As soon as the contents of the bucket hit the water, the chitinous forms mobilized. Greedily, the arthropods surged toward the fish and chum, wrestling with each other for the best morsels. Occasionally, two would fight over a particular piece of flesh, but with so much available, these fights never lasted long. Sometimes a morsel got buried in the sand, but these hunters had the limbs needed to sift through the grains to locate their food. The frenzy lasted five minutes, after which the hunters swam off, bellies filled for the moment.

Ai smiled – she loved feeding these eurypterids. Pentecopterus were quite like those Megalograptus Nigel had encountered chasing orthocones, but much larger. Though outclassed by Pterygotus and Jaekelopterus, these were still some of the largest eurypterids to ever live, and certainly the largest in their family. Their usual foods were a mixture of jawless fish and trilobites, but they had readily adapted to eating modern fish, and they'd already spawned a few times, making them one of the park's early success stories.

Hopefully, they could add more species to that roster in the future.

"I thought I might find you here."

"You're not one to lose old habits, are you?"

Ai let out a chuckle. "No, I'm not." Then she glanced to her right.

Two figures had taken up viewing spots on the rail beside her – one of them was Mrs. Jones, who still radiated a matronly aura. The other was an African-American man, past his prime, but still filled with a sense of wonder at seeing an extinct species in the flesh. It wasn't the first animal he had seen – that had been a Camarasaurus – but it was still a wondrous sight to behold.

"So, Bernie," asked Ai, "how do you think I did?"

The older man smiled. "I expected you to go far. You left those expectations in the dust."

Ai flashed a grin. "Thanks. It means a lot from you."

"Well, you certainly deserve his praise," said Mrs. Jones. "I'm not surprised how far you've gone – I was in your shoes before – but this takes conservation and animal keeping to a whole different level."

"It does."

Ai thought back to the day she'd first received the offer to work at Goodwin House. She'd still been working on getting enough money to fund her years at graduate school – even with her parent's help, she'd only had enough squirreled away to get through college. Nancy had been a great guide there, helping her learn the ropes without being either too forgiving or too condescending. Ai had done well enough that Bernie had asked her to stay on with him and help with his efforts toward simian conservation. That had posed its own set of challenges, particularly working with chimpanzees – you did not want to enrage those apes. Fortunately, while there had been a few close calls, she'd managed to avoid enraging mankind's closest kin into attacking her. Her successes there had lead him to offer her the challenge of handling his special panda-focused zoo and, well, things had ballooned from there.

Ai had made a lot of friends working at Bernie's zoos. Made a few enemies too, especially with a certain incompetent hedge-fund manager who didn't know the first thing about animal care. She'd felt her heart broken when Bernie disappeared in the Arctic, betrayed when she was fired despite turning a string of failing zoos into smashing successes, and very satisfied when she finally managed to redeem Bernie's name after her forced removal from his staff. Surprisingly, she'd even found herself falling in love – she'd met Wyatt while working with Bernie's daughter with her plans regarding the Nevada State Eco-Zoo. Apparently he'd wanted to take a break from time spent at rollercoaster parks. A few months later, and the Bernie-Goodwin Memorial Zoo had been hosted its very first wedding, much to the joy of Nancy and Emma.

Working with Bernie's legacy had changed Ai – while she had still pursued her graduate studies in zoology, she'd found that the zoo life was for her. If nothing else, she could show off what she learned at lectures within the zoos – Bernie liked have staff that could do this. Wyatt had been a little surprised, but he had adapted – he may have had some interest in genetics and paleontology, but as an engineer, he had room to adjust. Besides, they had each other. When one had friends, love, and enough stability to not worry about the future, well, life was good.

Funnily enough, it had been her time at Goodwin House that had sowed the seeds for Prehistoric Park, and then Prehistoric Kingdom – while she had been helping refurbish that zoo, Nigel had been a guest lecturer. He'd had a chat with Ai, and the two had established an acquaintance – friendships took time to build, and only after work had begun on the park did Ai come to view Nigel as a friend. Still, she had made enough of an impression on him that, when Nigel began working on creating his extinct species park, he'd asked her to help him run the place…okay, that wasn't exactly the truth.

Before they'd created the time portal (which was a tale that Ai and Wyatt hadn't divulged the whole truth about), they'd initially been interested in trying to see if a real version of Jurassic Park could be pulled off - Wyatt had made surprising headway in constituting the genome of extinct plants, and his interests had caused him to cross paths with Ichirou Suma, since he had found similar luck in restoring recently extinct animals. It seemed they might actually have been able to make headway with bringing back, if nothing else, extinct plants and creatures like the Thylacine, the Ground Sloths, and Mammoths.

