Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 3

 A happy early Mothers Day to all of the ladies out there!

Chapter 3

 

Outback, Bootstrap Colony

 

A team of scientists sat on the top and inside their vehicles as they observed the distant herds of animals. From their vantage point, they were upwind and reasonably safe at over a kilometer away. The herds were slowly moving on their migration path; individual herds had started to merge together into larger and larger herds. The scientists used binoculars, a scope, and drones to observe a T-Rex family as they interacted and hunted a nearby herd of Hadrosaurs.

The predators were the usual mix of ages. There were at least two adults and two subadults, plus some rambunctious teenagers and some juveniles. The youngest had the most energy and tried to hunt smaller game near the family.

A clack of jaws and a look from mom made them stop and slink back to the tree line. Their antics had gotten the herd looking in the direction of the predators, something that the adults obviously did not want to happen.

“You’ll note there is no sign of a beak on any of the animals,” Doctor Diego Fuentes said as he manned the main scope and took a series of images with the camera attached to his scope. He had been a zookeeper in Mexico before he’d been brought to the new world. He had existed with his wife Dora in the south as ranchers under Jack at Copper Town for several years. When the science community really took off at the Capital, they’d moved to the Capital base to take over the Zoo and work in the university and museum.

He had started out knowing very little English and having to rely on his wife or electronic translators to communicate with the others. However, over the years, he had picked up enough English to communicate fluently, albeit with an accent.

He wanted scientific observations of the animals in order to better know how they will interact in the Zoo and also to report back to the scientific community on Earth. The last thing he wanted was a report with his name on it making him a laughingstock in that community. He wanted respect.

“Yes, I’m certain Mitch will appreciate that,” Sean replied in exasperation. Mitch had observed a family of T-Rex that had a growth like a beak on their snouts. He of course hadn’t spent a lot of time with detailed observations at the time having such a close encounter. After that he’d managed to keep encounters at a much further distance which had not made for easy observation.

Other animals had been observed with a beak-like structure on the front of their muzzles. It had been later determined to be a mix of coloration and keratin structures. The animals, however, had lips for the most part. Only a few dinosaurs were known to have a beak like the ceratopsians and oviraptors.

Sean was a teen but had qualified as a vet, shooter, and rancher. He had agreed to take the group out since he knew the area. That had saved security from sending an additional detail to guard them.

They had yet to spot an elusive stegosaurus. There was one maddening video of an animal in a migration but none since. It was one of many questions they wanted resolved. Given that Stegosaurus were supposed to be extinct at the time of the Chicxulub impactor, the asteroid that had killed the majority of the big dinosaurs and ended the Cretaceous period, it was an anomaly that they wanted to resolve before presenting it to the scientists on Earth.

The vets and biologists had set up camera traps and drones to monitor and observe animal populations in various locations. They too were mostly too far away to get a lot of detail to resolve the “great beak debate.”

However, now that the team was closer, they had confirmed that not only did therapod dinosaurs have lips, but they lacked the beak structure that Mitch had observed.

Paleontologists on Earth had debated the existence of lips on dinosaurs for some time. Soft tissue didn’t normally fossilize so it was theoretical for the most part. They now had definitive proof that, yes, they had lips.

The running joke about chickens with lips might hit a few people from time to time … right up until you saw a Rex or other predator curl said lips to show the mouth of sharp teeth hiding behind them. If anything they were even scarier.

Seeing a rex nibble a mate with those lips or display against rivals was something they were excited on reporting. The stuffy Doctor Fuentes was amassing all sorts of evidence to show off to the scientific community.

Doctor Fuentes wasn’t shy about calling that beak issue out every chance he could get, however. Sean wasn’t certain if it was to tweak Mitch, who wasn’t even there to appreciate it, or to just show that their fearless leader was in error and therefore mortal. The good doctor wasn’t above being caustic about pointing out the disparity in “proper documentation” between citizen scientists and professional scientists.

“I’m certain he’ll be grateful that you’ve confirmed that observation, Doc. Though in his defense, he was right about the feathers, and the structure in the video we have does confirm something on the muzzles of the animals he had such a close encounter with, Doctor,” Marjorie Jordan said patiently. She was a vet tech out of the East Village. She’d been taking classes to upgrade her qualifications in the capital and one of the courses was observing the animals in their native environment.

