In the Shadows...

(From the personal files of Professor Alvar Paradigm. Highlighted sections note those which Mike the Librarian thought were most interesting in connection to the supposed top secret Palaeo Central Initiative.)

I had visited Australia 12 times before this year, and every time this continent/country has proved more than worth the visit. Of course not all these trips were under favourable circumstances, the 1996 Broome incident coming to mind in particular. Fortunately the majority had been for purely scientific and academic reasons, and the specimens and findings that have been coming to light are truly exciting for science.

However considering all that I have seen and had happen in these 12 previous trips, even if they were combined, they pale compared to this my 13th visit "down under". This was just supposed to be a minor and care free week long visit. There were no incidents or cases for me to get involved in when I arrived, and fortunately there still aren't any technically thank the sediment, yet the past 6 days have felt as though all hell has broken loose around me. I haven't had so much to deal with since the last time Spectre and my paths last crossed.

The most unpredictable thing of all, has been the sudden re-appearance of TMP-2003. 44. 7 [a Royal Tyrrell Museum catalogue number] here in Melbourne. "Traumador" as 2003. 44. 7 has come to be called, disappeared nearly 2 years ago from Canada, and I'd been unable to track him down. I'd assumed the worst, and that he had ended up in a private collection or similar such fate. Instead the truth has proven more bizarre than anything I've ever encountered before.

Traumador not only managed to smuggle himself into New Zealand in 2006, which now explains Larry Tyrannosaurus' presence in the country last year, but 2003. 44. 7 has managed to become highly involved in its museum infrastructure as well. Apart from my having tasked vivus-Dinosaurs to work for me, I have never heard of a Dinosaur being given so much responsibility as this one. Which is remarkable that he'd be so trusted from what I remember of this particular specimen.

Traumador's supervisor, who is attached loosely with the Otago Museum, approaching me about a work related incident that happened to the small Tyrannosaur this year. She wanted me to ensure that he wasn't harmed by his experience. The results from my examination have thus far been astonishing, and I expect the rest to be no less amazing.

Not only is this the first time a Dinosaur has been exposed to any real amount of Mystic Gradient Energy, but it is showing us a whole new aspect of this radiation's nature. Unlike exposed mammals , Traumador is showing that Dinosaurs (and possibly by extension Archosaurs, but this of course needs to be tested) actually absorb MGR and process it in their biologic system. This is all I'm willing to record at moment in such an insecure database until formal publication of these findings however.

The coincidences just extended for around me from here however. Another former Tyrrell Museum specimen TMP 85. 14. 1 is also here in Melbourne for no connected reason. "Lillian" has become a definite point of concern, due to her current affiliation and employment by the Annex Corporation. I will come to my current plan of action on this problem shortly.

Fortunately I was able to focus time and energy on the primary purpose for my visit in Melbourne.

That of course being my grad student BA 4204 [Melbourne Museum catalogue number], or "Dip" as many of the staff of the museum have come to call her.

After my discussions with her on both her status and progress, I have to say I'm more than pleased with Dip's progress. In fact this is an understatement. I'm very proud of her. Especially considering the limited attention and time I've been able to give her since she started studying with me as the master of her studies.

Indeed my constant state of travel around the globe has made me a poor excuse for a supervisor. That is being too lenient to myself really. My role is to be more than a mere academic authority to Dip. I should be a mentor and guide to her along this difficult road. Yet due to the constant nature of the battle we face I've had to make sacrifices. There is not a day I do not feel them either.

Despite my failures, Dip has been demonstrating incredible self reliance and resilience. With the exception of the extreme supportive nature of the staff here at the museum and from the rest of the Australian scientific community, for which I'm very grateful, poor Dip has been meeting a great deal of resistance and hostility to what she is trying to do. If she did not have me and the initiative to back her, I fear Dip's dream of being the first Dinosaur palaeontologist would remain just that. A dream. Yet she is making it a reality one day at a time.

Dip has managed to keep on schedule with her thesis, and I expect her to graduate her PHD as planned late next year. This is impressive considering the many limitations her Dinosaurian anatomy places on her. Writing and typing are very difficult given her lack of proper grasping digits. My schedule has continually delayed the acquisition of specially designed equipment to make this easier for her. Yet she has overcome this with the use of her head and in particular beak.

Also the ceratopsian lack of stereoscopic vision has provided her with interesting challenges with reading as well. I am in the process of having special glasses fashioned for her that may remedy this problem (although it remains to be seen if her visual cortex can actually process a unified field of view. I look forward to the possible realms of research this 'experiment' will provide).

So despite my inability, even while in Australia it seems, to provide her the full magnitude of my attention Dip has still been prevailing.

If only the other new issues of this week were so easy to see to completion.

In particular the Annex Corporation situation has me on edge. I always worry about where vivus-fossils end up in today's increasingly materialistic world. It is bad enough to consider the fate of many standard fossils, but to have the last living remains of the world's past end up in private collections and be kept from the greater scientific community, it puts me greatly at unease.

It is far worse when the company is involved! I've spent the better part of the last two decades fighting off their ever increasing incursions into the realm of palaeontology. All to no avail it seems, or at least feels like sometimes, especially when the crown jewel of Alberta's leading palaeontological institution ends up as a simple prop piece in one of Annex corp.'s travelling shows. This was not a problem back when I began the initiative in the 70's.

