Trouble with T-Rex

The Trouble with T-Rex
by Christopher Pelletier

Copyright 2010

Dinosaurs were thought to be extinct. The truth is much more complicated than that. All
evidence suggested a mass extinction. Paleontologists tried to find missing
links, elusive bones, any traces to connect humans to the past in the epic quest of self-discovery of our species. At least, that’s what my professors at
Mars U tell me in class. Little did people know back then that those same dinos
were actually far away, both in location and in time.

My father was one of the specimen collectors for the Martian Dinosaur Preservation and Conservation Center—we just call it the Preserve. To date, there is no rival to the number of his successfully captured dinos--at least, not that I know of. When I was very young, he sometimes spoke of his adventures, going back in time, tagging the dinosaurs, and getting back home in
time for dinner. Most kids my age wanted nothing to do with their parents, and,
to a larger extent, I wanted my space, too, and I argued a lot with my folks.
But I have to admit that I wanted nothing more than to be a dinosaur collector,
too. But I'd never let my dad know that.

I'd been to the Preserve hundreds of times. Each time I acted like it was some big chore that was wasting my time. Secretly, though, my heart was pounding whenever I was there, seeing and hearing the living past. The presence of the dinos was surreal. How could such
huge creatures ever have existed? They were beautiful--and scary. I had always
wanted to see them in their natural habitat. Then an opportunity came.

I was a sophomore at Olympus Mons High School. Everyone knew me as the dino collector's
boy. It was expected that my dad's expertise was somehow passed on through the
genes, but I wasn't particularly good at math, so, naturally, science proved to be a difficult subject for me. I mean, the ideas of science thrilled me, but I couldn't get my brain around the numbers to see where the concepts had come from. Like my dad always said, "I don't know how our family transport works, but I love to use it." That was the relationship between me and science.

History was another topic that interested me, especially the history of Mars with its colonization and making it habitable for people by creating an artificial green house effect. The atmosphere warmed up, melting the polar ice cap, creating the small oceans and rivers of our planet. The people planted greenery like crazy to suck up the carbon dioxide and leave us oxygen. That was a couple hundred ofyears before I was born, but it fascinates me nonetheless. I was taught in junior high school that cause and effect is the ultimate nature of the universe. How interesting that history had kept to that axiom regarding thedisappearance of the dinosaurs.

As I recall, it was a Thursday evening when my dad came home late from work. I could tell his
face was trying to conceal something. I'd already finished dinner and was doing
my homework on the computer when he could hardly contain his enthusiasm.

"Kal," he said, "Laro and I were going to get some triceratops in a couple of
weeks. They're the ones with the three horns."

He didn't need to tell me what my favorite dinosaur looked like. I knew very well about the
two horns protruding just beneath its flared-out shielded skull, along with the
one horn sticking out from its beaked snout. As fierce as it looked, it was
actually a mild plant eater. Several specimens were already in the Preserve,
but I guess you can't have too many.

"Yeah?" I said, waiting to see where the conversation was going.

"Well, we decided that you're old enough now. I know it's not playing dodge ball or
anything like that, but if you like, you can come along."

Did I hear him correctly? "You mean I can go with you two?"

"That's my meaning. Unless you're too busy or don't want to."

"No, no. I want to." I let my excitement slip. My dad's face rounded into a tanned,
wrinkled smile.

"Well, we'll need to brief you, because, as you can guess, this is dangerous work.
Safety is first and foremost. It's not a game, Kal. It's gathering wild animals for
Martians."

"Yeah, I get it. I want to come."

My dad took out a small disc case from his pocket and handed it to me. "Well, in addition
to your regular homework, you'll need to study this. You've got two weeks.
It'll tell you about protocols, risk management, chronological adherences…"

The list of professional terms that he rattled off faded out. All that I thought about were
triceratops. I snatched the disc from him when he finished and said, "Thanks. I'll look at this."

He gave me a smile and headed to the living room to talk with my mom. I could hardly
wait to dive into the material. I took my public speaking school disc out of
the computer and flung it on the floor. The disc with the dino information
couldn't get into the drive fast enough. The slight whir of the machine’s
components told me that happiness was about to be mine. The crystals on my desk
lit up and the mid-air hologram began.

The introduction, which was narrated by a colleague of my dad's from the
university, was a bit dry and pedantic. "Dinosaurs existed millions of years ago, some were carnivorous whereas others were herbivores…” Blah, blah, blah. Tell me something I don't know.

