Sorry about the wait on this. Life just wrecked me temporarily and I was overwhelmed. To be honest, I really should be doing homework right now, but I decided I had neglected all of you long enough.
Owen Grady: the new raptor handler. Apparently InGen brought him in to test a hypothesis that Henry had about the trainability of raptors. The velociraptors, to be specific. Supposedly he was an ex-Navy guy, and had all of these awards, so that somehow made him qualified to be the raptor handler. Hoskins practically worshiped this guy, so that might be why he got called in to replace Davis. Poor guy, heck of a way to go; we had to put that whole batch down after the incident. I rolled my head, popping my neck. I really couldn't care about the entire situation either way, though I did have one question.
Why was I the one who had to greet him?
Standing on the pier, looking at the growing ship on the horizon, I sighed. This was more Claire's field than mine, but yet again, Henry had finagled the system into getting his way. Why he had decided to make me do this was a question I intended to ask him once I got back; I already knew he had something to do with this.
I huffed; at least it was a break from watching the hatchlings. No one was allowed into the containment area with them anymore, so feeding was occurring by attaching a dead cow to a hook and lowering it down. I didn't like it. It was far too impersonal off an approach to dealing with clearly intelligent creatures, and it was having negative side effects.
It had only been about a month since the change, and I had already observed some pretty concerning changes in behavior. Aggression was increasing, towards the walls, trees and each other, as was the lack of curiosity about the handlers that would appear in the observation deck. I was the only presence that got any recognition, and Lucas had jokingly said that it was almost "obsessive" how they would watch me. Henry believes that due to the raptor DNA implemented in their creation that they may have imprinted on me. I remained skeptical, as I was certain I was not the first person they saw.
That aside, the negative behaviors were worrying, and I wasn't pleased to have been pulled away from my observations to greet this military jarhead. I had finally given in, and had stopped being in denial; I found my hatchlings adorable, and was concerned about them, no matter how hard I had fought it. I kept it a secret though, didn't want Henry gloating about how he was right regarding my maternal instincts.
Checking back towards the boat, I could see the people now. Probably another ten minutes and it would arrive, and then it would be smiles and coddling. Ugh, I didn't want to play tour guide.
Those ten minutes were agonizing, filled with nothing but yelling tourists behind me, and open sea in front of me. As the boat docked, I straightened my clothing; though I wasn't thrilled to be doing this, I might as well make a good impression. As the tourists streamed off the boat, I realized a very important fact.
I had no clue what this Owen Grady looked like. I could have cried; all this time waiting for him and I didn't think to ask what he looked like? I didn't even have a little sign with his name on it! I guess my face was a sight, as it was enough to make one person stop to ask about me.
"Ma'am, is everything alright? You look… upset." I looked towards the speaker. He was a tall guy, perhaps mid-thirties. Had the whole rugged thing going for him, though he stood straight like a rod; military perhaps? Seemed nice enough, seeing as he had bothered to check on me.
"I am supposed to meet a new member of the staff here, but they only told me his name. I have no idea how to catch his attention, nor find him. It's a bit of a problem." I ran my hand through my hair, biting back a grimace at how he smirked at me. Okay, maybe I was wrong. Maybe this guy was a dick.
"Then let me help you out." He stuck out his hand—the one not occupied by a duffle bag—and gave a shit-eating grin "Name's Owen Grady. I'm new." I stared at his hand for a moment, before giving an incredulous laugh and grasped it firmly.
"Samantha Jones, genetic specialist. I'm not new." I released his hand and started off down the pier, waving for him to follow me. As we went, Grady peered around at all of the stores and memorabilia.
"Really milk it for all it's worth, don't ya?" He inquired this while eyeing a T-rex plushy dubiously. I couldn't blame him; some of the stuff we sold was crazy. That said, I had a T-rex plushy in my room, and I loved it.