Of course there is a whole new range of issues that have arisen since those "simpler days".

My lead saurian Lieutenant ROM 975 [Royal Ontario Museum Catalogue Number], being one of them. Now this is not for a moment to insinuate that "Lance" is not a most capable assistant. In the three years he has been acting as advisor and bodyguard I have had few concerns with his abilities or capability. However his excessive paranoia of theropods is one of those few concerns I do have.

In the course of my briefing Lance about my current plans at dealing with the Annex Corp. situation Lance interrupted me. He proceeded to rant about how he was certain Traumador was a planted spy of the Pack of the Primordial Feather whose purpose was to monitor the greater Dinosaur community.

Now I don't entirely blame Lance for his fears of theropods given what they've done to him over the years. Combine that with the training I've been giving him since he was a hatchling, and you would expect some degree of adversarial distrust. Sadly though Lance has recently given into something of a theropod bogeyman syndrome. Not a single one of them is to be trusted in his mind, and they are all out to destroy him and his fellow herbivorous Dinosaurs.

Again I do not blame him for these fears either. They are, only to an extent mind you, based on a real threat. Yet another new trend of this new millennium are "the Packs". Suddenly there is a drive within the vivus-theropod community to unify into large blocks for purposes that are so far their own. I am not sure whether the purpose of these select groupings is merely for a sense of security in numbers or whether it is for a more organized cause. In either actuality these Packs amount to something very similar to human gangs. They are destructive, corruptive, and in general a large nuisiance. I have enough to worry about that alone what the fossils I'm trying to protect are up to.

At the same time, Traumador is certainly not one of the theropods he should be wasting time or energy worrying about. If anything I am much more concerned with the prospect of having to now extend Traumador a curtain of protection, especially considering how much he has currently put himself out in certain aspects of the museum world.

Sadly I was only able to get Lance to moderate his distrust for the small Tyrannosaur. We did both agree however he is most certainly becoming a definite player in our sphere of influence. Whether this is a long term situation or just a short lived anomaly remains to be seen. I also worry about Traumador's current lack of 'friendly' guidance and supervision. This 'Ms. Rhonwyn' is new to me, and I do not have the time to current waste checking into her back ground. I need to get someone I know and trust already to monitor Traumador. I do have a possible solution in mind for this I shall have to look into activating when I return to Canada next.

Lance also informed me of yet another strange development on this trip that occurred yesterday. Traumador has resumed his attempt to court Lillian. Odd considering his famed failure in the fall of 2006. Even I received word about that while in China of all places! A most curious development indeed. We shall have to wait to see what comes of it. Especially considering the drastic nature of my intended intervention on Lillian's current employment situation.

Which brought Lance to a side project of his own. I brought him along on this trip solely due to his role as my bodyguard. My purpose was supposed to merely be checking in on Dip. Now of course with the huge number of tangent distractions I have allowed myself to be distracted by, Lance has taken this to mean he can himself fall into such a trap too.

Lance voiced interest in approaching Lillian about the taskforce. An interesting suggestion on his part, especially given his aforementioned aversion to theropods. Yet I was forced to disagree with him.

Despite her very public, and I note, current lack of affiliation with the Pack of the Primordial Feather, this did not necessarily denote she was a prime candidate. Not that I don't appreciate his thinking. A theropod would bring a bit more desperately needed diversity to the project, and a Tyrannosaurid would definitely have its uses on the team.

Yet I question Lillian herself. She has not yet figured out who she is as an individual. The past two years of her life have been nothing but a constant attempt at regaining her former star attraction glory. Who is to say that when push came to shove, which it will sadly be coming to very soon, she will not just cave in and finally join the Pack. I personally still see this as a distinct possibility.

Lance did not agree with me, and in his typical stubborn told me that his instinct told him she was good natured at heart. Very high praise considering the source, but Lance has been wrong before where I have not. My decision stands. We will execute my plan for dealing with the Annex Corp. complication and than watch, from a far at first, how Lillian deals with the realities that exist for a vivus-dinosaur such as herself. A cold stance I know, but sadly the only viable one. I can not have the Pack of the Primordial Feather continue to corrode my efforts to the extent that they have been recently.

As for Traumador, the time for watching him from a far came and went undetected as he himself has gone undetected. He has most certainly become a player, even if it is as far as the Pack is concerned. If I can monitor him closely than perhaps through him I can learn more of the Pack of the Primordial Feather. For if there is one thing that is certain about this unpredictable little theropod it is that the Pack of the Primordial Feather will be making a move for or against him. Soon.

the big picture (new horizons part 1)

now as you know people of the innerweb i've had a rather interesting year so far. mostly on account of work... in fact VERY much so because of work.

when my boss ms. rhonwyn gave me a promotion a year ago (due to my being able to put up with my JERK! of a cousin larry's visit) i had NO idea what i was in for...

back in canada at the tyrrell museum life had been pretty normal for me. in fact almost boringly so! most of the time i just sat around pretending to be a statue (so i didn't bother the guests by talking to them...). apart from my brief gig hanging out with the museum's summer camp (which was primo fun! i'll have to post about it sometime) i always knew what to expect.

