A/N: As a personal request, please try and refrain from using colorful language if you're leaving a review. While you will encounter swear words within this story, I'd prefer if someone was just reading the reviews that they didn't encounter such language.
Isla Nublar: The Senior Staff of Isla Sorna were at the headquarters of the deconstruction effort that was full of hustle and bustle with crews and heavy equipment. But none of the action could divert their attention from what lay in front of them…the demolished remains of the Jurassic Park Visitors Center.
"I almost want to cry," Jake admitted as he looked at the rubble that was being scooped up by an excavator and deposited into a dump truck.
"You and me both buddy," Henry agreed, looking at a place he had actually worked at for a time.
"I think I will cry," Lori confessed, saddened by the destruction as much as any of them. Sam stepped in front of the group to divert their attention from what was behind him.
"So out of all of us besides Gerry and Henry, who spent the most time here?" he asked, curious. "I was barely around after the groundbreaking ceremony."
The others had to think about their time spent on the island when it was still operational.
"Rarely for me," said Bobbie. "If someone got hurt badly enough here it was quicker to take them to Costa Rica than Sorna."
"I was here off and on for a couple months not too long ago when Hammond decided to make that genetics lab in the Visitors Center to fool everyone into thinking the dinosaurs were made there," Lori chimed in. "Nicolette was here with me for most of that time helping out."
The Head of Strategic Planning on Sorna gave a brief nod of her head in acknowledgment but otherwise added nothing else to the conversation. She felt dwelling on the past was a waste of time and usually served to lower morale. Although inwardly she cursed herself for doing just that as she was currently researching the unforeseen consequences of something she had done several years ago.
"I came whenever I got bored on Sorna and stayed until Hammond threw me out," Jake reminisced fondly. Whether he was telling the complete truth or not, nobody really knew or cared.
"I never actually came here at all after the groundbreaking. I always meant to, but I never did. And now it's gone," Sam confessed finally. "But I will do everything in my power to see that this doesn't happen to us," he promised the team. "And the main thing is to do exactly what Samantha said: we can't afford to screw up or mess around. I know I've let a lot of things slide in the past and I really don't want to have to start cracking the whip on you guys. But mark my words. I will do whatever it takes to make sure that Site B survives the next two and a half months."
Nublar Docks: Equipment salvaged from the island was being loaded into the holds of the Anne B. and S.S. Venture along with plenty of other debris. Walking past the cranes at work, Daniela St. Ives softly shuddered at the sight while feeling extremely grateful that it wasn't her island that had been taken apart piece by piece. But she couldn't afford to dwell on such thoughts as she followed Samantha Brown up the steps towards the deck of the Venture.
"I remember when this ship was still on the drawing board," Daniela admitted looking at the large deck of the ship. "She's definitely something to see now that's she's finally been built."
"Yes, we're glad to have her. Especially with everything else going on," Samantha agreed as they entered into her cabin and the Board Member shut the door behind them. "Please be seated."
Daniela reluctantly took her seat before clasping her hands in front of her on the table in front of her.
"I really don't want to be here," the former Head of Indigo flat out admitted. Samantha nodded her head but otherwise showed little sympathy.
"We all have to do things we're not happy about but that's because we have no choice," she said. "Jurassic Park is gone and it's too expensive to run Indigo right now. So being on Sorna and being the second in command if not co-command means you have to be fully briefed on the Extinction Level Event protocols. That is company rules."
Daniela sighed and nodded her head knowing she had no alternatives.
"So tell me; what do you know about the K-T Extinction Event?" asked Samantha moving on. Daniela tried to avoid showing any indication she'd heard that term before from Jake and Henry.
"It was the event that killed off the dinosaurs," she answered truthfully.
"That's right. It's a big matter of debate in the scientific community about just what it was that did them in," Samantha stated. "A meteor, a comet, the ice age, a plague, something else; nobody really knows. It's really just…speculation."
Daniela wasn't entirely sure where Samantha was going with all of this but she knew better than to say so.
