Disclaimer: John Hammond,
InGen, Jurassic Park, Isla Nebular and Isla Sorna are all things that I have
unconscionably stolen from Michael Crichton's novels Jurassic Park and The Lost
World, as well as the movies of the same name. I have drawn on both forms of
media (the books and the movies) for this story. It does not follow one or the
other specifically… it is implied that John Hammond is still alive in this
story, but I use dinosaur elements from the books… and a few that were in
neither. None of the characters from Jurassic Park or Lost World, in either
variation, appear in this story. Instead, I have chosen to plunk down a new set
of characters on the island. The events described take place sometime between
the Jurassic Park Incident and the San Diego Incident. Well, I guess that's all
there is to say, except… enjoy the story.
In this instalment:
44.
Skybreak
45.
Platform
46.
InGen
47.
Failure
48.
Embryo
44
SKYBREAK
For those in the jeep, two drones covered
any smaller sounds that might be heard in the jungle. One was the hum of the
engine, thankfully still working adequately despite their little run-in with
the muddy pit a few hours back. The other was the steady sound of drizzling
rain hitting the foliage above, blending into a constant platter. Occasionally,
through the leaves above, they could see the overcast sky. The lack of
sunlight, combined with the thick overhead of the jungle, cast the
trail-blazing jeep in shadows.
The break came suddenly, without even a
dimming in the quantity or thickness of the jungle foliage as a warning. One
minute they were surrounded by lush trees and ferns, and the next they were out
of the jungle and onto a patch of rocky scrubland.
Richley lifted his foot from the gas
pedal, letting the jeep come to a slow stop and idle in place. The occupants of
the jeep took the opportunity to stretch and look around. Behind them, the
jungle stood like a wall of vegetation. The transition from jungle to these
foothills seemed to be as sudden as they had thought it was. Barely a few
struggling ferns pushed beyond the main bulk of the jungle. Around them, the
ground was rocky and hard, not conductive to larger forms of plant life.
Because of the rain, the soil had a distinctively brown colour, splotched here
and there with traces of grey rock. The transition from one environment to
another was slightly disconcerting.
More rewarding was the sight up ahead: the
island's central mountain. In looked slightly hazy because of the drizzle, but
Richley estimated that with the harder, more stable ground of the foothills, it
would only take them an hour at most to get to the mountain. They would be
there shortly before sundown.
Soles traded a look of relief with Ellis.
The cartographer hadn't shared her worries about their direction (or lack
thereof) with any of the others, but the sight of the mountain in front of them
removed any lingering doubt.
"It's about time we got out of that
jungle. It's so damp in there," Carlson grumbled from the front seat.
Ellis fished out a pair of binoculars from
one of the packs and stood up in the seat. She brought the instrument to her
eyes and began scanning the vista.
"Logically, InGen should have built some
kind of road to lead up to their main complex," she said. "Even in disrepair,
it could be useful."
"I
don't think so," Richley said. "I estimate that we'll reach the mountain in
about an hour anyway. Who knows how much time it'll take us to even find that
road?"
"I guess so," Ellis acknowledged. She
brought the binoculars to bear on the mountain. She looked over the rock face
until something incongruous caught her eye. "I think I can see part of the
complex now. It's not too clear what…"
"We'll see soon enough," Richley said.
"Strap yourself back in. I want to do this while we still have daylight left."
As Ellis hunched back down into the jeep,
Richley shifted the gear and the mud-splattered vehicle began moving forwards
again. As the jeep drove over the lumpy ground, the rain slowly began to clear
up, and a silhouetted circle of a sun shone through a patch of thin cloud.
Richley mused that things were definitely beginning to look up.
45
PLATFORM
"This really sucks."
Richley stood at the foot of a hard, rocky
slope, absently tugging on the straps of his backpack. The ground under his
shoes was lumpy, strewn with little pebbles that insisted on trying to pierce
his soles.
"If Folker were here, he'd say that at
least you're getting some exercise," Soles commented, gripping a piece of rock
and hauling herself upwards.
"Yeah, well, he's not here, so I get to
complain," Carlson retorted from below.
