6. J. Wendler, “External forcing of the geomagnetic field? Implications for the cosmic ray flux—climate variability”, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 66 (2004) 1195 – 1203 (Climate change and magnetic pole reversals as influenced by the position of the solar system in the galactic arm.) http://tornado.sfsu.edu/geosciences/classes/gm700/PDF_Files/DaveGgeomag.pdf
7. N.J. Shaviv, “Cosmic ray diffusion from the galactic spiral arms, iron meteorites, and a possible climatic connection”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 051102.
8. N. Shaviv, “The spiral structure of the Milky Way, cosmic rays, and ice age epochs on Earth”, New Astron. 8 (2003) 39–77. http://www.phys.huji.ac.il/~shaviv/articles/long-ice.pdf
9. I. M. Pepperberg , “Studies to determine the Intelligence of African Grey parrots”, Proceedings of The International Aviculturists Society, January 11 - 15, 1995
Up to sixty five or so million years ago the Sun was traveling between two arms of the galaxy. There was little in the way of debris and star-making going on in this region so the levels of cosmic radiation were also lower. As a result, the Earth enjoyed warm, relatively uniform temperatures even up to the polar areas. The Late Cretaceous period is a time of global warmth with equatorial temperatures similar to the Earth with which we are familiar. Tropical vegetation extended all the way to 50 degrees north and south of the equator. That would be right up into lower Canada or southern Germany in today’s world.
The Dinosaurs
The Theropod suborder of the dinosaur family is the only branch that survived the K-T extinction. A small portion of this suborder live today as birds. Anyone who believes that birds have low intelligence or speak only through mimicry should read some of the papers of Doctor Pepperberg.
The other suborders of the family are lost to us. However if you want to see some scientific papers on dinosaur intelligence that seem to cross the line into science fiction look up the papers of Doctor Dale Russell's "Dinosauroid" or search for anything on Troondons.
The Extinctions
There have been many recent publications linking the path of the solar system in the Milky Way with changes in climate, higher levels of cosmic rays and random interstellar debris. Passage into the leading edges of each coincide highly with extinctions as do major changes in climate and even the rate of flipping of the magnetic poles of the earth.
Shaviv has an excellent paper in the references discussing the rotation of the solar system around the center of the Milky Way. There have been several challenges to it but so far it seems to have survived the scrutiny of his peers. It’s interesting to see the high level of correlation between the suns passage from an empty space into a new galactic arm.
The solar system of the Cretaceous Era did pass into the Sagittarius arm just before the extinction event. The effects of the high cosmic radiation levels were compounded by the major collision that killed so many species and started a long cycle of ice ages.
The Local Star Group
The stars rotate around the Center of the Milky Way at slightly different speeds and paths. As they do so, they wander relative to each other, moving both above and below the galactic plain. I have found a number of papers citing our solar system’s passage into each arm for the past several billion years. However, I have never seen any attempted study of the relative location of our sun to its neighbors. The basis of our story that rests upon the Sun being closer to earth-friendly planet environments is therefore simply speculation.
Chapter 2 : Transformation
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change"
Charles Darwin
Anton Dotschkal loved building things. Not little things and not simple things. He builds big, complex things like buildings, bridges, parks with waterfalls and of course, an ice-station on Europa. He feels true joy when creating something intricate and functional, of sculpting something useful from the raw chaos of nature. Most of all he felt that anything created had to be useful since there was no real beauty in creating something that was simply graceful or gaudy.
Before him stood a project that is unique in that he had almost no constraints imposed by man on how or what he could do to create his spaceport. Oh, of course there were corporate safety standards to meet but he agreed with their strict rules and would have followed them anyway. To Anton, they were a starting point for his own strict standards and methods that carried designs way beyond the conventions allowed in civil code.
Anton needed to visualize his creation before turning to sketch and computer. The pieces had to fit together like the individual sections of an orchestra. Functionality intertwined with grace and healthy doses of practicality and inspiration. A cup of strong black coffee in his hand, he walked across the cafeteria of the Argos. The cafeteria is almost empty. Only two other engineers sit at the opposite end discussing their work and the gossip of the day. They won’t be bothered by his work.
Most of the people now eat lunch in the tropical outdoor cafeteria on the Station grounds. They seem to prefer the real breeze and open structure of the new building. Very few of the expedition members work inside the Argos since they finished the outside labs last month. This provided an opportunity to use the Argos systems with little interruption.
Setting his cup down, he walks over to the walldisplay and signs into the design interface of the Argos using his Hive-Tab. A section of the room shimmers into a three dimensional image of the west side of the peninsula looking in toward the high blue tipped mountains in the distance. There is even a low salt breeze playing across the scene. Reaching up with his fist, Anton opens and closes his hand and pulls the display to his right. The scene before him shifts and his viewpoint is now from a location over the ocean and south of the Cretaceous Station peninsula.
The calm blue ocean before him is filled with the counter-current ripples of a large river flowing into it from the mainland. The rapid flow of this river carries millions of gallons of fresh water out into the ocean through a trench dug over a million years ago before the seas around them rose over 300 feet to form this vast inland ocean. The salty northern edge of the underwater chasm transforms into a coral reef rising up to within a few feet of the ocean’s surface.
