A/N: Please stay safe and healthy in regards to COVID-19.
Airfield. Isla Sorna: The repurposed Jungle Explorers were almost to a stop near the hanger when Jennifer Flores hopped out early and sprinted happily for the open hangar doors.
"Ooh, my baby, my baby!" she squealed at seeing the Sikorsky Helicopter again for the first time in forever. She'd meant to come more often but between being exhausted from her workload in the garage and that this part of the island was not part of the regular vehicle routes made that difficult. Reflecting more on it, she hadn't been out here since the Lockdown started.
"Yes, yes, you love your helicopter now let's get going," Sam Stone ordered, eager to be underway. Things were moving too quickly for his liking and he needed to get a firm grip on things before events really spiraled out of control.
Jennifer harrumphed at that. "We need to take our time with this. I have to go through the preflight checklists and make sure this bird wasn't somehow damaged after being bolted to the floor plus…"
Sam shook his head knowing she was stalling. "Kevin Saunders has been out here in the interim making sure everything is still flight worthy. He was just here with a maintenance team making sure the helicopter has enough fuel to get us to Mt. Watson and back."
That name gave Jennifer pause as she continued to silently wonder what had become of her fellow absentee pilot. Sam for his part refused to answer her unasked question. Or why he wasn't here as her copilot.
"You can do a brief inspection of the craft and an abridged preflight checklist but once the Seismology Team gets their gear aboard we're out of here," he stated firmly and then turned his back to her to help the others lug their gear from the Explorers.
Jennifer watched him go briefly before spinning around to make the most of her time with the chopper when her eyes fell on something nearby and she again found herself out of sorts.
"Hey how come these fuel drums says 'Huey' on them? This isn't a Huey!" she shouted back at Sam.
Sam stopped in his tracks and cursed inwardly that circumstances had resulted in that question.
"You know the maintenance teams who labelled those are helicopter clueless," he said trying to play it off but found himself internally sweating having to be in this situation. "Besides, helicopter fuel is helicopter fuel regardless, right?"
"I guess…," said Jennifer noncommittally still looking at the drums. What he said made sense but there was no way Kevin would make that kind of mistake by mislabeling the drums. What was going on here?
*Thud*
The sound of seismology equipment being dropped and subsequent shouts of pain from the team member whose toes it had unfortunately fallen on snapped her out of that line of questioning as she focused more on her present situation. But she promised to return to it later.
The Fortress, Mt. Watson: Laura Sorkin, David Banks, Lori Ruso, and Sheila Matula were still loafing around The Chute when the doors opened and Jake Whitacre, Henry Wu, and Nicolette Stefrassa finally breezed in.
"Where on earth have you three been?" demanded Lori irate. "We almost thought you were dead."
"Ah, we went for a walk," said Jake seemingly unconcerned about whatever had rocked Mt. Watson. Lori looked like she wanted to be more upset before she finally took stock of the situation and a chill came over her. Nicolette was now standing with the two scientists as if the duo and the solitary member had now become a trio. And all three of them looked beat up as if something bad had happened to them.
Lori was always trained in the art of observation and Nicolette's torn up nylons, skirt, and very raw palms were a definite red flag in her book. Jake looked like he was in pain around his abdomen area while Henry looked the best of three but definitely had a look of exhaustion on his face. What had happened to them?
"Well, it's just good to see you because I sure don't want to be left running the DRP team during the Lockdown," Laura quipped with a melodramatic flip of her hair.
"Venn and Chang would have your head," Henry had to agree. Laura immediately reared back upon hearing that. There had been professional friction between her and them ever since they started working on the Dinosaur Revivification Project. Laura's attempts to subvert the Lysine Contingency had only made things worse to barely concealed hostility.
"Oh, hell, they are regardless when I come back, aren't they?" she realized, pondering what to do about that. Jake, Henry, and Laura began to chuckle together at that while Nicollete finally noticed the scrutiny Lori was pouring on her and she slowly twisted her hands so her raw palms weren't so noticeable.
"So did you see what happened?" asked Sheila still curious about whatever had rocked the Fortress.
Jake lightly shrugged as he turned his attention towards the bullet capsule in the room. "Not really. Say, what are you all still doing here? I thought standard evacuation procedure was to use the Chute."
"We were waiting for the three of you," explained David Banks from his chair in front of the security cameras. "Then Sam called and said we could hold here for now."
