Jurassic World: Apocalypse – Chapter 9: How to Hatch a Dinosaur
A/N: This should be a fun chapter for you all, my readers, to read. Now if you've seen the movie, you'll recognize several scenes from the Jurassic Park movie/novel. However, I've given them a new twist, so they won't be exactly the same. I've even slipped a line or two from the Jurassic World movie in here. Also, be prepared to meet a very familiar cartoon character for fans of the Jurassic Park movie who will explain many things to Malcolm's party. Also, we'll see a little bit from Alaina, Tom and Brianna's park exploration and we'll learn a little bit more about the terrifyingly disturbing homosaurs! Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
"What is this place?" Malcolm asked as he and the rest of his group – Sarah, Kelly, Cheryl, Billy, Hammond, Masrani and Gennaro – walked into the hallway.
"It's the Hammond Creation Lab, Dad," Kelly said. "Didn't you read the sign?"
The entrance to the Hammond Creation Lab was a long hallway; the walls of this hallway were covered in large monitors. Nothing yet was on the monitors. Malcolm turned to Hammond.
"So...just walk down this hallway?"
Hammond nodded. As the group began walking, the imprint of a hand appeared on the wall to their right. Above the hand were the words: Place your hand here for DNA extraction.
Masrani grinned. "Place your hand there, Dr. Malcolm. Don't worry. It's not a real DNA extraction."
Malcolm obliged. All of a sudden, a little colorful character zoomed from behind Malcolm's hand and darted around the entire wall, finally coming to a stop in front of the group. The character was a multi-colored DNA helix with arms, legs and a face; a goofy, yet uncanny cartoon character. Malcolm grimaced, while Sarah, Billy, Cheryl and Kelly found themselves amused.
"Well howdy there, folks! My name's Mr. DNA.."
"Where'd he come from?" Kelly asked.
"From your blood! Just one drop of your blood contains billions of strands of DNA – the building blocks! A DNA strand, like me, is the blueprint for building a living thing. And sometimes, animals that went extinct lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong ago left their blue prints behind for us to find. A new age of dinosaurs starts here at the Hammond Creation Lab. In our state of the art facilities, work the world's greatest living geneticists who know exactly how to extract, sequence and assemble the DNA necessary to bring dinosaurs to life! But before we do any of that, we need the DNA to begin with. We just had to know where the look."
Then the group found the ground to be moving beneath them. Ian was about to ask why when he realized the pathway itself was a conveyer belt, moving them along toward the Creation Lab. Then the screens on the walls around them displayed a cartoon about the topic Mr. DNA was talking about.
"Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there were mosquitoes, just like today. And just like today, they fed on the blood of other animals, even dinosaurs! Sometimes, after biting a dinosaur, the mosquito would land on the branch of a tree and get stuck in the sap. After a long time, the tree sap would get hard and become fossilized, just like a dinosaur bone, eternally trapping the mosquito inside. The mosquito's stomach contents – the blood and DNA from its final meal – are also preserved inside. Talk about fossil fuel! This fossilized tree sap, which we call amber, waited until Jurassic World scientists came along. Using sophisticated techniques, they extract the preserved blood from the mosquito and bingo! We've got dino DNA! A full DNA strand contains three billion genetic codes."
The walls around them were suddenly covered with billions of genetic codes, zooming about. Cartoony highway sounds were heard before Mr. DNA continued his narration.
"If we looked at screens like this for 24 hours a day, it would take two years to examine the entire DNA strand. It's that long! Fortunately, it's full of holes, and that's where our geneticists take over. Thinking machines, super computers and gene sequences break down the strands in minutes..."
"But wait a minute," Cheryl began, "wouldn't the DNA be filled with gaps, since it's so old?"
"Yes," Masrani said. "Mr. DNA is about to explain that."
"Using our sophisticated DNA sequencing techniques, such as virtual reality displays," Mr. DNA said, "scientists analyze and arrange the DNA sample and millions of pieces of genetic code to map the entire dinosaur genome, and they also show our geneticists the gaps in the DNA sequence. Our paleogeneticists use DNA from the frog to fill in the missing sequences. Then the dinosaur DNA is inserted into eggs. Phew! And now, we can make a baby dinosaur! Follow me to the Creation Lab!"
