Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 3

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

 

Outback,Bootstrap Colony

 

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

The predatorswere 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 mostenergy and tried to hunt smaller game near the family.

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

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

He had startedout knowing very little English and having to rely on his wife or electronictranslators to communicate with the others. However, over the years, he hadpicked up enough English to communicate fluently, albeit with an accent.

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

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

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

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

They had yetto spot an elusive stegosaurus. There was one maddening video of an animal in amigration 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 Chicxulubimpactor, the asteroid that had killed the majority of the big dinosaurs andended the Cretaceous period, it was an anomaly that they wanted to resolvebefore presenting it to the scientists on Earth.

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

However, nowthat the team was closer, they had confirmed that not only did therapoddinosaurs have lips, but they lacked the beak structure that Mitch hadobserved.

Paleontologistson Earth had debated the existence of lips on dinosaurs for some time. Softtissue didn’t normally fossilize so it was theoretical for the most part. Theynow had definitive proof that, yes, they had lips.

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

Seeing a rexnibble a mate with those lips or display against rivals was something they wereexcited on reporting. The stuffy Doctor Fuentes was amassing all sorts ofevidence to show off to the scientific community.

DoctorFuentes 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 toappreciate it, or to just show that their fearless leader was in error andtherefore mortal. The good doctor wasn’t above being caustic about pointing outthe disparity in “proper documentation” between citizen scientists andprofessional scientists.

“I’m certainhe’ll be grateful that you’ve confirmed that observation, Doc. Though in hisdefense, he was right about the feathers, and the structure in the video wehave does confirm something on the muzzles of the animals he had such a closeencounter with, Doctor,” Marjorie Jordan said patiently. She was a vet tech outof the East Village. She’d been taking classes to upgrade her qualifications inthe capital and one of the courses was observing the animals in their nativeenvironment.

Steve Wasabisighed and shook his head at that. The teen was also a student from EastVillage and just starting on his career in veterinary medicine.

“We have notfound those animals though.”

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

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

“You arepitching 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 aboutthe difference between a hypothesis and theory. “But, I’ll welcome anyadditional evidence if and when it comes in.”

The doctorgave the student a bit of side-eye as if to show his disapproval and thensniffed and went back to glassing the predators.

Marjorieexchanged looks with the teen and then shrugged slightly and went back to theirown observations. Sean stifled a chuckle from his seat nearby.

Marjorie hadan old-fashioned clipboard with a cover. They’d tried using a tablet but thenew batteries didn’t have the life span. The screens were also not brightenough to handle the glare of being out in the open. So, the old tried and truemethods of paper and pen prevailed.

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

DoctorFuentes wanted to house a Rex at the new zoo. It would be a crowning jewel ifthey 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 theirmental health.

Getting soliddata on the habits and habitat of the Rex and other animals that they preyedupon was therefore important.

The greatmigration would be underway soon enough. They would get a rough count of theanimals as they passed the capital on their way south for the winter. Thestudents were excited but dreading it. Excited to see so many animals up closebut dreading having to film them. And also dreading having to take samples ifpossible.

Sean wasdubious about that idea.

They werealso dubious about having to go over every video feed and count animals. Seanhad been working with the computer geeks to create some sort of trackingsoftware to do it for them. Doctor Fuentes still wanted a personal check by thestudents.

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

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

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

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

They alljumped when the radio went off. “Turn that thing …,” Doctor Fuentes saidcrossly in Spanish before switching to English.

Marjorie hadalready 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 doctorwas already back to watching the herds. “Hopefully you didn’t disturb thehunt,” he grumbled in a stage whisper.

“What is it?”Steve asked.

“Probablyanother 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 otheradult was looking up from time to time to watch the area, calmly chewing theircud.

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

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

“Whatexpedition?” Doctor Fuentes asked absently. She pointed up. He looked up andthen frowned at her, clearly puzzled.

“The one toEarth,” she clarified.

Sean andSteve’s eyes lit with pleasure at the news.

“Oh,” he saidand 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 stormcoming up from the south. Expect high winds tonight and then it to hit tomorrowsometime.”

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

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