The humans had enjoyed a breakfast of roasted archarornithoide - a feathered dinosaur that was about the size of a turkey.

‘If we had some some hot sauce, these fucking dinosaurs would be delicous’ - said Eddie Murphy, ripping the meat from the archarornithoide’s leg.

A group of duck-billed dinosaurs were outside the compound, and were drinking from the river. The duck billed dinosaurs were hooting, and grunting. There were 8 dinosaurs in the group.

High above the valley a pterosaur glided on the warm rising air. The pterosaur started to dive, and then skimmed across the surface of the river. The pterosaur grabbed a fish from the river, and beat its wings, cawing, and gliding away - rising above the redwood forest, the fish struggling in its claws.

The hunt for Roger Sterling’s time machine would begin today.

‘You remember where we arrived, on the time machine?’ - said David Sterling

‘Yes’ - said Arnie

‘Okay, so here is the plan. We will fly in the barge to the location where we originally came to this time, when we traveled back from 2022. We will search out from that location in concentric circles…’

‘What’s a concentric circle?’ - asked Salvatore

‘We will start in the middle, and walk around in circles moving further out each time we complete a circle’ - said David

‘Okay’ - said Salvatore - ‘My English is not so good’

‘We will stick together - and Arnie will use his sensors to detect anything metallic’ - said David

‘What about dinos?’ - said Eddie Murphy

‘We will do a sweep over the entire area - if Arnie picks up anything that looks like it might cause us problems then we will abandon and try again tomorrow. Is everyone okay with that?’ - said David

‘And what about those frog faced mother fucking aliens - are we sure they are all gone?’ - said Eddie Murphy

‘Quite sure Mr. Murphy’ - said Arnie

They all agreed on the plan.

The humans and Arnie climbed into the barge, and took off. Looping around inside the valley and they then climbed out over the redwood forest. Eddie Murphy had become a skilled pilot of the barge over the years, and flying was one of the very few things that he enjoyed about being in the late cretaceous.

As the barge flew over the redwood forest, a group of pterosaurs flew and glided alongside them. The pterosaurs cawed and snapped their beaks as they flew.

‘Which way Arnie?’ - said Eddie Murphy

Arnie pointed, and Eddie Murphy adjusted his course.

They traveled by barge for 40 minutes and then passed over the clearing where the time machine had arrived from 2022 many years before.

David Sterling remembered Fiona and Zoft. He remembered seeing Zoft so brutally murdered by the aliens, and the last time he saw Fiona when he was forced to have sex with her. He remembered the aliens eating Fiona in the king’s chamber.

David Sterling felt terribly guilty. He should never have brought Fiona and Zoft, but if he hadn’t, the aliens would have captured him and discovered the time machine and would be in 2022 right now. Zoft’s creation - Arnie - had saved everyone and everything.

David thought it was ironic that Arnie was actually called Skynet. In the Terminator films Skynet had destroyed humanity, but in reality Skynet had saved humanity.

The barge swept a 10 km square area, looking for dinosaurs.

‘Anything Arnie?’ - said Eddie Murphy

‘No Mr. Murphy - the forest appears safe’ - said Arnie

Eddie Murphy brought the barge around, and they landed in the clearing.

It looked the same as David Sterling remembered it.

‘I should never have brought Fiona and Zoft’ - said David to Arnie

‘If you didn’t, Mr. Sterling, then we wouldn’t have been able to stop the aliens’ - said Arnie - ‘You and your time machine would have been found, and then the aliens would have been able to travel to the human future. It was essential that you brought Dr. Zoft so that I could be here to to save you and stop the aliens’

‘And Fiona?’ - said David

‘Dr. Zoft would not have come on the mission without Dr. Hall and her dinosaur expertise’ - said Arnie - ‘‘Dr. Hall’s fate would have been sealed if you hadn’t brought her and the aliens had traveled to a future where she was present’

‘Fate?’ - said David

‘If this adventure has taught me anything, Mr. Sterling, it is that events and outcomes can be changed. Dr. Zoft was quite fond of the movie Terminator, and I believe there is an appropriate quote in that movie, from a time traveling soldier named Kyle Reese. Reese says "There is no fate"’ - said Arnie

‘There is no fate...’ - said David

The humans and Arnie made a line, and started searching the forest floor.

