Chronologically, this is just after Of Scales and Feathers – and before Little Taste of Heaven. The PP: Extras stories are often not in chronological order – the great benefit with them is that we can afford to be non-linear.

Peter Farnsworth nodded his head, a rare contented smile on his face as he relaxed upon a bench within the Hell Creek forest building. He'd had a very busy day so far. Admittedly, the fact that he worked as both a security guard and an assistant in paddock design usually meant that every day was a busy one for him. Three days ago, a new influx of animals from the Miocene of South America had been brought to the park, and he was so far still hard at work trying to ensure that all the new paddocks were secure. He'd learned to appreciate the breaks.

He briefly chuckled as a thought occurred to him. "It could always be worse," he said to himself under his breath. "The fences could be made of wood."

With thoughts like this, it was probably quite safe to say that Peter took his secondary duty as a structural specialist very seriously. The compy escapes and the Torvosaurus escape had proved that it was important. With that, it could often come across as rather patronizing – it certainly didn't help that he was also often a man of very few words and those words tended to be acerbic. But at the end of the day, he was perfectly fine with not having that many friends so long as his efforts helped keep the park safe. After all, it wasn't like he wasn't already used to being alone – he preferred it.

The sound of hissing from the paddock behind the bench he was sitting on caused him to turn his head in time to see one of the palaeosaniwa peeking curiously in his direction. Looking rather like a komodo dragon with a Gila monster's colouration, the creature was positioned almost entirely still upon the log as it stared Peter's way, an unreadable expression on its face. Peter nodded his head. This palaeosaniwa, a male named Geronimo, was a creature he'd gotten to know quite well. From what he'd heard other staff members say, Geronimo was an animal that a lot of them found rather intimidating. The fact that he was an 8-foot long venomous lizard that chomped up baby dinosaurs was a factor, yes, but it was his unreadability. The reptile handlers, naturally, were amongst the few staff members that weren't immediately unnerved by him and the rest of his kind; and even then there were many of them who still at least had a reasonable sense of caution around them.

Farnsworth, however, couldn't help but feel drawn to Geronimo in particular. After all, they were rather similar – unreadable, aggressive and highly intelligent. As if reading his thoughts, Geronimo climbed down from the log and crawled over towards the boundary of the paddock, his tongue flicking out of his closed jaws, before eventually coming to a stop inches away from the paddock's boundary gazing curiously in Farnsworth's direction. The security guard chuckled, slipped on a pair of protective gloves and walked over to the paddock, leaned onto the railing, and carefully patted Geronimo on the top of his head. The mighty prehistoric lizard hissed and let his eyes halfway close as if in appreciation. Farnsworth chuckled, a rare smile coming on his face. "The people scared of you can say whatever they want," he stated. "But you ain't all that bad."

A few minutes later, the 'bonding session' ended, and Geronimo turned away to crawl off to rejoin his four fellow palaeosaniwa within the paddock in their basking in the very center of the exhibit. Peter nodded his head, happy to have spent some time bonding with Geronimo before then taking a close look at the paddock's design. As had been the case the last time, it looked perfectly secure.

Then he narrowed his eyes as he thought of another matter. One day, the park would be open to the public – and maybe some of the paddocks could perhaps still be improved for the sake of being rendered 'idiot proof' as he liked to call it. After all, the general public were an unknown quantity - , some were still capable of having trash getting thrown in or entered by people who had no business to be in there. He nodded his head at the thought of something new to keep himself busy with. "Perhaps I can have a talk with the technicians on the matter later today," he thought to himself. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind figuring out a way to help me get a few more paddocks 'idiot proofed' for the animals' benefit."

. . . . .

Calum Fox watched intently, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he carefully observed the pectinodon pack from outside their paddock. Watching them got him to thinking about recent events.

For the past few weeks, Jack Denham had been working on a droma-training project – partly to study their intelligence and partly to use the creatures to help recapture escapee animals. They couldn't do this with the pectinodon – the troodonts were too smart to be trained.

