Isla Sorna, Dimetrodon Pens: The Dimetrodon pen was heavily fortified with concrete moats, motion trackers, thick metal bars coursing with electricity, and everything else the island staff could use in order to not keep anyone out but to keep its occupants in. The entire pen was noticeably isolated from the others and if Jake Whitacre and Henry Wu had their way would be on its own power supply and mined with explosives, both of which simply weren't possible.
"So what am I looking at?" Marty Guitierrez had to ask. He'd been staring into the pen through the fences for several minutes as the DRT team was busy unloading their gear.
"What you're looking at are creatures with nearly perfect camouflage," Gerry Harding told him as he snacked on an energy bar. "Maybe not as good as the Carnotaurs, but enough to make them not easy to spot when they don't move much in an open area. Surrounded by the dense jungle? Forget about it. You'd be dead before you even realized they were there. As unfortunately happened to the scientist who designed them when he paid a little visit to their pen when the motion trackers claimed they had disappeared."
"I see," said Marty a little disturbed by that. "Can we provoke them into showing themselves like Lori Ruso did with the velociraptors earlier in my survey?"
Harding shrugged, not seeing the point of it. "Maybe, but unless something else is going on they're a little too smart to reveal themselves. Plus in this temperature they tend just to stay still and radiate heat off their fins. The Raptors attacked you more out of boredom than because they actually thought they could get through the fence at you."
That thought of the motive behind the raptors actions disturbed Guitierrez enough that he was about to ask more about it when the head of the Dinosaur Recovery Team, Michael Wolfskin, approached.
"Orders, sir?" he asked. Harding looked at him as if it should be obvious.
"Inspect and secure the perimeter," he figured was all they could do. These kinds of inspections weren't really his forte but the DRT team would do most of the work so he wouldn't come back to Sam Stone with nothing to report.
Wolfskin nodded his head and spun his hand around in a circle to his team and they subsequently nodded and spread out around the perimeter of the pen.
"What's his story?" asked Guitierrez trying again to get more information on the mysterious man. And when Harding don't look any more inclined to answer that question that he had the last time. "Okay, what makes him so qualified?"
Harding deliberated on that for a moment as he held his hand up to his chin thoughtfully.
"A year or so ago when Bobbie Carter went into the Raptor Pit and got attacked, The DRT charged in without a moment's hesitation to try and save her even though there were nearly 20 raptors in there. Michael is the only person I have ever known who actually leapt over a charging raptor to in order to get between them and her so they could save the behaviorists life. I'm still amazed no one died during that incident. But that's why they're the best of the best when it comes to dinosaur recovery."
"So who else is on this team?" asked Guitierrez abruptly shifting direction.
Harding chuckled at that. "Well they have some alliterative nicknames; but for the Dino Trackers we also have Sergeant 'T-Rex' Turner, 'Jaws' Jackson, 'Harpoon' Harrison, and the lone female on the team 'Stun Gun' Sandra Smith."
It took all of Guitierrez's willpower not to roll his eyes at those names. As he was about to put his pen to paper, Harding unexpectedly spoke up again, agitated.
"What the hell?" he said disturbed by what he saw beyond the fence. Guitierrez looked up and saw five Dimetrodons abruptly finish becoming visible out of thin air and then crane their heads to look at Mt. Watson. An instant later an extremely light breeze whistled past coming from the direction of Mt. Watson and he also thought he heard a tiny pop.
"I'm guessing they don't normally do that," Guirierrez figured, involuntarily stepping back from the fences.
"They never do that," Harding confirmed as he pulled out his walkie talkie, adjust the dial, and pressed the transmit button as the DRT team rushed back to them.
"Harding to HQ," he said into it.
No response.
"I said Harding with the DRT Team to HQ, come on back now," he said again with a little desperation in his voice.
No response.
Harding was now beginning to get very worried before looking to the team.
"Hurry up and finish your sweep and make sure whatever just happened didn't impact the fences," he told them just to give them something to do and get his mind off of worrying. Harding then whispered a silent prayer as he craned his head up to look at the top of the fence and breathed a loud sigh of relief to still see the telltale red and blue blinking lights indicating they still had power. He then lifted his binoculars to look at Watson but it was almost far away and difficult to discern any concrete details. So whether that actually was smoke rising from the base and not his imagination he couldn't really tell.
