enough to the machine. So getting power to it wasn't going to work. He bent down and pushed his hand up and into the dispensary. His hand appeared on the other side of the glass—inches from the life saving fluids. "Damn it!"

The door gripped his arm. Stuck. Jet jerked against the pressure of the door. The more he moved, the more the spring placed pressure on his arm. "Uh oh."

Ein padded up sniffed at the opening. He turned his butt toward the machine and gave the door a solid kick.

The pressure abandoned Jet's arm for the split second he needed to get his arm loose. He heaved a sigh. "Ok, well … that's not gonna work." He ran his fingers over the glass. A slow smile emerged.

Taking out his gun, he backed up a step and pulled the trigger. Pa-ting! Forced to duck, Jet stared at the small dent surrounded by spider webbing.

"Whaaat? They used bullet proof glass on a vending machine?"

Ein's ears twisted around. He stared up at Jet's left hand. When it was clear the message wasn't getting through he stuck his nose in the palm and wriggled it around.

Jet pulled his hand up. "Ein, what are you … oh." He stared at the fist and shrugged. "Let's try something bigger."

He hauled off and put all his weight into the blow. The glass resisted his impact, but under the unrelenting force it let his fist through. He grabbed onto one the bottles and pulled it out. Holding it in the air, he cheered. "We're gonna live now! We just gotta find Spike and Faye."

A tremendous crash sounded below them, shaking the building. An irate voice followed, "I-hate-amusement-parks!"

Ed bounded over to a cracked windowpane and stared three stories down. "Hey! Look Spike-person and Faye-Faye!"

He joined her at the window. The floor below shimmered in the sunbeams cutting through the moss covered glass dome of the atrium. In the center of the mess, an immense flippered dinosaur with a long neck lay in a rusted heap at the feet of two very wet ship-mates, both draped in strands of green algae. Spike seethed, stomping his feet and leaving a series of sporadic ripples that lapped against the scatter of bones. Grimly, Jet noted those were all human.

He pushed the windowpane out of the seating and let it fall, in no danger of hitting the others across the atrium. The crash caught their attention, Spike and Fay stared up at him. "How'd you get down there?"

Spike cupped a hand and shouted, "Long story." His voice echoed in the large atrium.

"Well, you're going the wrong direction. Now get back up here. Remember, we wanted to get to that tower."

"Yeah yeah. We're working on it. This place is a maze."

Jet glanced as Ed picked Ein up off the floor and held him up in a ray of light. His paws wriggled in the air. "Hold still, Ein. Need to charge." A tone sounded, low at first and gradually increasing in pitch until it chimed cheerily. She set Ein back down and grinned. "There we go. All juiced up."

Jet shook his head and held up the bottle so Spike could see it. "I found what we were looking for. It's not cold. But should still be drinkable."

"Good!"

Faye shouted up, "Anything with alcohol?"

Jet laughed. "Not here. Looks like this was a kid's classroom."

"This place was for kids?"

Spike folded his arms, "Great place for a vacation. Come to a weird ass fake jungle that would take a fortune to establish on an asteroid and become chew toys for artificial life. Sounds like a great time."

Jet waved a hand. "Just get up here so we can find a way back to the ship."

"Hey Faye, you see stairs around here?"

"No, but I see a huge empty water tank with a lot of debris covering its roof. Ick. Water should not be green. Looks like this used to have a skylight."

From above, Jet remarked, "I'll see if I can find something we can carry the bottles in." The moment he turned from them a low tone began an ominous steady climb. He glanced back into the atrium, cocking an eyebrow. The sound came from in there, echoing in the enclosure. Spike and Faye glanced around, clearly unable to tell the source.

Spike scratched his head. "We heard that earlier this morning … what the hell … ?"

Slowly, Jet turned and stared at Ed sitting before her computer. He'd just heard that same sound. His heart rammed against his ribs. He leaned out the window and yelled, "Get out of there!"

Their blank stares met his from three stories below as the crescendo reached its climax. From Jet's perspective he stared as a light on the elasmosaurus's body changed from amber to green. A second later, its eyes slammed open.


See You Space Cowboy …