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Epilogue

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" (usually translated as "the more things change, the more they stay the same") - Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

**

Lucien cleared his throat and took a sip of water from the glass in front of him. He turned his gaze back towards the camera.

"But there is one thing that humanity is known for above all else.

We endure.

We can be knocked down by disaster, by war, by plague, by fire and cold, by a capricious universe and, yes, even by man’s inhumanity to our fellow man.

But once it is all over, we get up and brush ourselves off and move on.

We prevail.

That is our greatest strength and our greatest gift.

And that is how I know that we as a people and a country and a species will survive through any and all trying times.

Because we have in the past and we will in the present and will surely again for all times in the future.

On this day of Thanksgiving, let our thanksgiving be revealed in the compassionate support we render to our fellow citizens who are grieving unimaginable loss; and let us reach out with care to those in need of food, shelter, and words of hope.

But above all—let us remember;

We abide.

Thank you. Merci."

"Aaaaaaand—we’re off!" yelled one of the camera technicians.

Lucien stood up from behind the desk. Various aides and technicians immediately began scurrying to and fro, taking apart the set or disconnecting wires and cameras and a plethora of electrical equipment. One or two shook hands with him, murmuring ‘Excellent speech!’, ‘Well done!’ and various other similar phrases.

Lucien just smiled and nodded and continued on his way.

He walked into his office and sat down with a grunt, running a hand through his hair, glancing idly at the bank of TVs that were currently tuned to CNN, CBC Newsworld or or BBC. Taking his hand away, he noticed that there were a few hairs entangled in his fingers.

A knock on the door pulled Lucien away from his thoughts.

It was Sebastiano.

"Seba! Come in!"

Seba walked into the office, carrying a thick handful of folders with him. He tugged uncomfortably at the collar of the ‘office suit’ he was wearing. Lucien had insisted that as his new assistant, it would be inappropriate for Sebastiano to wear filthy jeans and t-shirt. Sebastiano had initially balked at that, insisting that he had only one suit—one that he wore ‘only at weddings and funerals’ and one that he had every intention of being buried in. He had eventually relented and started wearing one but kept insisting that the suit material was giving him a rash.

Sebastiano sat down in a chair and with a whomp sound, dumped the folders on the desk.

Lucien leaned back some more and sighed.

"Oh right – what you got for me?"

"First of all—excellent speech sir. Really hit all the points that you were trying to make."

"Thanks. All credit goes to the speechwriter, of course."

"Why thank you, sir."

Lucien nodded his head.

"Alright—first up."

Sebastiano handed over a folder.

"Financial projections of the Infrastructure Rebuilding Plan"

Lucien grabbed the folder and leafed through it for a moment or two, looking at some of the figures and projections. He raised his eyes up from it and glanced over at Sebastiano.

"Well—so much for being the only G-8 country to have a budget surplus for ten years in a row."

Sebastiano shrugged his shoulders.

"It’s not like we could have avoided that, sir. Hell—even without the Event, we would have been in trouble sooner or later."

Lucien nodded his head in understanding. Like nearly every other Western country, Canada had implemented a massive development of its infrastructure during the 1950’s and 60’s. And just like every other Western country, they had slacked off on basic upkeep and maintenance during the 1980’s and 90’s. The strains had already begun to show before the Event, what with substandard bridges and roads falling apart and numerous newspaper stories predicting doom and gloom in the coming decade unless ‘billions upon billions’ were dumped into infrastructure rebuilding ‘right now’. With the Event, however, they no longer had any excuse. They had no choice but to rebuild major chunks of the system—and most governments were adopting a ‘Well—we might as well do everything else while we’re at it…’ approach.

Lucien put the folder aside.

"What’s next?"

Sebastiano handed over another folder—this one much slimmer than the one before.

"The speech for the re-opening of the Toronto Stock Exchange event tomorrow."

Shaking his head with a sickly grin, Lucien picked up the folder and glanced over it.

Initially he had been shocked that the TSE was even re-opening. "How on Earth can we have a stock exchange if the economy is in the fucking toilet?" Lucien had asked. Seba – true to form –had an answer for him. He had shook his head in mock disappointment and said "Sir—you as a politician should know by now that the appearance of normality is oftentimes much more important than whether or not things are indeed normal".

Sebastiano was right, of course – even if countries worldwide were still in the process of just cleaning up after the Event and best estimates of things going back to some semblance of normality being years away and no less than 45 countries worldwide still under martial law – the fact that ‘Canada was open for business’ was, actually, considered a good omen by many.