Operations Building, Workers Village: "So now what?" asked Daniella St. Ives curious. She had managed to wave off the flurry and anxious questions from the support staff for now. Earlier after conferring with Tim and the electrical technicians they found some of the circuit breakers had tripped but none of them involved the fences. So the breakers were flipped back and things were beginning to normalize on the island. Carl for his part was wringing his hands more than normal.
For his part, Sam Stone wasn't sure what to do but then his phone rang and the caller ID indicating it was Asset Tracking.
"This may be the answer we need," he remarked picking up the phone. "Go for Stone."
"So everything is back up and running and we got access to the logs again," Tracey informed the Head of Operations. "The nearest team on ground level and not at the Fortress is Alejandro and the Food Expeditionary Unit. But he recently reported that about three or four hours back a small group broke off headed in the direction of Mt. Watson. The team consisted of two members of the Safety Inspection Team: Richard Levine and Jack Thorne. Two members of the senior staff: Roberta Carter and Frances White. And four member of the Food Expeditionary Unit: Katrice Maken, Irene Vincent, May Hopkins, and Rebecca F-."
Sam dropped the phone at hearing that last part and it clamored hard against the oak wood of his desk.
"The Cats, I'd forgotten about the Cats," he said mortified not realizing that when Alejandro had spoken earlier just what direction that group had gone. The speaker on the other end was now calling his name trying to figure out what had happened and he hurriedly reached down and grabbed the receiver.
"Tracey, tell all the remote teams to keep in contact on 15 minute intervals in case anything changes," he began ominously. "Because at this moment we are officially at Pre-Alert Status for the Watson Protocols."
Carl's eyes bugged out at that but he realized it was the only sane precaution to take no matter the panic it might cause.
"Right now I am going there to find out what's going on. Until I come back, Daniela is in charge," Sam ordered and then hung up the phone. Now Daniela was left out of sorts as Sam grabbed his jacket and made for the door.
"Me in charge, I'm not ready yet to take over Sorna personnel. I'm not even entirely certain what all the Watson Protocols are," she protested. Sam shook his head in disagreement.
"Now's a good a time as any, I can't be here all the time," he pointed out as walked through the lobby and past Stephanie Sandelder who was getting a soda out of the vending machine. She watched him go but otherwise said nothing. The other employees in the area looked like they wanted to speak to him also; but seeing his determined face, they left him alone.
"But-,"
"Look, you'll do fine. Besides, InGen HQ in San Diego should already be aware of this situation and will be standing by if you need anything," Sam said trying to reassure her one last time before turning to Carl as he had no more time to deal with her unfound insecurities. "Get the boys and your things together and down to the garage. We leave in fifteen minutes."
Carl nodded and hurried off down the steps and across the moat as Sam gave Daniela a brave smile and then pulled his cap over his head and left the building towards the parking garage.
Daniela watched him go before turning around and seeing the looks of the workers on her. Summoning her courage, she put on her game face and marched right back to Sam's office to see about broadcasting the Watson Alert.
San Diego: "Well, this has certainly been an interesting conversation," Samantha Brown admitted leaning her head onto her hand. "Although I am not happy that your company has the embryo canister. That's the one loose end driving Ludlow up the wall back at HQ. It's also the smoking gun we would need to finally bring down Biosyn. It's not like John has any allegiance to them whatsoever and Jake and Henry assured me the damaged DNA strands were by and large useless. So then why does he need that can for so badly?"
Jeff Thomas and Cassandra Matula-neither of which identified themselves to Ms. Brown besides their first names could only sit in silence as they had no clue.
"And furthermore why does John care about trying to find a connection between Biosyn and us. Anything he uncover would likely be inadmissible in court anyway since it was all obtained illegally. Oh, the nerve of that man…"
But before she could continue any further, all three of their beepers went off. Looking down they saw their respective bosses calling them back to work. Jeff and Cassie looked a little white wondering about their page.
Samantha for part laughed lightly into the back of her hand at their reaction. "I wouldn't worry about him knowing about this. John's need for theatricality regarding his 'superior' knowledge would've had him surprising us here midway through our conversation. It sounds like that shaving cream can is driving most of his interest now for whatever reason."
The two nodded and then made plans to eventually meet up again and went their separate directions. Across the way at another table, Sarah and Jessica Harding watched them go.
