A TANGLED WEB Part 8: Endgame
Chapter 2 – Strangers in a Strange Land
by Charlie Nelson a.k.a. Ordinaryguy2
AuThOr'S NoTeS:
Crossovers in this chapter include Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985); Land of the Lost (1974-1976); Lost in Space (1965-1968); The Monkees (1966-1968); Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975); Predator (1987)
Because this is taking place in Land of the Lost, I am adding a little summary of the show from IMDB.
The Marshalls - widowed ranger father Rick, and his two children Will and Holly - are on an outdoor expedition like they have many times before. While rafting on this trip, an earthquake opens up a chasm resulting in them tumbling across some raging rapids and over an unknown waterfall. They end up alive but in a world unfamiliar to them, a world they will ultimately coin the Land of the Lost. It is inhabited by creatures some they have never seen or heard of, and some which no longer exist in the world they knew back home, creatures such as dinosaurs. They will find that some of these creatures are friendly, and some of them which they need to stay away from for their lives. As they eke out a life in this strange land, they try to understand what got them here so that they can make their way back home, that process which is fraught with its own dangers based on the unknowns of what is on the path to home. What they are also initially unaware of is that Rick's brother, fellow ranger Jack Marshall, is trying to trace their path to locate them.
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Slowly moving through the reeds in the shallows, Sigmund gently splashed away the unusual water bugs that he didn't recognize. His large eyes darted back and forth, searching for the large two-headed long necked monster whose habitat this was. He wasn't sure if the water creature was a meat-eater or a plant-eater, but he was sure that he didn't want to end up in its massive jowls while it figured out whether or not to digest him.
When he had been ocean diving of the coast of California five weeks prior, a sudden ocean quake had sucked him down into a chasm and he had come up in this marshy area. The quake, which had brought Sigmund here, had also evidently unsettled the two-headed creature, the likes of which Sigmund's poor mind had never conceived of before. Because of the massiveness of the monster, it stayed on the deep side of the marsh where a river seemed to trickle through the area. On the very shallow part of the marsh where Sigmund had been forced to take up residence, there was a large mountain that he deemed unclimbable for him. He did find some caves and had managed some exploring, but even there he had found hissing lizard-like humanoids with lobster-like claws that chased him away.
The loneliness of his situation weighed on him. He just wanted to get home and see his best friends, Johnny and Scott. So, with the monster making no noise today, he hoped to slip away while it was sleeping.
He began to shiver in dread upon seeing the hulking form of the two-headed monstrosity as it lay across the marshy beach. Was it asleep? Hibernating? Or perhaps molting? As he edged closer, he could see a path leading away from the marsh right in front of the giant monster. He'd have to pass right in front of it in order to escape. There was no other way out of the marsh for him. He creped out of the water, trying not to make any sloshing noises, which was hard for a sea monster like himself to not do.
As he moved forward, he soon realized that the beast would not trouble him ever again. It was dead. Through the cloud of flies and other insects, he could see massive burns scorched into the monster's two heads to such an extent that the left one seemed to have cracked open like a busted gourd.
Shaking in fear, Sigmund moved up the path and away from the terrible sight, just as he heard voices approaching.
"Over here! You have to see this!"
"Holly! Will! You are getting too close to LuLu's marsh!"
"Hey, it's okay, Uncle Jack," answered Will. "You'll see in a minute."
Sigmund weighed his chances of getting back safely in the water before whoever saw him and realized he wouldn't make it in time, so he did the next best thing. He plopped down on the side of the beach and hoped to be overlooked.
Will was a tall, young man about seventeen years old. He seemed athletic and looked as if he had just a touch of a rebellious streak about him. Holly was blond with pigtails and seemed very spunky for her early teen years. Uncle Jack was in his mid-forties and looked wilderness savvy. His eyes scanned back and forth through the reeds checking for predators.
"Take a look at this and tell me what you think happened," said Will.
"What did this?" It was a rhetorical question, but felt it needed saying seeing the enormous sight before him. Jack moved forward slowly at first as he tried accepting that something had managed to kill this two-headed terror. Reaching over to his right he grabbed a branch of a long dead tree and easily broke off a four-foot section. Using the branch, he began poking the various scorch marks on the two heads.
"Uncle Jack?" It was Holly and though she didn't turn away she did seem a little paler to him.
"I'm just trying to find out what killed LuLu and how." He poked at something in the more intact head's mouth. Insects rose up in protest and a dragonfly with a four-foot wingspan dove at them. Jack ignored the dragonfly since he was used to them after living here for a while and concentrated on using the stick so that he was able to open the massive mouth slightly enough for a dismembered hand to fall out. Holly screamed, and Will pulled her into a protective hug.
