Hell In Prehistoric World

Two years had passed since the day Guitierrez had died. Isla Sorna was now the ultimate dinosaur park (or so Ludlow claimed). The park's facilities included hotels, chalets, and even an outdoor theme park, with roller coasters and everything else. The island, once a green head of broccoli when viewed from a distance, now was a gleaming mini-metropolis, with the gleaming metal construction scaffolding yet to be removed. The park was due to open in eight months, in June.

The dinosaurs had been re-cloned, and there were now 23 species-13 herbivore and 10 carnivore-on display at Prehistoric World, as Ludlow had named his new park. 3 other species were being fine-tuned before their final version was cloned, and the in the theme park, under the eyes of Ludlow's team of brilliant but rather insane engineers, was now inclusive of nearly every kind of thrill ride in the world, from roller coasters to gravitrons.

But life was not a bed of roses for the people who were developing Prehistoric World. The Version 5.9 velociraptors (which had been modified genetically to be more vicious, slightly smaller-sized, and slower-moving) were constantly escaping from their enclosures. The Version 3.2 herrerasaurs had demonstrated a particular expertise in chewing through their fences, even when the power was on at maximum voltage. Practically every carnivore on the island was causing problems, and the Management had recorded 131 problems with the dinosaurs, and the list kept on growing.

The 'PteroSoar' pendulum-ride was inherently unstable because it would swing out of its pre-set locus, and needed manual control to be turned off (this was not acceptable in compliance with Prehistoric World's fully computerized policies). The hydraulic clasps on the Compy Coaster were defective, somehow not being able to clamp down effectively. The RNA Train, a hyper-speed roller coaster, was another inherently unstable ride that de-railed itself every time it was tested on a computer simulation (the train sat on the track, unoperational, being adjusted nearly every hour by frantic engineers). Out of the park's 30 rides (swimming pools included), eight of them were unstable.

And so it went, page after page of errors for the engineers and geneticists to solve.

But the engineers and geneticists on Isla Sorna were not the only people who labored in the name of Prehistoric World. Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant, and Ian Malcolm had been slowly planning an all-out-sabotage mission to the island, where they wanted to shut Ludlow down. They had patiently bided their time, for two years, and had decided that it was time. To shut Ludlow down, permanently.

xxx

Ellie Sattler crammed several mini power tools into a PVC bag, which was already bulging from the earlier insertion of a mini chainsaw into it. Once she had packed all her power tools in, she silently sneaked out of the house. It was ten p.m., and Grant should have arrived by now. Sure enough, she saw his blue Honda truck outside her house. Walking briskly towards the truck, she saw Malcolm napping at the back. She yanked open the door to the front passenger seat and threw the (heavy!) bag of tools at Malcolm. It hit him in the balls, and he woke up cursing in a high-pitched voice. Grant started the car, and they left Ellie's house.

"Fuck, that hurt!" hissed Malcolm, rubbing his tender parts.

"Don't worry, you'll still manage to get wood," said Grant, "She whacked me in the nuts with a spade once. No problem except the pain."

"The bag she threw was HEAVIER than some stupid spade!"

"Yup, Ian. It weighs 20 kilos," replied Ellie.

"Never mind. We're near to Jeff's meeting point," said Malcolm, still massaging himself, "Hey, Alan! You're right, I CAN get a boner."

"I didn't need to know that," said Grant, shaking his head.

They drove towards a small helicopter that was waiting for them in an abandoned housing estate. The pilot saw them, and stuck his head out of the cockpit's open door.

"Hurry your asses up! I'm being eyed by druggies here!" he shouted.

"Who you calling a druggie?" shouted a drunken voice from the deserted buildings around them, as the four of them entered the chopper and sat down.

"Thanks for the favor, Jeff," said Malcolm, strapping on his seat-belt.

"Thanks not needed, Prof. If not for you, I'd still be studying in that terrible college," replied Jeff with a shudder, "But this 'mission' of your is pretty foolish, Prof."

Jeff Dufresne had been somewhat a maths prodigy, especially in differential calculus, after he had reached puberty. But when he had been forced to study in Saint Dilbert's, an obscure, run-down college, he was BORED. Where were the neat rows of equations? Where were the beautiful graphs of trigonometry and ogives of statistics? Where the Hell were the learned mathematicians? He had been miserably studying subjects he detested until Ian Malcolm had one day visited his lecture hall. Malcolm had seen the potential in him, and had arranged a transfer to another college where Jeff could study all the maths he wanted to. As a result, he harbored a feeling of gratitude towards Malcolm.

They flew through cloudy skies towards Isla Sorna, where Jeff would drop them off and U-turn back towards Cost Rica for a refuel and to wipe his hands clean off any involvement with their sabotage. Along the way, the three saboteurs donned parachute packs, waiting for the moment when Jeff would display a thumbs-up, when they would parachute towards the island. They waited nervously, as Jeff counted down.

