Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 15: The Quest for Information
A/N: Alright, in this chapter, Grant, Ryan, Taylor, Lex and Dr. Sorkin return to the Visitor Center to meet back with the others. But what they don't know is that they'll be learning much more than they ever thought they would about those days before Jurassic Park closed its doors. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
Dr. Grant, Dr. Sorkin, Lex, Taylor and Ryan rode up into the clearing where the Visitor Center was. A flock of compies scattered away from the vehicle as it drove over to where the other vehicles were parked.
"More dinosaurs!" Taylor exclaimed. Grant rolled his eyes; Taylor was beginning to irritate him.
"Yeah, there have been lots of them around since you left," soldier #1 told them. "What did you say they were again, Grant?"
"They're called Compsognathus," he answered.
Captain Ryan asked, "Has anything happened since we've been away?"
"Nope," soldier #1 returned. "The others are still inside the Visitor Center and the only dinosaur life we've seen so far is compies. We haven't even heard many other dinosaur sounds except a few from those brontosaurus in the distance."
Dr. Sorkin smiled. "They're called Brachiosaurus. There's a difference; brontosaurus never existed because its remains were actually of two species – the body was an Apatosaurus and the head and a few other bones were from Camarasaurus. It was years before anyone figured out that the two dinosaurs were the same and most people are still terribly confused to this day."
Ryan turned to his fellow soldiers. "Can I have a gun please?"
Soldier #2 reached into the gun compartment in jeep-03 and handed Ryan a gun loaded with tranquilizer darts. "Why are you guys all wet?" he asked a moment later.
"It's a long story."
After getting out of the car, Grant and the others (except for the two soldiers who were guarding the vehicles) went up the staircase and into the Visitor Center.
Kailey laughed after Tim finished his funny story about his 7th birthday. "Did the cake frosting really fly in your friend's face after you blew the candles?"
Tim nodded. "Yeah, he was pretty mad, but since he was at a young age at the time, he got over it quick. His mom thought he looked really cute with all that frosting on his face and took a picture of him . . . those were the good old times." Tim couldn't believe it, he was actually having a conversation with this girl. As he talked with her, he was beginning to feel that Kailey was quite his type. He was positive that he like-liked this girl. Tim had done some reading that mentioned her back on the mainland because he was interested in Dr. Sorkin's work on the Pteranodons, but he was never so interested in Kailey until he saw her walking by him on the USS Mars. Whether she liked him back was another question altogether.
Once she stopped laughing, Kailey said, "Sounds like you had an interesting childhood. Dr. Sorkin's had an interesting childhood too; she grew up on a farm in Arkansas and that was no place you'd expect to find a person who would one day become a scientist working for what would have become this wonderful theme park."
"Yeah, Dr. Sorkin's cool." There was a moment of silence before Tim said, "Oh . . . um . . . by the way . . ." his voice trailed off.
"Yes?" Kailey's eyes twinkled.
"Um . . . once we get off the island, do you suppose you might want to . . . uh . . . go do–"
"We're back guys!" Ryan announced as he led Grant, Dr. Sorkin, Lex and Taylor into the cafe. Kailey and Tim turned to face them. Rats! Of all times they had to come now! Maybe I'll have the chance to ask if she's interested in going out later . . . not sure when that will happen considering we're on an island full of dinosaurs . . .
"Who's the kid and . . . why are you guys all wet?" Kailey asked in surprise.
Lex grinned. "Let's just say we had a little encounter."
"No kidding, tell us what happened!" Tim urged.
"Well, we found this girl in–"
"My name is Taylor," the person with that name interrupted.
"We found . . . Taylor . . . in one of our crates because she apparently fell in when on the docks and since Lester's ship won't be able to come just yet due to bad weather conditions where they are, so Taylor has to stay with us until we can get her back to the mainland."
"But why are you all wet?" Tim re-asked the question.
"While we were waiting on the docks, we . . ." Lex paused as she looked around the cafe. The soldiers who were previously in the kitchen had entered the cafe, and there was someone missing from the scene. "Wait a minute, where's Levine?"
Everyone glanced around the room – Levine was nowhere to be seen.
"Of course!" Grant exclaimed. "How typical of Levine; disappearing without leaving a trace. Where do you suppose he went, Tim?"
