For eighty million years, the Tourists have taken Snapshots of Earth, creating living replicas of continents. Life in the Snapshots quickly diverges from the real world, creating a universe where humans and animals from Earth’s history fly between Snapshots, exploring, fighting, and sometimes meeting themselves.
A fly-by-night petting zoo lands in Madagascar-24M, the Snapshot of Madagascar the Tourists made 24 million years ago, and promptly finds itself slapped in quarantine. After all, exotic animals from off-Snapshot are a risk, for people, local wildlife, and the environment.
Scott Hardy’s title may be Assistant Veterinary Engineer, but his actual job is shoveling crap out of cages and protecting the “talent”—the nubile youths hired to run the petting zoo.
That doesn’t include protecting the zoo’s star performer, Athena Anders, Hardy’s redheaded, volatile, dish-hurling, on-again-off-again girlfriend. Not because Athena isn’t talented, but because she does just fine taking care of herself. The one thing Athena really loves are the zoo’s stars, a pair of talking dinosaurs.
Then the dinosaurs go missing. And it’s mating season.
The only thing worse than the havoc a pair of breeding dinosaurs can create on an unprotected, unsuspecting world? The wrath of Athena when she finds out who’s responsible.