Primeval/Terra Nova Crossover
CHAPTER ONE
03:26 AM. Anomaly Research Centre, London, 2012.
The dim corridors throughout the Anomaly Research Centre were empty in the night. The only sounds in the building came from sleeping creatures in the Menagerie or the chortled laughs from the staff room. The reeking smell of coffee filled the air of the packed staff room. There was nothing better to do on the night shift, once the paperwork was completed. They could only wait. And wait they would. Since the 'New Dawn Incident', anomalies had been more plentiful. Meaning there had to be a team in the ARC at all times.
Connor Temple and Captain Hilary Becker slept through the noise of the others joking, each man propped against the other. They had been on the previous day shift too, but given that this night shift would have been two men down, the pair had volunteered themselves with the promise of at least a few hours sleep. They had both been sleeping since just gone eleven.
Their sleep would be no more.
Pinkish-orange lights flashed through the room, soon followed by the wail of the anomaly alert system. Immediately, the two men tensed and moved away from each other.
Connor grinned at the SAS Captain and Becker returned the thought with a smile. This was no longer a new thing to the men, for many a nights they had woken up the same way. Wherever the chance was given, both men were known to crash out for as long as they could. It was a reasonable doing; so much had disturbed their sleep patterns over the years.
"Well, at least we got a bit of sleep." Becker noted, rubbing the telltale stubble of a manifesting beard.
Connor agreed, stretching the kinks out of his back. Both men yawned, waiting patiently for the room to empty.
The room started to thin out, allowing Connor to make his way to the detector. Becker split paths with him, heading into the armoury to kit up.
Connor was greeted by Abby, who had presumably spent her night thus far in the Menagerie, and Lester, at the Anomaly Detection Device. Lester looked least pleased. He was supposed to have gone home. Argument with the wife? Prime minister on his case? Too much paperwork? The man was caught with a silly smile on his face as his brain tried to suss it out.
Lester responded with an unfriendly glare. "The anomaly, please, Connor." There was a sense of urgency in the older man's voice, an urgency that Connor would not question. He shot forward, towards the ADD to gather the findings.
Following a few seconds of furious typing and tapping, the man looked up to his gathering colleagues. "The anomaly has opened up in Camden Town."
"Incursion?" Abby asked from his left.
"Inconclusive. It's in the underground, no camera access."
With that, the team dispersed to kit up and head to the cars.
"I will deal with the appropriate services, the line will be off and the station will be closed, in a matter of minutes." James Lester spoke, straightening his red tie, all traces of harshness gone from his voice.
"Thank you, Lester." Connor smiled quickly, turning on his heel to join the team to the cars. The steady pace of heavy boots echoed behind the man and Connor slowed to fill Becker in.
01:43 PM. Terra Nova, Cretaceous Period.
Something is happening out there, Maddy Shannon thought to herself as she perched from a tree by the gates. When she wasn't with Mark, she loved to sit here with her Plex and listen to the nature of the Cretaceous.
She put her Plex back in her rucksack and leaned intently in the direction of the forest, being careful that she didn't topple out of the tree. That would be fun to explain to Mark, or her dad. She listened to the high pitch screams of the disturbed wildlife. It was difficult, even with her knowledge, to define which dinosaurs were involved. She's guessed that one was a Carnotaurus. A further guess had it identified as a juvenile.
Maddy listened for fifteen minutes. The behaviour puzzled the teen. She had never experienced the creatures around the camp act in any such way.
The girl swung herself out of the tree and landed gracefully on her feet. There was only one person that she wanted to tell and that was her big brother, Josh.
"But, Josh, I'm telling you, something out there spooked them." Maddy protested.
Josh rolled his eyes at his little sister. He hadn't budged from his sprawled position on the sofa. "You know, Maddy, for someone who is really smart, you really do have a wild imagination." He complained.
Maddy sat on Josh's stomach, bouncing until he surrendered. "All right! All right, we will go out of the gates."
The girl grinned at her big brother. "Thank you, Josh."
Josh shook his head, grunting in reply. He just hoped that they wouldn't be eaten. Then again, he seemed to invite bad luck.
03:32 AM. London, 2012.
Abby Maitland sat in the back of a car, squashed between Connor and Corporal Black. They had only just left the ARC and already, Becker's driving was making her feel nauseous. She had to drink her coffee quickly, either that or not at all, but she wished she had chosen the latter since tasting her coffee twice at half past three in the morning didn't sound most appealing to her.
As the car lunged over a pothole that Becker had miscalculated, she yelped as a pain accompanied the nausea.
"Ok, Black, you're elbow isn't very comforting at the moment." Abby complained, nudging the soldier's elbow away from her bust.
Connor smirked at the woman's complaint and Abby stabbed him with a fierce glower, her own elbow digging at his ribs.
"Ow! Hey, I'm allowed to think like that about my own fiancé!" Connor sighed, still smiling as he rubbed his rib.
The complaining, protesting, and fighting continued for ten or so minutes before the car lurched to a halt. Abby caught Becker's wicked grin in the rear-view mirror, stopping her as she went to moan. They had reached Camden Town tube station.
Connor and Black filed out of the car on either side of her, allowing her to breathe easily before she got out of the car herself. But, her moment was short-lived.
Screams filled the night air. Screams that were followed by an almighty roar.
They had trouble.