Ch 4:
Sierra's feet slid on the smooth, marble floor when she tried to make the sharp turn from the hallway into Owen's office. Her hand caught the open doorway, helping to practically slingshot her into the empty room. The motion-sensor lights came on when she entered, and she ran across the room to the file cabinet. She pulled open one of the drawers and leafed through the files until she found the four files she was looking for, making her grin at the labels.
Blue. Charlie. Delta. Echo.
Flashback
"We really should name them." Sierra pointed out from where she sat on a large crate, video camera in hand as she filmed Owen working with the four baby raptors. They were nearly two months old and had practically double in size since they hatched, about the same size as a Chihuahua. All four had small colored bracelets on their wrists to help tell them apart, even though Owen and Sierra could do so without the bracelets.
"Yeah." Owen sighed, tossing a piece of venison to the small pack. The largest raptor leapt almost two feet into the air to snatch it up. They weren't privy to which raptor had which DNA, but they were fairly certain the biggest one is the one with avian DNA, given how she acted and moved. "I was thinking that last night."
"Any ideas?" Sierra asked, turning the camera to watch as two raptors started playing tug-of-war with a rubber ball, one of the many dog toys littering the nursery. It was a fairly large room with concrete walls and a metal grate for a floor. When Owen had first seen it, he informed whoever was in charge that he would be making some serious changes to it before the raptors hatched. So the two siblings had covered the floor with hay and leaves, brought in some small trees and rocks, and lots of toys for enrichment, mostly rubber dog toys and balls, some of which they put food inside of so the raptors had to at least look for the food before they started learning to hunt. "And if you recommend something stupid like Fluffy or Yoshi, I will throw this Kong at your head." she added, lifting the red rubber dog toy sitting on the crate next to her leg.
Owen smirked at her before sticking his tongue out at her. "You're the one more likely to name one of them Fluffy, or Buckbeak or whatever that things' name was in that Harry Potter movie." Owen pointed out. "What was your goldfish's name again? Dorothy, like Elmo's fish in Sesame Street?" his smirk widened after pretending to think about it.
Sierra snapped the video camera shut, cutting off the recording to pretend-glare at her brother. "First of all, I was six when I had that fish. Second of all, if I was to name one of them after a Harry Potter character, I'd pick Hedwig. Now, have you thought of any names or not?"
"Not really." Owen admitted, watching the four run around and play fight. He'd been focusing mostly on bonding with them and a few minor commands while they were this young, but soon he'd need to start working with them on more serious training.
"Well,…name them something no one else here would think of." Sierra suggested slowly, eyes following the two youngest as they chased each other around the rocks. "You were picked for this job not because you're a scientist,…but because you're an animal behaviorist."
"What kind of names would I get from that?" Owen frowned in confusion, seeming to think for a moment. "Wait…I was also picked because of my work with the Navy. What about the NATO Phonetic Alphabet?"
Sierra tilted her head slightly. "Remind me how that goes again?" she asked. She only remembered a few of the letters.
"Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, and so on." Owen listed, rolling his hand to indicate that it went on past that.
Sierra blinked rapidly. "Well,…that kinda reminds me of wolves. You know, wolf packs have an Alpha, Beta, and Omegas, and you've used those terms talking about the raptors before. And you're supposed to be the Alpha, so…"
"So, maybe whoever we think is the Beta would be Bravo, then Charlie, Delta, and Echo?" Owen guessed, to which Sierra grimaced a bit.
"Maybe not Bravo." Sierra disagreed, her eyes following the raptors again. The obvious two when it came to who would be Beta were the first to hatch, the blue one with the blue bracelet, and the bigger second-born, which had a yellow bracelet. She blinked. Blue one. "What about Blue?"
Owen followed her gaze to the two oldest who were tugging on the same ball. As if sensing she was the topic of their conversation, the blue one let go of the ball, allowing her sister to run off with it, before turning to look up at Owen with a tilted head. She chittered at him before running off to play.
Owen nodded decisively, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Okay. She's Blue. So that leaves the other three."
