“As well as you. I’ll back us up.”
“I will,” said Kai, shaking his head and looking at her hanging arm.
“No, you’ve Dimenon. I’ll manage.” She glanced out the window again.
It did not take sensitive hearing now to hear the approaching stampede. It did take stern control to remain calm.
“There are four in the sky now,” said Varian, “and the beasts have reached the narrow part of the approach. Get ready.”
Aulia stifled a cry of fear.
“Everyone, breathe deeply from the diaphragm,” said Lunzie, “and when we give you the word, to go, yell and run! Keep yelling. It stirs the adrenalin.”
“I don’t need any more,” said Margit in a tremulous but defiant voice.
The thunder was deafening, the very plastic shook under their feet. Aulia was trembling so noticeably, Kai wondered if she could stand the strain.
“NOW!”
Their concerted yells would never reach the sky-borne heavy-worlders. Margit was right, there was no need of additional adrenalin. The sight of the bobbing heads of the crested dinosaurs, bearing down on them, was sufficient to have lent wings to anyone. Dimenon, yelling at the top of his lungs, wrestled from Kai’s support and outdistanced others as he made for the shuttle. Kai slowed his pace until Varian was abreast of him. Then the two leaders matched strides in the wake of the others, across a compound shuddering with the vibrations of the stampede. They vaulted the first terrace of the incline, nearly running down Lunzie as she angled Trizein into the lock. Varian steadied the physician as Kai fumbled for the lock control. The first of the herbivores reached the force-screen.
A high-pitched scream pierced through the overlying thunder and bellowing as the screen burned, flashed blue fire and broke, with a terrible whining. The bodies of herbivores flowed into the compound, and then the mass behind the forerunners surged up, over the fallen and onward. The iris closed on that scene. Only the noise and vibration did not seem to diminish inside the shuttle, telling of the chaos, death and destruction outside.
As one now, Kai and Varian moved through the panting, shocked members of the expedition to the pilot cabin. Varian fumbled for the hidden switch to restore power to the shuttle. Kai started to sit at the console and stopped.
“Paskutti took no chances on another message,” he told Varian, looking at the wreckage of the board.
“What about maneuvering?”
“That’s still intact. He knew what circuits to break all right.”
They felt the shuttle move, heard something banging dully against the outer hull.
“They outdid themselves with the stampede,” said Varian with an amused chuckle. She heard the startled exclamations from the main compartment and put her head around the frame.
“It’ll take more than herbivores to dent the shuttle ceramic. Don’t worry. But I would sit down.” She slid into the other seat, moving her useless arm out of her way when it flopped against the backrest. “As soon as the stampede has stopped, we’d better make our move.”
“Bonnard?” asked Kai.
“Bonnard!” Portegin echoed the name in a glad cry in the main cabin. “Bonnard! Kai, Varian. He got in!”
The leaders saw the boy emerging from the lab, his ship suit dusty and stained, his face drawn with a sudden maturity.
“I thought this was the safest place after I saw Paskutti moving you out. But I wasn’t sure who had come back in. Am I glad it’s you?”
Cleiti was embracing her friend, weeping with relief. Terilla, bedded down by Trizein, called his name over and over, not quite believing his appearance. Bonnard gently put Cleiti’s clinging hands to one side and walked to the leaders.
“They’ll never find those power packs, Varian. Never! But I thought you’d be killed when I saw Paskutti lock the dome. He smashed the control so I didn’t see how I could get you out in time. So … I … hid!” The boy burst into tears of shame.
“You did exactly as you should, Bonnard. Even to hiding!”
Another shift of the shuttle sent everyone rocking.
“It’s going to fall,” cried Aulia, hands over her ears.
“It could, but it won’t crack,” said Kai, feeling the same post-crisis elation that had made Varian chuckle. “Stay calm. We’ve succeeded so far. We’ll survive!”