The First Bird: Omnibus Edition

by Greig Beck

  Megan got to her feet, pulling him up. “Let’s see if we can help.”

  He groaned; she went straight to Kurt.

  She crouched. “So, we catch one or two of the archaeopteryx?”

  Kurt kept rolling up nets. “Sure … and anything else that looks interesting.”

  A little different to what he said to me, Matt thought. It made sense though. When Carla found out, he didn’t think she’d be too impressed with even more potentially harmful ancient species being hauled back to the States.

  Megan nodded. “Oookay, and then what? How are you going to get them back through?”

  “Through the water? Oh my God, you’re right.” Kurt slapped his forehead, eyes wide, then grinned. “Don’t sweat it; we got that. The Ndege gave us the idea. We’ll sedate them, wrap them in a plastic bag, and then pull them through. They should survive the ten minutes or so underwater, as long as they’re unconscious and in an air pocket. But just to be sure, we’ll grab a few spares.”

  “You’re shitting me … spares?” Megan’s face contorted, and this time Matt decided to let her at it. He saw Joop crouching down a few feet away with a magnifying glass, running it up and over the fronds of a small green palm. He backed up a step, away from the fireworks.

  The evolutionary biologist looked over his shoulder at Matt, looked past him briefly at Kurt, then winked and ducked in past the first line of fronds. Matt glanced back at the camp and then quickly followed.

  Joop moved in about a dozen steps, in a crouch, and when Matt caught up he pointed to a massive column-like tree trunk in the distance. It must have stood seventy feet, with branches at its very top. It looked to be covered in fur, or thick fibers.

  When Matt caught up, Joop pointed up at its heavily ferned top.

  “Looks like a giant tree fern, doesn’t it?”

  Matt nodded.

  “And it is … in a way. But not one you or I would come across. I think it’s a cycadeoid. Possibly even a Williamsonia cycadeoid.” He looked at Matt, his eyes glowing. “These trees, if you can even call them that, were some of the first tall plants in the Cretaceous forests.”

  “Wow, so it’s not just the fauna that’s anachronistic,” Matt said.

  Joop grinned. “I think I’m in heaven.” He fiddled in his bag, not taking his eyes off the enormous trunk, then lifted a small pair of binoculars to his face.

  “Yes, yes, there’s no doubt, the cone pods are there … enormous.” He handed the glasses to Matt and spoke softly, describing what Matt was looking at.

  “A magnificent ancestor species, and the forefathers of the modern cycads. They were remarkably successful for tens of millions of years, but found themselves too specialized when events caught up with them. Two things occurred – their environment altered, causing the massive continent-covering forests to shrink. And their reproduction technique also became too specialized.” He nudged Matt, and pointed to the very top of the tree. “You see the giant cones? Like spongy footballs. Well, they needed large beasts to eat them and then transport the seeds away in their gut. Worked perfectly – the seeds would be dehusked and then deposited at another site, already embedded in their own pile of fertilizer. Problem was, when the larger herbivores started to die out they were left stranded, and so evolved into the smaller species we see today.”

  “They look hairy.” Matt handed the glasses back.

  Joop looked again. “So they are – and not like existing cycads at all.” He shrugged. ‘But the main thing is, they’re here.”

  “Here, and still alive … in the crater basin.” He turned to Joop. “Because of the big herbivores?”

  Joop shrugged, giving him a wry smile. “Maybe, maybe not – perhaps over the many millennia they could have found another way for their seeds to be dispersed, yes?”

  “Well, if there could be big herbivores, there could be things that eat big herbivores.” Matt looked around at the red-tinged jungle, now full of lurking shadows. “Let’s get back; best if we stay together. I’m sure Kurt and Steinberg would regard it a hanging offense to wander off right about now.”

  “Yes, yes.” Joop waved vaguely and continued to peer up into the massive green umbrella’s top, a grin splitting his face below the field glasses.

  Matt waited for him, looking around at the weird plants that crowded in around them. Close by on the jungle floor was a green pod, roughly twice the size of a football, with strappy leaves rising from around its edge, each one tipped with red dots of glistening color. A beetle the size of Matt’s little finger was edging its way up one of the straps, toward the candy red tips. Matt leaned closer and could see that the small flowers were crested with tiny drops of liquid – nectar, he guessed.

