Chapter 24
Just the Beginning
Sonic moved slowly, edging around the laboratory, leading the raptors away from Gennaro and the kids. He could see another door, nearer to the front, which was marked TO LABORATORY. Whatever that meant. He suddenly had an idea, and he hoped he was right. The door had a blue biohazard sign. The raptors moved in closer, time to move. Sonic turned and slammed into the door, and moved beyond it, into a deep, warm silence.
He turned.
Yes.
He was where he wanted to be, in the hatchery: beneath infrared lights, long tables, with rows of eggs and a low clinging mist. The rockers on the tables clicked and whirred in a steady motion. The mist poured over the sides of the tables and drifted to the floor, where it disappeared, evaporated.
Sonic ran directly to the rear of the hatchery, into a glass-walled laboratory with ultraviolent lights. His clothing glowed blue, and his fur was brighter than normal. He looked around at the glass reagents, beaker full of pipettes, glass dishes…all delicate laboratory equipment.
The raptors entered the room with a hiss, cautiously at first, sniffing the humid air, looking at the long rocking tables of eggs. The lead animal wiped its bloody jaws with the back of its forearm. Silently the raptors passed between the long tables. The animals moved through the room in a coordinated way, ducking from time to time to peer beneath the tables.
They were looking for him.
Sonic crouched, and moved to the back of the lab. Trying to remember everything Charmy had said about this room on the tour the day before. He looked up, and saw a metal hood marked with skull and crossbones. A sign said CAUTION BIOGENIS TOXINS A5 PRECAUTIONS REQUIRED. Sonic smirked, he remembered that Charmy had said they were powerful poisons. Only a few molecules would kill instantaneously….
The hood lay flush against the surface of the lab table. Sonic could not slip his hand under it. He tried to open it, but there was no door, no handle, no way that he could see….Sonic rose slowly, and glanced back at the main room. The raptors were still moving among the tables. Good.
He turned to the hood. He saw an odd metal fixture sunk into the surface of the table. It looked like an outdoor electrical outlet with a round cover. He flipped the cover, and saw a button. Here goes nothing, he thought. He pressed the button.
With a soft hiss, the hood slipped open and upward, to the ceiling. Sonic glanced at the raptors, they hadn't noticed the sound.
He saw glass shelves above him, and rows of bottles marked with a skull and crossbones. He peered at the labels, all of them complicated and confusing. The fluids glowed pale green in the ultraviolet light. Nearby he saw a dish with syringes in it. The syringes were small, each containing a tiny amount of green glowing fluid. Crouched in the blue hued darkness, Sonic moved forward and reached for the dish. The needles on the syringes were capped in plastic. He removed one cap, pulling it off with his teeth. He looked at the thing needle…
Then he moved forward. Toward the raptors.
He had devoted his whole life to studying dinosaurs. Now he would see how much he really knew. Velociraptors were small carnivorous dinosaurs, like oviraptors and dromaesaurs, animals that were long though to steal eggs. Just as certain modern birds ate the eggs of other birds. Sonic had always assumed the raptors would eat dinosaur eggs if they could.
He crept forward to the nearest egg table in the hatchery, his heart pounding. Slowly he reached up into the mist and took a large egg from the table. The egg was almost the size of a football, cream-colored with faint pink speckling. He held the egg carefully and stuck the needle through the shell, then injected the contents of the syringe. The egg glowed faintly blue, hopefully the raptors wouldn't notice that.
Sonic bent down again. Beneath the table, he saw the legs of the raptors, and mist pouring from the tabletops. He rolled the glowing egg along the floor, toward the raptors. The raptors looked up, hearing the faint rumble as the egg rolled, jerking their heads around. Then resumed their slow stalking search.
The egg stopped several yards from the nearest raptor.
Damn!
Sonic did it all again, reaching for an egg, bringing it down, injecting it, and rolling it toward the raptors. This time, the egg came to rest by the foot of one velociraptor. It rocked gently, clicking against the big toe claw.
The raptor looked down in surprise at this new gift. It bent over, sniffing the glowing egg. It rolled the egg with its snout along the floor for a moment.
And ignored it.
The velociraptor stood upright again, and slowly moved on, continuing the search.
Double damn!
Sonic growled mentally. This wasn't working!
He inject a third egg. He held the glowing egg in his hands and rolled it again. But he rolled this one fast and hard, like a bowling ball. The egg rattled across the floor loudly.
One of the animals heard the sound-ducked down- saw it coming – and instinctively chased the moving object, gliding swiftly among the tables to intercept the egg as it rolled. The big jaws snapped down and bit into the egg, crushing the shell. YES!
The raptors stood, pale albumen dripping from its jaws. It licked its lips noisily, and snorted. It bit again, and lapped the egg from the floor. But it didn't seem to be in the least bit distressed. It bent over to eat again from the broken egg. Sonic looked down to see what would happen…
From across the room, the raptor saw him. It was looking right at him.
