Jack Denham stood at the droma paddock, a smile on his face.
What had started as a thought experiment had become something much more important – rather than training the dromas as a personal side project, he was now training the dromas for the protection of the park. Weirdly, it felt like it had given him a new purpose – his suspension from active mission duty, which likely would not be rescinded any time soon had given him a bit more time to focus on the training programme. Would the dromas ever be needed? Hopefully not – but, if all else failed…
Prior to Nikolai and Kyle's request, Jack had already whistle-trained them and trained them to respond to verbal commands – now he was going to train them with a lure.
He'd convinced a rather sceptical Darrel to make him a remote-controlled, dinosaur-shaped lure; and, as a laugh, he had painted the lure bright purple. The lure was an approximate simulation of a dinosaur – seeing it moving, the dromas' chase instincts would be activated, allowing them to chase and corner it. The aim was to get them to wait until Jack's command, before they attack it.
Jack stood over the droma enclosure, looking at the pack. Lifting the remote control, he opened a door and moved the lure into the enclosure at high speed. Seeing it moving, the dromas dived after the lure, following it – with Duke and Cassie leading the chase, as the older female Jane (according to DNA testing, Duke's mother) and the four youngsters followed at different angles, surrounding it. Eventually, Jack turned the lure into a wall, allowing the dromas to corner their "prey". One of the younger males took a few steps, jaws open, towards it when, suddenly…. A piercing whistle-blast echoed through the air. The allosaurs stopped in their tracks and turned to look at him. Leon threw them each a piece of meat; it was imperative that they be rewarded for, instead of immediately attacking a lure, to stop whenever he blew his whistle. It was a start. It was better than nothing.
Suddenly, he heard someone clapping slowly behind him and he turned to see Collete Dubois standing behind him. Jack raised his eyebrow and asked her, "What are you doing here?" Collete shrugged and said, "Dropped in to visit. You seem to be doing well with the dromas – the captain's going to be pleased." She paused, "He seems to have taken quite a liking to you, actually." Jack smiled, "Eh, I'm helping him out and things seem to have gone well so far. Of course he's happy with me."
Collete walked down the walkway to stand next to Jack. Looking around, she reflected, "It's different than that, you know." Jack looked, confused, "What do you mean?". Collete looked around and said, "He genuinely likes you as a person– he has a lot of faith in your ability. It's strange…"
Smiling, Jack raised his eyebrow and asked, "How?", before chuckling, "Get to know me and you'll see I'm full of surprises." Collete looked curiously. "I can see that," she responded. Jack opened his mouth to say something before suddenly realizing himself and saying "Never mind." They turned, looked at each other and smiled, at once savouring and regretting the intimacy of the moment. At this, Duke and Cassie gave each other an almost amused look.
*Anyway… I'm supposed to be checking on things in the Hell Creek forest building – want to come with?" Collete shrugged, "Sure".
. . . . .
Jack and Collete entered the Hell Creek forest building, walking to the Hell Creek riverside exhibit, which served as home to the brodavis, basilemys and astexymys. The astexymys were swimming in the water, the basilemys were browsing on the land portion and the brodavis were sitting on their eggs. A mother brodavis, sensing their arrival, turned to them and hissed.
As Jack and Collete approached, Collete noticed that Carmen Perez and Maria Gonzales were standing by the riverside exhibit, as if waiting for someone. Which made sense – they were supposed to be checking on things in this building, after all.
As they approached, Carmen and Maria turned to look at them, as Jack said, "Face front, true believers, your ringleader has arrived!" To this, the two women straightened up and gave a crooked, mock salute. Collete looked confused – was this some sort of joke between them? It didn't make sense and it felt strangely inappropriate to ask. So she kept quiet.
Walking up to Carmen and Maria, Jack said, "How have things been at the Hell Creek riverside since the brodavis laid their eggs? All been going well, I hope." Maria nodded, "The turtles haven't really noticed – they've been keeping away from the brodavis. There might be issues with the astexymys when the chicks hatch." Jack nodded – softshell turtles were predatory and there was a possibility they might see the chicks as prey.
Watching the conversation, Collete noticed one of the basilemys, a large female, with tooth marks on her shell. The turtle seemed strangely familiar – however, Collete couldn't quite place it. At the turtle's arrival, Jack smiled, bent down and stroked the turtle's scaly head, "Hey, Basil." He turned to Carmen and Maria, "I hope she's being her usual bossy self." Maria and Carmen nodded, and Jack said, "Glad to hear it."