Lucien glanced through the speech, making a few notes or corrections on it. He handed it back to Sebastiano, who put it aside.

"Next?"

"The Circum-Polar Conference. It’s hit a bit of a snag. Again."

Lucien let out an annoyed grunt.

The Circum-Polar Conference was his pet project –his baby, so to speak. The circumpolar region - made up of the eight countries that circle the North Pole - had, despite their many cultural and political differences, two things in common: 1) Large regions that, even by the inhabitants of countries that were considered by the rest of the world to be cold and desolate, were considered really cold and desolate. 2) Citizens that against all logic or reason insisted in living in said regions.

Most of the people there were –not surprisingly—considered diehard individualists who just wanted to be left alone. They often made no secret of the fact that they barely tolerated their respective governments. Usually the only thing that prevented them from cutting off all ties completely was the minor fact that they were dependent to some extent on (semi)-regular supplies from the ‘civilized’ areas. Even then –they were used to ‘roughing it’. Which was often the case when supplies had to be frequently flown in on planes that had a spotty record of reliability, safety or dependability. In all the chaos and confusion in the aftermath of the Event, most of the countries were forced to make ‘resupplying those nutbars up north’ a very low priority.

Lucien had realized that ‘roughing it’ was one thing – but ‘abandoning them completely’ was quite another. But the fact was that nearly everything was either in disarray or in critical low levels so there was very little that could be done other than send aid to the more larger settlements. Virtually every other country that made up the circumpolar region were in similar straits.

But Lucien refused to do nothing.

And that’s when he came up with the Circum-Polar Conference. Using the old adage of ‘If I can’t do it alone, why don’t I get some friends to help’, he had come up with a plan for the circumpolar regions to effectively pool their resources, to co-ordinate the distribution of said resources, and to get everything done with a surprisingly little amount of hassle.

It was logical. It was reasonable. It was effective. It was a brilliant plan that was also actually useful.

It therefore was doomed to failure….

"Let me guess" said Lucien, sighing "The Russians have a problem with the shape of the table, the Swedes don’t like where they’ve been seated, Iceland wants to add another last minute addition to the schedule and the Norwegians don’t like the food."

"Actually it’s Finland that has a problem with the schedule but essentially all correct, sir."

"Even the joke about the Russians and the table?"

"That was a joke, sir?"

Lucien sighed again and drifted his gaze over to the TVs.

Some CNN reporter was interviewing two young boys - each about 9 or 10 years old. One of the boys was holding a rifle in his arms. The rifle was bent and twisted and mangled beyond all recognition. Oddly enough –the boy looked happy. Delirously happy, in fact.

Intrigued, Lucien picked up a remote and turned up the volume.

The two boys were politely answering various questions from the reporter. The one holding the rifle had a weird accent – Georgia? Alabama? One of those southern U.S. states that he could never keep track of – while the kid next to him didn’t seem to talk much.

Lucien furrowed his brow in puzzlement.

There was something familiar about the two boys…

And then it suddenly hit him.

"Oh for God’s sake!" said Lucien in annoyance. "Not those two kids again!"

Sebastiano raised an eyebrow in confusion and turned around to glance at the TV screen. He turned back towards Lucien, still somewhat perplexed.

"What –the ‘MacGyver Kids’?"

Everyone knew about the ‘MacGyver Kids’. At about the same moment that a plane in France was getting a 300 kiloton nuclear missile attached to it, two young boys –and their pet dinosaur – wandered into a church in a small town in northern Mississippi. They had a seemingly insane and ridiculous story about surviving alone for the last 24 hours and fighting –and actually killing – a rampaging T-Rex singlehandedly. Very few, if any, of the people in the church believed them – although the ‘pet dinosaur’ with them was definitely considered a nice touch. Eventually the insistence of the boys that their story was true convinced some of the townspeople to check out the site of the T-Rex battle the next morning.

Sure enough – their story was verified.

To say that the townspeople were ‘impressed’ would be an understatement.

By noon, the story of the ‘MacGyver Kids’ had already spread throughout the whole town. By that evening, rumours of their experience were beginning to trickle into Memphis. By week’s end, it seemed like half the population of Mississippi and Tennessee had heard the story. When all the CNN stations finally came back online about a week after the Event, the story went national. And then international when all the other cable news networks went back online.