The velociraptor growled menacingly. It moved towards Sonic, crossing the room in long, incredibly swift strides. Sonic was shocked to see it happening and froze in panic, when suddenly the animal made a gasping, gurgling sound and the big body pitched forward to the floor. The heavy tail thumped the floor in spasms, the body jerking. The raptor continued to make choking sounds, punctuated by intermittent shrieks. Foam began to bulled from its mouth. The head flopped back and forth. The tail slammed and thumped.
That's one, Sonic thought.
However, it wasn't dying very quickly. No, it seemed to take forever to die. Sonic reached up for another egg-and saw that the other raptors in the room were frozen in mid-action. They listened to the sound of the dying animal, curious. One cocked its head, then the other. The first animal moved to look at the fallen raptor.
The dying raptor was now twitching, the whole body shaking. It made pitiful moans and whimpers. One could almost be sorry for the creature….Almost. So much foam bubbled from its mouth that Sonic could hardly see the head anymore. It flopped on the floor and moaned again.
The second raptor bent over the fallen animal, examining it. It appeared to be puzzled by the sudden death throes. Cautiously, it looked at the foaming head, then moved down to the twitching and jerking neck, the heaving ribs, the legs….
And it took a bite from the hind leg.
The dying animal snarled, and jerked up, it lifted its head and twisted, sinking its teeth into the neck of the attacker.
That's two, Sonic thought.
But the standing animal wrenched free. Blood flowed in little rivers from its neck. It struck out with its hind claws, and with a single, swift, and precise movement, ripped open the belly of the fallen raptor. Coils of intestine fell out like fat snakes, blood gushed out onto the floor, pooling quickly. The screams of the dying raptor filled the room. The attacked turned away, as if fighting it was suddenly too much trouble.
It crossed the room, ducked down, and came up with a glowing egg! Sonic watched as the raptor bit into it, the glowing material dripping down its chin.
That makes two.
The second raptor was stricken almost instantly, coughing and pitching forward. As it fell, it knocked over a table. Dozens of eggs rolled everywhere across the floor splattering and rolling. Sonic looked at them in dismay.
There was still a third raptor left.
How was he supposed to kill it now? Sonic had one more syringe left. With so many eggs rolling on the floor, he would have to do something else. He was trying to decide what to do when the last animal snorted irritably. Sonic looked up-
The raptor had spotted him.
The final raptor did not move for a long time, it just stared. And then, it slowly, quietly came towards him. Stalking him. Bobbing up and down, looking beneath the table, then above them. It moved deliberately, cautiously, it seemed to know he was the cause of the other raptors deaths. It displayed no swiftness that it had displayed in a pack. A solitary animal now, careful. It never took its eyes of Sonic. Sonic looked around. There was nowhere for him to hide, nowhere to run to. Nothing for him to do….
Sonic gaze lock onto the raptor, moving slowly and laterally. Sonic moved, too. He tried to keep as many tables as he could between himself and the advancing animal. Slowly….very slowly…he moved to the left…
The raptor advanced in the dark red gloom of the hatchery. Its breath came in soft hisses, through flared nostrils. Its eyes were narrow on Grant.
Sonic felt eggs breaking beneath his feet, the yolk sticking to the sole of his shoes. He crouched down, ready to run, and felt the bulge of the radio in his pocket.
The radio.
He pulled it from his pocket and turned it on.
"Hello. This is Grant."
"Sonic!" Shelly's voice, "Oh chaos, Sonic is that you?"
"Listen," he said softly, "Just talk."
"Sonic is that you?"
"Talk," he said one more time, and he pushed the radio across the floor, away from him, toward the advancing raptor.
He crouched behind a table leg and waited.
"Sonic. Speak to me, please!"
Then a crackle, and silence. The radio remained silent. The raptor advanced. Soft hissing breath.
The radio was still silent.
What was wrong? Did she not understand? In the darkness the raptor came closer. Sonic leaned back, scared out of his wits end. His heart pounded so hard he half expected it to fly out of his chest and land on the floor.
"…Sonic?"
The tinny voice from the radio made the big animal pause. It sniffed the air, as if sensing someone else in the room.
"Sonic, it's me. I don't know if you can hear me, but I'll keep talking."
God bless you Shelly, he thought.
The raptor now turned away from Grant, and moved toward the radio.
"Sonic….please pick up the radio…answer me. Are you all right? What's going on?"
Why hadn't he pushed the radio farther away? Yes, the raptor was going toward the radio, but it was close. The big foot came down very near him. Sonic could make out the pebbled skin, the soft green glow, the streaks of dried blood on the curved claw. He could now smell the strong odor of the reptile.
"Sonic, listen to me…Sonic?"
