by David Rhodes
“Yes, still good to go. Nothing around you at all.”
“Dad is looking at the tracks,” Lauren pointed out.
“Why don’t you talk to him about them?” Steve asked.
“Uh, okay. How?”
“Look at his screen and tap the microphone under his video.”
Lauren quickly did and asked, “Dad?”
“Lauren? Can you see these?”
“Yes. Those look like Rex tracks. What are you thinking?”
“Yes, they are Rex tracks. Like we were told, I can see one set of large tracks and they are covered by the tracks of the juveniles. I think we’re going to follow them.”
“I don’t think you want to run into four Rexes, Dad.”
“That’s right but my feeling is at most there will be three. The adult will not be socializing with the juveniles. And I know the juveniles were together on the beach, but I can’t see them staying together for long. Just a hunch, but that’s why we’re here. I think we’ll see the tracks go in separate directions.”
Lauren looked up and told Steve, “I actually have to agree with him. But just in case can you keep a close eye on that satellite image and have those drones and bots on alert.”
“Those drones and bots are always on alert, but we will keep a close eye on everything,” Steve told her. “Major Donald, right now there are no Rexes in the area and we’d like you to go with Ron’s suggestion and follow the tracks.”
“We were hoping you would,” she replied.
As the Team started forward, Lauren said, “Let’s keep those drones and bots close by. In fact, can the drones go up higher? I want to see as much as I can.”
“No problem,” Ben replied. “I’ll increase their area too.” All five drones rose up and spread out around the Team. Ben activated the heat sensor readings and suddenly Lauren saw red spots of animals moving all around the Team. But they were all small and none appeared to be moving toward the Team.
As the Team picked up its pace Lauren could hear someone breathing hard and Ben asked, “How are you doing, Danny?”
“It’s getting hotter,” he replied. “I’m sweating like a –”
“How do I stop all of them? The drones and bots?” Lauren suddenly asked. “All of them.”
As Ben immediately said, “Team, stop and take a knee,” he also placed his hands on a green square that had a blue circle in it that was not part of Lauren’s workstation. The bots and drones stopped, and Ben added, “No talking, stand by.” He turned to Lauren and asked, “What do you have? I don’t show anything.”
“I don’t either,” Steve added.
“Okay,” Lauren answered. “You have to trust me for a second on this one. Can you show me the satellite view and mark where the lead drones are?”
“Sure,” Ben told her as the view came up with two points marked drone 2 and drone 3.
“Okay, great. Now then, when I move drone 2 can I see it move on the satellite view?”
“Yes. I’m going to move bot 2 with you.”
Lauren took drone 2 and watching the satellite view closely, moved it on a 45-degree angle to the northeast of the Team. When she let go the drone 2 camera was looking down through some thick vegetation. Lauren slowly moved the drone lower until it moved slowly around some branches and through some leaves.
Below the drone was the forest floor and Lauren said, “There it is.”
Ben shook his head and said, “I don’t see it.”
Lauren pressed on her screen and as the drone 2 camera zoomed in Ben suddenly shouted, “Those are teeth.”
Lauren replied, “They certainly are. Now keep watching.” She pulled the drone up slowly and as she did the outline of the Rex suddenly became apparent.
“I see it,” Ben exclaimed. “How did you pick that out?”
“It wasn’t much different than spotting a bone in the rocks.”
“I still don’t see it,” Steve said.
Ben used both hands to form a square around the Rex and then made the area much lighter in color. “And there it is,” Steve said. “Ben let’s take a closer look.”
As bot 1 closed in Lauren said, “Well, I can see from the drone feed that there are scavengers on this Rex. It’s obviously dead and no danger to the Team. Since there was no heat signature from it I was pretty sure, but, well…”
“You don’t have to apologize, Lauren,” Steve told her. “I can only imagine your feelings at seeing a Rex again, live or dead, and knowing your friends are walking toward it.”
