Terra Aliis

The story of what is to come.

By: Lester Glade

In the year 3145, the Earth is becoming uninhabitable, and a small group of scientist from governments the world over foresee a world-wide biological war is at hand. In light of these theories, nine teams are assembled and sent 200000000 years into the future, to see if the Earth is habitable for humanity. However, during the travel through time, the device that would bring them home is lost. Now, stranded 200000000 years in the future, will they survive, and find a way home, or will the New Genesis project have to start with just them? Only time will tell.

Early morning, February 5th, 200002011;

"I think we should establish the main groups of animals. I doubt there would be many carnivorans left because of how specialized they tend to be, and same with the ungulates. Much of that land would be deserts, so Reptiles would be dominant in some areas, while mammals would dominate in the areas closer to the coasts and poles. For arboreal mammals, there could be a mix of primates and the descendants of bats that left the air. Rodents would probably diversify into a variety of forms, effectively filling the niche left behind by the once dominant ungulates and carnivorans. But which groups of rodents would become predatorial, and which ones would become herbivorous?" Cole Pendragon asked me. We had been surveying New Pangaea for just a little over a week now, and hadn't seen much in the way of animals, just large plants. "Well, for one, I think that the new predators are probably linked to animals like Opossums, Raccoons, Rats, or maybe an omnivorous or carnivorous deviant of shrews." I reply, pondering the Idea, remembering what life used to be like back in the 20th century, which I had lived through, but I had been born in the late 1900s, and lived all the way up to the 'present', 3154, all without aging much past the bodily form of a twenty four year old. I had been through a lot, mostly sadness, pain, and war. But I always kept living on. It was my gift, my curse. It had been my childhood dream to live to the 31st century, and bring my friends and family with me. I had only achieved half that dream, and only succeeded in bringing ten of my friends forward with me. They had the same mysterious genetic deviation I had, that caused us to live so long. Only recently had humans discovered two-way time-travel, which is how me and the rest of the crew had come to be in the year 200002011. Technically I'd be 200000015, but I'd prefer to stick with my physical age of twenty five.

"Now, tell me again what did you find out about this virus you say wipes out humans?" Russ Wallac, one of the senior veterinarians on the team asked, "Well, it effects apes only, and was originally targeted at humans in a biological war, but was not designed to be lethal. It mutated and became lethal. It also mutated and grew to effect apes that shared DNA closest with humans." I explain, recounting from memory. "By "sharing DNA" I assume you mean apes like chimps, gorillas, and humans?" Russ asks, "Yes, but the virus stopped with chimpanzees after it brought down the humans." I reply. "We're not sure what exactly is living out here, but we know for a fact that there are animals around. Those claw marks on that tree we passed when we came in were definite proof of animal life." I say, placing a holo-projector on the ground and activating the interactive flat cartographical chart of where we've been, and a separate interactive hologram of the current globe. We were currently located somewhere in New Sydney. "I can see passerines and shrews diversifying. Huge descendants of the crows could become the largest flying animals since the pterosaurs in the desert regions. Hyraxes and iguanas also might have gone through an explosive radiation to cover herbivorous niches. Geckos could replace foxes if they went extinct, with descendants of chameleons and big cats as the dominant arboreal predators." Banna Boyd, another of the crew stated with a misty expression. "I like your Ideas, Boyd. It's why I hired you on to the crew. But sometimes your Ideas scare me." I say, envisioning giant killer Jackson's chameleons. "So geckos replace carnivorans as the dominant small scale terrestrial predator? I think that there would be multiple lines of these predatory geckos, but most would likely stay in the trees. If any group of geckos becomes predatory, they would probably come from the eublepharinae family, given that the geckos in that family are, for the most part, terrestrial, and have claws instead of sticky toes." Cole chimes in, "Agreed." "Say, Cole, where should we head to next? We haven't run into anything but Flora. The only sign of fauna we've seen so far was those claw marks on that tree, there." I say, pointing out a small flag which was the location of the tree, which I had programmed into our database. "I'd say head back to the tree, there was a river near there, which usually means the chances that there is Fauna nearby are increased." Cole replies. "Alright." "Let's go people, we're heading back to Baker's Ridge!" I call to the team. I hear one of them groan. Most likely Brian Snipe. He was always pouting and whining, and making snarky remarks to the crew, and myself. Those comments had already come to bite him in the ass, twice.