Steve Wasabi sighed and shook his head at that. The teen was also a student from East Village and just starting on his career in veterinary medicine.

“We have not found those animals though.”

“They could have died. If it was a parasite or abnormal growth, it could have made it harder for them to hunt and therefore detrimental to their long-term health,” Marjorie stated.

They were all talking at a stage whisper, being out in the bush meant that they had to be quiet to not disturb the fauna and in some cases, flora around them.

“You are pitching theories without any proof,” the doctor said in rich disapproval.

“Actually, Doctor, I am using what little observational evidence we have to pitch a hypothesis,” Steve stated flatly. Doctor Fuentes and Doctor Mallard were a bit stroppy about the difference between a hypothesis and theory. “But, I’ll welcome any additional evidence if and when it comes in.”

The doctor gave the student a bit of side-eye as if to show his disapproval and then sniffed and went back to glassing the predators.

Marjorie exchanged looks with the teen and then shrugged slightly and went back to their own observations. Sean stifled a chuckle from his seat nearby.

Marjorie had an old-fashioned clipboard with a cover. They’d tried using a tablet but the new batteries didn’t have the life span. The screens were also not bright enough to handle the glare of being out in the open. So, the old tried and true methods of paper and pen prevailed.

It just meant that the students had to type everything up back in base camp and tag photos and video clips or other evidence with time codes and such for later peer review, whenever that happened.

Doctor Fuentes wanted to house a Rex at the new zoo. It would be a crowning jewel if they could accomplish it. It would most likely have to be more than one though. You can’t have a pack animal live in isolation, and it wasn’t good for their mental health.

Getting solid data on the habits and habitat of the Rex and other animals that they preyed upon was therefore important.

The great migration would be underway soon enough. They would get a rough count of the animals as they passed the capital on their way south for the winter. The students were excited but dreading it. Excited to see so many animals up close but dreading having to film them. And also dreading having to take samples if possible.

Sean was dubious about that idea.

They were also dubious about having to go over every video feed and count animals. Sean had been working with the computer geeks to create some sort of tracking software to do it for them. Doctor Fuentes still wanted a personal check by the students.

They were dreading that most of all. It meant hours of boring viewing and note taking.

Marjorie checked the time and noted an observation. The Rex adults were trying to find a way to isolate an older Hadrosaur that was cropping at the branches of a bush. It seemed wise to them.

She wondered idly if it dangled itself out there out of some Lemming response or as deliberate bait to draw the predator's attention away from the babies in the herd. Certain birds were known to do that, act wounded to draw predators away.

She frowned and jotted the idea down and a note to herself to look up references if and when she brought it up with the class later.

They all jumped when the radio went off. “Turn that thing …,” Doctor Fuentes said crossly in Spanish before switching to English.

Marjorie had already turned the volume down and then plugged the jack of her headphones in. She cradled the headphones to one ear to listen to the report.

The doctor was already back to watching the herds. “Hopefully you didn’t disturb the hunt,” he grumbled in a stage whisper.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“Probably another radio check-in,” Doctor Fuentes grumbled, still intent on the herd. They were fanned out in a circle with the young in the center. Every other adult was looking up from time to time to watch the area, calmly chewing their cud.

One of the Hadrosaurs was near an embankment of sand and berries munching away. They’d already proven that the animals had a crop and gizzard and collected sand and gravel in it to process the plant matter that it ate.

Marjorie put the radio down once she’d heard the report twice. “The expedition is back.”

“What expedition?” Doctor Fuentes asked absently. She pointed up. He looked up and then frowned at her, clearly puzzled.

“The one to Earth,” she clarified.

Sean and Steve’s eyes lit with pleasure at the news.

“Oh,” he said and then blinked as he caught on. “Oh!”

“Yeah. They’ll be coming down at the next window. Oh, and by the way, there is a storm coming up from the south. Expect high winds tonight and then it to hit tomorrow sometime.”

The doctor sighed. “Always something interrupts us. I swear,” he muttered.

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