I've been meaning to get this published for a while now. The following is an edited version of something I did with a friend on a forum site. We both love Jurassic Park, so for fun we collaborated on a "Jurassic Park Interactive Storytelling Game." The results were very interesting and I think they're worth sharing. Be warned though, it's not a perfect story which was kinda the point of the game. I still really enjoyed writing this, which is basically a love letter to the entire franchise that combines the films, novels, and games with some new ideas as well. I hope you like this mess of an experiment and please leave a review, any feedback is appreciated.

First Iteration

"At the earliest drawings of the fractal curve, few clues to the underlying mathematical structure will be seen."

-IAN MALCOLM

In the commercial climate of the 1980s, it was inevitable that a company as ambitious as International Genetic Technologies, Inc., of Palo Alto, would arise. It was equally unsurprising that the genetic crisis it created went unreported. After all, InGen's research was conducted in secret; the actual incident occurred in the most remote region of Central America; and few people were there to witness it. Of those, only a handful survived.

Even at the end, when International Genetic Technologies filed for Chapter 11 protection in San Francisco Superior Court, the proceedings drew little press attention. It appeared so ordinary: InGen was the third small American bioengineering company to fail that year, and the seventh since 1986. Few court documents were made public, since the creditors were Japanese investment consortia, such as Hamaguri and Densaka, companies which traditionally shun publicity. To avoid unnecessary disclosure, Daniel Ross, of Cowan, Swain and Ross, counsel for InGen, also represented the Japanese investors. And the rather unusual petition of the vice consul of Costa Rica was heard behind closed doors. Thus it is not surprising that, within a month, the problems of InGen were quietly and amicably settled.

Parties to that settlement, including the distinguished scientific board of advisers, signed a nondisclosure agreement, and none will speak about what happened - but many of the principal figures in the "Isla Nublar Incident" were not signatories, and were willing to discuss the remarkable events that occurred in June 1989 on a remote island off the west coast of Costa Rica…

June 11th, 1989

Isla Nublar - 120 miles west of Costa Rica

A woman ran through the jungles of Isla Nublar, clutching a bleeding arm. In her hand was a Barbasol can of shaving cream. The woman's breathing was ragged, but she continued running regardless, refusing to stop. The wound on her arm was worsening.

A clicking sound rang out in the jungle behind her. The woman fearfully looked back. All she could see were two eyes lit up in the darkness, which encouraged the woman to flee further into the jungle away from them. She picked up a rock off the ground and threw it in a desperate and futile attempt to scare off the creatures that were stalking her.

The woman heard another eerie click and suddenly one of the creatures ran out in front of her. In another direction, another pair of eyes was looking at her. Turning back, she realized that the first set of eyes had gotten closer. The creatures were getting closer.

The woman backed up and tripped. She crawled backwards, hoping that the creatures would not get closer. Her gaze never left the eyes that were staring at her until the woman found herself at the edge of a cliff. Nowhere else to go. A creature leaped from the darkness and a set of jaws snapped at her.

Screaming, the woman fell backwards over the cliff, unable to catch herself. Her body tumbled and slid down the edge of the cliff, falling to the ground.

The exhausted woman picked herself up with some effort, still protectively grasping the Barbasol can of shaving cream, and saw a pair of eyes staring at her. She had not lost her pursuers.

Terrified, the woman ran away from the eyes before falling down an embankment and onto a road. She looked up to see a huge pair of lights coming towards her. Her vision went black.

Earlier...

In the hot, dry band-lands of Montana, Dr. Alan Grant was lying on the ground, his nose inches from the rock, carefully brushing and uncovering some small bone fragments. He was so preoccupied, that he didn't even notice the tall, blonde, attractive woman walking up to him until she was literally standing in front of him.

"Alan?" the woman said. Grant looked up, squinting in the sunlight. The woman pointed into the distance. "Someone's coming."

Grant grunted as he heaved himself up. He was a tall, barrel-chested, bearded man of thirty. He put his hands on his hips, and observed the blue sedan making its way through the dry terrain toward them.

"There's no escape," he said with a sigh.

The blue sedan came closer and closer, driving right into the camp. It stopped, and the driver's-side door opened. A man in a business suit stepped out. He was wearing a white hat, not unlike the one Dr. Grant was wearing. The man looked around, as if looking for someone. One of the diggers went up to him, and after exchanging a few words, pointed at Grant. The business man started making his way toward Grant and Ellie. "Dr. Grant?"

"Yes," Grant said.

The man extended his hand. "Donald Gennaro."

Grant shook his hand. "This is Ellie Sattler," he said, gesturing to his girlfriend.

"Hi," Gennaro said, shaking her hand. "Sorry to jump on you like this, but old John Hammond sent me along to ask you guys a few questions."

"Concerning what?" Grant wanted to know.

"Concerning the old man's latest project," Gennaro said.

