Chapter 7

Cathy had seen the grandstands from more angles than she could count. The northern entrance, the southern entrance, even a brief few glimpses into the back door from some nosey visitors. She knew that the north lines tended to be a bit longer then the southern ones, and that the angle of the building meant that the southern entrance was more likely to be shaded in the morning than the evening.

Sadly, she had no control over those factors. Looking at the line, she could only frown. Sunhats and glasses were an almost universal feature, along with a few of the splash-coats. As much as she felt they looked stupid, she knew better than to doubt their effectiveness. There was hours of footage of people getting drenched by the Mosasaur.

Eat your heart out Shamu.

Nervously, she eyed the VIP entrance. For a price, guests could fast track their entrance into many rides, and get special events and such. Standard park policy. Glancing at her ticket, she wondered if it would get her through, or if she would have to wait in the normal line. It wouldn't hurt to check.

"Excuse me, where do I use this?" she opened, offering the ticket to the man. For a moment he quirked an eyebrow and he brought the ticket up for inspection. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he straightened slightly, turning to the side as he spoke.

"I see you have a fast pass. Let me just fill this in, and you can go right through," the man assured her, digging out a pen. Quickly, he scrawled a few notes, likely to prevent her from using it again, before handing it back. "Feel free to sit anywhere."

Cathy was pleasantly surprised as she stepped through the gate, entering into the special lower section of the stands. Cordoned off from the rest, it was only accessible to VIP's, and she felt oddly out of place as she found a spot in the first row. Everyone around her looked kitted out for company guided fun, while she just looked like she had stumbled in.

In the meanwhile, she slipped the ticket into her wallet, trying to get comfortable on the stand as people moved in. Given how close the show was to starting, she wasn't surprised, but the stands filled up quickly, and she found herself tightly surrounded.

She tuned out the discussion and jostling around her as she heard the intercom crackle to life, and a familiar voice rose over the buzz of the audience. "Hello and welcome folks to our noon Mosasaur showing!"

Cathy snapped her eyes from the water, suddenly realizing she had been spacing, to see Sarah standing on the small jetty in the center of the crescent auditorium. Even though she was wearing the same uniform from their prior encounter, she seemed far more composed and professional in front of the crowd.

"I know you're all eager to see her getting fed, so while her food is prepared, I'd like to talk to you about what she eats. It is thought that Mosasaurs fed along the surface of the water, where it preyed on anything it could sink its teeth into." As she spoke, Sarah lifted a hand, and began enumerating as she continued. "This included turtles, large fish, and even smaller Mosasaurs."

Cathy was looking up even before the electric whirring began. She smiled slightly as the massive shark carcass was slowly lowered down the cable. In any other park, the shark would have been a main attraction. Here, it was just the sideshow.

"Let's see if she's still hungry after eating today. She's a little shy, so be nice and give her a hand when she comes out."

Briefly, Cathy wondered just how long it had taken her to get the whole speech down. It didn't really matter; in every recording she had seen, they gave variations of the same speech. Enough times, and they would inevitably get it down.

Cathy heard a few people begin to talk excitedly, and she quickly ascertained why. The Mosasaurus was approaching. Its long form slid through the water with a surprising grace, and she couldn't help but draw a breath in as it approached. It was so...massive.

She had seen the largest predators InGen had produced, and seen them next to buildings and other dinosaurs. She had even seen the Mosasaurus before, but never personally, and never this close. It was terrifying.

And immensely beautiful.

The breach itself seemed to happen in an instant, with the Mosasaur quickly eclipsed most of her view so she had to look almost straight up to see its elongated maw. The two halves of its mouth were opened wide, and for an instant, she felt the urge to run, lest it fall on them.

As the teeth clashed together with a resounding clack, it began to fall; at first slowly, like a tower losing balance, but by the time its head reached the water, it was diving. Even as she saw the wave of water rising up, she couldn't draw her eyes away.

Fortunately, sitting near the front meant that the wave arced over her for the most part, though she still jolted slightly from the rain of surprisingly warm water. She barely had time to recover when the stands jolted, and the hydraulics began lowering them.

As they sunk, the concrete top gave way to heavy glass, bathing them in increasingly intense blue light. By the time they reached the bottom, it had gotten surprisingly dark, with only the ripples through the water creating wavering patterns of light.

But most impressively, she could see the entirety of the Mosasaurus in front of her. It was massive, easily several rows of seats long. Even the shark it was eating was barely more than a couple of bites for it. And above the crowd, she could hear it.

