A New Beginning Ch. 06

I thought a moment. Then, "You're right Joseph. Thanks."

I was glad for his input. I knew I could now figure up how much of what we should take without any feelings of guilt.

After, we had sex. It was the first time I had sex with Joseph in over two months. I normally only had sex with those whom I had strong emotions and feelings for, Joshua, Chantelle and Butler before he died. But every now and then I would indulge my sexual appetite and have sex just for the pure enjoyment of the orgasm, especially with Sam.

I had some very intense orgasms when I had sex with Sam or Joseph. But we were just friends. There was never going to be any deep love between us; we knew that. So when we made love it was just for the sex.

The only other people I had sex with onboard were Doc Yves, Victoria Rose and Josephine before she quit prostitution. I paid for Josephine's services, so did Chantelle. Except for Chantelle, I don't know if the others who had a private berth ever used the services of the prostitutes. I never asked them; it was none of my business.

I only had sex with Doc Yves when he came to me. It was the same between me and Vickie. I only had sex with her when she wanted to have sex with me, when she sought me out. She never told me why she wanted to have sex with me. But I suspect it was when she was depressed over some problem that she didn't want to share with anyone else. Whenever we did have sex she would unburden herself. I didn't mind, that's what I'm here for; to help people with their problems.

To prepare the ship for separation and to divide the ship's supplies took a lot of work from those who were staying as well as those who were returning to Earth. The James Cook soon turned into a busy little beehive. I was thankful as the extra work kept everyone's mind off the fact that the Earth we were returning to is 70 million years before our time and filled with dinosaurs. It also kept everyone's mind off the fact that now we were all "orphans" working without pay.

One of the first things I did was to have Joseph section off an area of the lower flight deck for the supplies we would be taking with us. That was easy. Next, I had him take a crew outside to attach the liquid oxygen tanks, the liquid hydrogen tanks and the solar panels to the living section. They had to be cut from the James Cook's wings and welded onto the end of the living section. After that, wires and tubing had to be routed into the living section. This latter proved to be quite difficult.

It took Joseph, Elizabeth Dee and a volunteer crew nineteen days to accomplish everything. We were in orbit 320 km above the ancient Earth by then. It looked real pretty.

Joseph couldn't fix the damaged solar panel. He was outside and I was watching him through the monitor on the lower flight deck. He was just about ready to pitch it toward Earth but luckily I stopped him before he did so. I warily asked him if he thought he could repair it once we were back on Earth. He shrugged his shoulders. I lightheartedly told him to put it in the lower flight deck. He nodded and answered that he would work on it after we landed.

After Joseph, Beth and their crew finished re-attaching the panels, I had him quietly take the three dead crew members out of the meat locker. Father Ray said a prayer while Joseph, Juan and I carried them out through the emergency airlock on the bridge and jettisoned them toward Earth.

After the service was over Father Ray told me that it was the only time in his life that he had ever been suited up. I told him that suited up or not God still heard his prayers. He smiled at me and said "God hears everyone's prayers Toni, especially those who are overworked and those who carry a heavy burden." I knew he was talking about me. I thanked him and gave him a hug.

I then took his suggestion and had Chantelle release the murderer from the brig. "After all," Father Ray reminded me, "he was only defending himself and there is no UNESA or UER to investigate the incident."

The next morning I met Joseph in the cafeteria. It was originally built to accommodate 100 crew members at any one time but with less than half of that number staying onboard I knew it had room to spare. As we stood together in front of the serving line I pointed this fact out to him and, with a mischievous smile, asked him to assign a crew to section off a small area for transferring the ships computer and communication equipment there.

Joseph looked at me in astonishment. He balked that he didn't have anyone available; everyone was busy working on some other project I dreamed up. I answered him that I had faith in him, that somehow he would find someone to do it. As soon as he finished eating breakfast he assigned a couple of crew members to assist Ralph and Gerald.

The rest of the officers were busy stowing food and gear on the lower flight deck, which ended up taking up about half of it. By the time we separated from the living section, both the lower flight deck and the bridge were crammed to capacity with gear.

