Traveller Manifesto
84. Madagascar - 11th Century

Madagascar 11th Century

“We’ve caught one! No … We’ve caught two!”

At the sound of the shrill cry over the radio, Professor Esther Febvre of the Faculty of History for the Sorbonne in Paris looked up excitedly. Dressed in fashionable tropical wear and straw hat, she had been supervising the modern, caged enclosure where they hoped to house many of the larger specimens safely. Already, she had seen the Transport of over two hundred cages as well as bales of valuable vegetation and countless seeds and cuttings.

Beside her, various students and academics carefully sorted the replaceings for classification while McAlister also looked up, immediately prepared for conflict. The famous veteran of two successful Traveller missions, as well as an active participant in the heroic rescue of Professor Taylor and Captain McFee, McAlister looked increasingly dangerous and twitchy. He limped closer, ever cautious. But then again, if the stories she had heard were true, the soldier had reason to distrust any venture into the past.

“How’s it going, Professor?” he called. His voice was formal, clipped and oh so military.

“Ian! Come closer! I think we have some good news,” she replied happily.

This mission seemed to have the soldier more at peace. After all, his wife was pregnant and he had established himself into a comfortable home in the South of France. His retirement from the British Military had seen him immediately contracted to support French Traveller missions, missions Professor Febvre now oversaw.

This Traveller mission was the first of its kind. In conjunction with the government of Madagascar, the French had organised a project with a difference. Finally, there had been a consensus to develop Traveller missions with the intent to simply study, or even collect, extinct flora and fauna. Traveller Corp made it clear that they believed the reintroduction of lost vegetation and animal species would not only return some biodiversity to the globe, but would also permit the use of lost vegetation for the purpose of discovering new medical resources and cures. After all, more than eighty percent of Madagascar’s over 15,000 plant species were found nowhere else in the world. Many would have been lost due to the 20th Century’s deforestation of over ninety percent of its native forests. The good news was that they had already discovered countless unknown species in this dangerous world of 11th Century Madagascar.

The capture of animals, however, was driven by a different motivation. Traveller Corp had created ‘Recovery’, a private business solely dedicated to the recovery of lost species. Zoos and collectors were more than interested in returning lost species into the gene pool, both for business and ethical reasons.

There had, of course, been detractors. Their logic had explained how important it was to allow the evolution of the planet, that extinctions, even those caused by humans, were a part of the natural order.

But on arriving at this wondrous place, Professor Febvre could not disagree more.

The Transporter had been shipped to a military base near Madagascar’s hot and dusty capital of Antananarivo where a secure facility had already been established. They managed to pre-empt the planned Cuba Traveller mission which, in true Caribbean style, had been delayed for a couple of months due to inclement weather and a few final operational issues between the participating nations. Now Madagascar was the second recipient of the Traveller Scholarship after New Zealand. Professor Febvre had quietly organised and lobbied for the project for years. Madagascar had then been approached by her, as a representative of Traveller Corp, because of the impoverished nation’s rich biodiversity and distressing levels of extinction. Though some of its lemurs were popular in zoos scattered throughout the world, most species languished in ever decreasing numbers, pressured by land clearing, poaching, and pollution.

She hoped that the mission would highlight the shameful rates of extinction being experienced worldwide. Attention on extinct species, and the global corporate interest her project had attracted, could highlight those species in need of support. She hoped humanity would learn the lessons from history and slow the land-clearing and pollution that seemed to have overtaken too many nations and, as a result, removed so many unique species.

Transporter Corp had already purchased a hundred square miles of Madagascar woodland scrub and rainforest that were to be restored to pristine condition, the human inhabitants hired to replant and preserve what would be their legacy. Large enclosures had also been erected to house species anticipated to be captured on this mission. Their new facility included laboratories, nurseries, and barracks for locally recruited Park Rangers. No stone was left unturned and no palm ungreased. Their presence and project development was the most significant sustainable project for the impoverished nation in over a generation. Once the Transporter had been set up, a small camp was established in the 11th Century and drones sent on a search pattern to detect any hostiles, dangerous predators, and to determine the best locations for traps and samples to be collected. The only evidence of human settlement was at the coast, where a few villages housed local fishing communities, probably the precursor of pirates that would threaten African shipping in a few hundred years.

McAlister’s team of French Foreign Legionnaires, GIGN – French Special Forces, and Malagasy Special Forces especially trained for the mission secured the area and protected a team of fifty wildlife specialists, naturalists, botanists, and entomologists while over a score of local trappers scattered cages, picked plants and collected a bewildering array of gaudily coloured insects and chameleons. There had been some nocturnal missions that had yielded many mystified, big-eyed creatures that inhabited the leaves and branches of the lost forest. So many were extinct, unknown species that it was difficult to know where to begin.

One of the most experienced trappers, a tough, toothless Hova man who only went by the name of Tommy was determined to replace and catch what was largely considered to be their Holy Grail. There had been tales of the long extinct Giant Elephant Bird, the largest bird in human history, known in Arabic tales of Sinbad the Sailor as the Roc. Egg fragments were so large that there was a legend that any bird that could lay such an egg would doubtlessly pick up elephants as prey.