The raptor bent over, poked the radio on the floor, tentatively. Its body was turned away from Grant. The big tail was right above the azure hedgehog's head. Sonic reached up and jabbed the syringe deep into the flesh of the tail, and injected the poison.
The velociraptor snarled and jumped. With frightening speed it swung back toward Sonic, jaws wide. It snapped, its jaws closing on the table leg, and it jerked its head up. The table was knocked away, and Sonic fell back, now completely exposed. The raptor loomed over him, rising up, its head banging against the infrared lights above, making them swing crazily.
"Sonic?"
The raptor reared back, and lifted its clawed foot to kick. Sonic rolled, and the foot slammed down, just missing him.
Or so he thought.
He felt a searing sharp pain along his shoulder blades, he cried out in pain, the sudden warm flow of blood stained over his shirt. He rolled across the floor, crushing eggs, smearing his hands and face, blood staining the floor. The raptor kicked again, smashing the radio, spattering sparks. It snarled in rage, and roared, it kicked a third time, and Sonic came to the wall, nowhere else to go. He was trapped.
He was going to die.
The animal raised its foot a final time.
And toppled backward.
The animal was wheezing. Foam came from its mouth. Sonic felt his limbs go limp and he slumped onto the floor. Letting out a sigh of relief. Oh, thank God for protecting him.
He'd have to thank Shelly to, when this was all over.
Hell, he'd maybe even kiss her.
Mighty and the kids came into the room, Mighty seemed paled, he probably thought Grant was going to die same amount as he was. Sonic signaled them to stay back, as the raptor jerked and wheezed. Cream looked at the dying animal with wide eyes. Tails was standing there, mouth agape, pointing at the raptor.
Mighty eyed the animal, "Wow."
Mighty reached over, and helped Grant to his feet, "Are you alright."
"Fine," Sonic winced, "Just a back scratch, we'll look at it later."
They all turned, and ran for the control room.
Tails was astonished, to find Dr. Grant had killed all three raptors. And he was just about to say so as they entered the control room when he noticed the screen was now flashing on and off. Cream said, "What happened?"
Tails watched as Dr. Grant rushed up to the computer. He stopped and stared at the screen, and gingerly moving his hand toward keyboard. He cursed, "I don't know a thing about computers," Grant said, shaking his head.
But Tails was already sliding into the seat. He touched the screen rapidly. On the video monitors, he could see the boat moving closer to the harbor. It was only about two hundred yards from the dock. On the monitor, he saw the lodge, with raptors hanging down from the ceiling. On the radio, he heard their snarls.
"Tails…." Cream said, "I think you should get the power on now."
He pushed SETGRIDS DNL, even though it was flashing
The screen answered:
WARNING: COMMAND EXECUTION ABORTED (AUX POWER LOW)
"What does that mean?" Tails said.
Gennaro snapped his fingers, "That happened before. It means auxiliary power is low. You have to turn on the main power."
"I do?"
He pushed ELECTRICAL MAIN.
Tails groaned as another menu popped up. Grant leaned over and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "You're doing great Tails, I would have never gotten this far. Just keep calm, you'll figure it out."
"Yeah Tails!" Cream cheered, she seemed to know he was way over stressed now, "You can do it, you know computers remember?" He had to give it to her. She could be supportive when she knew she had to.
Tails pushed MAIN.
Nothing happened. The screen continued to flash.
Tails pushed MAIN GRID P. He felt sick to his stomach with fear.
MAIN POWER GRID NOT ACTIVE/ AUXILIRAY POWER ONLY
The screen was still flashing. He pushed MAIN SET 1.
MAIN POWER ACTIVATED.
All the lights in the room came on. All the monitor screens stopped flashing. "Hey! All right!"
Tails pressed RESET GRIDS. Nothing happened for a moment. He glanced at the video monitors, then back at the main screen.
WHICH GRID DO YOU WANT TO RESET?
"Oh God, the raptors." Mighty whispered.
Grant was saying something that Tails did not hear. But he could clearly hear the tension in his voice, he picked up the radio, "We've almost got it Shelly, hold on!"
"I know." The female responded.
Cream grabbed her brothers arm, "Come on Tails! You can do it big brother! Almost there, Almost there!"
Tails wouldn't look at the video monitor anymore. He could hear the sound of the bars bending in the lodge, and the raptors snarling. They were so close. He heard Malcolm say, "Dear God…"
He pushed LODGE.
SPECIFY GRID NUMER TO RESET
For a frozen interminable moment, he could not remember the number, but the he remembered, F4, and he pressed just that.
ACTIVATING LODGE GRID F4 NOW.
On the video monitor, he saw an explosion of sparks, sputtering down from the ceiling of the hotel room. The monitor flared white. Cream gasped, "What did you do? Did you get the power on?" but almost immediately the image came back and they could see that the raptors were caught between the bars, writhing and screaming in a hot cascade of sparks while everyone in the lodge cheered, their voices tinny over the radio.
