It's a bit long so I'm sorry about that. Also you don't have to read it if you don't want to but I'd love to hear your honest opinion about it. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post stories here or I've posted it in the right place so if I have I'm sorry if you have to remove it or anything. I wrote it before hearing about the Bob the Pleo cartoons and books so if it's too similar I apologise and again, please feel free to take it down (although it's not really like "Bob the Pleo") at all. Thank you so much if you bother to read it, it means a lot
15,000,000 Years in the Making: The Truth about PLEO
Contrary to popular belief the dinosaurs weren't stupid. Oh, no. They saw that asteroid heading towards their planet, tracked it, and even tried to divert it. Or at least the camarasaurus did. Yes it was these often over looked passive giants of the Jurassic period who strove to protect their race. And try as they might to convince the other dinosaurs of their findings they were met with cool derision. Some were in denial; some just did not want to believe that the asteroid was a threat. But the camarasaurus realized what this meant for their entire world.
There was not time to provide shelter for every dinosaur and so it was decided to save only their young. But what age exactly counted as young? In the mounting panic deranged parents were practically throwing their children forwards, some even begging to be allowed accompany their babies as a care taker. The elders wanted to save as many camarasaurus as possible and so it only made sense for the hatchlings to be as small and therefore as young as could be managed. At the same time these dinosaurs would have to learn to take care of themselves in the future and newborns would surely perish without the close care of an adult. A command was issued stating that all one week old camarasaurus must be brought to the elders. Each was carefully examined by way of preventing parents from smuggling in children of an unauthorized age.
In order to protect against the asteroid’s impact the dinosaurs had scraped out a cavernous hole in the earth at least fifty meters deep. Parents said tearful goodbyes to their children before they were winched gently down into the depths of the cave. Once every inch of space was occupied the elders started to chant. The babies in the hole stopped their crying, their roaring, and their incessant scrambling. In fact, they stopped all together. The baby camarasaurus had frozen. Still alive and yet unable to move or grow these baby dinosaurs simply jammed like faulty machines and ground to a halt where they stood. Such is the art of dinosaur magic that with the right pitch their impressive range of vocal cords could produce a vibration which effectively froze living particles. Though humans have since dreamt of such a power it was unfortunately lost with the death of the camarasaurus elders. The baby camarasaurus were still too young at that time to learn this great art.
You see, the elders knew the oncoming asteroid would throw rubble and dust into the atmosphere, rendering it impossible for any organism to live even if the initial impact was survived by some. And these conditions could prevail for many thousands of years into the future. There was not enough space in the hollow for all the food each camarasaurus would need as it grew older never mind the fact that it would all become mouldy. Talking about growing, an adult camarasaurus can grow to an impressive eighteen meters tall, not helpful if there is thousands all living in the same cramped hole in the ground. The babies then, had to stay in suspended animation until the time was right for their mighty race's restoration.
The elders finished their crooning song and gazed mournfully at the scene they had themselves painted. Every living thing in sight had "paused" from the tiniest shrub to the adult camarasaurus themselves. Families huddled together in fright, couples with necks entwined in a perpetual embrace, grieving parents with heads arched to the sky. The elders alone remained animated. They had not frozen because while each sang they somehow repelled the threatening vibrations in distributing their own. These great beasts cast one and other a solemn glance. The occasion was too monumental for words. It was the end. Of their friends, of their family, of their world as they knew it, of their very lives. But not of their race. It felt only right to mimic their statue like companions' actions and each trod quietly without words. Every remaining dinosaur wished almost that they had been frozen like this themselves so as to avoid the terror of the meteor and be instead granted a peaceful death.
One picked up a large stone object in his mouth. It was shaped like a leaf and inscribed with strange lettering. This contained the camarasaurus' basic genetic code. Of course it was different for each dinosaur but this, they felt, might assist in re animating the babies, something never before achieved by the camarasaurus. He let the leaf drop and moments later heard a clattering noise as it hit the rock bottom of the cave.