Well that's vague, Grant thought, shooting Ellie a glance. "Sure," he said to Gennaro. "Let's go inside."

They walked across the dry ground toward Grant's trailer, aka, the research center.

"How long you guys been out here?" Gennaro wanted to know.

"Sixty cases," Ellie said.

Gennaro squinted at her. "What?"

"We measure time in beer," Grant explained.

"Oh," Gennaro said.

They reached the trailer, and Ellie opened the door and they went in. Grant took off his dusty boots, and walked over to the 'lounge' area, sitting down in a worn-out chair. "Make yourself at home," he urged Gennaro. The man brushed off the sofa before sitting on it.

"Now," he said. "As I said before, Mr. Hammond's working on a new project; let's call it a zoo. A zoo on a remote island in the Pacific. Isla Nublar. Tropical island, very remote."

"Okay," Grant said, nodding.

"He does these kinds of things a lot," Gennaro joked. "Anyway, the zoo's almost ready. Construction's just finishing up, the attractions are all in their pens - we're good to go. Except for one small thing."

"That is?"

"A couple of weeks ago… ten days, I believe it was… a worker was injured… a slight accident to do with a forklift. He sadly passed away, but now, Hammond's investors are quite concerned. They're worried the island is unsafe. I can assure you this accident was isolated, and completely random: a mechanical failure in the forklift. What I mean is, these people are getting worked up over nothing."

"Not nothing, if a worker died," Grant said.

"Everything's been dealt with," Gennaro continued briskly. "The man's family has already received their money. We'd all like to just move on from this incident, but unfortunately, the investors are thinking of withdrawing funds - and that's where you two come in."

Grant raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"You two are… well, let's not beat around the bush. You two are experts. The top minds in your respective fields. Ellie, I believe you do something with prehistoric plants?"

"Paleobotany," Ellie confirmed. "But what's that got to do with it?"

"Our investors are agreeing to make a deal," Gennaro said. "If a couple of experts sign off on the island, they'll continue to fund us. The allegations will be dropped. It would be a huge help," he implored. "Mr. Hammond has generously funded your dig site for the last several years. And, as a thanks, if you agree to sign, he's offering thirty thousand dollars each. That's thirty thousand for both of you to continue funding your dig. As you know, Hammond just loves dinosaurs."

Grant put his beer down on the table. "Mr. Gennaro, this is all well and good. But there's one thing I don't understand. Why do they want us? A couple of dusty fossil-diggers?"

"They… didn't clarify on that point," Gennaro said vaguely.

Grant squinted at the man.

Looking uncomfortable, Gennaro began scraping together his papers, shoving them back in his briefcase. He handed Grant a card. "Let me know if you decide to agree. I would appreciate a quick response as I've many matters to attend to." And he quickly shuffled out of the trailer.

Grant watched him from the window as he got back in his car and drove off in a dust cloud.

"That was weird," Ellie said.

"You got that right," Grant said. "He wouldn't answer the question."

"He lied about it," Ellie stated.

"I think so too," Grant said.

"But still, thirty thousand…"

Grant glanced at the card in his hand. "Well, I suppose I could call John Hammond. Maybe I can wrangle a few straight answers out of him."

Biosyn HQ
Cupertino, California

The ten directors sitting in the conference room were irritable and impatient. They had been talking among themselves for the last ten minutes, but slowly had fallen silent. Shuffling papers. Looking pointedly at their watches. Lewis Dodgson finally stood.

"Gentlemen, we're here tonight to consider a target of opportunity: InGen."

Dodgson quickly reviewed the background. InGen's start-up in 1975. The purchase of three Cray XMP supercomputers. The purchase of Isla Nublar in Costa Rica. The stockpiling of amber. The unusual donations to zoos around the world, from the New York Zoological Society to the Rantbapur Wildlife Park in India.

"Despite all these clues we still had no idea where InGen might be going. The company seemed obviously focused on animals; and they had hired researchers with an interest in the past-paleobiologists, DNA phylogeneticists, and so on. Then, in 1987, InGen bought an obscure company called Millipore Plastic Products in Nashville, Tennessee. This was an agribusiness company that had recently patented a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell. This plastic could be shaped into an egg and used to grow chick embryos. Starting the following year, InGen took the entire output of this millipore plastic for its own use."

"Dr. Dodgson, this is all very interesting-"

Dodgson continued. "At the same time, construction was begun on Isla Nublar. This involved massive earthworks, including a shallow lake two miles long, in the center of the island. Plans for resort facilities were let out with a high degree of confidentiality, but it appears that InGen has built a private zoo of large dimensions on the island."

One of the directors leaned forward. "Dr. Dodgson. So what?"

"It's not an ordinary zoo," Dodgson said. "This zoo is unique in the world. It seems that InGen has done something quite extraordinary. They have managed to clone extinct animals from the past."