Ben turned all the bots and drones toward the dead animal and told Major Donald, “I don’t know which way all of the tracks lead but follow the bots and tell Ron some of the tracks are coming to an end. Dead Rex ahead.”
“We’re sure there’s nothing else around?” Lauren asked.
“No,” Ben told her. “Nothing big at all for at least a mile.”
“Major Donald, you’re about a hundred feet away.”
“We’re clear.”
“Okay, I’m putting on the enhanced satellite view for you. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Great. Let’s see what we have and what we want to bring back.”
“Yes, sir,” Major Donald replied and then the Team started moving forward. As several of the cameras swept across Ron, Lauren could see he had a big smile on his face.
“Well, somebody’s happy,” Lauren noted.
“You’re sure it’s dead?” Lisa asked.
“Yes,” Ben assured her. “It’s dead.” Then he said, “Major, watch for the scavengers. There’s maybe ten or so, small but they might be persistent.”
“No problem, Paycheck. Hopefully they won’t stick around.”
“Ron, what are those?” Steve asked.
“What does the DTS indicate?”
“It doesn’t. It’s a mystery animal.”
“I’m glad you said that,” Ron replied. “I was trying to figure out what they were from where we are. I can mentally compare them to the fossils we already have on record and to dinosaur artwork. But that can only indicate detail or suggest possibilities. Just guesswork.”
“What were you going to guess?” Steve asked.
“Saurornitholestes,” Ron replied.
“I can see that,” Lauren said. “But it’s not, and we have the video and data to prove it. Well, I mean, if we were going to do that.”
Steve laughed and said, “It will just be our secret.” Then he asked her, “What do we need to do here?”
“Let me think for a minute,” Lauren said. “Okay. Let’s keep the drones on guard duty and away from the T-rex body. When the Team arrives, I’ll concentrate on what each person is doing, and I’ll see what they see on their helmet cams. Dad will have a lot of input also.” She paused, then asked, “What’s taking them so long to get there?”
“Thick vegetation and uh, your dad is stopping to look at everything,” Ben said. “Which is okay,” he quickly added.
“Dad, let’s get to the T-Rex before the scavengers eat all of it,” Lauren said.
“What? Oh, sorry everyone.”
“Don’t worry,” Major Donald told him. “We’re almost there.”
Lauren looked at Ben and asked, “There’s nothing close by? Right? Moving I mean. It doesn’t have to be big. Is there anything that can attack them?”
Ben moved the drones in different directions and to different heights for a full minute. He rechecked the heat images then smiled and said, “No, there are a few other small animals in the surrounding area, maybe a foot tall, but that’s it. Of all the scavengers present only a couple are close to two feet tall. It looks safe, but of course we will continue to monitor. Do you want the Team to go in now?”
Lauren paused again then said, “Okay, yes, send them in.” She paused then added, “But tell them watch out again, please.”
“I will,” Ben told her.
The Team forced their way through the last of some thick roots and were beside the Rex. The scavengers eith
er ran away or flew off, though a couple were reluctant and left only when charged by Stoney and Chesky.
As the Team video of the dead Tyrannosaurus came in, Ben told Lauren, “Take over the drones and bots if you need to.”
“Actually, there is plenty of video coming in from the Team. So much that it’s hard to keep up with. It will take weeks to go over.”
“Well, if you decide to join us you’ll have something to do,” Ben pointed out.
Lauren smiled and asked, “Do you think it is one of the animals from your first visit? It is a juvenile T-Rex.”
Ben activated the DTS and several points began blinking then the entire animal blinked once and in the lower corner of her view screen she read ‘100% Probable’. Ben told Lauren, “Well, now we know it is one of them. What do you think happened?”
“Your answer is right there in the large wound on the back of its neck,” Lauren said. “Can you ask someone to pull the tooth out of it?”
“On it,” Whitey said. His screen then showed his hand reaching down toward a white object and then holding up an 8-inch-long tooth with well-defined serrated edges.
