Leaving the Utahraptors, Jack and Collete got into a Jeep and headed to the China section, near the gate of the Borealosaurus paddock, which they noticed was wide open. There, they were met by Nikolai and Steve Woodward, the inspector. On the ground laid a multitude of large footprints, leading from the paddock gate to a nearby forest.
Jack turned to Nikolai and asked, "What happened?" Nikolai explained, "About half an hour ago, the door to the Borealosaurus paddock somehow opened, entirely by itself. We managed to get it closed, but not before the entire herd wandered out of the gate, presumably searching for food. We need to track them down and bring them back before they cause any damage."
Jack looked at the tracks and said, "Echoes of the Coelophysis incident a bit, doesn't it?" Nikolai nodded; he remembered the incident well. On the Jurassic mission, several of the Coelophysis had escaped due to a similar locking accident; it had taken him and Kyle hours to find them all. Jack continued, "Well, finding them isn't the problem; we can just follow these. We can track them down and get 'em back." Nikolai nodded, "It's a minor matter." Jack turned to Woodward and said, "Want to come along? You were looking for potential problems; don't you want to see how we solve them?"
Following the tracks in a Jeep, Jack, Collete, Nikolai and Woodward eventually found the ten giant sauropods, peacefully browsing in a forest clearing. Jack looked at the giants and said, "Well, that's finding them done. Now, how are we going to get this lot back to their enclosure?" Collete was the first to speak, "We could use the horn to shepherd them back." Nikolai shook his head, "It might agitate them and cause a stampede, which is the last thing we want." Jack suggested, "We could ask Leon if we could borrow his allosaurs and have them herd the titanosaurs back." In response to that statement, Collete gave a snort, and Nikolai shook his head, "That was the first thing I considered; however, he says he's not ready for them to be used yet. He needs to do some more training with them before he can convince them to not try and eat the animals he'll send them after." Collete sighed, "So we're stumped then." Jack smiled at her, "Not necessarily…"
Meanwhile, back in Cretaceous Antarctica, Drew and Cynthia were sitting around their camp. The Muttuburrasaurus were browsing on the trees nearby, whilst several Leaellynasaura were scampering around their feet, picking off their leftovers. In several pet carriers around the camp were some of the small mammals, which they'd identified as Steropodon. They would be transported back to the park when the portal started working. However, there was something else they needed to talk about…
It was Cynthia who spoke first, "About what happened last night… Are we…", she trailed off, "you know, a thing now?". Drew shrugged, "If you want us to be. I'm fine with it." They paused; it wasn't really what they'd been expecting. It was Cynthia who spoke, "Seems awfully anticlimactic, doesn't it?" Drew raised his eyebrow curiously, "Yeah; anticlimactic, awkward, rushed… sounds like a match made in heaven."
Changing the subject, Drew went, "Anyway, I'm going to check the portal; maybe it was just a minor thing and it's cooled down now." Cynthia shrugged, "Yeah, it's not like we're in a rush." However, unbeknownst to them, an Australovenator was lurking in the bushes, waiting for the moment to strike.
Meanwhile, back at the park, the Borealosaurus herd were on the move. They were accompanied by four park Jeeps, corralling the herd; Nikolai and Woodward were in one, whilst Jack and Collete were in another. Jack sat in the passenger seat in the jeep at the left, as Collete drove to keep pace with the herd; it was Jack who had suggested using the Jeeps to herd them back to their paddock. Jack noticed a younger female breaking off from the herd, "That one's breaking off." Collete nodded and moved the Jeep in the animal's direction, herding it back to its companions. Eventually, the herd were returned to their paddock and the gate was closed behind them.
After the gate had closed, Jack jumped out of the Jeep and walked up to Nikolai and Woodward, beaming, "Sorted!" Nikolai gave him a look, "Not yet. We still have to figure out how this happened. You and Collete can head to the portal site; Drew hasn't been in contact and we want to know why. Woodward and I will look at the door." Jack and Collete nodded and turned to head to the portal site; however, Woodward took them to one side and said, "That was, without a doubt, the most exciting inspection I've ever done." Jack smiled at that.