"3, 2, 1, GO!" he said, giving the signal.

They parachuted down, aiming to land in the middle of the circular theme park compound, where they planned to start their sabotage. Pulling on the parachute control strings, they found themselves slowly descending towards the dark theme park. They landed, right next to a towering tower of steel bars that had been shaped like a DNA helix. They saw a group of workers at two rides near them, and decided to confer for a moment before taking action.

"Right, here's the plan: Find a computer, hack in, and thrash the park's rides," whispered Malcolm.

"Shame, I love the looks of that roller coaster," said Ellie, pointing to a roller coaster some distance away. The tubular steel tracks ascended hundreds of feet into the air, at a steep angle.

Grant looked at it, and shivered with displeasure, "I prefer the smaller coasters."

"Let's move," hissed Malcolm, who had spotted a nearby booth that was labeled as 'Guest Relations'.

They ran towards the booth, and peeked inside. Sure enough, there was a computer console inside. Ellie reached into her tool bag, and took out a crowbar. Slowly and silently, she levered the door open, and the lock barely made a noise as it broke. But the workers servicing a nearby ride had started using a power drill, allowing them to make quite an amount of noise as they broke into the Guest relations booth. Ellie turned on the booth computer, and was frustrated to see a password-demanding screen pop up.

Once inside, Malcolm took out his laptop from its anti-breaking metal case. Using a USB cable to connect it to the now turned on booth computer, he started a program which immediately started running through various number and alphabet combinations to hack into the booth computer. Within three minutes, he had managed to hack into the booth computer, and was using his laptop to access the main data menu. The screen on his laptop printed out 5 icons:

PREHISTORIC WORLD MASTER CONTROL

DINOSAUR CONFIGURATION

THEME PARK CONFIGURATION

HOTELS CONFIGURATION

SECURITY CONFIGURATION

COMMAND LEVEL

He clicked on the icon labeled as 'THEME PARK CONFIGURATION', and waited. The screen now read:

THEME PARK CONFIGURATION

RIDE CONTROLS

FACILITY CONTROLS

SECURITY CONTROLS

He clicked on 'RIDE CONTROLS', and was asked by the computer for a password. He ran his hacker program, and waited while the screen blurred with scrolling numbers. It finally stopped, and now the screen read:

PASSWORD ACCEPTED.

It then changed to show numerous icons:

THEME PARK RIDE CONTROLS

PREHISTORIC PANGAEA

TREMBENDOUS TECHNOLOGY

ANCIENT AQUALAND

Clicking on 'PREHISTORIC PANGAEA', he found himself looking at a list of quirky (ride?) names. The list read:

PREHISTORIC PANGAEA RIDES

AMBER BLOCK

AMMONYTES

COMPY COASTER

CYCAD TREE

DNA HELIX

FLYING RAPTORS

FOSSIL MASTER

GASTONIA

MITOSIS

PTEROSOAR

XTINCTION

He selected the icon labeled 'COMPY COASTER' and the computer asked whether he wanted to control the ride's speed or duration. When he selected speed, he saw that it was currently set to 80 mph. Smiling to himself, he raised it to 160 mph. He then entered a command that locked the ride's controls and clicked a small icon labeled 'RIDE START'.

xxx

Several workers were tinkering with the Compy Coaster's faulty clasp mechanisms when they heard the roller coaster's start siren go off. Jumping off the tracks in alarm, they saw the roller coaster speed out of its station at twice its operating speed with an audible screech. The train sped up a hill, snapping the motorized chains that were supposed to help it climb the hill. Lacking momentum to climb the hill, it rolled down backwards into the station, hydraulic fluid spraying out from its underside, covering the red tubular steel tracks in a yellowish, oily fluid. It sped backwards towards a hairpin turn, and the back two cars flew off the track, dragging the coaster's eight other cars along. The coaster landed in a twisted mess in an artificial waterfall beneath that particular track segment, and exploded in the water, having crashed into the waterfall's high-voltage pipe systems. The waterfall slowly shut off, as the smoking wrecked belched out noxious black smog.

xxx

Ian Malcolm heard the far-away explosion, and grinned at Grant and Ellie. Moving quickly, he raised all of the theme park's rides' operating speeds by 200 percent, and started them up, one-by-one.

xxx

In the main control center of Prehistoric World, Ludlow, Tembo, Lee, and Felix heard the loud explosion (the ride in question was a mere five hundred feet from the control center) as the Compy Coaster crashed. Not knowing what it was, Ludlow worried, and his eyes quite literally bugged out in horror as he saw video camera footage of the incident. Before he could say anything, the walky-talky on the table in front of him squawked.