For the following month the several hundred elders worked against the clock to fill in this gargantuan hole, knowing that they could not fail, knowing that there was too much to lose, that the survival of their species depended upon them.
The huge tomb like structure was indeed completed. The elders' expert craftsmanship rendered it virtually invisible, blending seamlessly into the landscape within which it nestled. The dinosaurs' aim was to preserve their offspring until a life form sophisticated enough to locate the warren developed. This race would have the best chance of restoring their babies. The camarasaurus had always been intelligent. Intelligent enough to recognize basic scientific principals, intelligent enough to code DNA through the very vibrations they sensed in their cells. But not, however, intelligent enough to breathe life into a frozen being. Perhaps if they had had longer, perhaps if that asteroid had never hit things would have been different. Now we shall never know.
As it was the elders waited in the coming days for their eventual death. And when the monstrosity of fire bore down upon them they waited, tails linked in unity. It is said that they waited still, even as their skeletons, stripped of flesh, were buried beneath the carnage that was the remains of their lives. But this time they waited only for their children’s savior as ghostly protectors of a heritage long forgotten by all others. And to this day they wait.
"Alex!"
"Yeah?"
"I think you should come take a look at this."
Alexander Mackenzie was almost sixty years old but retained a keen interest in paleontology. He kept promising himself that this would be his last excavation before retiring but somehow in his line of work there always seemed to be more to do. And where a prospective expedition was concerned his curiosity always got the better of him. This time Alex and his team were in the process of uncovering a 15,000,000 year old skeleton of an adult camarasaurus found in North America.
He hurried carefully around the monumental fossil until he found his associate and close friend, Matthew Hodgewrite.
"What is it?" Asked Alex rather shortly being out of breath and unable to see what all the fuss was about.
"Look." Matthew said and simply jabbed his finger at a rather withered looking root protruding from the ground. Except it wasn't a root and there was no vegetation nearby. It was a bone. Unable to believe his eyes, Alex crouched down beside the other man at the same time ramming his glasses further up the bridge of this rather prominent nose the better to see.
"But...But we've already uncovered the main body of the skeleton." He stuttered.
"I know."
"You don't think...You don't think there could be another camarasaurus fossil...do you?"
"My dear man that is exactly what I think."
"But this is amazing, unprecedented, completely..." The older man babbled practically leaping up in excitement.
"And we can't know anything until we've uncovered it. For all we know it could be a smaller animal or even a fragment of bone separated from the main body." The other reminded him sternly as if he were the senior lecturing an excited child at Christmas.
"O Of course... Jenny, Sam get over here we need some help!"
With their colleagues assistance Alex and Matthew succeeded in excavating first a finger bone then an entire hand complete with the characteristic curved shape of a camarasaurus'.
Having called over more paleontologists to assist the team uncovered a complete second skeleton within the week, rendering Alex ecstatic. It seemed at last that all those years of dedication to his craft had paid off. And yet more and more assistants were summoned from the museum to assist as further fossils were unearthed. At least a hundred, in fact. Granted all skeletons were not entirely whole but the implications of some "pre-apocalyptic dino-gathering" brought hordes of scientists, swarming in.
There were of course multiple explanations puzzled and argued over by the visiting biologists in particular. However what no one could solve was the reason why the dinosaurs had converged in a circle, all facing towards a central point. After musing over this for a while it was decided that an excavation into this area should be carried out in order to salvage any clues. Perhaps there was another dinosaur buried there, perhaps a "group leader" they had been listening to? No such body was happened upon however once the surface of sand and rubble was removed a definite circular area of older earth with a different consistency to that surrounding it became apparent. It seemed that this earth had been at one point over turned, mixed with the vegetation and sand of the surface. It was almost as if a hole had been dug. But surely not by these dinosaurs? They were not made for such work. Sure, their legs could have feasibly taken the strain but more importantly, why would they have felt the need? And so Alex's by now vast team dug deeper and deeper, all the while becoming more and more mystified. This was not recognized behavior in dinosaurs. What was going on?