  The bug looked to be sucking it up, but when it went to change positions, it found itself stuck. As Matt watched, more of the flower tips closed in on the beetle, and then when it was hopelessly stuck, the leaf started to roll back, encasing the beetle, cigar-like. The strappy plant slowly coiled back toward the green pod on the ground.

  Ugh. Matt stepped back. The football had now split open in an excellent semblance of a floral set of jaws. The strap, along with its tightly held prey, disappeared inside, and the jaws closed.

  Matt shook his head. He grabbed Joop by the shoulder and tugged. “Definitely time to get back.”

  He pushed through the fronds to their small camp in time to see packs being slung and a neat pile of additional items next to his own kit. Megan looked at him and grinned.

  “You’re on carrying duty – one of the capture nets.”

  “I volunteered, did I?” He lifted the soft rope mesh – roughly six feet square, with slight additional weighting at the edges, probably to allow a fanning effect if thrown. He practised for a moment, then swung it over his shoulders like a mesh cape.

  “Perfect fit. And what do you get?” He stood with his arms folded.

  “I get to supervise you, spider boy. C’mon, briefing time.”

  Steinberg stood with one foot up on a small crate, looking like Admiral Nelson on the bow of his lead ship. He had his fists at his waist, and even though he was one of the shortest people in the group, he managed to create the impression he was looking down on everyone.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this may be dangerous.” He stepped up with both feet, balancing precariously on the box.

  “Everyone must work together.” He looked pointedly at Carla, as if she were a gatecrasher at a private party. “Our job is simple; we net the specimen, drop or push it into a cage, and then deposit it, or them, back here at our base camp. If there is time, we will head back out for a brief exploration, and see what other specimens we can locate. However …”

  He paused again, head tilted, eyeing the small assembled group. This time there was a hint of a warning in his tone. “There will not be time for individual exploration. If you wander off and get lost, you may find yourself here for a very long time.” He grinned, as if he was joking, but Matt remembered how cold the man had been after Dan Brenner’s death, and didn’t doubt for a minute that Steinberg would leave them behind.

  He went to step down, then hesitated, and turned to them again. “By the way, you have all signed nondisclosure contracts regarding this find. Regardless of what you think, in effect it belongs to me. Its whereabouts also belong to me, and while you are down here on my watch and under my care, your very livelihood belongs to me.”

  He smiled again, but there was no warmth in the curl of his lips. He motioned to Kurt as he stepped down.

  “Mr. Douglas, if you please.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Steinberg.” Kurt had slung his assembled rifle over his shoulder. Matt recognized it now; he’d been right – the gas-powered, skeletal black frame fired a hypodermic tranquilizer dart, and was accurate as hell. Good, he thought. He’d prefer Kurt hit his target the first time.

  Kurt cleared his throat. “No one wants to be here longer than they need to. I want a smooth location, capture, and transport. To that end, we’ll need
to run through some practise sessions.”

  Megan leaned in close to Matt. “Lesson one – net go over bird.”

  Matt rolled his eyes. “I wonder if they bite?”

  “You’ve seen the teeth, right? Shit yeah.” She leaned back as Kurt raised his voice.

  “For this first run, Mr. Kearns will be in charge of capture, Mr. … ah, Joop will secure the specimen in one of the cages. Everyone else will be tasked with carrying what we need and spotting. Any questions?”

  There were none.

  “Good. By the time we set off in … thirty minutes, we should all be working together like a machine.” He motioned to Matt.

  “Professors, let’s go.”

  Matt took the net off his shoulders and hung it over one arm. Megan nudged him.

  “Big job for a little man.” She winked. “Make me proud.”

  For the next fifteen minutes Matt and Joop swung nets over small tree stumps, crates, and each other. Each time, the mesh flowed a little more freely and gave better coverage. At the end of their short session, Matt would swing the net, cover his target, and then he and Joop would rush forward to secure their prey in a cage. All up, each capture only took about two minutes.