"It's… all white," Jack commented as he inspected the hand with the stick. He didn't know if LuLu was venomous, or if it was a topical venom, and he didn't want to find out the hard way.
"Are those veins sticking out of the stump?" Will asked.
"That's gross, Will!" Holly pulled out of the hug and socked him in the gut, but not hard.
"No. It's some kind of wire. There's hundreds in here like finer wire than I've ever seen."
"LuLu ate a robot?" Holly was willing to look now. Living in the Land of the Lost for three years, she had seen her share of carnage due to the fact that the local carnivorous dinosaurs were messy eaters.
"No again. This is real flesh," answered Uncle Jack. "I'm sure of it."
"Well, if LuLu ate the intruder, then what or who did this to her."
"Now that's a good question, Will." He stood up from where he had been hunched over the severed hand. "Look!"
Sigmund almost jumped from where he was laying and listening, and nearly ran for it. But he had noticed that Jack was pointing to the ground in front of him.
"There are footprints all over the ground here. Dozens of people, maybe. And they headed that way toward the Sleestak tunnels."
"Those aren't Sleestak footprints, Uncle Jack," said Holly.
"Yeah," agreed Will. "And for some reason it looks like whoever it was started to wipe away the footprints with this big bundle of seaweed." Having made his point, he kicked the pile of seaweed.
"Owww!" cried Sigmund
Will jumped back, while Sigmund jumped up and hurried as fast as he could move his many limbs toward the water. Seeing the bundle of seaweed running away, Will ran after it.
"Will! No!"
But the teen had already tackled the squirming bundle of seaweed. After a moment of questing with his hands, he quickly realized that what he had tackled was not a covering of any kind, but the creature itself. He leapt back bumping into Jack and fell to the ground. "It's a- it's a- I don't know what it is!"
Jack stood over Sigmund for a moment and each of them took a long look at the other. The green creature at his feet looked to have only stood about three feet tall and appeared to be made completely out of seaweed. It had large, sad looking eyes and a rubbery, large face which seemed to take up much of his torso area. Long stands of seaweed trailed down his head with bushy large leaves much the way many teenagers were wearing their hair today. In his mouth, Jack could see one large tooth that looked like it was used to open clams more than attacking anyone.
"Uncle Jack? What is it?" Holly helped Will to his feet, but neither teenager took their eyes off the strange sight of Sigmund.
"I-I'm not sure, but if I have my mythology right, it just may be a Kraken."
"A Kraken?" Sigmund said, surprised at the idea. Krakens were huge and water bound, besides everyone knew that a Kraken would-.
"He spoke!" Holly exclaimed. "That means he's intelligent!"
"No." Will was emphatic. "He's just repeating what he hears said around him, like a parrot. Watch." Will took a step toward Sigmund. "Say something else."
"Something else?" Sigmund was puzzled, but most Humans never made sense to him.
"See," Will said smugly. Holly looked at her brother with disdain.
"What else should I say?" Sigmund asked. Will's jaw dropped, but Holly laughed.
"Alright," Jack Marshall leaned on the stick he had been using while inspecting LuLu. "I think that query establishes your intelligence. What are you? For that matter, who are you?"
Sigmund stared at the large stick Jack was leaning on, and Jack almost felt embarrassed, like he had been accused of threatening to harm the pathetic looking ball of seaweed. He let the stick fall to the ground next to him, so it wasn't too far away in case he really did need it. Then he reached out a hand to help up the strange new life form. "I'm Jack. This is my niece and nephew, Holly and Will."
"My name is Sigmund Ooze. I'm a seaweed sea monster."
"You don't seem like a monster to me," replied Holly.
"That's what your kind has always called my kind, so I think I must be."
"Wait, how do you know English?" said Will, with a trace of doubt.
"Because we sea monsters spend a lot of time on the beach looking for clams. If a Human comes by, we just throw ourselves down on the sand and look like something the surf had left. We hear a lot of Human conversation that way. And sometimes radios have been left behind. I can listen to music, too, then. That is until the batteries die."
Sigmund told the Marshalls about Johnny and Scott taking him in and letting him stay in their clubhouse, so he could be safe from his family - Big Daddy, Sweet Mama and his two brothers Slurp and Burp – who were all real monsters in several definitions of the term. Then he told of his abrupt arrival here and being trapped in the marsh by LuLu's presence. The Marshalls told Sigmund of Holly and Will's own watery arrival into the Land of the Lost with their father, Rick Marshall, who was a park ranger. They had been struggling here for two years when a fluke accident seemed to transport their father back home to Earth and leave their uncle Jack, who had been searching for them, in his place.