at first working at the otago museum was the same thing. being a security guard is pretty predictable. so when ms. rhonwyn made me her personal assistant i just thought it'd be the same. a low key repetitive task... man was i wrong! (don't believe me check out the museum quest she sent me on ALL over new zealand!).

the scary thing is she just offered me ANOTHER promotion... what on earth could this lead too i don't know?!? as if being chased by maori gods wasn't crazy enough!!!

of course the other big thing was not only did she just offer me another promotion. i just found out that ms. rhonwyn while here in australia (during my whole museum quest adventure) has made a ton of new dinosaur friends and acquaintances.

including one dip serendipaceratops. who in some ways is probably the most amazing dinosaur i've come across over the years. she's not just a museum exhibit or resident... dip serendipaceratops is an actual PHD candidate. in other words not only has she somehow gotten into skool, but she is going to be a real scientist soon!

can you imagine it people of the innerweb?... maybe not easily come to think of it. for you its probably normal for someone to at least potentially do anything they want.

for us dinosaurs still left alive in the cenozoic things are not quite that easy. you're best hope is to become a movie star or a museum's key attraction. even then you're at the whim of your popularity with the human public. if they lose interest you're back at the bottom. that bottom being a pushed around part of a museum's collection or worse a under appreciated spectacle of some tourist town or theme park...

yet here is dip rising above all that to something resembling a human being. imagine if her example takes off? i've always dreamed of becoming a curator someday. maybe with someone like dip pioneering the way that'll be possible for me someday.

at the same time i really don't like her. now don't get me wrong people of the web wide world. i appreciate what dip is doing for my kind. at the same time she is really mean. frankly i don't really like mean people (or dinosaurs... does anyone?).

anyways i'm way off tangent. point being that now dip is hanging out with my boss ms. rhonwyn, and their working on sciency type stuff together (though what sort of science ms. rhonwyn does is beyond me). i don't like it. with my brain size problem, and dip being more legitimate i am going to level with you people of the innerweb that i'm worried that ms. rhonwyn won't have a use for me anymore. even despite her offering me a promotion today.

right the promotion!

so ms. rhonwyn had taken me away from dip and the other aussie dinosaur of the melbourne museum to the human half of the gallery. here she wanted to discuss my future. or at least that's what i thought at first... it turned out she more wanted to wrap up the museum quest once and for all.

she brought me to a display of aboriginal australian baskets... but i at first glance i thought they were maori flax baskets... or as the new zealand brand are called kete among which were the kete o te wananga which i'd carried all around new zealand...

seeing these i kinda freaked a bit! i was SO not going on another museum quest!!! no matter what she offered me, i was going to tell ms. rhonwyn i quit that instant. there was no way i was going to be hunted by anymore angry deities EVER (so i hope anyway...).

ms. rhonwyn just laughed when i refused to transport any of these baskets. "no, no silly," she giggled. "the kete o te wananga are gone for good thanks to you. there will be no more quests like yours ever again."

"have there been any before?" i wondered out loud.

ms. rhonwyn frowned a bit at the question as though i'd hit a sore point... seriously i hadn't meant too. seriously! "no," she answered simply, which answered my question, but ms. rhonwyn sounded as though she thought this wasn't enough for some reason. she took in a slight breath thinking of how to answer further. "the truth is though, traumador, there should never have been a need for your quest. if the kete o te wananga had been left in the care of the maori as tane had intended then none of this year's debacle would have occurred."

"though we don't understand the exact timing or nature of their origin, the kete o te wananga appear to indeed, as the legends say, be the source of all maori mystic knowledge. whether how they ended up in the possession of the maori as described in stories may well remain a highly debated question among mystical scholars. all we do know is that somehow three immensely concentrated chunks of mystical gradient essence were endowed within three flax kete with the purpose of fostering and powering maori magics."

"wow," i said impressed. that was cool. somehow in the distant past the maori had taken pure magic from beyond our world and trapped it in something they had made to harness the power for their betterment and use. normally a story like this would have been a bit above my head, but somehow i already knew the story... i'd touched this power first hand so in a way i was now a part of this story... the end of it.

ms. rhonwyn took my comment to be a sign of boredom or something and changed her train of thought. "anyways," so i'm not the only one who can go off topic like that! "as the maori's culture succumbed to european expansion into the country, eventually the three kete were acquired by various new zealand museums. the kete tuauri [basket of benign magics and the occult] was purchased in 1896, the kete aronui [magics beneficial to humanity] traded to the fledgling otago in 1900, and the maori successful hide the kete tuateu [basket of harmful and "black" magic] until 1956 when the faithful guardians finally passed on with no heirs. can you believe in the end that one of the most feared artifacts of an entire culture was simply donated of all things?!?"

"with the kete out of the protective care of their creators the maori they simply sat on display or in collections across the country collecting dust" ms. rhonwyn grew sad, "a true waste. on all fronts. the maori had relied on them for centuries. so it was a real loss for them, and to the world's knowledge as we didn't learn a damn thing from them till it was too late."

"the whole time they leaked and oozed their high level mystic gradient radiation. under the watchful eye of a tohunga [maori shaman] these residues would have been contained and hidden. we idiots of the west just held onto their treasure because that's what we do. hold on to treasure. never bloodly learning why it is treasure! i thought i'd made the discover of a lifetime last year when i connected the three spread out baskets to their true identities."

ms. rhonwyn turned to me sympathetically. "my own quest to find the baskets was why i was away so much of last year."

