The king was in its chamber - its new skin glowing and vibrant. The head of the new tyrannosaur was mounted on the wall. The king was admiring it - smoking a Churchill cigar and swigging cognac from the bottle.

‘A magnificent kill, your grace’ - said the lord-chamberlain

There was a dining table set-up with seats for 5. The king was hosting a dinner party with Colonel Hashaar, The head scientist, David Sterling, and the lord-chamberlain.

Eddie Murphy was in the apartment, with the obedience chain back around his neck.

Salvatore, the Italian chef, had prepared spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread for dinner. Dr. Fiona Hall had been slaughtered and butchered to make the sauce.

Tonight the king would be making plans.

The king smoked some meth, and drank some more cognac, and puffed on his cigar.

Everything would come together tonight.

Leaving one planet for the Maankaari was a challenge, and a test. The future projects team worked on planning the next planets the Maankaari would visit. This took many years, and much of the work was educated guess work. It might take 20,000 years to get from one planet to another, and the Maankaari would have to make sure there was enough food for the crossing. Much of the Maankaari population would go into hibernation during the crossing, but the teams required to make the crossing had to be fed. Before, the Maankaari had left one planet and then arrived at another planet and found there was not enough food, or disaster had befell the planet and there was no food. Tens of thousands of the Maankaari had starved to death.

Even the best planning and the best educated guesses could become unstuck by reality. But now, with the time machine, there were no best guesses. The Maankaari could leave where they are now, and travel to the future and there would be food to feed them for thousands of years. With proper management, and farming, and cloning they might never have to leave this planet again.

For an Edmontosaurus to reach maturity from conception took 31 years. A full grown Edmontosaurus yielded approximately 2,000 kgs of meat. The Edmontosaurus population of earth was estimated at a peak of 500,000 animals. After the arrival of the Maankaari the Edmontosaurus population never peaked again, and now there were maybe less than 500 beasts remaining spread out across the continent.

The king knew that without proper management, and a sustainable approach to the harvesting of meat - then the Maankaari would be forced to travel across space and time and hope that there was meat waiting for them at the otherside.

The human animals would feed them for eternity - and what delicious meat it was. Salty and tender.

The guests were arriving. The tiny colonel, the head scientist, David Sterling, and the lord-chamberlain.

‘Sit’ - said the king

Each guest had their own bottle of chianti. The tiny colonel had a tiny table set-up on the main table, with a little bowl, and a little spoon and fork, a little napkin, and a little jug of wine.

Salvatore wheeled out a trolley with two bowls. A bowl of spaghetti, and a bowl of the human flesh bolognese sauce.

Salvatore served each guest, and then placed two baskets of garlic bread on the table. The king chugged the wine from the bottle. And then ordered the guests to eat.

‘Oh my’ - said the lord-chamberlain - ‘the human animal flesh in this sauce is just divine!’

The head scientist scoffed down the spaghetti and sauce - ‘Your grace, this is most delicious. The human animal is a most enjoyable beast to eat. Much tastier than these tough and chewy dinosaurs!’

The colonel ate his food - ‘If I may say, your grace, as someone who has been amongst the animals, butchering them and eating them would be a mercy. They are a deranged animal, whose only purpose it would seem is to wait for us to arrive and subjugate them’

The king looked at David Sterling. He had not touched his food.

‘Eat’ - said the king - ‘This sauce is made from your female, the one you mated with’

‘Please don’t remind us, your grace’ - said the lord-chamberlain

David Sterling tried to resist. He tried to ignore the voice in his head compelling him to eat the spaghetti and human flesh sauce made from Fiona Hall. The more David resisted, the louder and more compelling the voice got. In the end, David Sterling grabbed some garlic bread and ate that, and the voice in his head subsided.

The king chuckled.

‘Scientist’ - said the king

‘Yes your grace’ - said the head scientist

‘Is the time machine ready?’ - said the king

‘Yes, your grace. The animal Sterling had been most obedient. The machine is ready when you are, sire’ - said the scientist.

‘Very good’ - said the king, stuffing his face with spaghetti,

The king chewed, and then finished the bottle of wine. The king lit a cigar, and puffed.

‘Tomorrow, we will have a feast. The human animals who work for us will be slaughtered, and we will feed the elderly Maankaari with the salty and tender flesh of the human animals. The human animal Eddie Murphy will be slaughtered, and we shall dine on its flesh. After the feast, the colonel and his royal commandos will travel forward in time to kill a number of human animal scientists who assist in the development of the nuclear bombs. The first on the list will be James Chadwick, a human scientist whose work inspired the creation of nuclear weapons. The lord-chamberlain has a complete list for you colonel of each of the scientists to be killed and at what date. The colonel will hop through time, ensuring that each scientist whose work contributes to the development of the nuclear bomb is dead before they can contribute’

‘Yes your grace’ - said the colonel

‘After the colonel has left, this ship will travel to the human animal year 2022. When we arrive, the humans will have no nuclear bombs, and they will be ripe for the harvesting, completely unprotected from the Maankaari’

The king laughed.

‘What do you think of my plan, David Sterling?’ - said the king

‘It might work’ - said David Sterling

The king stared at David Sterling.

‘It might work?’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David Sterling

‘If it might work, then it might not’ - said the king

‘Yes’ - said David Sterling

The king puffed his cigar.

‘And what might you think, David Sterling, would prevent it from working?’ - said the king

‘If I were to hazard a guess…’ - said David Sterling

‘Yes?’ - said the king

‘Then it would be something that you have failed to consider’ - said David Sterling

The king puffed his cigar again, and swallowed more wine.

‘And what might I have not considered, David Sterling?’ - said the king

‘It is usually something obvious, but overlooked’ - said David Sterling

‘Obvious but overlooked’ - said the king, and he puffed his cigar again - And what do you think I might have overlooked, David Sterling?’

David Sterling paused, and took a sip of wine from the bottle.

‘Something obvious’ - said David Sterling

‘And what is this obvious thing’ - said the king

‘Something you have overlooked’ - said David Sterling

The king puffed his cigar.

‘Lord-chamberlain - have the human animals slaughtered and cooked. Invite a group of the Maankaari - the old - to the hangar and serve them a meal of salty and tender human animal meat’ - said the king - ‘And have the human animal Eddie Murphy dressed in the red leather outfit, and brought to my chamber tomorrow for the feast. We will have it slaughtered, and then cooked on the barbecue by chef Salvatore. After the feast, colonel, you and your commandos will travel and take care of the human scientists. And then we, the Maankaari, will travel to the future and our destiny’

The king puffed his cigar.

‘And then, David Sterling, you will look upon your species being enslaved and harvested and devoured by the Maankaari. I will personally butcher you, and you will see that nothing obvious had been overlooked’

David Sterling took another sip of wine from the bottle, the king puffed his cigar.