Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 32: Stanley Wawindaji
A/N: I think everyone's going to like this chapter. The Lexico team is on the verge of arriving on Nublar and today and they'll meet a new original character. Hope you all like him. Also, Levine's computer research is going to reveal some very interesting information concerning the days when Jurassic Park was in operation. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
Malcolm's eyes slowly opened and the first thing he saw was his wife sleeping beside him, her hand lying on his side. He sat up straight and rubbed his sleepy eyes. A moment later, Sarah began to stir.
"Morning, hon," Malcolm greeted.
"Likewise," Sarah responded. They kissed and sat still for a moment more.
"You know, I had this crazy dream last night. I dreamed that Lester summoned us to the Lexico headquarters and we had to go on an expedition to Nublar to rescue the previous team they sent."
Sarah grinned. "Yeah, I had the same dream too."
"Rise and shine everyone!" Rebecca's voice echoed from the intercom on the ceiling. "All team members for the Nublar rescue are to make their appearance on the front deck in 15 minutes or less. Repeat, all team members for the Nublar rescue are to make their appearance on the front deck in 15 minutes or less. Lester's orders. Thank you."
Malcolm groaned as he got out of bed. "I knew my 'dream' seemed a bit too realistic to be fake. Did they really have to put an intercom in our bedroom?"
Sarah nodded and upon getting out of bed, walked over to the dresser near the bed to get out the clothes she'd be changing into for the day. She said, "Well, we'd better not take too long. You know how impatient Lester can be." Sarah looked out the window above their bed to see the sun coming up over the ocean. "Isla Nublar, here we come!" she told herself.
Grant heard a funny noise again that sounded like one of the baby dinosaurs he'd heard the other day. Then he heard Taylor giggling. He opened his eyes and saw the little girl crouched over in front of the shed's gate/door. Now what's that girl up to? he wondered.
He placed his fedora on his head and walked over to her – poking its frilled head through the bars was a small dinosaur with a parrot-like beak at the front of its head, large eyes, two stubby horns above its eyes and an almost non-existent one on its nose. Its body was no bigger than an average-sized pig; it must have been a baby Triceratops. Taylor had pulled a bag of hay over to the gate, opened it and was feeding it to the little dinosaur.
Taylor looked up at Grant. "Oh, hey Dr. Grant!" she said cheerfully. "I'm just feeding Ralph some breakfast."
Grant winced. "Ralph?"
"Yeah, I named him after one of my friends at school. Isn't he cute?"
The little Triceratops happily chewed on the previous mouthful of hay Taylor fed him and looked up at Grant. He swallowed and made a high-pitched bellowing sound. Little bits of hay fell from his mouth and onto the concrete floor of the shed.
"Oh, Ralph!" Taylor giggled. "You're such a messy eater! It's not polite to drop food out of your mouth!" She looked back up at Grant. "Ralph kind of eats like my friend too."
Grant nodded. Just then, he heard a deeper bellowing noise from outside. He looked out between the bars of the gate at the field where they escaped from the Dilophosaurus. It looked far less intimidating in the light of the morning sun than it did at night! Grant saw that the Parasaurolophus and Brachiosaurus from last night were gone. In their place were some more beautiful herbivores – a whole herd of Triceratops. The large dinosaurs – many of the adults measuring 30 feet in length – grazed peacefully both in the field and by the water's edge. This herd seemed to consist of about a dozen or so adults and sub-adults and about as many young animals. A large female lifted her head and made a loud call that echoed across the land. She shook her massive frill and snorted before continuing to eat.
These are really beautiful animals, Grant thought. I was wondering if we'd see any Triceratops while we were here.
Then he turned around to glance at the other members of the group – Dr. Sorkin, soldier #1 and soldier #2 were both still asleep, but Ryan wasn't present. Grant turned to Taylor and asked, "Where's Ryan?"
"He had to take a bathroom break," Taylor answered as she fed Ralph some more hay.
"But where is he?"
"Oh, he's just around the corner. He's on the same side as the river."
Grant nodded in acknowledgment. Ralph suddenly took a deep breath and sneezed in Taylor's direction. Taylor grimaced. "Ralph!" she exclaimed with a giggle. "Seriously? Don't sneeze in my direction." The little dinosaur tried to stretch his neck into the direction of the hay bag, indicating he wanted more. Taylor shook her head. "Man, you are hungry!"