My dad wanted me to study this, and he seemed really serious, which meant if I didn't take
this seriously I wouldn't be going dino hunting. I endured the rest of the
introduction since I couldn't fast forward through it and got to the
interactive menu. I swiped the air which brought me to the section on time
travel, as I had no idea how time travel worked. At first, the thought of it
kind of scared me a bit. To me, time travel seemed like standing on the edge of
a very tall building with a strong wind behind you. So much could go wrong
during the transport process when going back in history, and then you would be
dead, and worse yet, lost somewhere in infinity with no body left to be buried.

After a perusal of time travel—at least enough to give me some sense of reassurance about how
safe it is--I got into the nanites section and learned how advanced
nano-technology had become. I knew from history that people on Earth and Mars
had used it for medical and military purposes long ago, but I had no idea about how far the
technology had come. It was something I never thought about, even though my dad
used it all of the time. I'm not sure exactly of the science behind nano time
travel, but from what I gathered, after my quick studies, the nanites can be
programmed to create a shell around an object and slip into another dimension,
transporting the object within the shell to the desired location. It has been used
for centuries for space travel, but obviously the real breakthrough was when
scientists discovered how to use nano-technology for time travel.

My studies with the disc lasted for days. Basically my understanding of the procedure was that
I'd be transported to the past, have to set up some field for temporal transport, and be very cautious of the specimens, since they were often unpredictable. It sounded exciting and fun, so I was really looking forward to that part of the trip.

Around that time, Sila, the girl I'd been dating, wanted to meet on the same weekend I was
scheduled to go back in time. Needless to say, she was a bit disappointed with
my refusal, but I promised that I'd make it up to her and take her somewhere
special. I had no idea where, of course, but I needed to reassure her that we
were still a dating couple. Sila's blonde hair was something I wanted to stroke
and smell again. She seemed satisfied with my counter-proposal, and we were to
have a date the following weekend. She ended the conversation by saying,
"See you later." The strange thought occurred to me, though, that if
I wanted to, I could see her earlier, with the help of the nanites. Silly
thoughts. This weekend, I'd be going back in time on another planet.

I woke up early for once and went with my dad in our family's transport to the Preserve's
research facility. My dad asked me if I was nervous, and I lied. He might not
have let me go with him and Laro, if he had known the truth.

What was the truth? I was a bit scared of the process of time travel. It's funny when I
think about that. I should've been far more afraid of the dinos than the nanites. I mean, the nanites don't consider humans food. But I felt safe knowing that the dinos that we were after didn't have Kal on the menu.

The thought of going to another planet, interested me, too. I'd never been to Earth before.
Some of my friends had taken vacations there, but my father was always too busy with his work to bring us anywhere. So my mom and I had just gone to different places on Mars. Earth was bigger, so the gravity would be stronger, and I'd feel more of a pull, my father warned. But I was young and full of energy, so I figured that I wouldn't be kept down and complain about it.

We arrived at the Preserve's transport facility and met Laro inside a huge, spacious area
that had a large, black octagonal black metal platform in the middle. Our equipment was stacked on it. Enormous temporal nodes, much larger than the ones that we would use to get the dinos and get back to Mars, hung suspended from the ceiling. Laro had stayed the night preparing things for the hunt.

I followed Laro and my dad into a changing room connected to the transport chamber. We got
dressed into our sleek, skintight suits which incorporated nano-technology and could adapt to most any surroundings for camouflage, rendering us almost invisible. That helps with many predators, my dad said. After that, we double-checked our equipment on the platform: the portable temporal nodes, spare power packs, taggers, scopes, water, food snacks, and a small tool kit. It seemed like everything was operational and in good condition.

"All set?" Laro asked me.

"Yeah, I watched the training disc and can remember most everything."

Laro's tanned face smiled. "Well, the disc does have some good theoretical information.
Out in the field, though—well, you've got to be able to adapt. That training
disc can only do so much to help prepare you. We've got to watch out for each
other. That's the most important rule. No dino's worth any of us getting hurt
over."

Perhaps if my father had said that, his words might have been wasted. But coming from Laro,
whom I'd known for many years and thought of more like an uncle, I respected
his opinions and knew better than to ignore what he was telling me.

We were ready to go back in time and visit the new world. We got onto the platform and stood
next to our equipment. An operator's voice announced into the space, "Temporal transport in five minutes. Please, prepare yourselves."

A gun above our heads shot out streams of nanites, tagging our equipment. I checked my computer vambrace on my left arm to make sure everything was synched with the group. The
display had the option for vital signs, locators, communicators, environmental changing, and coordinate setting for the return back to Mars. My feet could hardly keep still. My father
looked at me, and gave me a "Stop that" look. Laro looked too, and smiled.

"OK. Put on your hood, mask, and visor," my dad said. Laro and I followed his instructions.

"Enable your vambrace unit to be in sync with central control."