"of course i did this only to find out that they were being sought by things of a otherworldly nature, and more than likely not too friendly a disposition."

"as you now know traumador, you leave a trail of mystic gradient radiation lying around, and something is going to pick it up. i realized quickly that the baskets were no longer safe in our realm. if they were to fall into the hands of mystic creature in our dimensional plane the results could be unimaginable," she cautioned. though i could imagine it. i'd seen ghostbusters, and i had nothing with which to cross the streams! "the only solution was to re-disperse them to the magical realms from which they came!"

"there were tales among the tohunga of the ill effects of taking the kete close to places of great mana [maori concept of power and supreme presence]. thus why i had you go to the places you did. i figured either the locations of maori reverence or their artifacts of old might have enough power left in them to tigger the baskets."

"why me?" i asked.

ms. rhonwyn frowned, clearly feeling as though she'd let down more than me by not taking the baskets around NZ herself. "because i had no choice," she admitted. "the league couldn't make up its mind as to whether dispose the baskets before a threat or after."

"the league?" i asked completely confused and excited. did she mean the justice league?!? wow i soooooo wanted to meet superman!

crushing this hope of mine ms. rhonwyn looked at me puzzled for a moment. "the australasia heritage league," she declared. when it clearly didn't ring a bell she looked at me bewildered. "your current employer?"

"the otago museum?" i answered her with a unsure question. wasn't the museum who i worked for.

ms. rhonwyn looked more baffled than before. "you haven't worked for them officially since last year!"

"WHAT?!?" i thought and said at the same time... how could that be?!? i'd been getting pay checks from them this whole time... or had i come to think of it. apart from two pay checks i'd been out of town on the quest, and i hadn't paid (pun intended i guess) that close of attention to my checks at that point.

"traumador i only work out of the otago as my base of operations. my duties with the league take me all over the region of new zealand, australia, and further. as my personal assistant you're in the same boat," she informed me.

i was still reeling from the news i didn't work at the otago. "this league, they aren't top secret are they?" i asked expecting yet another palaeo central story with more things lurking in the shadows and everything...

"no hardly," ms. rhonwyn laughed. "its quite public knowledge that the various museum, universities, and other research institutions of the southern hemisphere have tried to work together to safe guard the various historic and heritage resources we possess down here. its just a question of how successful we've been."

"the kete being one the first of what will surely be, sadly, many challenges we have in this regards," she sighed at some unknown to me knowledge of hard battles and decisions coming up. "a clear issue like them, and the league has no idea how to react. that's the problem with noble intentions. they sound good till you find out everyone has different ideas and degrees of nobility."

ms. rhonwyn turned to me earnestly. "which is why i'm offering you this new promotion. you won't just be my reserve assistant anymore traumador. you'll be an actual field agent in the thick of new zealand's historic resources."

"you mean like a researcher?!?" i jumped in the air eagerly with excitement.

"well i wasn't going to mention that part till we had a chance to sit down and really figure this out. to be honest the league has no idea what it is doing. i forced this kete mission down their throats, and having been proven right i might be able to form more policy of a proactive nature. which might than allow me to get you in a few places you'd never think possible," she answered me smugly, but cautioned. "at the same time that is a big maybe. i've got a few things to sort out, and you have a lot to learn in the meantime. for now i just need to know traumador, are you able and ready to take a more active role in the finding, collecting, and protecting of ancient materials?"

it was a dream come true. maybe all this exposure to dip wasn't such a bad thing after all! "you bet!!!" i nearly shouted with excitement.

"excellent," ms. rhonwyn smiled. "well in that case i have some paperwork to process. we'll discuss your new position in depth, once i've figured out exactly what it shall be," she smirked. "in the meantime have a relaxing evening. i hear you have a BIG day ahead of your tomorrow," she winked at me and started walking me to the door.

tomorrow was indeed a big day! i had my date with lillian albertosaur!

not just that now my career within the museum world might actually take off and lead somewhere! instead of looking forward to being just another attraction i might actually get to be one of the thinkers of the research world!

i won't lie people of the web wide world, today i feel like anything is possible!

i remember why i moved to new zealand!!!

(From Ms. Rhonwyn's personal diary)

Seriously where is Traumador?

It's been over 3 hours since his check up with Professor Paradigm. I've not only had the time for Lillian the Albertosaur to find me for a chat, but for Paradigm to also come and give me the checkups results!

One of the benefits on my extended visit to Melbourne has been my chance to meet its local Dinosaur residents. I was aware of museums elsewhere in the world having employed the few living Dinosaurs still alive to work at their institutions in efforts to increase museum attendance. Traumador himself has told me a great deal about his former home in Canada the Tyrrell Museum having such Dinosaurs.

Despite this awareness, it came as a surprise when I learned of Australia's current vivus-fossil program [traumador encountered part of this program here]. With its very ambitious goal of having a Dinosaur in every Australian museum be 2010. Considering the rarity of local Mesozoic material, that alone vivus-fossil specimens, I'm very skeptical of it succeeding.

Yet at the same time here in Melbourne the piloting of the program has yield very positive results so far. Results that I am happy to say I am now a part of. Ever since my encounter with Traumador's cousin, I've been aiming to increase my interactions with Dinosaurs. I think I can safely say that the Melbourne vivus-fossil attractions are now among my friends.