As for the kids themselves, various relatives had been found and had been placed in their care. But the two kids were now by all accounts inseparable.

"Yes –the MacGyver Kids! Look—don’t get me wrong—I’m impressed with them and glad they pulled through. But that was nearly two months ago! Why are they still pushing this story?"

"Oh—didn’t you hear? Their story was just bought up by one of the networks. A movie of the week of their experiences is in pre-pre production."

"You got to be fucking kidding me. They’re already making movies out of the whole thing?" said Lucien, incredously. "Which network is doing this?"

"Fox."

Lucien rolled his eyes and glanced back at the TV.

The interview was over and a reporter was giving the final word towards the camera.

"Truly an awe-inspiring story. This is Nicholas Kayser reporting. Back to you Kyra and Don."

The camera switched views to show two anchors, male and female, sitting at their desks. The male shook his head, grinning.

"Truly an inspiring story. Mister Davies, if you ever decide to run for President in thirty years, you’ve got my vote. Kyra?"

"I agree Don. Up on the next hour, Stephanie Elam brings up continuing coverage of the Liberty Mutual bankruptcy announcement. Liberty Mutual is the eighth insurance company in the world to declare bankruptcy since the Event and is by far the largest in the U.S.; Rusty Dornin brings us updated information on Acting President Howery’s Emergency Aid Programs –are they working?; Cal Perry reports on the ongoing troop pullout from Iraq – will it destablize the region?; and Sean Callebs brings us updated news from the Manhattan Clean-Up and the re-settlement of the Queens borough, with an interview with a local used bookstore owner who started up a New York City Cat Rescue organization called ‘Friends of Rosie’. But up next –these commercial messages."

The scene changed to suddenly show various images of sad and depressed looking children with equally sad and depressing music playing over the images. As the images changed, a solemn female voice intoned.

"Thousands of children. Abandoned. Lost. Alone. Without hope. Without family. Struggling to survive just day by day."

The music suddenly changed to a slightly upbeat theme. The screen dissolved to show Sally Struthers surrounded by a group of smiling children.

"But it doesn’t have to be that way. For only pennies a day, you too can sponsor an Event Orphan and get the satisfaction that your donation is helping—"

The image clicked off.

Lucien sighed again and leaned back.

"Anything else, Seba?"

Sebastiano pulled out another folder.

"The schedule on the Vancouver Premier Conference. Acting Premier Diondi Tan had a few last minute suggestions that he wanted you to look over."

Lucien nodded his head and put the folder to join with the ever-growing pile that he had set aside.

"You said that you would have a report on the power grid and communications system today," said Lucien. "A short report," emphasized Lucien, with a smirk.

Sebastiano blushed in embarrassment but managed to laugh at that comment.

It was a private joke between the two of them. Lucien had made the mistake of thinking out loud after watching an environmental news report on CBC about just what the effect of the Event had on Global Warming. ‘After all—we had an exchange with the dinosaur era, which had massive amounts of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and then an exchange with an Ice Age era—which had the opposite amounts.’ said Lucien. ‘I wonder what the effect of something like that had done to the atmosphere?’

Sebastiano had just sat there blinking for a few seconds and then excused himself and locked himself in his office. Twenty-four hours later he had stepped out with a 75 page long report. Attached to the report was a 6 page briefing note. And attached to the briefing note was a one page precise.

Bottom line? One third of the scientists said that it made global warming worse; one third said that it may have reversed the effects to some degree and one third said that it had had no effect.

Lucien made sure that he never wondered out loud in Seba’s presence ever again.

"Well…" said Sebastiano, handing over yet another file folder. "The good news is that we’re at nearly 100%. The connections are about as unstable as the warp engines from a Star Trek episode but it’s still holding for now."

"And the communications system?"

"The French are launching satellites as fast as they can from that place of theirs in Guyana and the Russians are doing the same at the Center in their turf. The Americans finally got their Center repaired and hope to start launching by Thanksgiving Day. Uh –their Thanksgiving Day—not ours."

"Alright," said Lucien, standing up. "Time to –" Lucien suddenly trailed off as he noticed a book sticking out of Sebastiano’s jacket.

"Good book?"

"Hmmm?" replied Sebastiano, quizzically. "Oh—this one!" he exclaimed, pulling it out. "Yeah—pretty good read. Never thought that the journal of some minor French civil servant trapped in China would make gripping reading."