Now, Collete remembered which turtle this was – this was the turtle Jack had saved from the jaws of a brachychampsa. She was surprised she'd forgotten – Jack had told her the story several times, every time more embellished.
Maria turned to look at Collete, mock-judgingly, and said, "Denham, who is this? You never told us you were bringing company…" Collete realised the inference of the statement and went red, saying, in a flustered tone, "W-well, we've met before – at the staff Halloween party… I'm Collete Dubois from the security team – but you probably already knew that. Because I'd have told you that when we were introduced… at the staff Halloween party." At Collete's flustered expression, Maria and Carmen sniggered – even Basil seemed to be finding the reaction amusing.
Regaining her composure, Maria said, "Ah… now, I remember you. You were dressed as Black Widow, right? Jack was very eager to introduce you…" At this, Collete went even redder – she didn't want to be reminded of that night. At Yolanda's insistence, Collete had attended in costume and a red wig and a was the only spare one she could find. She'd met Yolanda, dressed as Rapunzel, in the hallway and the assistant vet had spent the whole way to the staff function room teasing her about the wig. She'd met Jack, dressed as Captain America, at the party and he'd introduced her to Maria and Carmen. Yolanda had been grinning enthusiastically at them, the entire night – she wondered if Yolanda knew something she didn't…
Suddenly, Collete felt something nibbling at her boots. She bent down to see one of the astexymys nibbling at her boot. At this, Jack, Carmen and Maria began chuckling, before Carmen said, "I see you've met Toby, then. He's friendly, don't worry." At this, Collete gently reached down and stroked the turtle on the head
"Anyway", Jack said, as if sensing Collete's embarrassment, "It's a big building – and we've got a lot of animals to check up on."
. . . . .
After leaving the brodavis and turtle enclosure, they walked up to the area where the Hell Creek amphibians – the habrosaurus, palaeobrachtus and scapherpeton were kept. As Collete approached the enclosure, she noticed that Aaron Joseph standing by the habrosaurus exhibit, as if waiting for someone. Which, again, made sense – they were supposed to be checking on things in this building, after all.
As they approached, Aaron turned to look at them, as Jack said, again, "Face front, true believer, your ringleader has arrived!" To this, Aaron straightened up and gave a crooked, mock salute. Collete looked confused – again, was this some sort of joke between them? It didn't make sense and, again, it felt strangely inappropriate to ask. So she kept quiet.
Jack and Aaron began talking about the Hell Creek amphibians – Aaron had fortunately confirmed that there had been no issues to report among the three amphibian species. Jack had also handled one of the male scapherpeton and offered Collete the opportunity to handle it, to which she had reluctantly accepted. Aaron had introduced the scapherpeton as Newter.
"So, anyway, we're going to be checking on the Didelphodon and palaeosaniwa before we go – and maybe a visit to the dinilysia", Jack asked, "Would you care to accompany us?"
"I don't know", Aaron said, mock-thoughtfully, "Amphibian feeding's done, so I am available…." Aaron paused, before a smirk appeared on his face, "However… I wouldn't want to be the third wheel…"
At this, Collete went red, and said, in a slightly flustered tone, "No, it's not like that…. It's not like that at all!" At this, Aaron and Newter shared a conspiratorial glance, as if they were being told something that they knew was incorrect, before Aaron rolled his eyes, "Fine… if you insist. Lead on, Jackie!"
. . . . .
"I didn't know you guys looked after any of the mammals", Collete said, looking at the small, black-and-white marsupials, as they sniffed around their enclosure, searching for the crickets that Jack and Aaron had left in the enclosure. At her confusion, Jack and Aaron giggled, before Aaron said, "Believe me, I was surprised too." Jack chuckled – it had been surprising, but it made sense the way Kyle had explained it to them.
Given that the didelphodon lived in a building with a lot of reptiles and birds, according to Kyle, they fell under the reptile team's jurisdiction simply out of convenience. With all the large Tertiary mammals that had already been brought back, and with the possibility of more to come, the mammal team had enough on their plate already – the little Mesozoic mammals could be capably handled by the non-dinosaur reptile team, whilst the mammal team focused on all the big stuff.
Now, mammals weren't their thing, but Jack's team had to admit, they'd grown quite fond of the didelphodon. Part of the reason was that the didelphodon were small, but they had big personalities. Despite their comparatively small size, they were fearless, willing to face off against much larger animals when food was involved.
Surprisingly, despite their diminutive size, they were actually one of the main predators of the Hell Creek undergrowth, feeding on everything from insects to lizards to dinosaur eggs and even other, smaller mammals. With their powerful bite, they could make short work of almost anything edible.