As of such I called in both of them in and asked them to help track down my wayward Tyrannosaur. Both of them being who (what?) they are and of course Australian, were more than eager to please! Off they ran into the museum determined at nothing less than finding me Traumador, and bring him to check in with me...

[End Entry]

3 hours earlier...

man oh man i still can't express how much i HATE medical checkups people of the innerweb!

at least it was over, and now i could get ready for my date with lillian albertosaur!

there was only one thing left to do here at the museum, and that was check in with ms. rhonwyn so i could hopefully check out right away! i had a lot of stuff to prepare for tomorrow.

of course there was just one problem. how to get to ms. rhonwyn?

now don't get me wrong the melbourne museum does not have a very difficult to follow layout (unlike te papa in wellington). however professor paradigm had hauled me up to the top floor which i had not explored at all. there wasn't a whole lot up there... well okay other than a human brain display. which i won't lie to you people of the world wide web, didn't interest me at all. last thing i want to learn about is how much smaller and primitive my brain is than a mammals!...

i had no clue how to get to the museum's temperate forest gallery from where i was.

there was one benefit though. i got to check out the balcony above the dinosaur hall. from here i got a pretty up close view of the mamenchisaurus. when in the last 145 million years has a theropod managed to get this high up a sauropods neck when it was in the air? (well if sauropods could lift them this high in the air. scientists can't decide if they could or not. i couldn't say myself. we t-rexs didn't really have sauropods to hunt!).

from the dino hall (once you skipped the demeaning human brain display) you end up on this upper causeway. as you can see it doesn't have a whole lot to engage visitors, but it did have a glyptodon to engage me.

which was sweet as! i'd never seen one before!

though i usually find mammals very boring, but glyptodons are just really neat. their the mammalian tank which is a crazy set of adaptation. there have been all sorts of times this has convergently (that is to say coincidental) evolved. everything from fish, reptiles, dinosaurs, and mammals have produced heavily armoured herbivores (well okay and in the case of the fish predators). i do have to note though scientifically i think the armoured dinosaur ankylosaurs were cool, i'd never admit that in public (uh again anyway!) as my kind had the misfortune of running into them in the late cretaceous.

so after checking out this rather sweet (cast) skeleton i pushed on to try and finish up here at the museum for the day...

turns out the forest is what this "empty" section of the museum was. only, here on the second floor you're above the forest, so they put in the glyptodon to tide you over while you're switching upper sections of the museum.

great so the good news i'd found the forest... the slight bad news, i was directly above it and had to figure out how to get down to it.

again because they have a fairly straight forward layout here in melbourne it didn't take me long to get down to the forest level.

it was pretty cool in here. just like my old home the cretaceous garden in the royal tyrrell... only this place was about a million times BIGGER!!!

funny enough just like the cretaceous garden and the tyrrell this place ALSO had dinosaurs in it! definitely not something i was expecting...

the first was the lambeosaur that had been accompanying professor paradigm when i first ran into him earlier today.

immediately i couldn't help but notice, again, how this duckbill's entire hide was covered in scars. all of them clearly from theropod attacks... what had happened to him? (i initially guessed he was a him as it can be hard to gender us dinosaurs. however based on his bright colouration i was pretty sure he was a dude... hadrosaur males tend to need to be pretty flash to attract girlfriends).

i decided to try and be polite. "hey. it's nice to see another north american here down under. you won't happen to be from alberta would you?" i inquired. though most lambeosaurs are from my neck of the woods in canada some have been found in montana and even mexico!

he turned his head in a very aggressive manner towards me... though not directly at me as hadrosaurs eyes don't both point straight forward like a t-rexs or a humans... as though he was threatened by me. confirming this, he started to breath heavily through his nose causing loud sounds to emanate through his crest (that whole ornament on his head though shaped like an axe is actually more like a hollow horn that connects directly to his nostrils making his entire skull one giant musical instrument!)

"do not come any closer to me primordial feather!" the lambeosaur ordered. his voice confirming he was a dude.

ah, now his being threatened made sense. he thought i was one of my JERK of a cousin's cronies for the coelurosaur only club the pack of the primordial feather. "i'm not in the pack," i tried to assure this stranger.

"yes, so you have claimed, but you aren't fooling me like the professor tyrannosaur," the lambeosaur coldly stated.

i was stunned at this reply. maybe due to my small brain or just the plain surprise of an accusation 2 seconds into a introduction i tried to backtrack. "i beg your pardon," i requested. "i think you have me mistaken for a different tyrannosaur." maybe one of larry and teresa's offspring i thought. they'd still be small juvenile sized tyrannosaurs, and thus look like me.