The conveyer belt pathway moved downward, transporting Malcolm's group and other tourists not with his group toward the Creation Lab. Finally, they moved beyond the monitors on the wall where they first met Mr. DNA and saw a large laboratory where scientists were hard at work behind the a window. Between the lab and the conveyer belt were lines of tourists gawking at what was happening inside.
Mr. DNA continued, "Those hard working folks you see behind the glass are our geneticists..."
"This is really overwhelming, John," Gennaro said. "Did we decide to make the geneticists auto...rotica–?"
"No, no, no," Hammond told him. Even though Gennaro was associated with the park, he actually wasn't here and interacting with what attractions the park had to offer very often. "We have no animatronics here, Donald. These people are the real miracle workers at Jurassic World."
"So the dinosaur eggs in the lab are the dinosaur eggs that will hatch the actual dinosaurs?" Sarah asked.
"Yes, they are."
"Oh my gosh!" Cheryl squealed. "Can we see the fertilized eggs?"
"Shortly, darling. That's the next part of the tour. Because your our guests, you'll be able to actually go into the laboratory."
For once, even Ian Malcolm seemed interested. "Excuse me, can we stop this thing?"
"I'm sorry, but it's kind of a ride. Just relax and listen to Mr. DNA as he explains–"
With a loud moan, Dianthus ran underneath the rope fence separating the pathway from the laboratory window.
"Dianthus, no!" Hammond cried.
"I'm right behind you, Dianthus," Malcolm said. He, Cheryl, Sarah, Kelly and Billy walked underneath the fence. Seeing no point in holding them back, Masrani, Hammond and then Gennaro followed.
"They can't do that, can they?" Gennaro asked Hammond.
"Whoa, Rufus!" Tom exclaimed. Rufus was another young Triceratops. But unlike Ralphie, the Triceratops they fed earlier, Rufus was mainly for park guests to ride. The handler had helped Tom and Brianna onto Rufus' back and he was now walking the dinosaur around the enclosure. Alaina stood behind the fence, taking pictures of the twosome.
"Just stay steady," the handler instructed Tom and Brianna. "Riding Rufus is just like riding a horse."
"Yeah, a scaly horse with horns and a frill," Brianna said, "and an adult weight of 10 tons."
The handler laughed. "Yes, he'll be a big dude when he's full-grown."
"Way to go, you two!" Alaina called from the sidelines.
When they were done riding Rufus, the three teens left the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo with loads of pictures. Brianna smirked.
"Think they'll let us ride the T. rex?" she asked. They all laughed. "Just kidding. I don't want to ride the T. rex."
"Speaking of T. rex," Alaina said, "where should we go next."
The three of them looked at the map and tried to pinpoint exactly where they wanted to go next.
Alaina suggested, "T. rex Kingdom sounds interesting. We should go there next." She read the description of the attraction: 'It's T. rex's world—the rest of us are just visiting it. Venture into the Jurassic-sized viewing area to see the legendary predator in her natural domain. After all, the 40-foot, 9-ton Tyrannosaurus rex is among the largest carnivores to have ever stalked the planet. Feedings are scheduled every two hours. Warning: This attraction may be too intense for children and some adults.'"
"Actually," Tom said, "as cool as seeing a real live T. rex would be, I'd like to go to the Mosasaurus Feeding Show. Mosasaurus is almost like a T. rex, but one that lives in the water. Plus, it's bigger."
The girls shrugged.
"Sure, Tom," Brianna agreed. "That sounds like fun. While we're there, we can swing by a concession stand. I'm getting hungry."
Everyone followed Hammond and Masrani as they walked into the "authorized personal" section and toward the entrance to the Hatchery itself.
"I don't think this is such a good idea, John," Gennaro said. "We don't want everyone coming into the behind-the-scenes of the park."
Billy reached the door of the Hatchery first. He tried to shove it open, but he just thudded into it. Then Billy rattled the handle, and still the door refused to open. Hammond stepped up and removed his glasses.
Referencing Gennaro, he said, "Relax, Donald, relax. They're scientists, they out to be curious." Hammond stepped up to the code box next to the door and allowed it to scan his eyes. Putting his glasses back on, he said, "It's a retina scanner. We spared no expense on security for this place." Then he pushed various code numbers and the door opened. He led the others down the stairs; they were all eager to see the hatchery.