Feeling the sensation of something tugging at her boots, Collete bent down to notice a didelphodon eagerly tugging on the tip of her boot, like a dog with a rope toy. At the didelphodon, Jack smiled fondly and said, "Scamp, be nice to our visitor." Scamp ignored him – Jack rolled his eyes in mock annoyance and threw a dead rat into the undergrowth. Scamp stopped pulling on Collete's boot and dived after the rat.
At the departing marsupial, Collete smiled – she could see why Jack liked the didelphodon so much. They were actually kind of cute. Aaron interrupted her train of thought when he said, "Right, I need to help Hugo at the Carboniferous house. Crassygrinus feeding isn't a job you do alone." Jack shuddered, "Yeah – I've seen what they do to a goat carcass." He turned to Collete and said, with a smirk, "Enjoy the rest of your date." At this, Collete's eyes widened and she blushed.
. . . . .
On their way to the palaeosaniwa enclosure, Jack told Collete how he, Aaron, Maria, Carmen, and Hugo had met.
They'd first met when Jack had been transferred from Australia to Costa Rica, to work at a Novum conservation centre for the many endangered reptiles and amphibians native to the Monteverde cloud forest. He'd met Aaron on the journey there and the two had become fast friends. Once they'd got there, Aaron had introduced Jack to some friends of his – Maria, Carmen and Hugo. The quintet had become fast friends – in Costa Rica, they had all shared an apartment.
After some months in Costa Rica, they'd been transferred to the Caribbean, working with the endangered endemic reptiles and amphibians. Going from island to island, they'd basically lived together until Jack had been transferred to China – a posting he deeply disliked, partly because of the weather and partly because he was so far away from the people he cared about.
He'd never told her that before. Of course he wouldn't have done – after all, this wasn't a date.
Eventually, they reached the palaeosaniwa enclosure. Upon their arrival, Geronimo, the large male, walked up to the fence at their arrival, hissing hungrily in anticipation of the food he knew that Jack was carrying. He stood by the fence and, as far as they could deduce from his unreadable face, stared at them expectantly, with a surprising intelligence in his cold, reptilian eyes.
As if noticing Collete's focusing on this, Jack stated, "Yeah, monitor lizards are pretty clever – probably about as smart as dogs. I have two ridge-tails and they can recognise me, respond to their own names – they can even do simple tricks. Not a lot of people know that." Collete chuckled, "Geronimo must recognise you, then." Jack nodded, "I think he associates me with food – whenever I come up to the fence, it's like ringing the dinner bell. He's also the top of the palaeosaniwa's pecking order, so he knows he eats first". As he said this, Jack threw a rat into the enclosure and Geronimo snapped it up, swallowing it whole. Once Geronimo had eaten Jack threw more rats in and the other four began to feed on the rats.
Jack turned to Collete and smiled, "One last stop."
. . . . .
After they left the palaeonisawa, their final stop was the dinilysia tank. As they approached the tank, a large female dinilysia slithered up to the glass and stared at Jack with her copper eyes. Opening the door to the tank, Jack reached in and picked the dinilysia up, draping her over his shoulders. The snake turned to look at Collete.
Smiling fondly, Jack rolled his eyes at the snake's expression, "Yes, I know I've brought somebody – this is Collete, by the way. Collete, this is Kaa." "W-well met", Collete said, almost chuckling at the strangeness of it all.
Jack picked Kaa up off his shoulders and placed her over Collete's. As he did this, he was fiving instructions, "Hold her gently, but firmly, be assertive but don't make any sudden movements. She's a constrictor, so she doesn't usually bite, but if she does she'll give you a lot of warning, darting her head around. If she does that, stand still and I'll pop her back into the tank."
Collete stood, as still as a tree, as Kaa, whose muscular coils had suddenly come to life, slithered down her shoulder, nosing through the folds of her shirt and slowly moving around her body. Kaa also responded, surprisingly for a reptile, well to having her chin stroked. Eventually, the session was over. Jack gently picked her up off Collete's shoulders and placed her back into the tank.
And now it was time to leave the Hell Creek forest building. Standing outside in the fading light, Collete turned to Jack and arched her lips into a soft smile, "I've had a good time with you today. Thank you." Jack said, mildly flustered, "Don't worry about it… see you tomorrow?" He gave an awkward smile. Collete giggled and they both walked off into the night.
Alternate titles are either Jackolette: The Chapter or Collete is A Dork: The Chapter