Future Winds Read Free Page B

use them for spare parts. Should be done with construction by sundown,” Leon commanded. 
     
    ***
     
    Firestorms raged to the south. This meant the first crucial order of business was to set up the magnetic shield. The warp gate had to be fully powered and functional to activate its defensive shielding; putting pressure on the crew to get things up and running as soon as possible.
    Abram, Tyler, Aisha, and their three bots worked on constructing the warp gate all afternoon. Abram stripped the three ships of parts needed and positioned the pieces to where they must correctly reside with Taurus as his ferry for bulk transport. Aisha ran color coded wire down through steel conduits. Tyler welded parts together while Aries educated him on how to build such an intricate piece of technology.
    The crew was lucky in that the UIGN constructed their ships to be easily stripped apart and put back together to form the warp gate. So, for the most part, it was a matter of reading and executing fairly simple instructions.
    Tyler noticed the flame of his welding torch jump. Eight seconds later it did again. He looked to his hands and made sure he wasn’t shaking. Another eight seconds passed and he felt the tremor once more.
    “You guys feel that?” Aisha asked climbing out of a steel shaft.
    “Earthquake?” Abram guessed.
    Another eight seconds passed in between the light tremor. Each one that erupted felt more intense than the last.
    “It is too consistent to be an earthquake,” Tyler said. Aisha scurried to the edge of the plateau and scanned
    the distant skyline of mountains, hills, and valleys. That is when she saw it. A large creature emerged from behind one of the mountains, advancing across the desert on four legs.
    Abram dropped the heavy piece of equipment he was holding to the ground and stood to his feet. “Holy shit.” He paused. “Is that mountain moving?” He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. This insignificant gesture did more harm than good as he unnoticeably spread black axle grease all over his face.
    “I don’t know, it almost reminds me of the long since extinct wooly mammoth, only bigger” Aisha let out with a gasp.
    “Yea way bigger,” Abram confirmed.
    No doubt was the creature enormous. If it were walking about in downtown Manhattan, it would easily take up a city block or two.
    “Actually, I’d guess more of a mythical centaur. It has the four legged body of a giant mammoth but an upper torso and arms similar to a man!” Aisha added.
    Tyler finally jumped down off the platform and walked over to the ledge of the canyon that separated them from the colossus. He gazed up at the marvelous creature, astounded by just how intricate of a being it truly was. Its noseless face was long and narrow. It had great tusks of stone that hung from its mouth. Massive leaves grew from its monstrous shoulders and draped down its chest while ivy scaled up its torso. Moss covered the north-most side of its four legs. Red, orange, and yellow flowers bloom off its back--creating a great exoskeleton of color.
    “So, what happens if that thing rips apart the warp gate?” Abram asked.
    “What happens if that thing rips apart us?” Aisha added.
    “I don’t know,” Tyler confessed, snapping out of his momentary mesmerization over the giant. “We are on a pretty large plateau, mostly surrounded by canyons. So it seems unlikely it would run up here to do that.”
    Abram was sharp to confront Tyler’s uncertainty “Unlikely? We know nothing about this thing, let alone how it behaves.”
    “Well, we cannot just go out massacring anything we do not understand,” Tyler defended.
    “Psh, why not? That is after all human nature, no?” Aisha sarcastically inserted. “To fear the things we cannot fully comprehend, deem them evil and eradicate them?”
    Tyler ignored her sass while watching the giant steadily make its way up over the horizon. Its massive biceps and face were free of greenery and on further observation it