Oh goodness, everyone knows that I don't own the Predators, or Yaut, or the Aliens, or anything but my Prius :) And whatever twisting turning plots and characters I invent along the way. Truely, after all I have read, sometimes I wonder if ANY of my sentences are original! LOL 'See Sally run'

Prologue

"The evolution of the brain not only overshot the needs of prehistoric man, it is the only example of evolution providing a species with an organ which it does not know how to use." – Arthur Koestler

The team of three scientists, plus the three crewmembers it took to run the ship made up the total complement of the small exploration vessel. The ship had been out of space dock for three months, roaming the galaxy in search of planets with the proper life forms.

What they were seeking were creatures that lived in an environment changeable enough to stimulate evolution for their experiments. A planet with a calm unchallenging environment led to an evolutionary path that was slow and often unvaried for far too long a time for these impatient explorers. A new, unclassified life-bearing world was directly ahead as reported by their long-range sensors. The planet had significant land as well as water masses with tropical, temperate and polar regions. The planet's surface was composed of an outer layer of solid rock that essentially floated on a sea of subsurface liquid rock. Better still, the outer layer was fractured which meant that the large pieces were constantly in motion over time. Sometimes they might buckle as one shoved up against another, other times one piece's edge might actually be shoved up and over another. The movement of the planet's surface made for an environment of constant geologic change which would bring the creatures living there under considerable stress from time to time as the movements resulted in environmental impacts. Additionally, along the seams where the pieces met, sudden slippages often occurred as well as eruptions of the liquid rock below onto the solid surface. Plus, the planet had a large moon, large enough to create tides within its watery areas. This action along with the waves would eat away at the land masses, also furthering change.

All in all, the scientists agreed it might be a very suitable setting for their experimentation. So the crew ferried them to the surface and set down on one of the planet's flat plains near an area populated by towering plants. There was a large body of fresh water nearby which might attract animals. The crew and scientists ventured out of the ship, armed in case of danger, and began the short trek to the water's edge on the side of the lake where the taller plants grew. With the water and the varied plant life there, the probability increased that a great variety of creatures would be found.

They settled themselves down in the shorter plants that waved in the slight breeze and began their stake-out for quarry. The hot sun beat down, and soon tiny native crawling and flying life-forms found them and began to pester with biting and stinging. The crew and scientists were not deterred however, and endured the small torture wordlessly still waiting for something larger to show up.

It was towards the waning of the smallish yellow sun that gave life to this planet that the first of many creatures began to come for water. The group watched as various herbivores came to drink, distinguished from predators, in their experience, because of their visual sensors set on the sides of their heads, not the front. Always on the alert for predators, the different four-legged species came, satisfied their thirst and then left, never knowing how closely they were being observed, so still and camouflaged the clever space farers were.

Finally, after all the herbivores left, what they had been seeking made its way to the water. It was the first predator they had witnessed as its vision was in a straight focused line in front of it's body. It also was the first animal that was more like themselves – it walked usually upright on two legs, rarely dropping down to use long arms to assist in locomotion. The short creature ventured towards the water, nervously looking about as if searching for danger. When none was discovered, it gave a soft cry and several dozen of its fellow creatures returned the call from high up in the tall plants. Then there was movement out of tops of the tall growth as a group of the animals climbed down and onto the plain. Many appeared to be female because they carried young on their backs or in their arms. As a group they trooped, each on two legs, to the life-sustaining water and began to not only drink, but fill hollow tubes made from plant stems to take back with them.

The scientists continued to watch as several of the creatures dug in the river mud for small live things they consumed, others grouped together and managed to chase small water-dwellers up onto the mud near the shore where they could then be grabbed by others in the group. Those still in the water that had done all the work ran up onto the bank to grab some for themselves, the larger ones shoving the smaller aside with threatening growls.

The scientists were impressed, the creatures were not only obvious predators, but capable of utilizing objects in the environment, as well as cooperating, to meet their needs. The crew was not impressed as the creatures had no protruding fangs or claws, nor were they of any decent size. In short, the small upright animals looked like easy prey. But the crew did not have the eyes of the scientists, nor did they understand the nature of the experiment.