He paused. Actually, too independent was a better word – there was less of a pack hierarchy in the troodonts than in the dromas. Unlike the dromas, troodonts didn't really live in packs – they generally lived in pairs, which occasionally aggregated. As soon as the pectinodon had been introduced to their new paddock, they'd squabbled and split into four pairs, each occupying a different territory.

If the dromas could be trained… could other dromaeosaurs be trained? The acheroraptors, the only other dromaeosaurs they had so far, were too small to be put to use in a similar way to the dromas, but he knew others would come in the future…

He put that to the back of his mind – right now, he needed to watch the troodonts and make sure they didn't try anything.

Everyone who knew about animals knew that certain animals were more likely to get free of their enclosures than others. "Cage-breakers" spanned the animal kingdom, however there was one unifying factor; they tended to be active, intelligent, curious animals. Monkeys and raccoons were particularly notorious escapologists; their mobile, skilful hands were perfect for unlocking doors when a keeper wasn't looking.

However, "cage-breakers" also included more dangerous animals. The notoriously aggressive (and surprisingly intelligent) honey badger was a natural "cage-breaker", as was the incredibly venomous black mamba. These highly curious and alert snakes were always getting out; they had a talent for it.

Fox counted himself lucky they'd never had the opportunity to see whether that applied to troodonts.

. . . . .

David Doody couldn't help but feel in awe as he watched the torvosaurus pair leisurely walk about their paddock as if scouting their territory. They were impressive animals, he had to admit – when the male had escaped a couple of months back, it had been one of the big events of the park. His mind got to thinking.

Quite a few people, over the months, had bonded with certain individual animals – Drew had Terence and Gideon, Jack had Kaa and Duke, Kyle had Rommel and Abrams, Collete had Nero, Adrian had Cirrus, Alice had Eshe, Leon had Diego… A lot of people seemed to have an animal partner, with a couple even having two.

And, to him, it honestly seemed like a weird inevitability that they all would find one in the end – what would his be? He'd hope for something cool, like a big theropod or sauropod, but… who knew what you'd end up with? Would it be a species they already had or a species that was yet to be brought back?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "You can worry about finding an animal to bond with later," he whispered to himself. "Right now, focus on Vhagar and Balerion."

. . . . .

Joe Bristow had a contented smirk on his face as he leaned in relaxation upon the side of one of the recovery pens at the veterinary facility. It had been a slow day today – but then any day was a slow day compared to the massive influx of a mission. The captain had stated that a couple of security team members had to supervise operations at the vet offices – to keep thing safe in case any particularly large and dangerous patients ended up on the agenda.

A grunt alerted him to the occupant of the recovery pen and he turned to see a small, reddish brown ankylosaur, about twenty feet long, with a narrow muzzle and long shoulder spikes. He chuckled – this was one of the Denversaurus, a male named Sherman, who'd been at the vets for a regular checkup. He'd had a clean bill of health and was waiting to be transferred back into the Hell Creek herbivore paddock.

Looking at the ankylosaur, he smiled – he'd gained a fondness for the armoured dinosaurs over the last year or so. They just had such a personality – the personality of always being up for a bit of a scrap. Even the small ones had that self-assured swagger – they were the toughest things in the room and they'd be eager to prove it. Kind of like himself in that way.

He looked around furtively, reached through the bars of the recovery pen and gave Sherman a stroke on his muzzle – to which the small ankylosaur responded. Bristow smiled – this seemed like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

. . . . .

Anita Watts had her mind focused entirely on her duty as she carefully observed the various animals roaming about the interior of the La Brea Grand Vista exhibit zone's main herbivore paddock. Mixed in with modern bison and pronghorns, the various herds were mostly keeping to their specific groups.