  Steinberg, who’d been watching, looked at his wristwatch. “We’re ready.” The movie producer motioned toward the red-tinged jungle. “Take us in, Kurt.”

  *****

  It only took a few minutes’ trekking before they were all enclosed in the strangest jungle Matt had ever experienced. It wasn’t as tangled and knotted as the jungle on the other side of the crater wall, and there were certainly more trails – some wide enough to drive a SUV along – but nonetheless, it was very … different.

  Joop was constantly lagging behind, examining one plant or another. Matt recognized many of the bark types and leaf shapes, but time and again when he tried to recall a name, he found they didn’t quite fit. They were outlandishly large, different, or somehow distorted from the fossils he remembered.

  Matt knew he didn’t have the botanical or paleobotanical expertise to say for sure, but based on the giant cycad Joop had pointed out, he didn’t doubt for an instant that he was seeing archaic remnants, trapped in the eddy of an evolutionary backwater. He was thrilled, but also concerned about the animals they’d possibly encounter.

  As they moved farther away from the crater wall, the sounds of the jungle started to increase. More chirruping, squealing, and snuffling sounds rose from behind the primordial green walls surrounding them, their owners invisible, but very close.

  They made good time, walking on trails that could only have been trampled flat by large animals. Kurt led them out, followed by Steinberg, with Matt and Joop on capture detail, nets and cages at the ready. Carla, Megan, John, and Jian followed behind.

  After another twenty-five sweaty minutes, they pushed into a small clearing. Kurt held up his hand, and Steinberg moved up to his shoulder. Matt and Joop paused, and Matt rearranged the net in his hands, waiting for the call.

  Kurt was looking along the secondary branches under the tree canopy. The uppermost branches formed a red roof, woven through with the thorned vines hundreds of feet above them. But a secondary network of branches started fifty feet up, and based on Joop’s briefing on the known characteristics of the archaeopteryx, this was where they hoped to find their quarry.

  “Don’t expect them to be circling overhead – they won’t fly,” Joop said. “Not like the birds of today. This creature will be more a climber and glider. Our analysis of the fossil remains revealed a supportive bone structure for dorsal muscle mass along the back, with a corresponding deep sternum. It can probably flap strongly, but it’s doubtful that its muscle-to-weight ratio will be enough to sustain true flight for more than a few seconds.”

  Joop slowly scanned the second-tier branches with his binoculars, while beside him, slowly swiveling, Kurt was doing the same with the scope of his rifle. After a few minutes Kurt lowered the tranquilizer gun.

  “Nothing.”

  “Hope we came to the right place, hmm?” Steinberg turned to Matt, his expression flat. He didn’t need to speak; Matt could clearly hear the suspicion in his tone.

  “Hey, if you’re questioning my translation …”

  “Look!” Megan whispered, immediately hushing Matt.

  Everyone swung around to Megan, and then to where she was pointing. Standing, frozen and half hidden in the underbrush, was an animal the size of a cat. Its coat was softly speckled, like a young fawn, but where the face of a deer was soft and short, this creature’s face was longer and … unmistakeable.

  From behind them, Joop whispered, “Impossible. Eohippus – the Dawn Horse.”

  The tiny animal could have been a toy, an impression not helped by the fact that it was as still as a stuffed likeness on a storeroom shelf. It had obviously decided that the strange two-legged creatures might not see it if it stayed completely motionless.

  “Don’t … move … a … muscle.” Joop breathed out the words.

  Steinberg slowly put his pack down and whispered out of the side of his mouth, “Bullshit. Kurt, shoot it.”

  “No!” Megan shot back. “It’s tiny, you’ll kill it.”

  Steinberg muttered something inaudible, then whispered through clenched teeth. “All right; we catch it. Get up here, Kearns. You too, Mr. Jope.”

  Matt and Joop exchanged glances. Joop nodded, the anticipation on his face outweighing any better judgment. Matt shrugged and led them out.

  He carefully placed one foot in front of the other, slowly lifting the mesh netting as he and Joop closed in on the creature. At fifteen feet away it was still completely motionless, with just one glittering black eye turned toward them. The small horse’s head started to turn almost imperceptibly, the small black eye fixing on Matt.