"i work for paradigm, traumador. i assure you there is no mistake. i know all about you," his eye narrowed in on me suspiciously. "already among vivus dinosaurs you are becoming famous as the one tyrannosaur who defied the pack. what a perfect little deception you and your masters have created. send the most pathetic of you out as a spy on the rest of us. i don't believe it for one second."

i was both shocked and suddenly really angry at this duckbill. to be fair some of that rage was caused by my tyrannosaurian instincts welling up for a moment (i for a second planned out how to bring him down and eat him... creepy. that kind thing is hardwired into me?!?). he had not only called me a liar, but implied i was nothing more than a puppet of my cousin's.

so he worked for the professor, big deal! i know lots of dinosaurs who work with palaeontologists and researchers. "yeah so who cares what you think duckbill!" i dismissed him, and started to try and walk past him.

he lunged slightly forward, causing me to yelp and jump back... yes not the bravest move i admit people of the innerweb, but look at it from my point of view. he's a fully grown lambeosaur at 14 meters long compared to me at mere single meter! i won't even go into the weight difference. the point being i had something the size (though not as heavy) as a skool bus coming at me. that's a bit scary!

"i am lance, traumador," he informed me in a somewhat arrogant manner if you ask me. i didn't ask him for his name. "though you may not have heard of me, you're kind certainly has. they have left their marks upon my hide. something i'm sure you'll understand i do not forget easily. tell the leaders of the pack i'll be warning the ornithischians of the world about you. the ruse will soon be over."

with that lance the lambeosaur marched off... okay i never thought i'd say this, but i'd just met a dinosaur who just matched larry in JERKiness!

though as he walked by i got a close up look at the scars on lance. holy crow. some theropods sure did do a number on him! he is lucky to be alive based on what i saw.

some of the marks could not have been left by anything but a tyrannosaurid. lance had nearly had his spine crushed at least twice by one of us by the looks of it, and these close misses had left damage none the less. there were some clear dromaeosaur attacks among the scars too. the rest i wasn't sure of. i'd only really had contact and knowledge with coelurosaurid killing tactics in canada growing up. definitely some other types large theropods had had a go at lance, but i couldn't be sure which. probably allosaurids, abelisauroids, or carcharodontosaurids but i again am not sure...

he was lucky to be alive. seriously he should have played the lottery or something. he'd survived no less than 10 major assaults on his person (or is that duckbill?) based on my quick glance at this scarred body. so maybe his dislike of me and my kind was justified. at the same time i still didn't like him!

not that my next dinosaur encounter went any better...

i wasted a long time stewing about lance and he's ubber hatred of tyrannosaurids. this distracted me from focusing on finding ms. rhonwyn, and it turns out i walked around in a circle for over an hour!

as i resumed trying to find ms. rhonwyn (and my way around the forest gallery) i entered a cool stone enclosed path that led to some displays on the waterways of australia.

it was here i bumped into another dinosaur. a neoceratopsian to be specific... though i made the mistake of thinking it was a protoceratops. a mistake i'd learn when i again tried to be friendly... which i have to say sadly i may stop doing. which is too bad, because i think a world without friendliness is a world not living in...

"hi there!" i started off. "i'm traumador the tyrannosaur. who are you?"

the "proto"ceratops cautiously replied. "dip." a female based on the voice. dip was a little concerned by my being a theropod (instinct is instinct afterall) but she was no where near as agitated as lance had been.

"are you here with the annex corp exhibit?" i asked thinking clearly the only way an asian dinosaur would be here in australia was with a travelling display.

"no," she answered shocked in a very condescending manner. there was a pause. i had no idea what to say in response. as though she thought i wasn't capable of any thought at all, dip added. "i'm a researcher here at the museum."

what and WOW! that was something i'd never heard of before! sure lots of dinosaurs like lance work with researchers, but never, not once, had i even heard of the idea of a dinosaur doing research!!!

"that is awesome!" i enthusiastically said. my dream had always to become a museum curator someday. if this dip was saying what i thought she was saying than there was a chance that maybe i could one day!

sadly i let me imagination take over my tiny brain, and i didn't think about what i said next. "i've always wanted to study palaeontology too! how did you start? in mongolia? or did you have to goto china first?" i asked thinking that of course as a protoceratops, dip would have been from mongolia. however due to mongolia's being not the richest country in the world she may have had to goto nearby china to get started on her scientific career.

she just starred at me contemptuously for a moment. "what ever are you blathering about?"

i hesitantly mentioned her being a protoceratops to which dip harshly corrected me. "a protoceratops?!? do you know anything? i am a serendipaceratops!"

stupidly playing into her accusations of being dumb, i babbled out. "a what?" not because i didn't know what it was, i'd just learned about her kind in the dinosaur hall, but because it's quite the mouth full to say. try it yourself... seren-dip-a-cer-atops.

she rolled her eyes in perfect human fashion... the first dinosaur i'd ever seen do this apart from me! "before wandering around a new country try acquainting yourself with the local inhabitants rather than trying reassigning them to places you are familiar with!" she than started to talk like what i picture an encyclopaedia would sound like... you know if it could talk. "serendipaceratops, australia's thus far only known native ceratopsian genus. though initially only known from partial fossil remains the discovery of, my, vivusly preserved egg added a great deal of insight to the species. this egg, specimen BA 4204, was the first vivus-fossil discovered in australasia..."

"wow how do you remember all that?" i eagerly inquired, and also kinda interrupted dip. which come to think of it probably made me look dumb... again!

even though i've read TONS of dinosaur and palaeontology books i can never remember that much detail. i remember the gist, but the tiny details always ooze out of my brain.

