Note: Since doesn't keep all special formatting, let me explain. There are sections of this chapter in which it looks like Dylan's looking at words on a computer screen. In the original file, there are different fonts and small caps formatting. However, since throws them away, I had to adjust here. Everything you see in bold italics represent the words on a computer screen. With that said, on to Chapter 12!
Chapter Twelve: Point of No Return
T.R.A.T member Lieutenant Dylan Morton stood there, floored, in open-mouthed shock as the last statement of the hologram sank into his mind. On another of the projection screens, he could see a picture of himself in front of the Timegate, looking like he was walking into it.
"Special Forces T.R.A.T. member, Colonel Dylan Morton."
"What?!" Dylan yelled angrily, totally baffled. "You're…myself? In the future? How the hell is that possible?"
The young Morton looked over at Paula, who then looked into his eyes, aglow with seeming fascination. "Papa…"
The fact slammed into his mind as he was uttering the words, "Then that means you're my…"
…daughter. You're my daughter…
He never took his gaze off her, the cold realization of it all hitting him at last, what this whole mission was from the start, from the moment the ship landed into the now-realized "fake" Cretaceous, to everything going now. He was misled, misguided, misinformed, no…lied to by the powers that be, lied about everything. This wasn't something that was recent—this was a long, involved, tragic story spanning many years, ages, and epochs. Regina, himself, David, the information about the people involved in the Ibis Island incident, all tools for our government, miserable pawns in their game. Suddenly, everything on the six commemoration monuments, all those documents he found, the helmeted females, clicked in synchronous harmony, the sudden epiphany, the realization of it all.
He lowered his head, a sudden sadness making his heart heavy, slowly being replaced by deep, seething anger.
All those people…the result of a fuck-up by our wonderful government. Just what did Dr. Edward Kirk think when he created the Third Energy? Did he think our government would turn his work into this? A weapon? Worse? Did he imagine that such a thing would happen? We were all used…we were all played so well, playing right into the government's hands. And when the people who were involved realized what they had done, screwing up the rest of time, they attempted to fix it, and this is the end result—the eventual end of the human race. Now, to save the human race from total extinction, it is up to me to take all the ones in the life-support chambers and send them through a Timegate.
"We don't have much time left," Colonel Morton continued. "There's a gate behind the door, ahead in the room after the oversized Transport Chamber, the passage to the Gate Development Lab. You can return to your own time." Ahead, Dylan could see the large, translucent door sliding upward.
"The gate is fully operational, but this facility only has enough capability to be used only once." The holographic image of Colonel Morton began to fizzle, started to fade.
"Wait! Don't go yet!" Dylan called to him. "I have some more to say!"
"Please," Colonel Morton said. "Say hello to Regina for me, Lieutenant."
"Papa…" Paula uttered softly, taking a step toward the hologram of the older Morton.
His image nearly faded from all view, and as the last of the hologram faded, his last words seemed to echo throughout the large laboratory room: "I'm counting on you, Lieutenant."
And once again, silence settled throughout the large room.
Damn…I wanted to get more information about this whole thing. But…the Timegate's near.
He brought his intercom to his mouth and clicked the power button.
"Regina?" Dylan spoke into the speaker. "Regina, it's Dylan. Can you read?"
He suddenly remembered that her intercom was out, and reaching her would be impossible. Briefly, he considered going back the way he got here, but his mind determined otherwise—the Timegate was near, and escape was now looking very likely. Besides, she could even be there, waiting for him.
"Come on, Paula," he said, managing a grin. "Let's get out of here."
The door that opened led to another one of those odd doors, only being able to be opened via an object in Paula's wrist. The thin object slid into the tiny hole in the door, and in a couple seconds, the door revealed a room, a long, lengthy room, probably as long as two football fields or so. The walkway narrowed to a bridge, and as the two walked across the bridge, Dylan noticed a long hallway to his left, leading to blackness, blue lights lining the wall.
So close…
The two stopped dead in their tracks when an alarm suddenly blared throughout the entire transport chamber, echoing off the industrial gray walls. Paula let out a shriek and covered her ears, the sound annoying and grating. Dylan ran to his daughter, covering her with his body, his eyes darting around the room, looking for anything.
Now what? What the hell is it this time?!
