-2000- | Crocodile

He dragged the man under the dark water. The silver disc on the man’s wrist blinked. ERROR. Temporal anchor lost. Paradox imminent.

Year: 2000 BC. Location: The lush, unnamed delta of a river that will one day be called the Nile. crocodile -2000-

The answer lay in the Nile, sleeping in the sun, with a taste of chrome on his tongue and all the time in the world. He dragged the man under the dark water

One evening, the sky did not bruise purple, but split open with a sound like a stone tablet cracking in half. A silver disc, no bigger than a scarab beetle, hovered over the river. Then it screamed. A high, thin noise that made K’tharr’s ancient bones hum. Temporal anchor lost

But somewhere, in a timeline that would never exist, a team of scientists stared at a blank screen and whispered: “What happened to Unit 7?”

Two thousand pounds of muscle exploded from the mud. The man from the disc had time to whisper, “But you’re just a—“

Hunger. That was all that was left. The oldest, stupidest, strongest thing in his brain.