It was the Columbian mammoths, towering above all the others, she was focusing on – the female herd were browsing from the trees and the males were mock-sparring, practising for battles yet to come. The Columbian mammoths were the biggest herbivores in the paddock – in fact, at ten tons, Babar, the large male, was heavier than most of the non-sauropod dinosaurs and heavier than any of the other mammals.

The three bull Columbian mammoths were the "high-risk" animals in the paddock – a ten-tonne bull mammoth wasn't really something you wanted to have on the rampage. And, according to Leon, they could do each other some serious damage if they ever fought for real. However, they seemed to have no such intentions for the moment – and, besides, the captain had contingency plans in place for that. He seemed to have plans in place for everything.

She sat there for a few minutes longer, watching the various herds milling about. It was calming at times, observing the various animals milling about – you felt like you really had been transported fourteen thousand years back in the past, to a vanished world. Well, that was part of the aim, wasn't it?

Anyway, keep focused. Just in case…

. . . . .

Jon Willowby was in one of his usual pleasant moods as he observed the Morrison scaphognathines flying around in their aviary. He liked the scaphognathines – they reminded him of birds of prey. Which, it transpired, made sense – he had been surprised to realise that pterosaurs were actually rather ecologically diverse, rather than the flying piscivores/carnivores he had expected.

One of the research team, Kaisumi – a rather nice girl, who had a special interest in pterosaurs – had observed the scaphognathines and noted differences in their anatomy that reflected their differing feeding habits. Willoby had supervised her on these excursions because the scaphognathines could be aggressive.

The coryphoncterus were more specialised for mid-air predation of smaller flying vertebrates, including the Morrison wukongoterids and anurognathids, with short, wide skulls, reduced crests to reduce drag and wings adapted for high-velocity pursuit. The piranhapteryx were the exact opposite, being larger and more heavily built, adapted for hunting prey on the ground, such as small-to-mid-sized dinosaurs. The pirahnapteryx were poor flyers, only using it when necessary.

The harpactognathus were more generalised – they lacked the agility of their smaller cousins to catch small animals in the air, but at the same time, were not powerful enough to kill large prey on the ground. That was how they avoided competing in the Jurassic – each species would eat slightly different things, with little overlap.

And that reflected their interactions in the park as well. The three species mostly avoided each other, each occupying their own territories – their interactions were mostly when a goat carcass was thrown in and largely consisted of the larger pirahnapteryx bullying the smaller species away until they had finished.

In their new environment, the scaphognathines had bred – and more differences were seen. The smaller pterosaurs – the anurognathids and wukongopterids – had independently evolved hard-shelled eggs, like dinosaurs and crocodilians, to facilitate their tree-dwelling lifestyles, as had their predators, the coryphoncterus.

The other two species had soft-shelled eggs and nested on the ground – scraping a nest in the ground and covering it with vegetation, adding and removing layers according to temperature. Pairs guarded their nests fiercely – counts on the eggs had been difficult, since the parents tried to attack them. After several failures, they had resolved to wait until the eggs had hatched before making any count.

In fact… looking closer at one of the harpactognathus nests, he noticed something – a harpactognathus egg had rolled out of the nest and onto the ground. The parents would ignore it – their instincts telling them to protect the nests under any circumstances – whilst another scaphognathine might eat it.

Concerned, he lifted his communicator and said, "I need to get Mr. Sky down here immediately – and, if you can, one of the vets. A harpactognathus egg has rolled out of the nest. And we need to retrieve it."

. . . . .

Watch duty at PP, especially at night, was a lonely one, but someone had to do it. To be honest, Collete was happiest alone. Of course, that was not to say that she didn't like being around some people… but even so, she always did like it best when she had space to think – she liked keeping other people at arms' length, both for her sake and for theirs.

She walked through La Pampa Plains, home to the animals that had been brought back from the most recent mission. Sabre-toothed marsupials, giant birds (both flight-capable and flightless) and various other unusual looking animals dwelt in this area. She remembered a few of their names.

