A Middle Earth Quest Chapter 2
Disclaimer- I own no Lord of the Rings characters, or the idea behind the park. I wish I did, but whatever.
Suuki-Aldrea- Thanks for your review. And I hope this thing turns out to be good. But we'll see how it goes.
Standing on the second floor balcony of his own private residence, Owen Bridges once again gazed out over his vision brought to life. Five years had passed since he had finished Jurassic Park and gotten his idea for his wonderful park. It had taken five years, a contracting company, a team of highly skilled geneticists, and around 20 billion dollars, but now it was nearly complete. All that was left now was to bring in a full staff, and begin marketing for the grand opening of his park in a year's time. To begin the marketing and advertising process, he was bringing in a couple of people to show off the park, and hopefully get them to endorse him. He had a representative from an American company coming in (he couldn't remember exactly which company it was at the moment) and an actor, Liam Morgan, to be the poster boy and to do TV commercials.
Taking his mind off tomorrows concerns he returned to today's. He was up here waiting on the park psychologist, Melissa Cowan. Three days ago she had introduced two new elven youngsters to the rest of the group, and he wanted to see how they were progressing.
Melissa Cowan, or Mel as she was more commonly called, was fresh out of college and eager to prove she could handle this particular job. Three years ago, when they had first engineered the first successful groups of elves, dwarves, and hobbits, Melissa had been the only one on staff that had had any real experience with babies. So she had, by default, been stuck with the job of babysitting, nurturing, and introducing all of the parks creatures to their new homes. And this was probably why the dwarves and hobbits became very shy around any human but her, and the elves permitted no one but her into their domain. At first Mel had refused, arguing that she was not a nursemaid, but had changed her mind when he had pointed out that this would be an opportunity to put into practice all of the things she had learned in college. The notion that she would be studying babies not of the human race appealed to her.
From behind his came a knock on the door frame. He turned around to see Mel standing there, her long dark curly hair pulled back into a loose pony tail. She was wearing a pair of khaki work shorts and a dark blue t- shirt. She wore no make-up, but then she really didn't need to. Her features gave her a sense of elegance and sophistication without making her truly beautiful.
"Hey Mel," he said politely.
"So," she said conversationally. "You wanted to see me?"
Owen gestured for her to go back into the house, back into his office. "Yes, I wanted an update on the two youngsters you introduced into Lothlorien a couple of days ago," he sat down at his desk and motioned for her to do the same.
"Oh, they are doing just fine. The other twelve accepted them right away. I think they all saw it as something to do. And Larfana and Saurmerethiel, those are their names, just had a ball. They were so happy to meet other people," she said, smiling.
"That's just great," Owen said. At this rate the park would have a full population of elves by the time the park opened. They were going to make so much money. "How long will it take for the hobbit and dwarf populations to reach the same size as the elf populations?"
He wanted to have fairly equal populations for each race that way it wouldn't seem that one population was better, and so the park visitors would get to see as many of their favorite Tolkien characters as possible. Besides, the more of each race they had, the more they could charge for entry and the more money they would make.
"Oh," she frowned. "Well, they are all pretty close now. I mean, there are fourteen elves now, nine hobbits, and six dwarves. Oh, and there is a dwarf and two hobbits in the nursery. I should be able to get them into their homes in about a month. But I –"
"Perfect. But I was hoping to have at least thirty-five of each race by the time the park opens. I want to have a full society of each species for the park guests," Owen said, cutting her off short. "Oh, and do you know how Freddy is doing with engineering the Eagles? I was hoping to have a few of them by the time we open, especially now that we have scrapped the Orc project."
Mel's eyes widened. "Thirty-five? Isn't that a bit much, I mean, pretty soon we'll be having problems with the numbers we have now. We cannot possibly handle one hundred and five elves, hobbits and dwarves!"
Owen's eyebrows snapped together. "What do you mean, we'll soon be having problems?" he asked sharply.
"Well, if you would listen to people instead of hiding up here in your splendid little palace, you would know a little bit about your park," she snapped.
"I do not hide up here," Owen replied, affronted. "What do you mean by that, we'll be having problems?"
"The hobbits are okay, they are all delighted with their hobbit holes there in Hobbiton. But the Dwarves have started quarreling over who digs where and over what they found. We had to separate two of them before they could hack each other to pieces. Then the elves, the elves are bored to death. And they're smart. Very soon they are going to start making trouble if only to have something interesting happening. They are bored to tears sitting there in their forest," Mel exclaimed, standing up and pacing.
Owens stood up as well, trying to comprehend all that the psychologist had said. "How? This is a park," he said quietly. "And we engineered them to not be too bright."
Mel scowled. "Yeah, you engineered them to be that way, but they are a hell of a lot smarter that you thought they would be. And if you would bother to spend any time at all in the nursery, instead of here or down in the lab with Freddy, you would know this. These are sentient creatures, Owen. They need stimulation and entertainment. Just sticking them in their homes and leaving them to play isn't enough. When I agreed to come here, I thought you knew that. But now I'm stuck."
Owen looked pensive. They were so close to finally being done, this kind of problem was the last thing he needed. He needed to figure out a way to keep them quiet and still have his large populations. "Is there any way we can prevent them from getting restless and troublesome?" he asked.
"Yes, give them something to do. If they have something they like to do to keep them occupied, they won't become a problem. Giving the elves something to do will be easier than giving the dwarves something to do." She looked down at her watch, it read twelve thirty. She walked over to the door.
"I have to go, I'm needed in Hobbiton. See if you can find something to occupy the elves, then come find me. I have other things to think about." Then she turned around and left, walking very quickly down the hall.
Owen sat there for a while thinking over all she had said. He went back out on the balcony and surveyed the view. To the East was Hobbiton, apparently the only place where things were not going awry. South of Hobbiton and a little to the west lay the Dwarves mines and caves. Maybe he could have Mel teach them how to build and create, instead of fight. Then his gaze went to the northwest, toward Lothlorien forest, to the elves domain. That was where the real problem was. He walked back inside. Maybe it was time to make a visit to the nursery.