"Sigmund, I know you didn't see what killed LuLu, but did you hear anything last night?"
Sigmund scratched his chin with a tentacle. "The sky was all strange. Red, billowing clouds and lots of lightning. It was like the end of everything. It was like the land was protesting what was about to happen." He paused as if remembering something. "I remember that there seemed to be a bright, blue light down by where the monst- I mean, where LuLu resided." He looked over at the large two-headed corpse. Larger scavengers were starting to show up, so he turned his head so as to not watch nature clean up after itself. "Um, she roared some, but that was normal from time to time. I did see some flashes of light, but I figured it was just the lightning."
Jack nodded. "And do you know what made all these footprints in the sand?"
Sigmund glanced down. Normally he was very observant of tracks in the sand, but his attention had been elsewhere. "Nope."
Jack knew he had to check this out. Will would want to come along, but he didn't want to leave Sigmund with Holly. Sigmund was still too new to be given that kind of trust. "Will, stay here with Holly and Sigmund. I'm going to follow these tracks and see who they belong to."
Will was about to protest but he knew the real reason for Jack's choice, and he would have made the same call if he had been the older, responsible adult in charge of their well-being. Still, he gave Sigmund a frustrated look as Jack went off.
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The Zarn looked up from where he'd been working on the gravity engines of his ship. Someone or something had tripped one of the proximity alarms he had set up around his small star craft.
He detested this mysterious land and its ability to defy the scientific laws he understood, effectively entrapping him here after his space faring vessel had somehow crashed in this awful, misty bog.
All of the other beings trapped in this microverse were three-dimensional life forms so they could not relate to a superior trans-dimensional lifeform like himself. In the puny three-dimensional minds of the Marshall family, who he despised, he was perceived as a humanoid shape outlined by shiny dots. His ship, being made of trans-dimensional material like himself, was also perceived by the Marshalls as outlined by shiny dots.
The small-minded Marshall family had interfered before when he had tried to escape the confines of this microverse and caused his gravity engines to be destroyed at a crucial moment. And now that he had them partial operational, he could only assume that the Marshalls were coming to interfere with his progress once again. True, the escape of his ship from this place would most likely destroy this Land of the Lost, but the Zarn would be safe and free. Considering his superiority over them, he would think they would accept that as a good thing regardless of what would happen to them. But the Marshalls were interfering types looking out only for lesser beings like themselves.
Well, he would just have to kill them with his telekinetic powers if they persisted. He would not have a repeat of last time. He had not sought this opportunity to kill them, as he was not an instinctive killer, but he would defend his only means of escaping this accursed place with lethal force.
He stepped out onto the exterior deck of his ship and searched with his mind to find the intruding Marshalls. Instead, he encountered four minds that emanated such fierceness that it drove him to his knees in agony. While his telepathic abilities allowed him to read the minds of lesser beings, it was his empathic sensors that left him vulnerable to the intense emotions of others. These creatures were fanatic hunters, and they were not happy about being here.
He knew instantly where these new hostile aliens had come from. The night before, the night sky had turned red and showered lightning across the land. During this event, a large space-faring vessel had appeared in the sky and crashed into the nearby high hills. The Zarn had assumed that nothing had survived, but now he could see that was just wishful thinking.
He could see four of the large aliens and the long staff each carried, despite the fact that they were using a form of camouflage technology to mask their visual images from being detected optically. They seemed to be regarding him and his ship, but were having trouble perceiving them. The Zarn didn't move. He didn't want to be seen as a threat. They were looking for a threat. Any kind of threat that they can attack and tear into for the glory of their Hunt.
Finally, the lead hunter took off his mask exposing a large head with mandibles. He seemed to sniff the air briefly before turning away from the Zarn with disgust. The others turned and followed. The Zarn withstood the pain of the intense emotions while they were in his proximity. Regathering his strength, he hurried back into his ship. He had to fix his engines. His leaving this place was more paramount than ever.
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Cha-Ka was visiting with Sa and Ta for the day. He didn't do that very often anymore, but the instinct to be among his own kind from time to time overwrote his need not to be bullied. They were picking berries which meant Sa and Ta were gorging themselves. At moments they would also grab for the berries that Cha-Ka had in his hand, but the small hairy humanoid was only keeping small or partially ripe berries there while stashing the large, ripe berries in a small, metal lunchbox that Holly Marshall had given him.