The Mosasaurus was a deep sound, unlike anything else she had heard. Sometimes, on the cameras, she could pick up the distant echoes of the dinosaurs, but none of them were as full or deep as the Mosasaurus. Beyond any doubt, she knew there was more that she couldn't hear, probably buried deep in the infrasonics. But she could feel them, rumbling through the water and in through her body.

It was almost like a subtle connection. The seats vibrated from the applauding crowd, but she could feel that deeper tone, unwavering in its intensity. Small shifts up and down, punctuated with something else now and again. Without her equipment, she would be unable to identify the whole of it, but it still blew her away.

As the platform rose, she kept her eyes on the Mosasaurus for every second she could, until finally the concrete barred her view. The glare of the sun off the water finally forced her to look away and suddenly all her senses came back to her.

Blinking in the light, it dawned upon her how deep she had allowed herself to be drawn in. Even now, she could feel the light vibrations above the hordes of feet leaving the stands. With each person off, it reached her more and more acutely.

"You alright there? Need a change of clothes?"

Cathy snapped into attention, trying to hide her surprise as Sarah laughed. "Sorry, should have told you to wear a poncho."

"I doubt it would have helped," Cathy mused aloud, watching the water run down under the seats, before pooling near the rim and disappearing into the cracks, doubtless to be pumped back into the lagoon.

"You're not wrong," Sarah agreed, removing her hairband. Despite the shelter of the jetty, she was equally soaked. "Come on, I gotta dry off anyway, and we keep spare clothing for just this occasion."

At the very minimum, Cathy could grant that at least their clothing was comfortable. No expense spared indeed.

"So, what did you think of the show?" Sarah asked, drying her hair with a towel vigorously.

"It was...impressive," Cathy admitted. It had been rather short, and a one-trick pony, but the sheer size and impressiveness of the Mosasaurus' size easily countered that. "It's one thing to see it on the surface, another to see it below."

"It really is something else," Sarah agreed.

"So, how much did you have to train to work with it?"

"Well, it's not exactly a trained animal. We can coax it into appearing by promising it food, but it's not a dolphin. We don't make it do tricks. I doubt we'd have a hoop big enough, if it could even breach that high."

"How powerful are the fins?"

"Well, our mosasaurus has carangiform movement, so it glides pretty smoothly, but doesn't exactly hit top speeds like a cetacean. However, the tail is at a pretty heavy angle, so the crescent allows for some pretty powerful strokes."

"So it's like Platecarpus?"

"I would say so."

"And the pelvic fins?"

"Well...that one's a bit of a mystery," Sarah admitted, turning to face Cathy as she raised her hands to her chest height. "In the lagoon, the Mosasaurus uses its pectoral fins to do a lot of the steering and its caudal fin to propel itself."

Sarah lowered her hands to her hips as she continued. "But the pelvic fins of most fish are used to allow them to move up and down through the water. Because the lagoon is not too deep, we don't really see it use them often, and recording it is hard enough."

With a chuckle, she lowered her hands, leaning back slightly. "We can't just put a leash on it either. So our knowledge of its movements is less than perfect. You seem quite interested in it."

"I suppose you could say I am interested in all ancient reptiles," Cathy offered, half-deflecting the point. "I mean, I'm here after all."

"Fair point," Sarah agreed with a laugh. "Still, it's nice to talk shop with someone. You have no idea how many times I get asked the same basic questions. Nice change of pace."

"I imagine it can get bland. Let's see...do you know anything about its metabolism?"

"Normally, people just ask how much they eat. Well, we know it's warm-blooded, so it consumes a bit more than a reptile normally might. One of those sharks is enough to feed it for a day."

"So it's confirmed to be warm-blooded?"

"Well…" Sarah turned away for a moment, looking torn.

"Let me guess; you're not actually sure?"

"Something like that. Sorry I can't say more," Sarah apologized. "Just company policy."

"I get it," Cathy assuaged, shuffling the information away for later. She knew better than to press. "Thanks for the pass."

"Ah, no problem. We have more of them than we know what to do with," she waved off. "Just glad that someone is interested in the topic. How'd the first day go?"

"Not bad. We worked on learning the ropes over at the Gentle Giants."

"That's where we all start. Gotta say, don't miss that at all. So, which area are you thinking of going into?"

"Not sure. I'd prefer to work directly with the animals though," she answered rotely. It wasn't incorrect, just...not the full truth.

"I don't think I ever asked if you were one of the shadows or the applicants."

