Back in Prehistoric New Mexico, Nigel and co. are once again searching for dinosaurs.
Nigel has decided to take the opportunity to ask his newest recruit about his background.
"So, I hear you have family all over the world, right?"
"That," replies Tristan, " is an understatement. My mom came from China, but has family from Japan, Australia, India, Mongolia and Russia, while my dad has family from Spain, England, Germany, France, and the United States. He's part Apache and Navajo, too."
"Well, good to have someone with such colorful ancestry on the team." * "Anyway, what do you know about this place and the formations it overlies and is overlaid by?"
"Well, this is the Kirtland Formation, so were on rocks that sit above the fruitland formation, which has fossils of Parasaurolophus, Stegoceras, Pentaceratops, and some other hadrosaur, but most of the theropods their haven't been classified. As for the rocks that will be above this, those make up the Los Alamos Formation, where we would find the youngest sauropod, geologically speaking, in the United States: Alamosaurus, as well as T. rex."
"You know your paleontology well. So, what convinced you to come here?"
"Well, it was my dad, really. He mentioned this place, claimed it was a sanctuary for endangered species. Since I saw some elephants and Chinese alligators in the park, I assume that was half-true. I didn't expect to be working with dinosaurs, though."
"Eh, we've had to keep the park a secret. Too many prying eyes. By the way, do you know how we got funding for the park in the first place?"
"...Well, my dad mentioned that, when you founded this place, you had the backing of several private interest groups. My dad stuck on from the beginning, though: he was one of the guys who helped make the time portal."
"Yeah... wait, he told you that?"
"Yeah, he told me. Well, actually I stumbled upon it when a Frisbee came out of nowhere and almost hit me. Then, a few hours later, my dad asked me to test a machine he'd made. It made some kind of portal and he wanted me to throw a Frisbee through it. IT didn't take me long to figure out what was happening."
"Oh. So, did he tell you anything else?"
"Only that he had some help working on it. He said it involved some friends he knew who specialized in magnetics. One was a British guy with the last name Temple, the other was a Canadian software inventor named Cross. Don't remember much about either of them. Oh, and there were some other guys working on it too. The biggest one was some guy named Seeker. He was interested in using it for, well, what you are doing right now."
"Nice to know. So, do you mind if I tell you how we got the funding to start this place?"
"Go ahead."
"Well, you know the old Chased by Dinosaurs specials I did for Impossible Pictures, along with Sea Monsters?"
"Yeah, I saw all of them... Wait, are you saying those were real?"
"They were. And some of the creatures followed us home. That got everyone thinking, 'if we can save these animals from extinction without destroying the world, then why not save more?'. You see, the portal only opens up to alternate time lines, so we don't have to worry too much about altering out own."
"Only alternate ones?"
"We had a bunch of guys go through the portal and do things that would change history: introducing the Bessemer process earlier, introducing the Aztecs to vaccinations, and, since very one thinks about it, removing fascist leaders from power, especially those from the 1900s. When they got back, nothing changed. So once we realized that we could mess with these timelines without recreating A Sound of Thunder, well, the choice became clear: we were going to build an extinct sanctuary."
"Cool. But how did you find an island big enough for the park? I mean, Prehsitoric Park's map makes it look continent sized."
"The portal helped us with that. You see, it turns out that the portal could open to the island the park is on. When we found it, we decided to use it for the Park. There were some natives, but the left willingly. We're still confused by that."
"Okay, ok, I get all of this, but how did you actually get the money for the park?"
"We held a meeting and invited some of the richest people in the world to come, along with wildlife charities. There, I showed them the time portal and used it to bring back a herd of quagga. Then, me and the rest of the park's founders made an offer: since we one day planned to return some of these animals to the wild, we said that anyone who funded the park would have their name put on a memorial plaque in the park and also be offered any funds obtained from secondary uses of rescued plants. Say an extinct plant hat we save has special medical uses. Anyone who funded the park would have exclusive rights to use it. It's for this reason that we bring back so many extinct plants. Of course, we didn't use this pitch for the charities; they didn't need it. For them, it was a chance to right the wrongs we have done to nature."
