Adios Amigos
Hammond sighed behind his oxygen mask as he and the others held out in the bunker containing gas canisters. He didn't tell anyone that over the past few minutes, he had been laboring to breathe. They wouldn't care anyway, the contemptuous bastards. After all the years of work that had been put into this park, BioSyn had ruined it all. Damn Dodgson. Damn them all.
Struck by inspiration, he got up and headed towards the bunker's door. Ignoring the pleas of the bunker's other current residents, he walked out, slamming the door behind him. He would go to his Japanese rock garden, in his bungalow's compound. He would rest there. Should he die there, he would be at peace.
He walked towards his bungalow.
"Crazy goof! Where the heck does he think he's going!" yelled Grant.
"He's always told us that he would like to die in the park. Maybe he's going for one last look," suggested Ray Arnold, throwing the room into silence. Hammond might have been a stubborn, ignorant person, but the way he had apparently chosen to spend his final hours somehow felt heart-wrenching to them.
Hammond finally reached his rock garden. Wheezing heavily, he sat down on a granite garden bench. Looking around, he didn't see the knocked-out dinosaurs the way he normally did. Instead, he felt as though he was a little child, on his first trip to a zoo, seeing unknown animals. As he got up on shaky legs to inspect an unconscious Procompsognathus, his eyes begin to fill with tears. He took a look at his beautifully landscaped rock garden, and the several unconscious dinosaurs lying around. They all suddenly seemed so dear to him.
As John Hammond sat down next to a Koi pond to rest, his last thought from his now oxygen-deprived brain was, 'I'll miss you all.'
Nedry, on the other hand, was walking at a leisurely pace towards Hammond's private helipad. He wasn't in a rush now. In fact, he thought, in about a mere hour, he would be flying away from Jurassic Park. Hammond and the others could kiss his ass and die here.
He was startled by the roaring of an Utahraptor, which then lumbered to a stop right in front of him. Falling over backwards in his haste to turn tail and run, Nedry's last thought was, 'Goddamn lizard!'
Back in the bunker, Arnold was trying to get a computerized map of the park on-screen. Finally succeeding, he quickly scanned it and found what he was looking for.
"Everyone, listen!" he called out, getting the other's attention, "I've found the backup computer center."
"Where is it?" asked Ellie.
"Probably near the Brachiosaur lake. No risk of them damaging the underground complex," replied Muldoon.
"Yeah, it's there. It also has its own ventilation systems, with an electrified airlock entrance," added Arnold, nodding his head.
Slowly leaving the bunker, they quickly walked towards the other computer center, which turned out to be just around 5 minutes away from the main complex. Upon arriving there, they literally breathed easier, with the room's ventilation systems providing an internal, knockout gas-free air supply, enabling them to remove their masks.
"OK! Lets check out these files," said Arnold, sitting down in front of a computer. Tapping several keys, he brought up a screen, with various toolbars and links. Selecting a link which was labeled animals, he keyed in several commands, and came up with the motion sensor counts;
Species : 29
Dinosaurs-
Expected
Found
Allosaurus
2
2
Amargasaurus
16
0
Ankylosaurus
9
0
Apatosaurus
11
9
Brachiosaurus
11
10
Carnotaurus
10
0
Deinonychus
13
10
Dilophosaurus
8
0
Dimetrodon
15
0
Gallimimus
15
0
Hadrosaurus
18
0
Hypsilophodont
13
0
Maiasaura
13
0
Mamenchisaurus
8
3
Metriacanthosaurus
18
0
Microceratops
23
0
Othnielia
11
0
Pachycephalosaurus
16
13
Parasaurolophus
19
0
Procompsognathid
69
0
Pterodactyl
25
25
Skybax
8
8
Spinosaurus
3
2
Stegosaurus
16
0
Styracosaurus
13
0
Triceratops
14
0
Tyrannosaurus Rex
2
0
Utahraptor
4
1
Velociraptor
6
0
Total:
Species: 29/ 29
Dinosaurs: 83/ 409
"Holy shit! How did so many dinosaurs die so fast!" exclaimed Grant, his eyes bugging out in shock.
"They didn't die. Well, some probably did, but it is likely that they're knocked out and are not moving, and hence are not countable by the motion sensors," explained Muldoon.
Arnold nodded, "Yup. The flying dinosaurs are at a higher elevation, so they are still up and running."
Ellie pointed a finger towards the screen, "Why are all the Pachycephalosaurs awake?"
Grant looked up and grinned, "It looks like my adrenal theory was correct."