"In the early days of the Dinosaur Revivification Process, the plan was to just clone dinosaurs from the Jurassic era. Marketing said because it was going to be called Jurassic Park that was what it should contain," Samantha continued as if on a non-sequitur. "Well obviously the DNA fragments we were collecting from amber deposits and ground up dinosaur fossils came from all over the spectrum that dinosaurs were alive. So if we made a park with only Jurassic dinosaurs in it then from what we had, there really wouldn't be much to show for the tourists."
"I guess that makes sense," said Daniela still at a loss for what Samantha was going on about.
"So InGen started cloning dinosaurs from different eras," the Board Member continued. "And they had phenomenal success with it by cloning dinosaurs up and down the Mesozoic Era. Everything was going smoothly…and then they ran into some problems."
If nothing else it was beginning to become an interesting story about events Daniela hadn't been involved with during her time with the company.
"For some reason out of certain batches of dinosaur eggs, some were dying within 24-hours after hatching," the Board Member told her. "There wasn't really any explanation for it, but it kept happening with random occurrences. Obviously, attention turned towards the cloning process. Safety, standardization, and cleanliness routines were rather loose in those days. In fact it was a miracle the process worked as well as it did considering how amateurish the whole cloning operation originally was. So Lori was hired to make sure the whole process worked right. She tore down the entire existing processes and made entirely new ones. She brought in new equipment, set up new standards, the whole works to comply with OSHA standards. And then production started up again.
…And we still had problems."
Interior of Isla Nublar: Richard Levine, Jack Thorne, and Martin Gutierrez had been given a gas powered Jeep by Ed Regis with the promise they'd be at the main gates in time for Ludlow's speech.
"I always knew this island existed, I just could never figure out where it was," said Gutierrez frustrated that he was finally on Jurassic Park if only for its final days. Nevertheless he had his camera out and was snapping photos of the deconstruction effort. At the moment, the trio were watching the crews take apart one of the many perimeter fences on the island.
"I'm sure," said Thorne absently as he looked at a map on the hood of the Jeep of where everything had been when Jurassic Park was still around. He made notations here and there before looking thoughtful.
"No silos," he muttered to himself.
"What?" asked Levine, bored, since there really were no dinosaurs on the island. He was also struggling to stay awake since they had to take that early morning boat ride to get here.
"I said there're no silos on this island. On Sorna they were all over the place," Thorne commented while trying to understand why that was.
"Well the tour guide said they were weather sensing equipment," Gutierrez pointed out. Levine meanwhile yawned into his hand thereby showing what his interest was in the conversation.
"I know that's what she said and I'm sure that's what she thinks they are," Thorne began. "But those silos are way too massive to contain only weather sensors. Also, there's some strange equipment on top of each one that has no function that I can think that's weather related. They're also placed all over the island. The jet stream flows from the west to the east so you're better off with sensors on the west side of the island and possibly the eastern wide. Not scattered all over. It doesn't add up."
"Well, nothing does about this damn place. But that's just the price you have to pay to see the dinosaurs," Levine grumbled, mainly to himself.
"They'd better let us know what happened here," Gutierrez swore. "If it happened once it could damn well happen again on that other island. And more importantly because if they're only now just finishing cleaning up their mess, that means these dinosaurs must've been loose on this island for at least a couple of weeks if not more. We had one dilophosaur carcass wash up at Costa Rica, but I can only guess how many more tried to escape. And for all I know they made it to the mainland and are now living in the jungles. InGen had better cough up some statistics on their residents here and it better be soon," he glowered.
While all three of them had different reasons for coming to Nublar, one thing held they all had in common; the gnawing feeling that in two and a half months something very bad was going to happen on Isla Sorna. And when it did, where would they be at that time.
San Diego, California: Sarah Harding finished flipping through the pamphlet, which didn't illuminate very much on the purpose of the structure or about Jurassic Park, and put it away in her backpack for future reference.
"So is this the part where you tell me something and I have to tell you something?" noted the animal behaviorist annoyed at not having all the cards. The mysterious individual gave a noncommittal shrug.
"If you want nothing more to do with me, just say so," the man told her. Sarah shook her head lightly at knowing she had no choice in the matter and so she just made a cyclical motion with her hand to indicate she was ready to hear what he had to say.
