Chapter 14: Placing the Princess

Arnold and Nedry watched as Hammond finished his phone conversation, wondering exactly who he was talking to and what they were talking about. Finally the conversation was over, and Hammond hung up the phone and turned to them with a broad smile on his face.

"The cars are completed, both the tour Explorers and the gas powered jeeps. They are going to be air lifted here tomorrow morning."

Nedry shrugged his shoulders not really caring, while Arnold nodded his head. Hammond was watching the system setup when the phone rang again. Hammond answered with a confused look on his face, and after talking for a few minutes, hung up and turned back to the two men.

"That was Dr. Wu," he started. "Apparently, the baby Rex has been growing very quickly, and has outgrown her holding pen. I told him that the labs here were completed, and that he should move over here with all of the infants, fertilized eggs, and genomes. He will obviously leave sample material there for the Sorna scientists to work with, but I would also like this lab to be functional. It will save transportation costs. Point being, we need the Paddock fences online as soon as possible. I have a feeling that this juvenile Rex will only be satisfied when we get her settled in her Paddock. I believe the fences are nearing completion."

Arnold looked at the screen.

"Well, according to this, they are all hooked up, and the electricity should be flowing through them. We would need to test them to be absolutely sure, but with nothing else in the park yet, putting the baby Rex should not be a problem."

He lit a cigarette and pulled up a virtual map of the island and where the park was. Using a highlighter pointer, he traced the outline of the individual Paddocks.

"This is the largest one," he said, making a mark on the screen. "She should go there, especially if we ever clone a second one."

Hammond nodded and left the control room, heading outside for the arrival of the geneticists. As if on schedule, the helicopter touched down about fifteen minutes later, Wu and Harding hopping out of the cabin followed by three or four other workers.

"Ah, Henry welcome to the island my boy. You have the animals, I assume?" he asked, looking at the helicopter wondering where they were.

Henry laughed.

"Yes sir, see?" he said, pointing to the second chopper that was a few minutes behind the first one. This helicopter was carrying a large containment box, and inside were smaller units carrying the baby animals. The researchers gently carried the infants inside and brought them to the nursery.

"What about the Rex?" Hammond asked.

Wu pointed up again, and a third helicopter drifted down slowly, carrying an even larger box. Growls and roars could be heard coming from inside the box.

"Wow…she is that big already?"

Wu just nodded, not happy with such rapid growth. Gerry helped the workers get the containment box onto dollies and they pushed the crate towards the building, with Wu and Hammond following.

"The fences are online?" Wu asked, following Hammond through the Visitor Center.

"Yes, they are. The park is ready for her. Especially if she is this big already, it will be good for her to be out and about instead of cooped up in the nursery."

They climbed the stairs inside and reached the back offices and labs. They walked past the Control Room and went to the laboratory, having just finished being outfitted with all of the technology and machines they needed.

"Wow sir, this truly is incredible."



Wu put down a bag and took a Cryo chamber out and walked over to the freezer. Pushing a button, two identical holders rose, and Henry took all of his embryos out of his travel container and put them in here, allowing them to go back to a freezing temperature.

Hammond left Wu to his work and returned to the Control Room.

"Robert, I am going to need you and Dr. Harding to bring the Tyrannosaur to it's Paddock," he said cheerfully.

"Sure, no problem," Muldoon answered, not really having a choice in the matter. Harding followed Hammond into the room with a long needle, filled with a dosage of tranquilizer. The pair walked out of the control room and over to the containment unit, which shook a little as the Rex moved around. Harding opened a hatch on the side, and plunged the end of the syringe into the juvenile's leg. The animal squealed in pain, but than slowly became lethargic and fell asleep. Harding and Muldoon pushed the crate back to the helicopter, and they winced it to the chopper and took off over the park. Muldoon had a radio on him, and Arnold guided them over the boundaries of the Paddocks. They finally reached the Paddock that would be hers, and the helicopter lowered the cargo. Harding followed it down and undid the latches on the containment unit, opening the door. He slowly and gently pulled the juvenile out, and laid her out in the grass of her Paddock. He redid the latches on the now empty containment unit and the helicopter took off again, carrying the box with it. Thanks to the cameras and the motion sensors, Arnold could now see the baby from the control room, and would be able to keep tabs on her.

Meanwhile, Hammond went back and visited Wu in the lab.

"Okay, now that we have a few animals out of the nursery, we need to go over the infant counts again," he said, looking around.

"No problem sir, the numbers are as follows," he replied, typing quickly and pulling up a list of animals on his computer.

"These are the animals that have survived thus far."

Parasaurolophus- 2
Triceratops- 3
Velicoraptor- 5
Gallimimus- 7
Dilophosaurus-1

Brachiosaurus- 2

"We have been altering the genomes after each hatching, based on the success of them. We like to refer to them as version numbers. As you can see, the raptor and Gallimimus have met with the most success."

Hammond read the list and frowned a bit.

"Henry, we need more herbivores. People will be expecting to see great herds of these animals, not only one or two individuals."

"We will try to produce more Parasaurolophus and Gallimimus," Henry responded, making a note on his desk about cloning certain animals.

"Good. Please, let me know when eggs are going to hatch, I would love to see it happen," he said, smiling.

Wu nodded, and Hammond left the nursery, presumably headed for the Control Room.