The Pakuni were of a short, chimpanzee-like humanoid form with long tuffs of fine body hair that covered their entire body except for their faces and hands. Cha-Ka was shorter than the other two Pakuni and had often suffered from being on the weaker side of the pecking order. Being smarter than his two brethren, he usually stayed with the Marshalls who had unofficially adopted him. They shared their knowledge with him, and he taught them about the Land of the Lost.
Ta and Cha-Ka glanced up at the same time. Something unfamiliar approached which meant that they could only do one thing. Hide.
Quickly the two Pakuni hurried behind the bushes they had been foraging from, and only then did they noticed that Sa had not come with them. Waving frantically and hoarsely whispering Sa's name rewarded them with no response. Sa was just too busy greedily feeding his face.
Cha-Ka took the metal lunchbox he carried on a strap, and tossed it at Sa, hitting the gluttonous Paku on the side of the head. Sa snarled at his two companions, then gave a curious look as he took in their frantic gestures. Finally sensing the approaching newcomers, Sa scampered around the brush to hide with his fellow Pakuni.
As the intruders approached, a voice rose high in indignation. "You transistorized erector set! How dare you blame me for this situation!"
"One merely has to look at the facts, Doctor Smith. It was you who found the open pylon. It was you who convinced Will Robinson into going inside and examine the interior console against my sound advice. Thus, the blame for coming to this foreboding planet falls on you."
"Ah!" exclaimed Dr. Smith, raising his forefinger. "But it was Will who managed to get you inside the confines of that accursed structure – a feat that I would have believed to be geometrically impossible – in order for you to examine its glowing console of stones."
As they came into view Cha-Ka determined that Dr. Smith was a man like the Marshalls, just older. This Will was the young, redheaded man about Holly's age that walked ahead of the other two and seemed to be trying to ignore their bantering. It was the third figure that amazed the young Paku. It was a large metal figure that rolled on belts of some kind. Its head was featureless and seemed to be made of glass. On its chest were lights and buttons that seemed to make the young Paku want to run over and push them.
"Cut it out, you two," Will said, being all too familiar with these arguments. "We have to figure out where we are and maybe find someone to help us get back to the others." The young man glanced down when his foot connected with an object on their path. "Hey! What's this?"
Cha-Ka gasped as Will brought up the lunchbox he had thrown at Sa.
"It's some kind of band memorabilia. Some musical group called The Monkees."
"Let me see that," Dr. Smith said with a stern tone, which seemed to relay the thought that Will couldn't possibly know what he was talking about. "Whoever heard of a band called The Monkees. My word!"
The Robot promptly answered. "The Monkees were a comedic-music group created to capitalize on the band fad of that time period, which focused on a television show about four young musicians - Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, David Jones, and Michael Nesmith – who had numerous, zany adventures. The Monkees proved their ability as a true music group with such popular hits as 'I'm a Believer,' 'Last Train to Clarksville,' 'A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You,' 'Pleasant Valley Sunday,' and 'Stepping Stone.'"
Dr. Smith, now elated, turned to Will. "Do you know what this means? We are on Earth, my boy! Glorious Earth!" He got down on his knees and literally kissed the ground.
"Inconclusive data," said the Robot.
"What do you mean, 'inconclusive'?" Doctor Smith got back to his feet to face his verbal opponent. "What do you call this metal box then?" he said, pointing to the box.
"The box is irrelevant. It is the terrain to which I refer. This vegetation covers eras from various stages of Earth's development. There are also a number of non-terrestrial plants here. Yet all seem compatible here."
Will examined one of the plants close by. "So… someone carefully designed this place.
"That is hypothetically plausible," acknowledged the Robot.
"Poppycock!" Dr. Smith brandished the metal lunchbox before the robot. "And why, pray tell, would the great landscapers of this place choose to leave rubbish like this box which is filled with-" He snapped it open. "Ugh, berries!"
Will reached over and sampled one of the berries. "Fresh, too."
"Warning, Will Robinson! I detect intruders spying on us!" The robot's tube-like arms extended as it moved into a position between its ward and the possible threat.
"Where?" asked the young redhead.
"Behind those berry bushes."
Ta and Sa hissed threateningly once they realized they had been discovered. Backing away, the two Pakuni quickly turned and ran away. Cha-Ka, however, stood up completely, more curious than afraid of the strangers.
"Oh, my word! They're Neanderthals!"
"I don't think so, Dr. Smith," said the boy.
"Oh really! And where did you take your classes in Anthropology? Hmm?"
"At Cambridge before we left Earth. But only halfway through the semester since dad got an earlier takeoff window for the rocket."