As the tooth was moved around slowly so it could be seen, Ron said, “It’s a Rex tooth. No doubt about it. Ben, you said there were three of them, but one was larger than the other two?”
“Yes.”
Ron paused for a moment then continued, “Well, it’s only a guess, but I think that though there is some theoretical evidence that Rexes may have stayed together when they were young, and of course the three you saw were, the older one decided it was time to break away. Maybe one or both of the other ones didn’t take the hint and learned the hard way.”
“DTS confirms it is a tooth from the larger juvenile,” Ben said.
Steve turned to Lauren and asked, “What do you think?”
“Big cats are part of a group to begin with but go their own way after they get mature enough. Could be what happened here, but we really don’t know for sure.”
“We could step back and find out?” Steve told her.
“Step back?”
“Sorry, go back in small increments of time until we see the incident actually occur. Could give us the information you need.”
Lauren shook her head and replied, “No, as interesting as that sounds, I have to say no. We might stop the fight by accident before it began and, somehow, someone might get hurt and I would not want that.”
Steve just nodded as he turned back to his station, but Ben said, “We can do whatever is needed, Lauren. There is an inherent risk in everything we do. If it wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t do it. Think on it then let me know if you change your mind and we’ll see if it can be safely done.”
Lauren didn’t reply as she turned back toward her station and then wished she hadn’t. Various body parts, teeth, claws, feathers and skin were being removed from the dead Rex. She started to turn away when she saw on Junk’s screen a hand come down and lightly touch the Rex just above its eye and then slowly pull away. It was like Junk had caressed a pet, and Lauren wished she had been part of the Team, so it could have been her. Then she got mad at herself for thinking it though she made a mental note to talk to Junk.
“How’s everyone doing?” Ben asked the Team.
“We’re doing great,” Major Donald reported.
“Hey, Paycheck,” Cat called in, “why did it have such tiny arms?”
“You have Ron right there. Ask him.”
“Hey, Ron.”
“I heard your question,” Ron answered. “There is a lot of speculation about those arms. Some think they were used only during mating and others think that they were used to grab prey but were short because longer arms would be more susceptible to breaking. Maybe the most logical reason though is that it takes a lot of neck muscle to hold that giant head up and that didn’t leave room for a lot of arm control muscles.”
“Okay, Ron, answer this,” Ammo called out. “Look at these legs, they are huge. How fast could this puppy run?”
“Again, there are several theories. Some say slow, others say up to 25 miles per hour. I think it was more like ten miles an hour, maybe a little faster. If it means anything, we had to run to get away from the ones that chased us, and we did it.”
There was silence and then Whitey said, “That’s right, you’ve already done this. Man, you lived it.”
“That’s right,” Ron said. He turned to look for Lisa as he spoke and noticed that she was standing away from the group. She had her hands clasped in front of her and she was just staring straight ahead.
“Lisa, are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m doing okay. Just processing everything.”
“Why don’t you come over and stand by me?”
“I’m okay here, really.”
Ron paused for a second and then told her, “But you have company.”
She quickly looked around and then down. A couple feet away from her were two small dinosaurs. They looked like the ones that Ron could not identify. Lisa quickly moved over to Ron and asked nervously, “They weren’t getting ready to, I mean –”
“No,” Ron assured her. “They’re just waiting for us to leave.”
As she watched the screens, Lauren sighed and said, “There is one thing I really don’t like about this.”
“And that is?” Steve asked.
“Too ghoulish. All the samples and dissecting makes it seem like some kind of horror movie. Sorry. I know it’s not and also necessary but still, just something I could do without.”
Before Steve could reply, Ben cut in with, “We have a large animal and two smaller ones entering the perimeter from the south. They are moving slow and should not pose any danger to you. Thought you might want to take a look at them. I’m moving drone 1 and bot 3 toward them for a visual check and also activating DTS.”