Richley gave Ellis a boost up to join him
on the small plateau, then turned back and looked up at the metallic platform
up ahead. Once they had got closer, they'd been able to see that the piece of
the complex Ellis had glimpsed through the binoculars before was some kind of
platform, made from grille and overlooking this side of the mountain's
foothills. P.J was quick to point out the tactical use of such an emplacement:
it gave anybody on it a grand view of the surrounding area. Ellis agreed that
it was probably some kind of lookout post, and that the main complex itself was
probably somewhere behind it, presumably on another flank of the mountain.
The problem was that since this was barely
a small fraction of the actual InGen complex, there was no clear path to access
it. Ellis had again proposed that they should try looking for a road, which
would presumably lead to the main buildings, but Richley had disagreed. With no
idea of the exact location of the complex via the mountain, they were better
off focusing on the part that they had found instead of wasting what daylight
remained trying to find another part.
So they had abandoned the jeep once it
could no longer handle the sloping terrain of the foothills, taking with them
as much as they could cram into their backpacks. They planned on returning to
the jeep, of course – they couldn't very well return to the clearing for the
airlift without it – but they didn't want to travel at night and might have to
set up shop in the building complex until tomorrow.
Since the jeep was out of the equation
because of the slope, the five team members had no choice but to hike up to the
platform, much to Carlson's annoyance. The rocky texture aided their climb be
providing secure hand holds, but loose rocks could also be a problem, causing
someone to slip and tumble down.
Carlson had balked at having the GTRX
module taken away from him, but he'd reluctantly agreed that as the most agile
and in-shape member of their small party, P.J. should be the one to carry it in
his backpack. They certainly hadn't come all this way just so that someone
could fall flat on their backs and crush the precious communications module in
doing so.
The switch seemed to have paid off.
Whereas Carlson had so far avoided any serious missteps, his climbing skills
were clumsy at best. P.J., on the other hand, had no such difficulties, jumping
from rock to rock with practiced ease. He had been able to proceed faster than
the rest of them, and was at this moment hauling himself up onto the platform.
Ramanta Soles, also physically well honed,
gripped an outcropping and pulled herself upwards until she was just below the
platform.
"P.J., give me a boost!"
The
scowling hunter delicately placed his backpack against the platform's railing,
then reached down. Soles grabbed his outstretched hand and the platform's base,
allowing herself to be pulled up. The cartographer deftly swung her legs over
the railing and onto the metallic grillage of the platform.
As Richley, Ellis and Carlson continued to
struggle upwards to the platform, Soles took the opportunity to look around.
Set into the mountain, the platform gave her a great view of the island – the
part not blocked off by the mountain's flanks, that is. In front of her, the
rocky slope seemed much smaller, blending in with the lowlands at the end of
the jungle. The verdant jungle stretched out for a while before giving way to
the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The waters, a dark colour in the glow of
the setting sun save for the single burning spot that was the reflection of the
celestial body itself, stretched out into the horizons. While the sun was
indeed visible, Soles could see another set of storm clouds approaching the
island.
Although the angle at which the platform
overlooked the island and canopy cover didn't allow her to see them, Soles'
training let her eyeball with relative accuracy the locations of their
temporary camp, the clearing where they'd encountered the Rex, and beyond that
the beach and the waiting plane. Speaking of which…
"Hey, Brent," Soles called out, leaning
over the platform's railing, "This platform should be elevated enough for us to
get a signal over the trees high enough so that the plane's instruments could
receive it."
"Great," Richley answered, climbing over
the last few meters before the platform. "Start getting ready."
As Soles rummaged through his backpack for
the GTRX module, P.J. once again leaned over the platform railing to help the
other team members up. Richley cupped his hands together and Ellis slid a foot
inside, giving her an extra boost up. She grabbed a hold of the railings and
slid over with P.J.'s help. Richley jumped up to seize the grillage, and then
snaked out one hand to seize a piece of railing. P.J. caught his hand and
pulled him the rest of the way up.
After thanking P.J. and dusting himself
off, he walked over to Soles. She had located the module and withdrawn in from
the bag, and was studying it intensely.
"How long do you think it will take to set
all this up?" he inquired.
"With Carlson's help?" She nodded towards
the struggling technician. "Fifteen minutes, maybe half-an-hour."
"Good," Ellis said, taking a flashlight.