Ralph emitted a loud bleating sound. Grant knelt next to Taylor and reached to touch the dinosaur's head – the scales had a pebbly texture and were warm to the touch.
I thought you might have been warmblooded, Grant thought. Ralph bleated again and presumed to rub his head against Grant's hand.
Taylor laughed. "Aw, he likes you."
All of a sudden, a loud roar caused Grant and Taylor to look in the direction of the Triceratops herd – a large female Triceratops was making her way toward them. She called and Ralph responded; this apparently meant that it was time to rejoin the herd. Ralph pulled backward to get his head from between the bars but his neck frill was in the way! He suddenly began to panic and made more bleating noises as he struggled to get out.
"Oh no!" Taylor began. "He's stuck!"
"Try lightly pushing on his frill," Grant instructed. He and Taylor tried to wedge the dinosaur's frill from between the bars. As the animal panicked, the "windows" of his frill (where many ceratopsians have holes in their frills) began to turn bright red.
"Oh my gosh!" Taylor yelled. "He's changing colors!"
"Oh my gosh," Grant repeated. It had long been suspected that dinosaurs such as Triceratops might have used color blushing, but scientists could never be sure until now.
Ralph's mother called to him again, but the baby was jammed. Grant gave another light push and the baby fell backward. He was free! Ralph yelped and ran back to his mother, glad to be out of the jam. The mother Triceratops made a low bellowing sound and she and her son walked back to the herd.
Taylor sighed. "Well, there he goes."
At that moment, Dr. Sorkin began to stir and she woke up.
"Morning, Dr. Sorkin," Grant said, looking back in her direction.
"Oh, Dr. Grant," she began, "good morning." She got to her feet, walked toward Grant and Taylor and looked outside. "Well, the Triceratops are out early. Beautiful species, aren't they?"
"Yeah, they are."
"We had a good-sized herd of this species when the park was in operation." She let out a sigh before continuing. "These dinosaurs roam in gregarious herds, probably all over the island by now. Back in the day, we found out that they're really fond of banana leaves. They'd jump through hoops for that stuff if they weren't so heavy!"
"Banana leaves?" Taylor inquired.
"Yeah, some people – I think they were Costa Rican – used to tend banana plantations on the island before InGen bought the place. They left a lot of living banana trees behind and the Triceratops decided to chow down on them. But at the rate they were going, we'd be out of banana plants pretty quick, so we had some more brought to the island from the mainland to feed them."
Grant broke the silence that followed. "When we were on the island before, you might recall that we – Ellie and I – tended a sick individual. When did they start getting sick?"
"Oh, they started getting sick I think, uh, probably several months before you came here, Grant. We weren't sure at first, and I was studying another species at the time, so I didn't have time to really investigate what the culprit was."
Taylor asked, "What caused them to get sick?"
"Berries from the West Indian Lilac plant. InGen brought them to the island for decorative purposes, but every six weeks, they would need to swallow stones to aid their digestion and–"
"Stones?!"
"Yeah," Grant answered, "many species of dinosaurs either couldn't or could only crudely slice food with their teeth. So they swallow stones known as gastroliths. These gastroliths roll around in the dinosaur's stomach and mush up the food. Many types of birds do that today. When the Triceratops ate the gastroliths, they'd accidentally consume lilac berries that were mixed in with the stones and therefore get sick. For some strange reason, Malcolm's book, e portrayed a Stegosaurus instead of Triceratops getting sick."
A few minutes passed. While Grant, Dr. Sorkin and Taylor watched the Triceratops herd outside, Ryan appeared around the corner. "Hey guys," he said. "I'm back."
"It took that long for a bathroom break?" Grant asked.
Ryan grinned. "No, but I found something you guys might want to have a look at on the side of the shed facing the river."
Levine opened another email on his computer. While waiting for the email to open, he glanced at the rising sun peaking over the nearby trees, turning the sky a brilliant pink. Man, this is beautiful, he thought. While everyone else is sleep, I might as well use my time to do some more research. Here's an interesting email.
