Jurassic World: Apocalypse – Chapter 11: A Question of Ethics

A/N: Finally, we're going to see an all-new creature appear in this chapter: Mosasaurus! Of course, you will have already read about Mosasaurus if you've read "JurassiQuest", but this time, they're going to be feeding this 60-foot reptile. That's not all we're going to see either. Join Hammond's party as they have lunch at Winston's Steakhouse and discuss the ethics of the park and whether or not the choices Hammond and Masrani made were good ones. As an added bonus, we'll check out what's happening in the Control Room. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.

Making their way toward the crowded stadium, Tom, Alaina and Brianna walked quickly toward the Mosasaurus Feeding Show. As they approached, they noticed that the stadium was quite packed already. If they wanted a seat, they needed to hurry.

"Come on!" Brianna urged. "The show's about to start!"

"We're coming, we're coming," Tom said. "Hold your hadrosaurs."

Finally, they reached the attraction and were able to find three seats right next to each other. The stadium was reminiscent to the killer whale stadiums at Sea World, but this one was bigger by far. It was located at the edge of the same large lake that the visitor amenities were surrounding. A large pillar was located in front of the stadium. Brianna took a seat next to Tom, with Aliana on Tom's right side. He checked his watch: 9:57 a.m. Wow! Today's flying so far! Brianna took out her cellphone, hoping to take a photo of the mosasaur when the show started.

"What do you think this show's going to be like?" Brianna asked. "You think they're going to make the mosasaur do tricks?"

Alaina winced. "I'm not sure if mosasaurs are smart enough to do that. But see that pillar in front of us? There's a rope going from here to the pillar. I bet that's how they'll make the food accessible for that big lizard when the show starts."

Tom leaned over to Aliana and asked, "So...do you have any ideas now where we could start searching for clues about what happened to Dr. Grant and the rest of the team?"

"I'm not sure," Aliana whispered back. "I don't think they're going to just hand out that information at the Innovation Center's information booth. The only thing I can think of to do is just hang around the park until our first step becomes clear to us."

"Hello everyone!" shouted a young woman at the front of the stadium. "Welcome to the Mosasaurus Feeding Show. If you want to see a giant carnivorous reptiles prey upon one of the largest modern predators in the ocean, then you've come to the right place. Also, before we start, parents should be advised that this show might be somewhat disturbing for small children..."

"This is going to be awesome," Tom whispered.

Then the presenter began explaining some things about what the spectators would be able to expect during the show and that the front parts of the stadium closest to the water were splash zones. She advised that those with electrical devices should move toward the back in order to avoid getting splashed. Brianna quickly asserted that her phone was waterproof. Then, finally the feeding show itself began.

"Now, some of you might be wondering what a Mosasaurus is," the announcer said. "Well, Mosasaurus is part of a family of sea-going lizards known as mosasaurs. Mosasaurs come in all shapes and sizes. The smallest known species is Dallasaurus, at only three feet long. Mosasaurus on the other hand, is one of the largest. Other close contenders in size include the Tylosaurus and Hainosaurus. The species of Mosasaurus we'll be seeing in a few minutes is Mosasaurus maximus, and they can grow up to 60 feet from nose to tail and weigh 15-20 tons! Fossils of this beast have been found in what is now Europe and North America. Thanks to recent fossil discoveries, having a living specimen to study, we've been able to learn a lot about what Mosasaurus looked like and how it behaved. For example, when first discovered, Mosasaurus was believed to resemble an oversized eel with a crocodile head, swimming with a snake-like undulation. However, we now know that Mosasaurus and other mosasaurs had tail flukes, like a shark or a tuna. This would have helped them swim more akin to a shark and keep up a faster speed for a longer period of time while chasing after prey. We even know what mosasaurs ate because they left evidence of their diet in pretty much everything in the ocean. Fossils of fish, birds, turtles, giant squid, other marine reptiles and even of mosasaurs have been found either with bite marks in their bones and/or actually preserved in the stomach of the mosasaur. However, one of the Mosasaurus' favorite foods were sharks. Plenty of sharks lived in this animal's habitat. And that's what we're going to see this animal eat today."

All of a sudden, a six-foot great white shark, hanging by its tail above the water, was carried from the pillar till it was closer to the stadium.

"The great white sharks fed to our Mosasaurus are actually not caught in the wild, which would reduce the wild population of this endangered species. Instead, these carnivorous fish are genetically engineered by our geneticists in a similar fashion to the techniques we use to clone our dinosaurs."

"Why is the shark so small?" Alaina asked. "Great white sharks can grow over 20 feet in length, but the one they're feeding the Mosasaurus is only about six feet long."

"Think about it," Tom responded. "They feed this thing every two hours. They need it to be hungry every two hours, or else they don't have a show. That's why they feed her 'snacks' during feeding time."

"I see."

The announcer continued. "OK folks, she's a little shy so give her a hand when she comes out."

All was quiet as the great white shark hung above the lake; the audience was on the edge of their seats, waiting for the moment when—it happened! Suddenly, a large set of open jaws erupted from the water. It was the Mosasaurus and it was huge! The colossal creature's crocodile-like skull was about five feet long and lined with sharp, conical teeth. Its eyes were tiny compared to its body, but they could undoubtedly see exceedingly well. Like a killer whale at Sea World, the Mosasaurus leaped from the water, lifting half of its body clean into the air. The audience gasped in surprise, awe in fright as the awesome predator slammed its jaws shut on the shark and it plunged back into the water with a great splash!

"Ah!" Aliana exclaimed with a quick laugh as she got splashed. "I'm all wet!"

"That was awesome!" Tom shouted. "Woo hoo!"

Somewhere beneath the water, the Mosasaurus submerged to Jaws whole, leaving behind nothing but a pool of dark blood.