"Nublar," the man said. Sarah gave a conspiratorial smirk upon hearing that.
"Too late, I already know that," she said, pleased she could finally be one step ahead of the man. The figure gave her an annoyed look indicating he already knew she knew that.
"Indigo, Sorna," he continued punctually announcing both words knowing she knew neither of them.
"Okay, but that doesn't really help me. They're locations, I know that, but this is a big world and unless you're planning on telling me exactly where they are, then I could spend the rest of my life looking for them," Sarah pointed out. The man thought about that for a moment.
"You're right," he conceded as he snapped his fingers and a business card shot into his hand and gave it to her. Sarah looked at the business card which read:
Robert 'Bob' Morris
Environmental Protection Agency
San Francisco, California
And also gave his contact information.
"Who is this?" asked Sarah bewildered.
"Four years ago, he also was interested in InGen and just what it was they were really up to," the man supplied. "Find him and compare notes. You might find it…illuminating."
Sarah tucked away the business card but still wasn't sure what to make of it. She then looked at the man expectantly.
"So what do you need from me?" she asked next.
"Ian Malcolm," the man stated.
"You want him, you can have him," Sarah teased. The man gave her a sardonic smile.
"Have you kept up to date on his health situation?" he asked. Sarah shrugged.
"Off and on," she admitted. "I hear he's finally going to be let out of the hospital in a week or so but will still need some physical therapy. Why?"
The man looked at her grimly. "It is very important that he does not speak about what he saw at Jurassic Park. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever."
"And why not?" asked Sarah desperately. What little she had gotten out of Ian were morphine induced ramblings. But if he was fully conscious and spoke about what he saw, that would finally solve the mystery of what was really going on.
"InGen is in a very precarious situation right now," the man told her. "In fact, they're barely holding together as a company. If your boyfriend talks then whatever plans they currently have will fall apart. And if that happens, your father's life will be in grave danger."
"Thanks for the advice," said Sarah, unsure what to do with it. "You know, I can fingerprint this and find out who you are," she continued in regards to the business card. The man laughed at the suggestion.
"Go for it," he goaded as he turned to leave. "If you think it will save your father then do whatever you think is necessary."
He continued walking as Sarah kept shouting out at him.
"What did you that's making you help me out with all of this?" she demanded. The man chuckled at her asking that question again.
"What makes you think I did anything?" he had to ask. "Maybe I'm just doing this for kicks."
Sarah scowled briefly at that answer. "Is InGen making dinosaurs?" she asked, not caring if anyone nearby heard her. The man stopped in his tracks and turned to face her.
"Find out," he suggested. And then he was gone from earshot as he continued walking down the road leaving Sarah by herself. She watched the man go for several moments before scowling deeply and lightly growling with her mouth still closed. She then looked at the business card for a few moments before deciding against ripping it up. She placed it in her shorts pocket and then walked off in the opposite direction hoping this investigation would be over soon.
Otherwise, she didn't want to have to think about what she'd have to do if Ian Malcolm did decide to start speaking about what had happened to him on Jurassic Park.
Isla Sorna: The workers were set up on metal fold-up chairs around picnic tables around the giant grill waiting for Ludlow's speech. On a nearby platform, Sheila Matula was fighting it out with the video projector that was supposed to be displaying an image on the side of the nearby semi-truck trailer…but wasn't. She had a diagram of the wiring of the device while checking the connections for the umpteenth time.
"I swear this is the last time I let Tim abandon me here," she complained annoyed. By being the only programmer and technician, that meant she had to fix everything electronically that broke on the island or just plain wasn't working right.
Looking at the projector one more time, she wiped some sweat off of her forehead before resigning herself to using her final trick in her repertoire. She pulled back her hand and smacked the projector and it finally fired up and displayed a blue screen on the side of the trailer. The image would change to the feed from Nublar once the broadcast began.