"Don't worry people, it's not too far." I call, starting to head east. Within a few hours we made it to the river Cole mentioned. Right across the river was the tree I had marked on our map. We set up camp quickly, and the crew turned in for a bit, while me, Cole, Russ, and Banna headed off downstream in one of the trucks a bit. We located an area where the river bulged out into a bit of a small lake, and waited, hoping for some sign of life. We weren't disappointed. Not too long after we had dropped down by the bank, there were grunting and shuffling noises emanating from the brush a quarter klick down the bank. We braced ourselves, in case it was a predator. To our relief, the beast that came out of the bushes didn't seem predatory. We decided to sneak down the bank to try and get a closer look, once we were halfway there, the beast grunted loudly, and tossed its head. Soon after seven more of the same animal came out of the brush. The animals appeared to be large, heavyset, reptiles, resembling Iguanas, but were larger, and had a toothy beak. "Looks like we found our first animal." Cole tells me, excitement audible in his voice. We all set to work taking down notes on our data pads, while Banna set to work sketching the beasts. We finished our notes and realized it was getting late, and were just about to head back to camp when we heard hissing and growling noises coming from a tree above the Giant Iguanas. Something dropped down on to one of them, it appeared to be the lead male, and began tearing at the beast, hissing and spitting. Then another creature, that appeared to be the same species dropped down and tried to snatch one of the three young Iguanas, but it was kicked in the face by what we suspected was a large female. The creature collapsed and didn't move. All the while the creature on the lead male's back kept attacking, without hesitation I jumped up and shot the creature with my dart gun, knocking it off the male, and into the brush. No further sounds came from the creature. Strangely, the Iguanas hadn't fled, and had stayed by the riverside. We didn't have much time to ponder the thought before the male collapsed, bleeding heavily. Russ sprang up and ran to the male, and pulled out his veterinary tools, and dermaprobe, a tool used for injections. He quickly sterilized the wounds and began to treat them. "I won't be able to do much from here; we may have to bring him back to camp, so I can better treat his injuries." Russ called over to me. I was rooting around in the brush where the attacker had fallen, "Why not just treat him here?" I ask, turning to Russ, "I thought if we bring him and his herd back to camp we could study them better." Russ replied. "Sounds like a plan." "Hey, Banna, Cole, make yourselves useful." "Cole, help Russ with the Iguanas," Cole nods and jogs over to Russ to help him, "Banna, help me find that creature I hit with the dart. It's over here somewhere." I call, turning back to the brush and rooting around for the animal, hoping that the tranquilizer dosage was high enough. "O-okay." Banna replies, hurrying over to help me search. It wasn't long after that when we found the creature, out like a light, the dart in its ribs. I made sure the animal wasn't just sleeping, then pick it up and put it in a sack. I nod to Banna and we both walk over to Russ, "How's he doing?" "He's stable, but if we don't get him back to camp soon, the wounds will get infected." Russ replies, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I've got just the thing. Wait here." I jog off into the brush and come back driving the truck.

"There's rope in the back, we can bring him back to camp in the truck's flatbed." "Good thinking, Lester!" "Alright! Let's get him on the truck!" Cole pipes up, jogging up to the truck then jogging back to the male with a length of rope. I get out of the truck and grab some more rope and jog down to the others. We carefully time a rope harness around him and slowly drag him to the truck. This whole time, I was surprised the other Iguanas hadn't interfered. We finally reached the truck and with a mighty heave we lift the Iguana push him onto the flatbed, then tie the harness down. We all piled into the truck, and then I noticed the sun was just now disappearing behind the mountains. "We better get a move on." I mutter, keying the ignition. When the truck's lights turn on, the bank is illuminated, revealing that the Giant Iguanas were closing in on the truck. "Looks like they're still following the male." Cole notes, looking out the window. "This'll be easier than I thought, then." Russ states. I push down the acceleration pedal and begin to drive back to camp. After a half hour we made it back and got out of the truck. The crew came rushing out of the tents to help us, while the Veterinary crew began to prep the medical tent for the Iguana, while others went to put together a sort of pen to keep the other Iguanas in overnight. "Well Cole, looks like you were right about the predatory geckos." "Jerry just confirmed those predators were descendants of leopard geckos." I inform Cole, after I had deposited the two predators in the Science tent. "We've even seen them in action." I tell him, with a bit of a grin. "Yah, I guess so." Cole replies. "I drew these when it was attacking." Cole says, producing a series of images depicting how the predatory geckos had attacked. "Say, Cole, what d'you think we should call these predators?" I ask, displaying my data pad with a profile of the predatory geckos that had all the information we knew about them written on it, while the space for the animal's name was blank. "Perhaps, 'Raging Gecko' might fit." "Hmm…" I enter the name into the data pad, and it automatically fills in the spaces for the name. I look at the images of the Gecko's attack, then back at the name. "Seems fitting for a beast such as this." I conclude, scanning Cole's sketches into the profile as an animation, which when activated played a frame-by-frame animation of the attack. "I'd say this was more than enough excitement for one day." "Cole, Banna, let's turn in for the night. Russ has work to do, so he'll be in later." After I said this, I headed for the men's bunk tent, washed up, and flopped down in my bunk, which had been placed closest to the entrance, then fell into an uneasy sleep, excited for tomorrow.