A deep thudding footstep was heard some distance down the long hall, coming from the deep blackness.
"Warning," a voice said, cutting through the blaring noise of the sirens—a calm, cool, collected female voice. "The self-destruct sequence has just been manually activated. Repeat: the self-destruct sequence has just been manually activated. This sequence cannot be overridden or aborted. Detonation in five minutes. Repeat: detonation in five minutes."
Of course. Absolutely typical. Right on schedule. Standard procedure in situations like these. Even so…fuck!
His eyes looked toward the door from where they entered—and he saw the door open, and out came another of the helmeted women. Anger shot through him instantly, his face showing a look of madness. He let out a low growl, and Paula quickly shot to her feet and began to run away, down the bridge. She took her gun and fired, two of those strange disks flying in Dylan's direction. He easily dodged them, anger running through his veins, running back toward the door, toward the one helmeted female. She aimed at the running soldier, firing two more disks. He quickly grabbed his machete and sliced through the air, deflecting the disks, pieces of exploding shrapnel flying away from him.
"YOU turned it on!!!" he yelled, his voice sounding almost primal, feral as he got closer to the unrelenting woman. She began to run toward Dylan. Before he could grab her, she ducked under the reach of his arms and took off toward the bridge.
"Oh, no you don't, you bitch!" he swore, then turned around, giving chase toward the fleeing female. She was running across the wide bridge, and Dylan easily caught up, his muscular legs giving him the needed speed. He dove into her, wrapping his arms around her as he was falling, taking her down with him to the cold metal floor. The two wrestled around on the floor, Dylan trying to pin her down, her trying to flee. The two rolled along the gray metal, grunting and groaning.
A loud thud caught Dylan's attention, this time sounding closer. He got up in time to see it, see the mammoth beast emerging into view from down the hall. In the light, he could see its blackened head, the dark orange and brown splotched skin adorning its entire body, very thick.
Oh, not now.
"Four minutes until detonation."
Shit.
Not even allowing time for anything else to react, Dylan ran down the bridge in Paula's direction. The creature let out a loud roar, and it moved quickly toward the bridge. The helmeted woman got up and began to follow Dylan, but the creature refused to let something as measly and as flimsy as a metal bridge stop it. It brought its huge head down, and as she was fleeing, he lifted it up with amazing force, sending the metal sections of the bridge flying up, and she found herself airborne, her limbs flailing as she ascended thirty or forty feet. Dylan looked behind him to see her start falling, falling to the concrete floor below. A loud crash echoed through the transport chamber as the large block pieces of bridge slammed to the floor, followed by the soft thud of the body. The enormous reptilian beast continued its march forward, stepping over the ruined bridge. Nothing was spared in its path, its massive foot landing on the unfortunate female, the tremendous weight smashing it, squashing it as if it were an insect. As the massive pressure came down on her, Dylan could hear the sounds of plastic breaking, the helmet splintering. Blood shot out everywhere, staining the concrete red.
He never stopped running; the only thing on his mind was to get to safety, away from this creature.
Forget killing the behemoth—I have no weapon powerful enough to even possibly make a dent through its thick skin.
The walkway led to another bridge, leading to a platform, on it several screens and control panels. As Dylan dashed along the bridge, the lumbering beast lifted its head up high, then slammed it down hard, smashing the section to pieces, missing him by only a few feet.
Don't you give up?!
The creature moved forward toward the running soldier, and as it did, lifted its massive head up high once more, preparing for another assault. It moved ahead of Dylan, the idea being to knock out the bridge so he couldn't make it to the platform, in effect, trapping him. As the towering monstrosity began to bring its heavy head down, Dylan dove, his entire body fully extended, arms outstretched as he passed under the falling head. He could feel the air displacing behind him as the Giganotosaurus rammed into the bridge, turning the walkway to smashed rubble, the sounds of breaking and destruction echoing throughout the large transport chamber.
"Three minutes until detonation," the female voice said over the speaker.
His body hit the cold floor hard, but the brief pain of impact that shot through his body was better than being down the gullet of a giant reptilian beast.
"Damage confirmed at Oversized Transport Area. Commencing emergency lockdown procedure," came a computerized female voice. Dylan heard a panicked cry coming from his right, and as he lifted his head, he could see Paula, her eyes wide with fear as she stood by the exit door. Another door was coming down in front of her, blocking Dylan's access to the exit door. It slammed shut, trapping the young Morton inside the newly formed enclosure.