"I see," Smith said, sounding unimpressed. "And that half of a semester taught you enough that you can tell at a glance that these… these hairy humanoids aren't related to the Human race?"
"Dr. Smith." Sometimes it was exasperating when trying to point out the facts to Dr. Smith. "I didn't say they couldn't be related to Humans. All I meant was that they aren't Neanderthals. Besides, we've meet lots of humanoid aliens that looked more Human than these hairy fellas."
"Ah, but they weren't totting around Earth memorabilia, were they?" He held up the lunch box as evidence.
"Cha-Ka's box!" Cha-Ka called out suddenly from his side of the bushes.
"And he speaks an Earth language," grinned Dr. Smith. "English."
Will just shook his head. Taking the box from Dr. Smith he carried it around the bushes to Cha-Ka, followed by the Robot, and eventually Dr. Smith.
"Cha-Ka?" Will said, as he handed the lunchbox to Cha-Ka. "Cha-Ka, who gave you this lunchbox?"
Cha-Ka hesitantly reached for the metal box. When he had it, he clutched it to himself but didn't run. Will asked him the question again, and Cha-Ka looked back to Will. "Cha-Ka's box. Holly give to Cha-Ka."
"Who's Holly? Is she the same as you?" Will tried to not sound hopeful, but the name was a common Earth name.
The young hairy humanoid looked at Will curiously. He tried using the few English words he knew carefully. "Cha-Ka Paku. Holly not Paku. Holly… like you."
Dr. Smith, standing behind Will, leaned forward and placed a hand on Will's shoulder. "So, there are real people here!"
"And maybe they can tell us about this place," added Will. He turned back to Cha-Ka. "Cha-Ka, can you-"
There was a low growling nearby.
Cha-Ka became excited. "Aboba ba! Aboda ba! Fusaki!" He grabbed Will's arm and began pulling him toward the trees.
"Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" warned the Robot, as it began extending its arms into a defensive posture.
"I don't think he means to hurt me, Robot. He just seems-" A load roar came from the far trees as a large prehistoric dinosaur know as an Allosaurus charged toward them.
"Don't leave me alone! Wait for me!" Dr. Smith hurried after the two while the Robot turned to deal with the threat.
Bursts of electricity shot out from the clawed appendages of the Robot striking the Allosaurus in the chest. The beast cried out but tried again to attack, consequently receiving another harsh dose of electricity. This time the several ton reptile gave in to gravity and fell to the Earth with its tongue hanging out.
The Paku stopped pulling on Will and gaped. Will walked up to the Robot and stared at the dinosaur. "Is it dead?"
"Negative, Will Robinson. I did not wish to endanger the ecology of this environment."
"You should have killed it!" shouted Dr. Smith from where he hid in the trees.
Cha-Ka pointed to the unconscious Allosaurus. "Alice."
"Alice?"
"Big Alice," amended the Paku.
A small whine came from the far woods, and they could see a young Allosaurus their size looking at the situation with its mother, but it was afraid to come forward. Cha-Ka pointed again. "Junior."
"I don't think you are the ones who named these creature, were you, Cha-Ka?"
Cha-Ka tilted his head in confusion.
Will sighed. "Who named them Alice and Junior?"
Cha-ka laughed and clapped his hands. "Holly! Holly give names! Marshalls give names!"
"Marshals?" Dr. Smith came forward reluctantly. "Then there is law enforcement here. We should seek out these marshals and get proper protection from them post haste! This place is perilous to my health!"
"Very well, Dr. Smith." Will turned to Cha-Ka. "Can you take us to these marshals?"
Cha-Ka eyed the Robot skeptically.
"He won't hurt them," reassured Will.
Cha-Ka finally nodded. He scampered down the path a little way and then turned to them. "Come," he beckoned with a motion of his hairy arm.
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BENEATH THE LOST CITY
"Run!" The six kids ran down the dark tunnel trailed by a young unicorn colt.
"Wait!" The dark-haired male teenager wearing chain mail and carrying a shield stopped, and the green robed kid behind him ran into him. "Knock it off, Presto." He dusted himself off. "Why are we running from these guys? They're so slow they can't possible catch up to us."
Hank, the leader of the group carried a stringless bow and was dressed in a green leather outfit that was more suited for a wilderness area. "Eric! These things know these tunnels! We don't! We may have to backtrack in some of these tunnels and we don't want to run into those guys when we are backtracking."
"I say we should stay and fight them!" said the eight-year-old swinging a slightly glowing wooden club and wearing a horned helmet, both of which looked too big for him.
