Two new guests had just arrived at John Hammond's estate. As they entered the house and the butler announced their arrival, a raven-haired figure darted down the stairs and clung to them. "Mom! Dad!" Jocelyne greeted them with a warm hug.
Markus Jersey and her wife reciprocated her daughter's gesture and hugged her lovingly to them. It had been too long since they had last seen each other in person. If they could have chosen they would have come to see her much earlier, but Jocelyne had stopped them because the situation was too rough at the time: it was better for her parents to remain worrying about the family fortune, since with the sudden world market delirium caused by the peace treaties with the dinosaurs it was appropriate for them to not stop working.
Although it hurts them, Markus and Bethany had accepted her daughter's request and remained in Odaria. The choice had turned out to be the right one: it wasn't long after the approval of the peace treaty for the w
Jocelyne had had to go through another intense discussion with her parents, which this time was joined by her newly proclaimed godfather. From their point of view, it was foolish to risk her life again. However, from Jocelyne's point of view, she took far fewer risks in dinosaurs' territory than in humans' one. The argument went on for at least two hours, until the three adults gave in to the fact that she would do what she wanted regardless of what they were told.She had returned to Odaria the day before in an airliner; although Hammond had offered to give her a private jet, she had preferred to travel by conventional means. The result of the fact that the richest man in the world had become her godfather was immediately evident: if this hadn't been the case, there would have been a sniper waiting for her at the airport exit, or the car on which had traveled it would have been blown up by a car bomb. Instead, as she expected, the heads of the families had lowered the crest
"What do you mean that humanity, at the current state, cannot be saved?" Jocelyne asked."Don't you understand by yourself?""No. Enlighten me"Sobek let out a sigh, as if what he was about to say was absolute obviousness, which annoyed Jocelyne who frowned a little."If humanity was different, I would agree to do what you suggest to me. But since in reality things are different, I can't. At the current state humanity cannot be saved, because you all submit yourself to the wrong people" Sobek replied. “He is intrinsic to your society. You are fickle creatures who succumb very easily to the lure of money and power. You submit to others for grains of sand, and you are so used to it that you have lost the will to fight injustice, and therefore allow a few to market your life as if it were an object"Jocelyne shook her head: “I'm afraid you are wrong. I know that some countries are like this, but there are also others that protect human lif
The return journey was a lot slower than the outward journey. This is because the car they had left in had been replaced with a truck and the load being transported was not exactly light.Jocelyne seemed to have taken a vow of silence. The same was true of Jackson. Neither of them really wanted to talk.In the end it was Jackson who broke the ice: "I hope you know what you are doing""I know" Jocelyne replied simply. Though she had gone mute as her cloistered nun, her eyes still burned with determination, which was enough for Jackson to believe she wasn't lying. "Do I have your word that you won't speak?""I trust you and I know you have your reasons" Jackson replied. "As long as you promise me you won't make me wrestle with a carnotaur again, my lips are sewn up"Jocelyne barely laughed at that joke. “I won't let you fight a dinosaur anymore, I guarantee it” she said. "How did you go with Abe?"Jackson's face went dark, but not
It had been about five days since Malcolm, Ellie and Alexander had been released. Since they were a family too, they had 'priority' over others. Therefore, after two months of waiting, they had finally been released following the last exchange with the dinosaurs.Initially he was not at all sorry; they were finally free and could go home. Unfortunately, they soon realized that the world had changed a lot in their absence.The entire global economic system had been disrupted, with a consequent increase in many prices in the energy and food fields. Even though Jocelyne had found the solution to these problems and Hammond was working to solve them, the rest of the world was slower on the uptake and consequently a small economic crisis was inevitable. The prices of fuel, food (especially meat) and utility bills had all gone up. And to make matters worse, they now no longer had a place to live or a job.Both Malcolm and Ellie worked exclusively in the colony. Now tha
“Jocelyne, my dear! It makes me strange to be called that way. Godfather…""I can go back and call you 'Mr. Hammond' if you wish"“No, no, godfather is fine! I could get used to it..."Jocelyne gave a chuckle. It was clear that Hammond genuinely enjoyed his new role. As she chuckled, however, the old man's tone became more serious. “So… how did it go? If you called me you must be back in one piece""I'm alive, as you can see""What happened with the dinosaurs?"Jocelyne considered, not knowing how to describe it. "It was an experience... very enlightening. Lord Sobek is an excellent speaker. He made me see a lot of things that were confusing before” she replied. “However, I couldn't get him to open up to us. He intends to keep his boundaries closed... for now""For now?""Yes. Lord Sobek is right, opening the borders would be too dangerous at the moment. So I intend to eliminate that