"What animals?"

"Animals that hatch from eggs, and that require a lot of room in a zoo."

"What animals?"

"Dinosaurs," Dodgson said. "They are cloning dinosaurs. What they have done is build the greatest single tourist attraction in the history of the world. As you know, zoos are extremely popular. Last year, more Americans visited zoos than all professional baseball and football games combined. And the Japanese love zoos-there are fifty zoos in Japan, and more being built. And for this zoo, InGen can charge whatever they want, Two thousand dollars a day, ten thousand dollars a day… And then there is the merchandising. The picture books, T-shirts, video games, caps, stuffed toys, comic books, and pets."

"Pets?"

"Of course. If InGen can make full-size dinosaurs, they can also make pygmy dinosaurs as household pets. What child won't want a little dinosaur as a pet? A little patented animal for their very own. InGen will sell millions of them. And InGen will engineer them so that these pet dinosaurs can only eat InGen pet food…"

"Jesus," somebody said.

"Exactly," Dodgson said. "The zoo is the centerpiece of an enormous enterprise."

"You said these dinosaurs will be patented?"

"Yes. Genetically engineered animals can now be patented. The Supreme Court ruled on that in favor of Harvard in 1987. InGen will own its dinosaurs, and no one else can legally make them."

"What prevents us from creating our own dinosaurs?" someone asked.

"Nothing, except that they have a five-year start. It'll be almost impossible to catch up before the end of the century. Of course, if we could obtain examples of their dinosaurs, we could reverse engineer them and make our own, with enough modifications in the DNA to evade their patents."

"Can we obtain examples of their dinosaurs?"

"I believe we can, yes."

Somebody cleared his throat. "There wouldn't be anything illegal about it…"

"Oh no," Dodgson said quickly. "Nothing illegal. I'm talking about a legitimate source of their DNA. A disgruntled employee, or some trash improperly disposed of, something like that."

"Do you have a legitimate source, Dr. Dodgson?"

"I do," Dodgson said. "But I'm afraid there is some urgency to the decision, because InGen is experiencing a small crisis, and my source will have to act within the next twenty-four hours."

A long silence descended over the room.

"I don't see the need for a formal resolution on this," Dodgson said. "Just a sense of the room, as to whether you feel I should proceed…"

Slowly the heads nodded silently.

"Thank you for coming, gentlemen," Dodgson said. "I'll take it from here."

San Francisco

Lewis Dodgson walked into the restaurant and quickly scanned the patrons. His gaze fell on an obese man in one corner, who was shoveling food into his face. Dodgson quickly made his way toward the man's table and sat down.

"Hi," he said.

The obese man eyed Dodgson's suitcase. "It's all in there?" he asked.

"Half," Dodgson cleared up. "Seven-fifty."

"I want to see it," the man said.

Dodgson sighed and pulled the suitcase onto his lap. He snapped the clamps, and opened the lid just an inch. The man peeked inside. He nodded. "Okay. And the rest?"

"It's yours when you get the embryos to the dock," Dodgson said.

"How do I transport them?" the man asked.

Dodgson reached into his bag and pulled out a can of shaving cream. He twisted the bottom of the can. It came open. He twisted the lid back on and handed it to the man. "There's a coolant system installed," he explained. "It'll keep them cold for twenty four hours. After that, they're useless. So I need them before then."

"Don't worry about a thing," the man said, smiling. "I have it all covered. You just make sure your guy is there to pick them up."

"I'll be there personally," Dodgson said. "I'm making sure this is done right. Remember: tomorrow night at the east dock."

"Yeah yeah," the man said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "It'll be a piece of cake."

"You're sure you understand how to-"

"Look, I got it. This isn't my first rodeo." The man chuckled. "And by the way, you might want to lose the hat."

Dodgson stood up. "I'll see you tomorrow night."

Hammond's private jet came roaring down the runway to meet them. Grant held his hat still to prevent it from blowing away.

They boarded the plane. "Ah, Dr. Grant! Dr. Sattler!" a raspy voice called. It was John Hammond; exuberant, enthusiastic. Hammond quickly shook both their hands. "It's marvelous to see you both. I was concerned for a while that you wouldn't agree to come along."

"Well, we had some free time this weekend, so we thought…"

"Excellent, excellent," Hammond said. "But come, come, sit down, sit down, we're taking off in just a moment."

They took their seats. Gennaro was asleep in his chair. "You'll have to excuse him," Hammond said. "He's been awake for thirty six hours straight."

"That's quite all right," Grant said.

"We have one final stop to make before we head off to Isla Nublar," Hammond said. "Gennaro insisted we bring along one more passenger."

"Who is that?" Ellie asked.

"Ian Malcolm," Hammond sputtered with disdain. "He's a chaotician. Has no business being here if you ask me."

Grant and Ellie shared a look. "I've never met a chaotician before."