Laro checked his, I checked mine. We both gave thumbs up.

"Twenty seconds to transport," said the operator.

"Dad," I said.

"Yes, Kal?"

"I…I just want to say…"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

My dad gave me a nod just as I heard, "Power transfer operative, systems go. Transport."

The next thing I heard was a buzzing, mixed with a clicking noise. I felt like a swarm of
insects was smothering my body. The mask was stifling and stuffy. I started to find breathing difficult. My mind started to panic, worrying that I wasn't going to be able to breathe. Hyperventilation kicked in. I wanted the process to stop so I could catch my breath. But it was too late. The visor's irises closed shut leaving me in the dark. I closed my eyes anyway.
I felt pressure on my body, pushing me in different places. Ripples of touch cascaded all along
my suit. What was touching me? I had no idea. I was going back in time. It got harder to breathe. The disc mentioned that it would be difficult to breathe and to remain calm during the transport process. But it seemed like it shouldn't be this difficult to breathe. Maybe something was wrong. My eyes opened wide, but were still locked in the darkness of the visor. I had to get that stupid mask off. I couldn't breathe at all!

My legs felt heavy, and then gave way. I was falling. How far, I couldn't tell. My knees
felt like they hit something, and then I felt pressure on my chest and shoulders. My visor opened, and I saw my dad's face with a look of such concern that I had ever seen before--or since. His hands yanked my mask off, and I swallowed down the fresh air in heaping gulps like an old-time astronaut who had just arrived after a long two-year trip to Mars. The air tasted different, though, more alive and wilder than the air on Mars.

Laro came over to me, checking out my face and examining my eyes. Once he saw that I
recovered, he smiled and slapped me on the shoulder. "You're all right, kid. Get up and let's find our dinos."

My father looked at Laro, a bit disapprovingly, but gave way to the man’s easygoing
nature by relaxing his face muscles, smiling and then helping me up.

"Welcome to Earth, son."

It was amazing. The plant life that had been transported and cultivated on Mars for the dinos
seemed lacking in diversity compared to what I could see around me. I didn't study botany, but I know that when the Martians came to get samples for the Preserve, they had to have been on Cloud Nine. The sky was much bluer than the sky above Mars, and I could see some strange bird-like creatures flying. I realized that I was seeing pterodactyls in their natural habitat without the confines of the steel mesh domes to contain them.

We'd arrived at a place which would be known much later on as North America. I was still trying to process the fact that I was actually millions of years in the past with my dad and Laro. The temperature was warmer here than it was when we had left Mars. My dad wasn't kidding about the gravity being stronger. I felt like I was carrying three computers on my shoulders. I knew over time I'd get used to it. I mean, my dad did, so of course I could.

I took a moment to get my bearings, while Laro and my dad started to sort through the gear. The high sun told me that it was afternoon. It seemed so much bigger from where I stood, but then again, Earth is closer than Mars. We were on a hill near a lake. A mountain range stretched in the distance with snow capped peaks. The resemblance to Elysium Mons was remarkable. Isolated trees sprinkled the grassy landscape and interesting fauna was scattered on the ground, like someone had dropped them from the sky. It seemed an ideal spot to come across triceratops.

Laro held up a portable dino-locator in both hands and focused on the screen. The device had a
ten-kilometer range for detecting bio signs, accounting for mass, temperature, and movement. My dad brought one home one day, and I could make out what everyone in my neighborhood was doing. I played around with it for hours. Now I saw it in use as it was intended to be.

"There's a herd of five about six kilometers off that way," Laro said indicating the direction with his outstretched arm. "They don't seem to be in any particular hurry, so perhaps they're grazing. It's a male, two females and two calves."

The fact that Laro could tell their gender impressed me. My face must have shown amazement,
because he gave me a quick, knowing wink. He looked to my dad, "So, what's the plan, boss?"

"Let's get our stuff together and run ahead of them, cutting them off. We'll set up the
perimeter, tag them, get them through, and call it a day."

"Sounds good to me," Laro said.

I just shrugged, as I was just along for the ride.

As my dad and Laro put on the straps of the kits, I looked in the direction of the herd. I
put on my visor and adjusted it for long-distance sight. I could see them ambling through the grass. The whole family was there.

"Hey, Kal, quit daydreaming and help with this stuff, will you?" my dad said. I didn't care for his tone. It was the one he used when he was stressed. I guess that he was under pressure to get the dinos and keep us from getting hurt. Still, I didn't like being scolded in front of Laro like that.

I put on my suit's hood and picked up the food containers. We all were fairly loaded down,
and with the gravity difference, it was really heavy. My dad said, "Okay, let's go into camo-mode and hike it quickly to cut them off. Got it?"

