In the Ordovician, Drew and Leon were on a raft heading for deeper waters. It was almost pitch black outside, with only the lights on their diving suits countering the darkness. As day had turned into night, the eerie atmosphere had only been increased; the silence had now become almost oppressive. After a while of rafting, they stopped in the middle of the bay. Drew and Leon looked at each other and their surroundings for several minutes before diving in. The seas of the Ordovician were very similar to the ones of the Cambrian, except much quieter; the open ocean was just as silent as the land. Leon looked around, confused and contacted Drew over the communicator in the suit, "I don't see any sign of an orthocone. I say we head down deeper, maybe we'll find them there."
Drew smiled at him, "That sounds like a plan. But we need to be careful. Just because we have special air tanks doesn't mean our bodies can handle the abyss." They dived deeper and deeper, growing more and more nervous as they went; what would happen if the air ran out before they'd found what they were looking for? After about half an hour of diving, they managed to spot a chasm on the ocean floor. They couldn't go any further (not without running out of air), so instead of pursuing their targets, they planned to lure them out.
However, their targets had other ideas. As they swam closer to the chasm, dangling the trilobite, an enormous tentacle, longer than they were tall, emerged from the gloom and grabbed it, before withdrawing into the inky abyss from whence it came. It was a few minutes until the creature fully emerged. It was large, about as long as a truck, with gigantic tentacles. It was vaguely reminiscent of a giant squid, but there was one core difference; the creature had an enormous cone-shaped shell, which stretched to about thirty feet behind it. The creature sailed past them, taking little to no notice of the tiny specks watching it. Shortly after it, several others emerged from the abyssal gloom. Drew was so shocked by what he was witnessing, that he'd forgotten how close he had become to one. Drew's eyes widened as an enormous tentacle flew through the air with deceptive speed. He managed to dodge it and the tentacle slashed aimlessly through the water. Witnessing his companion's embarrassing moment, Leon chuckled a bit, before having to narrowly dodge a second large tentacle as it whipped through the water, missing him by inches and sending him spinning.
The dazed Leon complained, "Now I know how clothes in a washing machine feel!". Just as he regained stability, he suddenly noticed something; Drew had vanished. After looking around for several minutes, Leon spotted him swimming after the orthocones. Before he could ask Drew what he was doing, he saw something unbelievable; Drew grabbed onto the end of the nearest orthocone's cone and began to ride it as it swam along, unaware of its small passenger. Leon stood, staring at him in blank surprise, before Drew called out to him, "How else are we going to find out where they're going?" Leon quickly snapped out of his disbelief, before following Drew and the giants, keeping a safe distance.
Soon the enormous creatures, like an oil tanker changing direction, began to go downwards. Drew hopped off the end of the cone, in case they were heading back into the abyss from whence they had came. Instead, they headed only a few metres, down to the seabed. Much to Drew's surprise, the sea floor was carpeted with Megalograptus, moving almost in line. One of the orthocones swam down at the moving eurypterids and, with a speed that belied its massive size, grabbed the scorpion nearest to it with its tentacles. As the scorpion disappeared into the orthocone's maw, the others joined in, grabbing more scorpions with their tentacles. The other Megalograptus, indifferent to the loss of their comrades, continued on their pilgrimage.
Whilst they were occupied with their meal, Drew grabbed the remote and turned on the portal. The orthocones turned to regard the gleaming orb, like insects to a bright light and slowly began to swim towards the portal. The first one went through slowly, segment by segment, with the others following it. The spectacle was amazing to watch; it was as if everything else, even time itself, had stopped in order to celebrate this grand moment. After the last one went in, the portal was shut off. Drew smiled at Leon, "I think we can call this mission over. Let's get back to camp."
However, they were about to have a big surprise. Leon turned to Drew, looking upon the chaos in front of them, and said "It's 'unlikely sea scorpions can climb'. Weren't those your exact words?!"
Drew didn't bother responding as he looked at the camp dumbstruck. There were Megalograptus everywhere; the camp was almost carpeted with them. As they stood in shock, the nearest scorpion turned to the interlopers and hissed at them. Drew shook his head and snapped out of the initial shock and ran towards the table, "Leon, I'll take care of the ones on the table, you gather up the rest." Leon turned to the scorpions now surrounding him, attracted by the fish carcasses in the barrel directly behind him. The scent of food caused the scorpions to advance menacingly towards him, almost moving as a unified entity. Once he reached the table, Drew grabbed the nearest scorpion and turned on the portal, Drew tried to send a message to prepare for scorpions, but soon realised the difficulties of holding a squirming ocean predator in one hand whilst texting in the other.
At the park, Kyle looked over the new species rescued; whilst the fish, orthocones and trilobites had been easily transported, it had taken twenty minutes to get the scorpion into a holding tank; half the transport team had been drenched trying to move the aggressive little creature. Hopefully, Drew wouldn't bring anything else that temperamental back⦠Suddenly the communicator rang; a message from Drew. It read "prepare for scprions"; Kyle, confused, stared at the three-word message and exclaimed irritably, "What the hell is he trying to say"?" The portal suddenly flared to life and a scorpion, like the one in the holding tank, swam through. Kyle sighed, "Oh, he meant more scorpions, because of course he did. It would have been nice to know that when they first came through!" He took a deep breath and prepared to be soaked once more.
