Chapter Four

(We got incoming!) I yelled to Jason and Menderash.

It had been less than 24 hours. We had had introduced Menderash to George and Martha, our 'pet' Deinonychus, and Menderash had acquired George.

We had shown Menderash the busted Dracon Beam and he had set about fixing it, while Erica had tackled the problem of the old computer and the other two domes.

But now our first deadline had come. The first (technically second) piece of the One ship was about to come crashing into the plateau. And we had to be there to ensure that the virus didn't escape into the general population of the planet.

I was a pteranodon, circling the skies, providing an aerial lookout.

Down below, Menderash and Jason were Deinonychus, powerful fast moving dromaeosaurs. We weren't precisely sure where the ship would come down, so I was in the sky, and they were on the ground in the fastest morphs we had.

And the ship piece was falling fast…Faster than I could fly, though thankfully, I was not in it's path. It careened across the sky and slammed into a small lake, the heat instantly vaporizing the lake water.

(Quarantine will be easier this time, I think,) I said. (It's not in a dense forest…It crashed into a dried up lake bed. Of course it is what dried up the lake bed.)

(We're here, we see it,) Jason said. (Any sign of the One?)

(Not yet,) I called.

(Anything that it could potentially infect?)

(Yeah,) I said. (A pair of dinosaurs that had been drinking by the lake. They look sort of…Sort of like tanks, really. Or spikey turtles. Armored shells, with spikes.)

(Sounds like an Ankylosaur of some—Ah, I see them,) Jason said. (Looks like…Gargoyleosaurus I think. An early member of the Ankylosaur family.)

(They don't seem to be in much of a hurry,) I said.

(They're tanks. Their armor is virtually impenetrable. They have no reason to hurry. They have almost no predators.)

(Their only vulnerable spot is their soft underbellies.) Jason said. (A predator would have to flip them over to get at those underbellies. These guys aren't in a hurry because they know nothing can mess with them.)

(Except maybe an alien virus,) I said. (How can we get them to move?)

Jason and Menderash had resumed human form below, and were approaching the Gargoyleosaurs.

Jason placed a hand on one of their heads, and Menderash the other.

(What are you doing? We're trying to scare them away…If you acquire them, then they go into a trance,) I said.

"Yeah," Jason yelled at me. "And that trance can be a lot like hypnosis. I'm sort of hoping that by putting them in the trance…I can…Steer them. Like they were hypnotized. Sort of…Suggest them to get out of here."

(You really think that will work?) I asked.

"I have no better ideas," he said, as the pair of them gently nudged the Gargoyleosauruses towards the treeline. To my surprise, the Gargoyleosauruses followed the nudge. Two huge, car-sized lumbering tanks…Being lead by a pair of humans.

Satisfied that the dinosaurs were heading well away from the crash site, Jason and Menderash broke contact with the dinosaurs, and prepared to change morphs.

I folded my wings and dove down, landing beside them.

"You know it's funny," Jason said as I finished the demorph.

"What?" I asked.

"When we left, I considered your wolf and my alligator to be our 'combat morphs'," He said. "But here we are about to go into combat…And the morphs we have are so very different."

I shrugged. "Well you didn't figure on us being Dinomorphs, so that's the reason, right there."

I focused my mind on my true 'combat morph'. Chasmosaurus. It's a member of the triceratops family. But smaller. Like a rhino is smaller than an elephant though. I was still getting big.

Two horns erupted above my eyebrows, followed quickly by another horn spurting out of my nose. My lips hardened into a sharp beak. My body began to become heavily muscled, and my fingers melted together, forming into big padded elephant-like feet. My tail erupted behind me, and I fell forward onto all fours.

My forehead expanded, stretching into the bony, spiked shield that was the Chasmosaur's distinctive crest. I was power. I was strength. I was an adult bull Chasmosaur. No one messed with my herd and lived.

I had heard that Rhinoceroses had very poor vision, but Chasmosaurs did not. I saw everything in bright colors, even more vividly than my human vision did.

I glanced back at my companions. Jason, my best friend and the guy I was madly in love with, was now a powerful, deadly Tyrannosaurus. An apex predator. The apex predator.

Menderash had spent two weeks among a herd of stegosaurus, which was the form he had now adopted. I felt a little disappointed that they had become famous dinosaurs, and I was stuck with a famous dinosaur's cousin. Maybe I could go triceratops hunting later, although frankly, I hadn't seen a triceratops since arriving on the plateau, it was possible there weren't any.

Strange herd, the Chasmosaur mind thought underneath my own. Its mind was powerful, but simple. Its goal in life was to protect the herd. The nature of the herd mattered little to it. Even though my 'herd' was a tyrannosaurus and a stegosaurus, it still understood my companions to be it's 'herd' and thus would protect them at all costs.

I liked this morph. It's simplicity in it's purpose was refreshing. The three of us approached the gigantic metal spire. Still, nothing was coming out of it.