"What was so interesting about them?" asked Jessica clueless as she noisily slurped down her remaining soda with her straw.
"I recognized the woman as Samantha Brown who is InGen's Head of Human Resources," Sarah told her, deep in thought about what they had witnessed. "I met her a couple years back when something bad happened where dad was working and things started to get hostile between the workers and corporate. Dad was recalled to San Diego a few times and I sometimes drove him to their HQ and either back home for the night or to the airport."
"Interesting," Jessica admitted. "I wonder who the other two were, they didn't seem to be InGen employees or job applicants."
"I don't know either. Good thing I got a photo of the three of them to add to our investigation wall," Sarah agreed as she chomped down on her burger.
The two of them had been at the restaurant to get a break from having come to a seeming dead end regarding Jurassic Park. Well, almost a dead end…
"So what did Nick have to say during your phone call with him?" asked Jessica curious. "Did he ask about me? Please say he did!"
Sarah groaned at hearing that and looked away embarrassed. Nick wasn't a creep by any means but the idea that her younger sister was now crushing on that fanatical cameraman wasn't something she enjoyed hearing. Especially since he had no problem admitting to her that he joined several environmental groups for less than noble reasons.
"Sorry but no, you're not on his radar," Sarah began intentionally trying to derail her sister's puppy love. "He told me through his contacts that Nublar is an island somewhere off the coast of Costa Rica and was once the home of a native tribe before InGen bought it from the government and forced the people off to build a resort. Nick's contacts protested it when they could but to little or no avail."
"Oh, that's too bad," said her younger sister disappointed at InGen's actions. She too had the calling for civil activism but so far it had only manifested in civil disobedience to her parents from time to time. "Still, something about that sounds familiar…"
"Well, it does give us a lead, though," Sarah began. "However small it might be. A couple months back, InGen apparently bailed on Nublar to parts unknown after whatever accident happened that you and dad got caught up in."
"So nothing on Sorna or Indigo?" Jessica questioned further finally giving up on squeezing out that last drop of soda in her cup.
Sarah shook her head. "Nick thinks-and I agree with him-that they are likely also islands somewhere in the mid to South Pacific. No idea where though."
"But if we start by finding out specifically where Nublar is," began Jessica excitedly. Sarah nodded her head also with an infectious grin.
"You're reading my mind," she said and both shared a hearty laugh before resuming their meal.
Vehicle Garage, Workers Village, Isla Sorna: Jennifer Flores was down in one of the bays still on her apprenticeship helping to rebuild an engine block. She was still no happier being down in the dark depths of the earth rather than above in the clear skies but at least working on something intensive helped to keep her mind off of her situation.
But she couldn't keep her mind off of the work being done in a nearby vehicle bay on one of the Nublar tour vehicles and gas powered Jeeps still with their Jurassic Park livery on them.
"So why are they repainting the Jungle Patrol and Bush Devil Tracker vehicles plus adding yellow safety netting to the windows?" the former female pilot had to ask. The vehicles normally had either green camouflage or red markings but now both vehicles were being repainted into an odd yellow and purple over the existing lines while yellow netting was also being added to the windows of the Jungle Patrol Explorer.
"First of all, we're now calling the tour vehicles the Jungle Explorers," began her supervisor as while the vehicles had been called the Jungle Explorers on Nublar and the Jungle Patrol vehicles on Sorna, the tour system imported from Nublar would currently only work with the name Jungle Explorer so best to keep things simple with the naming convention. "And as for why we're test painting these two, Hugh got the report about what went down on Nublar and from the sounds of things the camo pattern in the vehicles didn't do much to stop the T-Rex from chowing down on them. Maybe by painting them something completely bizarre it will throw off their natural instincts and they might avoid them. The netting is to better secure the glass and protect the occupants because the Rex also managed to smash its head through the sun roof of the Explorers, something we thought was impossible."
The vision of that caused Jennifer to shudder as she took her wrench and tightened another lug nut to try and focus on something else.
"Hey look, it's the big boss man," said another worker. All heads turned to see Sam Stone appear at the end of the ramp that led to their sublevel.
"C'mon, Jennifer, I need you to give me and the seismologists a lift," he ordered immediately from across the way.
