The sharp front-end of a boat slices through the waters of the Pacific, heading the orders of United States President James Hayden Prowse. It is in search of an island that will define the future of the world. But not in the way they intend.
Steve is among the several men on this mission, and while he is perhaps the most excited, he is also the least important. Martin is a journalist writing for United World News, who's extravagant, gripping, and admittedly exaggerated writing style has made him a specialist in sensational stories made to attract the most heads. He often found himself writing about some sighting of the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot. He personally found them bupkis, but a reader could never tell. Ironically, he was also frequently assigned to report on political news, from the most extreme to that which, under any other writer, would make most fall asleep.
In his younger years, he took massive pride in putting himself at risk of injury, perhaps even death, for the scoop. Born of a dangerous concoction of impulsiveness and a need to stroke his ego, a show to the gods that he could survive anything they threw at him, it has dampened as of late, if not for the fact that he has so much more to live for at home. Despite moving past his dangerous tactics, he is still the most valuable writer at UWN, and thus was the obvious choice to report on the government's daring new mission.
Though the Age of Imperialism has died down, the United States government has shifted gears to searching for lands unknown to colonize. Nobody involved wants to admit that this is more an exercise of power and greed then a necessity. Steve certainly isn't gonna complain. All goes well, perhaps he and Laura can move into a better apartment. His plans necessitate such.
Several experienced explorers and scientists were hired to be put in charge of the exploration of Lagos Island, including a personal friend of Steve's, Doctor Carson Tatopoulos. He is a jack of all trades when it comes to living species, well-versed in zoology and botany.
Carson was Steve's college roommate, and it was his recommendation that turned Steve's selection for this job from a consideration to a certainty. This is also not the first story Steve was handed by his old friend.
Steve sits relaxed in a chair, reading Laura's most recent novel, a compelling story about a woman's dilemma of whether to marry a man of science betrothed to her at a young age, a protegee of her father, or another man, a sailor, whom she actually loves. Steve isn't exactly big into romance novels, which is why he always gets giddy when she writes science-fiction or fantasy, but he'll read anything she writes, for her sake.
Thankfully, he's actually engrossed in this story. Maybe his biased perspective isn't the best strategy to determine the actual quality of his girlfriend's books, but he loves her writing, especially when traveling. It makes him feel closer to her. He can feel her voice in every sentence.
As he sees Carson approaching, he hides the book. He already knows he's obsessed, he doesn't need someone telling him in a condescending manner.
"One of Laura's novels?" Cardon says, the jovial tone and smirk echoing their college days whenever he'd catch Steve obsessing over some girl. The look on Steve's face is still the same as it was then.
Damnit.
Steve blushes. "Would you believe me if I said no?"
Carson shakes his head, still smirking like a devil. He sits on a chair next to him.
Steve, feeling vulnerable in being caught red-handed, feels the need to defend himself. "I feel like it shouldn't be humiliating now that we're basically married."
Carson is taken aback by the blatant absurdity of what he just heard. "Basically married?!"
"She lives with me now."
"Not even engaged?"
The desperation for validation, Carson thinks. Jesus.
Steve pulls out a ring from his pocket. Suddenly the mood shifts as Carson looks in surprise.
"I'm just waiting for the right moment."
Was this morning the right moment? Steve ponders.
It might've been if not for that damn phone call.
Steve continues, lost in the thought of her. "I want it to be as perfect as she is."
Suddenly Steve snaps back to reality and realizes what he just said. Carson genuinely laughs harder then he's ever had in a while.
Carson can't help but judge. It's a miracle he found someone like Laura. He'd be single in his late thirties if not for her.
"Did you actually age past 16 or did I just imagine that?"
Steve laughs with him, if still embarrassed. Carson puts his hand on his shoulder.
"I'm happy for you, Steve." His voice is sincere. Steve smiles.
Carson likes to jest, but he really does care. Steve knows it's simply a way he builds rapport, even if he's annoyed by it at times. He mostly finds himself laughing along.
"So," Steve says, taking on a mocking variant of his journalist persona, "What will the renowned Dr. Tatopoulos find on this mysterious land that time forgot?"
Carson laughs along with Steve. "I don't expect much. From what I can gather, it's been isolated from the rest of the world since the Jurassic. Any megafaunal lineages would've died in the K-Pg mass extinction event, so the island is likely uninhabited by anything larger then a sparrow..."
