Session 6

Jet clung to the sill of the broken window, his heart thundered in his chest. He swore he could still hear the sound of the doors slamming shut echoing. But in truth, that was just the thrashing of the huge elasmosaur. Its long neck curved up and slammed down in futile attempts to catch what remained of the archeopteryx. Gears and springs from the dismantled creature scattered across the floor and every brush of the giant beast's flippers sent more flying. It was an endless cycle of destruction.

From his perspective, behind the doors Spike and Faye remained in a Schrodinger's box. In Jet's mind they were in two states at once: perfectly fine and perfectly deceased. The only thing that kept him from dashing down into the room was one very pissed off and aggressive aquatic dinosaur of doom.

Ed rested her chin on her folded arms beside him. "Oooo la la. He's madder than showering Faye-Faye when Spike-person turns off the hot water."

Jet blinked. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. There were no words. For all he knew the two of them could be dead. How could Ed … oh yes, this was Ed after all. He groaned and leaned forward.

Claws tapped across the floor, Ein popped up and gazed down into the roiling mess below. He cocked his head back and forth, huge ears turning as he took it all in.

"Maybe the dino has a tummy ache." Ed patted her belly. "Remember when Faye-Faye ate the bad food? Grouchy ouchy! Run away from Faye!"

"That doesn't make sense." Jet snapped. "It's a machine. They don't have emotions!"

"MPU does."

"Who?"

"MPU." Ed pointed to the computer still strapped to Ein's back. "Satellite friend. Remember when Spike-person nearly got lasered out of sky by the attack satellites? Pew pew! Pew!"

Jet palmed his face. "Seriously Ed, we need to figure out how to get Spike and Faye out of there. Unless your electronic buddy has some super genius plan, I don't need to hear about him."

She shrugged. "Well, we can ask him if he gots a plan."

"I don't think carvings are going to be a good distraction."

"Of course not, silly. That was just bored entertainment. Interspacial carve by number. MPU can do other things."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Like what."

"Like—" Ed's words cut short as Ein scrambled up over the ledge, his fluffy butt vanished as he dropped out of view.

Jet leaped toward the dog, his hand closed on strands of fur. A moment later the head of the elasmosaur shot into the center of the aviary. The small corgi, complete with onboard computer, slid down the slime-encrusted neck of the beast. Of course the elasmosaur was less thrilled, he arched around trying to search out the brazen fuzzy clinging beast.

It was to no avail. The moment that Ein landed on the back of the dinosaur's neck, he slipped down the side and rode the flipper to the floor. Once his claws hit tiles, Ein scampered around the thrashing creatures attempts to stop him and made straight for a small hole in the wall into the auditorium. He folded his head back to the frantic shouts above.

Too much time had already passed. It was time to take things into his own paws. And if Ein was right, he could solve this little dilemma in a flick of his tail … errr rump. What is it with humans and standing around flapping their yaps?

Inside the darkened auditorium his eyes adjusted almost immediately. A fair distance down the row he glimpsed the familiar outlines of Spike and Faye back to back with their guns out. In the musty air that reeked of oil and hydraulic fluids the clicking of the dozens of chicken-sized compsognathus gathered. They were everywhere, far too many to shoot out lingered in the darkness. Ein somehow doubted that the humans with their poor low-light vision grasped how screwed they were.

Ein snuffed. Typical of his companions. Always eyeball deep in shit and making it ten times the worse. Kinda like the first time he'd met Spike. Now that was the most fun Ein'd had in ages—leading that foolish human in circles. That's why he stuck around. The entertainment value. So easy to get that Spike riled up. It wasn't the food. Ick, no. Not since Faye kept eating his rations. Really, what is it with humans?

The clicking of one of the compsognathus increased in frequency, rather like a ticking time bomb. The others began to echo it.

Oh yeah, they're in trouble.

Ein dashed through the crowd of mini-dinosaurs, startling them. They shifted away for a moment, cyber-eyes wide. Within a moment, Ein slid between Spike's wide stance and lept up onto the back of the chair. His eyes met the stare of the boldest clicking compy. The beast with the highest head set opened its jaws and hissed. The leader.

Ein's ears lifted higher onto his head, and in a series of micro motions began to flag out a cycle. The click of his ear cartilage could hardly be heard by the human ear. But the pattern, the code cut through in tiny vibrations. Segment by segment it fed into the machine before him, spread like a virus into the pack surrounding them. Slowly, the creatures sank down, head below the conquering corgi height. The pack's eyes half closed into dull stares as their fore-limbs touched the ground. Hack complete.

That's right, blinky. Bow to the power of the datadog. There'll be no chewing up my meal-tickets, thank you very much.

"Spike am I … ?"

"Don't ask me. I'm not doing a damn … Ein? What the hell are you doing here?"

Saving your worthless asses. Besides, if they eat you, who am I going to get to throw my squeaky toy? Oh yeah, can't wait to get back to the ship so you can find where I hid it last. Hehe!

"I have no idea what got into them." Spike cleared his throat. "Well, this is great and all, but uh … we still have a rather large problem outside that door."

As if it heard him, the elasmosaur struck the wall. A shower of dust rained down.

Ein opened his mouth in a panting smile. Oh come on. You think I didn't calculate for that? You forget who you're dealing with, Cowboy. I am the master Cow-woof-woof!

In a few flicks of his ears the code transferred. The leader of the compy pack shot his head up and screamed out a war cry. He took off toward the door. The fierce pack funneled past Spike and Faye nearly tripping them in the runaway current. The small bodies of the creatures slammed against the doors.

Once. Twice. On the third time the doors rattled and opened. Tiny claws wrenched the gap open and a flood compsognathus raged into the aviary on a suicidal tangent right into the path of a startled elasmosaur.

At the door Spike and Faye stared up into the waterfall of raining robot compy parts, too numerous to count, as their mess of claws tore panels from the thrashing monster. Hoard met megabeast in a mass melee.

At Spike's feet, Ein grinned at the red hydraulic fluid seeping onto the floor. The result of his sweet sweet carnage. Told ya, I am the master Cow-woof-woof! Now you remember this next time you get out the those yummy Earth treats.

See You Space Cowboy …