For the want of a minus – part 2
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™.
-5-
"Lester," Connor said, miserably. "Why are you here, exactly?"
"I was curious, how you were doing here and wanted to see how you were managing the aspects of your project that weren't connected to the dinosaurs," Lester admitted. "Apparently, not so well, eh?"
"Yes, you're right," Connor said in the same glum tone, "well... almost. There're some initial problems, but we're dealing with them, as soon as we have finished talking to you."
"Oh, don't let me detain you, then," Lester said smugly. "Mr. Temple, impress me!"
"You're on, you bastard!" snapped Connor. He walked over to the control panel of the time anomaly manifestation device and began to quickly type a sequence of command.
"Connor, wait!" Abby shouted, but it was too late, as the manifested time anomaly shimmered and opened in a totally new time and place.
-6-
"Well," Becker spoke after several minutes when nothing organic or inorganic came through, "at least the new time anomaly hasn't manifested anywhere underwater, it seems. This leaves only the dry land-"
"Or high in the sky," Helen said wryly. "I've seen them there too, once or twice. Still, captain, the odds do seem to be in your favour – I mean Mr. Temple's favour..."
"That's great," Connor said coolly, as he walked forwards to the time anomaly again, "for I intend to explore whatever it is that lies on the other side, whether prehistoric or futuristic. I have had enough!"
"Had had enough of what, Connor?" Abby asked, but Connor didn't listen. He set his teeth, indicated to Becker to follow him through the time anomaly, and went through it himself.
As Becker quietly complied, Helen and Abby exchanged thoughtful looks and followed them as well.
-7-
"Well, I'll give you that, this doesn't look like the place we've been to just moment before, anymore," Becker told Connor as the two men exited the time anomaly on the other side. "Plus, I don't know, but those shrubs over there look quite prehistoric to me, you know?"
"That's – that's because they are," Helen appeared behind the two men. "We are in the past – 155 million years ago in the past, to be precise."
"Now how – how do you know that?" Connor asked, curious. Never before Helen seemed to be so volunteering before, or looked so flustered. "Have you been here before?"
"Yes! For – for a very long time... stranded might be the better word," Helen replied, "and had seen this time's more... iconic inhabitants very thoroughly. "For example, the two dinosaurs that look at us from those trees behind us are allosaurs, I believe."
There was a pause, as the others looked in that direction. Sure enough, a pair of dinosaurs, clearly of the meat-eating variety, was lying languidly on the ground, showing a noticeable lack of interest.
Becker noticed it first, even as he cocked his gun. "Why aren't they charging?" he asked no one in particular.
"For the same reason we don't charge at chipmunks," Helen said. "We're too small to be worthwhile for them, basically."
"Really?" Becker was sceptical.
"Well, not us specifically, but the dinosaurs that are roughly of our size," Helen specified.
"Oh yeah, I see them," Connor nodded emphatically, pointing in the direction slightly opposite to the lounging allosaurs. "I think that they are dryosaurs or maybe othnelia..."
Connor's voice trailed away as the little (well, relatively little – they were actually as big as humans, only shaped differently) dinosaurs scattered away, revealing a much bigger reptile. "A stegosaurus!" Connor whispered. "We are in the Jurassic!"
-8-
For some time more there was just more silence, as several underlings of Connor and Becker appeared through the time anomaly, some keeping an eye on the allosaurs, the others - on the browsing stegosaurus. "I don't get it," Abby carefully whispered to Helen while Connor had a very private moment staring at the nonchalant stegosaur and the much smaller herbivores that followed in its wake, eating up its scraps. "Why aren't the carnivores charging it?"
"You mean, besides the obvious?" Becker pointed out wryly, pointing with the barrel of his weapon at the four long spikes that studded the end of the stegosaurus's tail. "I bet that even a T-Rex wouldn't want to be whacked with that!"
"Captain, T-Rex hasn't evolved yet; the allosaurs behind us are the closest thing that came close to it in this time," Connor finally regained enough of his senses to rejoin the conversation. "But yes, you're right – even they wouldn't want to be hit with that-"
Abruptly, another stegosaurus appeared in the shrubs, trampling them under its elephant-like feet. It was somewhat bigger and darker than the first one, too."
"Ah, there we go," Helen said thoughtfully. "The local patriarch, I think."