Jake nodded his head as he stepped into the capsule and took a seat and looked around the place. He too had been part of the test crew that had ridden the first one. He'd thought it was a blast.
"Too bad, I know how much LoRu loves riding in these things. I bet now she's disappointed she didn't…," Jake began before looking startled as if noticing her for the first time. She was looking more and more pissed at him for his comment. "Oh, hey Lori. Do you still wanna go for a ride?" the scientist continued with an exaggerated smile on his face.
LoRu for her part walked silently over to David Banks where in addition to the security monitors was a launching station for the escape capsules.
"When that thing lands you in the deepest part of Hell, you tell them it was Ruso who sent you!" declared the Head of Production as she had to be lightly restrained from pressing the launch button as Jake laughed and laughed.
InGen Headquarters: Samantha Brown breezed into the Boardroom as Peter Ludlow and the rest of the InGen executives-minus Hammond-where observing video feeds and radio chatter from Sorna.
"Where have you been?" Ludlow inquired, somewhere between mildly curious and annoyed at her prolonged absence.
"I went to get a late lunch," Samantha replied curtly as if it was none of his business what she was up to as she took a seat. "So what's happened?"
Ludlow swallowed his feelings and returned his attention to the feeds. "There's been an explosion on Sorna but no idea what's caused it. Sam Stone is on the way to investigate it now."
Samantha nodded her head and immediately began jotting down notes about possible HR responses to the staff. While internally wondering if her ex-husband may have had something to do with it. Because if some disgruntled member of the island staff had done it…
And then R.B. Benton and Kelly Curtis burst unexpectedly into the room.
Sorna: The blue and silver Ingen-branded Sikorsky helicopter piloted by Jennifer tore low over the tree tops and rose over the occasional fence as it performed some light aerial maneuvers.
"Is there a reason for this?" asked Sam Stone curious from the copilots seat while trying to keep his lunch down.
"Just have to put her through her paces since she hasn't been in the air for so long," the female pilot replied, pleased to be in the air again. Sam refrained from telling her that pre-Lockdown the helicopter had often been on the ground longer than now and she hadn't done anything like this then. Looking at ground level he caught a glimpse of some workers making their way towards one of the underground bunkers. He then looked up and saw Mt. Watson looming ever closer and began consulting his map.
"Is there any possibility of landing us at the Fortress?" he asked. Jennifer shook her head.
"Because of the high winds up there it was hard enough landing this thing with Kevin onboard," said Jennifer still slightly miffed at his unknown whereabouts. "And even then we needed a crew on-site to anchor the chopper to the roof. I might be able to keep her steady if you wanted to jump out, but I wouldn't recommend it. And you can forget about offloading any cargo."
Packed up with the seismology team in the passenger cabin were several seismology instruments and other equipment.
"Fair enough," Sam conceded with a nod of his head. "Then in that case, do a sweep of the volcano and then make stops at tracking stations five, seven and eight. If we can find the source of the explosion drop me off there. Then you'll land at the exit point for the Chute so Carl can pull some information from the linkup with the Fortress and then stay on-call."
"You know, the last time I was left on-call almost by myself was when we investigated Nublar and a giant alligator attacked me," Jennifer pointed out, not relishing that encounter.
"You should be fine. There's an electric fence surrounding the compound and since it draws its power from the Fortress's geothermal vents it should ward off any unwanted visitors," said Sam unconcerned.
"Got it," Jennifer replied as she began to put the helicopter into a climb.
"So who is supposed to be up here anyway?" she said, trying to recall who had left the Garage to head to the Docks to then head up to Mt. Watson.
"Oh, nobody of importance," Sam responded dryly. "Jake, Henry, Lori, and some others. You know, just a good chunk of the senior staff who wouldn't be needed in the midst of a crisis. Course at last check Whitacre, Wu, and Stefrassa were unaccounted for."
Jennifer paused at hearing Jake's name mentioned. "Oh," was all she could say in response to that. And then the helicopter began sweeping the crater as in the back the seismology team pressed their faces against the glass and began snapping multiple photos and recording their observations.
And Jennifer too did her best to keep her apprehension down and keep a close watch in case she spotted anyone in or around the crater.
"Well at least the Fortress is still intact," she remarked as the helicopter flew over the black cylindrical building as part of its sweep. "They still have power."