"Agis here! Control, please respond!" shouted a gruff voice from the walky-talky. It was Agis, the head theme park engineer.

"Ludlow here. What the heck is happening over there?" snapped Ludlow, snatching up the walky-talky.

"I don't know what the bejesus happened up in control, but the rides are starting up by themselves! You goons in control must've screwed up."

"We don't know what is going on!" shouted Ludlow, turning to Felix, "Felix, check the control systems!"

Felix looked up from his computer. He had been checking the system for errors, but had found something different. He turned to Ludlow, "Someone has hacked into the ride controls systems. I've been locked out of the system!"

"What?" screamed Ludlow, looking at the computer monitor. True enough, there was a flashing sign beneath the words 'AMBER BLOCK', which read, 'RIDE CONTROLS LOCKED'.

Felix tried frantically to enter the control for other rides, but was locked out. Finally, he managed to enter the controls of the 'Gene Sequencer' ride, which he locked.

"I've got it!" he said, "I'm locking the controls now!"

"Too late," whispered Tembo, looking at the theme park through the windows of the control center.

Malcolm tried to enter the 'Gene Sequencer' ride's controls, but was locked out. He cursed, "They've locked me out!"

"What? How?" asked Ellie, running over to the laptop. She saw that Malcolm had been locked out of all the rides which he hadn't sabotaged yet.

"They know we're here," said Grant, as the sabotaged rides came to life outside.

xxx

The Gastonia bumper cars crashed into each other at twice their normal speed. Some of the cars crashed out of the play zone, skidding across the tarmac. The Xtinction super-roller coaster shot up its steeply inclined vertical track, rising 500 feet into the air, at 256 mph. Its wheels screeched with the excessive friction, powerful G-forces pulling against the coaster. It flew off its tracks where the track turned back towards the ground, and flew into the DNA Helix's base, toppling the titanic steel drop-tower. The drop-tower collapsed, its base exploding and breaking the electric fence separating the Prehistoric Pangaea theme park and the Trembendous Technology theme park, its towering bulk finally crashing down on the tracks of the Gene Sequencer roller coaster, while its exploding base shot heavy pieces of shrapnel into the Mitosis spinner-ride, exploding several of the spinner-cars.

CRAAACCCKKK! The seats on the Hooke's Law drop tower broke off from the drop tower, in the Trembendous Technology theme park. The seats then fell from 1800 feet in the air, and crashed down hard onto the Effervescence Pond flume ride. The flume boats, which had landed in a heap in the yet-to-be-water-filled landing area, were smashed into a mess by the crashing drop tower seats, which were heavy, metal chairs. The Locus Swinger's gondola flew in a wide arc, after breaking off from its swing arm, and crashed into the Fossil Master roller coaster's track. The ensuing explosion, a gigantic sphere of flame and extreme heat, destroyed the nearby Flying Raptors and Cycad Tree rides.

An empty flume ride boat crashed into a dry landing area, smashing into smithereens upon impact in the Ancient Aqualand theme park. In the same park, the Hell's River water-rapids ride started, round boats being pushed onto a dry track, where they piled up one on top of another. The surf beach's wave-making machines started to operate, but without any water to make waves in. The machines slowly started to overheat, discharging copious amounts of smoke.

The cries of construction workers that had been injured by the sabotaged rides were very audible, sounding muted by the numerous explosions that were happening all over the three theme parks.

Ludlow and his cronies watched in horror as the sabotaged rides started to destroy each other. The Centrifuge gravitron-ride exploded when the Titan Engine's 4 ton seating compartment crashed into it, the explosion sending the Cell Smasher's speeding bumper cars into flames. But Lee had spotted the worst piece of sabotage.

"Look! The Pterosoar's going crazy!" he cried, pointing at the ride in question.

"What? That ride's always been hell to fix!" cried Ludlow, looking at the ride, which was spinning on its vertical locus. It was spinning 360 degrees, as it had been programmed to, but exceeding its least safest operating speed by at least 90 percent.

As they watched, the artificial pterodactyl which was the ride's passenger gondola, broke off from the swing arm, and for a moment, the mechanical, 40-foot long pterodactyl flew, over the theme park's boundary fence. It then crashed. Into the electrical fence of a dinosaur enclosure. The gondola skidded on the grassy ground, the dactyl's 'head' and one of its 'wings' digging two deep furrows into the ground of the spinosaurus enclosure. On Felix's computer screen, a message flashed up, in screaming red letters:

SPINOSAURUS ENCLOSURE BREACHED: FENCE BREAK

Ludlow shook with rage, and turned to glare venomously at Tembo, Felix and Lee, "Find those who are responsible for this. I want them to be fed to the tyrannosaurs."