"Nice."
"Indeed. But that was in the past that we won't return to. Now, let's focus on the mission on hand and find some animals."
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Back at the Park, Suzanne is breaking in the new vets at the oviraptorid exhibits. For the past few days, the Anzu the park brought back from the first mission have started acting oddly. They've been digging up mounds and sitting on them. Suzanne thinks that they are building nests.
To test this, the head vet has asked her trainees to help her examine the mounds. Mainly, this is so she has warning of any angry parents. While they can deal with a brooding dinosaur on its own, its mate is a different story.
As they approach the mounds, three of the females honk and caw at the humans, trying to scare them off. The new cets are cautious about their new charges, but refuse to back down.
The cawing does, however, allow Susan to examine the fourth mound, as the mother has been forced to leave for a drink.
Inside, she finds her hopes confirmed: within the mound are three cylindrical eggs.
"It looks like our breeding program has had another success."
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Meanwhile, Bob is dealing with the new general keepers at T. rex Hill.
"Now, pay attention. The dinosaurs inside this enclosure are the most powerful land predator to ever live, at least in terms of bite force. These fellers would eat in one or two bites if they were hungry enough. Now, fortunately, they've stopped seeing is as good, but it's still important to make sure that the exhibit entrance is secure, otherwise they might try to eat the other residents."
Bob then demonstrates how to open and close the gates on the hill. They have a padlock, a lever locking mechanism, and, as an precaution, magnetic locks. Once he's finished, he takes his group around to see the titanosaurs.
The minute he leaves, Terence arrives. As he examines the gate, he nudges it, causing something to fall lose.
It's the padlock. Although Bob he secured it, he didn't do so strongly enough to keep it on. The tyrannosaur, noticing this, carefully works to activate the lever lock on his side of the fence. Having watched the keepers do so many times, this is easy for him.
Once he is on the other side, Terence closes the gate and puts the lever back in place. Then, for added safety, he moves a rock in front of the gate. He will take no chances letting Matilda attack him again.
Once he feels safe, he takes in a good breath through his nose, and begins wandering the park. With so many unfamiliar scents, he wants to go out and explore the world.
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Meanwhile, Nigel and co. have arrived at a river. There, they decide to set up camp. If they wait here, the animals will eventually come to them.
Before they can get settled in, however, they are startled by the arrival of a group of pterosaurs. They are rather small for pterosaurs, but are still large for flying animals. Their bodes are covered in back fur, except the necks and wings, which are white, and their heads, which are red, yellow and blue.
As the group stares on, the pterosaurs begin wading in the water, searching for fish.
"Navajodactylus," remarks Tristan.
"Bingo," answers Nigel.
AS the group stares on at the giant flyers, Nigel and Tristan already have their minds set on what they want to do: rescue the pterosaurs.
Tristan begins setting up the time portal while Nigel takes out a small, cooled container filled with fish. While Tristan readies the portal, Nigel gets one of the pterosaurs' attention and offers it the fish. Hunger overrides caution and the giant flyer follows. As it approach, the portal comes to life. Nigel throws some of the fish through the portal, the sudden appearance of which spooks the pterosaur that he was guiding. However, the need for food soon outweighs fear and the pterosaur heads through the portal.
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On the other side of the portal, the pterosaur enjoys a fish meal. It soon calls out to its fellows, who follow it through the portal.
It seems that this may be Nigel's easiest mission since the quagga.
... I just said that out loud, didn't I?
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AN: Well, this is finished.
* Don't you dare make a racist remark about that line.
Anyways, here's the things I want explained to everyone:
1. The info dump was mostly because I wanted that stuff out of the way ASAP. I will actually make a prologue chapter to explain what happened at the meeting Nigel mentioned.
2. The three main guys I mentioned as helping Tristan's father should probably be familiar to impossible pictures fans. At least, two of them should. If you can correctly guess who they are, I'll be impressed.
Read and review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.
