In the Time of Dinosaurs

  "And wipe out a few hundred thousand dinosaurs?" Cassie said. Page 65

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs

  "Besides," Jake pointed out, "the Mercora have already told us they don't control the countryside. Out there, beyond the force field, the Nesk are more powerful."

  I reached down and snagged a carrot stick from a little ice bowl. At least carrots were from Earth. I munched it, thought about making a Bugs Bunny joke, decided the joke I had in mind wasn't all that funny, then said, "Look, we all want to get back, right? Our families. My dad. But either we can or we can't. If we can't, absolutely can't, then maybe we should just try and make the best of this."

  Ax came over to stand by the window. He looked out with his main eyes. One stalk eye was pointed at me. The other was pointed toward the rest of the group. «The Mercora don't use explosive weapons, anyway. They would not have anything powerful enough. However. . .»

  I saw Rachel's head snap around. "However what?"

  «However, they say the Nesk do have large explosive weapons. They say the Nesk have a base twenty miles away. It is very well defended. No Mercora ship could hope to get close. They have a standoff. The Nesk cannot penetrate this valley through the force field. The Mercora cannot eliminate the Nesk base.»

  "Are you making a suggestion?" Jake asked Ax.

  «No. Just reporting what I have learned from talking with the Mercora.»

  I sat up. I looked Ax in the eye -the eye pointed toward me, that is. "Okay, what are you not mentioning?"

  Ax turned back to the group, but kept that one eyeball on me. «The Nesk are scavengers. The ships they fly, the weapons they use, are all modeled on the tools of races the Nesk have defeated. The Nesk have learned to mimic the bodies and shapes of these other races in order to fire the weapons and fly the ships. The Nesk believe the dinosaurs belong to them. As their property. They believe this planet belongs to them. But they cannot tolerate the existence of other sentient, intelligent species. They are determined to wipe out the Mercora.»

  "You know, it doesn't matter if they're space ants or plain old Earth ants, ants are just not nice people," I said, and munched a second carrot.

  Rachel rolled her eyes. "Ants are not nice people? There's a brilliant comment."

  "Okay," Jake said. "So we have two alien races fighting to control Earth. The Mercora seem basically harmless. They just want to plant broccoli -"

  "That's not harmless," I muttered.

  "-and live here in their valley. The Nesk, on the other hand, are aggressive and murderous. The Mercora can't help us. The Nesk maybe could help us, but won't because, after all, we're an intelligent species, too, and they don't like competition."

  "Send Marco to talk to the Nesk," Rachel suggested brightly. "They won't mind him."

  "Ha. Haha and also ha," I said. "Look, to get serious here, the Nesk didn't smoke that Spin-osaurus that was gonna eat Rachel and Tobias, right?"

  Page 66

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs

  Tobias stopped preening his feathers. He was perched on the force-field table, having enjoyed a tasty prehistoric rat brought for him by the thoughtful Mercora.

  «They knocked it out. It was alive, though.»

  "Exactly. So I guess the Nesk don't mind dinosaurs. I mean, okay, if a Mercora flying saucer shows up at the Nesk home base, they blast it. But what if a whole different kind of army shows up there?"

  Rachel suddenly grabbed my shoulder so enthusiastically it hurt. "It's a miracle! Marco actually came up with a good idea. We can morph dinosaurs and stomp on in there, set off some big honkin' explosion and maybe undo this Sario Rip of Ax's!"

  «It is not my Sario-» Ax began.

  "Wait a minute, why are we attacking the Nesk?" Cassie demanded. "Just because we don't like them doesn't mean we take up sides in the Mercora-Nesk war."

  "Look," I said, prying Rachel's gymnast-strong fingers off my collarbone. "We need a big explosion to hopefully close the Sario Rip. The Nesk have things that go 'boom.' And they aren't expecting a bunch of dinosaurs to show up asking to borrow a cup of plutonium, right? Now, that's not too complicated."