Carson notices Steve mouthing his words whilst making sock puppet movements with his hand. He shoots him daggers. Steve laughs.
"Did I say 16? I think I was off by 3 years."
Steve laughs again, this time more genuinely.
An ego for an ego.
"Mr. Martin, I understand that you must be eager, but I strongly suggest you follow our lead. We're very experienced in this arena."
Steve, entranced by the alien plant life only a few metres from the shoreline, is interrupted by the warning's of Professor Edward Challenger.
"Those plants could've been poisonous," he continues as Steve walks back towards the rest of the crew, "We have to proceed with the utmost caution."
Carson gives him a bump on the arm. "You need to follow behind mommy and daddy sweetheart, we don't want you wandering alone in the park, especially around strangers." Steve laughs and bumps him on the arm back.
Suddenly, the entire crew find themselves chilled to the bone as deep, powerful bellows echo across the landscape.
It's as if whales learned to walk on land.
After minutes of silence, Challenger breaks the tension: "As I said. The utmost caution."
The terrifying cetacean-esque bellows set the tone for the rest of the exploration. The entire crew is almost silent as they peruse the forest. Excitement is drowned out by an anxious dread of that which is only left to the imagination.
The nature of the island's flora does nothing to ease the tension. Venus flytraps are staggeringly common, but even the relatively mundane flora keeps the crew on edge, if only for the fact that none of it is recognizable. They are clearly conifers, but none are of any living species yet discovered.
A dragonfly the size of a hawk startles the crew as it zooms above. Steve nearly wets himself. This creature has a thin, long, segmented body, four huge transparent wings, and is armed with mantis-like scythes on its forelimbs and a lethal stinger on its prolonged tail behind it's two hind limbs.
Steve looks to Carson, who is so petrified yet captivated by what he's seeing, it's as if nothing else exists on Earth.
Photographer Kenneth Haines abruptly ends the silence once again, peering outside the edge of the the forest: "They're alive!"
As soon as they recognize what he does, their souls leave their bodies.
"In the name of God, they're alive!", Haines continues. In invoking his name, he realizes how little he knows what it's like to be him.
The dinosaurs are alive.
Stegosaurs far stockier then any from the Mesozoic populate the landscape. This species is 21 metres long and weighs 24 tonnes, and has skin is made up of huge bumpy scales, plates akin to dull axes, hoof-like feet, 6 thagomizers across the ends of their tails, and a large flat beaks.
Ankylosaurs here are not decorated with rock-like armor, but large porcupine-like spikes across shell-like carapaces and tails longer then their entire bodies. Their heads are noticeably long and puffy, almost crocodile-esque, with multiple curved horns at the top of their heads and a single, short horn at the end of their snouts. Their forelimbs are longer then their hindlimbs.
Descendants of raptors sour across the sky with feathered bat-like wings, occupying the niche of the pterosaurs of olde. Sharp beaks like those of eagles make short work of their primary prey, the nymphs of the giant dragonflies, and they can reach their nests due to necks relatively as long as their ancestors. Small dinosaurs are also suitable prey for them; they still have the sickle claws of their ancestors. Males are adorned with long lateral horns and a fin-shaped crest.
One type of reptile that dominates this island is but a facade of a dinosaur. Giant serpents have convergently evolved to look as sauropods, and are the largest animals in these terrestrial ecosystems. The largest species reach extraordinary lengths of 33 metres and weighing 65 tonnes, and are the source of the whale-esque booms. Their heads are still incredibly serpentine in appearance, and their ancestry allows for unprecedented flexibility of their necks and tails; these titans can twist their necks 180 degrees without snapping them. The largest species are herbivores, but others retain their ancestors necessity for meat. The sight of one of these beasts unhinging their jaw to swallow their prey whole is not for the faintest of heart.
"Impossible", Carson remarks.
"Human reason does not determine nature's reality…", responds Steve. Carson's relative rigidity was always complemented by Steve's rebelliousness.
"I remember a time when you thought you knew all."
"That was before I learned how little I actually knew. From you."
"Now it's my turn."
Haines takes as many pictures of the animals as he can before the crew descends back into the forest. They cannot risk exposing themselves to the open prairie full of reptiles they know hardly anything about.
Eventually, they encounter a nest full of brown eggs the size of footballs. Strange fernaceous plants that look as roots have attached to all of them.
