Arrival to Danger

part four

A giant version of an American Native boy pointed an arrow at the little people's spaceship. He did not know what it was or if it was something good or evil. Inside, all were either sleeping or near sleeping. They had come to the end of an extremely long and tiring day. The last thing anyone wanted was to feel the sharp concussion of a wooden arrow on the hull of Spindrift. The arrow cracked in two against the side of the ship. The shake threw Fitzhugh from his chair onto the flight deck. Betty sprang up from her seat near Barry, who rolled off his makeshift bed. Chipper nervously barked. Valerie and Mark ran from the rear of the ship into the passenger area.

Val gasped, "What is it?"

Betty sighed, "Not another animal."

Steve and Dan were up and right beside them. "Keep the lights off. It may be something..." He looked up as he strode to the hall and past the doors into the control room flight deck. "Fitzhugh, get up," Steve pulled the drowsy man up, "What's out there?"

"I have seen nothing I assure you."

"Forget the assurances. You fell asleep, didn't you?"

"Look," Fitzhugh pointed to the huge legs outside. The boy began to bend down. Steve flipped a switch and the cover slides shut across the viewport. The boy jumped back, spotting movement.

Steve whispered through the doors, "All of you strap in. Dan, in here."

Fitzhugh put on the scanner, "I'm getting a picture, captain."

Dan came in, "A giant?"

"Yeah, I caught a glimpse of him and..."

"It's a boy, an Indian boy," Fitzhugh said, astonishment in his voice.

The three of them buckled in. The boy examined his broken arrow and discarded it. He then touched the ship. Feeling no pain, he picked up the tiny craft and took a rope off his belt. Dan watched the TV screen, "What's he doing?"

"I don't know but he..." Steve thought, "...he is."

"What?"

"He's gonna tie us to his back."

"Why did he attack us?" Fitzhugh asked.

"Maybe he thought we were bad--like a demon or something," Dan said as lowly as possible.

The ship tilted, nose up. The boy had tied them onto his back. Being young, he didn't notice its weight but he was firmly strong and despite the extra strain, he managed to move along quite well. Betty, Mark, Barry and Val had the cover window slides closed and were confused. At times, the tilted almost to 80 degrees. Barry held Chipper tightly.

Dan pointed to the radar, "Steve. Blips. More giants."

Steve whispered, "They're circling around him."

Fitzhugh gasped, "To hunt him?"

"We don't' know what we're in," Steve said, "It could be anything. I'm going to warn him." He grabbed a mike, "Hey," he called out, "Hey you. Listen to me."

Frightened, the boy untied the ship immediately and slowly lowered it. "I understand...what you say."

Barry heard the voice on the speakers, which were full open, "He speaks English."

"Listen," Steve went on, "We want to help you. There are others your own size, waiting to ambush you."

"How do I, Tenko, know you are not trying to fool me?"

"Because we are not here to harm you or we would have by now. To show you---look down." Steve put his hand on the open port control switch.

"No, Steve, don't," Dan gasped and reached for Steve's arm.

It was too late. A huge face peered into the control room. Two giant brown orbs---eyes stared in. Tenko's face showed amazement. "I thought you here to destroy. You are those who came from another planet."

Now it was Steve's turn to be shocked, "How'd you know about us?"

"Captain!" Fitzhugh gasped, "Those blips are moving!"

Dan took the mike, "Who are they? Do you know?"

"Warriors of my people. I am training to survive. It is a test my people have endured for years. I, Tenko will be a man soon."

Steve took the mike back, "Yeah, great but those, those warriors are closing in on us."

"Do not worry. I have survived in the desert. I will lead them away from you." The boy then turned away and ran. Three warrior giants began to run also. Tenko ran for a gully of rocks.

Barry was taking this all in, realizing Tenko, who seemed to be the same age as he, bravely diverted the warriors' attention, preventing them from finding the small ship. Barry was shocked to think that this young boy was left on his own to fend for himself and seriously doubted if he could have done the same thing.

Steve listened, "I think he did it."

"That sound," Fitzhugh said. A repeating gusher of noise filled the air. Steve unbuckled and ran outside. Betty followed, getting out of her seat. Chipper squirmed in Barry's arms and ran down, out of Barry's arms ----outside after Betty. Barry followed. Val and Mark shrugged and couldn't resist following.

Outside in the dark, Betty and Steve looked up. Betty asked, "Do you see it?"

Steve turned, "Do I...? What are you doing here?"

A strong gust of wind blew Betty and Steve back toward the ship. Val and Mark ran out after Barry and Chipper. A storm of dust whirl winded around the ship. Val gasped, falling onto the side of the ship's back fin, "What is it?"

Barry scooped Chipper as dirt flew up. Just ahead, he saw Betty and Steve fall on their backs. Mark grabbed Barry's arm and then was thrown back with the boy. Betty and Steve lay flat on their backs as a huge mass filled the night sky. An impossible machine came straight down at them. Steve grabbed Betty's arm and shoved. They managed to run somehow and fell onto their stomachs, heads facing toward Spindrift. The wind blew them down into matted grass. The giant helicopter flew down just a few yards from Betty and Steve. The circling propellers kept whining as Mark hurried Val, Barry and Chipper up the ramp and inside the Spindrift. Betty whispered to Steve, "They'll see us."

"Not if we lie still, quietly."

Two giants emerged from the helicopter. The Spindrift was dark as possible. Steve couldn't see the two giants but he did see three Native Americans dressed in leather overalls towering close to the spaceship on the other side. Betty looked behind her, "Steve."