November 14, 1992
Dear Hammond,
The Velociraptor nublarensis that Muldoon nicknamed the 'Big One' on Sorna is growing . . . fast! She'll probably be ready to ship to Nublar this May. Thanks for giving me the confirmation to make the Compsognathus free-roaming species. I'm feeling much calmer just thinking about the fact that I won't have to worry about keeping them in their enclosure anymore.
By the way, we've finally been able to decode the DNA of the amber that we recently received from Kansas and it confirmed my suspicions – it's DNA of a mosasaur, a Cretaceous sea-dwelling lizard. I'm not yet aware of the species, but I know that it will be a great new addition to the park. On this note, you might be curious to know how work is coming along for the marine exhibit. It's actually coming along great. I'm even surprised how much work they've been able to accomplish in that underwater cave. No expense was spared, of course. I have no idea how to handle and care for a mosasaur, and neither do our park animal specialists; they're experienced with land and aerial creatures. That figures, because much of my spare time over the past several months has been put toward researching the dinosaurs we're recreating, and not marine reptiles. You might want to consider hiring some aquatic creature specialists once we've actually recreated the mosasaur. So far, we haven't been able to track down DNA of any other marine reptiles, so plesiosaurs will have to wait.
As you asked in your last email, I have told the landscapers to bring in the imported plants you requested. There has been some concern shown from some of the staff that some of the plants might be poisonous to the animals' systems, but none of the animal handlers seem to think that the animals will eat the toxic plants; I hope their correct! You might also want to know that work on the roller coaster ride 'The Bone Shaker' is coming along well. They've recently finished blasting the cliff to the right proportions and the contractors have already ordered building supplies. Oh, and please give me your opinion on this on your next visit to the park: Muldoon and others have begun expressing concern about the ride's closeness to the Herrerasaurus paddocks. I know they're no Velociraptor, and I doubt that they'll cause a threat (after all, I don't think they have the brains of the raptors to figure a way out of their enclosure!), but I'd like to know your opinion.
Now, last but not least, Gennaro has finally been able to coax that private amber collector into giving up the mosquito-filled amber specimens! Once again, he spared no expense in order to acquire them, I can assure you! My lab assistants and I were so excited about the possibility of recreating several new species for the park. In fact, we've already started decoding the DNA for some of the specimens. It turns out that I'm not able to determine what species they belong to yet, so we're going to have to bring them to life to find out. Maybe they can be some late additions to the park. Sorna has been so busy lately with recreating known species and trying to figure out things like why our Stegosaurus are acting weird and why the 'Baryonyx' are growing sail-backs, that I've decided to set up a secluded research laboratory on the northwestern side of the island, close to Dr. Sorkin's field lab but far enough away from it so that she can't be nosy and will be completely unaware of our work.
Can't wait for your next arrival at the park.
Sincerely, Henry Wu
Levine closed the email and went into thought mode. Now this is getting interesting, he thought. Let's sum up what's going on so far: they're recreating a number of dinosaurs on Sorna and shipping some of them to Nublar. The park's operations seem to be in full swing, they must be . . . his thoughts trailed off as Lex awoke.
"Oh, hi Levine," she said. Levine nodded in return and Lex continued. "How long have you been up?"
"Not too long. I've found some major information here. Want to call InGen the company of secrets? Well, here's the reason!"
Lex sat up straight and Levine continued to explain. "So, here's what I've learned from an email to Hammond sent on November 14, 1992, around seven months before the park's demise – first of all, construction and other operations are in full swing! They've begun working on Phase B projects, such as the Marine exhibit, the Bone Shaker roller coaster ride, and according to a previous email we've read within the last couple of days, probably the five-star hotel for the park. They've also tracked down DNA from a species of mosasaur–"
"Tylosaurus," Lex breathed.
"Probably, and they've also ordered imported plants – likely including West Indian Lilac, which as you'll recall made the Triceratops sick – to be shipped to the island to beautify the place. They didn't think the dinosaurs would eat them, see? Some of the staff have also been concerned about the fact that the Herrerasaurus exhibit is so close to the roller coaster. The most interesting bit of information I found here is that they attained a large amount of amber specimens from an amber collector. They have decoded the DNA from some of the specimens and are unable to identify the species that they've decoded."
"How does this play out in the whole scheme of things?"