Soon enough, Challenger notices and silently points out to the crew the female Manospondylus, not far from the nest. As usual when she rests, the end of her tail routinely moves up and down off the ground.
Haines takes a picture. Upon the sound of a snap, a hiss renders everyone's blood cold.
Her tail stops moving.
Challenger, Haines, and Martin are frozen.
The theropod's lips curl.
Then they relax.
Her tail starts moving again.
Before the crew can sigh in relief, they realize that Carson isn't with them.
He's by the nest, tearing off a piece of the plant attached to one of the eggs.
Steve almost sceams, but stops himself.
Just as the plant snaps, the female Manospondylus jolts upwards and bellows with the brawn of 10 saltwater crocodiles.
Carson speeds away, simultaneously placing the plant into a baggy. The theropod gives chase, forcing the entire crew to run for their life. Eventually, she gives up.
The fearsome predator now up and more clearly visible, Haines takes a picture, but times it perfectly to a moment when one of the giant serpents roars so the predator doesn't notice.
The crew doesn't speak to one-another the entire trip back to the boat, nor the first days of the voyage home. They are all too busy still processing what happened.
Steve has an existential crisis. Did he dream this? If so, what's a dream, and what's actually real? Is Laura real? Did he actually die in one of his crusades for a scoop, and this entire thing is a near-death experience? It'd make sense. He'd never be able to score someone like her.
Is he on drugs? Would he even be able to know if he's on drugs? What if they're so potent, so hallucinogenic, he wouldn't even be able to remember taking them?
Could he resolve this by talking to the others? No, because whatever dream, near-death experience, or drug is making him see this would also make him see that everybody corroborates it too.
Once he realizes that believing any of that would lead him to believe in literally nothing, the first thought across his mind is: How am I gonna explain this to Laura?
President Prowse, alongside several cabinet members, gaze upon the pictures provided to them by the crew, consumed by the same disbelief.
However, Prowse is experienced in suppressing the emotions that would overtake so many others. His disbelief is only momentary; in a cold, business-like manner, he says, "An incredible discovery. Good work, gentlemen."
"I wouldn't have believed it either sir, but it's true. Real dinosaurs, alive today," Steve remarks, "How will the colonization effort change?"
Prowse immediately contemplates why he should even address the questions of someone who was not hired to give them. He then remembers the reporter. An answer will be essential for keeping the populous up to date.
"It won't."
"What?" Steve says in disbelief. Everyone else in the crew looks at him as if he's insane.
Prowse remains stoic. "The dinosaurs will remain. Unharmed. They will serve many economic advantages. Scientific, too, of course. Beyond that, they are of no concern. Lagos will be colonized, as scheduled."
"I don't think that's a good ide-"
"You're here to give me the information I need. I have no use for your opinions. Do you have anything else?"
Steve scowls.
"No, sir," Carson interjects, submissively.
"Leave us." Prowse says to the crew.
Soon enough, only Prowse and his cabinet remain.
"What the hell was that?" Carson interrogates Steve. "Arguing with the President? Who do you think you are?"
"These dinosaurs are the most monumental discovery of the century!" Steve insists. "They need to be studied, and the island should be left alone as a nature preserve. Scientists from around the world would pay to study them, that would make them money. All they have to do is redirect the colonization effort to the smaller islands nearby."
"I don't care. You embarrassed me. I arranged for you to accompany us. Think about the mess you could've made. Shouldn't your immature sensitive ass be giddy about living on an island with dinosaurs? Maybe Laura will reconsider choosing to be with a man-child." Carson scoffs. "Almost ruining my career over dinosaurs." The ridiculing tone with which he says "dinosaurs" is palpable, as if he's scolding a child.
"These are animals. No different from the ones you study. You of all people should know that we don't get to carelessly destroy their habitats-"
"I study animals professionally. I'm mature enough to know that people must always be prioritized over any animal. Put away your dinosaur toys, start acting like a grown man, and see the world for what it really is."
Steve is too flustered, too demeaned, emasculated, to defend himself.
"Whining to the goddamn President. About dinosaurs. I can't believe you." Carson sneers, walking away with an indignant bravado.
Steve is at a loss of words.
My friend. Saying those things.
He may joke a lot at his expense, but this wasn't anything like that.
At least I get to go home now. Steve thinks. Laura would never say things like that to me.
That's why she meant so much to him, after all.