Ch 2:
During the springtime, Isla Nublar was hot and relatively muggy. Of course, this was only Sierra's fourth day actually living on the island, so she didn't personally know what it was like year-round.
Driving a four-wheeler through the jungle paths helped a bit, giving the illusion of a breeze. And it wasn't as if she was a stranger to the heat and humidity; she'd lived in Arizona for a few years, after all.
She was currently taking the same path Owen had showed her a couple days ago. She'd finished off her first day with her tutor and was supposed to meet Owen at the research lab he worked at. He'd given her a brief tour of the place over the weekend, and he'd given her a VIP pass to let everyone know she wasn't just a tourist and could have access to just about any place on the island.
She finally broke through the trees of the jungle to come out in a large clearing near the edge of a cliff. But the clearing wasn't empty or quiet. There were cars, jeeps, and some construction vehicles. Right in the center of the clearing was a nearly-complete building. It was a huge, mostly-concrete, octagonal-shaped paddock with metal walkways forming a cross over the middle of the area inside. There was also a storage shed near the trees and a small building that she knew was a science lab across the clearing.
Sierra parked her four-wheeler next to the lab, shouldering her backpack as she dismounted the vehicle. She was still mildly-hesitant as she walked in the front door of the lab, not used to be allowed to go places that were so top-secret. Especially now that Owen wasn't with her.
But no one stopped her as she stepped inside, going down a hallway in search of her brother.
On one side of the hall, she looked into the glass to see some scientists looking over computer screens and vials of something. She watched curiously for a moment, taking note of one man who seemed to hold himself with…maybe not arrogance, but she could certainly tell he was somehow in charge. He was of Chinese descent with black, graying hair that was combed to the side.
She watched them for a moment before continuing on. She finally found her brother in a small office-like lab on her right. She cracked the glass door open and lightly knocked on it. Owen looked up from the computer he'd been staring at, a notebook in his lap with a pencil in hand.
"Oh. Hey." Owen greeted her, glancing at the clock on the wall nearby. "Sorry, I didn't realize how late it was."
"It's not that late." Sierra countered, stepping further into the room and pulling a chair up next to his. "I got done a bit early for my first day. My tutor just wanted to give me a bunch of quizzes to check where I'm at before jumping into anything."
Owen nodded. "Smart. So it went okay?"
Sierra nodded, her eyes moving to the computer screen. There was a paused video clip of Velociraptors. The video looked older and grainy, though not quite poor-quality. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously.
"The same thing I've been doing for the past few months." Owen admitted, clicking play to let the video continue. When it started playing again it showed a raptor in a paddock. It ran at the cage bars, resulting in an obvious electric shock from what was apparently an electric fence. It made Sierra flinch slightly. A few moments later a second raptor flew out of the bushes and leapt at the fence several feet away, while a third, bigger raptor watched on.
"Why are they doing that?" she asked curiously.
"This is video footage of the first raptor pack from the original park." Owen explained, making a note in his notebook. "They were beyond intelligent. It was documented way back then, but I wanted to see it for myself. They're testing the fence here." he explained, pointing with his pencil at the video. "They're looking for weak spots in the fence. And it was proven with this video footage that they never tested the same spot twice."
"That's…that's incredible." Sierra whispered, a few different words coming to mind. It was also mildly terrifying. "Are these also the same raptors that…basically were part of the whole downfall of the original park?"
"Well, it's not like it was their fault everything went to hell." Owen countered, to which Sierra nodded. "But they did attack and hunt down a lot of the people back then, yeah."
"So, they want to make more raptors?"
"Yeah, but it's also part of a research project to study their intelligence." Owen explained. "All past raptors, this pack especially," he gestured to the video, which had moved on to the next clip of the raptors, "proved to have high levels of intelligence. InGen wants to see if that means they could follow orders, as well."
Sierra narrowed her eyes a bit, glancing at him. "So, they want a deadly, intelligent creature to obey orders?" she repeated warily.
