"Oh look, Lisa, that shark is swimming in our direction. Shall I take a picture for you?" Jess asked her niece.
The six-year old girl nodded enthusiastically, without turning her head away from the glass front of the shark tank.
Jess took a picture of the shark and of Lisa as well, while she was at it and checked her watch. They had been here at this specific tank for almost half an hour now, but Lisa still didn't want to move on to the next exhibit in the aquarium. She was too captivated by the sharks. Jess could only imagine how long she would want to stay at the touch pools, if they ever made it there.
Smiling about her niece's fascination she sat down on one of the benches in the room. They still had two more hours, before the aquarium closed, so she could give the girl a little more time. And the tank was really nice, it almost looked like a natural habitat. It was probably as close as you could get in an aquarium. They even had some really good light effects, like the light of the sun glittering just beneath the surface.
Jess enjoyed this scene, which was peaceful even though there were several sharks visible. Since she'd been mugged a few days ago she hadn't felt this calm. It hadn't been that bad, but she had been really jumpy since. A guy had knocked her off her feet and then taken her purse. She had only sustained a few bruises and a bump on her head, but she'd been very scared. The police had later returned her purse with only the money missing. It hadn't been very much, so she'd really been lucky.
While Jess watched the glittering lights in the water a strange creature swam past the big front glass. Jess hadn't seen it before. It must have been hiding, she thought. And she hadn't noticed it on any of the signs, so she figured that it was new.
It certainly wasn't a shark. The creature was about one meter long, of a dirty brownish color, had very big eyes and a segmented body. It didn't have fins, but something that looked more like small, segmented wings. It had some similarities with a kind of shrimp, a huge shrimp of course, except for those two tentacle-like limbs at its head.
Jess kept watching the thing, like everyone else in the room, when suddenly she heard a familiar voice. It was Matt, followed by Becker, who was telling people that there was a severe problem with the air-conditioning and they all had to leave the room.
"What are you doing here? What is going on?" Jess asked, as the two men approached.
"We have an anomaly here at the aquarium, and our co-ordinates show, that it should be right here." Matt explained, looking around in search of the anomaly.
"Could it be in there? I noticed some strange lights." Jess suggested, pointing at the tank.
"Hey, Lisa, come stand over here with me!" she called out to her niece, as Matt and Becker approached the glass looking at the lights and the weird creature, which was lazily swimming past the glass.
"Oh wow. It's Anomalocaris, that is just so cool." Connor exclaimed upon entering the room and immediately indentifying the creature.
Everybody else just turned around to stare at him.
"What? It's from the Cambrian, which makes it about five-hundred-and-forty million years old. And the story behind its discovery is fascinating." Connor started to explain. Fortunately he was interrupted by Abby, before he could start an entire lecture about the creature.
"Where is the anomaly? It should be here, but I don't see it. Oh, hi Jess, I didn't know you were coming, too." Abby said when she entered the room as the last member of the team.
"Hey, Abby. I think the anomaly is in there." She pointed at the shark tank and at the two men, who were watching Anomalocaris passing the large glass front once again. "But I'm not here for work; I was here with my niece. And I think Lisa and I should leave now and let you work."
She took her niece's hand and started to leave the room, but Lisa had other plans. She dug her heels in and refused to take one more step towards the door.
"Lisa, we should really let these people work. And the sharks are all hiding now anyway. Let's go to the touch pools. You can pet a few rays." Jess tried to convince the girl into coming with her.
"But Jess. I don't want to go. I want to watch this Anocares- thing." Lisa whined. Jess looked at Abby for help, but Abby just shrugged and turned towards the glass, looking for the anomaly.
"I don't think there's much we can do. The anomaly must be somewhere behind those rocks, we won't be able to lock it. The rocks are shielding it." Abby said, after having thoroughly scanned the shark tank.
"What kind of creatures do we have to expect from that anomaly?" Becker was all business, especially now that they knew they wouldn't be able to lock the anomaly and other creatures could come through.
"Anomalocaris was the largest predator of its time. There is nothing we really have to worry about, except maybe that the sharks might swim through the anomaly and end up in the Cambrian sea." Connor answered.
"Well, I guess we'll just keep the public out then and wait until the anomaly closes again." Matt decided and they all stayed glued to the window watching the alien creature making its slow rounds through the large glass tank.
Jess had given up trying to convince Lisa to leave. They were not in any danger, so she let the girl watch from a small distance away from the glass.
Then, suddenly, the creature was gone. They waited for a while, but it didn't reappear.
"It probably went back through the anomaly." Connor sounded a little bit disappointed as he said this, although this was probably best for the creature. The team decided to leave some men at the aquarium to guard the shark tank from the public until the anomaly had closed.
The team itself left and finally Lisa decided to go with Jess. Once she saw the touch pools she completely forgot about Anomalocaris and was thrilled when she got to touch the wing tips of a few rays.
Two hours later Jess was back at home. She had returned Lisa to her sister and she was glad that she had no other plans for the night. Connor and Abby were already there, when she entered the flat and she sat down together with them.
"What a week." she sighed, glad she had someone to talk to. "First the mugging and now I witnessed an anomaly. I never thought I see one that close." she told her flat mates.
"So, what did you think?" Abby asked curiously.
"I didn't really get a good look at the anomaly itself, but it was rather fascinating. I don't want to experience it again, though. I'm glad that only one relatively small creature came through." Jess confessed.
Abby put an arm around her shoulder. "You did great today." And Connor also tried to comfort her. "It is very unlikely you'll encounter an anomaly again, unless you want to go out with the team."
"No, I think I'll feel better staying at the ARC, watching your adventures." Jess smiled at the two and then relaxed into the sofa cushions. She had survived a mugging and an anomaly this week. Things could only get better from now on, couldn't they?
In case you're interested, Anomalocaris really existed and it's a creature that I have found fascinating ever since I learned about it.
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, I'll write a couple more, soon, which will reveal more about what I mentioned in the summary. I promise it won't be long.