Lucien frowned as he tried to remember the story of how the journal was found. A few days after the Event, a group of about two hundred surviving Olympic athletes from Beijing - led by the captain of the Russian Wrestling team and the goalie from the Spanish Soccer team- managed to make it to Shanghai. Along the way, they had picked up quite a few refugees and so by the time they had arrived in Shaghai were nearly three thousand in number. They had horrifying tales to tell of the widescale destruction they had witnessed, with one rather gruesome discovery of an entire town that had been apparently over-run by ‘raptors’ standing out among the tales. There was only one survivor they had come across – a wizened bearded man who just shook his head sadly and refused to say anything except point to a library and mutter ‘They died bravely’ before turning around and disappearing into the forest. The town –and the library—was searched and somebody had found a bloodstained journal and various other personal effects near two skeletons. When they arrived at Shanghai, somebody –it was never ascertained who exactly –had handed over the journal to the French Embassy. Somebody there had managed to get through to a friend working for one of the newspapers and told them about the story—and the journal. The journal was transcribed and published – one of the many ‘Tell us of your Tales of the Event’ features that nearly every newspaper in the world had run in the aftermath, with the French newspapers being no different. Somebody then got the bright idea of publishing the journal and it was an overnight success. It had everything one expected in a best-selling French novel – disaster, adventure, stuff exploding, a narrator given to bouts of philosophising, and even the obligatory sex scenes with an attractive female. It was already on its second printing and a third was expected any day now.

It also was virtually impossible to obtain outside of France.

"How did you get that?"

"Contacted a fellow policy analyst who lives in France on a policy analyst forum I hang out on. He managed to get his hands on a copy and mailed it out to me."

"A forum…specifically for just government policy analysts?"

"You’ll be amazed what kind of weird forums you can find on the net."

"So—wait. You work all day as a government employee—and the first thing you do on your time off is log on to a forum filled with nothing but other government employees? Isn’t that a bit…odd?"

Sebastiano shrugged his shoulders.

"We also discuss our plans for world domination. After all, like you yourself once stated, guys like me are the ones who actually run the world, after all," replied Sebastiano, smiling.

"Right—forgot about that," replied Lucien, rolling his eyes. He had learned very early that one could never be one hundred percent sure when Sebastiano was pulling your leg and when he was actually being serious – so he had decided to just smile and nod and go along with whatever he said. It caused him fewer headaches that way.

"Anything else?"

"Last thing on the agenda—current global geo-political status," replied Sebastiano handing over one last folder. "Best read it on the helicopter, sir—don’t want to be late for your preliminary meeting in Toronto tonight."

Lucien placed the folders he had set aside into a briefcase and picked up the geo-political folder in his other hand.

"Oh—by the way—this package arrived for you," said Lucien, handing over a large brown envelope that had been sitting in his ‘in box’. "It got mixed up with a bunch of other mail and accidentally was dumped in with my stuff."

Raising an eyebrow in puzzlement, Sebastiano tore open the envelope.

There was a DVD case inside, along with a letter.

Confused, Sebastiano read the letter for a few seconds—and then broke into a grin.

"Good news?"

"Yeah! An internet friend of mine from another forum I hang out on for laughs survived. She’s in her aunt’s cabin with her whole family now having the time of her life apparently. She says I won the bet," Sebastiano let loose a hearty laugh. "I honestly don’t remember the bet—I was drunk, I think, when I made it."

"What’s on the DVD?" asked Lucien, genuinely intrigued.

Instantly, Sebastiano’s grin faded and he began to blush.

A lot.

"Nothing. Just a…ummm…video. That’s all," He said, meekly.

Lucien was about to respond –and then decided not to.

"I really don’t want to know. Time to go to that helicopter. Lead the way, Seba."

A few minutes later, Lucien waved goodbye to Seba as the copter took off.

It had taken a few minutes of arguing and Lucien eventually had to pull rank on the pilot, but the pilot – reluctantly --- agreed to make a detour over Ottawa, despite it being in the opposite direction of Toronto.

Ignoring the mutterings of ‘…must check fuel once we reach Kingston…’ from the pilot, Lucien opened up the folder.

China, of course, was the major story.

To say that it was undergoing a ‘civil war’ didn’t do justice to the phrase.

It currently was undergoing one of those truly charming wars that involved twenty different sides –and thirty different alliances.