For her part, all she could give him was a bewildered and annoyed look. "I'm not your chauffer," she declared indignantly while slightly scrunching up her face not caring who she was talking to. Going from pilot to vehicle mechanic was one thing but now to ferry people around…
Sam slightly rolled his eyes at her response. "It is when we're taking the helicopter," he clarified and then quickly motioned his hand to accompany her. "Now let's go!"
Jennifer didn't need to be told twice and immediately put away her tools and bolted for the ramp. It took all her self-control to not leave with a 'so longer, suckers!' to the rest of the mechanics because in her heart she knew she'd be right back here once whatever Sam needed was concluded. Best to savor her time in the skies as long as she could.
DImetrodon Pit, Isla Sorna: "Hi Gerry, sorry about the delay. Naturally we've been inundated with calls," said Tracey at Asset Tracking. That call over the radio came as a big relief to Dr. Harding, Marty, and the DRT Team who had just finished their sweep and found nothing of note. The Dimetrodons had remained completely visible and continued staring at Mt. Watson without making a noise which was still slightly unnerving.
"So what's going on?" Harding asked all business.
"Nothing good, I'm afraid," began Tracey wistfully. "According to Daniela St. Ives we're officially at Watson pre-alert status."
Gerry grimaced at that. "Oh, hell," he said knowing what that meant. "So where's Sam?"
"He left to go to see if that alert status level needs to be raised," was all Tracey could give him. That made Harding even more unhappy at the lack of information given how high the stakes now were. And Daniela now being in charge wasn't a good thing either. Not that he didn't think she was capable or qualified to manage an island's personnel, but that island and personnel weren't Sorna's and he had no idea how she'd react under this new pressure.
"Anything else you can tell me whether officially or unofficially?" he had to ask instead.
Tracey hesitated briefly. "No, not really."
Unfortunately for her, Gerry caught her hesitation.
"Tracey…," he warned. "I'm senior staff, I'll find out eventually."
Tracey sighed.
"The Gunsmith Cats might be involved," and with that she signed out. Upon hearing that, Harding's head dropped.
"Oh, why," he said in pain as he almost wanted to cry upon hearing that. Those three were persona non grata in his opinion and he couldn't figure out why Jake wanted them around and also why Sam hadn't put his foot down and thrown them off the island already. That the Lockdown would likely further prevent that made it responsible for yet another headache.
"So what's Watson pre-alert status?" asked Marty for his report and not about whomever the Cats were. That at least was a relief that Harding didn't have to explain them.
"It basically means get ready to run," Gerry said simply as he again looked over at the mountain in the distance which looked completely normal as any other day.
"And more realistically?" Marty continued, nonplussed at that answer. Gerry pursed his lips together as he considered his response.
"There are some bunkers on this island that are above ground rather than below ground. But neither one of them will likely fully protect you from an eruption. In the event of volcanic or seimic activity there's no way to run off this island and nowhere safe to stay. So if Watson goes off, hope and pray you survive long enough for the event to conclude and get rescued," Harding said matter of factly. Being suffocated by ash or being melted alive by molten lava left unsaid. Marty took that about as well as expected and wrote it down silently in his journal.
"Come on, let's go to the next pen," said Gerry waving towards the jeep. As he took one last look around, he noticed the Dimetrodons had vanished and whether that action was a good thing or a bad thing about the current state of events.
The Fortress, Site B: Jake Whitacre, Henry Wu, and Nicolette Stefrassa made their way through the private wing of the building that prior to this had only been the domain of Jake, Henry, and Dr. Graves. Nicolette for her part was taking in all of what she saw in case she was never allowed back here again.
And then she saw something on one of the tables that caused her to pause.
"C'mon, Nicolette, you can sightsee later," said Jake ahead of her seemingly answering if she'd be back or not. But the Head of Strategic Planning couldn't help herself as she picked up a framed photo off the desk.
The photo featured a group of twelve scientists to the right, thirteen support personnel to the left, but most surprisingly were two docile juvenile five-foot Tyrannosaurus Rexes amongst them all posing in front of the camera. Some scientists even had their hands on the dinosaurs or their arms wrapped around their necks seemingly completely without fear of the creatures who looked perfectly happy in the photograph.