"They're a rare species," Hammond said.

At the Dallas airport, a tall, thin, balding man of thirty-five, dressed entirely in black stepped on the plane.

"Ah, Dr. Malcolm," Hammond said, smiling with forced graciousness.

Malcolm grinned. "Hello, John. Yes, I am afraid your old nemesis is here."

"Ian Malcolm, how do you do?" Malcolm said quickly as he shook hands with everyone. "I do maths." He struck Grant as being more amused by the outing than anything else.

Malcolm sat in one of the padded chairs. The stewardess asked him if he wanted a drink. "Diet Coke, shaken not stirred." He leaned over to Grant and Ellie. "So you two dig up dinosaurs?"

"Try to!" Grant answered.

Malcolm laughed, finding this very amusing, which confused Grant.

"You'll have to get use to Dr. Malcolm!" Hammond said, annoyed. "He suffers from a deplorable excess of personality, especially for a mathematician!

"Chaotician, actually!" Malcolm corrected. "Chaotician! John doesn't subscribe to Chaos, particularly what it has to say about his little science project!"

"Codswollop!" Hammond snorted, no longer even bothering to cover his contempt for Malcolm. "Ian, you've never come close to explaining these concerns of yours about this island!"

"I certainly have! Very clearly! Because of the behavior of the system in phase space!"

Hammond just waved him off. "A load, if I may say so, of fashionable number crunching, that's all it is!"

Malcolm started poking at Hammond's knee. "John, John."

Hammond pushed him away. "Don't do that!"

"Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler - you've heard of Chaos Theory?"

"No," Ellie answered, shaking her head.

"No? Non-linear equations? Strange attractions?"

She shrugged.

"Dr. Sattler, I refuse to believe that you are not familiar with the concept of attraction!"

Humid Dallas air drifted through the open door. "Isn't it a little warm for black?" Ellie asked.

"You're extremely pretty, Dr. Sattler. I could look at your legs all day. But no, as a matter of fact, black is an excellent Color for heat. If you remember your black-body radiation, black is actually best in heat. Efficient radiation. In any case, I wear only two colors, black and gray." Ellie was staring at him, her mouth open. "These colors are appropriate for any occasion and they go well together, should I mistakenly put on a pair of gray socks with my black trousers."

"But don't you find it boring to wear only two colors?"

"Not at all. I find it liberating. I believe my life has value, and I don't want to waste it thinking about clothing. I don't want to think about what I will wear in the morning. Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion? Professional sports, perhaps. Grown men swatting little balls, while the rest of the world pays money to applaud. But, on the whole, I find fashion even more tedious than sports."

"Dr. Malcolm is a man of strong opinions," Hammond explained.

"And mad as a hatter," Malcolm said cheerfully. "But you must admit, these are non trivial issues. We live in a world of frightful givens. It is given that you will behave like this, given that you will care about that. No one thinks about the givens. Isn't it amazing? In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought."

Hammond turned to Gennaro, who had awakened when they briefly landed, and raised his hands. "You invited him. I suggested scientists, you suggested a rock star."

"And a lucky thing, too," Malcolm said. "Because it sounds as if you have a serious problem."

"We have no problem," Hammond defended quickly.

"I always maintained this island would be unworkable," Malcolm said. "I predicted it from the beginning." He reached into a soft leather briefcase. "And I trust by now we all know what the eventual outcome is going to be. You're going to have to shut the thing down."

"Shut it down!" Hammond stood angrily. "This is ridiculous."

Malcolm shrugged, indifferent to Hammond's outburst, and started passing around sheets of paper. "I've brought copies of my original paper for you to took at. The original consultancy paper I did for InGen. The mathematics are a bit sticky, but I can walk you through it. Are you leaving now?"

"I have some phone calls to make," Hammond excused himself and he went into the adjoining cabin.

"Well, it's a long flight," Malcolm said to the others, smiling. "At least my paper will give you something to do."

Some hours later...

Grant looked out his window at the clear blue sky. On the horizon, the sky merged with the ocean and became one. This had been the view for the last several hours. Grant looked around the cabin. Gennaro was asleep again; Ellie was reading a book; Malcolm was flipping through the pages of his report, or whatever.

"Ah!" John Hammond said suddenly. He turned, a bright smile on his face. "There it is!"

Grant looked forward. A pillar of landmass protruded from the ocean. The island was shrouded in a dense layer of fog, giving it an ominous vibe.

"Wait a minute," Malcolm said. "Alcatraz? I thought we were going to Isla Nublar."

Hammond snorted and shook his head at the man's snarky comment.

The island grew in size. A blanket of fog appeared in front of them. They entered the cloud, and suddenly all visibility was gone. Grant watched the pilot nervously.