Grant then explained further, noting the other's blank looks, "I theorized that Pachycephalosaurus was a dinosaur with extremely active adrenal glands, meaning that they would be severely hyperactive. Put them on screen and you'll see what I mean."
Arnold put images of the Pachys on the screen, and they all saw the Pachys fidgeting frequently even while knocked out. He then glanced at a reminder icon which appeared at the bottom of the screen, "Hmm, what's this?"
Clicking on it, a program link to Wu's laboratory Cray supercomputers opened, displaying some information;
ORGANISM Gastonia Burgei
Animalia; Vertebraeta; Dinosauria; Theropoda; Ankylosauria.
Specimen Supervisor: Henry Wu
DNA sequence gaps:
GEOCHELONE SULCATA
MACROCLEMYS TEMNICKII
CUORA AMBOINENSIS
Notes: 1-Containment area breached. Organism loose within laboratory complex.
2-Organism is NOT lysine deficient.
ORGANISM Suchomimus Tenerensis
Animalia; Vertebraeta; Dinosauria; Theropoda; Spinosauria
DNA sequence gaps:
CHAMAELEO PARSONII
CHAMAELEO CALYPTRATUS
CHAMAELEO JACKSONII
Notes: 1-Containment area breached. Organism loose within hydroelectric facility.
2-Organism is NOT lysine deficient.
ORGANISM Therizinosaurus Cheloniformins
Animalia; Verterbraeta; Dinosauria; Theropoda; Therizinosauria
DNA sequence gaps:
VELOCIRAPTOR MONGOLIENSIS
SPINOSAURUS AEGYPTICUS
PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS WYOMINGENSIS
TRICERATOPS SERRATUS
Notes: 1- Containment area breached. Organism loose within park sewage systems.
2- Organism is NOT lysine deficient.
3- Organism is hormonally unstable.
Grant stared at the screen, "Therizinosaurus! That's something I want to see!"
"Why?" asked Ellie.
"Paleontologists are still speculating whether or not Therizinosaurus was aquatic, terrestrial, or amphibious. This is probably the first Therizinosaurus in history to be studied alive!" replied Grant happily.
"Honey, all the dinosaurs in the park are the first to be studied alive," said Ellie.
"Did'ya just call me honey!" asked Grant.
"I see a problem though," said Muldoon, ignoring Grant and Ellie,"I ain't no geneticist, but I'm guessing that the scientific names under 'DNA sequence gaps are referring to the DNA used to fill in the sequence gaps?" He turned to Arnold, who shrugged.
"Highly probable, but if that's the case, then why are FOUR dinosaurs listed under Therizin-gizmo whatever?" asked Arnold.
Muldoon's face darkened, "Get Lori Ruso on the phone. I've got a feeling one of Wu's projects isn't a single dinosaur species by itself.
Lori Ruso was writing her reports on the recent hurricane that had hit Isla Sorna, and which had killed an Apatosaurus when a tree impaled its side. That had been one huge body to dispose of, she thought with a shudder. The Procompsognathids were working overtime! The phone rang.
Irritated, she picked it up, "Ruso here… Oh, it's you, Muldoon…. Oh, my God! They got loose! Aha…. WU DID WHAT!" She shouted into the phone. Not that she was against the using of modern animal DNA to fill in sequence gaps, but Wu had broken the limits of the word 'Modern animal'. Cross-breeding dinosaurs to make another dinosaur? Simply, extremely, unethical!
"Grr! Damn Wu! I'll get Burton," she said, putting them on hold.
Muldoon shuddered, all the way back on Isla Nublar, "Remind me never to cross swords with Lori Ruso."
"Hah! The last time you shouted at her, she broke your nose, remember?" said Arnold, smirking.
A deep basso voice was heard calling out from the phone's receiver, "Hello? Muldoon, ya sawannabeech, pickup!"
Snatching up the phone, Muldoon quickly replied, "Burton? What have you got on 'Therizinosaurus'?"
Burton sounded impressed, "You actually were close to pronouncing it right; it's THAIR-EE-ZEE-NO-SOR-USS. I assume that it's amphibious, and omnivorous. I would also advise you to kill it with one shot. Lori mentioned that you mentioned hormonal instabilities."
"Thanks, Burton. Remind me to improve my grammar when I meet you again," said Muldoon, grabbing his gun.
Looking around, he issued orders, while loading his shotgun, "Ellie, stay here and assist Arnold. Grant, you come with me. Take that buffalo rifle in that closet over there. It's safari time."