Smiling happily to herself while wiping her hands, Sheila felt the tense energy drain from her body and so she left in search of a drink. In doing so, she passed by a table with Colin Maken, Katrice Maken, Abby Nakajima, Derek Hoyle, and Carly Carlson sitting around it. When the senior staff had left to go to Nublar that effectively left Carly in charge and she was enjoying it thanks to the fact that she wouldn't be in charge tomorrow when the Lockdown went into effect.
"Colin, I'm hungry," Katrice whimpered for the thousandth time. She was in her best yellow sundress and an oversized sun hat which for some reason she wore despite being underneath the table's umbrella. Colin groaned lightly as he rested his head on his hand and looked over at her.
"Well they won't be serving dinner until 7:00 so you'll have to wait," he said unsympathetically. "If you're hungry now you can have a salad but that's it."
"But I need energy and protein because my energy is fading fast," Katrice rasped as if her life force was being drained.
"Then maybe next time you won't eat an entire box of Fruit Loops for breakfast and then crash like this after your sugar high," he shuddered at how she had been this morning. This was why he was currently restricting her caloric intake as a form of punishment. "Besides, you're only feeling hungry because you're bored. Find something to do to take your mind off of food."
Katricee sulked on that for a few moments.
"When does the senior staff get back?" she asked seemingly out of the blue. Colin was about to respond when he saw a mischievous glint in her eye.
"They'll get back when they get back," he said, knowing his younger sister wanted to go bug Jake Whitacre. "Why don't you play your Gameboy?"
Katrice sighed and held her head in her hands. "I can't because the batteries are dead and the general store isn't open until tomorrow," she remarked as Colin narrowly avoided rolling his eyes at her weak excuse. "Besides, I've beaten all the games I have."
Colin eyed her doubtfully. "Even Star Fox?" he asked since in their shared two-bedroom apartment they had an SNES, Sega Genesis, and other consoles.
"Yes," said Katrice exasperated.
"All the routes?"
"Yes,"
"What about Streets of Rage?"
"Yes and with all three characters,"
"Contra?"
"What do you think?"
Collin was about to ask her about Final Fantasy V when Carly cut in knowing their conversation could last until the evening.
"Why didn't you ask Tim to buy you some new games when he went to the mainland?" she asked curious. Katrice gave her a perplexed look.
"I didn't because my birthday is already past and I'm waiting until Christmas to write a letter to Santa," she said innocently. The others in the group stared at her at that statement before turning to look at Colin who deliberately avoided their gazes. How was he supposed to explain that he'd told his sister about the Santa situation multiple times but she refused to accept it?
"Well, you know," began Abby with a grin spreading on her face. "It's Christmas in July right now."
"What?" asked Katrice perking up, confused.
"Well we're pretty well close to the equator. Since its summer here that means its winter over there. And so to have a winter festival those south of the equator sometimes have Christmas in July," she continued amusingly while having a sip of her lemonade. "So you'd better get your letter to Santa while you still can."
Panic crossed Katrice's face at her dwindling opportunity as she started to say a thousand jumbled words at once.
"Easy there," said Colin as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "I asked Tim to bring something back for us, so you're covered."
Katrice breathed a sigh of relief, but the sudden surge of energy coupled with her sugar crash from earlier caused her to abruptly collapse onto the table.
"How about you go play at the arcade. I can give you some quarters if you need some," she offered. Colin looked at the confused scientist apologetically.
"She's temporarily banned from the arcade," he admitted sheepishly.
"What, why?" asked Carly confused.
Colin scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well partly because she beat the entire Star Wars Trilogy Arcade machine with one credit and Jake accused her of cheating. But mainly because she was up one night before the last arcade tournament practicing her skills and in the morning we found her in a sleep deprived state trying to eat the Bass Anglers arcade cabinet."
Laughter bubbled up from the rest of the group and soon they were laughing hard at that statement. Colin looked over at this sister who was now out cold and mumbling something in her sleep about 'Sonic Fishies'.
"Well I can relate because I've made this goof sit with me through all the romance films we have in the library a million times," said Abby lightly elbowing Derek in the chest. "I'm sure he'll get the courage to make a move sometime. And since its Christmas in July, maybe he can kiss me under the mistletoe over the entrance to the repair shop."