Moving the computer put a cramp in my work. Before, every evening when everyone finished their work I would go to the lower flight deck and look up information on the ship's mainframe that I thought we might need once we landed. Then I downloaded it to Natalie Amiee's laptop.

I also downloaded several thousand songs from Sam's music library, music I figured the crew would enjoy listening to once we were back home. I copied some of Father Ray's classical music for myself.

Over the next several days I could see that not only was the transfer of equipment coming along better than I had expected, but the cafeteria was also rapidly becoming the staging and meeting area for those staying behind. I was extremely happy with the way everything was progressing.

But after Ralph and Gerald moved the computer, I had to spend my evenings in the cafeteria downloading information and music.

After we put ourselves in orbit above the Earth we stopped using the lower flight deck for navigation. In fact, once we were in orbit I put Natalie, Aleks and Valarie to work on the lower flight deck looking for a suitable landing strip for us. They daily used the ship's telescopic camera to search the terrain for a flat landing site. They took pictures whenever they thought they found a possible site so that Joshua and I could later study them.

Everyone said that they had the best job. That's because they also got a lot of great pictures of some of the dinosaurs roaming across the land. Akira came up with the idea of putting the pictures on disc and setting up a large screen in the cafeteria so that the rest of the crew could view the dinosaurs.

I really liked her idea and passed it by Louis and Father Ray to get their opinions. They both thought it was a great idea too to help boost morale.

I had Louis and Natalie setup a wide screen computer monitor in the cafeteria. Viewing dinosaur pictures -- both still and action shots -- soon turned into the most popular pastime onboard. Frequently, whenever a crew member wasn't working or sleeping, he or she could be found in the cafeteria. There were always 20 to 25 people at a minimum gathered in front of the screen.

There was even a "dinosaur picture of the day" voted on by the crew. The fossils of many of these creatures have never been found. The dinosaurs were truly amazing animals.

Yes, dinosaur watching put a further restriction in my downloading of information and music. But I didn't mind. I enjoyed watching the crew enjoy themselves. Besides, by this time I was almost finished downloading information. Then I went to the TV lounge and downloaded several thousand books from the library there onto the laptop's hard drive.

Ronald soon turned into sort of a MC of the show. He told me that before he signed onboard he used to study dinosaurs, dinosaur fossils and related dinosaur information as a hobby. His knowledge of dinosaurs was exceeded only by that of Ralph and Anthony. Between the three of them they were able to give a name to every picture taken of a known dinosaur.

As for the newer ones -- the ones fossils of which have not been found -- the crew members gave them Latin sounding names. But I must admit the names they gave these newer creatures were often not very scientific. They usually named them after friends and relatives they left on the former Earth or they named them based upon what the animal looked like.

For example, they named one theropod dinosaur Mother-In-Lawosaurus because, as one laborer said, it reminded him of his mother-in-law . . . mean and ugly. Then Laci Bianca, commenting on a small olive drab quadruped dinosaur with brown stripes on its back that just sat in a mud hole all day, said that it reminded her of her lazy ass ex-husband and named it Lazyassosaurus.

However, they named three dinosaurs that particularly touched my heart.

They named one particularly vicious biped carnivore Chantelleosaurus. This beast, which resembled a T-Rex but stood only about two meters high and had a rather long neck, seemed to delight in torturing its victims before eating them. It would pounce on the back of its prey and tear off large pieces of its flesh and drop them on the ground for its children to eat. It would repeatedly bite its prey until it was way past dead.

My lesbian lover loved it, especially its coloring. Its body was black but its head, neck and tail resembled a coral snake with red, yellow and black bands. Chantelle even printed a large picture of it and posted the picture outside the entrance to security HQ.

That night we slept together. She ate me three times before finally letting me blissfully fall to sleep. But it was one of the most restful sleeps I had had in a long time.

Another one they fondly named Antoinetteosaurus. This one reminded everyone of a sheep dog. It was a small, green and yellow feathered biped that followed a herd of duckbill hadrosaurs. It was a little over a meter high at the hips with a long feathered tail. It vaguely resembled a Bambiraptor.