  «Plutonium?» Ax snorted like I'd made a joke. «Oh, you're serious. But maybe the Nesk have slightly more advanced explosives.»

  "What are you talking about?" Cassie cried. "We can't just go around picking fights like this. We all want to get back home. But we're sixty-five million years in the past. And we are not supposed to be here. Anything we do could end up changing the course of history in some terrible way."

  "Ah," Jake said, nodding.

  "We could do something that ends up totally altering the future without even knowing it," Cassie said. "We could ... I don't know, we could do something*. Something wrong."

  "We could change the future so that Hanson would never have existed," I said. "I say we try!"

  "You going to try and wipe out every guy who's cuter than you, Marco?" Rachel asked. "That's half the human race."

  "Look, we can't go messing with the future," Cassie said. "It's too complicated. Too many consequences."

  «Too late,» Tobias said, speaking up for the first time. «We have Homo sapiens alive here in this timeline. Not to mention me. Whatever I am. See this rat I just ate? That could have been the rat that will pass on the genetic material that someday grows a smarter rat. And fifty million years from now, maybe that's the DNA, the stuff that's needed to push the earliest primate over the top. I may have wiped out the human race.» He looked down at the fur and bones. «And it wasn't even a very good rat. Too thin and stringy.»

  One by one, we all looked at Jake. Page 67

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs

  "Oh, puh-leeze! I'm supposed to decide things that may wipe out the human race?"

  "You're Batman," I said. "I'm just Robin. The boy wonder," I added with a leer at Rachel.

  Jake shrugged. "What are we supposed to do? Sit here and grow old, eating broccoli with the crab people? Never even try to go home?"

  «There is one other consideration,» Ax said. «We are here. Which means we were here, sixty-five million years in Earth's past. In other words, maybe our presence here is vital to the future. Maybe we did something that caused the future to happen the way it happened.»

  "Is anyone else's head exploding from all this?" I asked.

  "Great," Jake said, stomping a few steps in frustration, then turning around again. "So if I suggest we attack the Nesk, maybe that wipes out the future. And if I suggest not to attack the Nesk, that could also wipe out the future. Excellent. Perfect. As long as it's all nice and clear."

  «This decision may not be clear,» Tobias said quietly. «But another decision may be so obvious we can't ignore it.»

  No one asked what he meant because at that point some Mercora showed up with more food. But I filed away his words. I filed them away in my head and I had the definite feeling I'd be double-clicking on that file again.

  AX

  I am often amazed at Prince Jake's ability to make decisions. I call him my prince because any Andalite warrior needs a prince to serve. But I know that he is just a human youth, as I am an Andalite youth.

  And yet he is very impressive for a human youth. He understands instinctively that making no decision is also a decision. So he accepts the responsibility.

  If he were an Andalite I have no doubt he would become a true prince. Still, he does very well for a human.

  In the end, we decided to "go for it." That is a human expression. As I understand it, the expression means that without having any clear idea of why we should do something, we would do it anyway.

  We would attack at dawn. I asked why dawn.

  "Tradition," Marco said. "You do shoot-outs at high noon, you stretch in the seventh inning, you attack at dawn."

  Like much of human thinking, this is a mystery to me.

  "You also get executed at dawn," Cassie said.


  "Thank you, Cassie, for that bit of optimism."

  We had explained our plan to the Mercora. They approved. We would attack the Nesk home base and seize an explosive weapon. A bomb. A "nuke," as my human friends said. Then we would return to the ocean and attempt to

  Page 68

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs explode this "nuke" in such a way that it would close the Sario Rip and return us to our own time.

  I hoped the Mercora would have some idea how to do this. I certainly didn't. We learned about Sario Rips in school. But I wasn't really paying attention that day, and I can't be expected to remember all the things I learned in school. Can I?