Fuck!
The creature let out a roar which rocked the entire room, and he looked at the display of screens and computer keyboards in front. He ran to the panels and looked at the words on the monitor, set to a background of dark brown and black.
Third Energy Anti-Satellite Weapon System v3.5
Weapon Control System
Logged In as: Morton, Dylan; Colonel.
Warning! Self-Destruct Sequence manually activated!
Time left until self-destruct: 2 minutes, 47 seconds.
Evacuate immediately!
The Anti-Satellite weapon is not ready. Check and fix the errors below, then retry the System.
Communication Line: Not Connected.
Target: Not Set.
He looked to his left, and he could see another screen set into the wall at the end, a keyboard directly below it. The creature let out another roar and began to follow Dylan as he ran for the next screen. It opened its enormous jaw, and Dylan could see clearly the two rows of teeth, each one probably around his height. It lunged for him, and Dylan just outran its attempt, grabbing his shotgun and firing behind him. The head crashed into the wall, creating a hole in it, creating a pile of debris on the path.
Getting a little close there…
When he reached the end of the platform a couple hundred feet away from the lumbering beast, he took a look at the screen, that same background. He looked at the text on the screen:
Third Energy Anti-Satellite Weapon System v3.5
Communication Line Connection Manager
Logged In as: Morton, Dylan; Colonel.
Communication Line is currently disconnected. Will you connect the line?
YES NO MAIN MENU
He clicked the YES button, and suddenly the screen changed to a background image of some sort of control tower sending waves to a satellite orbiting the planet.
Connecting....
Connection to Anti-Satellite enabled.
"Communication line is now set," a computerized female voice spoke. He couldn't stop for a second—he saw the reptilian beast come toward him again, quickly. It roared again, and Dylan shielded his face as he could feel the hot breath crash into him, a foul stench providing a pungent aroma which invaded his nostrils.
Jeez, man…they're called breath mints for a reason…
It opened its jaw, and Dylan could see straight to the back of its cavernous mouth. Its head was blocking the path—he was trapped. It would snatch him up in seconds. A strange, bizarre thought entered his mind, a foolish one, one that had a slight chance of at least giving him a diversion. He pulled out his Chainmine, and aimed it at the large mouth. As it got within feet of him, he pulled the trigger, and five thin disks flew into the dinosaur's mouth. The first one exploded, then the other four followed in quick succession, blood shooting out from the creature's mouth, bits of tooth raining down along the platform. It reared its head back, roaring in pain as it stumbled back a few steps, giving Dylan a clear path. With whatever energy he had in his legs, he bolted down the walkway, sprinting past the main panel as the dinosaur let out another roar of pain, echoing off the walls of the cavernous room.
The platform led to a narrow path going along the length of one side of the transport chamber. It led to the area where Paula was now trapped, but a small walkway branched off, leading to another of those screens. By now, Dylan had put several hundred feet of distance between him and the gigantic creature wanting to eat him. The pain inflicted from the mines had worn off the creature, and it let out another bellowing roar, and Dylan knew it was pissed. The creature made a full turn around, and began moving quickly in his direction, its massive, muscular legs giving it speed. Each step vibrated the floor, getting stronger with each step forward.
"Almost there, Paula," he said to himself. "Just give me a little bit more time."
He looked at the screen, saw the words brightly displayed against the background.
Third Energy Anti-Satellite Weapon System v3.5
Target Control Setup
Logged In as: Morton, Dylan; Colonel.
Set target for Weapon Fire:
Current Location: Habitiat Support Facility, New Pangaea, North American Section.
Set New Location.
Back to Main Menu.
1 23
He clicked option 1, and the screen went blank for a few seconds, then some more text appeared.
Calibrating…
Setting target…
Target set. Information sent to weapon.
"Target is set," the voice said as Dylan dove out of another lunge from the Giganotosaurus. He somersaulted, and rose to his feet quickly, and ran along the platform, heading back toward the main control panel.
