Fast Forward Japan: Stories by the Founding Father of Japanese Science Fiction by Unno Juza

Author:Unno, Juza [Unno, Juza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arigatai Books
Published: 2021-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

The Dinosaur-Craft Departs

Ten days later we received the package containing our manufactured dinosaur head.

Fitting within a square-meter box, it was surprisingly small. We returned to our hotel room, locked the door, and opened up our secret box.

Inside was a dinosaur head of excellent craftsmanship. It was just as we expected from that factory, but was manufactured far simpler, far more superior, and far easier to use than our design had specified.

The material comprising the dinosaur head was a finely woven chain netting. On top of that was a cover apparently made of some kind of waterproof silk, colored the same as the dinosaur's skin with holes for the eyes and mouth. When folded, the head fit easily into a small one meter-sized box; but when removed and inflated, it became quite large.

A camera was installed inside one of the dinosaur’s eyes. In addition, while this wasn’t part of my design, there was a mechanism for moving the dinosaur’s head up, down, left, or right. With several chains hanging down this was the same mechanism used in a puppet, and the attached note said that all was required was winding and unwinding a crank that was attached to a pulley, so we should thread the chains through the mast and into the submarine.

There was suddenly a knock at the door.

We weren’t concerned because the door was locked, but it suddenly opened with a loud noise and the bellhop entered.

The bellhop screamed out as he threw the sheets into the room and ran out.

“Darn it. He saw us.”

“But you locked the door, right?”

“Yes, I definitely locked it. Oh boy, this isn’t going to work. The door is slightly offset from the frame, so even if we lock it, the door will still open.”

We hurried to put the dinosaur head back into the box. By the time the bellboy nervously brought the manager to our room, we had stored the head away completely. We sent them away, saying that the bellboy must have come here while sleepwalking and having a dream about seeing a monster.

However, after this happened we couldn’t keep this package in the hotel for very long. So that night we carried it to our submarine that was parked at the pier of the Gineta nautical school on the coast. Unfortunately the moon wasn’t out; it would only come out later in the night.

That night we slept in the mini submarine.

We woke up at 3 a.m., two hours before dawn. The half-moon was high in the sky. Aided by the moonlight, we attached the dinosaur head to the submarine’s mast.

With only thirty minutes remaining before dawn, we tightly closed the dinosaur-craft’s hatch and left the dock, submerging immediately. Once we got far out into the ocean we rose to the surface.

We took turns acting as the captain and the lookout. First Sam was the captain, and I was the lookout.

The lookout watched 360 degrees all around the horizon, checking if any boat was approaching. In addition, he occasionally glanced at the sky, checking for aircraft.

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