"It's a market," I said, channeling Claire. "We give the people what they want, they give us money and we repeat the process infinitely." He gave me a strange look, but I just smiled. "However, you aren't here for the merchandise. I assume you were informed of what you would be doing?" At his nod, I continued. "Good. Then I'll skip the basics and move onto the advanced courses. To assist you in creating a bond with the raptors, we made sure you would get here pre-hatching."
"Why would that help?" Grady sidestepped a family of Japanese tourists, and strode back to my side. We were almost to the lab by this point, but it was slow going; tourists were everywhere.
"Many of the predatory dinosaurs imprint on the first thing they see, and the velociraptors are no exception. While it won't be the end all fix to making them like you, it will get you a foot in and enough of a chance to convince them that you're worth their time." Grady laughed a bit, and I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.
"You make them sound like they can think as people." I stopped, Grady stopping next to me. I faced him, so blankly serious that Grady's eyes tightened.
"They can. Never forget that. These are nature's perfect predators and possibly the most dangerous creatures you will ever encounter." I began walking again, not bothering to check and see if he was still following. He caught up only moments later.
"Was there an incident? Sounds like it's still raw." His eyes were sharp, picking apart my expression for any hints he could pick up.
"You weren't briefed on Jurassic Park?" He shook his head as the heavy doors to the central building opened. "Well then. I'll give you the Cliff Notes. Basically, Jurassic Park was sabotaged by Ned Flandry, the technical wizard running most of the park. He shut down all of the systems, and to get them back online properly, they shut off the power. First things out were the raptors. Out of the twenty people still on the island at the time, the raptors were responsible for fifteen deaths, and were nearly responsible for the ending of the rest." I shrugged. "Long story short, the handler of the raptors had warned everyone that the raptors could learn, and were too dangerous to live. The archaeologists that Hammond had brought in agreed, but no one listened and Jurassic Park was brought to its knees."
I led him past the glass labs to the hatching rooms. "And that's not even counting the recent incident." I glanced back at Grady, who was watching me intently. It was a tad unnerving. "Joshua Davis was training a group just like you will be. He under estimated their intelligence and got yanked into the enclosure." Grady looked at me, eyes glowing with interest.
"What happened to him?" I took him down one of the side halls and swiped my security card. I paused at the door, looking at him with grim eyes. My voice was matter-of-fact as I replied.
"They ate him alive." He stood there for a moment as I went further in, his hand holding the door open. "Try not to end up the same way; we have a yearly hiring limit." He let the door slam behind him as he followed after me.
"Ah well, that's comforting." Grady watched as we passed room after room of eggs. "Why the new raptors?" I turned down another hallway.
"After the incident, they became increasingly hostile and violent towards handlers. Several injuries occurred as they aggressively attempted to escape. We were forced to put them down." I swiped my card for room P2998, and motioned him in. "So, we're starting fresh." Several technicians glanced up at our arrival, but we were quickly dismissed by most. One hurried up to me, his data pad clutched in his hands.
"Dr. Jones! You're just in time, the eggs are almost ready." I nodded, looking over the eggs. I would have taken Grady to drop off his belongings at his accommodations, but we were running a tight shift, what with InGen breathing down our necks on this one. I didn't know what was so important about this project, but the emphasis was getting old.
Grady leaned over the hatching dome, curiously watching the gently rocking eggs. "Anything I should know?" He flitted his eyes to me, before going back to egg watching.
"Make sure to make eye contact." I glanced at my watch; time to go find Henry. "I'll be back in an hour; that should be plenty of time for you guys to begin bonding." Once I was outside the room, I remembered and stuck my head back in.
"Oh, and Grady?" He looked at me. "Get comfortable with them. During their young months, you'll be feeding them by hand." His eyes widened, and he went to protest, but I was already gone.
I had one Henry Wu to be passive aggressive towards for an hour. At least.
EDIT: I am so confused. My Word file says this has 1,474 words, but FF says I have 1,554 words. If you see anything repeating or errors in the document that would cause this, let me know. I can't find one.