So, with the call over the radios, Professor Febvre rushed to the central computer and checked their video feed from Tommy’s team. In a large cage a giant bird lay, restrained, the head covered with a cloth to prevent panic.

It took them almost two hours.

Though the trappers and scientists were supported by half a dozen electric quad bikes, the rough terrain and having to negotiate a couple of rivers took the party longer than they feared. “Don’t worry,” murmured Professor Leroy, her biologist colleague from the Pierre and Marie Curie University who supervised the sample collection. “They have been treated well and, did you know, the trappers have also found a clutch of three eggs.”

“No!” exclaimed Professor Febvre, in delight.

“Yes! Yes! Undoubtedly from this breeding pair. Each egg weighs about ten kilos and is 34 centimetres long. Enormous!” he exclaimed as his eyes shone in delight.

By the time the vehicles arrived, most of the local Traveller team had gathered, for the news had spread and all wanted to see history, real history, in the making.

Each of the two wire cages lay draped across two vehicles. Inside lay creatures that could barely be described as birds, for they were at least three metres tall. Beneath a body draped with a cloak of thin, black feathers protruded massive legs and feet not unlike those of a monstrous chicken. “See here,” gestured Professor Leroy, his eyes bright with excitement, “the thin, black feathers are reminiscent of a modern cassowary or kiwi, only these are much longer. I suggest the feathers are ideal for the rainy, tropical climate. And look at these thick legs, and the bills,” he pointed as one of the docile beasts had a bill as long as a man’s forearm. “Like the Australian cassowary, these creatures would eat fruit.”

“Yes Professor,” added Tommy, his shrivelled face split with a toothless grin. “We saw them eating these,” he gestured to a bucket of fruit collected from the forest. The men then discussed if they could obtain such fruit from modern Madagascan forests while McAlister carefully approached the cage. The bird stirred slightly and opened its great bill to hiss in fear and warning.

“Incredible, simply incredible,” nodded Professor Leroy, his eyes bright. “You will have seen nothing like this in your journey to Saxon England and to Byzantine Turkey, yes Traveller Mac?”

McAlister simply looked up from his inspection of the birds and shook his head as he gave a wry smile, at which Professor Leroy laughed. “Magnifique! Yes, you Travel to our distant past and we can still amaze. This era has too many sights to discover. Now, we not only have the genetic material of Aepyornis Maximus, known as vorompatra, largest of the ratites, but we have a breeding pair no less. And their clutch as well. This is better than we could ever have hoped.” He nodded to Tommy. “You have excelled, my friend. You have come through with your promises. I apologise that I ever doubted you.”

Tommy simply shrugged and beamed as a long, hand-rolled cigarette of newspaper and raw tobacco clung perilously to his bottom lip. His good-natured banter and boasts had all wonder if he could catch anything. Now, his bragging seemed vindicated.

“Professor Febvre,” asked Professor Leroy, “permission to have them shipped out?”

“Of course,” she nodded. “Tommy, why don’t you accompany them. You deserve the accolades, it seems.”

Tommy looked both elated and terrified at being Transported. Many of the Malagasy trappers viewed the Transporter with distrust, though the opportunity to accompany the great creatures was an honour that could not be refused. Researchers laboriously moved the cages to the Area of Convergence, for the priority was to have the birds established in their new home with the minimum of fuss. There, Tommy could advise the crew at the facility as to what the creatures were likely to eat. The eggs were carefully manhandled, each packed into a padded box that carefully regulated temperature.

McAlister glanced at his watch and confirmed, “Ten minutes. These babies will be in their new home within the hour.”

They watched as Tommy stood nervously, his hand protectively holding his long, thin cigarette as he took a luxuriant drag. A couple of McAlister’s Special Forces troops accompanied them. Tommy raised his hand in a cheeky wave and smile as they winked out of existence.

Professor Febvre shook her head in delight. The act of Transportation never ceased to amaze. “Your team has been very productive this morning, my dear Professor Leroy. Look at the samples we’ve collected,” she gestured to the growing assembly of cages. “And now, the piece de resistance, we have the great Elephant Birds themselves.” Little creatures with huge eyes tried to curl up and hide, while a few unknown species of lemurs hissed whenever anyone walked close. To one side sat a couple of cages containing predatory creatures the likes of which none had ever seen before. They gave a moan of misery, which had the other creatures cringe in terror. “So, we will doubtlessly have similar results over the next three days?” she asked hopefully.

Professor Leroy gave a bark of laughter, for he was in a jubilant mood. “I doubt we’ll capture more Vorompatra, but size isn’t everything. There are some small birds and amphibians that look to be truly astonishing.”

Professor Febvre smiled. While the giant birds would be excellent for publicity, each of these creatures were worth ten-times their weight in gold. As a member of the quorum for Historical Research International, she would enjoy her share of the financial rewards from the new genetic materials collected by the newly created Recovery Corporation.

It looked like the venture would return a profit so much earlier than even the most optimistic projections had anticipated.