Chapter 9

Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™.

Note: contains spoilers for the official series.

It was lunchtime, and the ARC field team were having one in the ARC's cafeteria, trying to have a civil conversation. So far what they had was undoubtedly mixed.

"All right, so I can understand how sound was able to disarm these predators, in a manner of speaking," Jess was telling Becker, "what I can't understand, is why the extreme prejudice in putting them down? After all, they're just animals, aren't they?"

"They're not," Matt answered instead, sounding fully serious. "They appeared sometime between this time and mine, and they helped in bringing down the civilization as humanity knew it. They are vicious, but they are intelligent, and can even co-operate when hunting."

"What do you mean, 'even'? Whenever the ARC had encountered them in the past, they always co-operated," Becker asked, inquiringly.

"Really?" Matt said thoughtfully. "Then they must've come from earlier time periods than mine."

Before any of the others could ask about the other time periods in a greater detail, April Leonard – riding a wheelchair – made her appearance.

"When I asked Lester's assistant to bring me down, I didn't mean specifically here," she said crossly to no one in particular. "Hi again, Connor, and how's your new tortoise doing?"

Now that caught everyone's attention and was an ice-breaker even if it wasn't intended as one?"

"What new tortoise?" Jess asked, curiously.

"A really ancient one that came here through a local time anomaly from the Triassic, Connor said," April explained helpfully. "It's about a meter long, actually still has some weak teeth in its jaws, and an almost dragon-like tail. Isn't it right, Connor? Oh, and Lester had sat on it without any ill effects to the reptile – I'm talking about the tortoise."

"That is correct!" Connor said almost brightly, "even the part about Mr. Lester sitting on it. Apparently, it had crawled in while he was taking care of the arboreal raptor and nobody had noticed it, until it was too late."

"Poor Lester," Emily sighed. "He really doesn't deserve this. Speaking of Lester and the undeserving – what is going to happen now? Earlier... it was explained to me that the ARC and Prospero™ were working together because of the minister's will. With Burton gone, what's going to happen now?"

"We're going to do our best to keep Prospero™ afloat," April replied, all traces of humour gone from her face now. "Hopefully, between Connor's scientific knowledge, and my managing skills, we'll be able to bluff Lester's superiors long enough for Lester to do whatever he's planning instead. Otherwise, we're all sunk, no matter what our initial alliances were." She paused and added. "I never dreamed that this was going to result in this."

"Yes, well," Matt for once was at loss for words. "It's not your fault."

April looked at Connor. "You didn't tell them, did you?"

"No," Connor admitted. "I just didn't think that it was the right time, what with them running into future predators once again and all."

"More carnivorous insects from the future? Great!" April said sarcastically.

"What is she talking about?" Becker said, much colder than before.

"She, ah, didn't see the video feed – she was too busy arguing with Lester about administrative matters," Connor said quickly. "April, uh, in the ARC's professional jargon, the future predators are mammals that possess, well, this sort of tooth." (He pulled out a tooth that Becker gave him as one of the trophies from the run-in at the zoo.) "They're definitely not insects, see?"

April took almost 10 minutes to stare are the tooth. "Creatures, creatures with such teeth are here? Oh, Dr. Burton, what have we done?"

"Almost destroyed the world?" Becker said in a neutral tone.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this! I assumed that Dr. Burton had figured out that by closing the other time anomalies, the animals that came through them would vanish or something. After all, it's all in the physics – only the time anomalies themselves allow these animals to exist here, right?"

"Remind me, where did Dr. Burton get his PhD, in what field of science?" Becker asked no one in particular.

"In physics, engineering and robotics," April replied. "Why?"

"Oh," Becker blinked. "Didn't see this one coming. April, uh, the time anomalies don't work that way at all: once the animals come through it, they stay here, unless they go through a time anomaly, whether an original one or not."

April stared. "Then why didn't you tell him that?" she asked the field team. "Dr. Burton was a good man, he would've understood."

There was a pause as everyone thought about it. "Well, don't look at us," Becker finally shrugged. "Jess was back at the ARC, helping Lester defend it from dinosaurs and what-not, and I was leading the charge to drag a very reluctant and angry T-Rex through the time anomaly through which it had initially come. Matt?"

"...I didn't think that would work," Matt confessed after a silence that clearly indicated that he had not thought about this at all. "I only had written files about him, that's all."

"I see," April said bitterly. "Did they say that Philip was a good man that didn't deserve to die? I, for one, had honestly believed that his life was going to get better: that horrible Johnson woman was gone, he was going to be knighted, and my ploy to keep him happy and confident was working-"

"Wait, Johnson? Christine Johnson?" Becker asked, quickly. "What about her?"

"Well, when I first came to work for Philip, he was constantly dominated by that horrible woman," April said flatly. "I mean, Philip was a great man, but he was a bit intimidated by women, especially women as arrogant as that Johnson. She was driving him into the ground and preventing his genius from flourishing. He needed some help. I thought it out, and discovered that there were only two people who could stand – more-or-less – to her: James Lester and Helen Cutter. Philip needed some female presence in his life, so I chose Helen Cutter. I created a CGI image of her, downloaded several motivational speeches, and introduced them to each other, as a matter of speaking. It was very successful, and – why are you looking at me like that?"

"You created a CGI version of Helen Cutter," Becker told her flatly, "and," he switched to Connor, "knew that."

"Yes," Connor nodded guiltily. "Me and Lester found out after we went and encountered Ethan."

"I thought that he told you already," added April.

"I wanted to, but after the future predators it seemed too much," Connor confessed.

"Couldn't you have used the tortoise incident to break the mood?"

"Well-"

"Stop," Emily wedged into April and Connor's discussion. "April, we're not angry at you being so good at deception, but if we're going to be friends, this has got to stop?"

"Are we going to be friends?" April replied, quietly. "It's not necessary-"

"Yes," Emily said flatly. "This whole situation happened in part because we all took sides, kept secrets from each other and so on. This has got to change."

"I see – I'll think about it," April said in a small voice before falling completely silent.

As silence stretched, Jess decided to break it by pointing upwards. "Hey, is it Rex?" she asked suddenly.

Everyone looked there, and sure enough, there was Rex, flying around, once more free from his container.

"Let's get him?" Jess suggested and the chase was on.

End chapter 9