"That'll give me some time to investigate this complex, see if I can't find
their records archive and grab some documents."
"Are you sure you want to go in there?"
Soles asked, glancing at the shadowed buildings beyond the platform.
"That's my job," Ellis answered. "It's why
I tagged along with this group."
"Well, you're not going in there alone,"
Richley said, looking in his own backpack. "All we need now is for someone to
get lost or hurt."
"I'm coming too," P.J. said. "I don't know
much about these critters, but those things look too much like caves for my
comfort."
"Are you sure? What about Carlson and
Soles?" Richley asked.
"From up here, they can see anything
coming from a kilometre away, and they have plenty of time to beat a retreat
before any dino manages to climb up here. And if there's anything over there…"
P.J. pointed to the InGen complex with his rifle, "Well, we'll run into it
first."
"There's a pleasant thought," Richley
said, going back into his pack for a pistol.
Ellis started walking down the grillage
into the main complex when they heard a cry from below:
"Hey, a little help here?"
Peering over, Soles saw beefy Lorkon
Carlson standing below the platform, looking up, upturned hands held out in
front of him. Soles suppressed a smile: Carlson looked like a fish out of
water, staring at the platform above.
"Ellis," Richley said, "we have to help
Carlson up first. Wait for us a few second, alright?"
Ellis nodded her approval, and the team
members turned back to the somewhat embarrassed technician below.
46
INGEN
After Carlson had been brought up through
a concerted effort, Ellis, Richley and P.J. had left the technician and the
cartographer to figure out how to contact the plane while they descended into
the bowels of the InGen complex. Pretty soon they had to turn on their
flashlights: the flanks of the mountain created natural shadowing under most
conditions, but with the sun almost down the buildings had submitted to the
shadows.
Ellis was leading the trio, her flashlight
sweeping over the metallic railings. The grillage from the platform had led to
the side of a large building, shaped in a somewhat dome-like fashion. A narrow
corridor ran the length of the cupola, but Ellis figured that the main function
of these passageways was to provide maintenance access and wouldn't lead to
anything more interesting than what they had left.
A few meters to the left, however, a
flight of stairs branched off and led down into the main portion of the
building. Being careful to watch their step with the flashlights (fortunately,
this part of the complex seemed to have been made out of a plastic polymer and
thus was still largely intact despite being abandoned), the three made their
way down.
The beams of their flashlights passed over
dozens of computer terminals, all of them dead. While there weren't any traces
of human refuse – indicating that when InGen left, they did so in an orderly
fashion – the investigative trio couldn't help but feel as if they had just
walked into a ghost town. The spiders had long reclaimed the space taken up by
man, weaving their webs across monitors, chairs and anything else that was
available.
"Hey, I found the light switch," Richley
said, flipping it. It made a dull clicking sound that echoed in the emptiness,
but nothing else happened. "Damn."
"I wouldn't expect this old place to do us
any favours, Richley," Ellis said, continuing her walk down the rows of
computers. "Whatever juice the generators had left when the good folks at InGen
left must have been longed drained by now."
"Which means that you won't be able to
turn on the computer to find anything that might be of interest."
"I know," Ellis said, sounding none too
happy about it. "I'm going to have to rely on paper documents. Hopefully, there
are paper documents lying around
here. In this case, the facility's age can actually play in our favour; they
should have paper copies of any important documents."
"Assuming they didn't shred them, or take
them along when they left the island," P.J. sounded a note of cynicism from
across the room.
"There's that too," Ellis admitted. "This
place looks pretty clean, but I'm sure that all this equipment must have cost a
fair dime. I'm counting on the possibility that if they left this behind, they
might have left something else that could shed some light into this situation."
She brought her flashlight in a wide arc. "I have no idea where they would
store that kind of thing, though. Maybe we should split up, see if we can find
anything that resembles a desk or a filing cabinet."
"No," P.J. said. "We stay together. It's
safer that way."
Nobody was willing to argue with
experience, so the three would-be explorers fell silent again. Eventually, they
decided that there was nothing of worth in the chamber and moved on. They
passed through a series of corridors, some displaying pictures of dinosaurs in
some kind of nature-fresco that probably looked jovial in the sunlight, but in
the darkness seemed to loom with unannounced threat.