"But we have no way of knowing for sure who's going to end up in what position." Sierra pointed out. "I mean, the biggest one seems obvious to be Blue's second in command, but we don't know for certain. And after the Alpha and Beta positions, there's not really any specified positions in most packs, just Omegas."
"We could go by age." Owen suggested. "Which would make it,…Charlie, Delta, Echo." he stated, pointing first at the big one, the brown and blue one with the white bracelet, and finally the green one with the green bracelet.
"We could…" Sierra agreed hesitantly. Owen gave her a knowing glance.
"Or?" he urged.
Sierra chewed her lip before pulling her cell from her back pocket. "Give me five minutes."
She spent those five minutes falling down yet another rabbit hole as she searched the internet for every possible meaning or connection to the names Charlie, Delta, and Echo.
It seemed like only a few minutes had passed before Owen sat next to her on the crate, tossing another piece of venison jerky to the raptors. "Your five minutes ended five minutes ago." he joked, nudging her with his elbow.
Her head popped up. "Oh. Sorry. Anyway, um…So Charlie can mean 'free' or 'warrior', and the letter C is also linked with luck because it's shaped like a horseshoe."
Owen stared at her in amusement, which she ignored as she kept talking.
"Delta means fourth born, because it's the fourth letter in the NATO alphabet. I guess it also means 'change' in math. And it's also the word for a piece of land that forms as rivers empty their sediment into another body of water." she explained, brows furrowed in mild confusion. She still didn't completely understand that one.
"And Echo,…obviously an echo is reverberating sound, like when you yell something and your voice bounces back at you. It's also the name of a nymph in Greek mythology that had a speech impediment, so she could only repeat what others said."
She looked over at Owen dubiously. "Did that help at all?"
Owen tilted his head, studying the three unnamed raptors as they all played and ran around.
"Well,…the youngest one," he pointed at the green one with black stripes, "she was lucky to make it, remember? She almost couldn't make it out of the egg on her own, but she did. She has to be a little fighter, right? Think she's a Charlie?"
Sierra found herself smiling as she watched the little green one clamber up a rock only to jump off it on top of one of her sisters. Charlie.
She nodded definitively. "Yeah. Charlie."
"And I think I know which should be Delta and Echo." Owen decided, his eyes focused on the last two. "The big one, she's different from the other three. She's bulkier, the way she moves and acts make us both pretty certain she's the one with the avian DNA, and she's got those nodules in front of her eyes, which the other three don't have. So, that kinda fits the 'change' aspect of the name Delta."
Sierra nodded in agreement. "And the last one likes to mimic Blue sometimes, remember?" she pointed out, which Owen had mentioned a couple days ago during a session with the raptors. "So, she could be Echo."
"Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo."
End of Flashback
That had been almost a month ago, and the raptors were nearing three months old. It was now October and Sierra was back to working with her tutor every weekday, so Owen didn't want her working with the raptors instead of focusing on school. So, Sierra worked extra hard with her tutor to ensure she didn't get very much homework each day, so Owen had little to no reason to keep her from helping with the raptors. She was even slightly ahead in her schooling, so Owen allowed her to help out on weekends and a few evenings during the week.
The raptors had grown a bit in the last month. They were also now able to hunt small animals on their own, like lizards and rats. For the last week, Owen had been trying to get them to hunt and work as a pack.
And today they might have hit a milestone.
Sierra still couldn't believe it. She might have to re-watch the video just to be sure.
She'd been sitting on the crate, videotaping while Owen tried to train the four raptors. They'd been ridiculously hyper today, and Sierra could tell her brother was getting mildly frustrated with them. He'd been trying to get their attention, but all of them were too busy playing to even pay him any mind.
Except for Blue.
Owen had been standing in the middle of the nursery, bag of treats on his waist and a few in his hand as he tried and failed to get their attention. Blue had seemed to study Owen for a second, probably realized he had food and wanted their attention, before calling to her sisters. It took just a few squawks from Blue and suddenly the other three dropped what they were doing and fell into line alongside her, all looking intently up at Owen for instruction.
The absolute shock and awe on Owen's face when Sierra turned the camera to him probably match her own.
Which is why she was rushing to get the raptors' files so they could quickly document everything that happened while it was fresh in their minds.