Morning came slowly; I awoke to the sound of garbled insects and grunts from the Iguanas, who were still near the camp. "Lester!" I get up with a jolt. "Yeah?" "The male is starting to try to get up!" After hearing this, I quickly got up and head for the medical tent. "Where is he?" "In the back," Cole replies, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. Together we head into the back, to see a very excited Russ trying to help steady the male Iguana, who was snorting repetitively and groggily trying to get its feet under control. However, the male wasn't doing very well at getting its stocky limbs back under the considerable girth of his body. His tail was swinging nervously back and forth, bumping into various medical tables, and overturning Russ's cot as if it weighed nothing. "Cole, get the tail, I'll help Russ get him back to his feet." Cole nods, and tackles the tail, which he was struggling to pin down. I went to the other side of the animal and helped Russ haul it to its feet. After quite the effort, we managed to get it back on its feet, though it was still snorting and flicking its tail. Suddenly I heard a high-pitched honking in the trees, outside the tent. Everyone froze. It sounded quite large. "I'll go check it out, I whisper. The others nod, and train their ears to the side of the tent we heard the honking on. I stepped into the main area of the tent and grabbed the dart gun, just in case. I crept to the flap at the entry to the tent, and peered out. There, standing quietly, and swiveling its head, was a large, brown avian, resembling an Emu, with the head of a Duck. Though, I guessed it was completely terrestrial, by the size of its minuscule wings, though I was fascinated by the little iridescent green feathers stretching back from the eyes and sloping down the neck halfway. Then I noticed something, its tail feathers reminded me of a Macaw, and stranger still, so did the curve in its bill, which I had somehow overlooked. The Bill was just like a ducks, except that halfway to the end, it bent almost straight down. The large bird flicked its long, thin, and pointy little blue tongue out and around the edges of its bill, almost appearing to be yawning, but when the tongue had gone halfway around the bill, the creatures head jerked forward and its chest heaved sharply, producing the same loud honking we had heard in the tent. It then jerked it's head toward me, looked me in the eye, then went over to the Iguana pen and began to nibble at the pile of Cycads we had given them for food.