  I was sure my human friends understood this. But to be absolutely sure, I mentioned it as we sped through the night toward the Nesk base aboard a ground-hugging Mercora transport.

  «Prince Jake, you do understand that I have no idea precisely how or where or when to set off an explosion that will seal the Sario Rip?»

  "What? What?!"

  I was mistaken. It was clear from the expression he made with his human mouth, and the way his voice became loud and rose at the end toward a sort of shriek, and also by the way his eyes alternately narrowed and expanded, that Prince Jake had not been entirely clear on this point.

  «I know that we should probably create an explosion. I don't know exactly when or where. Although it should be near the point where we first emerged into this world. I am sure of that. Mostly.»

  "Don't you think you might have mentioned this earlier?" Marco said. "Like before we signed on for this suicide mission?"

  "Look, we need the nuke, right?" Rachel said. "One way or the other, we need the nuke. So let's do it."

  "Oh, I hate when she says 'let's do it,'" Marco moaned. "I've changed my mind now. I can learn to like broccoli."

  One of the three Mercora with us scuttled around to face us. It opened a half dozen eyes in a rapid flutter. «We are close to the place we will leave you. It is on the edge of the Nesk defensive grid. As close as we can go. Approximately point zero zero zero zero two six eight light seconds from the base.»

  "Which would be ... ?" Prince Jake asked me.

  Approximately five of your miles,» I translated.

  "Five miles? In the dark? Here in Cretaceous Park?" Marco said. "That's kind of a hike, isn't it?"

  But the Mercora were firm. Any closer and the transport would be spotted and fired on. Success depended on surprise. We were to appear to be any bunch of wandering dinosaurs. Harmless to the Nesk.

  The transport came to rest amid jumbled rocks. The Mercora were very advanced when it came to force fields. But their ships were clunky and slow, compared to Andalite technology. Or what would be Andalite technology in sixty-five million years.

  It was very dark outside. The Mercora kept their exterior ship's lights low. And as I trotted down the ramp, the brightest thing around was the comet. It was shockingly close now. The tail would certainly brush the planet as it passed.

  Page 69

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs Dawn was still two hours away. We were to travel the five miles to the Nesk base in that time and be ready to move in as soon as the sun rose on the horizon.

  «Take this, Andalite,» the Mercora copilot said. With one of his hands he gave me a small communicator.

  «A thought-speak communicator?»

  «Yes. The humans could not use it, but you will be able to.»

  «What is its purpose?»

  «You can inform us how the mission goes,» the Mercora said.

  «Are you offering to help?»

  «No. We cannot risk our limited ships and equipment.»

  I nodded as if I understood. But I was puzzled. The Mercora scuttled back aboard their ship. It lifted silently off the ground with an intriguing violet glow, then sped away into the darkness.

  I don't know about the humans, but I felt extremely lonely. I am always alone, being the only Andalite on planet Earth. But now I was more alone than that. My own people would not exist for tens of millions of years.

  We were in the dark, a very deep darkness, beneath the glowing comet, in a past that was not my own, in a past filled with destructive monsters.

  From far off I heard, "Hunh-huhnroooaaarrr."

  Then Prince Jake said, "Okay, let's morph."

  Cassie

  I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to be doing this. We didn't really have a plan. We didn't truly know what we were doing. But I couldn't sit it out. No way. Not when my friends were facing danger.

  I looked up. The comet was shockingly big in the sky. The tail spread a quarter of the distance from horizon to horizon. It was beautiful. But it frightened me. Ahead, in the direction of the Nesk base, there was a slight, reddish glow that seemed to hover in the air. I realized it was the summit of the volcano.

  "Okay, let's morph," Jake said.

  There was no doubt which morph he meant.

  This was not a place for my osprey or my dolphin, my skunk or even my wolf. This was dinosaur country. I had only one morph that was useful in this situation.

  Tyrannosaurus rex. The tyrant lizard king.

  In all of Earth's history, all the millions of years and all the billions of animals that have come and gone, this one single creature was the most powerful predator.

