White Gold Part 6

Recap: He discovered this new fossil, but he has no way of extracting it out. He thinks up a scheme to trick his former grad student.

There was a long pause, and I thought she disconnected, but she finally spoke. “What’s your angle, Saderick? You’d never talk to me unless your reputation was at stake or you had a huge collector waiting.” She used the word like a doctor referring to diseases.

She isn’t taking the bait. “It’s the truth, Meri. I’d be happy to leave you be, but I need to borrow a hoversled to get to Dubois. I can’t very well saunter over there, can I? I’d be more than glad to pay--”

She interrupted “You’re right on one account, Saderick. I would rather be left in peace.”

“And I’ll gladly leave you to it. Look, I don’t expect charity from you. I’m willing to offer the coordinates for this as payment.” I tapped several buttons on the transmitter and it keyed into the wireless signal on my neural drive, accessing the image archives. I selected the best shots of the Craggy Cliff site and started an upload to her.

“This is prime fossil grounds. I can’t extract anymore without gear. It’s open for anyone and if you don’t take it, Doniel will.”

“What, you didn’t explode this one?”

I decided silence was the best retort. The upload finished and she must have begun examining the images as she said nothing more.

After some moments, she spoke. “This is a pretty imposing find, Saderick. Better than what I’ve seen. I’ve never known you to share regardless of the circumstances. Why the sudden change of heart?”

“Because… I’d rather you get them than Doniel does.”

She gave an exasperated groan. “Again with your idiotic rivalry, Saderick. Do you ever stop and notice your war with Doniel does harm than good?”

“Harm to what? I’m protecting the paleontological community’s integrity from that heathen. They must know the misdeeds he’s enacted. Why I’m--”

“Out of all the fossils you’ve published on, how many do you own? None? You collect enough data to call it research and then sell to rich collectors who hide them away in their mansions. Do you know why I wanted to work with you?”

I could imagine several good reasons, but I wondered her perspective.

“On Earth we watched reports of the great Saderick Lake and his magnificent discoveries. Bought his own starship ticket, funded his research, and pioneered a new branch of paleontology. The man I revered wasn’t the one I worked with. Somewhere, you decided research mattered less than crushing a rival. I doubt you remember the names of half the fossils you’ve discovered.”

My fists clenched. “I was young and naïve like you,” I said. “But I discovered idealism doesn’t keep you funded. I’m all that’s keeping Jacobs from turning us into a laughing stock, and sacrifices became necessary to prevail. You, of all people, know how expensive this work is. You’re not being fair, Meri.”

“Not fair?” She gave a contemptuous snort. “You want to talk about fairness? How many years did I work with you? And throughout those years, how often did my name appear alongside yours? None. Zip. Zero. The paleontological revolution of a lifetime, and you wrote me out of it, you bastard.”

I tried to correct her, but she interrupted me. “You want to talk fair? I scour the boondocks, scraping what samples I can while you and Doniel intimidate or buy out anyone who dares to infringe on their territory.”

Her misconceptions were wrong, of course. She made me out to be some villain. Again, she spoke before I could defend myself. “I’ve nothing to show for my work, Saderick. Nothing. My parents tell me I’m wasting their money and my life, and are going to cut off my funding. I understand ‘publish or perish’ but there was no excuse. I could be someone, but you put an end to that.”

She paused long enough for me to interject. “Now wait a moment, Meri. I didn’t remove you. I wanted to wait until you were ready. Your skills were immature. I--”

“Until I was ready?” She gave a bitter laugh. “The only juvenile one is you, Saderick. Doniel can have your damn field and whatever else you’re hiding. I won’t be your footstool again.”

“I’m offering you the find of a lifetime, Meri. Send me the hovercraft, I’ll send you the coordinates. That’s all I want.”

She answered by clicking her radio off. I stared at the device for a moment. I hadn’t cut her out for personal gain. I suppose she could have come to that conclusion through jealousy. I’d stayed successful because I played Doniel’s game. Meri hadn’t and now realized she had plenty to learn.