One year. A whole year had passed.During that time many things had changed, but Sobek had mostly focused on one thing: eating. And finally, that day the System notification confirmed that he had reached enough skill points to maximize all of his abilities."At long last!" Sobek exclaimed as he spent his skill points to max out [Linguistics (3)], the latest skill not yet fully updated. "It took me a whole year... but I can finally stop"He had taken every free moment to eat. Every second he wasn't asleep or didn't have to worry about herd management had spent attached to his Personal Manger. He just couldn't take it anymore. "System, open the interface. Who knows what level I've reached..."[Spinosaurus perfectus]Level: 43Length: 43 mHeight: 13.5 mWeight: 21.5 tonDiet: carnivore, piscivoreStrength: 369.123Agility: 320,150Defense: 298.311Top speed: 44 km/hExperience points: 820,0
In the city of the Neanderthals, life had changed a lot in the last year.Thanks to Sobek's gifts, Neanderthals no longer had to worry about getting food. It was now a guarantee. They still needed water, and in fact they periodically went to the river to fetch it, but with the dinosaurs that no longer attacked them everything had become easier. There were still prehistoric mammals and reptile-mammals, of course, but they were much smaller and less dangerous than the ferocious giants that reigned over the forest.Thanks to this, working in the fields and farming had become largely obsolete. Food was no longer a problem, so there was no longer a need to produce it. This clearly left many people out of work, as 90% of the city's inhabitants were focused on the primary sector. They hadn't initially noticed the problem as they had to focus on building the armor, but now, after more than a year, the effects of this change were starting to be felt.Within a year, the N
"Great job," Sobek confirmed satisfied when Mazu brought him the good news. "Another piece went in his place" He now had a lot of bonus money, which meant he could afford a lot of weapons and armor. Also, at the next battle, Sobek planned to take over the whole continent, which would earn him a huge number of bonus money. Which meant he could afford to equip his army with better means than mere individual strength. Sure, he couldn't spend it lightly anyway. Thanks to Rambo and his intelligence, he knew that humans were setting up surface-to-air missiles. When the time came he would need an effective counter. With marine reptiles he could have created a blockade to prevent ships from passing by and with pterosaurs he could stop planes, but to block the missiles the only solution was another missile. There were no third possibilities. However, he would think about the war when the time came. For now, the truce still held. He could afford to focus on something else. For example, he no
It took Sobek a few moments before he realized he was back in the room where it all began. That room where time and space ceased to exist, and where everything and nothing seemed to have changed at the same time. He already knew where he had to go; walking through the infinitely large (or perhaps infinitely small) room, in a few minutes (or perhaps a few centuries, who knows) he reached the familiar armchair on which was seated a woman with white skin and light hair.God didn't even seem to move since she sent him to Eden. Even her expression didn't seem to have changed at all. She was still the same, beautiful and terrible at the same time, whose gaze was both magnetic and loving on him. “Welcome back, son,” she greeted him in her crystal clear voice.Sobek advanced on her. This time there wasn't an armchair waiting for him, but a large mattress wide enough to allow him to lie down. She lay back on it and gazed intently at God. Even now, after he'd grown i
On the continent of Maakanar, near a river that was once a typical spinosaurus nesting place, something immense could be seen. A huge creature was lying on its belly, but nevertheless it was so tall that its dorsal sail towered over the surrounding masts.Sobek was now thirty-three years old. To say he had grown into a behemoth was an understatement: he now measured 150 meters from head to tail and reached 45.6 meters in height. Even without activating the mutation he was now larger than Godzilla: the gigantic atomic reptile was a tiny lizard compared to him. All kaiju would be small compared to him. Even King Ghidorah would have been forced to acknowledge its superiority.In the last five years he had hardly moved. After the death of his last loyalist he returned to his birthplace and settled there. He ate what was provided to him from the [Personal Manger] and drank the water from the river. Otherwise, he remained calm, warming himself in the sun or admiring the star
After a few days Nefertiti settled at the lake together with her father and her last remaining uncle. With the help and indications of Sobek she built a comfortable nest and there she laid her egg.Thus began the brood. The female spinosaurus never moved from above her little egg, keeping it constantly warm. Sobek and Buck brought her food and water. When Nefertiti was hot, Sobek used her huge wing as a parasol and Buck fanned her with his tail. In the rare moments when it was cold, the two of her huddled to help her warm up.That routine went on for three months. Finally, at the end of the third month, a familiar clicking sound came from under Nefertiti's paws.The female spinosaurus reared up and looked down. A small crack was opening on the egg. With a smile she moved from above it. The crack widened more and more and finally a large piece of egg broke off, showing a lively green eye that stared intently at Nefertiti.“Hello, baby. I'm your mothe