"Couldn't say," Tim admitted. "He just said he'd be right back. But before he left he did ask one of the soldiers for some rope and he received a bungee cord."
Ryan gasped. "You know, I saw some bungee cord dangling from the top of the broken staircase in the main rotunda. Do you think . . . ?"
"No, I know that's where Levine went! That's just like him. Of course he'd go up there. Who knows what he's got himself into. Do you have any climbing equipment handy?"
The soldier captain nodded. "Yes, we do. What do we do with Taylor?"
"Leave her down here with some soldiers," Dr. Sorkin suggested.
"Aw, but I wanna go with you guys!" Taylor complained.
Grant groaned. This girl's really beginning to get on my nerves . . .
Levine slowly walked up to one of the large computers sitting on a desk in the Control Room. Alright, I don't think you work, but you're definitely worth a try!
He flicked the "on" switch . . . and the screen remained blank. "So that's not going to work. Let's try this." Then he went over to where the memory "cookie" of the computer was and began to try forging it out. Maybe if he could get this out, he'd be able to learn exactly what was going on here at the park when it was up and running that InGen didn't tell anyone about.
"Man! Wish I had a screwdriver!" he grumbled to himself.
Just then, a hand extended from behind him and handed him a screwdriver. "Thanks," Levine responded as he grabbed it. Wait a minute! Where'd that come from? He whirled around in alarm to see Grant, Dr. Sorkin, Captain Ryan and another soldier standing behind him.
"Oh, hi everyone," Levine squeaked.
"I thought you were instructed to stay in the main rotunda," Ryan said.
"Well, yeah . . . but–"
"This island isn't meant for people to just go blundering about!" Grant told him sternly. "People died here! Do you realize just how many carnivores could be lurking somewhere in this building? All it could have taken was for a raptor to knock you to the ground and you'd be disemboweled in seconds! What on earth do you think you're doing?"
"Well, I didn't think I'd be this long. All I wanted to do was get this memory chip from the computer to put in ours to see what information we could get about this place when it was still in operation. I figured even Hammond himself was so busy dealing with the big stuff that happened in the park, that he didn't have much time to focus on the little, but still so important, things going on here everyday! You all know how undermanned this park was! Therefore, there might be tons of stuff that Hammond himself didn't know about his own park!"
Grant nodded. "You still think it will work?"
"I don't know," Levine answered as he used the screwdriver to forge out the memory chip, "but it should outlive the main computer. You might not know this, but I just so happen to have superb computer skills . . . maybe not as good as Lex's, but they're still good." Then, Levine looked the three over carefully and noticed that their clothes seemed a little unusually damp. "Can I ask why you guys are all wet?"
Dr. Sorkin laughed as Grant rolled his eyes and sighed. "Let's just say we had a little encounter with a carnivore, we'll tell you about it later."
"A carnivore? Already? We just got here!"
As the bunch headed back out of the Visitor Center and toward the vehicles parked nearby, Levine set his eyes on Taylor. A kid's here too? Levine thought. That's not good!
"What's the kid doing here?" Levine asked.
"My name's Taylor," the girl interrupted.
Lex took a deep breath and said, "Long story, let's just say it was a little accident that happened at the dock and she ended up in one of our crates."
"What was in the crate anyway?" Ryan asked one of the soldiers.
The soldier shrugged. "Just some large garbage bags. I haven't the slightest idea what was in them. I would have guessed garbage – obviously – but they didn't smell."
Ryan and Levine went over to the crate that Taylor had been taken out of and opened it. Ryan lifted one of the bags.
"Doesn't smell like garbage," he announced, "but it's still heavy." He united the bag and to all of their surprise saw dozens of small white napkins, like the ones you see at restaurants. "What are these doing on the trip?"
"We don't even need those," Grant said. "Maybe someone loaded it by mistake."
Levine shrugged. "Maybe."
Kailey turned to Taylor, who along with Tim had already been introduced. "How long were you in the crate?"
"I've got no idea," the girl responded, "but it was too long."
Then, Kailey turned back to Grant, Dr. Sorkin, Lex and Ryan and asked, "So could you please tell us why you're all wet now?"
Lex smiled. "We're never going to get any rest unless we tell you guys I suppose. Alright, so while we were on the dock, something shook the dock and Taylor was knocked into the water. Dr. Grant and Ryan went in to rescue her and that's when we saw the . . . the . . . mussaurus?"
