Woohoo, I finally found the time to get this bloody thing done. Thanks all for your reviews, and I hope you enjoy this next chapter...

In The Name Of Science

Chapter 3: "Stockholm Syndrome"

Part 1

It had been roughly a day since the lab incident. The scientific community was reeling from what was said to be the greatest scientific discovery of human history; that, contrary to belief, dinosaurs were sentient beings capable of intelligent thinking and coherent speech. They were similar to humanity in ways that no-one could have predicted.

Yet Jennings, despite knowing that he had almost single-handedly altered man's opinions and views of the prehistoric reptiles, didn't seem fazed in the slightest. Quite the opposite, in fact - rather than treating his catch with awe and suspicion, like his lab-coated colleagues, he eagerly wanted to know more about her.

Much to the detriment of his friend, Hartley.

It was lunchtime. The lean, tall hunter and the short, rotund doctor were seated at a small table in Delta Point's cafeteria. Scientists, assistants, cleaners and hunters alike were seated at separate tables all around them, discussing the amazing specimen that had changed the face of educated thinking. The large number of voices, running into each other to create a loud buzz - combined with the clatter of cutlery and dishes - provided the perfect environment for the two friends to have a conversation of their own, though it bordered on an argument.

"Dan, I'm not playing games anymore," Jennings pressed. "I need your lab pass."

"Absolutely not!" Hartley replied through a mouthful of Carbonara. "I don't know why you keep pressuring me."

"I just want to talk to her, that's all," Jennings countered.

"'That's all?!'" Hartley exclaimed irately. "Do you have any idea of the risk you'd be taking?"

"All I want to do is apologise to her for what I've done. She's been hurt. She's been violated."

Hartley rolled his eyes, taking a kerchief and wiping his mouth. "Tom... She's a talking dinosaur!"

Jennings fixed his eyes on Hartley in annoyance. Just after the discovery, Special Ops had been called in and the dinosaur had been quarantined until further research could be done on her. Needless to say, she hadn't enjoyed being tranquilised again and carted off to a lone, sterile chamber - just as much as Jennings hadn't enjoyed watching it happen. He couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible as he had stood back to let Special Ops through with the prized specimen.

Through the night, he had felt an irrepressible urge to put things right. Now that his catch was seen to have sentience, he couldn't just brush it off like he had with all other specimens. He had to get into the quarantine chamber and see her.

Problem was, one needed a designated lab pass to do so. Jennings, being a hunter, did not have one, nor the means to obtain it.

But Hartley did.

Jennings smirked slightly. "Okay then... please?"

Hartley stared at him from behind thick-rimmed glasses. "God forbid... if you are caught on your own, with my lab pass, the Administrator will have our heads - mine especially!" He placed the now scrunched-up kerchief and his cutlery onto his plate as he continued. "Only I can use my lab pass to access the laboratories. The only way for you to use it legally is if you have a supervisor-"

"Well," Jennings interjected, leaning forward, "I've got one sitting in front of me. You're always such a stickler for regulations... you won't be breaking any rules."

Hartley opened his mouth to retaliate, but blinked as he realised what had been said. He thought better of it and sighed.

"I suppose you're right," he muttered. "When do you want to visit her?"

In response, Jennings simply stood up. Hartley creased his eyebrows.

"Now?"

Jennings shrugged. "It's as good a time as any." With that, he began walking towards the cafeteria's exit.

Hartley stared after him for a second or two. He looked around to see if anyone was watching, then he took a doggy bag Jennings had left on the table. Picking up his still-untouched slice of apple pie, he then placed it inside the bag and wrapped the opening closed.

Satisfied that his interrupted dessert was safe for the time being, Hartley took the bag and set about catching up to his friend.

Soon after, the two were walking down a corridor in the quarantine labs sector. There were rows of doors on either side of the clean, white passage - mostly offices and archiving rooms - but what Jennings and Hartley had trained their sights on was an equally clean and white door at the very end - the room in which the dinosaur was being kept.

As they walked, Hartley noticed that Jennings was becoming rather fidgety. He was repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists and biting his lip. This was enough of a sign to anyone that he was becoming nervous.

Still, Hartley engaged in conversation with him.

"What seems to be the matter Tom?" He asked. "I was under the impression that you wanted to see this dinosaur."

"I do, I do," Jennings replied. "It's just... I haven't worked out exactly what to say to her."

"You're telling me this now?" Hartley questioned as they edged closer to the door. "You want to apologise; so, apologise. How hard could that be?"

Jennings sighed. "Look, it's more than that. I'm responsible for her being here... putting her through all this. How is an apology enough to clean my record?"

Hartley looked back at the door, which was coming closer. "Just say whatever comes to you. You'll think of something."

They were only a few metres away from the door. Hartley half-jokingly finished, "Don't make me miss out on my pie for nothing."

Jennings returned the wry expression thrown at him as they finally reached the spotless sheet of metal. Next to the door, on the wall, was a narrow slit from which red light glowed softly.

As Jennings breathed deeply, Hartley produced his pass - something resembling a credit card with a barcode printed on the face. Dexterous fingers then slotted the card into the small opening, and pulled it back out after the scanner had read the code. The red glow inside the slit immediately changed to green, and with a mechanical hiss, the door slid open.

