Minx Ep. 04: The Sphere, Mesozoic Zone

"We'd better get moving," she suggested.

Paul was busy gnawing on the little meat that was left on the lizard. Miguel chewed the small piece he'd manage to grab, then looked across the prairie.

"Oh, shit!" The older man's voice was plaintive. "Why do they keep following us?"

"They're hungry and we're edible," said Minx with a shrug. "I'm not sticking around."

She dropped over the lip of the canyon wall and slid down the dusty surface, knocking small stones free. There was a brief avalanche of rock, sand and dust that arrived at the bottom just as she did. Looking up, she could see that Miguel and Paul were daunted by the steep drop of twenty metres. She shrugged again and walked along the canyon floor. Paul and Miguel took one last look at the approaching carnivores and then copied Minx.

To her inexpert eye the canyon looked perfectly natural, and she wondered if it were designed to appear that way or if some natural processes had been allowed to change the landscape. The sphere had been floating through space for tens of millions of years, or possibly hundreds of millions. How could the inside have remained static? How could weathering have proceeded without volcanoes and plate tectonics to replenish the crumbling rock?

The canyon split. Minx chose the trail on the left at random. Shortly thereafter the canyon split again, then again. She realized they were going to get lost in this maze, but there was nothing else to do so she continued walking as if she knew the way.

The floor of the canyon descended gently. The rock walls were layered, but it was all the same type of orange-yellow, blocky sandstone. The trio continued on, progressing deeper and deeper into the maze. Minx mentally debated trying to climb one of the bluff walls to find out which direction the tower lay in, but after several minutes of trying to spot a place that wouldn't be too difficult to ascend she gave up.

"We're lost," observed Paul. "You've got us lost, Minx!"

She simply rolled her eyes and continued on.

The sounds of an avalanche in the distance behind them made them all freeze in place. Those sounds were followed by a familiar roar.

"You're welcome to wait here, Paul. Maybe the allosaurs will guide you out."

"Bitch!"

She shrugged in response and continued walking. The canyon divided several more times and then opened. Minx frowned and noted that before them was a vast plain, girded by canyon walls. Within the dry plain were hoodoos, hundreds or thousands of them. There were a variety of shapes and sizes. Now that the trail was not boxed in by unclimbable walls Minx was confident that she could head straight for the tower, although she would have preferred there was an easy escape if something dangerous was waiting amongst the hoodoos for them.

She walked up to one of the oddly-sculpted columns and located finger holds.

"What are you doing?" asked Miguel nervously. "I don't think I can climb that."

"I just want to see where we are and where the tower is." Minx lifted herself up, found some footing and continued her ascent. In less than a minute she was atop the hoodoo. She marked the location of the tower, and noted the positions of unusual-looking hoodoos that lay between her and her goal. Now that she had a trail to follow she looked back hoping that her higher vantage would give her a glimpse of the dinosaurs. To her surprise, one of the allosaurs was peeking over the canyon walls and staring back at her. It let out a roar.

"That was damn close!" exclaimed Paul.

Minx dropped back to the ground. "We'd better move fast. They've gained some ground."

The men ran, too far off to the left she noted. Minx jogged in the correct direction, ignoring them. After a few seconds she saw Paul and Miguel altering their direction to match hers.

Another roar sounded behind them. Minx looked over her shoulder. One of the allosaurs had come into the hoodoo-filled basin! She ducked behind a stone column, changing her direction slightly, and then continued running. She momentarily lost sight of Paul and Miguel.

She weaved around hoodoo after hoodoo, hoping this would keep her concealed from the dinosaurs. There was the thump thump of the animals' tread behind her, but she could not see them. There was a shout off to her left. She hoped that would delay the carnivores, but frowned when the sounds of pursuit continued behind her unabated.

Suddenly, she noticed something moving on her right. A glance showed her one of the beasts had caught up to her but was at least fifteen metres away. She looked to her left and spied another. Her heart seemed to shrink as she realized they were hunting her as a team. They were planning to box her in!

She could hear the one behind her drawing closer, but she still hadn't seen it. She tried to increase her speed, but the ones off to either side matched her. Minx's heart pounded away as she wondered how she was going to survive.