Connor opened his mouth to enquire as to how Helen knew that, when the first stegosaurus approached the new arrival and began to make soft, rumbling sounds, even as the two reptiles groomed each other with their beaks. "Stegosaurs live in small family groups or herds, what will you," Helen shrugged, as the two armoured giants went deeper into the shrubbery, where they were lost from sight. "The bull stegosaurs, such as this one, can kill allosaurs – I've seen that happen, and the allosaurs know this. They won't attack a stegosaurus...and speaking of allosaurs – what our 'friends' behind us are doing?"
"Oh, they got up and left some time ago," Abby replied. "I've been keeping an eye on them meanwhile. They seem to be going towards the wood down there."
"Hmm?" Connor said excitedly. "Let me see... Hey, there's at least another one of their kind, maybe two more, they seem to be gathering... there's a small herd of sauropods down there as well!"
As Connor exclaimed these words, something rustled in the shrubs where the two stegosaurs and the small herbivores that accompanied them, had retreated to. Only it wasn't either of these species. Before the eyes of Becker and other people, another carnivore appeared on the scene – probably twice as small as an allosaurus, much more brightly coloured, and with a horn on its nose. The blood that was dripping of its teeth and jaws was quite disturbing as well.
"Not one of those," Becker heard Helen groan behind him. "Captain, when I tell you to, either grab Connor Temple and run, or-"
Helen didn't finish. A second horned carnivore emerged slightly behind the first, still holding the remains of one of the man-sized plant-eating dinosaurs. A single gulp, and it was gone, and the two stared at the gathered people in a manner quite unlike of the bigger allosaurs.
Becker shivered, despite himself. The two allosaurs that they've met earlier in the day had looked at them with a clear lack of interest, kind of that he would give if he'd met a squirrel during the modern times. But these ones were looking quite, quite interested, and the brains in their heads were clearly doing some calculations.
More subtly than he intended to, Becker shifted the grip on his weapon, ready to open fire as soon as the carnivores rushed them. But then, abruptly, the dinosaurs' stance shifted and they began to pay more attention what happened downwind, in the direction where the allosaurs had went, earlier. And then, even more abruptly, the smaller meat eaters were off, running in that direction as well.
Becker released a breath that he didn't know he was holding.
"Well! We got off lucky!" Helen Cutter declared.
-9-
"What were those things?" Becker declared when it became obvious that the second pair of carnivores wasn't coming back.
"Ceratosaurs," Connor answered. "They're smaller than allosaurs, they specialize in smaller prey-"
"Prey that is much closer to our size as opposed to the giants that the allosaurs eat," Helen cut him off. "Plus, they're much more smaller and manoeuvrable than the other guys – while we can outmanoeuvre the allosaurs quite easily, these ones will run and eat us, or at least do their best to succeed."
"Spoken from personal experience, eh?" Becker asked.
"Oh yes," Helen nodded and fell silent.
"Well!" Abby spoke up, when it became obvious that the older woman wouldn't speak up. "It's getting dark here, so why don't we do something?"
Connor blinked. "Yeah, yeah it is. We've been here what? Thirty minutes, tops, and-"
"It's the lowlands, I suppose," Abby explained. "Well, very flat lands put otherwise. The sun shines here almost constantly, until it touches the tree tops, and then it becomes dark almost immediately. So... what are we going to do?"
"We're going back," Connor sighed. "Hopefully, we've recorded enough information to have made this trip worthwhile-"
A loud, eerie scream cut Connor off in the middle of the sentence. "That's the female stegosaurus – apparently it's the breeding season," Helen spoke, more wryly than expected. "And, before anyone suggests that we go and check them out, I have to tell you, that in this mood they will slam us with their tails first... and that's it."
Connor Temple closed his mouth, hard. "Good!" Becker said, almost gratefully. "People, prepare to make camp!"
-10-
It was dark, soon. Several shapes lounged around the border perimeter of the camp, but didn't attempt to come any closer. The stegosaurs had quieted down and no longer were as loud. An occasionally draft of wind brought faint whiffs of blood and meat – the carnivores did bring down a sauropod or lost one of their numbers to them instead. The Jurassic was proving to be a very interesting place indeed. 'I wonder what the tomorrow will bring us?' Abby thought, as she fell asleep in her tent.
To be continued...