That conclusion would come to her eventually. Later in the day, probably toward evening, she’d call back. I’d heard frustration in her voice. She was desperate for anything to validate her failed career. Meri would brood, but eventually realize she had to take my offer.

The result was inevitable and we both knew it. Just wait. I set the transmitter down and walked back to my discovery. It seemed even more marvelous now. A few more hours and you’ll be mine. It needed a name. Something powerful and fierce, on par with Tyrannosaurus rex.

I puzzled through some possibilities. My Latin skills extended only to forming binomial nomenclatures used with animal classifications. I’d find a name later. You don’t rush these decisions.

I gazed at his glistening beak and the three pairs of talons. Long ago, this area wasn’t badlands, but floodplains. He lived as an apex predator, without equal. Powerful as an avalanche, whatever beast stood against him, died.

A thought entered my head. All the animals living on Lockhart’s surface mated for life, never separating from each other by more than a few dozen meters. It felt logical this behemoth had a mate.

I stood back, startled at the idea. Judging by the pristine nature of this fellow, he’d been buried in a sand dune collapse like the Velociraptor and Protoceratops in Mongolia. And if the collapse caught him off guard, it might have caught others.

I crept into the gully, circling the mesas. No signs betrayed the presence of another but that meant little. Fossils weren’t exactly a surface phenomenon. Using a thin chunk of sandstone I ground at the sides of the mesas, trying to break through the tough rock.

The morning and afternoon went without event but I remained optimistic as I excavated through the sandstone using a fragment of rock. Even if I didn’t find it, I could conduct further excavations later but I might as well keep busy.

The sandstone in front of me shattered as I rammed my stone into it. The rupture sprayed a puff of sand into my face causing my already parched throat to burn. Further excavations should be delayed until Meri calls.

All I needed was the species. Given I made the discovery; I allowed myself some vanity. Rostimperator lakii. I doubted the UN Committee on Paleontology cared if I attached my name. Those old fossils would be too captivated by this new fossil to care.

White Gold - Continued.

Recap: Saderick is currently out in the wilds, continuing towards his goal of finding help to avoid having his big fossil find stolen.

As I kept to the mesa’s shadow I got the distinct impression of someone watching me, but when I stopped and glanced back, there was nothing. Did Doniel send a drone to follow me?

The likelihood existed. I’d used a surveillance drone to spy on his work, but someone found the would-be spy and blasted it with an EM pulse. Perhaps he’d seen my transmitter location vanish and sent one to investigate? I needed to get a better view.

The base of the mesa circled around to a canyon between the first mesa and a second. A gully from some perennial river cut between the pair of mesas and I proceeded forward, but froze when I heard a bestial snarl.

Another growl rumbled from the gully bottom, and a large animal slinked into view, looking the abomination offspring between a rhinoceros and a hyena. The big animal’s sharp beak, like that of a squid, clacked open as it hissed.

The snarling creature held its ground, neither attacking nor retreating. Possibly a territorial reaction, but I wasn’t sure how to respond. Back in America, when early outdoorsman encountered aggressive mountain lions, the animal turned and ran when the person acted bigger and fiercer.

However, some species like mountain gorillas only acted aggressive but wouldn’t attack. But if you acted big and fierce, it might take your head off. If a mountain lion felt endangered, it would attack, no fake assaults necessary. Either animal would--

The animal roared again and charged across the gully, shattering my thoughts. A pitched scream tore into the air, no doubt from the attacking monster, and I grabbed for something to fling at the beast.

My right hand fell around a hunk of sandstone, and I lobbed it like a baseball pitcher. The block shattered a meter short from the beast, spattering fragments across the ground. The crash startled the animal, slowing its charge for a moment.

I grabbed another handful of detritus and hurled it at the beast. One of the well placed shots smacked the animal solidly on its head. The beast finally stopped, growling and sputtering, but didn’t back down.

