The settled into a new normal in their new environment. They learned what was and wasn't good for them there. So far the landscape has given them little to wonder about their surroundings. Still, they go out on small scouting trips every other day. Partly to ward off boredom, partly to get a better understanding of their surroundings. 

Alex gathers his gear and laces his boots, preparing to go outside once again. Alex looks up when someone knocks on his doorway. Apollo leans against the doorway. "Heading out?" Alex nods in response. "You may want to reconsider." 

Alex looks at the medic, confused. "Why?" 

"Come take a look." Apollo doesn't give him a chance to respond before turning out the doorway and down the corridor. Still confused, Alex follows him. 

When they get to the main door of they ship they take a moment to look outside before exiting the ship. Outside there is a herd of creatures ambling by the ship. They are all four-legged, have tough scaly skin and a crest on the back of their heads to cover their necks. Their snouts are pointed into a beak-like mouth and their eyes are dark and beady. They don't move very fast. Their heads swing side to side as they walk, like how people keep their heads on a swivel to keep an eye out for danger. They are not necessarily big, but they aren't exactly small either. The larger ones are probably around two meters long and as tall as a large dog. 

Alex looks over the large herd in front of them. "How long have they been here?" 

Apollo shrugs. "Don't know. I wanted to check the weather. A little redundant here, but it's a force of habit I suppose. And when I came outside I saw this." They both take a single step outside and take a look around. "There's no knowing how long it'll take them to pass." 

They don't say anything for a long time. Just continue to watch the large herd move around the ship. They very clearly aren't going to be exploring outside today.

Meg walks past the open door and stops when she sees the two men just standing there. Changing direction, she goes to join them. "You haven't left yet?" They don't answer. "Are you two really so lazy you gave up as soon as you stepped outside?" Again, she is met with silence. Meg looks between the two of them. What are you staring at?" Meg finally steps outside with the others. "Oh," she says after finally seeing what they're looking at. 

None of them speak for a few moments. No one really knows what to say. But, never one to be comfortable with silence, Meg finds something to say. "So, I guess your plans are trampled." 

Apollo groans. "You did not just say that." 

Meg grins at him. "What's the matter Sunny? Not a fan of my word play?" 

The two begin to bicker. Alex tries his best to ignore them. He keeps his gaze on the crowd of animals in front of them. A sudden noise startles all of them. Animals and people alike. 

"What was that?!" The two bickering adults stop abruptly and turn towards the crowd of animals. 

"I don't know. But it clearly spooked them. And I'm sure your shouting didn't help." Alex hisses at them. The animals are suddenly skittish. They are bumping into each other and stomping their feet. They are starting to sprint. 

"They're panicking," Apollo comments, watching the chaos unfold. 

Meg sighs and tolls her eyes. "Yes, thank you for pointing out the obvious. Do you have any other brilliant insights for us? Maybe you know what made that noise. Or maybe you can tell us what those things are." 

Apollo gives her an annoyed look. "They're called protoceratops, not things. And as far as what made that noise, I would've thought you would know that. It came from the ship. Not another animals." He looks at her and crosses his arms. "Maybe our mechanic hasn't done as good of a job on the ship as she led us to believe." 

"hey! I'm a great mechanic. Whatever caused that noise, it wasn't because of something I did." 

Eager to get ahead of another on of his companions' arguments, Alex interrupts them. "Guys, now is not the time. Frankly, I'm more concerned about the herd of panicked animals in front of us." 

The other adults fall silent and turn their attention to the animals in front of them. The animals have started moving faster. it all looks a little chaotic. And the sand they are kicking up only seems to add to the chaos. 

"Maybe this is a good thing?" Meg supplies a little uncertainty. 

Apollo groans. "How is this a good thing? Stampedes can kill people." 

"They'll move on faster." 

"They could also kill us." 

Alex rolls his eyes. Could those two go two minutes without fighting? He keeps his eyes on the panicked animals. He watches for threats. Keeps his wits about him for when one comes a little two close for comfort. 

When the herd begins to thin one animals in particular catches his attention. This one doesn't seem that remarkable at first glance. But the more he watches it the more it seems to hold his attention. They are acting like the largest of group, the adults, but is is considerably smaller. It also has a slightly different way of moving. Like one of its legs is damaged but there is no sign of any injury. it is struggling to keep up with he others. It's just having a hard time getting around in general. 

By the time most of the herd has passed the ship, this particular one is still there. 

"Guys," Alex groans. They stop their bickering and turn to him. "They're gone. Except that one." They follow his gesture and see that all but that one have moved on. 

"Would you look at that, I was right." Meg looks at Apollo with a smug smile. He Goans and elbows her. "Right. Sorry." She turns back to the animals that is slowing down to an uneven hobble. 'What're we going to do with them?" 

Both Apollo and Alex look at her. "What do you mean? Why do we have to do anything with them?" Alex questions. 

"We can't just leave them here." 

"We can't just take them with us either. The fossil record, remember?" Alex argues. "Back me up, Apollo." 

Apollo doesn't answer. He studies the animals carefully. "I really hate to contradict you, but I don't think this will interrupt the fissile record." Alex looks at him confused and a little frustrated that he didn't just take his wide. Apollo ignored him and explains. "I think it has dwarfism. And it clearly has an old injury that didn't heal quite right based on how it's moving. There haven't been fossils found that fit that description. So I seriously doubt taking them in will have any affect on the fossil record." 