After passing what looked like a
cafeteria, Ellis caught sight of a smallish door in the west wall. Shining her
flashlight onto it, she saw a sign marked "Employees Only".
"Hey, this looks like something."
The door opened easily enough, and they
walked into what seemed like a series of small offices. Computer monitors sat
deadened on the dark forms of desks. They made their way between the desks,
scanning the room with the help of their flashlights. Eventually they happened
upon a filing cabinet set in the corner. Ellis walked over to it and gave a tug
on the handle. When it didn't budge, she waved for P.J. to approach. He grasped
the handle in his hands a pulled. The basic key lock mechanism had degraded to
the point where it only took a few hard yanks on the drawer for it to open up.
"Jackpot," Ellis said, peering inside with
her flashlight. There were files and papers sticking out here and there. She
grabbed the first one and, leaning against the wall, began quickly leafing
through the documents contained therein.
As Ellis searched the documentation,
Richley kept his flashlight firmly on the door through which they had entered.
This darkened building was doing nothing to alleviate his anxiety, and he
didn't want to be here any longer than need be. On an island where monsters
were real, who knew what might lurk in the shadows?
Richley caught sight of P.J. scanning the
rest of the room, apparently as ill at ease as Richley was. They were used to
facing unknown and possibly dangerous situations, but not in this kind of
environment. Richley's experience was in the field, in jungles, savannahs and
steppes. Ellis didn't seem to be bothered, but Richley felt distinctly
uncomfortable at simply being inside, because these were settings that were
supposed to be friendly, not threatening.
"This isn't good," they heard Ellis say.
"I've found some invoices for cargo boat rentals. It looks like InGen was
shipping stuff between their islands and the mainland, but they don't say what
routes the specific boats had. The problem is, some of these have also been
licensed to carry live cargo."
Ellis glanced up.
"Which means that they've been shipping
these things to the other islands, and possibly even to the mainland."
Richley repressed a shudder, but the
thought didn't concern him as much as he thought it would. Possibly because the
only thing of value he really had – his daughter, Alice – was here, on this
island, now. And she was in danger, now, even as Ellis rummaged through some
old files. Suddenly he really felt like getting out of this building.
"We should head back to the platform
before it gets too dark."
"But what about the files? There could be
more information in here."
"Take them with you."
"But I–"
"I said we're going," Richley stated
sternly.
"Fine. You're the boss." Despondent, Ellis
grabbed a batch of the files and slammed the drawer close.
They made their way back up through the
darkened corridors and chambers of the aging InGen complex in silence.
47
FAILURE
By the time they had wound their way back
through the corridors, up the stairs and through the mountain flank, the sun
had disappeared beyond the horizon, one last semi-circle of red kissing the
ocean waves. Carlson and Soles were staring out at the jungle vista playing
itself out before the platform, silent.
"Well?" Richley asked, definitely not
liking the air of solemnity that seemed to hang over the technician and
cartographer like a shroud.
"It didn't work," Soles finally said, not
bothering to turn around to look at them.
"What do you mean, 'it didn't work'?"
"We tried everything, Brent," Carlson
said, turning around and waiving the module in his hands. "It should be
working, but it isn't."
"What's wrong with it?"
"With this?" He held up the GTRX module.
"Absolutely nothing. At least, nothing that I can find. The circuits are fine,
the signal seems to be going out and it should have enough power to carry twice
as far as where the plane should be."
"But we're not getting anything in
return," Soles explained. "Dead air."
"Are you sure that you're pointing it in
the right direction?" Ellis asked.
"Positive," Soles said, too downtrodden to
take offence at having her skills brought into question. "I've checked and
double-checked our respective positions, both with the sun and the stars." She
pointed upwards, where the first few frozen glimmers of light could be seen.
"Either there's something wrong with the module that Carlson can't figure out–"
"There isn't," Carlson interjected.
"–Or the communications equipment on the
plane is broken, or they're not answering for some reason… or the plane isn't
there at all."
"Which means our quick airlift out of here
is no longer an option," Ellis said dully.
It took a while for Richley to absorb the
full implications. It would take another twelve hours just to get back to their
temporary camp, and from there it could take days to reach the beach with the
plane, depending on the weather – and assuming the plane was still there, that
is. Two days wasted when every minute on this damned island could be their
last.