"Got it," said Laro.

"Got it," I said with a sigh and roll of my eyes at his officious tone.

We activated our vambraces, and the nanites on the suits’ surface adapted to the environment. It was like I was looking through my dad and Laro. The packs they carried seemed to be floating in the air. It was a nice optical illusion.

'Time and tide wait for no man,' a professor of mine had once quoted. The herd might pick up
its pace, and we'd lose them before nightfall, so we had to march in double time. Protocol demanded that catches had to be done during daylight hours, and the collectors would return to Mars before nightfall on Earth. I thought it fortunate that we had arrived where we did, being so close to that herd. That disc my dad gave me had explained about the ultra-difficult formula used to calculate the probability of when and where dinos would be. The math was a bit beyond me, but obviously there was something to it, as we were going after a herd that we found almost immediately after we had arrived.

As we shuffled through the grass, either the food container got heavier, or my body was just
not used to the new gravity. With every step, I kept trying to reassure myself, "It's only a little farther.” But I would frequently get disappointed when I looked up, and saw that the waypoint that my dad had set up for us wasn't much closer. From time to time, I checked the advance of the dinos, but as Laro had said, they were in no particular hurry.

After an hour, or so, we managed to get ahead of our quarry. If they didn't do a sudden change
of direction, I estimated they'd be in our vicinity within one hour. We had some time to get ready for the round up. From the way my dad and Laro were talking, nabbing one calf didn't happen too often, much less two. I felt lucky enough to be there that day to be a part of the day’s hunt.

We pulled back our hoods and removed our masks. My dad and Laro grabbed a temporal node each. Laro handed me the third. I wanted some water, but it was business first.

With triangulation, all dimensions of the dinos are accounted for: depth, width, and height. A huge, solitary rock stretched out near our selected site. The rock would help with the roundup, Laro metioned, as we could channel the dinos with that natural barrier. That's why my dad chose it. It made sense. We had no walls to construct quickly. Our limited carrying capacity prevented us from bringing barrier units.

After separating and spreading out about eight meters apart in a triangular formation, my dad planted his temporal node stake into the ground close to the edge of the rock and used his vambrace to guide Laro and me into optimal positioning for the temporal transfer of the dinos.

"A bit more to the left Laro," my dad said. "Good. Good. That's it. Now, Kal, to the right a bit. Back up. That's good. Stop. We're set. Now for the test."

Laro walked to our equipment and removed the tagger from its container. Apparently the tagger projects nanites towards the desired target and surrounds the object, allowing a quick send to Mars once in the active field. Dad took out a stuffed green triceratops from the Gift Shop at the Preserve. I guess he did have a sense of humor, after all. He dropped the toy on the ground and said, "OK, Kal, stand back. Laro, blast it."

"Firing."

A humming and whirring emitted from the gun until Laro turned it off. "Five seconds until absorption. Four, three, two, one. It's good to go."

My dad picked up the dinosaur and handed it to me. "Give it a good toss into the triangle."

"OK." I said. I pitched it with all of my strength, testing to see if velocity was a factor. The nodes were active and lit up once the toy got into the triangle. The triceratops just disappeared. There was no flash of light from within the triangle. Nothing. Just instant transport.

"That's what happened to us back on Mars," Laro said.

"Well, everything seems calibrated and operational," my dad said.

"You know what that means, Kal?" Laro said.

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. "I have no idea."

"Get that container out that you've been hauling around all day. It's lunchtime," he said with a clap of his gloved hands.

The mention of food got me hungry. We had been so busy that I'd forgotten my stomach. I lugged the metal case over to my dad and Laro, and I cracked it open. Packaged food filled the inside. They were reminiscent of old time space travelers' food. Laro peered in and said, "What do we have today? Ah, some steak for you, boss."

Laro tossed the white and silver packet to my dad and rummaged around through the other packs. "Ah, curry for me. What are you hankering for, Kal?"

"Um. Is there a pizza?" I asked, half jokingly.

My dad rolled his eyes, and Laro chuckled. "A sausage pizza for our young apprentice coming right up."

He tossed me the packet. When I tore open the top, the contents remarkably did smell like a pizza. My dad said, "Go on. Put it in your mouth. It won't kill you."

I glared at him, and then squeezed the contents into my mouth. The food surprised me for a
second time. The mashed up contents within actually did taste like a pizza. This I could get used to.

"Yep, Kal," said Laro sitting on the ground with his back to the big rock. "This is the life. Eating processed food and waiting for dinos to make their way to the trap. How do you find it?"

I hadn't done too much yet except walk, carry around a box and help plant the nodes. "It's fun so far."