We saw several herds of hadrosaurs and each herd had several of these "feathered friends" creatures amongst them. They would run all around the herd -- just like a sheep dog -- and keep the herd together. Whenever a baby would fall behind or stray out of the herd, these feathered animals would flap their arms, jump up and down and scare the baby back into the herd.

The Antoinetteosaurus also acted as watchdogs. Whenever a carnivore was in the area they would gather together in the area from which the beast was approaching, flap their feathered arms, jump up and down and attempt to scare off the beast. They had no effect on the larger carnivores -- only the smaller ones -- but they did help warn the duckbills of approaching danger.

We were never able to discover what these small carnivores got out of their symbiotic relationship with the hadrosaurs. Natalie took some shots of some Antoinetteosaurus eating a dead hadrosaur but they seemed to feed mainly on a small black and brown bird that fed off of dung beetles.

The bird used dinosaur dung to lure beetles into their nest. The crew aptly named this avian a Shitbird.

Anthony said their relationship with the hadrosaurs probably had something to do with rearing their young. Whenever a large carnivore attacked them, the hadrosaurs would form in a circle with their babies toward the center. The baby Antoinetteosaurus would join the baby hadrosaurs for protection.

But my favorite dinosaur was first seen and photographed on Father Ray's birthday. This was a strange looking Ceratoptian type dinosaur but much smaller than them; about a meter and a half high at their shoulders.

The dark khaki creature had small, white crescent moons on its back and tail. It roamed in a herd of about 30 or 40 animals. Ronald, Ralph and Anthony all said that they had never seen a fossil of it.

It had a frill behind its head like the other Ceratoptian dinosaurs I've seen fossils of -- the frill also had white crescents on it. But instead of horns above the eyes, it had a small frill extending from the rear one and running down to its nose.

This second, spiked frill looked more like the sail that I've seen on the back of Dimetrodons, the predatory Synapsids of the Permian Period. The two frills together looked like a large cross on its head. I guess that's another reason why the crew named it FatherRayius.

While I'm on the subject of Ceratoptian dinosaurs, Valarie got some great movie clips of a pack of seven Deinonychus -- a relative of my favorite dinosaur the Velociraptor -- attacking a small herd of Triceratops. So good was the movie that we were able to actually count the number of animals.

There were 13 adults, 8 juveniles and 12 babies. The babies stayed toward the middle of the herd while the herd moved around. But the juveniles sometimes ventured out, sometime sparing with each other and at other times just trying to discover the world around them.

The Dromaeosaurids stalked the Triceratops for half an hour before they made their move. Their pursuit was so skillful and subtle that the herd did not even know the carnivores were there until they started their attack. But as soon as the raptors did start, the Triceratops "circled their wagons." The adults formed around the pack with their horns pointing out while the juveniles and babies moved toward the center.

However, the Deinonychus were able to single out one of the juveniles before it got into the circle; it had strayed a little too far out from the herd. While several of the carnivores drew the attention of the adult Triceratops, two of them attacked the juvenile at the same time -- one from its right and one from its left.

When the juvenile Triceratops snapped its jaws at the one attacking from the left the one from the right placed a well-aimed kick at its neck, cutting its carotid artery.

An adult chased the two raptors away but the damage was already done. The juvenile bled to death a few moments later. Except for one adult -- presumably its mother -- the herd moved away from the carcass, while the carnivores bided their time hiding in the nearby bushes.

But after about half an hour even this one Triceratops moved on. The Deinonychus then voraciously fell on the dead juvenile and devoured it.

All the while the Deinonychus were feasting on the dead Triceratops several small vulture-type birds were circling above them. Some even landed and attempted to eat along side the carnivores but the raptors chased them off each time. When the Deinonychus finished chewing on the carcass these black birds with orange wing tips flew down and picked the bones clean.

The crew named the birds Daffyducktus after the cartoon character because these dim-witted birds didn't seem to learn that they couldn't eat while the Deinonychus were eating.