"There's bad wind shears," Hammond warned. "This part can be a little rough…"

The chopper suddenly bounced like a rollercoaster ride. Grant gripped the arms of his seat. The chopper bounced several more times, each time heightening the tension. Suddenly, a tree loomed in front of them, and the pilot swerved sharply to avoid it. Ellie swore.

Another tree in front of them, the pilot avoided it like before. Then they set down. Relief flooded through Grant and he let out a sigh.

Hammond was on his feet, cane in hand, smile on his face. "Come along, come along!" he urged his guests.

Everyone got up and left. Grant found himself standing on the helipad, surrounded by fog. He couldn't see more than a foot in front of him.

"Oh," Hammond said, disappointment in his voice. "I was hoping it'd be clear today."

"Alan?" Ellie said.

"I'm over here," Grant said. He saw her silhouette in the fog.

Grant heard footsteps and turned to see someone emerging from the fog. It was a young red-haired man with a baseball cap on. He smiled. "Mr. Hammond, guests. Welcome to Jurassic Park! I'm Ed Regis. Everyone follow me, please."

"Jurassic Park?" Ellie repeated.

"Yes, yes," Hammond said, jovially, and started brushing them along.

They came to a gate. To the right of the gate, a sign that said 'Welcome to Jurassic Park.' Grant turned his attention to the gate. It was thirty feet high and looked electrified.

Ed Regis swiped a card through the slot. There was a beep. Then he reached and pushed open the gate, swinging it wide. He waved them through. Then he fell back with Hammond and whispered: "Have you told-"

"Shh, shh," Hammond shushed him. "Let them see for themselves."

Grant found himself in front of the group, walking down a winding path through the jungle. The fog gradually cleared up, enough that he could see again. A tree loomed up in front of him. The trunk had interesting texture. Grant reached out to touch it. It was warm on his hand. Realization dawned on him: this wasn't a tree; this was skin! He jumped away from it. The thing he thought was a tree was actually a leg. A huge leg. It went up and up. It was connected to a gargantuan body. And higher yet, a towering neck, upon which sat a tiny head that fed upon the treetops.

Grant put a hand on his mouth. Tears began to streak down his cheeks. He couldn't stop looking at it: a dinosaur. A living breathing dinosaur. It had to be.

A brief moment where he lost awareness. When he came to, he was lying on the ground.

Hammond looking down on him, concerned. "Dr. Grant, are you alright?" Ed Regis asked.

"Yeah," Grant said airily.

"You fainted," Regis said as he helped Grant up. Grant thought for a moment that he might have dreamed it. But when he looked up, there it was, grazing on the treetops.

He looked at the others. Gennaro had a big stupid grin on his face. Ellie was blinking repeatedly as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Malcolm was still as a statue as he gazed up at the creature, wonderment on his face. "That's pretty… fantastic," he breathed.

The massive dinosaur didn't seem to have noticed them. It went on eating like it was the only thing in the world.

"How?" Grant whispered.

Hammond grabbed his shoulder. He was beaming. "I'll show you."

The group moved into a green tunnel of overarching palms leading toward the main visitor building. Everywhere, extensive and elaborate planting emphasized the feeling that they were entering a new world, a prehistoric tropical world, and leaving the normal world behind.

"They look pretty good," Ellie said to Grant.

"Yes," Grant said. "I want to see them up close. I want to lift up their toe pads and inspect their claws and feel their skin and open their laws and have a look at their teeth. Until then I don't know for sure. But yes, they look good."

"I suppose it changes your field a bit," Malcolm commented.

Grant shook his head. "It changes everything."

"You don't seem upset."

"It's been discussed, in the field. Many people imagined it was coming. But not so soon."

"Story of our species," Malcolm said, laughing. "Everybody knows it's coming, but not so soon."

Even though they could no longer see the dinosaurs, but they could hear them, trumpeting softly in the distance.

"So what are you thinking?" Ellie asked

"We're out of job."

"Don't you mean extinct?" Malcolm popped in.

"My only question is, where'd they get the DNA?"

"You can't reproduce a real dinosaur, because you can't get real dinosaur DNA," Ellie agreed.

"Unless there's a way we haven't thought of," Grant said.

"Like what?" she said.

"I don't know," Grant admitted.

Beyond a fence, they came to the swimming pool, which spilled over into a series of waterfalls and smaller rocky pools. The area was planted with huge ferns. "Isn't this extraordinary?" Ed Regis asked. "Especially on a misty day, these plants really contribute to the prehistoric atmosphere. These are authentic Jurassic ferns, of course. If you look up ahead, you'll see our Safari Lodge." They saw a dramatic, low building, with a series of glass pyramids on the roof. "That's where you'll all be staying here in Jurassic Park."