"No need to lie," said Laro with a smile. "We haven't done anything fun yet. Just you wait, though. There'll be plenty of excitement within the next few hours, I'll wager. So, eat up quick. By the way, could you throw me a cheesecake packet? Thanks."

I got up and searched around in the box. I found a cheesecake bag and threw it to him and
looked to my dad, who waved his hand and shook his head. So I grabbed a chocolate cake for me.

The three of us sat munching in silence. The waiting was tedious so I thought I'd start some
conversation. "Dad, since we can go back in time, can we go back to anytime we want?"

"I suppose with the right calculations, it would be possible. Why?"

I looked at the grass under me. "Oh, I don't know. I was thinking about Grandma—"

"Uh, oh, I can see where this is going," said Laro. He got up and went scrounging for more cake in the box.

"Your grandmother’s gone, Kal. She won't come back. That's an unfortunate truth."

"But we could go back and stop her from—“

"No, we can't."

"She was your mother. How can you be so cold?"

Perhaps I had pressed the wrong button. My dad threw his food packet to the ground and stomped off behind the rock, muttering unsavory phrases. Laro watched him go, shook his head, and looked at me. "Hey, Kal, I know you must miss her, like your dad does. He and I’ve often toyed with the idea of going back in time in recent history, like to see the first Martian landing, going to the celebration of the first year of the Martian colony—I heard they had quite a huge party—and even to go back and prevent Dalan from being born. Who knows? The War might never have happened if he'd never existed."

My mind was imagining that thought. The Martian Terror never having been born. Millions of
people would never have needlessly died. And I was so narrow-minded and selfish, only thinking about my family. I felt a bit ashamed.

"Did you know your dad even spoke of going back to save your grandma, just before the accident had happened? Maybe convince her to stay home, instead of crossing that street. Yeah, that was a bad time for your dad. I remember it well. He tried to carry on with work, but I knew he was hurting inside more than he would ever show."

During that hard time, my dad definitely had become a different man at home, too. He
wouldn't talk to my mother or me for months. I thought he was going to leave us
or kill himself or something. I missed Grandma a lot, as I still do today. Her
death was hard for me, too. I said to Laro, "I just thought we could help to bring her back."

"Well, your father and I had talked about it long and hard. I mean, we've got the technology at our disposal. And at one time, I tried to convince him to go back to that time with me to end his misery and help her to live. As tempting as the idea may have seemed, he never agreed and actually he had talked me out of it. As I see it now, he was right. If we had changed something in the past, we don't know how it would affect the universe and life as we know it. Cause and
effect are the ultimate law. You might never be born if you start messing with the past, which would create quite a paradox. The Martian Science Council of Ethics said it was too great of a risk and going back to intervene in human affairs was forbidden."

Laro's words spoke a higher truth. The council chose correctly, as did my dad.

"So, if I were you," Laro said, "I'd drop that whole personal travel idea. It could be bad for everyone."

I nodded and felt my face warm with a blush. Laro said, "Hey, don't feel bad. It's good to see that you loved your grandma. And now your father knows that, too, so that'll make him happy. Come on. Let's clean up this mess and get ready for the dino rodeo."

I smiled and got up off of the ground. My father came strolling back. He was about to say something to me, but Laro made a gesture telling him things were all right. My father
nodded and picked up the nanite gun. "Kal, come over here."

I walked over to him and noticed that he was adjusting some settings on the tagger. He showed
me the display and said, "This is where we program the nanites, telling them where to take the specimens. Today we're going to send them to Area Six with the other herbivores, as you can see here. It's penned off. We do that until they get acclimated to the new surroundings. Then we'll release them into the Preserve after a few months to mingle and take their chances with the carnivores."

"Um, speaking of which," Laro said looking towards the triceratops with his visor down. "I think we may have a slight hiccup in our plans."

Laro grabbed and held up the scanner, and my father and I closed in to see what was happening.

We could see the five in-bound triceratops, but not so far off was another large blip. My dad and I put on our visors and looked in the direction. I increased magnification and what I saw made my heart race a little faster. A T-Rex was in pursuit, perhaps wanting to try to get the calves.

"Damn," my dad said. "Just our luck, eh, Laro? Hm."

My dad went silent and scratched his chin in thought. Laro broke the silence, "Well, boss, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"For once, probably yes. It'll be tricky, but it would be a good score. We were just talking about getting another T-Rex soon anyway."

"That means we'll have to have bait."

"The triceratops should do nicely. Now, thanks to our T-Rex, the triceras might have extra incentive to go where we want them to go. We'll have to use the pyrotechnics to guide and channel them. They may be in a panic as they charge through."