Something odd about the hoodoo ahead of her caught her eye. Taking a chance she stopped beside it. There was an opening! She climbed in, wrapping her arms around her legs, closed her eyes, and then imagined that she was invisible.

The thumping of dinosaur feet drew nearer. It was almost as if she could feel the vibration right through the rock. Chancing a look, Minx saw a wall of reptilian scales flash by her. There was a roar that was answered by two others. The bounty hunter stayed perfectly still. In her imagination she could see the three carnivores meeting up, wondering where their prey had disappeared to. Were they smart enough to backtrack? If they were, then she was dead.

A yell from one of the men was followed by the sounds of the creatures running again. Minx counted to sixty.

There were noises in the distance; roars and screams of fright. Minx unfolded and slipped out of her hiding spot. There were three-toed dinosaur tracks in the dirt at her feet that dwarfed her own prints. She expected an allosaurus to poke its head around a rock any second, but it never happened.

The few sounds of pursuit she did hear were coming from one direction. Minx rotated ninety degrees and ran away from the danger as fast as she could. Her only hope was to put as much distance between herself and the dinosaurs and hope she found a place of safety before they resumed the hunt.

20

It had been an arduous trek, but at last Dragon had led his troop out of the swamp and up onto the ridge. His superior senses and brain had kept them all relatively safe from danger, although he was forced to admit that the quantity of his group had also likely intimidated many of the animals that might have attacked a smaller group.

Using his binoculars he searched for Minx, ignoring the tired groans from those around him. There was no clear trail to follow, but Dragon had reasoned that if Minx had left the beach it was because she was headed somewhere. His binoculars focussed automatically, bringing the distant needle-like mountain into view. He opened his eyes in surprise as he realized the landform was not a natural structure; it was a tower! Minx had to be headed there!

"Captain?" called out Alice.

He glanced her way to see her pointing further along the ridge. Arachne was making her way over the rocks and boulders, coming towards the group.

Dragon walked over to Vanessa, who shrank from him and trembled. "Give me that package," he commanded. He took the offered item and went to meet the arachnid, where he opened the wrappings and offered the creature food.

Arachne ate hungrily while Dragon waited. He wondered how to convince Minx's friend to stay with him while they searched for the beautiful bounty hunter. If he were simply to leash her Minx would never forgive him. Dragon sighed.

Arachne stopped eating and clicked twice. She lifted an arm and pointed back down the ridge, in the direction that she had come from.

Dragon shook his head and pointed in the direction of the tower. "Minx," he said.

The arachnid stared out across the patchwork of forests and plains.

"Where are we headed, Captain?" called out Rod. Dragon glanced at the second mate, noting that he wasn't anywhere near Vanessa.

"Be quiet!" demanded the hyperman.

A roar echoed through the forest below, silencing the humans.

Dragon knelt and held the binoculars in front of Arachne, pointing them at the spire. She examined them with one of her claws, then put her eyes close to the device. She suddenly backed away, as if in surprise. Then, she drew near again and stared through the optics.

"Minx," repeated the hyperman.

Arachne stepped back and whistled.

"Was that Arachne?" asked Ship.

"Yes," answered Dragon.

"She's never made a sound like that before. What's going on?"

Dragon quickly related where they were and what he was doing.

"Minx was convinced that the spider was highly intelligent, Dragon. I think she's trying to talk to you."

"Can you translate?"

"If you gave me a full year with operating sensors I might be able to learn her language."

"Any suggestions then, Ship?"

"When you find Minx give her a big wet one."

"Based upon our last time together she might not respond well to a kiss, Ship."

"Who said anything about a kiss?"

"Get some rest, Ship," ordered the exasperated hyperman.

He turned to the humans. "Alice, are we ready to move out?"

"Yes, Captain." She leapt to her feet, eager to do his bidding.

Arachne tugged on the leg of his uniform. He looked down at her. She clicked twice and pointed down the ridge where she had come from.

"Alice, keep them resting here until I return. Post guards."

Dragon pointed in the direction Arachne had indicated, and then he followed her as she scrambled across the rocks. The spider was not nearly as agile as he, and the hyperman had no trouble keeping up with her. They travelled along the ridge for almost ten minutes, and then Arachne stopped and pointed down.