Cheryl glanced at her boyfriend and noticed he was frowning and shaking his head. He was having fun, wasn't he?
"Hey, you OK?" she asked.
"Me? Sure, I'm fine...I'm having a blast...I'm just trying to figure out what we're going to do about work. I know I need to stop thinking about it while we're here so I can enjoy myself...but–"
Cheryl hugged him. "It's OK. We'll be fine."
Billy grinned and said, "Yeah, I hope we will be, even if we're out of a job–"
"Don't you mean 'extinct'?" Malcolm asked. He quickly received a elbow-bump from Sarah. "Ow! What?"
The Hatchery was a vast, open room. Long tables ran the length of the place, covered in microscopes and other scientific equipment. Some round tables were near the center of the room and they were covered in eggs that lay situated in an artificial nest. Billy, Cheryl and Sarah was struck with amazement – they were looking at eggs that would hatch an incredible set of reptiles in the not-too-distant future. At one of the tables, a robotic arm was manipulating the eggs in the nest, turning them like a mother bird would in the wild.
"This place is so cool," Kelly commented. "Look at all these eggs...I wonder what dinosaur they've got inside."
Sarah, Cheryl and Billy walked over to one of the nests. This was a special moment for any paleontologist, but Sarah especially. See, one of her favorite research topics was the reproduction behavior of the long-extinct dinosaurs. Over the course of her life as a scientist, she had been to countless sites around the world where fossil nests and eggs of dinosaurs had been discovered. The fossil eggs she observed were not shielding a tiny life inside. They were amazing nonetheless, but not alive. But these eggs were different. Though they lay silently in their artificial nests, Sarah couldn't help but become instantly attached to the little objects–
"I see you've taken interest in our artificial dinosaur nests."
The three paleontologists looked up to see an oriental man wearing a white lab coat.
"Oh yes!" Hammond said. "Everyone, this is Dr. Henry Wu, our chief geneticist. He's been working with InGen since the very beginning; in fact, he's the man responsible for making the cloning of dinosaurs possible."
Henry blushed. "Well, I had help."
"How did you figure out how to recreate living dinosaurs?" Kelly inquired.
"Well, it took the work of several scientists working and putting their brains together to make it happen. It's just one of those things we gradually thought and worked through until we got a living, breathing animal. I remember the time very well, back in late 2013. We hadn't even begun building the park yet – we were at our laboratories in the InGen headquarters in California."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Cheryl told him.
"How are you liking the park so far?"
"It's incredible," Sarah told him.
"Henry," someone called from nearby. Owen Grady approached the group.
"And this," Masrani said, "is Owen Grady. He's our chief dinosaur behavioral expert."
"Awesome," Billy said.
After Masrani introduced everyone to Owen, Owen said, "It's great to meet you all. If you're interested, you might want to check out this nest over on this table."
"I was going to show them that nest when they were ready to hatch," Henry told him.
Owen cleared his throat and gestured toward the table – one of the eggs began to display signs of life, strong movements and jerks. The group rushed over to the table to see the sight.
"Perfect timing," Henry said. "I was hoping they'd hatch today."
Hammond quickly pulled some rubber gloves onto his hands and approached the egg. "I always insist on being here when their born."
"Excuse me, John," Owen said, as he moved in front of the egg. If he was to be working with this dinosaur, he knew he had to be one of the first things she came into contact with. Owen, after also putting rubber gloves on, looked upon the egg as the little creature struggled to escape its shell. Finally, a crack appeared in the shell. The chirping and squealing of the tiny dinosaur could already be heard inside. Owen responded by making a whistling sound with his lips. The dinosaur replied with a chirping call of its own.
"Come on, little one," Hammond cooed. "Out you come..."
The dinosaur pushed further, widening the cracks...finally, the baby's eyes could be seen! Even the tourists watching from outside the window awed at the sight. Owen reached forward and lightly removed the loose piece of eggshell on top of the dinosaur's head, allowing her to see the world.
"There you are...there you are..." Hammond continued.
The dinosaur had a pair of large yellow eyes and a large head in proportion to its body size. Its hand claws and teeth were tiny at this age, but they were still pretty sharp. The dinosaur seemed happy to see Owen and chirped at him.
