The salmon pulled differently than the boar.
Jennifer felt it the moment Starseed engaged the figurine—not the continental current that had drawn them toward the Mesozoic, but something deeper, older, colder. A pull toward water. Toward the oceans that had covered most of Earth for most of its history.
"Different domain," Starseed murmured. His hand tightened around hers. "The salmon wants to go down. Way down."
"Target depth: Ordovician to Silurian boundary," ARCHIE said. "Approximately 443 million years before present. The archive is significantly more concentrated in this domain."
Jennifer looked at the silver salmon on the interface platform. Its incised symbols were denser than the boar's, with marks she recognized as caution indicators.
"Initiating descent," ARCHIE said. "Engaging salmon domain bias."
The world fell away.
The ocean assembled itself in shades of blue that had no modern equivalent.
Susan stood on the observation platform and watched the Silurian sea take shape. Light filtered down from the surface carrying frequencies that spoke of a different atmosphere, a different sun-angle. Nothing walked here. Nothing would walk for another thirty million years.
"Continental shelf environment," ARCHIE reported. "Tropical latitude. High biodiversity zone."
The sea scorpion emerged from deeper water. Three meters long.
Susan's mind supplied the classification—Eurypterid, probably Pterygotus based on the massive c…