"We have to get back to camp," Richley
said. "We have to tell them, and get moving again."
"I wouldn't recommend it," P.J. said. "We
shouldn't try moving at night. We could get lost, stuck in that ditch, or
worse. We should at least wait until dawn before starting up again. Besides, we
all need sleep. A weary driver isn't going to do anybody any good."
Richley had to acknowledge the wisdom in
the hunter's words. They were all exhausted, both from the physical and
emotional stresses that the day had brought.
"On the other hand," P.J. continued, "I
think that once we join up with the rest of our party, we'll be able to travel
by night if we take shifts. It might cut back on some journey time. We should
also leave the shelters and just sleep in the jeeps themselves–"
"I'm sure there will be plenty of time to
discuss this tomorrow," Richley said. "We have to figure out what we're going
to do now."
"Sleep in the jeep?" Carlson suggested.
"No," P.J. said. "Sitting out there by the
base of the rocks… I don't like it, it's too open."
"What's your idea, then?" Soles asked.
"We go in there," P.J. said, pointing to
the InGen complex.
"In there?" Carlson repeated, looking
uncomfortable at the prospect. Richley couldn't blame him.
"While we were poking around, we found a
room that I think is fairly secure. We could bunk out in there for the night."
It wasn't an appealing prospect, but
Richley didn't think there was much of a choice. He felt almost crushed by the
intense disappointment at having their plan fail right at the end, but he knew
he couldn't let set matters cloud his judgement. Adopting his best command
voice, he said:
"Alright, people, let's get moving. We
can't let this setback stop us."
Glumly, the five team members picked up
their backpacks and shouldered them, heading off into the rocky wedge that
would led them into the dark, deserted InGen complex.
48
EMBRYO
Ellis had not been able to sleep. Although
she'd accepted having to call off her search before, she simply couldn't rest
knowing that the answers to the mysteries of this island might be just around
the corner. More than curiosity: it was her duty.
P.J. had led them back to the room in
which she'd found the files. They had bunked down between the rows of desks,
using their backpacks as makeshift and rather uncomfortable pillows. Now, Ellis
rose – gently, so as not to disturb her sleeping companions – and walked over
to the room's single door.
P.J. had been rather displeased that it
opened outwards instead of inwards like most doors, which meant it couldn't be
barricaded. Ellis didn't really see how that could be a problem; after all,
dinosaurs can't open doors, and anything large enough to smash down a door
probably couldn't fit through the opening anyway – not to mention that they'd
hear something that big coming through the building a kilometre away.
Once she was back out into the corridor,
she switched on her flashlight. She hadn't wanted to turn it on before out of
fear of waking the others. Her beam passed over the mural, and then swung past
it to the unexplored area beyond.
Ellis began walking down the corridor,
nervous but determined not to let herself be deterred. Shortly thereafter, she
came upon another door set into the wall. This one had several signs on it,
some of them bearing signs she didn't recognize. Still, two of them read:
"Authorized Personnel Only" and "Security Level 10." Figuring that this was as
likely a place to find important information as any other, Ellis tried the
door. It pushed open easily enough. She shone the flashlight inside, but saw
nothing of import in her initial sweep.
Stepping inside, Ellis saw that she was in
some kind of antechamber. She was facing a window in the wall in front of her.
To the right was a row of lockers, while computer equipment lined the walls
behind her and to the left. She tried the lockers, but they were either well
locked or stuck, and she couldn't open them. Scanning the rest of the room, she
saw there was a heavy looking door in the wall with the window. She tried to
peer through it with her flashlight, but the reflection prevented her from
seeing into the dark room.
She walked up to the door. There seemed to
be a touch-tone panel next to it, presumably for entering some kind of security
code. The panel was, of course, long dead. There was a handle on the door, and
it moved well when Ellis gripped it, so she hoped that the door wasn't locked.
Ellis shoved against the door, but to no avail. She was about to give up when
she remember P.J.'s complaint about the direction of doors, and tried pulling
on the handle instead. With a sonorous click, the heavy door swung open towards
her. Stale air rushed out of the next room, and Ellis braced herself as she
entered, feeling uncomfortably as if she was walking into a crypt.