In the Ordovician, Drew had just taken care of the scorpion nearest to him and began to move to the next one, whilst Leon was currently trying to get the swarm to stop crawling on him, saying "Get off me! Go and eat someone your own size!" He shook his leg, managing to dislodge one, however several more took its place, using him as a ladder in order to get at the bait barrel.
Over a period of twenty minutes, Drew was able to get all the scorpions on and near the table into the portal. Leon, however, was currently a Megalograptus ladder, as several swarmed over him to get at the fish carcasses. He yelled, "Drew! What the hell are you doing?! I need some help!"
In response, Drew rolled his eyes and moved towards Leon, managing to move some scorpions out of the way before grabbing the very item the Megalograptus had congregated to get; the Astraspis carcasses in the bait barrel. He grabbed the barrel and lifted it up above the scorpions. In response, they all began to follow him, almost moving as a single entity to get at the carcasses inside. After fighting several off, he emptied the barrel, sending the contents through the portal with the Megalograptus in hot pursuit, like seagulls after a French fry. Drew turned around and looked at Leon, who was currently dusting himself off from the sea scorpions which had clambered on him. He gave Drew a glare, "Do NOT tell Yolanda about this, understand?" Drew responded with a sigh and another eye roll.
Once the two returned through the portal, they were able to help Kyle and the others move the new arrivals to their new homes. It was decided, to save on space, that the Isotelus and the Astraspis could share a tank; they were both detritivores and did not pose any danger to each other. They were kept in a large tank which was made up to stimulate an Ordovician seabed; it was very sandy, and had lots of algae growing in it.
The Megalograptus had a significantly larger tank, full of rocks and coral. In order for them to mate and lay their eggs when they bred, there was a land area, sealed off with airtight doors and air similar to an Ordovician atmosphere. Grumpy was easy to recognize and was holed up in a small cave with a rock in the middle that had a small window in it, currently occupied hissing at everyone who was walking by.
The largest tank was home to the Cameroceras school. It was the largest thing that they'd ever built; the tank was so deep that the viewing windows were on two floors instead of a single floor. The tank was mainly empty except for a few rocks in order to stimulate an open ocean. The school had silently disappeared into the gloomy abyss as soon as they had been released, only emerging to eat some chum.
Meanwhile, at the Anomalocaris tank, it was feeding time once again. Uncharacteristically, Squishy was first; as soon as he saw the food being dropped, he swam hotly toward it, his swimming speed increased due to his improved condition and began to eat ravenously. However , it caught the attention of the other male Anomalocaris, who began to swim towards Squishy to take his food. Squishy ignored his advancing rival, until they were within feet of each other. The other male raised his appendages and swished his lobes in a threatening gesture. Suddenly, Squishy whipped around and, with deceptive speed, knocked the male in the chest, sending him spinning. Whilst he was distracted, Squishy swam round on his rival and, using his barbs, hooked into his head. Squishy began to pull on his rival's head, but he broke free and whipped around to face Squishy. However instead of fighting, he turned tail and backed off to a corner of the feeding area. Squishy cast an almost triumphant look at his retreating rival and began to feed. As he continued to feed, he suddenly saw the female Anomalocaris swim towards him. A keeper, watching the spectacle from above, threw some more fish guts into the tank. She gladly accepted the food and began to eat a short distance away from Squishy. The defeated second male, still keeping a safe distance, began to feed when his portion was thrown down by the keeper. Squishy cast an almost triumphant look; it had become abundantly clear that his days at bottom of the pecking order were over.
At his office Drew was looking at some papers Theodore had sent him, when he heard a knock. Not even looking up, he said, "Come in." He looked up as the door opened and Leon walked in. Leon, smiling at him, said "Hey, I was just wondering what the next animal we're saving is going to be. I just hope it's not going to be anything like those scorpions; I've seen enough of them to last a lifetime."
Drew smiled mischievously and lifted two papers, passing them to Leon. Leon looked at the most prominent of them and frowned. He looked back at Drew, who nodded, as if in confirmation. Leon, suddenly wearing an expression of shock , screamed at the top of his voice, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
Next time Drew and co try and rescue the first creatures to move on land.
(Some fish haul themselves out of the water onto a stretch of land)
But they'll have to be ready for a new generation of armoured arthropods
(Five giant scorpions advance towards Jack)
Including some of the largest of all time
(A scorpion grabs a smaller scorpion in its claws)
All next time on Prehistoric Earth: The First Steps
Animals rescued
Astraspis desiderata: 11 (6 males, 5 females)
Isotelus rex: 8 (4 males, 4 females)
Megalograptus alveolatus: 45 (15 males, 30 females)
Cameroceras trentonense: 5 (3 males, 2 females)