Levine smiled. "Don't you see? Wait, you don't see do you? This is what I'm talking about: while in operation, Jurassic Park had many little issue and problems. These issues and problems don't seem all that bad at first and mostly went unnoticed. But that's where Malcolm's Chaos Theory comes into play. You see, little situations or things that happen in everyday life don't seem too important to the 'grand scheme of things'. BUT, that's only when you look at it from a lower perspective; without a bird's-eye-view, you can miss a lot. According to the Chaos Theory, also known as the Butterfly effect, little things that happen play a big part in later events – not all at once, but over time, sometimes very long periods of time. To help you grasp this, let me use a little example: a butterfly is a relatively small insect, right? But it's believed that if one were to flap its wings in say . . . California, the mere flapping of its wings could make minute changes to the weather patterns and cause rain instead of sunshine in Florida."
Lex nodded. "So . . . your saying that little issues or problems that went on in the everyday life of the park were what eventually played a part in its downfall, sort of like the domino effect?"
"Yes! That's exactly what I'm saying!"
"Wow. I think someone's been hanging around Malcolm a bit too much."
"Well, maybe I have. But hey, the Chaos Theory can help you get a bird's-eye-view of things."
At 6:30 a.m., Malcolm, Sarah, Kelly and Eric exited their rooms and found Lester, Hammond and Rebecca waiting for them on the deck of the ship with a man the new team had not met before. He was African, rather tall and wore a safari hat over his short black hair. His facial features were stern and serious. He looked somewhere between his early 30's and late 40's.
"Alright, glad to see your all bright eyed and bushy tailed so early in the morning," Lester said. He turned to the man on his left and said, "I want you all to meet Stanley Wuh . . . Wayin . . ."
"Wawindaji," Stanley corrected. "Stanley Wawindaji. It's a Swahili name."
"Uh, yes that. And as I was saying, we've hired Stanley to assist us on this rescue mission."
"And what does Stanley do?" Eric asked.
"I'm a game warden at a large wildlife preserve in Kenya," Stanley explained. It was easy to tell based on his accent that he was from Africa. "Lester tells me that you guys lost a research team on Isla Nublar and so I'm here to help you guys track them down and get them off the island as quickly as possible."
"And you'll be searching for signs of Biosyn activity on the island," Rebecca reminded him.
"Wait," Malcolm said, "you hired a wildlife tracker to track down people?"
"Well in a sense, yes we did," Hammond replied. "Tracking down humans can often be easier than tracking animals. Besides, Stanley's occupation has given him great knowledge about surviving in the wilderness. Couldn't think of a better person to bring along on this mission. Spared no expense."
"I've tracked down a number of animals back in Africa," Stanley explained.
"I'm pretty experienced in the field too," Sarah told him. "I've worked around African predators since I was 20 years old – lions, jackals, hyenas . . . even this guy." She elbowed her husband.
Stanley laughed. "Well, two experienced outdoors people is better than one."
Just then, the captain of the ship yelled, "We're approaching Isla Nublar!"
Lester, Hammond, Malcolm and the others looked out over the misty ocean and saw the island – it looked absolutely beautiful in the light of the morning sun. But its appearance would greatly fool anyone who dared underestimate the dangers of this location.
"So this is the great Isla Nublar?" Stanley asked in awe. "It's breathtaking! I've never seen anything like it in my life!"
Eric smiled with delight; he was already starting to like this guy. "Oh you haven't seen anything yet," he told Stanley.
"Is the ocean around the island always this misty?"
"Not always," Hammond answered. "But many times it is quite cloudy here. We were originally planning to build the park in San Diego, but . . ." Hammond chuckled, "this place was a much better location for the Jurassic Park. Spared no expense."
"Listen up everyone!" Lester exclaimed. "I want all hands on deck! Soldiers, report to the front deck within ten minutes. I want this rescue mission underway the minute we arrive at the island's North Dock!"
Lex and Levine woke Kailey, Tim and Rob from their sleep. As the sun rose higher into the sky, the sounds of more dinosaurs in the distant traveled through the morning air. The calls of Brachiosaurus and Parasaurolophus and other unknown species could be heard from miles away.
"Well, another morning on Nublar," Tim said as he stretched. "It's really beautiful out here. The sun's coloration is so . . . tropical-looking this time of day." He looked down at the banana plants below their tree and got an idea. "Say, why don't we stock up on food supplies before we get a move on."