"Bobby, don't you dare use that club of yours down here," the female redhead with the purple cloak spoke sharply. "You'll bury us under tons of rock."
"Aw, sis," the boy groaned.
"We don't have room in these narrow tunnels to fight effectively," said the black female carring a long fighting staff and wearing a fur bikini.
"Diana's right," Hank said. "We need to get out of here."
"Hey! Look in here, guys!" Presto called even as he disappeared into a side tunnel.
The others hurried after only to find that the side tunnel actually opened up into a large room.
"Somebody lives here," Sheila pointed out the obvious. Her eyes began to dart around to see if anyone else was there.
Diana tapped a boiling kettle with her staff as she peered in but turned away and held her nose. "I can tell you this much. I don't want to know what's for dinner."
"What are we doing here?" whined Eric.
Sheila looked up from where she had been examining some crystals lying on a table. "The Dungeon Master said, 'If you want to find a way home, you must find the one who is alone among many of his kind.' Or something like that."
"Pffft. More of DM's riddles," Eric waved hand dramatically in the air. "He always sends us to some strange place to puzzle out one of his mind-numbing riddles. And we never figure them out until we've already done whatever it is that we came to do."
"That's not always true," defended Presto, who was examining a strange stone doorframe outlined with mists. "Sometimes the riddles have helped us before we made a serious mistake."
Eric held up a finger. "Mistakes we wouldn't have made if the bald, little twerp had just given us all the facts in the first place."
The coltish unicorn made a mewling noise as she sniffed some of the dried herbs in a clay pot. She sneezed and the pot tipped over spilling its contents. "Uni!" Bobby pulled the orange-maned unicorn into a brief hug and away from the herbs. "What'd I tell you about stayin' out of other people's stuff."
"You are trespassing!" The accusation came from where stood another of the lizard-like humanoids that they had been running from ever since Dungeon Master had teleported them to these tunnels. He had lobster claw hands and the large insectoid eyes, wide flat mouth and a singular budding horn on his brow. The main difference was that he was bronzed while the others of his kind were dark green. He also wore an orange vest which may have been a badge of office.
The kids were into defensive positions, engaging their magical weapons. Hank was at the head with his energy bow drawn. "We don't want any trouble."
"And yet you intrude in our tunnels and my domicile."
Eric was having none of it. "Hey, we were dumped in your tunnels from another dimension. We were just trying to find our way out when your green scaled buddies jumped us."
The orange-vested sentient considered their words with a tilt of his head. "Regrettable."
"How so?" asked Diana, still posed to fight.
"That your arrival coincides with attackers against my people at the far reaches of our tunnels near the marshes."
"We don't know anything about that!" protested Presto, as he tried adjusting his cloth magician's hat on his head.
"I can see that," said the newcomer. "Your appearance is nothing like the attackers who are all similarly uniformed." He moved forward and all the kids jumped back. "I will show you."
At the doorway more of the green lobster clawed people began to cluster with wooden crossbows and were hissing angrily. The orange-vested one turned and seemed to communicate with them, but he didn't seem to speak. The hissing abated and the green scaly humanoids withdrew from the doorway.
The orange-vested one addressed the children again. "I am Enik the Altrusian. Those were the descendants of my people and are now called the Sleestak."
"Man, looks like they've fallen down the evolutionary ladder!"
Diana smacked the thoughtless teen on the back of his head while Enik seemed to glare at him with his massive, lidless eyes.
"Sorry," Hank said. "Eric is a little…"
"Rude!" said Sheila.
"Outspoken," amended Presto.
"Arrogant," commented Diana.
"Dumb," added Bobby.
"Hey!" Eric looked outraged at his companions. "Whose side are you guys on anyway?"
Enik dismissed the antics of the Human children and turned to the stone doorframe that had mists flowing from it. He picked up a small rod that had a glowing elongated jewel suspended in a metal tetrahedral frame at the end. "This is a mageti. I am still working to fine tune it and get it back to full strength, but it should suit my purposes for now." He waved it in front of the doorframe which quickly filled up with mist.
"Magic!" exclaimed Presto with delight.
"No!" protested Enik. "Science."
"Isn't magic just a form of science that has not been understood?"
Enik regarded Presto for a moment. "Child, I detect great potential in you. Perhaps I may be willing to take you on as a student."
The redhead magician blushed and twisted his green hat awkwardly.
"Oh, great! Presto's got a local college sponsor."
Diana put an elbow into Eric's ribs. "Don't mind him, Enik. He- Presto! Your hat!"
"What?" Ham and turkey sandwiches were pouring out of his hat in which the interior was glowing.