It turned its massive body around once more began to chase the fleeing soldier, its prey. The main panel for the weapon seemed much farther away than it actually looked, and as Dylan raced against the clock, the dinosaur was quickly closing the gap between it and the scrambling soldier. He could feel its hot breath catching his back, and knew it was close, its jaws open, waiting for the exact second it could clamp its jaws around him, not knowing that it too, was about to die. In one quick effort to give him some more time, he turned and fired his Chainmine weapon once more, and five more small explosive mines fired into its mouth, exploding almost on impact inside the cavernous crevasse. Bits of dinosaur tongue flew from its mouth, the wet, bloodied muscle chunks hitting the floor with a sick splat, and it roared loudly, a loud, feral roar of pain.
"Two minutes until detonation."
While it was reeling from that, Dylan nearly ran past the display of screens and keyboards, and he stopped short, almost stumbling as he did so. He knew he only had a few seconds before the dinosaur would be on him again, and he looked at the main screen:
Third Energy Anti-Satellite Weapon System v3.5
Weapon Control System
Logged In as: Morton, Dylan; Colonel.
Warning! Self-Destruct Sequence manually activated!
Time left until self-destruct: 1 minute, 52 seconds.
Weapon now ready to fire. Fire weapon?
YES NO
Without wasting another second, he clicked YES, and the screen went black, showing an outlined image of a planet, and as he turned around, he just looked at the mammoth in front of him and grinned.
"Commencing attack," he said to himself, smiling.
Many miles above the surface of Earth, miles above the atmosphere, a large satellite was orbiting the planet, hovering over a position in New Pangaea. Information was streaming from the planet's surface to the large body. Data flashed across its one screen, and suddenly the satellite was expanding, and four large, metallic flaps began to open in an X formation, revealing a long, powerful gun, looking like a large rail cannon. The satellite began to hum to life, warming up for what it was about to do, and light began to gather, surrounding the gun in blue and white light, getting increasingly brighter as it was preparing to fire. With the flaps fully opened, the satellite readjusted itself, aligning itself up with its target, the Habitat Support Facility. A ball of white light started to form at the tip of the cannon, growing larger and brighter. Suddenly, the satellite made a high-pitched noise, getting louder and louder, sounding like a starship preparing to jump to warp speed, and then a massive ray of blue and white energy shot through space, quickly slicing through the many layers of Earth's atmosphere.
A bright beam of light cut through the darkening sky, the sun sinking, the rays of the sun reflecting off the clouds in such a way that the refracted beams gave off a somewhat heavenly, cosmic appearance. The beam of energy cut right through the roof of the building, and slammed into the dinosaur. He had to cover his ears, for the sounds of the beam made it seem like the facility was being rent in two, and he had to squint his eyes from the bright intensity of the beam, but he could see the dinosaur trying to escape the beam, trying to run from the massive force pinning it to the ground. Chunks of concrete and metal flew upward as the beam cut into the ground. It let out a massive roar that vibrated the platform on which Dylan stood, and all the soldier do was stare in total, amazed wonder as chunks of the once-mighty Giganotosaurus began to disappear, being totally vaporized and obliterated by the satellite weapon beam. It opened its jaw wide, screaming in pain as it was being split into unrecognizable forms. The sheer force of the entire process knocked Dylan against the wall, knocking the wind out of him, and he fell to the floor. In just a few seconds, it was over, the brightness of the large beam gone as quickly as it arrived.
---------------------------------
She kicked the door, but to no avail. She was surrounded by computers on all sides, a machine in the middle of the section, probably for a computer display or something. The entire facility was one big question mark inside her head, and each step of progression only made her delve further and further into confusion. Regina had seen the typed notes in the rooms before, saw the commemoration monuments at the outside of the facility and started to understand. The documents at least explained the origins of those helmeted females that seemed to be a nuisance for this entire mission. Also, she could start to understand what seemed to be the true purpose of Dr. Kirk's work—at least, from the government's perspective.
Third Energy was designed to be a weapon, but did Dr. Kirk envision that the government would take his work and do this with it? Did he think that the government would take all of his research, his work, and create a disaster so catastrophic as to wipe out the human race, causing a skew in the fabric of space and time making it so that the race never existed? What I did, along with Rick and Gail a year ago now makes me pity him…I thought he was a creep, someone to be feared and hated, a very dangerous man, but we were wrong—we were wrong this whole time. And now our government, in its infinite wisdom, has created a fuck-up of epic proportions, causing the downfall of our own race. Oh, goodie! Look at the product of the government's haste for results, instant gratification: many hundreds, thousands, possibly billions of lives lost, unnecessarily. Much time and energy spent to try to repair its mess-up. By the time the people involved knew the true extent of this whole debacle, it was too late—the dinosaurs had taken over. And now I'm trapped in this fucking room because a self-destruct sequence was manually activated, and some stupid lockdown procedure has locked all the doors!
