“I’m fairly confident when I say that the words I’m about to utter have never been said in the history of the universe.” Ansul turned to face his captain, “Harry, you just shot a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the face!”
The Martian’s typical humor was still intact despite the ship having just crashed violently. That and now being covered in the blood of an animal that was supposed to be extinct for 65 million years. After spreading out into known space much of Earth’s history had been forgotten but pretty much every school child still knew what a T-Rex looked like, even those who didn’t grow up on Earth.
“Anyone care to explain that?” Captain Tarsik turned to look at his people, each of which seemed every bit as confused as he was at that moment.
Doctor Yatin Ramus was the ship’s physician but he was by far and away the closest thing they had to a scientist. It didn’t take long for all eyes to turn to him.
“What? I’m a medical doctor. Your guess is as good as mine.” he shrugged.
The captain, not surprised by the doctor’s statement looked around at everyone once again. “No ideas at all? How in the hell do we end up on a planet where Tyrannosaurus Rex evolved pretty much identically to the way it did on Earth? Isn’t that virtually impossible?”
“Extremely improbable,” the doctor spoke up again, “but not impossible. There are more worlds in the universe than exists numbers to count them. By some incredible turn of chance we just happened to come across one that followed an evolutionary path so close to that of Earth’s that a T-Rex evolved here as well....then again I really have no idea if I must be honest with you Captain.”
The captain shook his head in agreement. They’d only just broken seal and set boot onto the planet. The fact that he’d just shot what appeared to be a dinosaur with his trusty spiral-ray gun was only the first in a very long line of mysteries as to where they had ended up. The Honshu had activated her Nielson-Cobarro drive inside of a spatial anomaly and for all they knew they’d been flung off into some galaxy halfway across the universe.
“Captain,” this time the ship’s pilot Emily Faust spoke, “I’m not exactly a biologist but won’t other predators smell this blood?”
The doctor went to speak up but the captain cut him off, he’d had plenty of experience with large alien predators and knew all too well that the pilot was right.
“Good observation Faust. Fizril...” he then barked at the Antarian crewman, “get some flamers from the equipment lockers and burn everything within a 50 meter perimeter around the ship.”
“Aye sir.” the crewman responded. He dashed back up the ramp with little more expression than a quick whip of his meter-long tail.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“In the meantime get everyone back into the loading bay and into the decontamination showers, I don’t need you all tramping around these woods smelling like a buffet.”
“Good idea.” Ansul smiled as he wiped more blood from the welding goggles he wore to shield his sensitive Martian eyes from the glaring sun.”
“Captain!” Faust called out. “Look at that!”
She was pointing to something in the sky. Was that? No, surely it couldn’t be! Despite the daylight there was a familiar image overhead. Captain Tarsik reached for his belt and pulled free the sighting glass that he kept there. In its unused state the telescope sat as a small metallic circle that easily fit into the palm of a hand but once extended it was nearly the length of a large man’s forearm. He brought it to bear on the image hovering in the blue sky. There was no doubt about it. Whatever was orbiting this strange world looked exactly like the images he’d seen of Earth’s moon, Luna. How was that possible?
“Is it?” Faust asked.
Still looking up through the scope Tarsik tensed his face in confusion and spoke, “That sure is what it looks like, but that’s just not possible, right?”
He dropped the sighting glass and they both looked at the doctor. The older man once again gave them a shrug.
“Okay, so we’re on a planet that not only has....had a living Tyrannosaurus Rex but it even has a moon identical to Earth’s?”
“I know what all of you are thinking,” Ansul interrupted, “but it’s not possible.”
“What’s that?” the captain asked.
“Oh don’t give me that. You know exactly what. You two are suggesting time travel aren’t you?”
Neither the captain nor Faust responded but their expressions gave them away.
“Time travel, at least into the past, is completely absurd and impossible.” the Martian shook his head, “No. We’re on the other side of the blasted universe or worse yet we’ve crossed into some other dimension completely.”
“Is there any way to know for sure Mr. Ansul?” Doctor Ramus asked.
“What? Whether or not we traveled through time? Yes, it’s impossible, so we know.”
Not being content with that answer the doctor persisted. “Perhaps, but is there some way to verify exactly what happened?”
“The ship’s scanners,” Faust broke in, “they should have recorded a good bit of info on this rock before we crashed. If we can access the data-tapes we should be able to correct for 65 million years of stellar drift and see if it matches up.”
“Faust...it’s impossible okay?”
“Ansul you can say that until you’re fur falls out but it’s the most logical explanation.”
“The most logical explanation is the most illogical thing in the universe??”
“Okay, enough.” the captain interjected. “You two get up there with the rest of the men and get cleaned up. Then I want some answers. Faust see if you can recover the data we need to see where exactly we are and Ansul you get to work with Riley and Tsankov surveying the damage. Doctor,” he turned to the physician, “I’m sure there are plenty of scrapes and bruises for you to attend to.”
With that Captain Tarsik’s cape flapped as he turned and headed back up the ramp toward the loading bay. Ansul and Faust eyed each other for a moment like squabbling siblings before doing likewise.