  "I can't believe I'm stuck in a lousy little Deinonychus morph," Rachel complained. "You guys all get to do Big Daddy, and Tobias and I have to

  Page 70

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs be Babysaurus."

  "I wish I wasn't doing it," I said.

  "Yeah, right," Rachel snorted.

  There are some things about Rachel I still don't understand. And things about me that must mystify her, I guess. Rachel loves the big predator morphs. I don't. I never want to hurt anyone or anything. Not even when I have to. Not even when there's no choice.

  "Tell you one thing," Marco said. "If you're gonna walk around in the dark here in Cretaceous world, you want to be carrying the big guns. And Big Rex is the biggest."

  "I guess I'd rather have the Mercora's force fields," I said. "I like the way they do things: They protect themselves without having to be so violent."

  «They don't seem to object to our being violent for them,» Tobias said.

  I looked to see him in the dark. He was already morphing. A man-sized dinosaur was growing from a bird.

  "Let's just do this, all right?" Marco said impatiently. "I've been on the wrong end of a fight with a Tyrannosaurus, okay? I don't want to be standing around here debating in the dark when another one shows up looking for an early breakfast."

  Jake said, "Rachel, Tobias, you guys keep an eye on us. These are new morphs for the four of us. We may have some trouble adjusting."

  I took a deep breath. I guess I'd been hoping somehow we'd change our minds. But the time had come.

  I focused my mind on the Tyrannosaurus whose DNA was within me. And I let the changes begin.

  I expected to sprout right up. But the first changes were more subtle. My skin became rough and slightly loose. Like it didn't quite fit. Lizard skin. Crocodile skin.

  My hands split in two. My thumb and next two fingers melted together. My two smaller fingers did the same. And then the bones grew out through the lizard flesh. The finger bones grew and came to a point, two small but wicked claws.

  I felt my bones grow thick and massive. My pelvis bone swelled out against my flesh. I thought it would break through. But then I realized the growing had started. I was rising up, up from the ground.

  My legs were thickening, growing. Muscle layered over muscle. Muscles much bigger than my own human body. Bone and muscle, bone and muscle.

  My spine began to stretch, with a squeaking sound that radiated through my head. The base of my spine stretched out and out, longer and longer, five feet, six, eight, ten feet! And longer still.

  My feet grew, spreading wide into three massive t
oes, each ending in a ripping, rending claw. I felt my weight settle on those feet, felt my claws sink into the moist soil as I grew by tons with each passing moment.

  But for all that, it was the Tyrannosaurus's head that shocked me the Page 71

  K[1]._A._Applegate_-_Megamorphs_02_-_In_The_Time_of_Dinosaurs most. My jaw went from being measured in inches to being measured in feet. The bones grew dense and heavy. The muscles rippled beneath the gravel skin. My face bulged out and out and out. My eyes spread apart, blurring everything until they had reached their proper location, facing forward.

  My head expanded, grew in every direction. Bigger, always bigger! I was towering above the ground now. Huge! I balanced on my powerful legs, tail out behind me, body forward, poised.

  And then, at last, came my teeth. I felt the itching in my mouth as my pathetically tiny, my ridiculous human, teeth grew. From a quarter inch to an inch, to three inches, to six, seven!

  New teeth appeared. Twice my normal number. They sprouted from the bones of my massive jaws.

  And I was complete. More than forty feet from head to tail: the length of a bus. Eighteen feet tall: the height of a two-story house. Seven tons of bone and muscle: the weight of five cars.

  Power and speed and destruction made flesh. Power the world had never seen before and would never see again.

  I had become Tyrannosaurus rex.

  King of the dinosaurs.

  Surrounded! I was surrounded by enemies! I could see them looming up around me. They would fight me for food. They would steal prey. They had entered my territory!

  "RRRRROOOAAARRR!" I bellowed in rage.