Grant and Ellie's suite was done in beige tones, the rattan furniture in green jungle-print motifs. There was a television set in the corner, with a card on top:

Channel 2: Hypsilophodont Highlands
Channel 3: Triceratops Territory
Channel 4: Sauropod Swamp
Channel 5: Carnivore Country
Channel 6: Stegosaurus South
Channel 7: Velociraptor Valley
Channel 8: Pterosaur Peak

He found the names irritatingly cute.

"By the way, those ferns are poison," Ellie told him. "But did you notice anything about these rooms, Alan?"

Grant moved around the room. "The windows are small and the glass is tempered, set in a steel frame. The doors are steel-clad. That shouldn't be necessary. And did you see the fence when we came in?"

Ellie nodded. The entire lodge was enclosed within a fence, with bars of inch-thick steel. The fence was gracefully landscaped and painted flat black to resemble wrought iron, but no cosmetic effort could disguise the thickness of the metal, or its twelve-foot height.

"It looks to me like they've turned this place into a fortress."

Grant looked at his watch. "We'll be sure to ask why. The tour starts in twenty minutes."

Hammond lead his guests toward the visitor center, talking as he goes.

"You four are going to have a little company out in the park," he explained. "Spend a little time with our target audience."

Grant heard the sound of a speeding jeep and he turned.

Racing toward them was a red jeep. Regis was at the steering wheel. Two kids bounced happily around in the open jeep. The jeep stopped. The boy, was about nine years old and his sister looked around twelve.

"Grandpa!"

Hammond looked up, delighted. Arms open. Gennaro pulled him close.

"John, this is a serious investigation of the island, not a weekend excursion or a social outing. We're talking about the safety of this place!"

Hammond waved to the children. "I'm aware of that. But I built this place for children. You can't investigate it without their reactions. They're what this place is all about."

Hammond beamed to Grant and Ellie and indicated the running kids.

"My grandchildren," he explained. "Genetics were kind."

The kids raced into Hammond's arms, knocking him over. Hammond shined. Gennaro held in his fury.

"We missed you," the girl said.

"Thanks for the presents," the boy added.

"We loved them," the girl agreed.

"You must be careful with me," Hammond laughed. "Did you like the helicopter?

"It was great!" the boy said excitedly. "It drops, we were dropping!"

The group entered the lobby of the visitor center, which displayed the skeleton of a tyrannosaurus attacking an Alamosaurus.

"-the most advanced amusement park in the world, incorporating all the latest technologies," Hammond was explaining. "And I'm not talking just about rides, you know. Everybody has rides. No, we've made living, biological attractions so astounding, that they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet! Now, I'm sure you're all wondering just how we created our dinosaurs."

"I was wondering that," Grant said.

"Well, follow me. There's someone I'd like to introduce you to: Doctor Wu. He's the head geneticist, and played his part in making Jurassic Park feasible."

The old man led them down a corridor to the genetics room. He swiped a card through the slot, and the door slid open. They went into the room. Men and women in white lab coats looked through microscopes and jogged notes down on clipboards. One Asian-American man with a clipboard tucked under his arm, walked toward them.

"Hi," he said, smiling. "I'm Henry Wu, nice to meet you all. So, what do you think of the dinosaurs?"

"They're incredible," Grant said.

"I was hoping you'd think so, Dr. Grant," Wu said. "Now, I'm sure you're all dying to know just how we made them."

"Yes."

"It's not as outlandish as it seems. First, do any of you know what amber is?"

"Yes, it's fossilized tree resin."

"Exactly." Wu crossed the room to a table and picked up a honey-colored stone. He held it in the light. "This here is the key to cloning living, breathing dinosaurs."

They waited for him to continue.

"Sometimes, insects get trapped in tree sap. The tree sap hardens and becomes fossilized; becoming what we know as amber. Some of those insects that got stuck are mosquitoes. Mosquitoes, as everyone knows, suck the blood of other animals. Today, they suck our blood. But a hundred and fifty million years ago, they preyed upon a very different type of animal."

There was a breathless pause. "You mean…" Grant started to say.

Henry Wu smiled. "That's right. Mosquitoes sucked the blood of dinosaurs, and then became trapped in tree sap. The tree sap fossilized, becoming amber. And there you go. Access to a hundred and fifty million year old dinosaur DNA."

"That just might work," Ellie said. Grant laughed. Malcolm nodded.

"Oh, I assure you doctor Sattler, it does work," Wu said. "As you have seen for yourselves. But the DNA we extract from the fossilized mosquitoes is rarely, if ever, the complete strand. So we needed a substitute to finish the strand. We selected amphibians for a number of reasons that I'll explain later. By combining the DNA of frogs with the fossilized dinosaur DNA, we were able to reconstruct a usable strand. And there you have it. Dinosaur DNA."

Heads nodded. Grant scratched his chin thoughtfully. "That's really quite clever."

"Thank you," Wu said. "I thought so too. Now, if you'll all come with me, we'll have a look at the hatchery where we keep the eggs."

