Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman Fan Fiction ❯ The Timepiece ❯ Stranded in time ( Chapter 23 )

Chapter 23

For the past hour, Yuki and Joe had been working hard at the consoles. They had taken a brief look outside and found that the ship seemed to be resting in a rather remote area. Thus, they concluded that they would be safe from outside attacks for the time being. So, they had concentrated their effort in trying to get the ship back into working order.

Joe went into the engine room to take a peek. However, regardless of his expertise in auto mechanics, the time machine was nothing familiar to him. He soon admitted defeat. In the meanwhile, Yuki tried hard to establish communication with her era. However, she too admitted defeat soon.

"Now what?" Yuki pursed her lips and slumped back into the captain chair, looking towards Joe.

Joe had transformed back to his civic attire. He shrugged and seated himself in the other available chair. He hated to admit it but he too had no idea of what best to do next.

"Have you checked how much supplies we have yet?" he asked.

Yuki sighed, `Indeed I have. We have only sufficient food and water to last us for 3 - 4 days, then we would need to resort to external resources. Though he does have some basic survival equipment here, like the water filter, lighter, torches and stuffs like that."

"How long do you think it would take for them to locate us?"

"If we were in the Timeless Phoenix, they should be able to locate us almost right away. Unfortunately, this is a pirate vessel, it most probably have devices to escape tracking by the Time Patrol Squad. So, I am not really sure. If we are real lucky somebody around might have detected us as we ran loose, then help could be here any time. Otherwise, it could take up to months or years for them to find us."

"What if they never found us?"

Yuki looked down and fiddled with her fingers, she did not really want to answer that question.

Joe frowned. He did not like the way Yuki was responding to that question. "Yuki?"

"Ah-huh?"

"I asked you what if they never found us."

Yuki bit her lips and looked back up at Joe, "It would be against the law of natural for us to stay here forever."

Joe strummed his fingers on the arms of his seat, "and?"

Yuki bit her lips again and then looked him right in the eye, "I am not sure but I was told that if one stayed in another era for too long, one would slowly vanish. And the further one is from one own's era, the shorter they would be able to stay."

Joe drew his breathe in sharply, "Vanish? You mean just vanish in thin air?"

Yuki nodded slowly, "That's what I have been told. Obviously I haven't been there yet."

Joe pondered on the point for a while and then asked again, "And that applies to both forward or backward time-travelling?"

Yuki nodded.

It was then that some loud banging from outside interrupted their conversation. The ship started to rock.

Yuki and Joe exchanged an alarmed glance.

"Are we under attack?" Yuki asked nervously.

"I hope not." Joe replied. He sprang up from his chair and headed towards the door with his cable gun drawn. "You stay here, I'll be back soon."

"No!" Yuki yelled and sprang after him. "I am going with you." She glanced nervously at the remains of Scorpio that was still lying in the middle of the cockpit.

Joe frowned, "If you like. But stay close to me, okay?"

Yuki replied with a nod. She walked over to Joe, hesitated a little bit and took his hand timidly.

Joe had turned round, ready to head out of the door when Yuki took his hand. He felt as though a bolt of lightning had just hit him. After a slight hesitation, he squeezed her soft white hand gently and led her out of the door.

Yuki almost stumbled into Joe when he stopped so suddenly at the entrance. She peeked out from behind him to see what caused him to stop and had to clasp a hand on her mouth to stop herself from screaming. For standing face to face with them was a herd of Triceratops, five adults and two babies.

For a moment of time, the Triceratops looked as if they were to charge. Joe stood on the edge of his nerves, he was not even sure his cable gun could penetrate their thick hide. Then, slowly, one of the adults turned and went slowly down the well-worn path that they had cleared off by pushing the time vessel aside. The others slowly followed him in a single profile as Joe and Yuki watched with their mouth agape.

As the last one of the Triceratops went out of their sight, Joe and Yuki slid to the ground and stared at one another.

"Did you see what I just saw?" Joe asked Yuki.

"I believe I did." Yuki replied.

"Gosh, how many years have we gone back?"

Yuki winced, "About 67 million years, I think. Looks like we have landed ourselves in the Upper Cretaceous period."

"No way!"

Yuki looked back at Joe, "I wish I could say otherwise."

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