"Try and get us a little lower so we can see the support struts," Sam requested as he peered through his binoculars to examine the critical stress points on the structure.
"I'll try but the winds are starting to pick up," Jennifer replied as she flipped some switches and toggles on the controls above her and was visibly seen starting to struggle with the stick.
"Just make it quick, I'll only need a moment," Sam promised her. "Then it's straight to lower heights."
"Aye-firmative," Jennifer replied as she popped her gum and hooked the helicopter around in the sky and began to slowly descend.
The Fortress was partially embedded into the volcano but the part that jutted out stood on heavy support pylons to keep the building level. The supports were also built to withstand rumblings from the volcano but Sam didn't want to take any chances with that jolt.
After a few moments of looking as best he could at the struts with the helicopter constantly shifting he signaled for them to move on.
"Movement on the ground. Can't stay long to view them, fuel concerns," Jennifer clinically pointed out. Sam whipped his binoculars around and saw Laura Sorkin and the others outside the main entrance to the Fortress waving at them and then breathed a sigh of relief seeing Jake, Henry, and Nicolette amongst them.
Jennifer tipped the sides of the helicopter to acknowledge them and then the disappeared from sight.
"Who were they?" asked Jennifer trying to sound curious and not concerned over that answer.
Sam told her and the female pilot find herself unable to hold in her sigh of relief at one particular name who had survived.
Sam meanwhile was too engrossed in his own thoughts to pay her much attention.
"I told them to stay in the Chute; does nobody listen to me anymore?" he opined rhetorically.
The helicopter flew on.
Biosyn, HQ, San Diego, California: Lewis Dodgson was sitting none too pleased in his office when Ed James and Howard King strode in.
"Problems Boss?" asked Howard as he swirled his coffee with a stick and plopped down in one of the chairs as Ed followed suit.
Dodgson waved his concerns off. "Oh, it's just that these idiots seem intent on blowing up their island and with it all their valuable genetics research."
"So what does that mean for us?" inquired Ed as he leaned forward in his chair, his hands clasped in front of his face.
Dodgson sighed as he rested his hand on his right hand. "Only that we may need to make a move sooner than I had anticipated. The problem is I am not entirely certain where this production island is."
That surprised Ed James ad evidenced on his face. "Nedry didn't tell you?" he asked.
"The fat bastard was holding out for more money until his untimely demise," scoffed Dodgson irked. "But he got what he deserved even if I didn't get the embryos like promised."
"So then what's the latest on PacPham?" asked Ed next cracking his knuckles eager to get back at them for Nublar even if things had still played out like Dodgson wanted.
To that Dodgson broke out into a grin. "My little birdy in their organization says Brown's team may be headed to out of the country soon. And I think we can gum up the works a bit for him there."
Laughter broke out amongst the trio.
InGen Headquarters: "Do we have no security in this place?" Ludlow complained at the unexpected arrival of the two teenagers.
"Well we used to have a secretary who would oversee access to this room until someone shipped her off to Sorna," pointed out a board member sardonically. Ludlow glowered over that but knew the advantages outweighed the disadvantages in this case.
"Just take a seat and be quiet!" he barked at the two children hoping that would calm them.
That just set them off.
"We want to talk to Mr. Levine and Dr. Thorne and make sure they're okay!" Kelly demanded yelling over Arby's request to access the island's mainframes to try and track down the investigation team.
Levine wanted to give her a flippant remark when he paused briefly and smiled which was something Samantha found off-putting.
"Actually, you might get the chance sooner than you expect," he began. He then turned to Samantha who was looking at him completely bewildered.
"We've put it off long enough. Now that we have the survivors' testimony on the Jurassic Park Incident it's time we finally moved on to current matters," he told her.
"Now we begin to find out how deep our competitors may have their roots in our organization. It is time to interrogate the members of Sites B and C."
Sorna: After having dropped most of the seismologists off at the various sensor monitoring posts, Jennifer swooped the helicopter in next to the blast site where Minnie May Hopkins could be seen waving at them. After pausing just long enough to make Sam was safely out, Jennifer then took off towards the Chute exit point.
Realizing his worst fears had been realized, he walked straight up to May in no mood for games. Standing in front of her with his hands shoved forcefully into his pockets he confronted her.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't…," he began when the young woman silently held up her hand to get his attention.
"How about five?" she asked with a cheery grin as she held up all the fingers on her left hand in front of her face for him to see. She then marched off without another word leaving Sam no choice but to catch up with her. This was not how he had expected things to go.