"remember that?" she asked as though she couldn't believe i'd asked it. "and you said you wanted to study palaeontology? you'd never be able to manage a basic degree that alone a PHD if you can't retain that level of information."

what? did she just say PHD. "you mean you're an actually palaeontologist?!?" i ignored the insult she'd just given me.

for the first time dip the serendipaceratops was slightly humble and modest. "not yet. i'm just a PHD student. hopefully in another year i'll have my doctorate."

"how did you get into university?" i wanted it know.

"i applied for it. now if you'll please excuse me i have a friend to meet," dip cut off the conversation and walked away.

it was about here that i remembered all the problems i'd had with dinosaurs over the years. the dinotown incident in particular came to mind. there were so few places for us dinosaurs in the human world that we all had to compete with each other way more than in the mesozoic. considering all the art out there of prehistoric dinosaurs clawing and killing each other it's hard to imagine us modern ones being worse, but trust me even if we're not actually killing each other we are. if we could kill each other it be a great life as sick as that sounds...

i was starting to yearn for good old dinosaur-less new zealand (well okay the south island anyway). meaning i should meet up with ms. rhonwyn not only so i could prepare for my date with lillian (the one dinosaur in the world i still wanted to see!), but also so i could ask her how and when we were going to get home to dunedin.

within seconds of dip rudely walking away, two very energetic voices came from above me.

"dip certainly didn't take a shining to you," said one voice. immediately it was followed by another. "no she most certainly didn't."

it was a pair of hypsilophodontids who stood on the rock wall above me. they must have just arrived as i hadn't noticed them there while talking to dip.

"great," i thought out loud. just what i wanted to put up with after the last couple hours, more dinosaurs!

"oh not to worry mate," one quipped. "we're not grumpy know-it alls like dip." the other followed.

"so than you'd be what?" i crankily asked starting to resume down the path. which of course was rude of me, but that was the point. i really should have done a three strike system on being polite. it turns out i would have won here...

blocking my route suddenly, the two hypsilophodontids leapt down from up top in front of me. "oh telling you would be no fun," the bigger one said. "i don't really feel like..." i started, but the other one cut me off. "just be a sport and play the guessing game. it's not like we're challenging you to something hard like rugby or anything." than as you probably are predicting people of the innerweb, again they traded speaking roles and the first one added. "it'll make you feel smart after having dip tear into you like she did."

stopping to think about it i realized they were right. it was not a hard game, and starting to think of my guess i did start to feel a bit smarter.

based on some of the slang they'd been using it was clear they were from the southern hemisphere. now as new zealand hadn't produced any dinosaur eggs i'd heard of, that meant they were probably from here in australia. than it occurred to me that i recognized them... from TV no less!

"you're the leaellynasaura from walking with dinosaurs aren't you?!?" i asked as i made the connection.

"guilty as charged. i'm boom," said, well boom. "and i'm rang," followed rang.

"now don't you feel heaps better?" boom asked.

"a bit to be honest," i admitted.

"no worries mate. dip is a little full on. to be honest she doesn't get along with most at the best of times. that alone theropods," rang assured me.

"we'd apologize, but to be honest we don't like her much either," boom dismissed her.

"wait, aren't you guys a little put off by my being a theropod?" i inquired.

"no," rang laughed. "if you were one of the bad ones you'd have tried to eat us by now."

"we only just met," i pointed out.

"exactly!" boom agreed. "a dangerous theropod wouldn't have waited for us to show ourselves. it'd have hunted us down first."

"besides your reputation precedes you," rang exclaimed. "traumador the tyrannosaur. the first true blooded tyrannosaurus rex to oppose the pack of the primordial feather!"

"you obviously haven't been talking to lance," i grumbled.

"you ran into lance too?!?" boom stated. "no wonder you're so late!"

"late for what?" i asked.

"meeting up with your boss," rang replied.

"you know ms. rhonwyn?" i asked shocked.

"oh yeah," boom answered. "we've been hanging with her a lot the last couple months. a good true blue aussie that one!"

wait ms. rhonwyn was an australian? i'd never caught that. oh uh! i'd always just assumed she was a kiwi cause she was working at the otago!

"come on she's been getting kinda bored and sick of waiting for you," rang informed me, and they took off back towards the inside of the museum.

"what did lance want with you?" boom inquired curiously.

i informed them of my encounter with lance.

"wow, if not for the fact he doesn't like you, you should feel lucky! lance doesn't talk to many, and those that he does are usually important," rang related.

"important to what?" i asked confused. since when were dinosaurs ever considered important? the only time i'd seen it at all was when larry's visit to dunedin had caused an uproar with the unprepared kiwis.

"you know," boom paused as though scarred. "the dark side of palaeontology."

"dark side?" i repeated sceptically. "you mean like dark vadar and star wars?"

"no no no," rang countered. "the negative side effects and consequences of fossils and palaeontology. you know the stuff like illegal fossils trading, rogue research, and us dinosaurs forming secret groups like the packs."

when i was a young hatchling, my legal guardian craig had warned me of such things. they'd always scarred me, but i'd thought they were overplayed into ghost stories (come to think of it i happen to know ghosts are real... so it only makes sense the dark side of palaeontology would be true too).

"why would a hadrosaur be interested in that?" i inquired. especially a hadrosaur who seemed to get in enough trouble with us theropods?

"don't you know anything?" boom demanded... great just when i was starting to like these two they had to go and start sounding like dip!