"No problem. I'll take care of that."

I put the pieces together of what they were talking about. They were going to try to get
them all. "What do you want me to do, Dad?"

"Well, I want your suit to be in camo-mode and stand by safely out of the way. The situation
has changed with this rogue T-Rex, but it shouldn't be a problem. I'll be on the rock and tag the dinos as they come. I'll send the herd to Area Six and send the T-Rex to Area Three. Simple as that. Then we'll hop in ourselves and go home. Be sure to have your return setting ready on your vambrace."

"No problem."

"Good. Laro, get set up. I'll get on this rock for the high ground. We'll do this in camo-mode so no one gets hurt. Got it?"

"Got it," Laro and I said in chorus.

An excitement was filling up inside of me. It felt like controlled chaos. My dad and Laro were so sure of themselves. I figured that they must have been in this situation dozens of times before. But this was my first time around a T-Rex without being protected by a Preserve heavy transport. I must admit that I got a little worried, but I'd just stand by and go back to Mars with my dad and Laro. They seemed calm and acted like they knew what they were doing with such professional efficiency as they got the gear and took positions. I'd just be in the way, I figured, so I'd follow my dad's advice and simply stand back and enjoy the show. But I did feel like a heel for doing nothing.

The triceratops didn't keep us waiting too long. They were coming within range of the roundup
process. We went into camo-mode, and as before, I could not see either my dad or Laro with my naked eye. When I put my visor down, I tapped on my vambrace and my vision switched to detector mode. It was similar to the detector screen that Laro held up when they first arrived, but more limited in range. I could see my dad and Laro in position. The blips of the dinos grew closer to our location and the T-Rex was homing in on the herd. I wanted to really see them, so I disengaged the visor and went to default mode--seeing them with my unaided eyes.

The triceratops lumbered through the grass. They were enormous, even from where I was standing. Their yellowish-brown skin crinkled up as they walked with each step. Their horns stretched out in defiance. They continued their jaunt in no particular hurry.

Then came the roar from behind them.

Even though I knew a T-Rex was approaching, I was startled by the sheer volume and the eeriness of the giant predator's noise. I felt my hands and legs losing blood circulation. My pulse rate increased, but my breathing stopped. That sound drove itself deep within my mind and conjured up what felt like some ancestral memory. It terrified me. The fear kept me very alert, and I realized then that this was no game. I was standing on the edge of the building
and the wind was howling.

The small herd stopped its march and looked back. The lead bull bellowed and turned itself
around. Two cows and two calves continued on. The lead bull showed defiance, and looked willing to die to protect his children and mates. The T-Rex was running now, making up ground with large strides that thundered. A conflict was inevitable.

The cows and calves were veering away from the nodes, so Laro did his thing by setting off some pyrotechnics. The cows and calves bellowed at the sudden appearance of fire, but they headed in the direction of the triangle. In my intercom I heard Laro say, "Okay, boss, they're all yours."

"I've got them in my sights. Firing."

Over the noise of the approaching quartet, I heard the whir of the nanite tagger above me. The
nodes charged up and Laro set off one more burst of pyrotechnics. That kept them on track and the first triceratops entered the transport area and disappeared. The calves picked up speed at the missing cow and disappeared as well. The other cow was a bit stubborn, so Laro lit a pyro behind her, shouting and yelling. She raced forward with a holler and disappeared, as well. Now
there was only the bull and the T-Rex.

"I got the bull already," said my dad. "And now I'm adjusting for the Rex. It'll be here any moment."

The pounding of the ground beneath my feet told me it was nearly here, all right. I could hear
its heavy breathing from its running, its roars of intimidation. They were nearly deafening. The triceratops bellowed. It had taken a moment to look for its mates and offspring, but could not find them. Perhaps it lost heart; perhaps the confusion from their sudden disappearance was more than its small-ish brain could comprehend. So, slowly it started to back away from the
oncoming fight. But the T-Rex was obviously hungry and wasn't going to give up after making the effort to catch up. It was to be a clash of titans, and I was in the front row, or at least safely out of the way by the rock.

The T-Rex circled the Triceratops, which always had its horns to its enemy. The lone bull bellowed again, almost pitiably, and then Laro lit a pyro to encourage the triceratops to move.

"I'm going to go in before it does, so I can start processing the other four. Are you two
going to be Okay?" Laro said.

"We'll be fine," my dad said. "T-Rex is ready for transport now, and once the
dinos are through, we'll follow right behind."

"All right. See you all on Mars for dinner."

"We won't be long," my dad said.

"Take care, Kal," Laro said. I saw the nodes power up a bit brighter. Laro was
gone. As he was in camo-mode, I couldn’t see him leave, anyway. Now it was time
to get the two into the transport area.

