Gwen and Rusty worked their assignments through the morning and by late afternoon they arrived back at the Chemical Communication Analyzer. The flattened trail was wider today: whatever was doing this had come back and pulverized the grasses again. Gwen was glad she hadn't placed the CCA any closer to the scarred area because even where it was, it had come dangerously close to being smashed. She put on the CCA's headset and flicked a switch.
The translated plant messages were a soft whisper in her mind. The device was designed for human brainwaves: she had to explain to Rusty what she was hearing. "They like the weather," she said. "although.... they know Autumn's coming. They're thinking about hunkering down for Winter in awhile."
She listened quietly. "There's something else, something about the night time. They're... well, they're scared of whatever did this. They've never survived anything like it, so they just don't have the language for it, whatever it is. Hmmm.... "
She took the headset off. "What they remember is big, big vibrations and the scent of motor oil. It went on for a long time, I think. Some kind of machine, or maybe more than one machine: the plants can't tell the difference. There's no way I could understand everything they're saying, Rusty. I think they're making up new words for it."
Rusty cocked his head and gestured at Gwen. He pointed at himself, walked in a circle, and tapped on his oil reservoir.
"Oh, no, Rusty," said Gwen. "It couldn't be you. This happened at night, and whatever it was, it was just devastating. I mean, look around you." He did.
Gwen looked out over the wide, wide prairie and thought it over. "We're going to have to stay here overnight," she sai
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January 3rd, 2014 at 5:29 pm
Is that the “Vintage Hupmobile”? Man, what a custom shop could do with that! And drop in a GravoDynamic 8 for a power-plant, bolt on a weapons pod (maybe a sub-cal. 5mm Dietzen) it’d be a natural for No Rules Rallies!
March 30th, 2016 at 10:20 am
Although the GravoDynamic 8 is, in truth, an excellent powerplant, I find the MkII Wulfenbach 6, with its excellent power-to-weight ratio and superb mechanical reliability a superior choice for rallying, especially in vehicles in the Hupmobile’s size and weight class.