"Mussasaurus was a Triassic prosauropod," Tim noted. "They were herbivores similar to the sauropods, but smaller."
"No, she pronounced it wrong," Dr. Sorkin corrected, "it was called a mosasaur."
"Wait . . . you guys were attacked by a mosasaur?!" Levine exclaimed. "What species was it?"
"We believe it was a Tylosaurus."
"Drat! I wish I got to see that! That's one of the most ferocious marine predators ever to exist."
"Tell me about it!" Taylor said. "That dinosaur was totally awesome!"
"Not a dinosaur," Tim told her, "Dinosaurs were terrestrial, or land-living creatures. Mosasaurs were marine lizards." He turned back to Dr. Sorkin. "Was it full grown?"
"Yes," Dr. Sorkin continued. "Or at least close to it. It must have been at least 45-50 feet in length, had long lizard-like jaws, sharp teeth, four strong paddle-like flippers and a shark-like tail."
"Yeah, mosasaurs were fast and deadly predators," Grant added. "They could reach speeds of over 30 mph while swimming and ate just about anything in the ocean before they went extinct. They were quite literally, the 'T. rex of the Deep'. But I must say, they're so much easier to study when their dead fossil bones."
The others laughed. Then Kailey spoke up, "Well, how did you guy escape?"
Grant grinned. "Well, Ryan, Taylor, Dr. Sorkin and Lex reached the dock before I did and I had to hide in a small underwater crevice to avoid being eaten. Then it swam away."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Tim exclaimed. "Remember the deaths of the jet-skiers a month ago? Maybe Tylosaurus was what killed them!"
"You might be right!" Dr. Sorkin agreed. "A mosasaur could have easily killed them; there are also many other accounts of strange and mysterious disappearances at sea near both Sorna and Nublar – my nephew, Eric, was on a para-sailing trip to Isla Sorna with a friend of his mother's – which, as you'll recall, is my sister, Amanda – and a creature eliminated the boat's crew that was pulling their para-sail through the air before Eric was stranded on the island. And also, Nick Van Owen said that there are stories of fishermen that went too close to the islands and never returned. Our culprit might very well be a mosasaur."
"But if a mosasaur – or multiple mosasaurs – are swimming free in the ocean, why isn't it wreaking havoc everywhere?" Ryan asked with curiosity. "Wouldn't it be like the reptilian version of Jaws."
"Well, if the mosasaurs were swimming all over the ocean, we'd know about it for sure because they'd be preying on just about anything in the ocean – sharks, whales, dolphins, fish and humans. Don't think that's not going to get noticed for long! So the mosasaur must like to stay coastal and dislikes venturing out to sea. Yes, that must be the answer."
"Good thing," Tim acknowledged. "I was hoping this wasn't going to be a monster-story type adventure where the government gets involved to kill the sea monster. I'd hate to see the mosasaurs destroyed."
Levine nodded. "So, the lesson learned is: land – safe if there aren't any carnivores around, water – not safe under any circumstances! Now let's see if this chip still works!"
A few minutes later, everyone, except two soldiers, was inside the first trailer they had brought on the trip. The trailer was designed and had features much like the ones that had been brought to Sorna on the 1997 Expedition. Of course, knowing all well what happened last time they had trailers, it was decided ahead of time not to have them parked alongside a cliff!
Levine took a seat in front of one of the computers inside the trailers and everyone else stood up behind him, watching the screen. Even Taylor watched with interest. After turning the computer on, Levine pushed the memory chip into one of the computer's many sockets and a new folder labeled "Removable Disk (D:)" appeared on the screen. He clicked it and the mouse's cursor turned into an hourglass.
"Aw, come on, computer!" Levine groaned impatiently.
Lex leaned over and lightly tapped the computer and the hourglass disappeared and another window opened up on the screen.
"Thanks, Lex," Levine said as he turned his attention back to the screen. The new window that opened up asked for a password. "Anyone know what the password is?"
Taylor spoke up. "Try 'Jurassic Park'."
Levine obeyed . . . and this appeared on the screen: Access Denied. He looked up at Dr. Sorkin. "Since you used to work here, do you know the password?"