Hard-line Communists, democratic reformists, Maoists, Tibetan seperatists, rogue generals, warlords, peasant revolts, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, students – you needed a scorecard to keep track of everyone.

It also didn’t help matters that the Dalai Lama had died soon after Tibet had officially declared independence.

The previous year, he had announced that, unlike his predecessors, when he died he will not be reincarnated in Tibet and will not be reincarnated there as long as Tibet is under Chinese control. However, literally days after the announcement that this was no longer the case, he had died (rescuing a small child from being trampled by a dinosaur, according to some reports). On his death-bed, he announced that, now that Tibet was free, he will in fact be reincarnated in Tibet.

This had set off a search for the new Dalai Lama. Various other factions --for various reasons of their own – also decided that it was imperative that they find him first.

As of a result, there were no less than six different teams running all over Tibet looking for the new Dalai Lama. The most…interesting…team was one that was being led by an ex-SAS member by the name of Nuttall. Nuttall’s team consisted of over a dozen other former Special Forces members from a variety of countries, including the UK, Canada, US and France – all of them converted Buddhists.

The concept of ‘militant buddhists’ still made Lucien’s head spin.

And just to add a final tone of surrealism to the whole thing – Nuttall’s team had their own blog that was updated on a regular basis and was hitting nearly 10,000 hits a day. Seba was a fanatic about the blog and – although he did a good job of hiding it –was annoyed that nobody else in the whole Command Centre was following their exploits.

Officially – both India and Russia were adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach as to who in the end will actually come out on top. Unofficially, there were persistent rumours that they were doing a bit of meddling of their own. Seba –despite his best efforts—was unable to give Lucien any actual proof of said activities. Seba personally thought that if it was happening, it wasn’t too heavy-handed – simply because India and Russia had been nailed by the Event just like everyone else and weren’t in a position to be doing too much.

As for Russia - Russian and Chechnyan forces had also agreed to a ceasefire; they saw the benefits in avoiding shooting each other and instead, joining forces to, as Seba so eloquently put it, ‘pwn as many dinosaurs as possible’. Whether the ceasefire would hold after the current dinosaur genocide was over was anyone’s guess.

The rest of Seba’s report gave much of the same: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia – indeed—much of the Mid-East itself -- had suffered extensive flooding – although not quite as bad as initially suspected.

It was still bad enough, though.

The various factions that were fighting for control in Iraq had agreed to a ceasefire, of sorts. It wasn’t, of course, entirely for altruistic reasons but nobody was complaining. Acting President Howery wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and was pulling troops out as fast as possible on the quite understandable principle that they were needed back home much more than they were needed there. Groups on all sides were either praising or cursing Howery but Howery had been savvy enough not to respond to any of the more verbose critics.

The American section of the report made for…interesting…reading.

Howery was in quite possibly the most unusual position ever faced by a President, Acting or otherwise. Leaving aside the fact that he was the first Acting President to have come from the Cabinet level rather than the Vice-President level, there was also the question of what happens afterwards.

Howery had made no secret that he was only doing the job out of duty and had no intention whatsoever to stay a minute longer as Acting President than necessary.

However, this last part was problematical.

There was supposed to be a Presidential election in early November. However—it appeared that there might be a few minor snags with that.

Aside from the fact that no less than 15 states were still considered disaster areas, there was also the fact that – for obvious reasons – the voter registration lists may be somewhat ‘inaccurate’ now –what with the estimated 3 million dead, 5 million ‘displaced’ and 25 million ‘missing’.

It also didn’t help matters that the Presidential hopefuls from both parties were among the ‘missing’.

Cancelling the elections seemed to be a most sensible option, as far as Lucien was concerned.

There were, however, many people who were…displeased…with this course of action. There was also a great deal of debate on whether or not it was even legal to cancel the election.

Seba had explained it to Lucien – or tried to.

"The election can be suspended by martial law, which can only be declared by Congress," explained Seba. "In order for Congress to meet, there needs to be a quorum of members, so 218 Representatives and 50 Senators. Then it's nice and legal.

I suppose if Congress is unable to meet, then the President or his legal successor can govern through Executive Order until a quorum of Congress can meet."

"However –" continued Seba, "Remember, especially in a case like this, the President and Congress can essentially make any law, or order. If the President signed an executive order banning the color Pink, white stockings, and naming your child Chad during the period of the national emergency, he can. It's the law until the USSC rules otherwise. The President can declare martial law when circumstances warrant it. When the civil authority cannot operate, then martial law is not only constitutional, but would, in fact, be necessary."

