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The cycle began with the spring migrations, when flights of tyra
The Lord of the Valley (they could identify him by his scars) returned to claim the previous year’s territory and, because he was experienced and in his prime, faced only a few challenges from younger males. He paced off the perimeter of his valley, singing, both to warn away competitors and to call in the titanosaurs.
The titanosaurs, those vast eating machines, drifted slowly through the valley, guided by its resident tyra
When the titanosaurs finally left, the understory was flourishing and the tyra
Leyster held the whole in his mind now; he set about to boil it all down to the least number of words.
“Biocybernetic…” said Daljit. “Is there such a word?”
“There is now.”
“Does it mean anything?”
“Actually,” Jamal said, “The word cybernetic refers to feedback loops occurring not only in machines but also in and between living organisms. So there’s really no need for the neologism.”
Leyster blushed. It had been a long time since he’d been caught out in a mistake of terminology. “I’ll change it.”
“What I want to know,” Tamara said, “is why you don’t mention the incident Katie and Nils saw. With the troodons.”
Katie and Nils had reported seeing a small flock of troodons actively drive some hadrosaurs away from a titanosaur nesting site. The savage little beasts, they reported, had rousted hadrosaurs ten times their size. They concluded that it had been done to protect the eggs.
“Its meaning is ambiguous,” Leyster said.
“Not to Katie and Nils.”
“Also, it only happened the once.”
“That anybody saw.”
Judiciously, Jamal said, “When you report the behavior, you say, ‘It is possible that…’ Where’s the problem?”
“I hate to include speculation in a scientific paper.”
There was a brief silence. “So,” Tamara said. “I guess that means you’re not going to include Chuck’s speculation?”
“I didn’t say that. I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
While Leyster thought about the paper and Daljit ma
As they ate, they discussed the section of the paper which Leyster was working on. Here he got into more problematic behaviors.
The herds of hadrosaurs and triceratopses moved continually up and down the valley, feeding. Lai-tsz, whose ear for the sped-up recordings was better than the others, was able to establish that when the local vegetation was in danger of being overgrazed, the Lord or his Lady would seek out greener areas, and call the herds to them. Leyster had been skeptical of this at first, but then Lai-tsz had repeatedly demonstrated her ability to predict when the herds would disappear from established territory, and where they would go, based on the recordings. So he’d had to admit it was so.
He pla
“Exactly what is the difference,” Daljit asked, “between domestication and ranching?”
“Domestication is the process whereby the predator species have rendered the prey species docile to their will.”
“Are you even sure they are domesticated?”
“Several times we’ve seen the Lord of the Valley approach a herd, of various species, singing. They huddle, with the young in the center. He walks around and around them. They turn to face him, cluster tighter, jostle each other. Tighter, closer, more assertive, until one individual gets expelled from the pack. Always the oldest, or weakest, or sickest. His Lordship surges forward, and—snap!—it’s dead. Thirty minutes, start to finish.” Leyster gri
“Okay, and ranching?”
“Ranching is the set of behaviors by which it cares for the herds—moving them between pastures, keeping away rival predators, and so on.”
“Well, you’ll have to make sure that’s spelled out clearly in the paper.”
“Teach your grandmother to suck eggs.”
They tied up for the night to a sandbar island overgrown by a snarl of young tanglewoods. Tamara waded ashore and chopped clear a section of the island to make a fire. She began to brew them some sassafras tea.
The phone rang.
“I’m not here,” Leyster said. “If anybody asks, I’m at a meeting and you don’t know when I’ll be back in the office.”
Daljit picked it up. She listened briefly, then put her hand over the receiver. “It’s a boy!” she shouted.
Whoops and cheers.
Leyster took the phone. “So, does he look like anyone in particular?” he asked. Feeling a strange mixture of hope and apprehension.
“What does it matter?” Katie said. “We all love the little brat. You will too, as soon as you see him.”
“I know it doesn’t matter, I’m just curious. Come on, you’d ask the same question yourself, if you weren’t there.”
“Well… judging by the color of his skin, I’d have to say the father was either Jamal or Chuck.”
“The father is either Chuck or Jamal,” Leyster said, hand over the receiver.
“I’m a father?” Jamal said.
‘’Maybe a father,“ Leyster said.
“You’re half a father,” Daljit elaborated.
“I’m a fath!” Jamal said. “I’m a ther!”
He danced a clumsy little jig that made Daljit snap, “Watch the damn splint!” Tamara seized him, and kissed him deeply.
Leyster found that, for all he was happy for his friend, he felt a pang of jealousy as well. That could have been his son. The thought of what might have been stirred complex emotions within him.
The next morning, they cast off and headed downriver again. It was another beautiful day. Leyster felt alert and invigorated, and he had the paper pretty much whipped into shape by lunchtime.
Last of all, he composed the abstract:
Field observations reveal that major dinosaur groups in the late Maastrichtian communicated both intra– and interspecifically via infrasound. Communications between species are of particular note since they suggest cybernetic feedback loops operating within and helping to shape the ecosystem. Domestication and “ranching” behavior were observed. The advantages of this cooperative behavior to the predators are self-evident. Benefits to the prey species, though less obvious, are postulated to be equally compelling. It was a complex system working to the maximum benefit of all.
“I’m done,” he said.
Jamal applauded. “Well, let’s hear it!”
“No, I should give the first full reading to everyone. That’s only fair.”
Groans.
“You told us what you had yesterday,” Daljit pointed out.
“Yes, but yesterday we were nowhere near our destination. Today we’re—how far is it we have yet to go?”
The mapping satellite was low in the sky, but they were just able to get a location from it. Daljit and Jamal huddled briefly over the maps, argued, then concluded that they’d reach the confluence of the Eden and Styx rivers sometime in early afternoon.