Dr. Sorkin shook her head. "Nope. It's been 20 years, remember? I haven't had the need to remember the password." Levine tried several other potential passwords:
Dinosaur = Access Denied
Tyrannosaurus rex = Access Denied
Velociraptor = Access Denied
Triceratops = Access Denied
Ilovedinosaurs = Access Denied
animaladventures1314 = Access Denied
"Honestly?" Tim asked. "You didn't think that would work did you?"
"Not exactly, but I thought it was worth a try. Let's try 'John Hammond'."
Johnhammond = Access Denied
After that last time, the dozens of the words Access Denied began to appear on the screen. Then a little cartoon animated figure that resembled the deceased Jurassic Park employee, Dennis Nedry came up on screen. The group watched as the cartoon figure shook his pointer finger in the air and said, "Uh, uh, uh! You didn't say the magic words! Uh, uh, uh . . . uh, uh, uh . . . uh, uh, uh . . ."
"PLEASE!" Levine nearly shouted. "Aw drat! I forgot about this!"
"I think it's kind of cute," Kailey acknowledged.
Tim shook his head in disagreement, "That would get kind of annoying after a while if you ask me."
Dr. Sorkin groaned. "I remember this little guy now. Nedry installed this to play a joke on Ray Arnold around the time he shut the park's power off. I got so annoyed of this thing . . . HEY! I think I remember the password now! Try Stedry."
Levine typed in what Dr. Sorkin suggested and Nedry's cartoon disappeared and a menu of folders to open came up in a new window. "Great! We're back in business." Then he looked down the list of folders that were on the screen including: Business Emails, Update List Emails, Computer Codes . . . it was a long list. Levine scrolled down until he found Emails to Hammond. After clicking the icon, a window opened on the screen that revealed – as the title suggested – a list of emails that at one time went to John Hammond himself!
"What are these all about?" Levine asked.
Dr. Sorkin looked thoughtful. "I think these were letters from Dr. Wu. By the looks of it, perhaps these were emails of updates that he sent to Hammond. Hammond did make frequent trips to the park when we were starting and when dinosaurs hatched from their eggs, but during those later months before the park closed down, Hammond was too busy with his investors to spend time in the park. But let me tell you, when those eggs were about to hatch, Hammond made sure he was here to witness!"
"I do remember him saying that he had been present at the birth of every dinosaur born on the island," Grant said. "Except the ones that had bred in the wild without his consent of course."
Levine clicked the icon that said Emails to Hammond and all of a sudden, the computer brought up a box that required the password. He smirked and typed in Stedry . . . and the little Nedry cartoon appeared on the screen saying, "Uh, uh, uh, you didn't say the magic word! Uh, uh, uh . . . uh, uh, uh . . . uh, uh, uh . . ."
"This was supposed to work!" Levine exclaimed.
Lex bent down in front of the keyboard and typed in please. As soon as she pressed the enter button, Nedry disappeared and Hammond's emails came up. Levine looked up at Lex. "I should have figured that out! He said that I didn't say the 'magic words'."
Lex shrugged. "Well, they don't call me a–"
". . . computer nerd for nothing," Tim finished her sentence. Lex looked at her brother.
"I am not a computer nerd, I prefer to be called a 'hacker'." By hacker of course, Lex didn't mean that she put bugs into other people's computers. Instead, she was referring to the word's other definition – a computer wiz.