Lucien had sat and listened to Seba as he tried to explain and even after the explanation found himself confused.

"So—can Howery cancel the elections or not?"

"Ummmm – the answer to that is a definite, sort of…ummm…maybe. I think."

Lucien still remembered the migraine he got from that explanation.

The official Canadian position on the whole situation was a nebulous non-response along the lines of ‘We hope that this is resolved to everyone’s satisfaction as quickly as it can be done’ and Lucien gave strict orders to everyone not to say anything else.

The last section of the report was titled ‘Religious Issues.’

It was a rather thick section.

Aside from the disappearance of the Temple Mount causing a whole host of problems, the events surrounding the disappearance of the Pope along with the entire Vatican was interesting to watch.

Surprisingly, the Catholic Church was still intact.

Although Lucien knew that he shouldn’t be surprised. In its long history, the Catholic Church had survived corrupt Popes, assassinated Popes, indifferent Popes, incompetent Popes, atheist Popes and even having three different men claim to be Popes simultaneously. Having a Pope ‘disappear’ – while definitely unusual and one for the books – was, on the whole, not entirely that weird. Things were in motion to start the process of electing another Pope and life was going on for the estimated 800 million surviving Catholics.

It was the other religions that had been affected by the Event that intrigued Lucien.

A new religion – called the ‘Church of the Blessed Event’ – had been created in late August. With over four million converts worldwide –and growing – it now had the dubious distinction of being the world’s fastest growing religion. Numerous other cults had been created –with one rather large one in the New York/New Jersey area being led by a former Social Security government employee. Similarly, many of the more fundamentalist Christian sects in North America were having a host of changes as well. Many had been convinced that the Event had signaled the Rapture –and were most disappointed that they were still stuck on this mortal coil. The vast majority had come up with ways to explain their ‘error’ but quite a few had lost their faith and were now the most vocal opponents of Christian Fundamentalists. Still others had declared that the Event was, in fact, the first sign of the long-awaited Rapture and were now even more vocal about the rightousness of their faith.

It was all enough to make Lucien glad he was a wimpy Agnostic.

"We’re approaching Ottawa, sir!" announced the pilot.

Lucien stared out over the city.

Ottawa was a ghost town.

With over half the city now a large forest and the other half trashed by fires, floods, rampaging dinosaurs initially and then by rampaging Ice Age animals, there was very little left intact.

Lucien had – reluctantly –ordered the city evacuated.

Afterwards, very few people returned to the city –and fewer still stayed after collecting their few belongings.

With mammoths and saber-tooth tigers and a whole host of other animals prowling the city and its surrounding areas, it was far easier just to abandon the city completely than to actually rebuild it.

Some wiseguy reporter had dubbed the whole area the Ottawa Nature Reserve and the name stuck.

Lucien strained his eyes, trying to get a closer look, as the helicopter swooped a bit closer.

Exactly what had happened to the ‘displaced’ areas and where – or more precisely – when - they were was the subject of a great deal of debate.

At last count, there were no less than four different theories.

The most common theory was that there had been a straight exchange. The displaced Cretaceous that was in the year 2008 had simply exchanged places with its counterpart from 12,900 years ago – the time of the disappearance of many Ice Age creatures –and intriguingly, according to some scientists, also when an asteroid apparently exploded over North America. That theory explained why there was no evidence of the 2008 areas in the fossil record. After 65 million years, even plastics and metal of all kinds eventually disappear. The problem with that theory was that if the exchange took place as so they said, there would almost certainly be evidence of very young dinosaur fossils. There weren’t.

At least – none that was scientifically acceptable. Seba, being the font of weird and useless knowledge, had lent Lucien a few books that he had found that were…intriguing. Totally bizarre and obvious products of deranged personalities—but still, nevertheless, intriguing.

Another common theory was somewhat more complicated. It proposed that the displaced Cretaceous areas went back to the Cretaceous, knocking the displaced 2008 areas forward in time to the Ice Age and, in turn, knocking the Ice Age areas into 2008. That theory explained the lack of dinosaurs in Ice Age fossil layers. But it did not explain why nobody had ever found a 12,000 year old Ford Escort or millions of skulls with pacemakers or dental fillings in Ice Age areas. (Although Seba also had a whole set of books on that topic that were…intriguing).