Then the dodo incident had happened, leading to the death of Ichirou and Sumire Suma's assistant Kallen Yamada. Everyone agreed to never reveal what had occurred – some secrets were best to remain secret. The project had stalled following these events, with the tiny team they'd assembled seeing many among its numbers lose hope. But not everyone had backed down – Sumire and Ichirou had needed time and counseling, but they had leaned on each other and kept pushing forward. Wyatt and Ai, meanwhile, had been determined to bring an extinct species park into reality.

The discovery of the time portal had come during this time, and after much difficulty negotiating with the government (because of course the feds would find this out, though luckily it hadn't been because Madeline had snitched on them – it seemed their faith in the CIA Agent had been rewarded this time), they'd managed to secure more funds to aid them. As it turned out, the British were attempting something similar, and had the backing of the esteemed Lord Robert Winstone and some of his more….eclectic extended family – eclectic being used as a courtesy here. Winstone had apparently hand picked Nigel to help him create an extinct animal park, which had lead to an awkward reunion among acquaintances.

While the Caribbean had been chosen to host the flagship park (both to cash in on the hype of the Jurassic Park franchise and, more importantly, because it had been the most inexpensive location that still met all of the other needed criteria – and also that there was something else to merit study there), other locations had been marked for creating potential future parks – Tanzania, Jordan, and Costa Rica were all in the running, as were Spain and the Yukon. Familial connections had also helped here – a portion of the California Redwoods had been set aside for future development, and Winstone had even secured land in the UK to build in Goldfinch Fields. Firstly, though, they needed to get this park running a tight ship.

That, of course, would mean that she needed to talk to Wyatt more about their special side project – the one that was on a need to know basis.

"Lost in thought?" asked Nancy.

"Yeah. Just thinking about what we'll need to do to get this place ready for public viewing. Might need Wyatt to help with some of the attractions."

Bernie raised an eyebrow. "I thought he specialized in making rollercoasters?"

"He does, but he's got some general experience with setting up theme parks as well. This is his first time working with a dinosaur park, but what's the fun in playing safe. Though he is wondering if Crowny will get into a fight with Gulpee."

Nancy smiled. "You really do know when to put caution to the wind and take a necessary risk."

"Thanks again."

Ai smiled as she said that, but soon her face was marred with a frown, which wasn't lost on Nancy or Bernie.

Mrs. Jones cleared her throat. "Is something wrong?"

Ai thought for a moment, then nodded. "Look, we need to start planning how to advertise this place if we want to get guests, right?"

"Well, of course. Don't we have Tiffany and Emma looking into that?" asked Bernie.

"Yeah, but I think they could use some help. Wyatt sent me some recommendations, but I also think using streaming platforms to help spread the word once we go public would be helpful. And my son, at least, knows two moderately popular influencers to help with that. One's already here, the other should be arriving on the day of the Velociraptor mission."

"Well," said Nancy, "I don't see the problem with that."

Ai glanced at her mentor in animal keeping. "Both of them are my son's exes – amicable, but still."

Nancy blushed slightly at that. "Oh. Well, is that the only problem?"

"No. The other is some…familial issues with the second of the two girls, Emilia."

Nancy raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with her family?"

Ai took a deep breath. "Her full name is Emilia Augustine Gallo Myers."

Nothing happened for a moment. Then the duo blanched. "Wait," said Bernie, "you don't mean-"

"Yeah. I do. She's his."

XxXxX

Gallo-Myers Residence, Arizona.

Isabel watched as her daughter packed away the last of her luggage for the coming trip. "Did you really need to pack that much? They have washing machines where you're staying. Wealth should be flaunted, but what you brought seems a bit much."

"Thank you mother, but I know what I am doing."

No, you don't – you're still angry about that breakup. "Well, at least try to enjoy the job."

"…I'll try."

"You better," spoke her husband. "It would not speak well of us if you failed at the position you're being offered."

Oh, did he have to put it that way? "Was that tone necessary, honey?"

"…Perhaps not."

"It's fine," said Emilia. "Listen, if I find anything out you can use, then I will-"

"Stop."

Emilia was blindsided by her father's comment. "Huh?"

"You will do no such thing."

"What? Why?"

"Let me ask you something: do you still have feelings for that boy?"

"Eh?"

"Do you wish to be close again with that girl you once called a friend?"

"…..A little."

"Well, then I suggest you don't try to help me."

"….But I thought you hated Mrs. Thompson."

Her husband grumbled. "Oh, yes, I do – anyone who tarnishes the name of Dominic Myers deserves to be punished. Harshly. But I'd rather not use my daughter as a pawn in a revenge scheme – especially if it involves former loves. So please, focus only on yourself. Is that clear?"

"…Crystal."

XxXxX

AN: Finally done. The story of Ai, and some of the park's origins, has been given light. Read and Review at your leisure! This is Flameal15k, signing off!