Jason stepped into the muddy bowl that was formerly a lake. His weight sank almost three feet into the impression. But he was still a T-rex. Three feet was barely his ankles. So he kept walking. Menderash and I followed suit.

We quietly began to circle the spire, inspecting it closely.

Quite suddenly, the wall in front of us exploded. Six very disgusting looking creatures staggered out.

(Six survivors this time,) Jason said. (Let's take them down.)

"Ah," One of the creatures said, looking at us. "The morpher. And he has brought friends this time. Fascinating."

Jason charged the creature, which vaguely resembled a bipedal fish, with a single eye in it's forehead. He bit down on the thing and began shaking it violently.

I turned my attention towards a pair of Taxxons. At least…They sort of looked like Taxxons. Though the had Hork-Bajir blades sticking out of their bodies at odd angles.

I lowered my head and charged them, slamming into them with my horns. They burst apart instantly, splattering like jello.

Menderash made a sweeping motion with his tail, and skewered two more creatures, creatures too disgusting to describe—Think green jellyfish with eyeballs and you're in the ballpark—He skewered them on his tail and slammed them into the side of the ship.

(It's like tail-fighting!) Menderash said giddily.

(This is almost too easy,) I said. I really wish I hadn't.

The three of us converged upon the final creature, a strange looking bipedal leonine form with four eyes and powerful six-fingered gorilla-like arms.

It almost seemed to smirk at us…Then it's skin began to bubble, and suddenly it burst open into a massive bladed cephalopod. Seriously. Before it had been a mere seven foot tall. Big, compared to our human forms, but small by saurian standards. But somehow, in a matter of seconds, it had burst from a relatively tiny creature, into a massive thirty-foot tall creature resembling a brown squid.

Strictly speaking, it looked like a giant crab with a squid growing out of it's back, though the crab-like part had no eyes or mouth parts of any kind. And just growing out of it's back was a massive squid, with about 30 tentacles flailing wildly, each tentacle was covered in Hork-Bajir blades. The only part of it's body that resembled it's old form were it's massive eyes, there were two eye sockets, each containing two eyes.

(Oh God,) I exclaimed, upon seeing the creature. It's bladed tentacle forms suddenly began to flail wildly, lashing out at us, and lacerating our bodies.

"You, and this World," it said, though how it was still speaking I wasn't quite sure. "Will all become a part of us. All that is, and all that there ever will be, will be One."

(I can't,) I staggered, blood pouring from wounds in my body…The giant salad-shooter kept attacking, kept slicing.

(Jason I…) I started to say. The Tyrannosaur shuddered and collapsed near me…I think he was unconscious. Unconscious from blood loss. His blood was everywhere.

I knew this was the end…Even our dinosaur morphs, as powerful as they were, could not fight this thing that the One had become. At least though…I would be by Jason.

I staggered closer to him, and affectionately nuzzled that dying tyrannosaur.

(Jason, I love you,) I whispered. But knew he couldn't hear me.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a massive blast of white-hot energy that slammed into the alien creature. It shrieked in pain.

A second and third blast struck it and it began to crumble. Fourth and fifth shots struck, and it was completely vaporized.

(Fools,) A new thought-speak voice declared. (The One is a single entity. All of it's parts are equal to its whole. You cannot defeat it by using the same tactics twice. It LEARNS, and adapts to them. It will be prepared for those tactics the second time you face it.)

I turned my head towards the source of the energy blasts that had saved us.

(I highly recommend that you all demorph,) the voice said. (Before you die from the wounds it inflicted upon your meat.)

The creature stepped into my line of sight. It was about seven and a half feet tall, and insectoid in appearance. Its skin was metal. It shone and reflected like chrome, but it was green. It was bipedal, with long gangly arms, each stretching down so that it touched the gorund. Arms longer than it's legs.

Metallic horns, like massive beetle mandibles, shiny green, were on its back, framing its chrome plated head. The helmet like head had no eyes, but it did have a large, human like mouth.

Its right arm ended in a massive three-fingered claw, while it's left arm was shaped vaguely like some sort of plasma-blaster. Like a shredder or dracon cannon. The blaster suddenly began making a mechanical whirring noise, and retracted into its arm, the hand almost looking like it was morphing. Morphing into a three-clawed hand, like its other hand.

(I am Muk-Luk, of the Kelbrid,) he said. (And I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend that you demorph, before you die from blood loss.)

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It had taken some time to get Jason to wake up so he could demorph, but in the end, we did manage it. Once we were human again, refreshed and renewed, we backed away from the crash site, and Muk-Luk vaporized the entire structure.

"The virus requires physical contact to spread," He said, speaking out loud instead of via thought-speech. "It has not yet figured out how to mutate into an airborne vector. Thank Ipthflaar."

"You seriously saved our butts back there," Jason said.