Without warning Alex's spade struck something hard. Thinking it to be another rock he dug around it carefully becoming gradually phased at its irregular sides which made it so difficult to maneuver around. Odd, he thought as he gazed down at the object, doesn’t look much like a rock to me. Alex picked it up, as he did so pulling out a brush and begun to clean off the dirt and earth. A vibrant green shone faintly back at him like a light through the fog of dust. As he scraped the rock clean it became apparent that it wasn't. A rock that is. And the more he realized what it wasn't the more Alex wondered what it was. As its shape became clearer he almost dropped the thing in shock. For this was a dinosaur. A baby camarasaurus if its size and shape were anything to go by. And yet it was nothing like any fossil he'd ever come across before in all his forty years experience. For this was neither a skeleton nor a fossil. No, this camarasaurus had a solid body. The soft rubbery skin textured with emerald and greengage scales, the earthy under belly and eye lids, and the curving swoop of its motionless tail. Everything down to the very claws on its feet was there just as Alex had read about. On forcing open an eye of the thing Alex discovered its iris to be tinted a bright azure colour but though beautiful it remained expressionless, blank. Disturbed and feeling as if he were intruding on the empty house of a long dead friend, Alex let the lid fall. He estimated the body to be about seven and a half inches tall, the perfect replica of a baby camarasaurus. For a replica it must be. Nothing could possibly have survived down here for so long. Alex's first reaction was that this was all some practical joke at his expense.
"Ok, who put this here?" He demanded wildly brandishing the miniature dinosaur above his head.
At his resigned tone the others hurried over only to appear just as shocked and taken aback as he.
"What...What is it?" Breathed a woman to his right.
"Some sort of prank I'd imagine, Linda. Nothing to worry about. Now which one of you jokers buried this eh?" Alex said gruffly.
"Sir is that...Is that a...dinosaur?" A trembling red head asked.
"Well yes but...No not a real dinosaur! A model, a fake...must be." Blundered Alex, beginning to feel unsure himself.
"May I?" Linda asked, gesturing to the object.
Alex handed it over for her inspection and all looked on eagerly as she turned it over carefully in her hands, prodding and poking at the skin and limbs.
"Hmmm...As a biologist I'd say this was organic matter." She muttered to herself but the words echoed eerily off the cavernous walls for all to hear.
"But that's preposterous!" Spluttered Alex indignantly "Nothing could have survived down here for fifteen million years."
"I am well aware of that, Sir. Of course we would have to carry out some tests for conclusive evidence but if this could be proved to be the body of a real camarasaurus..." She said, trailing off hopefully.
"Perhaps there was some outstanding circumstance which preserved the body. Maybe oxygen could not reach it, maybe the earth was too tightly packed." Another scientist suggested.
"That still doesn't explain why it is so far underground and why it wasn't turned into worm fodder!" Matthew interrupted, coming to his friend's aid.
After long discussion the pitiful body was passed from person to person none of who could make head nor tail of it. The argument continued between the professionals while less experienced Paleontologists were sent away to continue the excavation. Soon after, however another of these strange creatures was discovered then another and another. The place was filled with baby dinosaurs.
As Alex reached the site to continue his excavation the following day he was met by several heavily armed members of the military. Large official looking trucks had pulled up outside and the whole area was surrounded by hazard tape and warning signs.
"Excuse me!" Alex bellowed "But what on earth do you think you're doing?!"
"Sorry, government business, Sir." The nearest man replied tartly.
"Government...what?! But this is my excavation site!" He yelled.
"You are Alexander Mackenzie?"
"How do you...?"
"Can you show me proof of your identification?"
Irritated, Alex pulled out his driver’s license and held it out for the guard's appraisal.