"That's it! Grant cheered, scooping Tails up and swinging him around, "That's it! Tails you did it! You little genius you! You did it!"
Cream hugged him, and Gennaro gave him a hearty slap on the back, "Way to go kid!"
They were all standing and jumping up and down when Cream said, "What about the ship?"
"That what?"
"The ship," she said, and pointed to the screen.
On the monitor, the buildings beyond the bow of the ship were much larger, and moving to the right, as the ship turned left and prepared to dock. He saw crewman heading out to the bow, preparing to tie up.
Tails scrambled back to his seat, and stared at the startup screen.
He studied the screen. TeleCom VBB and TeleCom RSD both looked like they might have something to do with telephones. He pressed TeleCom RSD.
YOU HAVE 23 WAITING CALL AND/OR MESSAGES.
DO YOU WISH TO RECEIVE THEM NOW?
He pushed NO.
"Maybe the ship was one of the waiting calls," Cream suggested. "Maybe that way you could get the phone number!"
He thought of it.
ENTER THE NUMBER YOU WITH TO CALL OR PRESS F7 FOR DIRECTORY.
He pushed F7 and suddenly names and numbers spilled over the screen, and enormous directory. It wasn't alphabetical, and it took a while to scan it visually before he found what he was looking for:
VSL VICTORIA Q. (FREDDY) 708 – 3902
Now all he had to do was figure out how to dial. He pushed a row of buttons at the bottom of the screen:
DIAL NOW OR DIAL LATER?
Really? Did he have to think about that one? I think not.
He pushed DIAL NOW.
WE'RE SORRY, YOUR CALL CANNOT BE COMPLETED AS DIALED.
{ERROR – 589}
PLEASE TRY AGAIN.
He tried again.
He heard a dial tone, then the tone of the numbers being automatically dialed in rapid succession.
"Is that it?" Grant said.
"Pretty good, Tails," Cream said, "But that phone better hurry, they're almost there." On the screen, they could see the prow of the ship closing on the dock. They heard a high-pitched squeal, and then a voice said, "Ah, Hello, Omega, this is Freddy. Do you read me over?"
Tails picked up a phone on the console but only heard a dial tone.
Oh no.
"Ah, hello, Omega? This is Freddy. Do you read me over?
"Find the a phone!" Cream cried.
Now they were all picking up phones, lifting every receiver in sight, but they only heard dial tones. Finally Tails saw a phone mounted on the side of the console with a blinking light.
"Ah, hello, control. This is Freddy. Do you read me, over?"
Tails grabbed the receiver. "Hello, this its Tails Murphy, and I need you to-"
"Ah, say that again, didn't get that Omega."
"Don't land the boat! Do you hear me?"
There was a pause. Then a puzzled voice said, "Sounds like some damn kid."
Tails tried again, "Don't land the ship! Come back to the island!"
The voices sounded distant and scratchy, "Did he – name was Murphy?" And another voice said. " I didn't get-name."
Tails looked frantically at the others. Gennaro reached for the phone. "Let me do this. Can you get his name?"
There was a sharp crackle of static. "-got to be a joke or else- a- frigging ham operator- omthing."
Tails was working on the keyboard, there was probably some kind of a way to find out who Freddy was…
"Can you hear me?" Gennaro said, into the phone. "If you can hear me, answer me now, over."
"Son," came the drawled reply, "we don't know who the hell you are, but you're not funny, and we're about to dock, and we've got work to do. Now, identify yourself properly of get the hell off this channel."
Tails watched as the screen printed out, FARRELL, FREDERICK D. (CAPT.)
Gennaro glanced at the screen, "Try this for identification, Captain Farrell," Gennaro said. "If you don't turn that boat around and return to this island immediately, you will be found in violation of Section 509 of the Uniform Maritime Act, you will be subjected to revocation of license, penalties in excess of fifty thousand dollars, and five years in jail. Do you hear that?"
There was a silence.
"Do you copy that, Captain Farrell?" Gennaro smirked.
And then, distantly, they heard a voice say, "I copy," and another voice said, "All ahead stern." The boat then began to turn away from the dock.
Cream cheered. Tails collapsed back in the chair, wiping the sweat from his furry forehead.
Grant turned to Gennaro, "What's the Uniform Maritime Act?"
"Who the hell knows?" Gennaro laughed.
They all watched the screen with satisfaction. The boat was definitely heading away from the shore.
"I guess the hard part's finished," Gennaro said.
Grant shook his head, his eyes closed, "The hard part," he sighed, opening his eyes, "is just the beginning.
Who just about broke her fingers trying to make this chapter?
ME!
The raptors are all finally dead. The boat is coming back. Things are finally, looking better.
Or is it? Because Sonic seems to think otherwise.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, till next time!