The triceratops eased its way towards the rock and then made a dash for it. I could feel the
vibration on the earth and hear the rumble as it built up speed. The T-Rex hollered in frustration at its quarry trying to give it the slip. My palms were starting to get sweaty, seeing the big triceratops head my way like a maniac.

"Kal,” my dad said over the intercom, "just hang tight. Stay back and close to the rock. Make sure again that your vambrace is programmed for Mars."

I checked. "It's Okay, Dad."

"Good. I'm going to stay on the rock and record the event. Just keep clear, Okay."

As if I wanted to get hit by the dino.

Laro's pyrotechnic had scared the triceratops into the right direction. The dino was almost at the triangle transport area when I noticed that it wasn't quite running straight. Maybe something was wrong with it. The triceratops approached at a steady charge, and I instinctively took a couple of steps back. The dino slammed into the rock, which pushed the dino back onto the path towards the transport area. As it hit the rock, though, I heard shouting. Dad! He was falling!

While all this was happening, the enraged T-Rex leaped into the air and wanted to pounce on itsprey. But the behemoth was too late for its kill. The triceratops had disappeared to the safety of Mars.

I heard the scraping of the rock, and the node on a stake that my dad had set up close to the rock toppled over and lost its luminescence. My dad, in camo-mode, had knocked it over when he landed, right below where the T-Rex stood. It was then I saw it. My dad's suit had ripped during the fall. He was scraped up and blood was dripping from his wounds.

I know my dad wanted to scream out in pain—I would have. But then the T-Rex would have known exactly where he was. My dad must have tried to pull the suit together as best he could to cover his exposed flesh. The camo-mode held, because he was still mostly invisible. The blood, however, stirred the T-Rex. It snorted and sniffed very loudly. I could hear the light crunching of grass and dirt, as my dad tried to ease himself away from the dino towering above him.

The T-Rex dipped its big head, again and again, trying to find the source of the blood scent. But its beady eyes could not unite the smell with the visual. It hollered out, which made my core body temperature drop five degrees. I was frozen. My dad was in trouble. I had no idea what to do.

I heard over the intercom in a barely audible whisper, "Kal, I'm done. It's only a matter of time before the T-Rex gets me."

No! Tears of frustration started to well up at the grim reality.

"Just stay still," my dad said, "and after he gets me, set up the node again and get back to Mars. Do you understand me?"

"I'm not leaving you, Dad."

"You have no choice. He'll get me. I realize that now. Don't be scared. Don't panic."

How could he be so calm with his own death approaching?

"Just wait until it's gone," my dad said.

I wasn't going to let that damn dino get my dad. I saw the container of pyrotechnics a bit away from the rock, so I made my way over to them as quickly, but as quietly, as I could. My dad must have had his tracker vision on and figured what I was at. "No, Kal. Stay back."

"I have to try this, Dad."

"It's too dangerous. Your mother'll never forgive me if anything happened to you."

"She wouldn't be too happy with me if I let you anything happen to you."

The light crunching of grass that I made with each cautious step could scarcely be heard above the sniffing and snorting of the T-Rex. The closer I got to it, the more I could smell it. The blood and gore of former prey never seemed to wash off of it in the rain. I was thinking it would need to attack from downwind, if its pea-sized brain could grasp that tactic. Any dino with a good nose could smell him coming a kilometer away. But, no matter how clever it was, it was threatening my dad and getting too close.

After what felt like ten minutes, though it had only been seconds, I got to the pyro box. I
flipped open the lid and looked inside. Three cylinders remained. I tried to recall from the training disc how to use them. I wished they had given me a more thorough training before we had left. But this was supposed to be a routine trip. None of us had expected trouble from a T-Rex.

A loud crunch and muffled, lip bitten cry of pain came from behind me. Although the dino could not see my dad, the T-Rex stepped on his leg. I imagined the bones splintered into millions of pieces under all that weight. I had to act fast, or else the next step would be on my dad's chest.
I grabbed a pyro and skimmed the instructions written on the red cylinder, all the while
hurrying away from the rock and the dino. The directions strongly advised against holding onto it, but rather to set the timer and put it down. I turned the knob on top, ignoring the timing protocol, and yanked down my hood.

A burst of Martian Red fire and sparks showered the ground, heating up my hand. I worried
that my hair would catch on fire. The suit protected my hand, but my head was vulnerable. "Hey!" I shouted at the T-Rex. "Hey, you damn dino! Come on over here. You can see my head, can't you?"