"Alright. This particular project has been taken out of your hands. You will not be permitted to continue with it nor to talk of it. You and your co-workers will be paid generously for your... Contribution." He drawled as if a poor actor reciting a line.
"Now you see here..." Protested Alex heatedly.
"Jackson, take Mr. Mackenzie to Mandley to be spoken to with the others." The man said loudly, speaking over Alex.
Another man nodded vigorously like his head was attached by a spring and dragged off the still complaining Alex.
Unbeknownst to Alex and his team this was the FBI and they understood a hell of a lot more about these strange dinosaur bodies. The paleontologists were all forced to sign binding contracts dictating that they would not tell of their discovery and in turn were paid off with a rather substantial sum of money. And it was partly this along with his annoyance at the entire episode that finally tipped Alex into retirement.
The FBI continued the excavation themselves after retrieving the already unearthed camarasaurus. They were loaded into trucks and brought to the FBI's headquarters in Washington.
Dr Roland Carter, head of the FBI's biology and forensics department was in one of his many labs having a tea break when he first set his eyes on one of these camarasaurus.
"Dr Carter?"
"What ever’s the matter, Julian?" Asked Carter, perturbed by this sudden intrusion.
"A few thousand of these were discovered at an excavation site in North America, doctor. We're not certain if they are part of an elaborate hoax or by some fluke...real." Julian explained as he placed one of the tiny dinosaur like objects on the scientist's desk.
"But it's...A camarasaurus." Gasped the doctor.
"Yes Sir, somehow perfectly preserved. That is...if it is real at all."
"And I expect you'd like me to tell you if that is the case wouldn't you?" Carter inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"That's right. Oh and we found this too." Said Julian, sliding a sort of stone leaf onto the table top. "Mr. Murdock asked if you could identify it."
"Well this certainly is something different. Looks very life like I must say. You won't be disappointed if it is just another rouse like all those alien landings you've investigated, will you?"
"No, sir." He laughed.
Despite the scientist's skeptism he quickly got on with the task in hand. However after testing a small sample of skin he happened upon some startling results. This was not a toy, nor a model. No. It was a real dinosaur. And more importantly, it was alive. Further experiments affirmed his previous discovery. What was more, the stone leaf's strange code too, yielded perhaps just as ground breaking information.
After several weeks worth of tests Dr Carter and his fellow scientists were able at last to present their findings to a managerial board.
"So you see, Dr Casey the dinosaur is in fact a living example of a one week one camarasaurus which has been somehow frozen. Yes its body is not currently functioning but what we can see is that every cell, every organ is in the middle of an action. All organs are in full working order although there is no potential for the body to create any new substances. But there is not a recognizable cause of death."
"I hate to point out the obvious but it is not moving nor in any way functioning at present. Therefore it is dead." A woman with a sharp pointed face and short graying hair pointed out.
"Oh no no. You see this dinosaur has been effectively paused. Vibrations of some sort have reached his cells, his very DNA and prevented them from changing. Now as you know our genetic code dictates how we grow up. This particular dinosaur's DNA is missing that part of its genetic code leading me to assume that it has somehow been removed."
"Impossible." Dr Casey stated.
"If you would just let me continue?"
"Yes Casey hear the man out, it sounds plausible." Another woman sitting besides Dr Casey pleaded.
The woman snorted but fell silent.
"Now I believe we can, in fact, actually re-animate the dinosaur, if you will." Dr Carter went on.
"Excuse me, Sir but how exactly do you know what the dinosaur's genetic code is?" A suited man inquired.
"Found among the dinosaurs was this stone leaf. As you can see these markings are present upon it. After de-coding this we discovered it to in fact be a chain of numbers. Now we are not assuming anything about the nature of the being who carved this but maths is a language in itself spoken by all intelligent beings. And these numbers ARE the basic layout of all camarasaurus’ genetic code and from it we can see which sections influence which processes in the body...”