  “Easy,” whispered Steinberg.

  Matt slowed even more. He could now see the animal clearly and marveled at its perfect form and structure. Like a horse, and yet not. The body was more rounded, lacking the long muscular flanks of the modern animal. The ears were shorter, but still upright, one clearly turned toward him, and the feet were totally wrong – it looked like there were three toes at the front of each foot, ending in sharp claw-like hooves, rather than a single rounded hoof.

  Small as it was, is still looked fast. With its body still half in the brush, Matt knew that there was no clear shot at the horse. He paused and half turned.

  “Someone needs to get behind him, to make sure he doesn’t bolt into the jungle.”

  “I’ll do it.” Joop’s face still glowed with excitement and he stepped out to the side, his eyes locked on the Eohippus. One of the tall man’s boots came down on a twig, which crackled and snapped under his weight. The animal’s ears flicked once, and it spun away, the jungle absorbing it as completely as if it never existed.

  “Go, go, go!” Steinberg pushed Kurt in the back, who in turn nudged Matt to the right, and pointed ahead for Joop. Behind them, the rest of the party surged forward after the tiny horse. In front of Matt, a flattened path opened slightly, and up ahead the animal burst from the brush to race down a few dozen feet of mossy grasses. Matt was still dozens of feet back, but he held the net high and ready. He reckoned he’d only have to partly cover it, or tangle it with the net to slow it down.

  The pursuers came together; Joop now at his shoulder and Kurt just behind, cradling his gun.

  Matt swung the net around his head once and then flung it at the animal, just as it raced toward a fallen log. The net opened gracefully as it spun in the air, but its slow descent and a snap change of direction by the Eohippus as it reached the log, meant the net landed over empty grass.

  Matt cursed and sped up to retrieve the net, thinking he had another throw in him. But like a conjurer’s trick, a piece of the log … detached, and exploded toward the small darting horse, landing squarely upon it and knocking it flat.

  Matt braked hard, and someone crashed into his back. Megan’s scream was nothing
compared to the terrified screech of the small animal. It took Matt a few extra seconds to work out what he was looking at. He flung his arms wide to keep everyone back as his mind assembled the scene into horrifying detail.

  What had at first looked like a black, many-fingered hand was in fact an enormous spider – plastic-shiny, muscular, and the size of a dinner plate. Its eight legs were fixed tightly on its prize. Finger-length fangs were inserted into the small horse’s shuddering flank.

  Matt felt the gorge rise in his throat. The massive arachnid looked deformed, longer than normal, and completely untroubled by the gathered humans.

  “Oh my God, this is unbelievable.” Jian’s words came short and fast. He pushed to the front and stood beside Matt. “Stay back, this is probably extremely dangerous.”

  “No shit,” added Steinberg from the rear.

  Jian got down on his haunches, and Matt did the same, keeping his eyes on the revolting scene. “What freakin’ type of spider is that?” he whispered.

  Jian shook his head slowly, as if concerned the thing would scurry away. Matt doubted they worried it at all.

  “I think … Mesothelae, or certainly an early order of it. See the longer head? More sausage-like, rather than the modern rounded shape.” He snorted in admiration. “The only fossil evidence of these guys was found in China, embedded within a fifty-million-year-old clay pan. Very, very rare – soft bodies don’t fossilize well.”

  “Soft?” Matt thought it looked like giant knot of toughened plastic pipes.

  Joop came and carefully knelt beside them. “Amazing. Mesothelae ancestry?”

  Jian nodded. “Yes, just what I was thinking – the musculature and basic morphology is consistent with Mesothelae. Also, it looks ground-dwelling, rather than web-spinning, which is also consistent with fossil records. It’s just … its size, and head to abdomen ratio, is puzzling.”

  “Hmm, my thoughts exactly. I also found some plants that should have died out during the Cretaceous period. I think this place has somehow acted like a vacuum jar for many species for millions of years. The changes might make sense though – within a sealed environment I would expect some evolutionary stranding, and given the amount of time, there would be the possibility of minute genetic meandering – mutations, deformities.”