"Aw! It's so cute!" Kelly exclaimed quietly.
"Most dinosaurs imprint on the first thing they come into contact with," Owen explained as he and Hammond began to wipe the new-born-goo off the baby dinosaur. "This helps them to trust me." Owen grinned as the dinosaur looked up at him endearingly. "There you go little guy. You'll be all cleaned up in a jiffy."
Billy shook his head in amazement. Alan would have loved to see this.
"Can I touch it?" Sarah asked.
Owen nodded. "Just be careful. They can deliver a nasty bite, even at this age."
Sarah reached out and gently stroked the creatures scaly, wet skin. Sarah winced. "Body temperature seems like a...high eighties, maybe?"
"91," Henry corrected. "This species is homeothermic, meaning they can hold their own body temperature."
"You know," Billy said, "here's a question I've always wanted to know the answer to: are dinosaurs warm or cold-blooded?"
Henry smiled. "Actually, their neither. Most dinosaurs are mesotherm, meaning their sort of in the middle. They have a lot of the advantages of being either warm and cold-blooded, but they lack most of the disadvantages of both too. However, carnivores typically are closer to being warm-blooded and herbivores are closer to cold-blooded, but only slightly. No dinosaur is sluggish like cold-blooded animals are often today. Even our most 'sluggish' dinosaur – Ankylosaurus – can be quite quick and light on its feet despite its size, even when the temperature is a little chilly."
Hammond chuckled as he continued to clean the baby dinosaur. "This is why I'm present at the birth of every creature on this island – it's for moments such as these."
"Except for the ones bred in the wild, I would assume," Malcolm suggested.
Henry smiled again. "Actually they can't breed in the wild. In order to avoid overpopulation, no unauthorized breeding occurs in Jurassic World."
This apparently peeked Kelly's interest. "How can you tell?"
"Because all the animals in Jurassic World are engineered to be female."
"But," Malcolm said with a wince, "again, how would you know they're all female. Did someone go out in the park and...uh...lift up the dinosaur's skirts. That might offend Rexy."
"We simply control their chromosomes, Dr. Malcolm. It's really not that difficult. We just simply deny them the correct hormones during the cloning process to make a male."
Cheryl looked up. "You deny them that?"
Malcolm still remained skeptical of Henry's claims. He said, "John, Masrani...the kind of control your attempting is not possible. I understand that you're in charge out here and you've got a lot of tough decisions to make...it's probably just easier to imagine these animals are just numbers on a sheet of paper. But they're not."
Owen nodded and said, "They're alive."
"Exactly."
"We're fully aware that they're alive," Masrani said. "I don't see how you see control over these animals as impossible."
"I think I know what Ian's getting at," Owen told him. "Henry and the other scientists might have made these animals in a test tube, but they don't know that. They're living creatures that are going to act like living creatures act. They're thinking, 'I gotta hunt, I gotta eat, I gotta...'" he lifted his hand and made a fist.
Malcolm nodded and turned back toward Hammond. "You can relate to at least one of those things, right?" Hammond sighed and shook his head. Malcolm continued with: "If there's one thing the history of life on earth has taught, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories. It crashes through boundaries. Painfully, maybe even dangerously, but...well, there it is."
"And there it is," Hammond replied.
Henry said, "Dr. Malcolm, you're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will...breed?"
"No," Malcolm answered. "Not at all. I'm simply saying that life, uh...finds a way."
Sarah nodded her head in approval. "'Life finds a way', I like that. I like it a lot, Ian."
Malcolm smirked.
"Trust us, Malcolm," Henry told him. "It might look like we're over our heads, but we know what we're doing. This park and its animals aren't nearly as hard to control as you might think."
Malcolm didn't seem completely convinced, but he dropped the subject, for now at least. Hammond offered Billy to hold the baby dinosaur, so Billy eagerly put on some gloves and took the infant into his grasp. The dinosaur was content to be in a warm spot; he cooed quietly. Billy's smile faded – from intrigue rather than disappointment – when he noticed a peculiar claw on each foot of the animal. He slowly looked up at Owen and asked, "What species is it?"
"It's a Velociraptor antirhoppus."
Billy and Cheryl turned slowly and looked at each other, astonished.
"You...bred raptors?" Billy asked Henry, who calmly nodded his head.