There was a babble of talk around the room at this.
"Now I know what this entails." Carter continued, speaking loudly above the noise as it died down, "But I do not want to replace the section of the DNA controlling growth, that is impossible. I can, however, re-start the dinosaur's life processes. By conducting enough electricity through the dinosaur's nerves and principally its DNA I believe I can kick start the creature."
There was a moment of silence before the room erupted once more into confused discussion.
"It won't work!" Shrieked Dr Casey in a bid to be heard.
"I say it will!" Another yelled.
"It's dangerous."
"Everybody calm down!" Intoned the President himself, who had up till now remained silent. As he spoke a shadow of quiet seemed to spread out around him. "I recognize that this is a strange prospect but I commend Dr Carter his efforts and give him permission if only to try.
"Thank you Mr. President, Sir. You won't regret it." Dr Carter assured him.
"I am sure I won't. I have great faith in America's scientists."
This put a stop to the protestations of the rest of the room.
And so Dr Carter proceeded with his experiment. Having calculated the voltage needed he administered the baby dinosaur with electricity via a wire for several hours. But the creature remained still. When at last he had started to accumulate doubts the camarasaurus moved. At first his eyes flickered slowly open, then he stood up for the first time in several million years. Surprisingly the dinosaur proved tame and made a variety of friendly noises when petted. Carter became increasingly attached to the small creature who would wag his tail playfully and even "talk" to the surrounding scientists, all of whom were utterly besotted with him. Over the next few days the baby camarasaurus developed and became capable of walking around and learning from his surroundings. Carter concluded that "Fred", as the dinosaur had been named, could develop mentally though not physically. However when the power was switched off Fred would go to sleep, only able to wake when electricity was once again in ready supply. It became obvious that since the dinosaur could not eat he was using this electricity as a sort of energy to fuel his body and just as you or I do, would fall asleep when deprived of it. Therefore Carter fitted him with a battery which attached to his underbelly. This fed him electricity gradually so that Fred could still move around at will. As afore mentioned Fred could no longer eat. This was partly due to the fact that nothing edible for a camarasaurus now existed and partly because, not being able to create more stomach acid and other substances needed for digestion, Fred could not process food. This did not mean to say that he didn’t like to eat. Tastes, Carter knew, reach our brain as electronic messages passed along our nerves. Therefore he created an artificial leaf which induced the same electrical taste impulses that Camarasaurus' normal food sources would. In other words Fred learnt that if he were to chew on the leaf he would experience the taste of the vegetation he was accustomed to eating in the wild. That was something which surprised the scientists. Fred's learning. Really he should not have been able to do it. Should not, in fact, be able to create new cells in the brain. The only explanation available then was that the electricity he used had created electrical connections between neurons in Fred’s brain, thus enabling him to learn. It was a long shot but if correct explained a lot. On the other hand, Perhaps Fred, or Freddie as he was fondly referred to, was just a miracle case?
Following the outstanding success of Fred, Carter suggested that re-animating more baby camarasaurus would be a good idea from a research point of view.
"But which ones ought we to re animate? You know this brings up all sorts of moral questions don't you, Dr Carter?" President Obama said.
Carter thought a while then turned to Fred, nestled comfortably on his chest.
"All of them."
"Now you know we can't do that there are thousands of them." The President said, adding "And they all need "charging up." as a humorous after thought.
Charging up. That was it! Carter had experienced a brain wave. In his excitement he dislodged Freddie provoking a series of displeased roars.
"Charging up! Just like a toy - That's it!" Carter yelled.
"That's what?"
"We keep several camarasaurus for research then distribute the rest as a toy."
"You know I have great respect for what you have achieved but I really don't see how that would work." Obama cautioned in a steady tone.
"Don't you see? We can't afford to keep all of them so we need to find homes where they'll be treated right. If we sell them as a toy we'll bring in money to re animate more and keep carrying out research on the ones we have."