Owen pursed his lips, eyes still fixed on the computer screen. "Yeah. I'll admit, I don't really like their end goal. They'd like to try and use them in war. But the idea does fascinate me. And if I don't do it, they'll find someone else who will."
Sierra nodded in agreement. "So, is that what they're doing down the hall? I saw some scientists discussing something."
"Yeah, they're putting together the final details on what they want in these raptors."
"What do you mean?" Sierra asked, confused.
"Well, all the dinosaurs on the island are created with dino DNA, but the holes are filled with the DNA of other animals."
"Like frogs in the original park?" Sierra guessed.
"Yeah. Since then they've made changes, experimented with different kinds of DNA and different animals. With this pack of raptors they're trying a few different sources of DNA with each raptor. I think Dr. Wu mentioned using monitor lizard, iguana, and even bird DNA."
"So, they want to see how that might affect their looks or behavior?" she asked.
"Pretty much, yeah." Owen agreed. "They're also doing a few other things, but it's partially confidential."
Sierra nodded, though she didn't completely understand. If her brother was going to be working with these animals, she would think he should be allowed to know all these things. If nothing else, than as a safety concern.
"So, are you going to be doing anything specific for this project? Like to get the raptors to hopefully listen to you?"
"Well, I'm keeping a partially open mind to a lot for right now, but there are definitely a few things I know I'm going to do differently from the handlers before. For one, I want all the raptors to imprint on me."
"Imprint?" Sierra asked, having heard the word but having no clue what it meant.
"Yeah, like baby birds all the baby dinosaurs in the park imprint on the first thing they see. So, basically when they hatch, the first thing they see, they think is their mother." Owen explained.
"So, they'll see you when they hatch and hopefully think you're their mom."
"Essentially. And hopefully as they grow older that will evolve into seeing me as their Alpha. But for now, this is all hypothetical. I have hopes it will work, but I don't think it will be as simple or clean-cut as they all hope."
"Like they're not just going to blindly obey orders." Sierra summed up.
"Exactly."
"Think it'll be like all those movies about artificial intelligence? Where computers and things get so smart they decide they don't want to take orders, and start an uprising? Like the robot in The Incredibles?" she asked with a smirk.
Owen snorted, shaking his head in amusement. "That's what we're going to try and avoid, but that's always a possibility. I'm going to try and take steps that will hopefully keep that from happening."
"Like?" Sierra urged curiously, scooting to the edge of her seat unconsciously.
"A big one is letting them hunt." Owen admitted. "Another mistake the first park made. They fed them live animals. Fed. That even lead to employees being attacked, because the raptors would remember the times and locations that employees would bring the food into the pen. Raptors are highly intelligent pack hunters. They want to hunt, not be fed like a pet dog. And I think letting and encouraging them to hunt would also encourage their pack behavior and give them a form of enrichment. Otherwise we risk them getting bored and using that problem-solving intelligence against us."
"Like the first pack testing the fence." Sierra noted.
"Exactly." Owen agreed.
"Well, looks like you've already figured out more than the people from the first park." Sierra grinned. "Do you know when they're going to make the raptors? And how many there will be?"
"They're finishing up the details now; they'll probably fertilize the eggs within the next couple weeks. And they want to start with a smaller pack, like four or something. But I think Dr. Wu mentioned it being…like a science experiment. You know, with each one having different variables. Like how they're using some avian DNA in one of the raptors. So they can kinda observe if that has any effect on anything. But anyway, they'll probably fertilize the eggs soon, and there's about a three month incubation before they hatch."
"So, they'll probably hatch sometimes in mid-to-late summer." Sierra guessed.
"Yeah, about then." Owen agreed before snapping his journal shut. "But anyway, I'm starving and my back is starting to hurt from hunching over this computer all day. How about we grab something to eat?"
"You sure your back hurting isn't because you're getting old?" she teased as she stood up. Without looking, Owen promptly reached over and shoved her shoulder, making her stagger back a step and laugh almost hysterically.
Owen closed up his computer and lab before they headed out for dinner, debating going to Winston's Steakhouse or Dave and Busters for dinner.