The 'mistletoe' was just a mangled up tailpipe that was strung up but it was the closest thing to what Abby mentioned. The group chuckled together again a little bit, although Derek's chuckle was a nervous one.
"Well I hate to bring this up now, but on a more serious note, how are your investigations proceeding?" asked Carly pointedly. The group cautiously looked around at the tables nearest them, but the occupants were either engaged in conversation or just relaxing in the afternoon sun.
"Well, Katrice and I are still examining all the organs we harvested out of that raptor," Colin said. "We've gone through and cataloged most of them already. But analyzing them will take more time because we can only get so much time in the lab with the power saving restrictions."
Carly nodded her head in acknowledgment as she wrote down what he said into her notebook.
"I'll see if I can get any leeway with Sam over the power restrictions," she mentioned. "Abby, Derek, what've you got?"
Derek straightened up in his chair to answer her. While romance was an area where he felt out of his league, genetics was his calling in life.
"Analyses on our part are also slow going because of power restrictions. However, as far as we can tell right now from all the genetic blueprints, there's nothing in the base code that would account for what we saw when the dinos went crazy," he began, mystified by this.
"Although we still pursuing some leads based on what we think could cause what we saw," Abby chimed in before taking a sip of her smoothie.
"Do you have any guesses?" asked Carly curious. Abby shrugged.
"Of course," she stated as if that were obvious. "But none is more likely than the next right now so until then..."
Silence fell on the group after that as each contemplated the situation they were in. Except for Katrice who was still asleep on the table with her sunhat still on.
"Has anyone given any thought to what's going to happen if the fences fail?" asked Colin after a few moments of hesitation on bringing up the subject. The others looked at him surprised.
"You think we'll still be here when that happens?" asked Abby concerned. Colin gave a lopsided grimace at her remark.
"I couldn't help but notice that InGen didn't have much of a plan for dealing with total power failure on Jurassic Park," he noticed. "And if they didn't for there they might not for here either. I don't care what happens to me, but I'm not letting Katrice suffer like they did," he promised while reaching over with his hand and lightly rubbing his sister's back. Despite only being 21 at the time, he'd been in the unexpected position of having had to raise her since she was 15 and he'd do anything to protect her.
Carly looked at the group's expressions for deciding to play mediator. "We can worry about that later. Right now we have more important things to do. Besides, I heard rumblings that that Jake and Henry have a contingency plan if things do go south. They'll deal with things if that happens, I know they will."
Although what that plan was or if it would even work, nobody at the table knew.
SS Venture, Isla Sorna Docks: "Lori doesn't usually make mistakes like that," Daniela commented in regards to the Head of Production revamping an entire system and still not getting results.
"Well the good news was that she hadn't made a mistake," Samantha agreed. "Instead of losing an egg here or there, we were now losing an occasional entire clutch of eggs. That allowed Jake, Henry, and Dr. Graves to isolate the specific DNA sequences that had been made to create those clutches and do further analyses on them."
"What did they find out?" asked Daniela, her interest piqued.
Samantha took a look at her notes to make sure she wasn't missing anything since this had all occurred before she'd been hired. "As they were analyzing the DNA for anything and everything, someone else noticed the dinosaurs we were losing were all from the Cretaceous Period. That same person-I don't know who it was because the notes don't say-suggested carbon dating the mosquito amber fragments we'd gotten the strands from."
"And?" asked Daniela needing to know as it seemed they were getting to the important part of this conversation.
"It turns out that the fragments had come from the time period when the K-T Event was supposed to have occurred," Samantha revealed ominously. "So we could successfully clone dinosaurs from up and down the Mesozoic Era. But once you hit around the 65 million year-old mark, nothing, the creatures wouldn't survive," she added with a slice of her hand for emphasis.
"Amazing," said Daniela at a complete loss. None of this had ever been mentioned to her before.
"With that in mind, the senior scientists did a much more focused analysis on the strands and then the truth became clear," Samantha continued. "It turns out that InGen was so focused on discovering ways to bring the dinosaurs to life…that in the process they'd inadvertently stumbled upon how they all died.
And it is the end of the dinosaurs which is where E.L.E. begins…"