I waved the flare back and forth and jumped up and down, though I couldn't get as high with
my jumps as I could on Mars. The distraction worked. The T-Rex's head jerked my way, and it shot a wicked glance. The dino opened its enormous mouth, roaring out and salivating on the ground. Its small eyes found their target, and the T-Rex raced forward towards me.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it," I said as I ran away, as fast as I could, with the flare in my right hand. I grabbed my hood with my left hand and could hear the giant footfalls right behind me getting closer.

Don't look back, I told myself. I got the hood on with a bit of difficulty, then worked the mask on. The camo-mode was still engaged. The flare went flying as I tossed it off to my right. I turned sharply to my left at a ninety-degree angle and ran for all I was worth. Adrenaline superseded Earth's gravity.

The T-Rex followed the flare, which had hit the ground and ignited some of the surrounding grass. Confusion was my ally. The dino would not approach the flame, but sniffed out for its prey. I used the opportunity to race back to the rock and my dad. I knew he had to be in pain, and I also knew that I had to get him back to Mars as soon as possible. But traveling back to our planet wasn't an option at the moment The node was down.

"Kal," I heard on the intercom, "you stupid boy, thank you."

"No time now, Dad. The stake with the temporal node is on the ground inactive. And I imagine our T-Rex will be back once the flare goes out."

"Okay. Get the stake back into the ground."

I grabbed the two-meter long black rod that had a pointed end at the bottom and shoved it into the ground. The sudden movement and noise caught the attention of the T-Rex. Though we were invisible, the smell of blood was still in the air. The dino roared and started back to the rock.

"Kal?"

"I almost got it set. I just need to reset it. I'll turn off the power switch and then back on--there it is."

The node hummed back to life.

"Good," my dad said. "Now, go in and don't argue. Go home!"

I didn't have the energy to argue. I selected tracking mode on my visor, found his body and grabbed on. I switched back to normal vision and saw the T-Rex coming our way, swinging its large head from side to side, roaring and baring its teeth.

At first, I dragged my dad behind me, but then stopped. I realized that if I entered the field first, I would've disappeared, and my dad would have been stuck with the T-Rex. "Dad, can you get up?"

"My leg was crushed by that T-Rex."

"Get up, Dad, or we're both dead!"

"Damn it, Kal! I told you to go!"

He pushed himself to his knee. I yanked him up and he put his arm on my shoulder which he
grabbed in response to the pain. My dad hopped once, twice, and then I shoved him into the triangle.

"Kal, no!"

He was gone.

I spun around to see jaws filled with daggers lunging at me. The dino must have been following the last of the blood scent. I dropped to the ground as the huge body just passed over me, drowning my eardrums with its deafening roar. I saw the underbelly storm into the triangular transport area, and right after the tail had passed overhead, I turned my head just in time to see the T-Rex disappear--presumably to Mars, but at that moment I didn't care. I was just all too happy to see it gone. Breathing was hard, and my heart would not stop pounding in my chest. I thought it was going to burst.

I took several moments to relax, lying on the grass. There was no more threat. The ordeal was
finished. I stood up defying the heavier gravity, and surveyed Earth one last time. The greenery was a fine sight. I took a deep breath, nodded to the new world in a salute saying "See you again," and then stepped into the triangle. My visor went black.

When I arrived back on the transport platform on Mars, I saw some medics attending my dad's
leg on the floor of the chamber where all of this had started. Laro, standing by the medics, looked up at me. I undid my mask and visor, removed my hood, and stepped to the edge of the platform.

"Kal!”

Laro said. “Thank the powers. When your dad came back alone like this, I was so scared—“

"How is he?" I said. The anxiety in my voice couldn't be hidden.

"I'm fine, considering," my dad said while lying on his back. He turned his head and looked at me with a smile. "Your mother'll be happy tonight."

"No she won't, when she sees your leg."

"Well, maybe it will mean an early retirement from dino hunting. She'll like that," he said, chuckling at his own joke. "Come here, Kal."

I stepped off of the platform and knelt at my dad's side. He put his hand through my hair.

"Thanks, son. You did well."

"Yeah," said Laro. "Now the Preserve has five new triceratops, a new T-Rex, and its best specimen collector back alive—not to mention a new dino collector-in-training."

My dad looked at Laro and said, "After University."

Considering the adventure that I just had on Earth, and especially after hearing my dad's
unspoken approval of Laro's suggestion, I couldn't wait to finish school.

As things stand, I’ve only got one more year until graduation from Mars U. My grades aren't too bad--even in science--and the Preserve has already accepted my request for employment as a specimen collector. I guess Laro and my dad put up some convincing arguments on my behalf. Soon I'll be able to continue where my dad left off and go back to Earth to get more dinos for the benefit of every Martian and fulfill my childhood dream.