DS02 Night of the Dragonstar by Thomas F. Monteleone, David Bischoff Read Free Book Online Page A

announcement of its discovery and arrival was made soon after by the IASA, and the rest is generally well documented.
    “However, it is the importance of the Dragonstar and its contents in relation to the future that I wish to discuss here, and with this in mind, some scientific facts should be brought into focus.
    “Like the hero of my novel The Sons of Suns, we suddenly find ourself in a new universe. What we had assumed before ...”
    Susie was distracted from her reading by the sounds of Neville rousing from his beta-wave induced sleep, brought back up by Nurse Wilkins at the LM keyboard.
    “There we go, Johnny boy,” she said. “I told you not to drink so much of your megavitamin punch. Too much of a good thing is sometimes very bad.”
    Neville rubbed his full mane of gray hair foggily and grouched, “I wish you wouldn’t patronize me, woman. I just got a little too excited about what I was writing, and that’s rare these days.”
    “All the same, please do be more careful in the future.”
    “This is really fascinating,” Susie enthused, rattling the paper in the printer.
    “Yes, and I want to get back to finishing it,” Neville snarled. “Now you two skedaddle.”
    The phone rang. Nurse Wilkins picked it up.
    “I think you’ll want to take this, Johnny,” she said to the old man. “Your secretary put the call through — it’s from Colonel Kemp.”
    “What could he want?” Susie wondered.
    Neville managed a smug smile as he reached for the receiver. “Good afternoon, Colonel Kemp. I was wondering when you’d call.”

DR. MIKAELA LINDSTROM looked up hopefully from her lab table at the new arrival. “Did you get anything?”
    Lieutenant Lorkner held up a bag. “Just a bit of flesh and gristle. Big as it was, there wasn’t much left of that baby. Scavengers got to it last night; we had to chase off a couple of Pteradactyls as it was. I wonder if those things are the ancestors to buzzards. Ornithopter scared off most of them, but a couple were damned tenacious.”
    “Thank you.” Mikaela soberly took the bag and placed it in a specimen freezer. “Considering the events of yesterday, you’ve rendered service above and beyond the call of duty, Lieutenant.”
    “I had plenty backing me up in that ornithopter, you can bet on that,” Lorkner said, sidling up to glance at the pictures of the dinosaur that had killed his companion. “Evil-looking thing.”
    “Yes,” Dr. Penovich said. “If evil is the unnatural, then this Iguanodon was certainly evil.”
    “You’re sure, then, that it was an Iguanodon?” the lieutenant asked.
    “Oh, yes—or at least of that family—a very large Anoplosaurus or Craspedodon perhaps,” mused Dr. Penovich. “Or a type as yet unnamed by modern paleontology.”
    Lorkner shook his head. “Doesn’t figure. Where’d it get those teeth and claws, and those sores — to say nothing of that disposition. I’ve seen plenty of Iguanodons since I’ve been on this lost world. But nothin’ like that. I don’t even think T. rexes get as wacko bloodthirsty as that thing was.”
    “That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Mikaela said. “The sample you’ve managed to bring back will be of vital importance. In the meantime, Lieutenant, as long as your services are at our disposal, could you check the survey teams to see if any of them have ever encountered a beast looking like this. Not necessarily a bloodthirsty Iguanodon, but anything unnatural or unusual — or anything showing these kinds of cancers and sores.”
    “Sure. How did the meeting with Colonel Jeffries go?”
    Mikaela gazed over at Penovich. “Not well. A reprimand for recklessness, which I suppose we deserve. And God knows what Colonel Kemp is going to say when he hears about it.”
    Lorkner shook his head. “Well, Dr. Lindstrom, I guess the colonel knows what it’s like to make mistakes that cost lives. He made a number of them concerning the Dragonstar. This damned place is