After Jack and Collete had left, Nikolai and Woodward headed to the paddock door. Woodward asked Nikolai, "What could have happened? A technical malfunction would affect several of the paddocks; not just one. It could be human error…" At this, Nikolai shook his head, "No. The locks work automatically. The lock could be faulty; this happened with the Coelophysis paddock." Woodward nodded; Theodore had briefed him about that incident before he'd arrived. The two theories they'd had were now invalidated; maybe a closer look at the door would help them solve it…
As they both entered the room, the first thing they noticed was a tablet attached to the locking system. They both looked at each other; this opened up a whole new can of worms. Approaching it, Nikolai switched it on; to his surprise, it required no passcode. Whoever planted must have assumed it wouldn't have been found. Looking at the screen, his eyes widened in shock, "I don't think that this was an accident." As Woodward looked at him curiously, Nikolai elaborated, "This is remotely linked to the park computer terminal and sets a shutdown timer on the lock." Woodward's eyes widened, "This wasn't an accident; this was engineered." Nikolai nodded, "I do hope this isn't going to impact the report you'll give us." Woodward shook his head, "No; everything else was perfect. I'll have to put the incident down, but I'll tell Theodore your suspicions; and I'll enquire about any potential leads."
Drew stealithily walked up to the two groups of ornithopod and got ready to lift the portal remote. As his finger lingered over the button, he thought, "Here goes nothing" …
Suddenly, an Australovenator burst out of the clearing and tore towards the herd; shortly after a second followed it. The Muttuburrasaurus and Leaellynasaura tore in the same direction, moving as if a single unified entity. Drew, trusting to luck, lifted the portal remote and pressed the button. After a couple of seconds, the portal whirred into life and the herd stampeded into it, moving as if a single entity. Drew cheered, "Yeah!"
Not all the Leaellynasaura made it, though.
An Australovenator bore down on an individual that had gotten lost in the chaos, grabbed it and, with one flick of its neck, killed it. It barely had time to regard its meal before the second barrelled into it and the two started roaring at each other. As the two theropods fought, Drew noticed that the dead ornithopod had tumbled to the floor; using a grabbing tool, he grabbed the carcass and began to pull it away from the two theropods. Noticing someone was trying to take their meat, the two theropods turned to Drew and roared at him. Their animosity forgotten, they both charged at Drew. Drew ran, still carrying the carcass, towards Cynthia.
Once the Australovenator had gotten close enough, he yelled "Now!" and she activated the portal. Drew dived out of the way, just as the two theropods charged through, into the present. At this success, Drew smirked, "Ole." Turning to Cynthia, he nodded and said, "Get the Steropodon; it's time we headed home." After they had retrieved the Steropodon, they smiled at each other and walked through the portal, closing it once they had reached the park.
Once the portal had been shut down, Jack walked up to Drew and Cynthia and beamed, "Welcome back, fearless leader!" Drew looked curiously at him, "Anything happen while we were gone?" Jack, still smiling, said, "Oh, you know, the usual. Good things and bad." As he said this, he turned to look at Collete, who smiled back, "Mostly good." Drew gave him a quizzical look; was there something Jack wasn't telling them? Throwing all caution to the wind, he asked, "Something big happen?" Jack shrugged, "Kind of."
Jack filled them in on the inspection, Xingcun's integration into the Mei long group and the Borealosaurus escape. After Jack had finished, Cynthia gave him a look and said, somewhat enigmatically, "I misjudged you", before walking off with Drew. Jack gave a curious look, "What's all that about?" Collete shrugged, "Who knows?"
Soon all the Early Cretaceous Antarctic creatures were all transferred to their new homes. The Steropodon were kept in a small indoor pen in Discovery Outpost. They were currently exploring their new home, rooting for food in the leaf litter.