They went through a door and entered another room. This one had a low mist throughout the room. Scientists walked around, waist-deep in the mist.

"We have to keep this room humid," Wu explained. "But if any of you start to feel lightheaded, let me know."

He led them to a table. There was a tray containing straw and four oblong circles. As the humans crowded around to look, one of the circles gave a little shake.

Ellie gasped and grabbed Grant's arm.

"Oh, wonderful!" Wu said. "I was hoping for this."

"Move out of my way!" Hammond barked to a scientist who was unintentionally blocking his view. "I insist on being here when they are born. I've been present for the birth of every little creature on this island, so far!"

"Surely not the ones that are bred in the wild though," Malcolm said.

"Oh, no, there's no question about that: they can't breed in the wild," Wu said. "Population control is one of our security measures. There is no unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park."

"Huh," Malcolm said, scratching his chin.

The little egg shook again. Grant, Ellie, Gennaro, Hammond and the kids leaned in closer.

"Well, again, how do you know they can't breed?" Malcolm asked, looking at Wu.

Wu smiled. "Well, because all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are female. We engineered them that way."

"Engineered?" Ellie repeated.

Wu nodded.

The egg gave a final little shudder, and then a crack appeared in its surface. The crack grew larger and larger, until a little three-clawed hand poked its way to the surface.

"Look at it!" Tim whispered. "It's so small!"

The creature inside strained to break out of her confines, screeching shrilly all the while. Hammond put on a pair of gloves, and began to gently remove pieces of eggshell, revealing more and more of the baby underneath. The dinosaur was covered in red membrane, which stretched as she moved around. The baby screeched.

Malcolm paced around the table. "And, how do you know they're all female?" he asked. "Does someone go out in the park and, uh… pull up the dinosaurs skirts?"

"We control their chromosomes, it's really not that difficult," Wu explained. "All vertebrate embryos are inherently female, anyway. They just require the right hormone given at the right developmental stage to make the male. We simply deny them that."

Malcolm rubbed his eyes. "Ah, I was afraid of this…"

"Sorry?" Wu said, perking an eyebrow. "Afraid of what?"

"This… this misplaced idea that you can control nature," Malcolm said.

"Well…"

"Listen," Malcolm said. "Life can't be contained; life breaks free. It, expands new territories, crashes through barriers. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But, uh... well, there it is."

"There it is," Hammond agreed. He looked unhappy with Malcolm's statements.

"You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will… breed?" Wu asked.

"No, no," Malcolm soothed. "I'm simply saying that life finds a way. That's all."

"Indeed, you are correct," Wu said.

Grant picked up the newborn and held it in his gloved hands. He examined the skin, the claws, gently opening her jaws to have a look at its teeth. Razor sharp teeth, and she wasn't even a day old. Suddenly, he thought of something. He looked up at Wu. "What species is this?" he asked.

Wu seemed distracted. He looked at Grant. "Oh, it's a Velociraptor."

"You… you bred raptors?" Grant asked, aghast.

"Yes, we did," Wu said. "Is something wrong?"

Grant looked down at the tiny critter in his hands, finding it hard to believe that in just a few short years, this baby would become the most deadly creature to have ever walked the planet.

The group detoured to an enclosure that was a walled in area made of concrete. It had an observation tower and a platform around the walls. Snarling could be heard in the dense plants within the enclosure. A crane was lifting a black steer up into the air.

"What are they doing?" Grant asked.

"Feeding them," Hammond explained.

Grant and Ellie walked up onto the platform to watch, with the others following. The steer was slowly lowered into the enclosure where it disappeared into the foliage. Suddenly, shrieking could be heard as some unknown creatures attacked the steer. Ripping and crunching, along with the terrified cries of the steer could be heard as the plants violently shook from the attack. The attack ended as quickly as it had started.

"Fascinating animals, fascinating," Hammond commented.

"Oh my God," Ellie gasped.

"Give time, they'll out draw the T-Rex," Hammond told them. "Guarantee it."

"I want to see them," Grant said. "Can we get closer?"

Ellie put a hand on his arm, like calming an over excited child.

"Alan, these aren't bones anymore."

"We're still perfecting a viewing system," Hammond admitted. "The raptors seem to be a bit resistant to integration into a park setting."

"They should all be destroyed," a voice said.

A man dressed in a safari outfit with a slouch hat came onto the platform.

"Robert Muldoon, my game warden from Kenya," Hammond introduced. "Bit of an alarmist, but knows more about raptors than anyone."

Grant shook hands with Muldoon. "What kind of metabolism do they have?" he asked. "What's their growth rate?"

"They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal," Muldoon replied. "I've hunted most things that can hunt you, but the way these things move-"

"Fast for a biped?"

"Cheetah speed. Fifty, sixty miles per hour if they ever got out in the open. And they're astonishing jumpers."

