Horizon Alpha by D. W. Vogel

Author:D. W. Vogel [Vogel, D.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Future House Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

***

Mama Rex didn’t leave her babies the next day, but the following morning she pounded out of the clearing. We scattered out of the transport, me climbing the ladder in the cargo bay to pop out the hatch on top and take my customary position under the solar panel’s shade.

The two remaining babies, Ani and Little Runt, were rolling around in the middle of the circle, obviously relieved to be out from under Mama’s watchful eye. She hadn’t let them leave the nest for an entire day and night, and they were full of energy, and clumsy as they grew so fast. I grinned as I watched them at play. Soon they’d be fearful monsters, but today they looked like every movie I’d ever seen of puppies playing on someone’s living room floor.

I never heard it coming.

Across the far side of the clearing, a huge iridescent black shape slithered into view.

Titanoboa.

I gave the whistle for the team to get inside, but couldn’t take my eyes off the enormous snake creeping between the transports.

Right toward the babies. They huddled inside the nest, shaking with terror.

It was stupid, I know. The stupidest thing I could have done. If I’d stopped for two seconds to think, I would have hopped inside the transport and let the scatting snake eat those babies.

But I didn’t. I raised my rifle and shot it right in the face.

The bullets bounced off, of course, and the snake paused in its approach, tongue flicking in and out, tasting the air. In a moment, it resumed its slither, heading for the baby Rexes.

I shot it six more times.

Shiro, you are an idiot. What on Ceti are you doing?

The snake reared up and hissed at me, black eyes boring into mine.

If Caleb were here, he’d never do anything this stupid.

I didn’t even notice the shaking of the earth, and neither did the Boa. From between the transports, Mama Rex burst into the clearing, snapping her huge jaws around the snake’s tail and shaking it like a dog. It flew out of her grasp and bounced off my transport, rocking the side. I dropped to my belly, hanging on to the solar panel’s mooring as the ship swayed under me.

The Boa darted straight at Mama Rex. She stood in front of the nest, blocking her babies from the Boa’s attack, and roared her challenge. The sound made my stomach drop right out of my body.

Idiot. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The Boa feinted to the right and Mama missed her lunge. She snapped again at the huge predator, which latched its huge jaws onto her neck, coiling the top of its body around her upper torso. She strained and grabbed for its tail, but the Boa whipped itself out of range of her teeth, wrapping coil after coil around her. The ground shook as she fell, feet tangled in the writhing black serpent.

I knew how this ended.

Mama Rex struggled, and behind her the babies cried pathetic little bleats. The mother Rex was far too big

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