The resulting cave that had been blasted open got darker and darker and Sam's eyes struggled to adjust to the light levels. All he could see was a small light in the distance hanging high above the ground that looked like a lantern.
May abruptly stopped. "Oh, I forgot to mention to cover your ears because Katreece likes to have a good time with the…,"
TOOT! TOOT!
A deafening horn noise reverberated across the cave and Sam nearly dropped to his knees in pain. While May's last word had been drowned out the noise it was obvious what she had intended to use.
Getting back to his feet and hoping the ringing would go away he stumbled further down the cave until his eyes finally adjusted to the dark and what he saw gave him complete pause.
"Oh my God," he said in utter disbelief.
Sitting in the darkness was a black Steam Locomotive with attached tender, three full-sized passenger cars, and a smaller caboose at the back. The light having been the lantern on the front of the locomotive which somehow still worked. All around it were the members of the Site B inspection team and the group that had split from the Food Expeditionary Unit.
"Yeah, isn't she something?" asked Thorne pleased as he looked over the vintage train.
"It's no wonder we never found the thing being hidden in the mountain like this. I'm not expert but it looks remarkably well preserved," Frances White commented looking up at the smokestack.
Sam could only contemplate this new unexpected turn of events as the sun sank down past the horizon behind him. Another day ended on Sorna, another day closer to the fences failing.
San Diego, Pacific Pharmaceuticals Headquarters: Jeff and Cassie burst into their mission briefing room where Chip, Serena, and Lorne were already situated facing a desk, podium, and screen. John Brown was sitting lazily on the desk and was a little perturbed about the duo's lateness but he had more important fish to fry at the moment.
"Now that you're all here, we can begin," he declared standing up. He then walked to the podium and pressed the clicker and an image appeared of the opened Barbasol Shaving Cream Can they had retrieved at Jurassic Park appeared. It was open with the topper laying on the side and the embryos clearly visible underneath.
"The embryo canister has proven very illuminating in terms of the genetic structures contained in each embryo. Biosyn would have leapt quite a distance in terms of the genetics arms race against InGen had they initially acquired this unit from Nedry," he began.
Jeff Thomas couldn't figure out where this was going as while the purpose of acquiring the canister was to keep it out of Biosyn's hands, doing analysis of the DNA strands wasn't mentioned by John at any point prior to this as being a driving force behind retrieving it.
"But my fears have been confirmed, the refrigeration unit failed before we could get our hands on it. While being covered in mud did help somewhat, the strands have definitely become corrupted," John continued as he pressed the clicker again and several damaged DNA helixes were shown.
Jeff could no longer contain his concerns and his hand shot up.
"Umm, boss, I'm confused. I thought we went after the can to indict Biosyn not try and recreate dinosaurs," he had to ask regardless of the wrath he might incur for that question.
John gave him a slightly annoyed look out of the corner of his eye.
"We are still doing that. I've got Lorne looking into where this can was purchased and by whom. Chip and Serena are investigating the embryo container and who could have modified the can this way. Which you would know if you weren't taking off for who knows where," chastised John before he waved off the whole matter with a flick of his hand.
"The point is, is that in order for me to keep working I need a complete DNA strand," continued the Executive as he clicked the button again and an animation appeared of a complete strand appearing below the damaged strain and lines appearing connecting the strands as the new strand drawn over and used to repair the damage in the old strand. Until finally both strands looked identical. Jeff noted that he hadn't fully answered his question about the need for a complete DNA strand.
"So what, we knock off an InGen computer server somewhere?" asked Lorne amused by that concept. John snorted at that.
"If only it were that easy," he said softly before becoming focused again. "No, I'm afraid the data I am looking for wouldn't be on any old networked server we could get access to. I don't even think it would be online accessible at all.
"No for this, I need something very important. I need a dinosaur. A live dinosaur. One in particular."
Another click an image of a Velociraptor appeared amongst trees in a jungle.
That took the team aback by the request.
"So we are going back to that Site B place?" asked Cassie with narrowed eyes not entirely sure she liked that idea of being back there so soon. If she went back, she was sure her sister would blow her cover with no second thoughts to her safety.
"Look again," was all John said in response to that, his voice grave.
The image had an identifier on it in the bottom right hand corner.
The photo had been taken only the week prior in Costa Rica.