She felt the floor suddenly shake violently, briefly, and a loud crashing could be heard in the next room, accompanied by a muffled roar, probably from a large dinosaur. Sparks suddenly shot out behind her as one of the wires snapped, and from somewhere near the entrance to the large laboratory hall, the sounds of glass crashing to the floor filled the room made her eyes grow wide with surprise. She turned around and ran, ran back up the stairs to the source of the sound. At the top of the stairs, she turned into a section of the glass tubes, and she felt the shattered glass crunch beneath her boots. The metal floor was covered in glass shards and clear, viscous fluid, luckily, odorless. As she turned a corner, she could see a person lying on the floor, facedown, the limbs sprawled out. She kneeled down next to the lifeless body, and turned the body over, her hands feeling cold fluid. She could see the face of a boy, a young child probably no more than fourteen or fifteen, fair-skinned, his short black hair matted down to his head. He wore a uniform similar to those of those helmeted females—a black, leather rider jacket, but instead of tight, short black shorts, he wore black pants. Regina put her hand to his heart, and fortunately, she could feel a pulse, very slow, very faint.
He's alive…which means probably everyone suspended in these tanks are.
As much as she wanted to carry him out of here before the self-destruct timer ran out, she knew that she couldn't.
"Emergency lockdown procedure ending. All doors opening to expedite evacuation." She got up, looking sorrowfully at the sleeping child, knowing that in just a couple minutes, he and all the others in this large lab room would be obliterated. She could see the large door at the bottom of the room opening up, receding into the ceiling. Without wasting another second, she ran down the double flight of stairs, and opened the odd-looking door, leaving the children behind.
So this is also the government's handiwork…children. Children needlessly created to cover up our government's fuck-ups—the saviors of the human race.
----------------------------------
All that could be heard were the blaring sirens once more. Other than that, silence.
"Ugh," Dylan moaned, clutching and rubbing his head. The force of the emergent beam sent him back, hitting his head on a wall. He rose to his feet slowly, his head throbbing, making him feel a little disoriented for a few seconds. Pulling his hand away, he saw no blood. He walked to the edge of the platform and looked over to survey the damage.
He saw a huge hole in the floor where the dinosaur was, probably fifty feet in diameter and stretching down for an undetermined amount of feet. The blast cut a huge path of destruction, and he could see smoking remains coming from the earthen walls created by the powerful energy beam.
Holy fucking shit…that beam totally obliterated the creature. Hot shit!
A female voice brought him back to reality. "One minute until detonation."
The emergency lockdown door opened slowly, revealing a scared Paula huddled in the corner by the door, her entire body shaking.
"One minute until detonation. Commencing secondary countdown. Fifty nine, fifty eight…"
Let's get out of here, finally.
He ran back along the platform, which, luckily, still held, despite it taking heavy abuse. When he arrived at the doorway, Paula lifted her head, and Dylan could see her eyes watery, bloodshot, tears shed from fear.
Dylan smiled and reached out his hand. "Let's go, Paula," he said softly, and a smile began to form at the corners of her mouth as she took his hand, pulled herself up. She waked to the door and raised her wrist, and in a couple seconds, the door slid open, revealing a long corridor, with tall computers, probably as tall as double Dylan's, maybe more, lining the room. At the end of this room, there it was—the structure that he'd been looking for; the one thing he'd been searching for seemingly ages, just feet in front of him.
The Timegate. Yes!
He looked at his daughter again, smiling. "It'll be ok." Next to the Timegate was a control panel, and he recognized the screen layout—similar to the Timegate screen back in the present time. He touched some buttons, set the time for the present year—2010—and hit a confirmation button. Suddenly, he could see the air move in front of the Timegate, the way air looks rising from the ground on a hot, summer day. A ball of white light formed at the center, then grew outward quickly, and quick flashes of jagged light emanated from the keyboard, making crackling sounds that filled the room. The light ball expanded, then shrunk to nothing, the air around the structure waving.