"Why do you ask?" Henry inquired.
"The dig site in Snakewater, Montana where my team and I are escavating...we've uncovered several Velociraptor specimens there."
"Snakewater, you say?" Hammond asked. "That name, associated with the word 'dig site' sounds familiar."
"Yes. That's where my former mentor, Dr. Grant, used to work."
Hammond gasped. "Wait a minute...you used to work with Dr. Alan Grant?"
"Yes. I'm the team leader now."
"My, my. What a small world this is."
Owen grinned and said, "Well, if you're interested in raptors, I've got something that might peek your interest." He looked at Masrani for approval. Masrani nodded and Owen began to lead the group out of the hatchery.
But before Billy could exit the room, Hammond placed his hand on Billy's shoulder. "My memory escapes me, Billy, did our company not owe your team some money sometime in the past?"
Billy nodded. True be told, he wasn't interested in talking about his financial problems, but he answered anyway. "Yes, you did. It was before Dr. Grant disappeared and–"
"Oh dear, how unfortunate that we've forgotten. So much has happened in the last several months that it completely slipped my mind. Why don't you bring up the topic again sometime later today. I'll make sure we get you that money."
Billy nearly fainted right then and there. Did Hammond just say that he'd give him the money?! He couldn't believe his ears. "Are you serious?" Billy asked in surprise.
"Of course," Hammond said with a smile. "We owe it to you."
"Oh my! Thank you so much, Mr. Hammond."
"You're welcome."
Then, Billy's excitement quickly turned into concern. I wonder if Hammond knows anything about how Dr. Grant disappeared. He asked him about it. With a frown and a sigh, Hammond patted Billy on the shoulder and said, "Bring that topic up later, as well. We'll talk later. Right now, let's see what Owen wants to show us."
Dodgson couldn't believe the words he'd just heard...from a dinosaur.
"Lewis Dodgson..." the reptile whispered, "...we finally meet."
Dodgson turned to Dr. Corts, who smiled knowingly behind him. "OK...I've got a lot of questions..."
"I've got time, boss," Dr. Corts said.
"Firstly...they talk."
"Yes. We've genetically-engineered the world's first-ever non-human sapient. It was difficult, but we were able to allow them the ability of speech and human-like understanding and intellect...even self-awareness. The homosaurian you're looking at now is Red-Crest. He's the alpha of the pack."
Chadwick held his breath near the back of the room. He had never been so disturbed in his life.
Dodgson asked, "How do they know my name?"
"That's what we've been doing to them for the past few months. We trained the homosaurians to be submissive to you, as their leader. They will obey your every command and view you as their alpha. I thought you might appreciate that."
Dodgson nodded slowly in amazement. "So...they won't attack me?"
"No. To you – and us since we cloned them – their harmless. To others these animals are vicious assassins."
"Well...needless to say, I'm very pleased, Dr. Corts, and that's a hard thing to do for most people in this company. Glad I hired you."
"Me too, sir."
Slowly, Dodgson stuck his hand through the bars of the enclosure holding the homosaurians. The dinosaur grasped his hand between his claws.
"It's nice to meet you, Red-Crest," Dodgson said.
"Likewise," Red-Crest hissed.
Dodgson turned to Dr. Corts and said, "With an army of these creatures, we can literally do just about anything we can imagine. We'll be the most powerful group of human and dinosaurs on the entire planet! Just imagine what we'll be capable of!"
"What do you want me to do, sir?" Dr. Corts asked.
"I want you to create an army of these beings."
"Actually, this is only ten of the homosaurians we've cloned so far. The hundreds of other saurians are in another part of the facility."
A/N: How did you all like this chapter? I thought this would be a great moment to pay homage to the original Jurassic Park movie, but put a new Jurassic World-twist on it! How exciting! By the way, despite the several scenes in this story that might resemble some from the movie and the novel, be warned, this story's conclusion won't be even close to anything you've ever seen in the Jurassic Park franchise before! How do you all like the addition of the homosaurians to the story? What do you think Dodgson plans to do with them? Be sure to follow, favorite and review on this story and be back next week, because we'll see what the story's characters are up to and even the awe-inspiring Mosasaurus! Until next week, remember to always take Hammond's advice: Spare no expense!