I got up and jogged back to the others. "You're not going to believe what it was." "Well, then what was it? Spill." Russ barked, his arms crossed. "It was a Macaw." They both looked at me like I was from outer space. "A what now?" Banna decided to show his presence. He had been sitting under a table making detailed notes and sketches on how Russ had cared for the Iguana last night. An Iguana, who was now shuffling his feet restlessly. "Well, you should see it if we take this big fell-""Magnus." "What?" "I named him Magnus." Banna said, obviously pleased with his naming of the male Iguana. "Well, then, if we take 'Magnus' over to the pen with the other Iguanas, you should see it." "Then what are we standing here for?! Let's go!" Cole said, obviously very interested in seeing this new animal. "Alright, Banna follow us closely." "Why should I?" "We're still under the canopy by the tent. Who knows if more of those Raging Geckos are up in the branches." "Oh, good point." I load the dart gun, and begin to walk out, Russ and Cole following slowly, trying to get the Iguana to follow them. One of the females outside made a long, low, sound, almost like it was snoring loudly. The male froze, and then hurriedly waddled past me and out of the tent. We followed behind. Sure enough, that terrestrial Macaw was still there, looking all around, and pecking at the cycads. "Well I'll be darned, it is a Macaw." Russ uttered in awe. Cole just stood there, staring at it as if he was seeing an alien. Banna just shrugged, dropped down on the ground, and started sketching. "I think we should call it an Macovus." "Why's that?" "Because it's a combination of macaw, and novus." "Ello gov'nah." Flash Martinez, another member of the group decided to finally show his face. "Well look what the cat dragged in. You finally ready to face this world of unknowns, Slim?" I ask satirically. "Well, I'm here, aren't I?" he says with a dramatic pose. "So, what's that big fella over there?" "That's what we were just discussing." Russ said, eyeing the disheveled man. "I'm think we should call it a Macovus." Slim looks at the flightless bird a moment, "I think it should be called a Maceo, from macaw and geo." "I say we put it to a vote!" Banna says, appearing between the both of us, with his fist thrust high in the air. "Sounds good to me." Brian said, finally awake. "Where have you been you lazy bum?" I ask, rather annoyed with his laziness. Especially with the fact that I knew that he knew this mission was important. "You know, there's a difference between you and me," "Oh really, and what's that?" "I make this look good." "Actually, right now, you look like a sweaty hobo." "Alright you two, enough." I shoot back. "You know what, I'm going to call it Psittanullvolatus imperator." "Imperial Flightless Macaw?" "Roughly, yes. But I think we should have a more common name for it, like everything else we've run into has." "That would be useful for cataloging." Banna says, "Agreed." Cole pipes in. "How 'bout Emperor Macaw?" Banna chimes in, "Perfect."

Suddenly I hear a rustling in the leaves, and rapidly fired barking noise that seemed to be coming from two or more large mammalian creatures in the trees over to our right. "You think they're predatory, Lester?" "Possibly, and judging by the way they sound, they seem to be irritated about something." "Great, irritated, possibly large predators, in the trees. Sounds like a perfect day for us to do some research." "What could possibly go wrong?" Banna mutters, "Did someone say creodonts?" Hayaba Sully, one of the team's drivers pipes up walking in front of us. "Nobody said anything about your precious extinct carnivores; now get back inside. There is something large, and possibly predatory in the trees on our right." I hiss quietly, waving for him to get away from the trees. "Aww man… I wanted to see if there was anything like them here…" "Maybe there is, maybe there isn't but now's not the time. Get inside where it's safe, kid." "Oh, alright…" Sully quickly walked back into the main tent and zipped it up. I slowly rotated myself in the direction of the tree, and the barking started again. I acted as if I didn't notice them and readied the dart rifle, aiming for the source of the sound. There were three of them now, I guessed by the sound of the barking. I crept behind a small rock to help steady my aim, and quickly fired a three dart burst into the trees. There was violent rustling and shrieking, then one by one, three large creatures clumsily dropped out of the tree, with the first landing on its stomach, and the other two landing on top of the first. One of the crew let out a whistle at the sight of the creatures. "Thems be some big rats." Archie Nuss said, while eyeing the large mammals. "Looks like there's some large arboreal mammals after all, Archy." I say with a mischievous grin. "Okay, Banna, Cole, help me get these fellas into Russ's examination tent so we can get a good look at them." "Yessir." "H'okey."