Much to the disappointment of the crew, we never did see a Tyrannosaurs Rex. But other than that, the crew really enjoyed watching the movies and snap shots of the dinosaurs. It even took their minds off sex. No one complained about not having any prostitutes. But Terri, Alicia, Josephine and Veronica Anne were the gladdest of all.

One afternoon while Ronald was on the lower flight deck viewing the Earth through the telescopic camera monitor he confided in me that he was apprehensive about returning to Earth to see the dinosaurs in real life.

Speculating on another less significant gossip that I discovered was circulating among those who didn't want to land, I jokingly asked him if he was afraid of getting eaten by a Tyrannosaurs Rex.

He answered me by asking me if I was afraid of getting eaten by a bear when I went into the forest on Earth. He then immediately asked me what the odds were of the James Cook being destroyed in the landing.

I informed him that the odds were almost nonexistent. He thought about my answer for a moment, nodded and then left the flight deck. He was one of those who were vacillating about returning. I said a silent prayer that my answer helped him make the decision to land with the rest of us.

He has become a changed man since we parked ourselves in orbit above the Earth. Gone is the sneaky, conniving, always-looking-out-for-himself person that he used to be. I'm not exactly sure what changed him but whatever it was I'm glad that it did.

Doc Yves said it has something to do with being cooped up onboard an overcrowded spaceship. He said that frequently a person's personality will change on extended space voyages, going from a Dr. Jekyll to a Mr. Hyde. Then when they return to Earth or even get close to Earth on the return trip they revert back to their original selves. I hope that's the case with Ronald.

After my conversation with Ronald I quietly went around and talked with several crew members who I knew were undecided about landing on Earth. I was happy to discover that many were thinking about landing with us instead of staying onboard. Although some of them still believed that there was a possibility that the James Cook would be destroyed on re-entry, they were now willing to take that chance.

I was just happy that their desire to return to Earth was greater than their fear of dying on re-entry or getting eaten by a dinosaur. I was glad because I knew that staying onboard the living section was inevitable suicide by starvation when the food gives out. Whereas there is only a very small chance that the James Cook will crash during landing and the possibility of it burning up on re-entry is almost nonexistent.

Since their numbers seemed to be increasing with each passing day, after about ten days I went around again and talked to the crew individually and in small groups. I was overjoyed to learn that over 3/4 of the crew members were either returning to Earth or thinking about returning to Earth.

After thinking about it, I became convinced that it was the dinosaur watching that influenced many of them to change their minds. Seventy million years BC is a paleontologist's paradise. We've seen so many new and interesting animals that it's impossible not to want to see them close up in real life.

Then Joseph took a crew outside to mount the telescopic camera onto the end of the living section. We were leaving it behind so that those diehards who wanted to stay could continue to view the Earth from the cafeteria.

While they were outside, he discovered a crack 120 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide at it's widest in the heat shield in the belly of the James Cook.

I was immediately alarmed when he told me about it but he told me not to worry about it. He could patch it. Without thinking I asked him how he intended to repair such a rather large crack. He told me "with superglue and duct tape, what else." Then he smiled.

A little over a century ago a high school chemistry teacher invented a mixture of liquid Teflon and fiberglass for cracks just like the one we had. After it was applied duct tape was put over it to prevent it from leaking into space while the goo dried.

The duct tape would burn off during re-entry but the patch held. It was jokingly referred to as superglue and duct tape by the more cynical. But it worked. Every time a returning ship had to patch up a crack, it returned to Earth without any mishap.

Anyway, I had forgotten that when we were transferring supplies from the rear Joseph found a couple of cans of Teflon and a roll of fiberglass in one of the little storage bins. It appears some UNESA supply officer put it onboard just in case we might need it. I was thankful for his thoroughness in storing necessary materials onboard.

The day after he found the crack Joseph went out and repaired it.

But that didn't stop news of the crack from spreading through the ship like wildfire. Before this, I had had hopes that Father Ray could convince the rest of the crew to come with us and return to Earth; there were only about 15 diehards.