Time had passed again. Sobek couldn't even figure out how much time had actually passed now. One year? Two? Maybe three? He didn't know.After his retirement, Sobek had gone deep into the forest of Maakanar. It was hard for him to move his huge body through the trees and very often ended up destroying them: his passage was evident as a trail of uprooted trunks was always behind him. He had moved permanently to the lake where he had met Buck and where he had established his first army. And he hadn't gone there alone.Carnopo and Buck had joined him just a month after his departure. They, too, had decided they'd had enough and abandoned their roles entirely. After all, in the new world there was no longer a need for either an army commander or one of the shock legion. Now there was peace, and the old war veterans had no reason to try to find their place in their world. So they had decided to do what they had always done: follow their pack leader.The trio spent th
Another year had passed. In Sobek's eyes, time seemed to have begun to flow more rapidly. The months and weeks all passed almost the same and in a flash the morning turned into evening.Humanity had continued its advance. By now, Aphrodites had been fully colonized. Whole cities had sprung up on it and millions of settlers had begun to live there. Davis had now reached more than a billion inhabitants and Hermes now owned thousands of mining establishments.Thanks to teleportation technology it was so advanced that traveling between planets was even easier than going from one city to another. Since energy and material consumption were now no longer a concern thanks to solar panels on Hermes and mining plants on asteroids, everyone had a portable teleportation device. By now, being hired to work a mine on an asteroid was no different than being hired to work at the local convenience store.Colonies on the moons of Leviathan and Behemoth had multiplied, providing e
More time, more changes. In just one year, many things had changed.Nefertiti had assumed control of the entire astrophysics division of the dinosaur pack, effectively acting as acting pack leader for them. After the first shared mission, she had begun to promote more policies of integration and union between humans and animals. She had facilitated interspecies interspace operations, sending animals and humans to work together in the new worlds to be colonized. Furthermore, there was still much to colonize, as human attention was slowly shifting beyond the outer Solar System to the dwarf planets and comets of the Oort Cloud.The work was not cheap and with it the possibilities of working together. With the Dyson Sphere nearing completion, energy was no longer an issue. After determining which moons to colonize, the Eden Union had begun an intensive mining program in the asteroids of the main belt in order to be able to build huge lenses to capture the sunlight and also
One more year, more innovations. The more time passed, the more progress seemed to accelerate. It was like a speeding train that multiplied its speed every second: first slow, then faster and faster, until it turned into a giant projectile.Sobek knew that progress was bound to accelerate more and more, after all it was his nature. For each new discovery, countless doors open. And every door leads to other doors. This was the nature of progress. It was no coincidence that it took humanity less than two hundred years to go from horses to aircraft capable of leaving the orbit of their home planet.He recalled that on Earth, where he came from, progress had become so fast in the 21st century that it was enough to be born even a generation later or further back to find oneself in a completely different world. While in 1990 the main communication system was the satellite phone, in 2020 people used social networks for the most disparate things. While in 1990 movies were watc
More time had passed. This time it was a year… or maybe a year and a half? I don't know. Not that it mattered much, actually.The world's attention to the inner solar system was gradually waning. Now that three planets had been terraformed, even if one of them still wasn't enough, and Hermes had become a stable colony that was continuously producing large panels of glass that joined in the orbit of the Sun to form the Dyson Sphere, the humanity was beginning to anticipate new challenges. From the inner solar system it was time to move to the outer solar system.Although some colony outposts were already present on some moons of Behemoth, they could not be defined as true colonies. However, now that energy consumption was no longer a problem thanks to the Dyson Sphere, which although not completed already released enormous amounts of energy, the Eden Union decided to start an exploration program of the entire outer solar system, or at least of the space between B
Two more years had passed. The advance of humanity towards the stars continued inexorably.The hypotheses of the scientists had proved to be correct: using a combination of gravity control technology and energy obtained from the Dyson sphere, although still incomplete, they had managed to accelerate the rotation of Aphrodites. The planet was slowly accelerating, though not too fast. There was generally talk of an hour each week. At this speed there was no risk of destroying the infrastructure already present on the planet. Yes two years, the rotation period had gone from 2082 hours to 1978 hours. Continuing at this rate, it was expected to reach 24 hours in 'just' another 38 years.Once this process was completed, the huge orbiting mirrors could finally be taken off. The day/night cycle would no longer be artificially determined and there would no longer be the risk that something would go wrong due to the impact of a micrometeorite. In addition, the accelerated rotati