We each dragged on of the rascals into the tent and hoisted them onto tables, after which, Russ began to hook them into various devices, like heartbeat monitors, and also put some masks on them to provide a steady stream of oxygen, then he gave each a minor dose of some meds to keep them in a sleeping state for at least three more hours. "So, what exactly are these rascals?" Dr. Mattias Cold asked, walking in from where he'd been out gathering plant samples. "Well, I'm thinking that's exactly what we should call them; Rascals." I put in, examining the paws and physical structure of the female. "Irritable troublemakers. Poetic. Very nice." Dr. Cold said, gloving up, and examining the teeth of the younger male quite studiously. I too began to more studiously examine these mammals, the rest of the crew off to one side speculating about their social habits, hunting strategies, and also taking a few notes and sketches of the animals. Of course, I could see Archie and Banna's were the best, though Russ' technical drawings and labeled observations of the animals were very detailed, as always. Unlike the others, though, he too had decided to examine the mammals up close. "Show off…" I mutter under my breath shaking my head slightly, now using my gloved hands to examine the tail and hind limbs. Russ just shoots me a glance with a slight gloating smirk before closely examining the digits on the female's forepaws, seemingly intrigued by the range of motion they had. Suddenly, the older ale seemed to kick out and looked like his limbs were trying to run. But, on further inspection, his eyes were still shut. "Dr. Cold, come have a look at this." "Hmm?" Came an unintelligible noise from the doctor, popping his head up from under the Rascal at the far end of the room. He came over with his gloved hands raised, as if preparing for surgery. "Well, it seems what you've got here is a large mammalian creature experience the simple phenomena of rapid eye movement, or dreaming." "You know, the last time I saw something like this, was back before the domestic canines died off from that last terrorist attempt in January of 3142." "A true shame it happened I was so looking forward to seeing what may result if they were left to evolve on their own." "However, this phenomena existing here, in these large animals is intriguing." "I shall have to study this further at some point." With that, he reached up and switched on an observation camera to record the animal's reactions for study at a later date. "But for now, it is 14:00, which means it is noontime. I would like to record some more of the native flora." "Alright, I'll come along with you, but if I tell you to get down, get down. Alright?" "Oh, alright." "Good. The last thing I need is for you to be injured." "We're low on medical supplies as is." I mutter, shouldering the dart gun and heading off with the doctor. 'I hope that supply crate gets sent to the right time…' I think to myself, trudging quietly along behind the doc. We had gone a considerable distance from camp by now. I quicken my stride to match the doctor. "You plan on going any farther?" "Not as such. Here is as good as any. Now, let us get to work, shall we?" He knelt down in front of his heavy metal case and withdrew two pairs of examination gloves, and some tools you'd normally find in a CSI forensics kit. "I've noticed that there are some rather unusual mosses and fungi in this area of the forest, so I usually go a bit further, but this is my first time checking to the east of camp. "Well, let's hope your gamble was a good one." He got up and looked me in the eye, "I never gamble."

"Okay then." I respond, with my eyebrows raised. I took the pair of examination gloves he was offering me and quickly began to carefully turn over small logs, look under the roots of trees, and around the leaf litter for interesting specimens. After about five minutes I had allotted about five different kinds of leaf specimens that seemed to be new. I took out my trusty tablet and flipped to my reference notes on flora. None of them matched any known species. "Interesting," I muttered to myself, looking over the odd shapes and colors. I continued sifting around, when, "Agh!" Something hopped out of the leaves at me! I began to go after it as quickly as possible. "Hey, get back here you!" I leapt at it, but landed face first in a patch of moss. "Blech." I removed the tufts of foliage from my mouth, and again, leapt at the small creature. This time, I caught it. "Hey Doc, come have a look at this!" "Hmm?" The same unintelligible grunt from before. This man seriously gets into his work. He got up and brushed himself off, then came over to me and knelt down. "Yes? What is it?" I quickly emptied my palms into an empty jar so the doc could see the lil' bugger without it hopping off. "Well, well, well, I believe you may have found the first amphibian of this entire expedition." "Quite the interesting one, at that." He says, raising the jar carefully to eye level to get a better look at it. "Looks like it may be toxic when ingested, judging by the bright orange of these markings." "One might say it is almost… Cute." Doc. Cold saying something's cute? Oh boy... A shiver runs down my spine. 'I think I just detected a chill in the air…' "Well, it looks to be getting dark." "Alright, captain. We shall return if you insist." "Come on." I gesture back towards the camp, after packing up my equipment. Dr. Cold packed up his own equipment, and we began to head back. On the way back, I wondered when, if ever, we'd be able to make contact with the other teams. I hoped it was soon, as being stuck in the jungle with just these guys may prove difficult. There was also the problem of the medicine shortage. Those supplies better get here soon. We may not have contact with the present, but they were going to send in a supply shipment of much needed equipment and other goods and materials after the team had been away for three days, and judging by the way my watch was a bit off, the transit from 3145 must've taken up a full day. Which means, the supplies should show up today sometime. The scientists back at launch had told us the crates would be marked with our team's insignia, and a beacon tuned to our radio frequencies. They had demonstrated the tone to each team, and being the clever sneaks that they were, each 'tone' was geared to sound like the call of the animal in our insignia. So ours would sound like repetitive cobra strikes. Great, now I've gotten myself hoping there aren't any large snakes in this area that might produce a similar noise. By the time I was done with my musings, we had reached camp. But not even the workmen were milling about. 'They must all be in the mess tent.' I thought, so I headed off for the mess, while Dr. Cold went off to his little mobile laboratory truck.

(If you spot any spelling errors, please, let me know. I shall repair them immediately!)