Sitting on a wooden fence in the background and near the center of the photo were a younger Jake Whitacre and Henry Wu along with the enigmatic Doctor Gustavius Graves. To the left of the photo nearly buried amongst the support personnel was a younger Nicolette with an atypical but completely genuine smile tugging at her lips. Just barely visible at the far right edge of the photograph was a signpost that read "A-" but the rest was cut off.
Dead center between the two Tyrannosaurus Rexes was John Hammond in his white hat and outfit with both hands on his cane in front of him.
The caption on the photograph read top line: "InGen Dinosaur Revivification Project Team" and then on the second line: "John Hammond Wildlife Park, Kenya, January 1st, 1986."
When she returned her attention to Jake and Henry she saw them watching her appraisingly. They both knew what she was looking at.
"I'm surprised Hammond let you keep this," she admitted. "He seemed intent on destroying all the photos of those days and the original team."
That last bit caused Jake's jaw to clench as he looked at her intently.
"Out with it Whitacre," Nicolette ordered as she gently placed the picture back on its table not able to bring herself to look at him.
Jake shook his head refusing to bite. "We don't have time for this now, Watson could go at any minute. We have to leave."
Nicolette vehemently shook her head. "If you don't say what is on your mind now you'll keep holding it in and it will begin to negatively impact this collaboration."
"We can't dwell on the past," said Jake irate to her as his whole body was beginning to shake.
Nicolette finally eyed him coolly. "Then quite wasting my ti-."
"WHY WEREN'T YOU THERE?!" Jake shouted at her startling Henry with the sudden outburst. "You were supposed to be there. Hammond had ordered everyone to be there. Everyone said they would be there. He told us everyone was there. So why are you standing here?"
"BECAUSE I WAS THERE!" shouted Nicolette back at him, raising her voice for the first time that either Jake or Henry could recall causing them to realize how severe the situation was to her.
"I don't make friends easily or at all," Nicolette confessed as she smoothed the wrinkles in her vest and skirt to try and calm her nerves. "I hadn't been there for very long-just six months-but the DRP Support Team personnel managed to become my friends.
I'm not very good in social situations either as I'm sure you two are well aware. I don't like them, I don't think they serve any purpose, but I realize the importance of them to other people, so I either attend them reluctantly or not at all. But in this case, I was genuinely looking forward to that night. But I had to first overcome my nerves and apprehension and so I arrived late. I was almost out to the terrace when I heard the screams begin and so I blindly and foolishly ran out to see what was happening. And when I saw what I saw I did the only rational thing and I fainted. And that was the only thing that kept me alive.
When I came to after it was over and looked around at what had happened I made a promise to myself that I would never make friends with anyone ever again," Nicolette stated harshly with a steel glint in her eyes. "So don't lecture to me about that event, you don't have any right. I haven't forgotten it any more than you have. I'll never forget what happened."
That left an uncomfortable silence between the two and then Nicolette went on the offensive.
"Besides that, how could you continue with the project after that event?" she demanded in kind. Jake and Henry looked at her disgusted at that suggestion.
"How could we just walk away?" Henry asked bewildered. "After all the work we put into this project…that we all put into this project…we couldn't just throw all it in the garbage."
"It'd be an insult to those of us who worked on it," said Jake feeling defeated over that question. "Besides, you could've left…but you didn't."
Nicolette again looked away slightly ashamed.
"I suppose you're right," she conceded softly. "How could I after what I did that caused all this."
Jake finally cracked a grin at that despite the serious subject matter they were talking about. "Ah, but it's not what you did, it's what we did. So don't feel like you have to go it alone on this. We're now in this together you know."
That statement led Jake and Henry to finally reevaluate their opinions on Nicolette. They may never fully understand that woman's motivations or her actions but at least they finally got a glimpse below the surface of why she was the way she was.
And how it mirrored their own situation. Because while the personnel of Isla Sorna might think Jake and Henry were their friends, to a hidden degree the two scientists kept everyone away at a slight length. They just did a better job of hiding it than Nicolette. But she knew how they felt, there was no way after what had happened all those years ago that they could just dive back in amongst their new colleagues. And so Jake and Henry tipped their heads at her in acquiescence of both their outbursts earlier and the trio departed wordlessly for the Chute, putting the conversation behind them. They had all suffered in silence separately, but maybe now they could suffer in silence together.
Life may find a way. But so can death.