‘So what are we looking for?’ - said Salvatore

‘It will be obvious’ - said David - ‘It will look like a motorcycle’

The team continued working outwards from the clearing. It was hot, and there were lots of bugs.

‘I don’t know about y’all - but I never thought I would be looking for a time machine motorbike in a forest full of dinosaurs’ - said Eddie Murphy, laughing

‘Did you have other plans for today, Eddie?’ - said David, smiling

‘Oh no - the only mother fucking thing I want to do today is look for a time machine motorbike in a dinosaur forest’ - said Eddie

The team walked for kilometers. They were 800 meters from the clearing in the other direction from where David, Fiona, and Zoft had first seen the aliens.

Salvatore yelped, and stumbled.

‘Are you okay Mr. Preggio?’ - said Arnie

Salvatore had tripped over the time machine.

The humans and Arnie cleared the ferns that had grown around the machine.

‘Is this it? It looks kinda busted up’ - said Eddie Murphy - ‘Can we use it?’

The time machine had a hole blown through the middle of it. The humans cleared more ferns and then they discovered the body of a human.

‘My dad’ - said David Sterling.

The body was lying on the ground next to the time machine, and was skeletal. There was a single gunshot wound to the head of the skeleton.The clothes the skeleton was wearing were ripped apart, and there were teeth and claw marks on the bones. Laying next to the skeleton was a 9mm pistol.

Pinned to the ragged and ripped clothes the skeleton was wearing was a plastic ziplock bag that contained a mildewy folded sheet of paper.

David Sterling leaned down and pulled the ziplock bag from the clothes, and removed the sheet of paper.

Here lies Roger Sterling -

I know that no one will ever read this letter, but I am writing it anyway. My name is Roger Sterling. I am a human being from 67 million years in the future.

I am a time traveler. I have been on many journeys through time, and this was my last.

I do not know how or why this has happened, but I have been tricked and deceived. For all my life I have had a deep desire to travel back through time, to this time - the time of the dinosaurs. I built my time machine with the sole purpose of doing this. Today I left my family. I left my beautiful wife and my lovely boy - both of whom I miss so very much right now, knowing I will never see them again. I left my family to fulfill my desire to travel to this time, and to see the dinosaurs.

But now, as I write this letter to no one I know that I have been deceived. In the little time I have had to process the events of the last two hours, it is obvious to me that my desire to come here was part of an elaborate ruse.

Whomever or whatever had deceived me did so to place me within the close proximity of a peoples who are not of this time, and appear to be not of this planet.

Whatever the nature of this deception, I cannot allow these people to discover the time machine I have built, as I believe that this is the intention of the deception.

As a safety measure I had installed an explosive charge on my time machine, and It has been detonated. Soon I will be killing myself. If the people or things I am hiding from discover me, they find a worthless pile of metal and a dead body.

I am very sorry to have found myself in this place - hiding in a forest, scared, and knowing in a matter of moments I will be dead.

To Cheryl - my wife. I have loved you forever. You have brought meaning and joy to my life, and I am very sorry to have left you alone and miss you with a searing pain.

To David - my son. You are my joy. I am happiest when I am with you. I am sorry to have left you, and although you will never know where I went, or why - I will be thinking of you for the rest of my life. I love you David.

That is all I have to say. Now I am going to die.

Roger / Dad

Tears rolled down David’s face. David handed the letter to Salvatore and Eddie Murphy.

The other two humans read the letter. Arnie inspected the time machine.

‘Destroyed?’ - said David

‘Yes’ - said Arnie - ‘We will not be able to repair the damage’

The humans stared at the time machine.

‘No way to jimmy it?’ - said Eddie Murphy

‘Unfortunately not - the logic board, CPU, and the controls module have all been destroyed’ - said Arnie

The humans stared at the machine again.

‘So we are stuck here?’ - said Salvatore

‘That would appear to be correct, Mr. Preggio’ - said Arnie