She looked over to a large aviary that had been constructed nearby. This aviary contained the new Argentavis. It stretched almost impossibly high into the night sky to give the occupants ample flying room. Currently one of the giant birds had its head buried under one large wing with the smaller (but no less still large) Andean condors sleeping nearby. The new Argentavis weren't as aggressive as the Teratornis, but they were still considered dangerous, nonetheless.

She turned left near the aviary and clambered up the ladder to the watch post, tranquilizer rifle at the ready, and sat down for a long night. Her thoughts began to swim in her head. And in the process, she started carefully going over her opinions on multiple high profile staff members she worked with.

Drew, she respected. He was intelligent and determined… if a little reckless and hot-headed. He was also in charge; Collete was by-the-book all the way and not one to disrespect the chain of command. Conversely, Leon... Collete snorted at the very thought of his name. The guy was a bunny hugger all the way through. He was a walking textbook; that was all he was. The other one, Adrian, she hadn't really interacted with all that much, but he seemed decent enough.

Jack had really come to grow on her. She'd thought him annoying at first, but over time, she'd come to enjoy his company; partly because he made her laugh. It was surprising, really, they were complete opposites; Jack was a lot more of a maverick than her. His sister, on the other hand, had been cold to her the instant they met; personality clash, she supposed. Whatever the case, they kept a mutual distance from each other.

There had been tension between the captain and Kyle for quite a while now; they seemed to be at loggerheads near constantly now. This conflicted her – whilst she was loyal to her boss, she did respect Kyle. The other keepers were decent people too; they were usually nice to her.

As for the vets... Linda was competent and level-headed, but she allowed sentimentality to creep in at times, especially with animals she was attached to. Collete had seen this the first time they'd tried to integrate the young Apatosaurus into the herd and one of the large males had chased him off. The way Linda had reacted, you'd have thought it was her son. Her assistant, Yolanda was always nice to her and Collete was nice to her back – even if she did occasionally get annoyed by the other woman's teasing. The other two... she didn't know much about. To be honest, they rarely interacted.

When everyone else was talking or joking about off-shift, she never participated. Now, it wasn't as if she felt like she was above everyone else. She just liked being on her own. She didn't like socializing much; in fact, she preferred solitude to most other things. Being with people stressed her out – it made her nervous.

She turned to the aviary, alerted by the sound of a squawk. She breathed a sigh of relief; nothing had happened. The male Argentavis seemed to have noticed what was going on. The bird had been named Hannibal, after the Carthaginian general and he was also staring intently out of the aviary. He was, probably, keeping watch. Argentavis, apparently, were fiercely territorial. It was a benefit; if anything broke out, she could just listen to his alarm calls.

Collete allowed herself a smile; at least she didn't have to do her duties alone tonight. Now, she liked being on her own... but, sometimes, it was nice to know that she had a little company.

. . . . .

Nikolai was sitting in the Carboniferous dome, watching Felix and Melancholia browse on the plants not far from the path. Whilst observing them was relaxing, it did invoke a strange feeling that something was missing.

The two giant millipedes liked him… well, as much as a giant arthropod possibly could like someone. And he could commiserate with them when it all felt like it was going to come crashing down on him. They listened whenever he talked and they seemed to understand – he could reveal things, confident that they would never share it with anyone. They could keep secrets and they listened when you talked – exactly what you needed in a companion.

However, he hadn't bonded with the Arthropleura as closely as some had with the animals they had been working with – Drew had Terence and Gideon, Jack had Kaa and Duke, Kyle had Rommel and Abrams, Alice had Eshe, Leon had Diego… A lot of people seemed to have an animal partner, with some even having two… except him.

Now, Nikolai was not a man prone to worrying about inconsequential matters – when you had under your observation, multiple species of meat-eating dinosaur more than thirty feet long, it was trivial – but it was concerning that he hadn't found his animal partner yet. Now, they had literally all of history to play with, so he could find one in the future, but it did feel rather… empty. Like something was missing.