A moment later Lauren smiled and told everyone, “It’s a large Ankylosaurus and two smaller ones.” Then the smile left as she remembered Mitch calling them Ankle-saurs.
“What are the little ones called?” Sinewave asked. “Cubs?”
“How about ‘clubs’,” Lisa suggested.
There was a moment of silence then everyone laughed as Ben said, “Clubs it is. Funny.”
Drone 1 stopped above the animals and Lauren said, “Just as I remember. Look at the size of it and –”
“And those clubs are so cute,” Lisa interrupted. “Look at them trying to jump around.”
Bot 3 had stopped thirty feet from the animals and its movement caught the attention of one of the ‘clubs’ and soon its face was stuck into the camera lens. After a few seconds though it grew interested in something else and continued walking with the others. The Team stayed hidden for a few minutes as the animals passed through the forest about a hundred feet from them.
A few seconds after they disappeared, Major Donald asked, “Paycheck, are we good to go?”
“You are,” Ben answered. “The mom and clubs are continuing to move away from you so head back and get the samples stowed away.”
“Roger that,” the Major replied and the Team started back.
“Danny, are you feeling okay?” Charles asked.
“Well, I’m sort of doing okay. The excitement of being next to the Rex got me going again but now that we’re headed back I’m starting to drag a little. I’m good enough to get back though.”
Ron came up behind them and asked, “Should we have them send out something to carry you back? Maybe they have a golf cart or something for injuries.”
“No, no, no,” Danny replied. “First, it couldn’t get to us through all the stuff we went through. Next, please keep your voice down. No one else needs to know I’m not feeling well, okay?”
“Okay,” Charles told him. “Your secret is safe with us. But when we get back to our time, let’s get you to a doctor.”
Danny started to say something then he paused before continuing with, “Of course. Probably just a bug of some type.”
In the
Unit, Ben suddenly leaned forward as he stared at his screen then turned to Lauren and said, “Tell me what that is, and should I tell everyone to hide again?” As Lauren looked down at her screen Ben calmly told the Team, “Another large animal is approaching. This one is from the north and it is not mama and her clubs coming back. It’s big, moving quickly and I think it is another –”
“T-Rex,” Lauren cut in. She was talking fast as she continued to everyone, “This is a large Rex. Very large. It seems to be moving with a purpose. I can’t tell if it’s coming in to scavenge the juvenile or following another scent. But it’s moving quick.”
Ben jumped in with, “Team, we have a couple of minutes before it will be able to see you. Start southwest right now and keep moving until I tell you to stop. I’m moving drone 1 and bots 3 and 5 to intercept and track. Get moving.”
As the Team started, Ben called again, “Ammo, I need your quarterback arm.”
“Okay.”
“Throw a killdeer as far as you can back toward the juvenile Rex. Do it right now then catch up with everyone and keep moving. Have your finger on the button.”
Lauren started to ask what a killdeer was when drone 1 arrived over the Rex. “I hate it when I’m right,” Lauren said. “This one looks mad.”
“Doesn’t that face always look mad?” Steve asked.
“I’m not looking at its head,” Lauren replied. “See how it is bent forward? When it’s just out for a stroll it has a different posture. This one is ready for battle.”
Ben stared at Lauren for a second then he was talking to the Team, “Get moving, people. Faster. I’m going to be giving you a countdown so be ready to stop and drop when I say so. We’re not covering up yet, just take a knee. You got fifteen seconds. Go, go, go. Ten seconds. Stand by…stand by…down, down, down.”
As the Team came to a complete stop the Rex paused about a hundred yards away. They could just barely see through the tress that it was lifting its head, sniffing and looking in the direction of the Team and also toward the dead Rex. As bot 3 ran past the toes of the Rex it stepped quickly backwards and accidentally crushed bot 5. Bot 3 raced in front of the Rex and after dodging back and forth a couple of times it sped away toward the juvenile Rex. The larger animal took a couple of steps after it then paused and looked back in the direction of the Team.