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Cliff Donovan pursed his lips as he shone the light onto the pit in front of him. It wasn’t a large pit, just wide enough that there would be no way he could jump across safely, staring down he could see it wasn’t too deep, just enough to cause some death as evidenced by the skeletal remains found amongst the rocks. He could see it was not natural, someone digging at it caused the roughness of the sides. Those who made it did not line it with spears or anything else that was sharp and pointy, they had figured the pit would have done the job.
“Now this is the problem,” Cliff chewed his bottom lip. He had to get across to get back to his ship, there was the other way, the way he came in, but that way had recently become infested. “If only I can scare away the bats.” There was no way he couldn’t, not without hurting the little winged rats. “That leaves me with you.” He glared at the pit. “Now how do I get across you?” He shone the light across, hoping to find something that would appear sturdy enough for a grapple. He found nothing.
“Well that is just perfect,” He struck his fist against a stone column. He really did not want to have to go back and face the bats.
“Stuck between a rock and a hard place, between Scylla and Charybdis, between my ex and my mother.” He kept on striking the column, not paying attention to grinding and creaking sounds and did not look down until a significant amount of powdered limestone fell onto his shoe.
The stalagmite was not firmly attached to the cavern floor, and the repeated pounding had loosened it from its stone roots; a good bit of pressure and Cliff would have knocked it on the side.
“I wonder,” he stared up at the structure; it was tall, nearly connecting with the stalactite overhead. In fact it may even be long enough to connect the sides of the pit. Cliff closed his eyes as he shoved his body against the stalagmite, forcing it to lean towards the direction he wanted. He gritted his teeth and he used every fiber, every little bit of strength to shove. His eyes widened when he felt the pillar gave was and he jumped back while it continued to fall, the other end landed it perfectly on the other side, with plenty to spare.
“Dear mother nature,” Cliff said as he carefully made his way across his bridge. “I am sorry about breaking one of your creations, but I had little choice.” He adjusted the pith helmet on his head once he stepped down on the other side. “As for the fine folk who have made this, well done.” He bowed before he continued his way out of the cavern.
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“Jeremy,” Cliff greeted the official captain of The Epic as he was helped aboard. “How have you been holding up?”
“It rained,” Jeremy Calvetti, said as several members of his crew were mopping up the extra water. Most of the crew was wearing either wearing khaki shorts or denim cutoffs and short sleeve shirts.
“It does seem that way,” Cliff felt the heat sticking to his body and weighing him down and when he inhaled he felt like he was going to drown from the amount of vapor in the air.
“What took you so long?” Jeremy blinked his large eyes. “You said it would be between three and five hours tops.”
“I did say that,” Cliff recalled the same words. He handed his pith to one of the two in brothers working on The Epic. He can’t remember their names, only knew that on preferred Kirk and the other liked Picard “How long has it been?”
“Eight hours,” Jeremy’s first mate, Carlos Perez, opened his metal cigar case and removed a stick of gum from inside. “Enough time to watch the entire Trilogy.”
“And which one would that be?” It was hard for him to know for certain with this kind of crew.
“Lord of the Rings,” The Twins and a few others answered.
“Star Wars,” Jeremy, Carlos and a few others said at the same time.
“Isn’t the Stars Wars more of a sextology?” Cliff asked as a twin handed him his Nets cap.
“No,” Carlos waved his hands. “The first three Episodes are abominations and do not count towards the true canon.”
“I see,” Cliff gave the inside of his cap a light tap with his hand. “I also see that you didn’t really get around to watching either.”
“We still had the time,” Carlos pointed out.
“So really,” Jeremy asked. “What was the problem?”
“Complications arose,” Cliff explained. “There was a pit, and there were bats.”
“Bats,” the captain winced, knowing full well how they bothered Cliff. “Ewww.”
“They are misunderstood animals,” one of the few women of the crew stepped up from the hatch. She was the only crewmember who was pale as a ghost and Cliff had wondered if she used makeup to cover any form of a tan, she did not wear much, a black halter-top, along with a red vinyl skirt that ended just above the knees. She walked around in big clunky black boots covered in silver buckles.
“Quinn,” Cliff flashed her his cheesiest smile. “I have a little job for you.” He reached into his backpack and pulled up the rolled up rubbings. “I need you to scan this, and send it to all the email on my list.”
“Every email?” she raised an eyebrow and played with one of her dark pigtails. It was not her natural hair color, Jeremy had told her Quinn was brunette and always dyed her hair black with a few streaks of bright red and purple mixed in.
“Just the professional ones, dear, the ones with the EDU in the mail and those with Dr. in front. I also took a few pictures, but I have to wait until the film develops.”
“When are you going to get a digital camera?” one of the twins asked him.
“Andy,” Jeremy grabbed the youth by the shoulder. He wasn’t certain if it was Andy or Rudy. “Tell Bocks we are heading out.”
“He’s probably nose deep in the Time Life Series again.” Andy said.
“Just tell him we are heading out,” Jeremy ordered.
“I’ll get to it,” Quinn carefully took the rubbings from Cliff’s hand. “Casey is using the computer right now, she’s updating the site with her latest theory.”
“She got another one?” Cliff blinked.
“Why do you keep calling them theories?” Casey raced up the steps. She was dressed like the others with shorts, revealing her well toned legs, and a silver shirt with a blue UFO on her chest “They are all true, I have confirmations and sources,
and the latest came from the Coast Guard.”
“Really?” Cliff tried to be patient with her. “And what is the theory of the week?”
The young woman scowled. “I got proof.” She held up a picture. “He says the Air Force is building these, right now as we speak.”
Cliff took the paper from her hand. It was a crude pencil drawing of something that appeared out of one of those cartoon series from Japan. He had seen a few himself. His son may even own a few DVDs and VHS tapes; it had been a while since he had checked the library.
“This is the proof?” He held out the picture so that everyone could see.
“Solid proof,” Casey nodded.
“This is a sketch of a robot.”
“It’s a military robot.”
“Yes,” Cliff just grinned. “Of course it is.”
“Speaking of the military,” Quinn edged past Casey. “Weren’t you supposed to meet with the Navy about an hour ago?”
“Oh,” Cliff lowered his arm. “That was today?”
 Spacebabie76 · Wed Jul 04, 2007 @ 04:12am · 1 Comments |
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