Read Online An Accidental Alliance by Jonathan Edward Feinstein - Free Book Online

we?”
          They stepped as quietly as they could toward the small area of disturbance. When they were about ten feet away, there was a frightened squawk and they got a passing glimpse of something cat-sized with hard plates for skin the same color as the golden grass they stood in. As it ran, Park and Iris could trace its path through the grass. It was still moving when after hundred yards something else moved in the grass and abruptly stopped its flight.
          When Park started moving forward to see what that second creature was, Iris stopped him. “We brought hunting rifles along, Park. It occurs to me that in a strange land, it was reckless of us not to bring them ashore.”
          “I hadn’t thought of that,” Park confessed, feeling somewhat abashed. “I’ve never really been into hunting. Guess I just don’t think in those terms yet.”
          “I think we’re both going to have to learn to think that way,” Iris told him, indicating they should head back to the boat.
          “True,” Park replied, following her. “We’re in a wild, new land and for all we know about it, it might as well be a whole new planet. Did you get a look at that little creature?”
          “Very briefly,” Iris replied. “It was the size of a large housecat I think, but that skin…”
          “Looked like armored plates to me,” Park commented. “Sort of like an armadillo.”
           “It looked nothing like an armadillo to me,” Iris told him. “It didn’t sound like one when it moved either.”
          “It didn’t move like an armadillo either, now that I come to think of it, more like a cat or small dog,” Park recalled. “I wonder if it is a mammal. There was no hair to be seen, but with skin like that…”
          “I don’t think it was a reptile,” Iris replied. “What else could it be?”
          “Two hundred million years ago,” Park began and then corrected himself, “well, two hundred million before we went into stasis, there were no mammals. Instead our proto-mammalian ancestors, the synapsids walked the earth in their unique reptilian way. Between the Permian and the Holocene, both birds and mammals evolved into existence, the dinosaurs died off and so forth. It’s been two hundred and fifty million years since the world we know now. That’s more than enough time for entire new orders of life, new kingdoms, perhaps, to evolve. I have a sneaky suspicion Linnaeus would not have known what to do with that thing. We ought to find another and bring it back to base for Patty and the other biologists to have a look at.”
          “We can collect samples on the way back,” Iris suggested as they arrived back at the boat. “I imagine they would get very high if we start collecting them now. Should we get the guns and go for more of a walk, do you think?”
          “Changed my mind about that,” Park decided. “Let’s move a little further downstream. We have another three hours of light. Maybe we can find a place where the grass is lower. Maybe we’ll definitely stay on the boat tonight.”
          Iris nodded and they were soon moving downstream again. They pulled in near shore when the sun started to set and Park told her. “We have nightscopes for these rifles. I’m not sure why. Maybe we were expected to wake up in the middle of a war, but they’re like the binocs and can be switched to infrared. Why don’t we go up on the bank and see what we can spot through them.”
          “In infrared?” Iris repeated to be certain she understood.
           “Right,” Park nodded. “If that critter we saw and others around here are warm-blooded we’ll be able to see their body heat in the grass. Even cold-blooded critters won’t cool off as fast as the grass does. The scopes will show us where they are, and the guns should offer some protection against predators provided we don’t forget to look around from time