Disclaimer: Because Michael Chriton has to be stingy; I'm forced to write this disclaimer.

"Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty."

- Edward Gibbon

Chapter 1: The University of Maryland

Hallway

Dimitri Maximoff continued to run down the no longer full hallway to his paleontology class. He never liked the class, but he had no choice in taking it. It was at the far end of the university building, and Dimitri was always late. Dimitri couldn't afford being late again, even though he already was. Dimitri decided not to pay attention to the consequences and continued to run until bumping into someone else.

"Pay attention much," Tina Gibson replied. "Ah, Dimitri, late as usual, and you even forget to brush your hair this time." Dimitri brushed himself off and tried to ignore Tina as she continued to berate him. "You forgot your shoes while were at it."

Dimitri couldn't take anymore. "Tina, why aren't you in class?"

"Well,' Tina replied smugly. "As a super genius like myself, I don't need to take so many classes in order to keep my 4.0 average. You, on the other hand, have to take every class here just to get a 1.0."

"Yeah," Dimitri said getting ready to run off. "I'm so glad that you enlightened me with such wonderful information about yourself, even though you've told be that at least a million times." Tina was about to respond with something clever, but Dimitri was long gone.

Dimitri continued to run and soon saw the paleontology room within view. Dimitri pushed opened the door to thirty unwavering eyes planted directly on him. The professor, a man of average height and black hair wearing a blue suit and white tie, stepped in front of hi podium and said. "Nice of you to join us, Dimitri."

"It's not my fault, dad," Dimitri replied. "There was this thing at this place that I had to do. It could have happened to anyone."

"It may just be me," his father replied. "But living with you for nineteen years, I think I've heard that one before." Dimitri tried to defend himself, but was ignored. Dimitri sighed and slinked over to his seat."

"You know," Janet Korvoloski whispered over to him. "If you're going to be late anyways, you might as well take some time to think up a better excuse than that." Janet had been Dimitri's friend ever since high school. Everyone recognized Janet, not because of her grades, which were sub par at best, but because of her hair, which was short and changed color and a daily basis. Today, it was blue.

"It's not my fault," Dimitri whispered back. "Just because he's acclaimed author and paleontologist Erik Maximoff, he thinks he can humiliate me in front of the class like that."

"You did bring that upon yourself."

"No," Dimitri insisted. "He brought that upon me. You know I don't want to be in this class, but with my dad being the paleontology professor and my mother being the dean, I really don't have much of a choice." Dimitri slept though another boring hour of paleontology and woke up to see that the rest of the class had already left and his father was standing next to him.

Dimitri stood up, still half asleep to Erik saying, "Dimitri, I understand that you don't like this class, and you're just going to have to understand that I don't care. Your mother and I feel that paleontology is an important part of life-"

"Correction," Dimitri interrupted. "Past life. Dinosaurs are dead, and whatever's on Isla Nublar aren't dinosaurs."

"You don't have to believe me if you don't want to," Erik said. "I just want you to know that InGen did create dinosaurs and they do exist on Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna."

"First of all," Dimitri replied, "It's been a year since the supposed incident of Isla Nublar and there has been no talk of an Isla Sorna. Although it does exist, there has been no notion that dinosaurs inhabit it. Second of all, after so many times of you telling me that you were stationed on Isla Sorna with Dr. Henry Wu, I decided to check it out. According to the United States Department of Labor, Erik Maximoff was never employed by InGen."

"Dimitri," Erik said disappointed. "How many times have I told you not to hack into the government mainframe?"

"Enough times to make me curious enough to find solid proof that you're lying and that your stories are just one of your and mom's plans to get me interested in paleontology. I'm sorry dad, but my major is phenomenon study and I'm sticking with it." Dimitri stormed off leaving his father bitterly disappointed.

Courtyard

Janet had left paleontology classroom when the bell rang and was relaxing calmly in the shade in the courtyard. Janet knew that, like always, Dimitri and his father were in a heated discussion involving the presence of dinosaurs on Isla Nublar. Janet was always used as a tiebreaker is such arguments. This time, Janet got out just in time.

Janet tried to eat her sandwich in piece, but her eyes kept glancing back at a strange young man with ripped black leans and a leather jacket. Janet had never seen him before, and she had always prided herself on knowing everyone at the university. Janet tried to ignore him, but the way he seemed to be looking for something kept her attention.

Janet sighed and put her sandwich back in her backpack and walked over to the young man. "You look lost." The man didn't seem to notice Janet and continued to walk around the crowd of people in the courtyard. Janet tried again, but once again failed to get his attention. Janet waved her hand in his face, once again failing to get her attention.

"Well, that proves he's not deaf, he's just rude."

"I'm not rude," he snapped back. "You're the one that's rude interrupting me in my search." Janet sighed and asked, "What are you searching for?"

The man sighed and hesitated as if he was thinking of what to respond. "Bathroom," he replied. Janet was suspicious, but gave him the directions anyways. "Through those doors and down the right."

The man thanked her and went through the door and went left instead of right like Janet told him. Janet was confused, but decided not to think too much on it. Janet took out her sandwich, but was interrupted once again by her cell phone. It was Dimitri on the other line and he needed a tiebreaker.

Janet removed the phone from her ear and mumbled to herself, "This is the curse of being technologically forward." Janet put the phone back on her ear and replied, "I'll tell you what I always tell you, unless I go to Isla Nublar or Isla Sorna myself, I can't agree with either of you, and unless you can prove him wrong, you have nothing against him."

"Not true," Dimitri said on the other line. "The Department of Labor doesn't list him as ever being employed by InGen."

"That mean's nothing," Janet replied, taking a bite of her sandwich. "Unless you actually go to one of the islands, you have no proof of it." Janet hung up her phone and continued to eat her sandwich.

Dean's Office

"I'm telling you Stephanie," Erik pled to his wife. Stephanie Maximoff was the dean of the University of Maryland, and a very proud one at that. Stephanie had announced her bid for governor of Maryland eight months ago and Election Day was in two weeks. Unfortunately, Maryland was predominantly Democrat and so was incumbent governor Henry Gibson, who is also the father of Tina Gibson. Stephanie, a republican, had no real chance.

"It doesn't matter," Stephanie replied. "As long as the media doesn't get wind of my son's slacking in school, the polls won't tip in favor of Henry any more than they already have. What we need to focus on are the faults of his daughter, Tina."

"She doesn't have my class," Erik replied, "but from what I've heard around the water cooler, she the perfect student. She's a teacher's pet, gets perfect grades, and even her roommate Janet Korvoloski says she's in her room all night studying. I'm telling you Stephanie, trying to launch a smear campaign on Henry won't work. You'll just have to focus on your benefits on the final debate tomorrow."

Stephanie sighed before sitting back down saying, "If I do that, I'll lose the election for sure."

"There is one way to win," her husband mentioned. Stephanie began to shake her head before replying, "I don't lie and my decision on Isla Nublar is against that of the people. They think it should be destroyed and I think it should be marked for study."

Erik sat down next to Stephanie and asked, "Do you want to be governor?" Stephanie nodded as Erik continued. "Then you're going to have to lie. That's government." Erik left the room, leaving a very distress Stephanie Maximoff to contemplate what she'll say at the debate the next day.