Placing the pass back inside his pocket, Hartley turned to Jennings and motioned towards the open doorway with his head.

"After you."

Following a small pause, Jennings nodded. Taking one final deep breath, he lifted one foot and stepped into the quarantine chamber.

Upon entering, Jennings turned his head to the left and took in the room. Not that there was much to take in. The chamber was much the same as any other room in the facility; white, polished, clean sterile, featureless... dull.

The swathe of pure white was broken by only four things - a security camera nestled in the top corner, two dishes, one with leaf cuttings, the other with water - and the very thing Jennings was looking for: a small, reptilian form, facing away from him, curled into a ball.

"There she is..." Jennings mouthed to himself.

For the next few moments, he simply stared at the quivering sauropod. The near-silence was only marred by the sound of soft sobbing. Jennings' heart sank as he realised that the little dinosaur was crying.

Eventually, he shifted his gaze to Hartley, unsure of what to do next. It seemed that the dinosaur had no idea that they had entered.

Hartley simply shrugged. He knew what to do just as well as Jennings did - not at all.

The hunter sighed again, seeing that there was only one thing that could be done. He turned back to the catch, and began walking slowly towards her.

It seemed to him like a long, endless journey - approaching the young Apatosaurus like he was in a car, travelling gradually towards a city on the distant horizon. Every one of those ten or so seconds seemed like an eternity and a half.

He noticed as he came closer that the reptile suddenly stopped crying, and visibly tensed. She had become aware of his presence.

Step by step he continued, until he came to a creeping stop next to her.

He just stood. Stared at her for a while. She couldn't see him; her neck was curled so that her face was turned away. Nonetheless, Jennings was able to look her over properly for the first time.

Her size was interesting. Though she was curled up, Jennings could get a good idea of her length and height. Five, maybe six feet high when standing on all fours; seven or eight feet nose-to-tail. He estimated that, when she was standing, Hartley would be looking at her jawbone.

Jennings took another step forward. Time to talk to a dinosaur.

Giving the floor a once-over, he tentatively sat down next to her - the latter with her face still turned away.

Jennings tried his best to speak from a tongue-tied mouth. He still hadn't worked out exactly what to say. What he eventually came up with was relatively anti-climactic.

"...Hi." It was quiet, nervous. He awaited any reply he could get, which he jumped at when it was recieved:

"...Hi." The dinosaur's voice was soft and lilted, reminding Jennings of a flower petal.

He drew in a breath and spoke again.

"So, er... what's your name? ...You have a name, right?"

Another pause.

"...My name's Ali. What's yours?"

"Uh - Thomas Jennings. But you can call me Tom... or just Jennings."

"Hmm..."

Jennings' mind was a mess. He simply wanted to say sorry, but how? Chances were, 'Ali' didn't even know what had happened to her. He was given a bit of leeway when she spoke again.

"Jennings... could you... tell me where I am?"

"Um..." Jennings glanced back at Hartley, giving the answer a bit of thought, before replying. "...Ali... you're in a place called Delta Point. It's a scientific research facility. Here, people do experiments... tests... to help us understand how the world works."

Ali seemed to mull over this response before speaking again.

"Well... Why am I here, then?"

There was another long pause as Jennings thought about how to answer this next question.

"People wanted to do... experiments... on you. They were going to kill you and cut you up... take a look at what was inside. But then we found out you could talk, and everything changed." Ali drew in a nervous breath when he mentioned killing, but regained her composure.

"You didn't know dinosaurs could talk?" the sauropod asked quietly.

"Well, no... you are the first living evidence we've found of it."

Jennings saw the dinosaur raising her head from the floor - needless to say, she was still turned away.

"...What's that supposed to mean?" She nervously enquired.

The hunter bit his lip. This was going to be difficult.

"...Do dinosaurs use a system to count the passing of time? Like, the seasons, or something?"

"Well... we have Cold Times."

Jennings nodded - Winter. "Ah, good. Or maybe not... depending on how you look at it." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Ali... you're in the future, if that makes any sense. Think of the night before you were taken here, and a point in time that's sixty-six million Cold Times from that night. A temporary tunnel was made between those two points, and you were taken through it..." He paused. "And this... here and now... is the other side."

Yet another long silence.

"Which means..." Ali murmured, an edge of dread to her voice. "Which means, I'm the only dinosaur alive right now..."

"Yes," Jennings confirmed quietly.

"So I've been put to sleep," Ali half-whispered, "Taken here, to a place where everyone I've ever known is dead... I've almost been killed... and I'm stuck here."

Jennings stared at his feet. Nothing needed to be said.

Overbearing silence decided to pay another visit. The hunter was still trying to find a window in their awkward conversation to make an apology - so far, the opportunity was not presenting itself. What could he say to her? When could he say it? How could he say it?

"But then..." Ali mused.

Jennings snapped back to attention.

"...If I was... taken here, someone must have done it themselves," she said. "...Put me to sleep and brought me here."

Jennings closed his eyes. He knew what was coming.

"Jennings... who did it? Do you know?"

He breathed deeply, and tried to form words. "It..."

Now or never.

"...It..."

Just say it...

He sighed and hung his head. Slowly but surely, he told her.

"...It was me. I did it. I put you to sleep... and... I brought you here."

[ConfuzzledAussie]

August/September/October 2009