The Adventures Of Miniator -- Chapter 17 The Loss

17) The Loss

As the Dino entered the Earth's Present Time Zone, it was indeed over the massive expanse of the Amazon Rain Forest. It was so dense, that for a long time they were unable to find a clearing for landing. They could see an occasional road, but they didn't want to be so close to civilization. In the end they found a small cleared area not far from a river, yet hidden from it. And there they landed.

The first thing they did was to check-out the surroundings, they found little sign of humans, a few narrow trails that led to the bigger roads, were occasional logging trucks passed by, but there seemed there was no activity in the area.

They then tuned into the Earth's Internet to find out what was happening around the planet. On one news channel there was a report that people had seen a UFO over Brazil, but the presenter treated the whole thing as a joke... showing drawings of little green men. The crew of the Dino had to laugh...

They decided they needed to spend several weeks, or more, if need be, familiarizing themselves with the life in the Present Time Zone. The Earth seemed to be in chaos; so many conflicts and power struggles... Miniator knew it was not the time for Toolia to make contact... The World had to reach a more coherent vision of itself. It didn't have one voice. But to understand more, to make a comprehensive report to take back to Toolia, they had to understand the psychology, and experience the everyday life of the people. So it was imperative that they should go among the people. This had been a large factor in the reasoning behind Miniators decision to include Swing, Narea, and Nimi in his crew.

Narea's English soon became almost perfect, and she had chosen Portuguese, because they were in Brazil as a second language. Swing was working on updating his English... there were so many new objects and words to learn... those simple things of everyday life... some times he couldn't figure out what people on the television were talking about. Nimi could speak many languages perfectly. Miniator was also interested in what was going on... but, his daytime hours were spent roaming the forest collecting his specimens and filming and photographing the environment. Or just relaxing, by swimming in the nearby river. Nimi, every night, was being updated, and some days she spent helping Miniator, or the others. The Dino's computer was filling its data bank with information from all the different sources...from the media; Internet, TV, Radio, and also hacking into computer networks. It had already manufactured fake passports for Swing, Narea and Nimi, and created new names and back stories – which they had to learn – everything was supported with official documents. It had also made 3D copies of clothing and wigs for Narea and Nimi, and lots of everyday objects: watches, and special cell phones that could also communicate with the computer, and even perfect copies of bank notes, for their eventual entry into to the Earthling's society. Swing became, Professor (of History), Peter Jarvis from Bristol, England. Narea became June Summer Computer Expert, from Los Angeles, And Nimi became her twin sister, May Summer, Professor of Languages.

The computer had searched and found real names and backgrounds of people who had never taken out passports, and then it had hacked the Central Computers Bureaus, and implanted the fake passport information such as applications, birth certificates, photographs, etc. the twins had been the hardest to find. They were now all officially on holiday or doing research in Brazil.

One late afternoon, while Swing, and Narea, where relaxing after working, the computer informed them that it hadn't been able to make contact with Miniator for the last three hours. It had pinpointed the position of his suit by the river, but Miniator doesn't respond to his calls. They all knew he liked to go swimming in this place, where the river is slow and a deep pool has formed, so they were not overly concerned... Narea suggested she send Nimi to take a look.

Around ten minutes later, Nimi called back, saying that she had found Miniator's suit by the river hanging in a tree, but there was no sign of Miniator! This alarmed them all! So they set off for the river.

When they arrived at the place. Swing said they should comb the riverside first down stream, then upstream on both sides, and keep in communication. Narea said they should look for foot prints, or anything unusual. Nimi knew a place where they could easily cross the river by walking on stepping stones. So Swing took the other side. Swing had first to go up stream to cross the river so checked the water's edge on his way, but found nothing. He then he crossed over to the other side on the stepping stones, it wasn't long before he reached the other side of the pool from where they had started. Swing immediately noticed human footprints, and a trail where it looked as if something heavy had been dragged from the water, and up the bank. He began to panic; his heart beating very hard and quickly in his chest. He called over the transmitter telling the others what he had found, and they should come to where he was across the pool. Narea told him he shouldn't disturb anything, and stay in one place till they got there.

When they arrived, Narea began inspecting the area very closely, speaking into her recorder.... Looking at the footprints, she reported there were the prints of six large booted humans, and some sort of dragging device, she also found a hand print, where one of the men had supported himself. She followed the muddy tracks up the bank and through the broken undergrowth. There she found a set of large tire tracks, and a smaller set of tire tracks of vehicles on a two meter wide dirt track. She could tell the tracks of the larger vehicle were lighter when they came, then deeper, thus, heavier when it had left. And the dragging tracks stopped at the back of this larger vehicle, which looked as if it had had some kind of winch. She also found new and different footprints, probably from new people who had arrived in the truck. Narea then tracked two sets of footprints which had got out of the small vehicle, and had gone down to the river to a different place, and then stopped. There she found five large used cartridge shells from some kind of weapon. Then the tracks had gone back to the vehicle, then down to the place where the other prints were, and there something had been dragged from the river.

When she showed these shells to the Swing and explained what they were, and what seemed to have happened here, he looked totally shocked and dismayed.

The sun was going down, making it difficult to see. And without a vehicle, they decided to go back to the Dino, and discuss what was to be done.

Back at the Dino, the computer showed them a map of the area. They knew that the dirt track they had found seemed to follow the river, and on the map they saw that a main road passed by the river, about ten kilometres down stream, so they supposed that the dirt track might lead to this main road. With luck, tomorrow they may be able to see which way the vehicles had turned from the dirt track onto the main road.

It was under a heavy cloud of gloom that Swing and Narea retired for the evening. The thought that Miniator had been shot, then dragged from the water, then hauled away for who knows what purpose left them both angry, sad, and bewildered...