I needed something bigger. Next to me lay a fallen boulder as tall as my waist and weighing at least a hundred kilos. I sunk my weight into it but the stone didn’t budge.

The creature stepped closer, wary but undeterred. I rocked the boulder, using its own force to get the great stone moving. The rocking upended the boulder onto its side and the resulting momentum sent the stone tumbling down the gully.

The thundering rockfall reverberated across the monuments and the animal turned tail and fled from the gully, artfully dodging the boulder as he bolted to safety. The stone’s journey continued unimpeded until it slammed into the wall of the nearby mesa. The impact spat plumes of dust skyward and the sound of cracking rocks ripped through the air.

Evidently a huge fracture incised the sandstone, as the walls of the mesa continued to break along a single plane. Suddenly the entire lower face collapsed like snow in an avalanche. The collapse heaped an imposing debris field across the bottom of the gorge and sent a wall of dust skyward.

The cracking faded, replaced by my laughter echoing across the walls. The hyena-beast’s reaction, as well as the utter destruction seemed oddly hysterical. Only geologists, I’d found, shared the same enthusiasm for falling rocks. But as the dust cleared, my laugh died.

Before me lay the most pristine fossil I’d ever laid eyes on. The collapsed rock hadn’t broken off along a fracture, but the length of xeno-paleontology’s Holy Grail.

Easily fifteen meters long and five high, the fossil lay in profile view, its entire left side facing me. The vast three-meter skull, still articulate, would have been a marvel even if it was the only present piece.

Its dentary, the bone forming the lower part of its beak, lay in two pieces and after the animal’s burial, compaction rammed the bone into the overlying premaxilla. It reminded me of the hyena-creature’s beak, albeit scaled several magnitudes larger.

The view gave me a superb view of its three left legs splayed out in grotesque positions. The femur, tibia, ulna, and sopila, though unattached to one another, lay in impeccable condition. The same story held for the half-meter claws terminating the distal phalanges of each foot.

What had been his long tail now consisted of disarticulated vertebrate roughly in proper order. It was comparable to finding an intact skeleton of the alien equivalent to Tyrannosaurus rex. Assuming the unseen right side was intact; I estimated the skeleton was ninety percent complete.

I realized I was babbling at the spectacle. To find a skeleton of completeness was impossible. The Craggy Cliffs field, my best area yet, consisted of little more than dozens of assorted species, most represented by vertebrate fragments or other partial samples. I knew neither I nor Doniel had found a skeleton more than half complete.

I closed my eyes, sure when I looked again, the skeleton would vanish. My eyes reopened. The fossil remained, appearing like the ruin of a dead deity.

I realized I’d fallen to my knees, as if prostrating myself before that same departed god. I’d remained dubious of the divine, but, I knew if God existed, He’d led me here.

A good number of Earth’s glorious finds resulted from apparent providence, occurring to paleontologists who happened to in the right place. Sue, the most complete Tyrannosaurus specimen. The Burgess Shale, host of a mass of bizarre Cambrian fossils. The Velociraptor and Protoceratops fossils in Mongolia, who died as a sand dune collapsed onto them while they fought.

This sort of find? It turned men immortal. Images spun through my mind. Headlines and interviews with popular demagogues. Tours and presentations galore. Funding became a distant worry. But the sweetest result? The end of Doniel Jacobs’ career.

The last, more than anything, made me smile. He’d be nobody. His importance would vanish like water in the desert. Doniel Jacobs wouldn’t even be a footnote.

Images of my adolescence flashed to mind. People stood around me at some sort of gala. The museum I now curated hosted the event. And I found my future there, embodied in the fossils of those extinct titans. Since that gala with my parents, I’d dreamed of this day, and worked like a slave to ensure it happened. Whether divine providence or coincidence brought me here, I didn’t know, but I intended on making the most of it.