With the four files held close to her chest, Sierra spun around and raced back out of the office and into the hallway-
Only to smack right into someone else, sending the files to the floor.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!"
"Excuse me."
Sierra spoke at the same moment as the woman she'd bumped into, and she glanced guiltily up at the stranger.
The woman was looking down at Sierra with clear disapproval in her green eyes, her red hair perfectly straight and parted down the middle to her shoulders. She was wearing a crisp business suit with a pencil skirt, not a single wrinkle in sight. She appeared to be just a couple inches shorter than Owen, maybe close to six feet, but that might have been the killer heels she was wearing.
"Sorry." Sierra repeated, quickly ducking down to scoop up the files and hold them to her chest like a shield. "I didn't realize anyone else was here-"
"Obviously." the woman cut in. "What are you doing here? This isn't part of the park, it's a research center. How did you get in here?"
"Um-" Sierra stammered, unsure for a moment how to answer. "Well, I'm, um-"
"What's going on?" Owen's voice interrupted as he came from behind the woman down the hall, coming from the direction of the nursery. He still had the treat bag on his hip and was unbuckling the leather guard from his forearm.
"Mr. Grady." the woman turned slightly so she could face them both as Owen came to stand next to Sierra.
"Pretty sure I've told you to call me Owen, Claire." Owen reminded her with a small smirk, making Sierra sure the two knew each other. "Mr. Grady is my father, and I try not to be him." He said it in a joking tone, but Sierra knew just how serious that statement was. He held his hand out for a handshake, which 'Claire' reluctantly accepted.
"Fine, Owen." this Claire person acknowledged before dropping his hand and clasping her hands together in front of her in a professional stance. "Care to explain to me why there's a child in the raptor research center?"
"Oh. This is Sierra. Sierra, this is Claire Dearing, the park's operations manager." Owen introduced them, waving his hand between them. Out of reflex, Sierra shuffled the files into one arm to offer her free hand to Claire for a handshake. The redhead seemed to study her for a second before accepting the handshake.
"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Dearing." Sierra told her in her most polite voice.
"You as well, but that still doesn't explain why a child is in this building." Claire went on, turning her attention back to Owen expectantly. Sierra felt thoroughly dismissed and shifted awkwardly on her feet.
"I'm surprised Masrani hasn't told you. But he basically gave permission for Sierra to help me out around here. She's too young for it be official in any capacity, but he still gave his okay." Owen explained.
"No, Mr. Masrani hasn't informed me of any such decision, and I will be following up with him on that." Claire informed him promptly. "But do you really think having your daughter-"
"Excuse me-?" Owen practically choked. "Daughter? I'm sorry, how old do you think I am? I'm only fifteen years older than her."
Claire blinked, looking temporarily surprised. "My apologies, I was told you had a child living on the island, and-"
"Whoa, okay, back up here." Owen waved his hands in front of them, and Claire looked mildly annoyed at being interrupted again. "Someone must have given you some incomplete info here. I don't have any children."
"I was told you had some custody battle that-"
"Sierra is my little sister." Owen cut in. "The custody battle was me taking custody of her away from her parents." Sierra awkwardly looked down at her feet. "She wasn't in a good situation with them." Owen explained quietly.
There was a long silence. Sierra felt like it stretched on much longer than necessary, but it was probably only a few moments.
"I see." Claire finally spoke, keeping her tone professional. "My apologies for making assumptions. Back to why I'm here in the first place; Mr. Masrani would like an update on the raptors."
"Well, perfect timing." Owen answered lightly, happy to move past the personal issues. "We actually just had a bit of a breakthrough. Sierra caught it on video if you want to take a look. She was just grabbing the files so we could make notes while the occurrence was still fresh." Owen waved them back into his office, which Sierra had just been running out of. Sierra avoided eye contact with Claire as she followed her brother to his desk. He hooked the old video camera Sierra had been using to his laptop and with a few keystrokes, he had the video clip pulled up to play. He fast-forwarded through most of the clip, explaining, "They weren't being very cooperative for most of the session today. Kinda like preschoolers, they sometimes get bored and don't want to listen to me."