Inland, the river is nestled in the center of a broad valley that it carved from the surrounding plateau. Shallow banks at the edge of the river gradually rise on either side until they meet the piles of sand, stone and debris at the foot of the mainland plateau’s cliffs. The cliffs themselves are no more than a hundred to two hundred feet high.
Clear turquoise waters below his feet allow him to view creatures moving along the sea bottom directly below him. Some are clearly seen even though they are more than fifty feet below the surface. The water would be even clearer but the river dumps highland silt as it flows into the ocean. Deep in thought, his hand reaches out to pick up his coffee cup.
‘Playing superman again Anton?’ A deep mellow voice rises from a thin man standing directly behind him. This is Colonel Daniel Drake, head of Blackwave Security. His slim frame supports a wiry but muscular body accustomed to years of heavy work and Special Forces training. The Blackwave people provide security for the Station. Most of the personnel are ex-Special Forces with combat experience. Almost all have advanced degrees to fit their specialist studies. Anton and Dan have been close friends for several years. They share the same passion for perfection as well as professionalism and competency in almost anything they tackle.
‘Morning Dan. No, I’m not here for role-playing. I came here for a final visualization of the project for the spaceport expansion.’ Anton lifts his opened fist out before him toward the river’s mouth and grasps at the air. As he pulls his fist back and then down slightly, the scene zooms in to provide a closer view of the two sides of the river.
‘Could you stay a minute? I could use your help with a few ideas and I’m going to need your approval anyway. Here on the edge of the plateau to the s
outh of the river is where Mark wants to put the starport and resort. I was initially considering a relatively simple fortified compound with a curved wall on the landward side. The curved wall would have had bastions every 500 feet that would allow flanking fire if we are ever attacked again. Since we can SilFuse the walls from the surrounding sands, this layout would have been inexpensive and could protect against the type of coordinated attack we had during our first month when that hunting pack of Albertosaurus hit us. Our only concern would then be monitoring the gates and the roadway from here to the starport. For increased security, I even considered a tunnel for that part of it. This is an ideal, simple layout for a spaceport where all we have to consider is ship support facilities, temporary storage, supplies and short term guest quarters.’
‘Mark’s requirement to build a resort complicates the plan considerably. The views of the ocean and river from the cliff tops would be nice of course, but this layout does little for the pleasure-minded resort visitor. There’s just something too medieval about the whole thing, too confining. The layout also didn’t make use of the local terrain and points of interest. These things are important if you want to have a good resort.’
‘Given the fact that travel here will involve significant financial expenditures and people will have to travel over sixty five million years to get here, I think we should give them something for their money that they will remember.’
Dan chuckled, ‘Well, yeah. I guess I never thought of it that way. But don’t you think just the initial trip to Jupiter and then down into its Red Spot would make the journey worthwhile?’
‘Ok Dan, all joking aside, the journey does make the trip worthwhile. However, we need to make the destination a true memory spot. It may take us a while to get cash flow from a colonization market but we can immediately get income if we bill the place as an exotic resort. Sort of pays up front for the engineering and we can avoid the Vulture Capitalist money lenders.’
‘Consider what we have. We have a high-topped peninsula full of our Hypsilophodonts or “Hypes” that would love to meet new people. They are friendly, the chicks are cuddly and they are not overbearing. You can also talk to them and we plan to use some of them as guides. That’s it for the peninsula unless you want to set them up with telescopes for bird watching. Oh, and of course we could consider some offshore fishing but I’m a bit concerned about the mosasaurs and some of the less frequent Plesiosaurs encounters. I wonder if a bubble net barrier would work here?’
‘Anyway, let’s not get sidetracked.’ Anton, deep in his creative thought mode, half mumbled while Dan chuckled silently. ‘Now look at the mainland and try to see it as one of our guests would. To the north is that high plain that gradually rises to the even higher mountains to our far west. It’s filled with fern and palm scrubs down here and, as you move up to the foothills, pines and even some deciduous trees. Flowers are abundant with some grass at the stream edges and swamps. Combine that view with the exhilaration they will feel when they step into our low gravity and high oxygen level, clean atmosphere and we have a real winner here. Hmmm, might even be able to sell it as a health spa …’ Dan could see Anton expanding his notes.
‘However, most people aren’t here to smell the flowers. They want to see the dinosaurs. We know the Troondon are in this area for most of the year until migration time. They aren’t real friendly but their spectacular coat of black feathers with the long-flowing yellow plume that extends down the back to the tail will be on a lot of our advertisements.’
‘You know, these are not your father’s concept of dinosaurs! Most people see dinosaurs as …. Well kind of like visualizing a parrot without it’s feathers. It’s amazing how many people still think of dinosaurs as some scaly-skinned shuffling reptile instead of a giant, rather graceful bird-like creature. These guys should really shake up people’s original beliefs, after all they are really closer to birds than reptiles. They are smart too, and we want to get that across to our visitors.’