"Oh boy! Dinner!" Bobby leapt at the food, quickly followed by Eric.
Presto shrugged, embarrassed as he let the hat continue to empty out onto a nearby table. "Sorry. It's a little hard to control sometimes." He stopped his hat and put it back on his head.
"Your hat?" Enik stared at the small mountain of food being attacked by the eager hungry young teenagers. "It is a type of transporting portal."
"Mmmm," he swallowed a bite of one of the sandwiches. "Most of the time it does stuff like that, but it can do other things as well. We, well, we ended up in this magical land and we were given these magical weapons to use to protect ourselves. Hank's the Ranger. He's got a bow that shoots energy arrows. Eric has a shield that makes protective force fields. He's the Cavalier. Diana has a fight staff that grows and shrinks. It's unbreakable and seems to make leverage work to her advantage. She's the Acrobat. Sheila is, well, she's considered a Thief due to her Cloak of Invisibility, but I think her feelings would be hurt if anyone thought she'd actually steal from them. And Bobby, he's Sheila's eight-year-old brother, he's got a club that can pretty much break anything so he's the Barbarian of the group. And I, heh, I'm the Magician thanks to my hat. And as interesting as all our adventures have been, the truth is we just want to get home again."
"Interesting." Enik turned to the temporal doorway and extended the mageti again. The mists turned and after a few moments it began focusing on narrow caverns where grayish cyborgs were converting a number of captured Sleestak into cybernetic beings similar to themselves.
"Oh, my word!" Sheila covered her mouth in horror. The others put down their food and stared in disbelief at what was happening.
Enik couldn't hold the mageti steady as his anger and revulsion were building. The vision began to fade.
"My head… it hurts," complained Hank.
"Mine too," Bobby said, holding his temple in his hands. Uni mewled painfully between his knees.
"My apologies, young ones." The Altrusian hung up the mageti. "I have some telepathic abilities and I am afraid I let them get away from me due to my anger."
"I'll say," said Erik, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"O-kay, I guess it's war strategy time." Hank stepped up to Enik. "We are willing to help in your fight, if you'll have us."
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What makes you think ol' DM sent us here to help out the bug-eyed lizard people?" Eric crossed his arms as means of cementing his stance.
"Eric, you are so dense." Diana leaned against her fighting staff. "Remember what Dungeon Master said. 'If you want to find a way home, you must find the one who is alone among many of his kind.'" She walked over to Enik. "That's Enik. He's the last of his kind since his people's descendants have, uh, had some problems."
"That's right!" Presto said. "We are right where we are supposed to be!"
"Oh yeah! I've heard that before. And what about the going home part?" asked the skeptical Cavalier.
Presto ran over to the stone portal. "This is it! This viewer of his is our way home!"
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In the back of an old, abandoned Temple that the Marshalls had turned into their residence after they had lost their cliff dwelling in a series of harsh earthquakes, a swirling column of small colored balls slowly appear, and within it a tall, red, glowing being the size of a man materialized.
As it walked to the entrance, it walked by the belongings of the Marshalls like they weren't even there. It only paused to glance down at the small, wooded recorder. Then it continued on.
The night before a massive energy vortex had bypassed all of the Land of the Lost's safety barriers thereby depositing a number of determined aggressors. In doing so, a number of other barriers had also been breached. Pylons that had been used to gather information about interesting events had suddenly brought back passengers before it was supposed to and in greater numbers.
He'd have to correct all this quick before anyone else found out. Or he'd have to do away with his entire Land of the Lost project.
To be Continued!
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Original AuThOr'S NoTeS: 2007
Welcome to my Saturday morning special! I don't have very many Sci-Fi shows I can tap into effectively. But there have been a number of Saturday morning show (cartoon and non-cartoon) that have a science fiction content that I feel I shouldn't ignore, so I will tap into a number of them for this story.
Talk about timing. I've learned that there is a LAND OF THE LOST movie in the works for 2008 and Will Farrell may star in it! I loved the LAND OF THE LOST television series and hope to find the DVD collection for my kids when they are old enough. I just have to sneak it by my wife. Just kidding. I have a great relationship with my wife.
Sid and Marty Krofft did a number of kid shows through Krofft Productions. LAND OF THE LOST was the most well known about a small family surviving and trying to get home after getting trapped in a large valley that is a universe that curves in on itself. On the show they also got a number of visitors from various times and worlds so I felt it would be great to bring in people from other shows. SIGMUND THE SEAMONSTER was an earlier Krofft Production show and I felt it was unique enough to include. Besides, Sigmund was played by the legendary Billy Barty. I may have to think of a way to include DR. SHRINKER as well since Barty was on that as well.