The first thing she noticed was that it
was cool in the room. Not cold, but the air definitely felt cooler than
outside. There were two large structures inside the room, looking oddly like
containers of some sort. There was another door in the back of the room.
She bent over to examine the containers.
They looked bulky but technologically advanced. Ellis figured that Carlson
might be able to recognize them. There seemed to be a small crack in one of
them. Running her fingers along it, she could feel the cold coming from it.
Placing the flashlight in her mouth, she slipped her fingers into the crack and
pulled upwards. The panel on the container lifted in a few sharp jerks.
Peering inside, Ellis could see that there
was some kind of tubes at regular intervals affixed to the container's
mechanism. The air coming from it was cold, and Ellis realized that it was a
cryogenic chamber. While it wasn't cold enough to the touch for whatever was
inside to still be frozen, it still retained some of its low temperature, so it
was probably one of the last systems of the complex to fail after InGen vacated
the premises.
"Insomnia?"
Ellis started and let out a gasp, turning
around quickly.
"Sorry," Richley said, "Didn't mean to
frighten you."
"You have a funny way of showing it," she
replied, somewhat relieved that it was just him.
"I saw you get up; I was wondering what
you were doing. We really shouldn't split up, or stray from our bunk room, you
know."
"Well, I wasn't falling asleep, so I
figured I might as well continue my investigations instead of wasting the night
away staring at the ceiling." Ellis paused. "What about you? You couldn't sleep
either?"
Richley shrugged. "Too much on my mind."
Ellis relaxed her stance. "Your daughter."
"I worry about everybody on my team… but
yes, her especially." Richley sighed, dropping his fist on the other container.
"I should have known better, after her mother died, to never bring anybody I
loved on any of these damn expeditions. I should have quit the field
altogether. But no: I have the wanderlust, and so does Alice. We just kept on
going. And now look at where it's gotten us."
"To be fair, Richley, you really had no
way of knowing anything remotely like this could ever happened."
"That doesn't matter. An expedition leader
is responsible for everything that happens to his team. That includes accidents
and any unforeseen circumstances. Knowingly or not, I got them into this mess.
I bear the blame."
"InGen and Hammond are to blame, Richley.
Not you."
Richley shook his head. "I was the one who
brought them here. I was the one who decided to ground the entire team while we
came up here on some misbegotten quest with an unreliable piece of technology.
For better or for worse, I'm the one who made these decisions."
Richley blew air out his mouth, like a
physical side effect of putting the subject out of his mind for now. He turned
back to Ellis and asked: "What did you find?"
"This," she said, "appears to be a
cryogenic chamber."
"A cryo-what?"
"Cryogenic chamber. It's used for preserving
live specimen for extended periods of time. Sort of like suspended animation."
"What's in it?"
"I'm not sure yet. The chamber itself
isn't working anymore, so there's nothing to worry about. I wonder if…"
Ellis reached inside the panel she had
opened up and wrapped her fingers around one of the narrow tubes. She gave it a
yank and it came out. Richley shone his flashlight onto it.
"There's something written here…
'Triceratops'."
Ellis reached into the panel and withdrew
three more tubes, reading the names as she picked them up.
"Parasaurolophus. Spinosaurus.
Velociraptor."
She glanced up at Richley, who, unfamiliar
with the nomenclature, simply shrugged. "I've never heard of them. You'd have
to ask Benny." Richley picked up one of the tubes, peering inside. "What's in
this, anyway?"
"Well, InGen was a company that dealt with
cloning, so… I suppose it must be blood or some other organic sample for them
to get DNA samples from."
"Okay – but where did they get these samples
from in the first place?"
"That, I have no idea," Ellis admitted.
"But I am worried about these things. These could be transported anywhere given
the proper carrying equipment. With one of these, any cloning facility around
the world could reproduce the dinosaurs on this island. And furthermore–"
Ellis broke off as the popping sounds of
gunfire echoed off in the distance. A horrid, high-pitched squeal followed, and
a man – Carlson – screamed. Cursing themselves for having left their pistols in
their backpacks, Richley and Ellis broke for the door, dreading what lay beyond
but knowing they had little other choice then to try and help their companions.