‘Of course, after the Troondon leave on what we know is their semi-annual short migration, then the packs of Albertosaurus move in and they are big, beautiful and very scary. Personally I’m glad they are only here for a short time before they migrate out again.’
‘Me too!’ Dan mumbled quietly.
‘Then up here in the same area just across from our peninsula, we have the stream and field where the three-horned triceratops herds stay. They are always there and that will be one of the favorites for tourists. They don’t have very much plumage but boy does it make them look different from what we thought they would look like. I promise you they will be a big hit.’
‘South of them, the river valley is a thing of beauty on its own. The sandy cliffs with the stream’s waterfalls from the plateau down to the river valley are gorgeous and people will want an overlook to watch the mosasaurs in the river and hadrosaurid herds on the river’s edge. Luckily, that family of T-Rex’s hasn’t been driven off so a visitor never knows when they are going to be able to witness a T-Rex hunt. There’s no question about it, we need a lookout of some sort extending over the river valley.’
Dan cut in shortly, ‘… and put it up at a safe height and distance. Don’t forget our recordings, a T-Rex can jump thirty or forty feet into the air in this low gravity. I will never underestimate them again after that experience last month.’
Anton simply continued on with his review, ‘Up here on the south plateau, below the river valley, we have the soft ground with the Sauropod swamps that border on the dense and quite spectacular sequoia forest right there. Look at the height of those trees. We’ve never seen anything like it because the trees of our time in old California and Washington are limited in height to about 300 feet by lightning strikes. We haven’t seen anything more than mist here since we arrived. So no lightning and almost no rain, just morning humidity. The lower gravity of this era also contributes to really big and spectacular trees.’
‘Then too, we have our local Sauropods. Anyone would love to see a herd of sixty-foot long, long necked Paluxysaurus ambling around to chew the soft and sweet top leaves from those young leafy trees along the stream. Closest thing our customers will get to our fabled Brontosaurus! I saw one crunching on a willow by the stream last month and what he did to that tree was pretty spectacular!’
‘So here’s the general plan. Our guests will want a chance to get out into nature. Oh, they will still want the thrill and feeling of danger but they want to do it safely. They want to see, smell and get close to all of the exhibits. Some dinosaurs, like the Hype chicks, they would like to hold. Rather like a petting zoo but with the high intelligence of some of these animals we have to be careful of everyone’s interests and well-being.’
‘I’m going to open up a lot of the southern plateau for our resort. Rather than a fixed wall, I’m planning to clear out the really thick brush in the entire area right up to and behind those swamps in the southwest where those big Sauropods live. Way out here will start our first line of defense. It will consist of a string of sensors and linked AutoSentinel fire platforms. This will be an automated defense system rather like we setup at our original entrance. We’ll program the AutoSentinels to allow the existing Sauropods to come and go at their leisure. Same for any of the other known forms of wildlife we think we can allow in the area. If anything unwanted comes in, man-size on up, then the AutoSentinels will fire smoke and flash-bangs to warn off any new life. The response level will escalate if they don’t shy away and the last step would be to use kill shots. Human personnel will of course back up the Artificial Intelligence of the station monitors. I assume we will be bringing in additional personnel for that.’
‘Unlike our original setup here, we have enough time and information to program and set the defense up properly. The defensive screen will extend in about three hundred feet deep and be almost invisible from the resort area of the Station. Inside this outer circle will be our “Wildlife” area for guided tours for some of the more adventurous touris
ts. We’ll have enough room in this area for guide-controlled camping and hiking in the wild. It will yield a safe resort with just a hint of the danger for the more adventurous.’
‘For the less adventurous travelers, those who still want to safely see the wildlife, we plan to construct a tree-house resort based in this batch of sequoia trees that extend out over the south edge of the swamp where the Sauropod pool is. I plan to make this a rather luxurious habitat based loosely on the style of the old tree-top hotels in Africa. It will include observation lounges and ground level photographic hides from which guests can observe the local wildlife that come to the nearby waterholes or are down in the river basin. Lodging can be in the main tree-lodge or guests can choose individual octagonal suites located along the edge of the grove and connected by secure elevated walkways through the tree-tops. The top of the hotel will house a low-gravity treetops excursion for up-close canopy cover views right down to the edge of the river’s cliffs.
Dan lifts his arm and points to the area above the cliffs near the open mouth of the river, ‘I assume this will be the starport and arrival area. How do you intend to defend it? Are you using this ridgeline?’
‘Yep, the inner defense ring will be a thirty foot high berm with a travel tram and monitored running paths along the top. It will extend along this long border from ocean cliffs on the east to the river cliffs on the North. The steep outer face will provide sensors like in the outer buffer zone as well as gun stations and AutoSentinel coverage. We will use gated tunnels for egress.’
‘I’ve decided to put two lakes in the center of the starport area. We have enough humidity and water-flow here so making and maintaining these lakes shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll use them to showcase some of the exotic bird and fresh-water life and they’ll also act as reservoirs for the main station and hotel.’
Hunter's Moon (Cretaceous Station Book 2) Page 4