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," Hammond dismissed. "That's why we are taking extreme precautions. Their viewing area below us will have eight-inch tempered glass set in reinforced steel frames to-"

"Do they show intelligence?" Grant asked, interrupting Hammond. "With their brain cavities, I assumed that-"

"They're extremely intelligent," Muldoon responded. "Even problem-solving intelligence; especially the Big One. That one, when she looks at you, you can see she's working things out. That's why we have to feed them like this. She had them all attacking the fences when the feeders came."

"But the fences are electrified, though, right?" Ellie asked.

"That's right, but they never attack the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses systematically. They remember."

Suddenly, the crane emerged out of the enclosure. The leather harness that was holding the steer was in shreds.

Ellie tapped Grant on the shoulder, and pointed.

Amid the ferns, Grant saw the head of an animal. It was motionless, partially hidden in the fronds, the two large dark eyes watching them coldly.

The head was two feet long. From a pointed snout, a long row of teeth ran back to the hole of the auditory meatus which served as an ear. The head reminded him of a large lizard, or perhaps a crocodile. The eyes did not blink, and the animal did not move. Its skin was leathery, with a pebbled texture, and basically the same coloration as the infant's.

As Grant watched, a single forelimb reached up very slowly to part the ferns beside the animal's face. The limb, Grant saw, was strongly muscled. The hand had three grasping fingers, each ending in curved claws. The band gently, slowly, pushed aside the ferns.

The attack came suddenly, from the left and right. Charging raptors covered the ten yards to the fence with shocking speed. Grant had a blurred impression of powerful, six-foot-tall bodies, stiff balancing tails, limbs with curving claws, open jaws with rows of jagged teeth.

The animals snarled as they came forward, and then leaped bodily into the air, raising their hind legs with their big dagger-claws. Then they struck the fence in front of them, throwing off twin bursts of hot sparks.

The Velociraptors fell backward to the ground, hissing. The visitors all moved forward, fascinated. Only then did the third animal attack, leaping up to strike the fence at chest level. Tim screamed in fright as the sparks exploded all around him. The creatures snarled, a low reptilian hissing sound, and leaptedback among the ferns. Then they were gone, leaving behind a faint odor of decay, and banging acrid smoke.

"Holy shit," Tim swore.

"It was so fast," Ellie said.

"Pack hunters," Grant said, shaking his head. "Pack hunters for whom ambush is an instinct… Fascinating."

On the other side of the fence, they heard snorting in the palm trees. Several heads poked slowly out of the foliage. The animals watched them. Staring coldly.

"This way, everybody, this way," Ed Regis said. By his side, a woman was passing out pith helmets with 'Jurassic Park' labeled on the headband, and a little blue dinosaur logo.

A line of Toyota Land Cruisers came out of an underground garage beneath the visitor center. Each car pulled up, driverless and silent. Two black men in safari uniforms were opening the doors for passengers.

"Two to four passengers to a car, please, two to four passengers to a car," a recorded voice was saying. "Children under ten must be accompanied by an adult. Two to four passengers to a car, please…"

"Where are the brakes?" Gennaro asked.

"Brakes?" Regis shook his head. "No. No brakes. They're electric cars, guided by this track in the roadway, and top of the line!"

Tim watched as Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm got into the first Land Cruiser with Gennaro. "Can I go with them?"

"I'm afraid they have things to discuss," Regis answered. "Technical things."

"I'm interested in technical things," Tim insisted. "I'd rather go with them."

"Well, you'll be able to hear what they're saying," Regis explained. "We'll have a radio open between the cars."

The second car came. Tim and Lex got in, and Regis followed. Mounted in the dashboard were two computer screens and a box that looked like a…

"It's an interactive CD-ROM," Lex identified. "You just touch the right part of the screen and it talks about whatever you want."

Regis pressed the intercom button. "In keeping with the non polluting policies of Jurassic Park, these lightweight electric Land Cruisers have been specially built for us by Toyota in Osaka. Eventually we hope to drive among the animals-just as they do in African game parks-but, for now, sit back and enjoy the self-guided tour."

Robert Muldoon enters the Jurassic Park control room, Hammond right behind him. They go straight to the main console, where John "Ray" Arnold, a chronic worrier and chain-smoker, is seated.

"National Weather Service is tracking a tropical storm about seventy-five miles west of us," Muldoon explained.

Hammond sighed and looked over Arnold's shoulder. "Why didn't I build in Orlando?"

"I'll keep an eye on it," Muldoon told him. "Maybe it'll swing south like the last one.

Hammond took a deep breath. "Ray, start the tour program."

Ray punched a button on the console.

"Hold onto your butts."

And of the first of seven iterations. The rest of the story will be coming soon, so you won't have to wait too long if you want to see more. Like I said, this isn't a perfect fic. But it is a fun passion project. Writing it was quite an experience and I am proud to finally be sharing it with others. Until next time! ;)