"You had clearly faced the One before, in a similar morph or situation," Muk-Luk said. "It was obvious that you expected the same tactic to be successful again. But the One has assimilated entire civilizations. It seldom falls prey to the same tactic twice. It did not expect me. The next ship piece that falls, will."

"Is that a mechanical suit?" Menderash asked.

"It is," Muk-Luk said. "An environmental suit, meant to protect the Kelbrid. It is impervious to the One. And most meat finds our appearance to be disturbing."

"Meat?" Jason asked, frowning.

"Is that not the correct translation?" He said frowning. "English was only programmed into the suit's translator circuits recently. It is still imperfect."

"I think you mean 'species'," Jason said. "Based on context, anyway."

I wasn't so sure. The Kelbrid had used the term 'meat' before, when we had been dying.

"No viral prions remain," Muk-Luk said, sounding satisfied. "This is good. You were in the ship that crashed first, correct. Do you have a base or safe haven?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "We can take you there, if you'd like."

"That would be acceptable," He said.

"Oooh, look!" Jason said, suddenly pointing. Several large creatures with long necks were emerging from the forest.

"I know those," I said. "Brachiosaurus, right?"

"That's right," Jason said grinning.

"I am learning!" I said. "Yay me!"

"You express familiarity with the local meat?" Muk-Luk asked. "Is this not an alien world to you?"

"It is, and it isn't," Jason said. "This world was terraformed."

"Of that I am aware," Muk-Luk said. "But the terraformers vanished a long time ago. As such, by Kelbrid law, this planet belongs to the first sentient species to set foot here. That was the Kelbrid themselves, twelve cycles ago, on an initial survey."

"Okay," Jason said. "Sure…That's…Perfectly fair. Your space, or whatever. But…These animals, these plants…They're earth animals. Animals that we thought went extinct on earth a very long time ago."

Muk-Luk stopped walking, as if what Jason said had disturbed him.

"You are certain of this?" he said.

"Uh," Jason said. "Yeah. That's why we're familiar with these animals. They're earth animals."

"You can test the DNA, if you doubt it," Menderash said. "You will find that the identity codon sequence matches that of Earth-Life."

Muk-Luk suddenly grabbed Jason's arm, and scratched his left hand.

"Hey!" Jason said.

The Kelbrid then did the same to a nearby fern.

It then stood silently.

"You are correct," he said. "Codons identify the same genetic source code. Your world is your world. I apologize."

"No big," Jason said, confused by Muk-Luk's sentence.

"Filing your claim with the Kelberiad," he said. "This will take but a few moments."

"Wait," Jason said. "What? What claim?"

"Kelbrid Law states that a world with no sentient life, belongs to the first sentient to set foot upon it's surface," Muk-Luk said. "The Kelberiad has received your claim. Kelbrid law also states that a terraformed planet is the property of the world that it's surface life came from. DNA is the code of life. It is Kelbrid Law."

"So," Jason said. "This planet…Actually belongs to earth?"

"No," Muk-Luk said. "Both laws are applicable here. This planet belongs to the first humans to set foot on this planet. Humans are the sentient life of earth, and this planet is filled with earth animals."

We all stopped.

"Wait…" Jason said. "What?"

"That would be...," Menderash turned and looked at Jason.

"Did he just say…?" I started to ask.

"The Kelberiad accepts your claim," Muk-Luk said. "And now inquires what you intend to do with the planet?"

"Jason," I said. "We own a planet."

Jason stared blankly.

"Strictly speaking," Muk-Luk said. "The planet is the property of the leader of your expedition. It is, however, his right to do with it as he sees fit. The Kelberiad would like a response."

"Jason," I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. "You own a planet."

"Um…," Jason snapped out of his funk. "Well…Obviously it should be a scientific outpost, and research facility. I mean…It's one of the greatest treasures discovered in human history. I should be…Studied. Learned from. But, that's really priority number two, isn't it?"

Muk-Luk turned toward Jason, which was kinda creepy, given that the suit didn't have any eyes. It was like he was looking at Jason, but not looking at him.

"Priority one has to be defeating the One," Jason said. "The wealth of scientific knowledge here is useless, if the One just absorbs the planet. The One has to go down."

"The Kelberiad accepts your proposal," Muk-Luk said.

"Proposal?" Jason said.

"This World will be protected for scientific advancement of your species, and the preservation of this World's life," Muk-Luk said. "In exchange, you will aid in the fight against the One."

"Weren't we doing that anyway?" I asked, frowning.

"Yes," Jason said…"But not officially. Now it's official, right Muk-Luk?"

"Correct," he said. "The status and nature of this planet is on file with the Kelberiad, the highest Kelbrid authority of Law."

"And the leader of our expedition," I said, leaning on Jason's shoulder, and grinning. "Jason Michael Grant. Leader of the Dinomorphs, first human to land on Jurassic Planet."

"So noted in the Kelberiad records," Muk-Luk said.

"Dear Lord," Jason said, paling. "I own a planet."