"know what?" i grumpily grumbled.

"who professor paradigm is!" rang commented really weirdly.

"the world expert on vivus-fossils," i echoed what the professor had told me himself during my checkup.

"not just that... he's the head of palaeo central!" boom revealed.

"what's that?" i instinctively asked, not that i was seeing the reason for the hypsilophodontids' fear of the subject.

"its the initiative entrusted with the monitoring and defence of fossils and the science of palaeontology," rang whispered.

a million thoughts and ideas went through my head upon hearing that description. the foremost of all was my realization i may have heard of it before...

when craig confronted larry in dunedin the only reason craig wasn't a t-rex snack was that he threatened larry with something he called "central". was this the same thing? than that would mean craig hadn't just been telling me stories when i was a hatchling... he might have been telling me about his real life!?!?!

rather than ask that outright about craig as they probably didn't know him (though they did know ms. rhonwyn come to think of it...), i asked the leaellynasaura one of my other million thoughts. "who works for palaeo central than?"

"that's the thing no one knows," boom stated. "there's no question that it exists, but somehow it keeps to the shadows of the palaeontology community. lurking unseen in the world's museums, universities, and fossil sites invisible. yet every present."

okay so we'd gone right past ghost story into a fishing story.

rang got back to my question by explaining. "what boom was getting at, i think, is that palaeo central appears to have people, and probably dinosaurs, situated in key places throughout the scientific world. who they are, and how their brought into central isn't advertised. all that is public and official is that professor paradigm launched palaeo central a while back. though he's never said it, i think it's safe to say lance the lambeosaur is pretty high up in the organization. what being paradigm's personal assistant and all."

wow today was seriously getting to a point on the epic weird scale i haven't ever reached before in my life... and i was being chased by a maori god not all that long ago i will point out!!!

boom got himself a little less crazed and added. "every year tons of big fossil crimes go down, and we're talking fossils of every kind including us vivus ones! at the same time a lot of them miraculously get thwarted at the last moment. according to the news or official records the wrong doers were stopped but the key details on how are always skipped over. that's central covering its tracks disappearing into the shadows again. every time palaeo central somehow steps in and stops it though. if you ask me its reassuring knowing they're out there watching out over us!"

we spent the rest of the time walking through the museum talking about this mysterious palaeo central. in the end i couldn't get anymore useful information about it though. the leaellynasaura didn't know anything more, and were kind of frieghtened and in fan boy awe of it all at the same time... they just knew that it seemed to be international, secretive, run by paradigm, and boom kept insisting it was lurking in the shadows.

i had serious questions over it though compared to these two. not whether it was in the shadows... was craig in it? or had he simply name dropped with larry as i had about paradigm? if he was than maybe paradigm would know where my legal guardian had disappeared after i'd attacked him for trying to help me with larry... i wanted almost nothing more (other than success with lillian tomorrow) than to apologize to craig for what i'd done to him...

i wasn't going to get an answer today... we finally made it to ms. rhonwyn. for a moment i thought this day was trying to kill me!

sitting down beside ms. rhonwyn was none other than my new "friend" dip the serendipaceratops.

"there you are!" ms. rhonwyn sounded annoyed, bored, relieved, and ecstatic all at once.

the leaellynasaura jumped in to tell her my excuses for me, which gave my reasons more of an air of legitimacy. dip angrily glared at the two hypsilophodontids when they relayed her part in my being delayed word for word. i now scratch my yearning for dinosaur-less new zealand people of the innerweb. boom and rang are officially dudes... i think. come to think of it i never did figure out if they were boys or girls! oops! anyways i like the two of them a lot now!

"well after hearing that you're out of trouble," ms. rhonwyn winked at me, as she told me this more for the benefit of the eager leaellynasaura who happily started bouncing around thinking they'd saved me from some terrible fate.

"as for you," ms. rhonwyn turned towards dip. "i would very much appreciate it if you were nicer to my employees. i wouldn't want to have to speak with your supervisor about professional conduct."

dip shifted in a very embrassed manner, though on her tiny frame it looked quite energetic compared to what i was used to. i'd only dealt with true huge ceratopsians, not smaller primitive neo-ceratopsians in drumheller. "i apologize," she said to ms. rhonwyn, but not me.

though she was proof that what i wanted in life might be possible, i wasn't too keen on this serendipaceratops so far...

"well i must be off with my man traumador here," ms. rhonwyn informed all the surrounding australian dinosaurs. "dip i'll see you later tonight to discuss that paper. boom and rang i'll be coming in, in a couple days from now to say good bye so make sure you're findable please. no more adventures in the air ducts till after i fly off please!"

with that ms. rhonwyn walked me off towards the human history half of the museum.

"you know dip too?" i asked shocked. ms. rhonwyn had told me when larry had visited i was the first dinosaur she'd ever seen or worked with.

"i know a lot of dinosaurs now traumador," she assured me. "you've met them all now. their just the ones here at this museum, but i'm hoping through my job and you to meet a lot more in the future. at the same time you're the most important one to me by quite a bit."

"really," i said embarrassedly and unbelieving.

"remember that promotion i gave you a year ago?" she asked me.

"yes," i answered. how could i forget it. without it i'd never have ended up here in australia!

"well its nothing compared to what i'm about to offer you," she told me with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

to be continued...