"Forty six, forty five, forty four…"
She's not here…damn. Maybe she already escaped? If she didn't…I can't stay, or I'll die too…
Behind him, he could hear the door opening. Both Mortons looked behind them, and Dylan made out the slender, sexy, red-headed figure of Regina. He looked up toward the ceiling.
Now you're just showing off.
"Regina!" he yelled, and her eyes grew wide with surprise.
"Dylan!" she cried, running over to him. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah—the gate's all ready to go. We don't have much time left. Let's go through this gate and get the hell out of here!"
"Agreed—whoa!" she yelled as an explosion from somewhere nearby in the facility shook the room violently, causing her to fall forward. The sudden shaking of the facility caused one of the computers to fall forward, sparks flying and electricity sizzling. It was falling toward Paula rapidly, and for a second, she was frozen in paralyzed shock, and Dylan's eyes grew wide with fear.
"Move, Paula!" he yelled, and as it neared the ground, feet above her head, Paula began to dive out of the way of the falling computer—but not fast enough as the towering, heavy structure fell hard on her legs, pulling her body down to the ground. Regina could hear the unnatural snap of bone as the machine crushed her legs, definitely breaking them. She let out a wail, a piercing shriek of pain as she became trapped beneath the computer.
When the shaking ended, the two of them got up and ran toward her, grabbing both ends of the heavy computer. With a mighty grunt, Dylan heaved, pushing with every ounce of his strength. Regina did the same, but their efforts were proving useless. They tried again in unison, but the computer didn't even budge.
"No!" Dylan grunted through gritted teeth. "No! NO!"
"Papa…" Paula moaned softly, tears streaming down her cheeks, her hair wild and in disarray.
"Paula!" Dylan grunted, still trying to push the computer off her. It was no use.
"Dylan!" Regina began. "What are we going to do? If we don't leave now, we'll never get back!"
Suddenly, an idea entered Dylan's mind—an idea that was crazy, bizarre, totally and utterly stupid, but he had to say it.
"Regina," he said firmly. "The gate is open. I know you don't want to, but you'll have to go back by yourself. I won't leave Paula."
Regina's face grew annoyed. "Are you fuckin' crazy?!"
"Just go, please!" Dylan shot back. "You have the Third Energy data disk, right?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out the shiny disk, encased in clear blue plastic, and reached it out to Dylan.
"When you get back to our original time, use the data to learn about the Third Energy, then build the perfect gate and come pick us up for the last time."
Regina's face softened, and Dylan could see her eyes becoming watery.
"I...Dylan…" she started, her voice choking up. "I will. I promise…"
"Final warning," the female's voice echoed. "Ten seconds until detonation."
Regina turned around, walked up just in front of the Timegate, and turned to Dylan once more.
"Remember, you still owe me one!" she said.
"Well, then," Dylan replied, "you better get back quick." He raised his arm and brought his hand to his forehead in a formal military salute.
Regina returned the salute, her face looking determined. She looked at the two once again, then ran through the Timegate, her body disappearing the final countdown hit zero.
The first set of the timed explosive charges went off in the Missile Silo, obliterating what the missile didn't, sending chunks of debris flying over the landscape. The next set of charges began to go off inside the facility, and as violent shaking broke out in the control room, Paula looked at her father, her eyes panicked and fearful.
"Papa!"
He looked at her and smiled warmly, and as a charge exploded just above them, he shielded her with his muscular body. The blast hit a computer directly in front of them, sending it toppling toward them. As the computer was falling directly toward them, he clutched her, held her close. And as the large machine was falling on them, the rest of the explosive charges exploded all around them, pieces of metal, concrete and other materials becoming debris, scattering all over the landscape, all over the ground, everything being destroyed.
Only the nearest reptiles could hear the explosion, and only the Pterodactyls could see the bright ball of orange that lit up the horizon.
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End of Chapter Twelve, and the end of the Dino Crisis II story. However, guess what, you guys?! My novel's not over yet! There's one more chapter following this—the Epilogue. One more chapter remains! Let me know how this story's going with a review! Hope you're enjoying it thus far. Read on for the final chapter, Epilogue.