Dragon looked but could see nothing of note, merely a ledge of flat rock with a round, disc-like boulder atop it. He stared at the arachnid, but she emphatically pointed to the ledge. He pulled out his binoculars, despite the fact that he could have easily walked down the six metres to the ledge, and scrutinized the place. Everything seemed perfectly normal.

What was there that he couldn't see but Arachne could? He pressed a button on the binoculars and the view switched from the visual spectrum to infra-red, then ultraviolet. Suddenly an image appeared on the disc-like slab. He adjusted the device until the pictoglyph became distinct. It was an eight legged figure; an arachnid!

Dragon normalized the magnification on the binoculars and turned them toward Arachne. To his surprise, the creature was decorated with lines and spirals all over its carapace. Her legs were ringed, as well. He put the binoculars away.

"So, this has something to do with your people then? And since your race likely predates the Mesozoic, yours was either one of the first races to be captured and put on display here or it was your race that built this amazing sphere." Dragon recalled the rope-like surface of the sphere, and the spider-shaped robots that performed maintenance on the surface and sometimes defended it. "Ship!"

"Yes, Minx's bane."

"You were correct. Arachne's people did build this hollow world. Over time they've lost control of it, and now Mahar has claimed it as his own. However, my fellow hyperman has not yet assumed total control over this world."

"Well, duh."

"You're not surprised that I've found evidence, then?" he asked, surprised.

"No, not really. It just made sense. Personally, I was hoping that this sphere was built by sentient trees."

"I'm not going to ask, Ship."

Dragon ignored her sound of disgust and climbed down to the ledge. Once there, he tried to pry the slab off the edge but it wouldn't move. Arachne climbed down and watched him curiously. He put his hands on either side of the slab and tried to rotate it. It moved! He turned it around and around, until there was a hiss of escaping air. He raised an eyebrow at Arachne, then lifted the slab.

Underneath was a dark, round opening wide enough for someone to pass through. Dragon stuck his hand in and dim lights came on, showing the opening to be a hollow cylinder that went down three metres and then opened into a large room.

"If your people were smart enough to build this hollow world, Arachne, then they were smart enough to have transportation that will get us to that tower much faster than hiking across a dinosaur-filled land will. I'll go and get the others."

21

She had heard nothing from either the therapods or the men in over two hours, and Minx wondered if perhaps she had lost all of them. The tower was a short distance away from her, in a cleared area of the basin with woefully few hiding spots.

It definitely was a tower. There was a graceful curve to the bronze-coloured walls of the place that gave it an alien appearance. It rose up far above her, disturbingly so. There were a series of rings or decks at various elevations, but she had not yet noted any windows. A smooth, golden wall encircled the place. The wall was sufficiently low that Minx felt confident she could reach the top if she leaped high enough, however there were frequent gaps in the wall that allowed easy entry. Beyond the defensive structure were hoodoos, but oddly unnatural ones composed of square and rectangular blocks of white stone. An image of dinosaurs carelessly stacking enormous building blocks popped into her head.

There was no sign of Mahar, but Minx assumed he was present and already observing her. She stepped out from her hiding place. There were no shouts, nor roars of discovery. She took a deep breath and then bolted for the wall. At any second she expected to hear the eager roar and stomping of a hungry allosaurus bearing down on her.

She reached the wall and put her back flat against it. Minx's eyes searched for a sign of pursuit, but luck was with her. She peered around the wall and, observing no dangers, hurried around it. Now, hidden from the monsters prowling the canyon, she felt the tension leave her.

Her attention was diverted by the sight of Paul and Miguel running into the same courtyard about a quarter around the perimeter wall. They waved to her, and then made motions to her that seemed to suggest they didn't know where the dinosaurs were. Minx shrugged, glanced around and then shrugged again.

Minx ran to the nearest of the blockish hoodoos and stood behind it. A few seconds later she could hear the men running across the courtyard toward her. She shook her head.

"How did you get away from those things, Minx?" asked Miguel, panting.

"I thought they were chasing you."

Both men gave her confused stares. "They ignored us," began Paul, "despite all the noise he was making."