Carefully, the capture nets were fired, entangling several female specimens. One had a child that yowled and clung to her, the other was alone. The crew raced to assist in holding them via a neck noose on a longish pole. Once they had pinned the animal to the ground under their weight, they worked the net off the head and quickly slipped the noose around the neck. Thus they were able to control the comparatively weak creatures and keep them at arms length. No sense risking the possibility of a nasty bite. Once under control, they walked/dragged them to the ship, lifted them for a choking instant via the noose and placed them on the examination table.

There, the scientists grabbed the struggling limbs, banding and clamping each to the table, then the noose could be released. Intense fear along with anger came from the creatures, especially the one with a child as she struggled to free herself not knowing what her captors had done with her offspring. One of them was holding it as it shrieked, petting it's head and murmuring something. When it did not settle, the small one was placed in a cage, within eyesight of the mother.

Test after test began, sample after sample taken, until the scientists were satisfied they understood enough about the females to administer a sedative to them. This quieted and calmed the ship lab greatly to the relief of everyone aboard. The ship's complement took a break for a bite to eat and some time for the scientists to discuss what they had learned.

The project leader took a long draught from his tankard before speaking to his fellow scientists, "Honorable Brothers, it is my belief that this creature has great potential. It has a large brain size to begin with, and with the combination of our genetic material, it may well be stimulated to grow even larger and become more aggressive. We will perform only small infusions on these two females and then capture more and infuse them. We will monitor the outcome as they bear offspring over what may well be a lengthy period of time and observe what changes occur to them in this environment. If a desirable specimen evolves, we will infuse it again with more of our genetic qualities and when we are satisfied, we will distribute it to favorable areas on the planet for its continued growth. This may well be a significant step in our goal of creating the ultimate prey creature to hunt." His fellows agreed with nods and mandible clicks as they all raised their tankards in salute to the goal.

The paleontologist was excited, two weeks ago he and his team had been searching for fossils in Northern Ethopia when they had made an extraordinary find – the remnants of yet another pre-primate specimen and it was fairly intact. It was locked and fossilized in a layer of ancient river mud that had turned to rock. Carefully they began using their ultra-modern tools, graciously funded by government grants, to melt the rock around the find and begin to expose it to examination. Luckily, so far the skull appeared mostly intact as the unfossilized rock fell away from the portion that was the fossil. Several leg and pelvic bones were unveiled, showing the pre-primate to have walked upright and been quite strong and vigorous. In fact, based upon the femur and tibia length, it was believed that this potential ancestor of modern apes and humans had been around six feet tall! Bizarrely tall for a pre-primate of this period – a giant in actuality! As the face began to appear it was plain to see that something wasn't quite right with this specimen. Perhaps it had been deformed, or suffered an injury, and had been even cast off from the family group.

The rock continued melting as more and more of the face became visible. Soon, the entire face and jaw were exposed. The paleontologist sat the melting tool down on the ground and just stared at the face, a structure that had not been witnessed by the light of day for thousands and thousands of years.

How could this be? How could it have evolved to this state? There were no known predecessors for it, nor had its evolutionary line led to anything else that had yet been discovered. He was looking at a complete anomaly that seemed to bust open wide all the neat tree branches that led from the first lemur-like creature up into modern homo sapiens or side-branched into oblivion.

He continued to stare at the round skull that had a very large cranium and slightly back-sloping forehead over prominent brows that led to a very small nasal opening. Here and there he could see a pattern of scales! But it was the rest of the face that held him in incredulity, for rather than the normal jaw and teeth, it had what appeared to be four separate jawbones that articulated from the sides, two top and two bottom, over a more normal upper and lower mandible set with rather pointed anterior teeth leading to posterior molars. From each of the outer jaws free ends grew a large pointed canine tooth.

He racked his brain regarding the implications. Somewhere along the trail, how had nature selected pre-primate mammalian species for mandibles? How could that have happened with no preceding evidence for it and no evidence of it today? He pondered further until he was struck by something. Was there indeed evidence today? His mind took a leap out of his field, was this the underlying ancient genetic instruction that still sometimes appeared in modern humans as cleft palate and cleft lip? He wondered.

A/N: I'm excited about sharing this new story with you! I will update regularly, but will not guarantee weekly updates as before. I don't want to feel trapped into publishing a chapter before it is ready for your consumption. I look forward to reading your comments about this tale. If you've not read the first story, Paya's House, I encourage you to read it first in order for this story to make more sense.