The curious humans began reading the email before them on the computer screen: December 12, 1991
Dear Hammond,
I'm glad to say that things on Nublar are coming along well. It's a lot of work to balance my work on Sorna and Nublar at the same time after the promotion, but I'm managing greatly. As you know, all the dinosaurs we so far have shipped to Isla Nublar are doing fine . . . save for a few issues such as our raptor's aggression. As a reminder, here is the original list of dinosaurs you intended for Phase A:
Velociraptor antirrhopus nublarensis
Brachiosaurus brancai
Parasaurolophus walkeri
Triceratops horridus
Tyrannosaurus rex
Gallimimus bullatus
Dilophosaurus venenifer
Stegosaurus stenops
Baryonyx walkeri
Also as you know, the list was altered by the discovery of new amber and fossil specimens that yielded viable DNA; some dinosaurs were added and others we plan to introduce into the park during Phase B. You've seen the aggression in our raptors and that's why they're still not in their permanent cage. The Stegosaurus population we were going to transfer to Nublar decided to get moody all of a sudden. Their plates are turning bright colors and they're about as stubborn as a donkey! Gerry Harding seems to think they're entering their breeding season. But since they're all female, they obviously won't be able to accomplish their desires to mate. So unfortunately, we won't be able to move the Stegosaurus at this point, as they're too hard to move into their containment crates – they just won't cooperate! The Dilophosaurus' condition including their frills and venom-spitting behavior aren't improving. They're still doing these behaviors. Dr. Laura Sorkin is still trying to convince me that the dinosaurs' differences from the ones in the fossil record is because of the use of frog DNA we used when cloning them, but I honestly think she's just overreacting. Despite this, the Dilophosaurus were shipped to Nublar without problem. To jog your memory, here's the latest list of animals planned for the park's Phase A:
Velociraptor antirrhopus nublarensis
Brachiosaurus brancai
Parasaurolophus walkeri
Triceratops horridus
Tyrannosaurus rex
Gallimimus bullatus
Dilophosaurus venenifer
Stegosaurus stenops
Baryonyx walkeri (too young to ship though)
Proceratosaurus bradleyi
Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis
Segisaurus halli
Metriacanthosaurus shangyouensis
Compsognathus longipes
That's the latest scoop for today. I'm packing up now. I probably won't see you till after New Year's, so . . . Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sincerely, John Hammond.'"
"I'm overreacting?" Dr. Sorkin asked, remembering the statement Wu said in his email. "Well, we'll just have to see who's right. I wonder if it would be possible to tell if the Dilophosaurus from the fossil record was venomous or not just by looking at its DNA."
"Maybe," Grant agreed.
Levine glanced out the window and looked at the sun – it was beginning its slow descent downward toward the horizon; it would be several hours before sunset, but time was time and despite the fact that the information they were reading was interesting, Levine wanted to do something else – he wanted to start studying the island's animal life.
"Hey, guys," he began, "this is interesting information, but we should probably go out and start finding wildlife. After all, we're here to study the state of the island."
Lex nodded. "He's right. We're here to conduct research."
"Actually, reading the information on this computer chip might very well count as research," Grant said. "It's hard to know the state of the island if we don't know it's original state. The time between the Jurassic Park Incident and now is crucial – by knowing what was happening before the incident can help us piece together the middle bits."
"He's got a point," Ryan agreed. "We need to split into two groups – one to stay here and do computer research and another to go out into the field. That way we can get the two 'topics' done at once and we'll be able to get the information we need quicker." He turned to Lex. "Of course, I don't have the authority to give all the orders around here."
Lex thought, That might be a better idea and we might be able to get off the island quicker that way. She turned to the others and said, "Alright, two groups. Since I'm good with computers, I'll stay here and help out if I'm needed. We'll also need some dinosaur experts in the field, obviously."
"Levine and Dr. Sorkin can go," Grant suggested. "I'll stay here and help out with the computer information."
So it was decided: Grant, Lex, Taylor and three soldiers would stay near the Visitor Center and get information from the computer files while Levine, Dr. Sorkin, Kailey, Tim, Ryan and two other soldiers would go out into the field and see what they could learn from observations of the island's dinosaurs.
A/N: I don't know about you, but there are lots of unanswered questions dealing with the Jurassic Park films, several of which Jurassic Park: The Game answers. So that's part of the reason why I've decided to have the story's main characters do a bit of research into the park's history. In the next chapter, they'll do some more computer file searching. It's been suggested in Chapter 6 and in this chapter as well, so I'll confirm it – Dr. Laura Sorkin is Amanda Kirby's sister in my story. Doesn't Amanda vaguely resemble Dr. Sorkin if you've seen pictures of both characters? Anyway, I know we didn't get any dinosaurs in this chapter (except a brief cameo from Compsognathus), but I plan to bring more dinosaurs in in Chapter 16. I was originally going to have Levine, Dr. Sorkin and the others go out into the field in this chapter, but it turned out to be longer than I initially anticipated. Do you think Taylor is too much of a brat? Please let me know! Be prepared for the next chapter everyone, because I plan to not only bring in dinosaurs, but (so long as the chapter doesn't stretch like this one did!) also some classic Jurassic Park favorites . . . actually, I plan to bring on dinosaur-fan favorites in general . . .