Steve turned and saw the giants, his feet facing them, "Kobick."

"Him again!"

Kobick had a flashlight and the giant with him had a larger searchlight. This man had on a pilot's hat and an older locking jacket, as if he had just stepped out of World War II. Kobick began to check the grass, "Well just remember Olland, I'm here for a different reason than you. I have no quarrel with these people."

"Oh no, Inspector? Whose government put them here then?"

"They have always lived here. We have enough room for all."

"I don't. I'm a hunter, Kobick. And this land has a lot of game to hunt. And you and I are the same really. Hunters. You hunt the little people..."

"We have company..."

The three Native men passed Spindrift and met Kobick and Olland. Steve pulled Betty up, "Now's our chance. Head for the ship." The pair ran straight at Spindrift in between two Natives who stood with their eyes fixed on Kobick and Olland. Betty and Steve ran at the ship and reached the door but Tenko loomed from overhead seemingly from nowhere. He was on the other side of the ship but could easily reach down and grab them. The two stopped.

"Do no be alarmed. I will take you to safety." Steve saw the boy clearly---long black hair like a Native American and smooth yet hard features.

Kobick tried to see Tenko but the three others were in his way, "What is he doing? What are they doing?"

Olland removed a small gun from his bag, "I don't know but if they..."

"Put that thing away. I must talk to you."

Tenko held Spindrift under his arm and walked away into the dark. Kobick strained to see but couldn't. One of the Native men spoke, "You have interrupted one of our sacred tests. Have you no consideration or respect for others?"

"Why ask a question we already know the answer to?" Olland smirked.

Kobick shone a light toward Tenko, risking the anger of these three but the boy was far off by now.

"Take us to Chief Wompko," Olland aced Kobick.

Quickly, Kobick added, "It is a matter of government."

"Come with us."

Tenko bustled the Spindrift up a hill. In the pilot's cabin, everyone huddled to the window, awed by a five sided giant city--all within one building. Outwardly tan colored, its architecture was of the most splendid workmanship, lined on its frames by huge tinted windows. Inside the lighted pentagon, the Earthlings saw levels of homes and stores--all in a peculiar Indian design. Betty cleared her throat, "It's...it's beautiful."

"I've never seen giant buildings like that," Barry observed, holding Chipper in one arm.

"Kobick will be following," Steve said.

"Kobick here?" Mark puffed.

"Him again?" Dan nodded, "I think finding little people...finding us...has become more than just a job to him."

Fitzhugh frowned, still eyeing the giant city, "It was always more than just a job to that one."

"Now it's an obsession," Val threw in.

The boy carried the ship into the building. Inside, the brightly lit interior contrasted sharply to the dark outer night. Everyone's eyes began to adjust. The ceiling was very high, colored in a beadlike design. Aside from Tenko, who was dressed for such a test, any of the other giants were dressed in very modern and loose fitting clothes of all shapes. Some of those stopped in curiosity to watch Tenko carry the spaceship.

"These people are very sophisticated," Mark looked out, "Maybe they were given more of a chance than our Indians."

"Not with Kobick's government," Steve put in, "They must be getting something in return."

Looking outside, they could see the door that Tenko struggled to open. This new room was small but elongated from end to end. Tenko marched the ship toward a high backed straw chair which was populated by a huge formidable but old man. The seven saw his grossly old, almost ancient face fill the viewport as they gravely came closer and closer to him in the boy's arms. "Grandfather, they came from the sky."

The old man raised a hand, "I know of them. Did they disturb your test?"

"No, but two city dwellers in a helicopter landed. I think one was Mr. Olland."

"The hunter does not frighten me. You, people from Earth, welcome to my people. We wish you no harm and have no quarrel with you."

Steve smiled and opened the mike, "That's reassuring to hear, sir. But with Olland is a man who hunts us. He will come here to find us."

"On our land, he can do you no harm."

"He'll try to change that law," Steve said, "Like you, we wish you no harm but our being here will endanger your people."

"Our...their government fears us. We gave them no cause to. In the past, they inflicted great harm upon us. Now they dare not."

"Can you hide our ship?"

"Yes," the old man said, hardly winking before answering.

The warriors entered the building with Kobick and Olland between them. As if to insult the pair, the warriors gave them over to women. These women who showed Kobick and Olland to the old man, Chief Wompko, didn't utter a word. Kobick said, "Chief, I'll get right to the point. Mr. Olland here has a few friends who have seen spaceships of little people. He claims. All I want to know is if you've seen them."

"Inspector, you travel great distances merely to hunt tiny men you hear so much. And why with Mr. Olland?"

"Part of the deal. If you don't cooperate I will sign this paper..." Kobick eyed a huge golden chest near the chair, "...allowing hunting to go on here."

The Chief, old but by no means weak, stood up, "No, you will not! Olland has tried every trick to do this---to invade our land and kill its wildlife."

Kobick nodded, understanding, "Then on your oath as a chief you will lay claim that you have seen no little people?"

Tenko looked at his grandfather and then at Kobick, who was blank faced. Olland was smiling. Tenko went over to the gold chest and sat on it. Kobick moved over to him. Olland pulled Tenko off, "No need to answer, Chief. We've found our little people." One of the warriors in the room, angry, came over and shoved Olland away.

"Enough!" The Chief yelled.

Kobick put a hand on the chest and undid the latch, "Answer me, chief. By your silence, you tell me what I want to know." Kobick opened the chest and a shocked look registered on his face.

END OF PART FOUR.