The third theory was even more complicated. It proposed a ‘round-robin’ scenario. The Cretaceous areas went back to their spot, knocking the displaced 2008 areas even further back in time and causing the new displaced areas to go forward in time and knock the Ice Age areas into 2008. Even Seba found this theory needlessly complicated but there was a small but very vocal group that subscribed to it.

The last theory was one that Lucien found truly fascinating. The Cretaceous areas went back and the displaced 2008 areas were moved – not through time – but through space. To a parallel universe, alternate timeline, whatever you would want to call it. One where the Ice Age extinction never occurred. And it was that area that ended up in ‘our’ 2008.

Only a few people believed in that particular theory but – for some reason – Lucien found that one to be the most hopeful.

The helicopter swooped over the Ottawa Nature Reserve, causing a flock of small feathered dinosaurs the size of crows to scatter.

When the areas went back in time, they took millions of dinosaurs worldwide –and despite their best efforts, several thousand people who made the mistake of wandering into the areas – back with them.

Most of the dinosaurs had decided to stay close to the original displaced areas.

But not all.

Even with the wholesale slaughter of numerous dinosaurs by nearly everyone with a gun, there were still millions of dinosaurs worldwide still remaining. People’s hopes were briefly raised when the larger sauropods started showing up mysteriously dead about a week after the Event. Analysis of their bodies by numerous deliriously happy paleontologists and biologists had revealed that they had suffered massive damage to their respiratory systems.

Seba’s theory about the dinosaurs needing higher levels of oxygen was – partially – correct.

That only applied to the very large dinosaurs. The smaller ones –those about the size of an elephant and smaller –seemed to survive quite well in their new environment.

Even after two months, the number of dinosaurs worldwide were still estimated to be in the millions.

They weren’t going anywhere.

Not yet anyway.

When the Ice Age areas showed up in exactly the same areas, well, then, that made for a most… intriguing… ecosystem.

And if the reports coming across Lucien’s desk were in anyway accurate, it wasn’t just Ice Age animals that had come along for the ride.

Lucien had quietly told his new Acting Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs to hire some anthropologists and linguists.

Quickly.

Lucien stared down at the streets of Ottawa.

Standing on top of a wrecked car was a Woolly Mammoth, easily 12 feet high. Huddled close to it was a much smaller Mammoth, barely a few feet high. Clearly a mother and child.

Mama Mammoth was glaring with barely repressed hostility and stomping its front feet on the increasingly wrecked car.

The source of its glare were a flock of wolf sized dinosaurs that looked like a cross between an eagle and a raptor.

Mama Mammoth was clearly getting pissed off with the Eagle-Raptors in front of it.

Glancing up in confusion at the sound of the helicopter passing by, the raptors decided that they won’t make a meal out of the Mammoth.

At least – for today.

They scattered into the forest like rats as the helicopter passed over. Mama Mammoth glared up at the helicopter and, trumpeting loudly, slowly but surely stomped away, making sure its baby stayed close to it.

Lucien looked up at the Ottawa River.

There was a small pond beginning to form near one bend of the river.

The source of the pond being created was two beavers, methodically building a dam and gnawing down trees. While beavers were by no stretch of the imagination considered rare in Canada, these two particular specimens stood out.

They were each nearly ten feet long.

The helicopter slowly began to climb attitude.

Truly a different world now…. thought Lucien.

The global nature of the Event was, ironically, also one of the few benefits.

In every disaster that had befallen mankind in the past – be it earthquake, tidal wave, natural disaster, wars –and even world wars – had one thing in common.

There was always somebody somewhere who was completely unaffected. They could have been living in a different city, country or even continent but the end result was always the same.

It didn’t affect me – so why should I care about you? attitude.

Mankind – despite all of its efforts to change that through philosophy, religion, culture or laws – still had it.

But the Event was the Great Equalizer.

It affected rich countries and poor countries; Catholics and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and all faiths and creeds in between; Blacks, Whites, Browns and all other shades.

Nobody was spared. All had been affected.

And most countries had realized that – now that they were all in the same boat together – they all had to sink or swim. Together.

It had made for some rather odd alliances worldwide.

How long that would last, nobody knew.

But it definitely made for a different world.

Lucien stared down at the rapidly receding city.

The helicopter banked sharply and turned to the west.

Within a few moments it had disappeared completely in the glare of the setting sun…

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