"The what?" Cathy was legitimately confused. She had never heard those terms used in any documents she had read. If they were important-

"The trainees here are roughly divided into two categories when they arrive. Shadows and applicants. Of course, those aren't the official terms, but everyone uses it. Shadows are people whose transcripts aren't as exemplary, or are only here for a temporary shift, like during the peak season. They basically get put in a job for a while, then passed along with a standard recommendation. Applicants are the serious ones. In order to get into that group, you don't just do well in classes, you have to have done something to catch their attention."

"I see…" Cathy nodded slowly, letting the implication sit for a minute. She wasn't necessarily surprised, but this had caught her off-guard to say the least. She had done well in her classes, and she had thought her project fairly unique, but then again, she had no clue what others had done before her.

"Any idea which you are in?" Sarah asked, towelling off her feet.

"I'd like to think I'm in the applicants group."

"I thought so. You didn't strike me as one of the shadows," Sarah laughed. "In any case, we'll have to talk again sometime. You've probably got afternoon stuff to do. See you around?"

"Sure. I look forward to talking some more."

Despite her tiredness, Cathy decided she wasn't going to waste any time, and so she dragged herself down to the seaside. It was a bit of a walk, but at least it was away from the crowds. For a while anyway.

She smiled to herself as she watched a crowd depart the monorail, only to be replaced by a smaller trickle of passengers headed outwards. It seemed most people were headed back to the main body of the park now. It was getting to be around dinner time, so she wasn't surprised.

The ride itself was quiet, but she was only heading one station down, so she wouldn't get to enjoy the landscape just yet. Besides, the actual area north of the resort wasn't actually as large as most folks thought it was. The hills created the impression of distinct areas, which they carefully encouraged with patches of trees to try and further break apart the area. The diversions of the tracks helped, as it made the whole loop seem more complicated than it was in reality.

There wasn't much time to ruminate on it before the monorail began to slow down, and she glanced out the window to see the station. Not far from the simple platform was another building, settled at the base of a small mountain. The gondola lift.

That was a ride she actually approved of, to the extent she could. It was quite calm and removed, running up the slopes of the mountain to allow passengers to view the dinosaurs from above. The top of the mountain had a small observation station, capable of scoping out the area around it. About as unintrusive as it could get.

Stepping off the platform, she tore her eyes away from it, looking instead to the west, where a broad path headed down the slopes. Even from here, she could see the ocean over the tops of the trees, and could smell the salt. She realized with a cringe she would likely have to take an intensive shower after the salt spray did its number.

Still, she allowed herself to take a breath of the air as she headed down, staying to the edge of the path to allow the families heading up or down their share. She wasn't in a hurry.

When the path ducked briefly into the forest, she noted they had added a small switchback staircase to accommodate the sheer in the terrain. Still, looking at the hill, she couldn't help but feel it was a little overkill.

The thought disappeared from her mind as the forest cleared once more, and she stepped out onto the sand. The beaches here were vastly different than at home; the sand here was bright, and shifted, rather than a dull, mud like material.

For a moment, she allowed herself to drink in the sight, listening to the roar of the waves, and the bright sun bearing down. Even with her own preferences, she had to admit it was beautiful, and she smiled as the sun licked at her skin, filling her with energy. The light sound of sand under her shoes was even pleasant.

Sighing, she tucked away the thought, turning instead to the north, following the beach side. Families had spaced themselves along the beach, forming an almost shanty town-esque look with all the umbrellas and towels. Even so, there was an order to it, with more of the umbrellas being further back; a retreat from the shoreline.

Weaving her way through, she moved down the gradient to where the activities thinned out. Stretches of open beach were more common, and rocks began to poke out of the dunes, signifying the approaching end of the beach.

The spray of the ocean reached a little closer here as it slammed against the rocks, but Cathy paid it no mind as she followed the curving cliffs. It wasn't long before she was out of sight of the beach-goers, though she could still hear them. She doubted it worked much the other way though.

Turning towards the cliffs, she was finally able to search without sand spraying in her eyes. The sheer face seemed almost uniform, but somewhere, the natives had navigated their way up. From what she could guess from the maps, they were closer to the far side of the cliffs, and she followed the wall, tracing it with her hand.

A few times, she found a promising start, but a quick look up confirmed they lead nowhere. After a few false starts, she found one spot close to where the map had indicated. Craning her head back, she could see a few spots up above where rocks formed natural holds. It wouldn't necessarily be a piece of cake, but she wouldn't need picks and axes to get up it. Even if she fell, it would be some bruising at worst. Maybe a broken leg if she really flubbed the landing.

Glancing around, she memorized the location before turning to head back towards the beach. With a small smile, she figured she might as well take in the air while she was here. The next days were going to be busy.