Chapter 6: Redivivus
Anonymous, Wakan Roei Shu 228:
The autumn bush clover blooming
In the deserted fields of Iware
Where the young quail sings—
Today I remember
How I saw this with my beloved.
They arrived at the lab shortly before the mysterious remains from the mine explosion did. Walter, as usual, made a show of ignoring Peter and addressed all his comments to Olivia.
"I've looked at the preliminary results of the genetic tests. They are fascinating," he said.
"Any idea what that thing was?" Olivia asked.
"An idea, yes. But I'll keep it to myself until I have a chance to confirm it with my own examination. But if my hypothesis is correct, it's not from here. And it's not from Over There, either."
"So you think it came from another dimension, a third dimension?"
"Or outer space," Peter suggested jokingly.
When the chunk of unidentifiable flesh arrived, packed in ice in a crate, Walter and Astrid lifted it onto an examination table. Walter started out by examining a tissue sample under a microscope.
"I don't think there are any bones in this," Astrid said as she turned the chunk.
"What does that mean?" Olivia wondered.
"That whatever this chunk of meat came off of, it used to be really big," said Peter.
"I believe my conjecture was correct; this musculature bears resemblance to both reptilian and avian forms."
Astrid had just run an x-ray over the remains and was looking at the resulting image. Her eyes widened and her eyebrows rose. It was hard to tell under the surgical mask, but her jaw may also have dropped. "Walter, I think you should take a look at this."
Walter hurried to her side. When he saw what she saw, he grinned. "This is even better. From this we can even identify the species."
"What is it?" Olivia asked.
Instead of answering, Walter took a scalpel and cut into the meat. When the scalpel hit something, he slid his hand into the slice. It emerged a moment later with what looked like a large tooth. A very large, very pointy tooth.
"My God," Peter said. "That's a dinosaur tooth."
"Yes," Walter answered, in his excitement forgetting his policy of ostracizing the man who reminded him of his son. "My guess is a dromaeosaurid, from the size possibly a Utahraptor."
"So this thing," Olivia pointed to the remains on the table, "was a Utahraptor?"
"Heavens no. By the looks of it, this was some kind of sauropod. But at some point it survived an attack from a Utahraptor, escaping with a tooth from the predator embedded in the flesh of its hip."
Olivia stared at the tooth as Walter dabbed it clean of blood. It was shiny and yellow, like ivory. "It doesn't look like a dinosaur tooth."
"Not like the ones you may be familiar with. This one isn't fossilized. It's fresh. From the amount of healing in the tissue around it, it most likely was lost by its owner no more than a few months ago."
"But dinosaurs are extinct," Olivia stated.
Peter smiled. "Apparently not in the universe this came from."
"But why is it here?" Olivia asked. "Why would our universe be colliding with this one? No one's ever crossed over to an alternate dimension with dinosaurs before."
"That we know of," Walter reminded her.
"It could be because of me," Peter speculated dismally. "When I came to this dimension, who knows what kind of inter-dimensional chaos that could be causing."
"Yes," Walter agreed absently. "But what we really must determine is if incidences of this kind will continue. Perhaps we will need to create a bridge to anchor us to that dimension as well."
"If our universe keeps bumping in to other universes, and we keep building connections to fix it, that could really get out of hand," Astrid commented.
"Still, dinosaurs," said Peter. "You have to admit, it would be cool to go there."
Astrid gave him a dubious look.
Peter chuckled, then turned to Walter. "Could there be a way to learn more about the universe that came from by examining the rocks in the mine?"
Walter turned away sharply, apparently offended at having Peter address him so directly. "I don't see how. Even if the rocks contain radiation proving they did cross universes, it would tell us very little about how or from where!"
"Just thought I'd ask," Peter said quietly.
Olivia gave him a sympathetic look. "Still, It might help to take a look at the scene ourselves. I'll see if I can get approval for a little road trip."
Peter looked down at the dinosaur tooth, now lying in a dish on the table. If they could learn more about traveling between other dimensions, other than the parallel earth so close to theirs they'd nearly collided, maybe it could help him get back to where he belonged.
Between that and dinosaurs, this case had definitely caught his interest.