All the other animals had been moved to a new section in Mesozoic Tropics. The Australovenator pair had been provided a small forest area to roam about in. They were currently napping in the sun, waiting for their next meal to arrive. The Koolasuchus had been provided with a large river area to swim in. They were all swimming around their new home, waiting for their next meal.
The largest enclosure contained the Muttuburrasaurus herd and the Leaellynasaura, who were now roaming their new forested home, browsing from the trees and bushes.
Meanwhile, Xingcun lay beside his new adoptive parents, sleeping through the night; he slept peacefully, a small part of him happy to be part of a family once again. The breeding season would soon arrive, and he would have to compete for their attention with a gaggle of younger "siblings", but for now he had their undivided attention.
And Jack Denham and Collete Dubois were meeting up in the park bar for a "friendly" drink. As they sat, Jack was telling Collete an anecdote, "And then he got his head stuck in the cup!" Collete laughed uproariously, "That's so funny! You know, I'm having a wonderful time tonight." Jack smiled at her and said, "Me too." He paused, "Today was a good day; we got a lonely little dinosaur a new family, we stopped an escape and we passed a safety audit. I don't want to tempt fate, but things are looking up." Jack briefly lifted his glass and said, "Y'know, I propose a toast; to surprises." Colllete lifted her glass in response and smiled at him, "To surprises."
All was as it should have been at Prehistoric Earth.
Next time on Prehistoric Earth
The team go back to Cretaceous Mongolia
(A small theropod runs through a desert)
To rescue one of the most bizzare dinosaurs ever
(A large, herbivorous dinosaur with long claws on its arms bellows at them)
Meanwhile, back at the park, the staff attempt to find two baby dinosaurs a new home
(An adult Allosaurus sniffs two juveniles.
All next time on Prehistoric Earth: Storm In The Desert!
Meanwhile…
Nikolai Koshkin walked down the hallway to his office. He recapped the events of the day in his mind; the Borealosaurus escape still weighed on his mind. Whilst the sauropods had been quickly rounded up and returned to their paddocks, there had been something suspicious about the turn of events. The similarity to the Coelophysis incident had been uncanny – and Nikolai believed coincidence had no place in a rational person's mind.
Thankfully, Woodward had given them a clean safety bill – it appeared he shared Nikolai's convictions about the root cause of the Borealosaurus incident. This had not been some accident; this had been engineered. Someone had remotely hacked one of the park's computers and attached a shutdown timer to the door lock on the Borealosaurus paddock in order to deactivate the door lock – to what aim Nikolai still could not figure out
Was it an attempt at sabotage by some external force? Some disgruntled employee who was plotting a mutiny and needed an inciting incident? Something in between? Options swarmed in Nikolai's head; any possible option was on the cards.
Nikolai had kept the timer and placed it in his office; he could not inform Drew without any sort of evidence that the escape had, in fact, been sabotage. Otherwise, Drew would make a few snide comments about his being paranoid. However, maybe Drew would take this matter seriously; after all, there was evidence…
Nikolai opened the door to his office. Immediately, something wasn't right.
Everything seemed to be exactly as he had left it; his memo about the safety audit lay half-finished, exactly as it had been when he had left and the mission report and other memos in the office had remained untouched. At first sight, there seemed to be no indication that someone had entered his office; however, there was an indicator. Scanning the office, he quickly realised what had happened…
The timer was gone! Nikolai had placed the timer on an exact spot on his desk, to show to Drew that the incident had been more than a mere systems failure; something more than a little accident. However, whilst he was out, someone had come in and taken it.
What the hell was happening?
Animals rescued:
Leaellynasaura amicagraphica: 21 (8 males, 13 females)
Australovenator wintonensis: 2 (1 male, 1 female)
Muttaburrasaurus langdoni: 16 (9 males, 7 females)
Koolasuchus cleelandi: 3 (1 male, 2 females)
Steropodon galmani: 5 (3 males, 2 females)