"Good idea," Kailey said. So the group started making their way down the tree. Once they were down, Kailey asked, "So how many bananas do we need?"
"Just gather as many as you can," Levine responded. "Since I'm the only one with a backpack, I'll carry the majority. I'll sit my bag in the center of the area here and we can put the bananas we've collected into the bag."
With that, the group got to work.
"Great, plenty of bananas," Rob said. "Will that be too heavy for you to carry Levine?"
Levine shook his head. "Nope. While we're at a pause here, why don't we all take bathroom breaks so we don't have to stop while we're on the move."
"Alright, guys on the right, girls on the left." Rob and Levine went to the right, but Tim, Kailey and Lex hesitated.
"Oh, this is going to be so gross!" Kailey exclaimed. "Maybe I'll wait till I have to go. Who knows? Maybe we'll be off the island by then."
"Don't count on it. Just go to the bathroom and get it over with."
Kailey shrugged and went to the left, leaving Tim and Lex standing alone in the jungle.
Lex looked at Tim and said, "So . . . you don't need to go?"
"Nah, I'm good."
"Me too." There was another moment of silence between the two siblings. "Oh, by the way, Tim, I've been meaning to ask you . . . what do you see in Kailey."
Tim winced. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, you know, what do you think she's going to be doing once we get off the island?"
"How should I know?" Tim shrugged. "She's probably going back to California to study the Pteranodons with Dr. Sorkin."
"Probably. You know, Kailey's a pretty interesting person once you get to know her. She's a very inquisitive and precocious girl."
"Um . . . what are you getting at?"
"Oh, I don't know . . . I just thought that since you two seem to get along well, maybe you should stay in contact with Kailey when we're off the island. I can tell you'd be great friends."
Tim grinned as he became slightly suspicions of his sister. "Hold on a second . . . are you trying to play matchmaker?"
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, first of all, you directed the topic directly to Kailey and you're trying to show off her best characteristics."
Lex smiled sheepishly. "Alright, alright. But seriously, what do you think about her, as a person?"
"Why?"
"Just curious."
Tim slightly blushed as he began to speak, "Well . . . OK, she's sort of cute, I guess. I guess I kind of like her . . . I guess . . ."
"I knew it! You do like her!"
"You're going to make me blush," Tim told her with a sheepish grin.
"You're already blushing. In all seriousness though, I just thought it would be kind of nice if you two got together. You look kinda cute together, actually."
"She's probably got a boyfriend already."
"No, she doesn't. So that makes–"
"Hey guys! I'm back!" Levine said, incidentally interrupting their conversation as he entered the clearing, followed by Rob. "Is Kailey finished?"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Kailey exclaimed as she came into view. "Are we ready to go?"
"Yes, we are."
Ryan led Grant, Dr. Sorkin, Taylor and the other two soldiers to the side of the shed facing the river. What they saw made them gasp in surprise – at the side of the shed was another shed, slightly smaller than the main shed and it had no door. Inside were four small inflatable boats and a pair of paddles for each one.
Ryan looked up and smiled at the others. "I don't know about you, but I'm not walking anymore!"
"This is good, Ryan," Grant acknowledged. "If we follow this river, we should be able to ride this river down to the coast . . . what do you think, Dr. Sorkin?"
Dr. Sorkin nodded. "Yes, we should. I think I know exactly where we are now! We're at the animal maintenance shed in what was once one of the Parasaurolophus and Brachiosaurus paddock. This river here gets wider and deeper as it goes along its route and it leads all the way to the ocean on the northern face of the island!"
"Great!" Taylor exclaimed. "So we ride to the north, find the North Dock and we can go home."
"No, because as far as we know Lexico hasn't sent a rescue team. But we'll be one step closer to getting off the island if we reach the North Dock."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Grant asked. "Let's get one of these boats inflated!"
A/N: How do you like the new character I added, Stanley Wawindaji. Since Stanley is from Africa, I gave him a Swahili last name. Did you know his last name – Wawindaji – means "hunter" in Swahili? I figured this would be a good last name for him, as it reflects his occupation in Africa. How do you think Grant's group's plan to make it to the North Dock will work out? What do you think will happen next? I'd love to hear your ideas. Next week's chapter should be very exciting! I can't wait to publish it!