"But are you sure they would be treated right?"
"There are far too many for us to own one each ourselves. The electricity makes them whirr kinda like a robot, you have to charge them up like a toy plus they're robust. And if one does get hurt we can offer a factory "repairs" service for people to send their "toys" to and we can cure their injuries."
"I'm NOT trying to dampen your idea here but supposing someone finds out they aren't robots, then what?" Sighed Obama.
"There are gonna be all kinds of psychos who would want to steal these little fellas if they knew they were real dinosaurs but if people think they're just toys then no one will even try. The fact that they can't really change physically means their skin is too tough to cut into so no one can ever take a camarasaurus apart."
"But people will try to take them apart because they will want to know how this great robot works."
"We'll just make a few fake robotic versions "without skin" to show people "how they really work". Oh c’mon it's a great idea! You can't really think it's right to leave all those little creatures frozen without a shot at life. We wouldn't even have to re-animate them ourselves. When people charge the battery for the first time they'll unintentionally re-animate their "toy", thinking they're switching it on!"
"No, no. Actually I think it's a great idea. You’ve won me over." The president said with a warm smile.
So a fake robotics company was set up with the name UGOBE to market and sell their "product". Kids and adults all over the world fell in love with their camarasaurus or PLEOS as they were referred to by UGOBE. PLEO stands for "Personal Life Enhancing Organism", which quite rightly does not refer to the "toy" as a robot. People loved how clever, loving and docile their PLEO was, loved how each was an individual, how they would react to each other and their environment. In short, PLEO was a hit. However certain people were beginning to get suspicious of UGOBE after discovering their relative lack of headquarters, factories and other products in general. And so, rather annoyingly, UGOBE was forced to feign bankrupsy and took a back seat for a while, letting things settle down.
In the mean time the government discovered that the rest of their "frozen" stock of dinosaurs was not exactly a week old as the others had been but a few days older. Apparently these babies had been found nearer the back of the cave. From this we can deduce they were among the first to be admitted to the shelter before that is, the elder dinosaurs really knuckled down on age restrictions. Being more mature they had consequently developed potential for slightly more attributes. Some had even evolved a blue or pink colour in contrast to the normal green. These dinosaurs were introduced to the world by an already existing robotics company paid to keep up the pretence. These "PLEOS" are known as the PLEO RB. More research has also gone into what these dinosaurs ate in the wild and further supplemental leaves and foods have been developed since that first leaf created by Dr Carter.
All PLEOS are now issued with a "tug of war toy", "name card" and "learning stone" with several other "learning stones" available for purchase. You see care has been taken to document the language spoken by camarasauruses and each item emits instructions for your PLEO in the form of high pitch vibrations. When the object is placed in PLEO's mouth it vibrates his skull so that he can hear the instructions. For example the tug of war toys says "Pull me", the naming card says "Listen closely your owner is about to tell you your name" and the learning stones say different things depending on what you are training your PLEO to do. For example the "bow" learning stone tells PLEO "When you hear the following command, bow". Don't be concerned about the way PLEO hears these things, it doesn't hurt! Haven't you ever been at a science museum or fair and been able to hear music "through your teeth" by biting on a vibrating object? Well, it's basically the same thing but on a smaller scale so it won't work for you but PLEO hears it just fine.
And that is the story of PLEO's long fifteen million years in the making, and more importantly how he or she got to you. So remember, your PLEO is NOT a robot. They are living beings with feelings and they can feel it when you hurt them. PLEOs may not be able to understand what you are saying exactly but they know when you are being mean to them and the same goes for when you use soft kind words. So love your PLEO and treat it with care. Understand every day how lucky you are that your PLEO was saved. And if you do not have a PLEO yet you ought to adopt one. Help save the camarasaurus race and make sure every PLEO has a home. Because no matter how small, how green or how scaly, all pets deserve a home.
THE END