Meg smiles triumphantly. "It's settled then. Apollo, help me get them into the ship." Apollo shrugs and follows her towards the animal. Alex can only watch as they carefully lead the creature into the ship. This will definitely be interesting. It looks like they're picking up strays now. 

Artemis, Valkyrie, and Will make their way to the hallway, searching for the source of all the commotion. When Artemis sees her brother and closest friend leading an animal into the ship she gets very curious. 'What's going on here?" 

The sound of her husband's sigh draws her gaze to him. "Don't look at me. I tried to stop them." 

Artemis raises her eyebrows and looks at the crew's troublemakers and their new companion. "Right. And what exactly are you two doing? What is that?' 

"It's a protoceratops," Apollo replies, entirely unbothered by his sister's tone. 

"We're taking care of him now. He's ours now." Meg insists. 

"It's a boy? How can you be sure?" Val asks as they walk past her. 

"We'll use that scanner thing." 

Val furrows her brows. "What scanner thing? The on eI made? That one?" 

"Yes," Meg state matter-of-factly. 

Val sighs. "You know that's not thaw tit was made for." 

Meg shrugs. 'Sure. But you can fix that." 

Val looks over the mechanic carefully to see just how serious she is. After establishing that Meg is being completely serious she sighs heavily. "Great. More work to do." She turns on her heels and goes back into the room she was working because she has already disappeared. Will has disappeared back where he came from as well. 

Artemis sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers. "Fine. We'll talk about this later. Just put them somewhere and take care of them." They don't need to be told twice and continue down the hall. 

They arrive at the infirmary and Meg takes to keeping their new addition entertained while Apollo continues to study them. Occasionally Meg would glance at him. Sometimes Apollo would mutter something to himself or scribble down the note. 

"Uh, Apollo? What're you doing?" 

Apollo stops suddenly. The question getting his attention. But what grabs his attention the most is probably the fact that she used  his real name. he hasn't heard her use his real name in years. For a moment he is too stunned to respond. But when he repeats her question he shakes himself out of his stunned state. "Uh. I'm taking notes. No one has seen these animals alive. Ever. So all we have a unique opportunity, and responsibility, to study its behavior." 

Meg looks at him like he's insane. "You don't study family. And that's what he is now." 

Apollo sighs. "Sure. But we still have to record everything we know bout this time. And no other animals will give us this opportunity to study them so closely. Isn't that our mission? To study the past." 

"Well, yeah. But it's a little weird. How are you going to bond with him if all you do is study him?" 

Apollo pauses again. He hasn't thought of that. Another thought occurs to him. "You keep calling them a 'he'. But we don't even know if they are male. A little rude assuming like that." 

Meg rolls her eyes. "We'll know for sure soon enough." 

A few minutes later Val enters the infirmary. "I need one of your scanners." 

Apollo looks confused but does as she says. He gets one of his scanners out of a drawer and hands it over to her. "I thought you were going to tweak one of the other ones." 

Val rolls her eyes and fights the urge to groan at their obvious cluelessness. "No. you said I would do that. But I wouldn't be very smart. Those scanners have a completely different function. These have the same function that you're looking for. I just have to add some coding so it will work with them." Not wanting to hang around and explain more than that, the teen grabs the offered device and quietly leaves the room. 

"Did you understand that?" Apollo asks the mechanic. 

Meg shrugs. "I understood enough. Coding isn't my specialty. But she knows what she's doing." 

They entertain themselves while they wait for the teen to return. They get to discussing the best ways to care for the animal's basic needs. Especially since they already have limited resources. This evolves into a conversation on ideas for names. Apollo is insistent and, frankly, a stupid tradition. This of course turns into quite an argument. So much so that they don't even notice when Val reappears. 

The teen looks between the two adults. Sometimes their bickering is entertaining, funny even. Now is not one of those times. "Hey!" Val shouts to get their attention. "If you two are finished, I have your scanner." She shoves it into Apollo's hands and leaves the room, muttering to herself irritatedly. 

Alex sees his daughter leaving the infirmary very irritated. Curious, he goes into the infirmary. it doesn't take long to figure out what happened. Apollo and Meg have the same look arguing. "Well?" Alex gains their attention. "What're you waiting for/' He gestures to the device in Apollo's hand. 

Apollo shakes himself out of his stunned state. "Right." He lifts the scanner and runs it over the animal. He looks at the screen and pushes a few buttons before running it over their legs again. "Well," Apollo says, still looking at the screen, "I can tell you for certain that Meg was right in her guess. he is a male. I can also tell you that my observations were right as well. He has dwarfism and an old injury in his right back leg. It's not life threatening. But it explains why they couldn't keep u with their herd." 

"Congratulations, it's a boy!" Alex jokes. "Now what're you going to name him?" 

Meg glares at Alex, not appreciating his joke. Apollo ignores the joke all together and answers the question. "He's named Centurion." 

Meg looks at him furious. That was not what they agreed to. To be fair, they never agreed on any names. But she was still furious that he would just do that without even asking her. She opens her mouth to protest but doesn't get the chance. 

"Okay. Welcome aboard Centurion." Alex gives them one last smile before leaving the room. 

Meg turns her anger to Apollo. "Centurion?" 

Apollo nods. "Yeah. His crest kinds makes it looks like he's wearing a helmet. Like a centurion." 

Meg rolls her eyes. She knows it's useless to argue now. Nothing is going to change it now.