"I thought one of them was getting closer to me!" Miguel argued.

"I told you that was me!"

"Oh, shut up!" exclaimed Minx. "If you two had any brains you'd realize that you're in as much danger here as you were out there."

"Mahar invited us," reminded Paul.

"Hmm," answered Minx, noncommittally.

She headed toward the tower, walking slowly and keeping her eyes and ears open. The hoodoos weren't as thick within the courtyard as they had been outside, and it was an easy matter for her to reach the gleaming bronze wall of the tall structure. She put her hand to it. How long had this thing been standing here? Hundreds of millions of years?

"Where's the door?" asked Paul.

She turned to him in surprise, not having realized that he and Miguel had followed her so closely. Had she been so focussed on listening for dinosaurs or the hyperman?

"We'll look around." The two men nodded and began to feel their way around the base of the tower. Minx followed.

A slight sound above her caught her attention. She stepped away from the base and looked up the face of the tower. A man was on some sort of ledge at least ten metres up. His eyes were on her, and there was a smirk on his arrogant and handsome face.

"Mahar, I presume?" she asked.

"Yes, young lady. I was so hoping that you were a hyperwoman. Certainly your actions have suggested that your intellect and physical capabilities are well beyond the human norm, and you are such a lovely creature. A pity you're just human."

"Are you going to let us in?" she called up. "Or, are you just going to stand on the balcony and twirl your moustache?"

"The men, yes. You, no."

There was a surprised shout from Paul and Miguel. Minx turned to them and watched as they fell through the wall of the tower and disappeared from view. She ran to the very spot they had been standing at, but the wall was now solid. She hit it with her fist.

A loud horn sounded and echoed through the courtyard. Minx backed away from the wall.

"What was that?" she asked the hyperman.

"A dinner bell, so to speak. I have a guest arriving shortly and I require a distraction."

"Dragon," said Minx, thinking aloud.

Mahar ran his fingers through his blonde hair. "It's precisely behaviour such as that which made me suspect you were a hyperwoman, my dear. It's such a pity that the genetic scans I performed revealed you were only human. You have an interesting background, but why some past hyperperson deigned to have intercourse with humans," he shivered in disgust, "is beyond me. Farewell. Please know that your death is ensuring the survival of a superior sentient being."

He ducked away from view, and the balcony he was on suddenly became part of the tower wall again.

"Distraction?" Minx asked in confusion. A roar beyond the wall made her freeze.

She ran to a nearby hoodoo and, hiding behind it, looked about while she waited for the approach of an allosaurus. Just as she was beginning to believe the beasts had not found her, one slowly walked through a gap in the wall. It turned its head this way and that, then took in a deep breath through its nostrils.

Minx squirmed up against the hoodoo, just as she heard the footsteps of another therapod coming toward the tower from another direction. She struggled to think of escape routes. The stones were easy to climb, but that would merely bring her conveniently up to the level of their jaws. There weren't enough hoodoos for her to hide from the carnivores, and as she heard the third allosaurus come into the courtyard she realized that they had finally boxed her in.

If Dragon was coming then she prayed that he'd get there soon. She needed him!

22

"The builders of this world made these tunnels?" asked Alice, as the humans followed Dragon and the arachnid deeper and deeper into the crust.

The hyperman had neglected to inform the humans that it was Arachne's species that had built this world. Humans had such fragile egos, he knew. How would they react if they were to learn that an intelligent race had evolved on their home planet hundreds of millions of years before they did? The arachnid civilization that had left no traces, as plate tectonics and weathering had transformed the surface of the Earth again and again. He thought it could be too great an attack on their psyches to learn that Arachne's people had been far more advanced than the humans now were, and they had been so well before mammals had even appeared upon that pale blue dot.

Dragon glanced at Arachne, who seemed very excited. Her eyes would be seeing pictures and words that the rest of them could not. Obviously she was no engineer, and he'd seen no evidence that she was capable of understanding any of the technology they'd found. Her species had lost their knowledge at some point following their last visit to Earth. That was perfectly clear to him. What must it be like for her to see hints at the former greatness of her people? A sudden empathy for the spider-creature welled up within him as he remembered his own people's former dominance of the human systems.