Sierra tried to smother a grin, setting the files on the desk next to Owen's laptop. Claire was standing just behind his chair, watching the computer over his shoulder.
"Then, this happened just at the end of the session." Owen announced before hitting play on the video. Sierra found herself leaning a bit closer and watching the footage intently for what she may have missed while filming it.
"Okay, okay." Owen's voice called on the video. Charlie, Echo, and Delta were too busy running around and playing to pay him any attention. Echo was trying to destroy a red ball, while Charlie and Delta were fighting over a white rubber ball. Blue was the only one not playing. Her bright, amber eyes were fixed intently up on Owen, her head tilted curiously. She tried chittering at her sisters a couple times, as if trying to tell them, "Hey, look, Dad has food." When that didn't seem to work, she finally gave a louder call, more like a squawk, and almost instantly her sisters dropped what they were doing. They ran up and fell into line at Blue's side, though she was still a half-step ahead of them, as if they were instinctively acknowledging her rank.
Sierra was aware of Owen reflexively backing up in the video, as if thinking they were going to attack. But Sierra was focused mostly on the raptors interaction in the video. She watched how Blue turned to her left and chittered at Echo before turning to her right to chitter at Charlie and Delta. All three turned to Blue to acknowledge her, as if communicating, as if they understood what Blue was telling them.
Then, all four raptors looked up at Owen, straightening their backs as they stood at attention. Sierra, in her shock, had turned the camera to see Owen's shocked reaction.
Owen stopped the video, sitting back in the chair to turn and look up at Claire, who looked as if she was trying to hide her amazement.
"That's-" Claire cleared her throat, "that's impressive. That's the first time that's happened?"
"It's a step in the right direction." Owen corrected. "I've seen them communicate, but not to this level before. It could also be a precursor to the pack's future hierarchy."
"How so?" Claire asked, actually seeming interested.
"Well, the other three were content to ignore me and keep playing, but Blue got them all in line almost instantly. If I had a guess, Blue's likely to be the Beta of the pack when they get older."
"Beta. Why not Alpha?" Claire asked, surprising Sierra at her knowledge of the terms.
"Because I'm Alpha." Owen explained. "Granted, while they might see me as a leader, they'll also need one of their own kind to look to as a leader, too. And I can see Blue being that. Granted, they are wild animals for the most part. And choosing an Alpha isn't exactly cut-and-dry. There's a high chance there will be some fighting for the position, and those fights can get serious."
"They'll fight each other?" Claire's brow furrowed. "Well, can't you keep them from doing that? If you're Alpha?"
"It's not that simple. If I could stop them from fighting, I would try, but that could be almost impossible. They're animals, no matter how intelligent. If one of them is determined to fight to be in charge, there's very little I can do to stop that. We'll probably just have to let it play out and hope there's no permanent damage."
Claire frowned in thought, her eyes going back to the computer screen. After a moment, she cleared her throat and stood straight again. "Right. Which raptor was it that got the others in line?"
"That was Blue."
"No, her species code." Claire explained. "What's her species code?"
"Um," Owen turned to the files on his desk to flip Blue's open. They didn't normally use the raptors' species codes. "D9."
Claire nodded, pulling her phone out and typing away. "Right. I'll give Mr. Masrani an update, but you'll still need to send in your report, preferably tonight or tomorrow."
Owen nodded, almost smiling in amusement up at her. "You got it."
Claire nodded, eyes still fixed on her phone as she left the room. "Have a good afternoon."
When the door clicked shut behind her, Owen and Sierra exchanged a glance.
"Well, she was interesting." was all Sierra could think to say.
AN: Obviously, I made up how they came up with the names for all the raptors. It just seems relatively obvious that the fact they used the NATO alphabet was because of Owen's career in the Navy, and Blue's name is equally obvious. And I don't know where I came up with the idea that Charlie had trouble hatching, maybe because she's the youngest?
And Sierra's little joke that Owen would name one Yoshi was kinda because of Chris Pratt voicing Mario in a future Mario movie.
Also, Sierra finally meets Claire for the first time! I hope I portrayed her accurately.
Did anyone recognize certain parts of this chapter? Let me know what you all thought in the reviews!
Thanks!