The Zarn was a character from LAND OF THE LOST that I thought didn't get enough use so I gave him a little cameo to introduce our hunter friends who will have lots of fun in my story. And who can guess who are hunters are? Also, Richard Kiel played the physical form of the Zarn, who is the same actor who played Voltaire in Part 7: BORG ON THE RANGE.
I included LOST IN SPACE because they are one of the biggest and long-lasting kids Sci-Fi shows ever made. Plus, I love the Robot. Before I got married, I used to have a collection of famous toy robots displayed around my computer tower and monitor for inspiration as I wrote. I bought the Robot from LOST IN SPACE at the Mall of America in Minnesota, which is the state where I used to live.
I included mention of THE MONKEES because I was a big fan of theirs when I was a kid. Huge fan.
Okay. DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. I debated about this one, but I loved the show and there was never a conclusion as to whether or not the kids ever got home just like we don't know if the Marshalls ever got home. So I am addressing the issue in my story.
The tall, red, glowing being comes from the LAND OF THE LOST episode 28: The Musician. In that episode while searching the temple in the Lost City, Holly gets a ring stuck on her finger and Cha-Ka unwittingly awakens the red, glowing being called the Builder.
Now remember none of these characters have been signed on by the Doctor, the Master or either of the Q's. They are all stumbling in on this themselves so expect confusion and surprises as the plot developments.
Any question on any of these shows look on the Internet. Your memories will come flooding back if you have had any contact with these shows. I showed my wife a picture of the Sleestak and she was grossed out. But then she is 6 months pregnant so that could be her excuse.
Please send me a review. I'm sick with bronchitis at home and will take all the encouragement I can get.
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Updated AuThOr'S NoTeS: 1-11-2022
Wow! This was a fun chapter for me and fun to relive! I did a lot of research about the Land of the Lost because I wanted it to be as close as possible to the show.
ChArAcTeR InDeX FoR ThE ChApTeR:
Acrobat / Diana (voiced by Tonia Gayle Smith) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Alice, the Allosaur – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Barbarian / Bobby (voiced by Teddy Field III) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Cavalier / Eric (voiced by Don Most) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Cha-Ka (Philip Paley) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Dolenz, Mickey – from the TV series The Monkees (1966-1968) (mentioned only)
Dungeon Master (voiced by Sidney Miller) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985) (mentioned only)
Enik (Walker Edmiston) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Jones, Davey – from the TV series The Monkees (1966-1968) (mentioned only)
Junior, the baby Allosaur – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
LuLu, the two headed monster – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Magician / Albert 'Presto'(voiced by Adam Rich) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Marshall, Holly (Kathy Coleman) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Marshall, Jack (Ron Harper) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1976)
Marshall, Park Ranger Rick (Spencer Milligan) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1975)
Marshall, Will (Wesley Eure) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Nesmith, Michael – from the TV series The Monkees (1966-1968) (mentioned only)
Ooze, Big Daddy (Sharon Baird) – from the TV series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975) (mentioned only)
Ooze, Burp (Larry Larsen) – from the TV series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975) (mentioned only)
Ooze, Sigmund (Billy Barty) – from the TV series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975)
Ooze, Slurp (Paul Gale) – from the TV series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975) (mentioned only)
Ooze, Sweet Mama (Van Snowden) – from the TV series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975) (mentioned only)
Ranger / Hank (voiced by Willie Aames) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Robinson, Prof. John (Guy Williams) – from the TV series Lost in Space (1965-1968) (mentioned only)
Robinson, Will (Bill Mumy) – from the TV series Lost in Space (1965-1968)
The Robot / Robot B-9 (Bob May / voiced by Dick Tufeld) – from the TV series Lost in Space (1965-1968)
Sa (Sharon Baird) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Sleestak – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Smith, Dr. Zachary (Jonathan Harris) – from the TV series Lost in Space (1965-1968)
Stuart, Johnny (Johnny Whitaker) – from the TV series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975) (mentioned only)
Stuart, Scott (Scott C. Kolden) – from the TV series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975) (mentioned only)
Ta (Scutter McKay) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Thief / Sheila (voiced by Katie Leigh) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Tork, Peter – from the TV series The Monkees (1966-1968) (mentioned only)
Uni (voiced by Frank Welker) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Yautja – from the movie Predator (1987), Predator 2 (1990), AVP: Alien Vs. Predator (2004), Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007), Predators (2010)
Zarn (Richard Kiel / voiced by Van Snowden) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1975)