Cheryl grimaced as a plate of Chilean sea bass was sat in front of her. She and the rest of the group had walked over to Winston's Steakhouse for brunch in a private room in the restaurant. But having just watched a pack of raptors savagely rip apart a live cow...she wasn't to interested in dining.

"Well, I hope you're all enjoying the park," Masrani stated. "Of course, you've hardly touched the surface of the amazing attractions we have at this park."

"And they're all spectacularly designed," Hammond added. "Spared no expense."

"Best of all," Gennaro said, "we can literally charge anything we want, one or two thousand a day, and people will pay it. And let's not forget merchandising, which I personally–"

Hammond shook his head. "Donald, this park's not only for the super rich. Everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals, from the poor to the rich."

"Sure, why not? We can have a coupon day or something."

"In my personal opinion, I still think the admission fee to this park is too high..."

"We can't make it any lower and still make a profit, John," Masrani reminded him.

"Yes, yes, I know."

"This park so cool," Kelly commented. "What kind of attractions do you have that we haven't seen yet?"

"Well," Masrani said with a chuckle, "I don't really know where to start. We've got a gyrosphere ride, a gondola lift, a bug house, an aviary, a jeep ride, a kayaking experience...it's quite extensive. And that's not where it stops either. We're already planning what type of attractions we'd like to have even into the year 2018. As John likes to say, we're literally sparing no expense here."

Malcolm frowned. He seemed discontent about something.

"Did you have something to say, Ian?" Hammond asked.

"It's just that...," Ian paused, "the lack of humility before nature that's been displayed here staggers me."

Everyone turned to Ian, interested to see where he was going with this.

"Thank you for the input, Dr. Malcolm," Gennaro told him, "but I think things are a little different than you and I have feared."

"Yeah I know, they're a lot worse."

"Now, wait a minute, we haven't even seen the rest of the park yet–"

"Let him talk, Donald," Hammond urged. "I want to hear every viewpoint, I really do."

Malcolm continued. "Don't you see the danger, John, inherent in what you're doing here? Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet's ever seen. But you wield it like a kid who's found his dad's gun."

Something about that phrase seemed vaguely familiar to Hammond...then he remembered that Dr. Laura Sorkin had told Henry Wu something similar in 2013, when they were just beginning resolve the problems involving the cloning of dinosaurs. Henry Wu had wanted to use frog DNA to fill in the gene sequence gaps that were in the dinosaur DNA they found; Dr. Sorkin, on the other hand, wanted to take more time to research another way to complete the dinosaurs' genetic code.

Gennaro tried to interrupt. "Now Ian, this is hardly an appropriate start–"

"If I may, Gennaro, I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using, is that it didn't require any discipline to attain it. I mean, you read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you knew what you had, you patented it, packaged it, slapped it on a plastic lunch box and now you wanna sell it! You wanna sell it! See what I mean?"

"I don't think you're giving us our due credit," Hammond said. "Our scientists have done things no one has ever done before."

"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. Science can create pesticides, but it can't tell us not to use them. Science can make a nuclear reactor, but it can't tell us not to build it!"

"But this is nature! Why not give an extinct species a second chance. Condors! Condors are on the verge of extinction – if I was to create a flock of condors on this island, you wouldn't have anything to say?"

"Hold on. That's not what you're doing here. You're not merely breeding these creatures to de-extinct them, no. This isn't like BBC's Prehistoric Park. You're trying to create and control a spectacle, a spectacle the likes of which has never been done before. If you don't take the right precautions, John, a spectacle can turn into a chaotic mess in a heartbeat."

Hammond shook his head, clearly confused by Ian's attitude toward the park. "I don't understand your Luddite attitude, coming from a scientist of all people! How can we stand in the light of discovery and not act?"

"What's so great about discovery? It's a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. You can't avoid scaring what you discovery because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Whatever you study, you also change. I call discovery the rape of the natural world."

"Please," Gennaro said, "I'd like to hear something from the others...Cheryl Logan? You seem like a knowledgeable person. What's your take on this?"

"As amazing as the park is," Cheryl said, "I'd like to point out that Ian's right on many points. You've created a spectacle that you hope to control. But based on what I've seen, you struggle to keep a firm grasp on what you've created here. How can you know anything about the creatures you've brought back from the past and the ecosystem that they live in? How could you ever assume that you could control it? I mean, take the plant life for instance. You have plants in your park – this building even – that are poisonous–"

Masrani sat up in his chair, clearly surprised. "They are?"

"My point exactly. You picked them because they look good, but these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they're in and they'll defend themselves violently if necessary."

Billy looked at her strangely. "When since did you know anything about plants?"

Cheryl grinned at Billy. "There's a lot about me you don't know."

Hammond gestured toward Sarah Harding. "Sarah Harding. You're a paleontologist. Surely you're not against the idea of a biological preserve featuring dinosaurs."

"It's not the fact that you've featured dinosaurs here," Sarah argued. "It's not the fact that you've brought back extinct life from the past. We're not saying that cloning dinosaurs is a bad thing–"

"You might beg to differ if you were that cow we saw the raptors devour earlier," Ian commented.

Sarah ignored him. "The problem comes with the lack of precautions you've taken concerning these animals."

"Billy Brennan?" Hammond asked, desperate for a little support. "If there's one person here who can appreciate what I'm trying to do here..."

"Well, the world's changed so radically within the last decade, and the rest of us are all running to catch up," Billy stated. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but think about it: humans were here on the earth...and then dinosaurs were recreated. We hardly understand animals alive today, but dinosaurs were previously extinct. How can you possibly expect to understand dinosaurs and the world they live in? All I'm saying is that how can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?"

Hammond huffed. "I don't believe! I don't believe it! You were meant to come down here and defend me from these characters and the only one I've got on my side is the bloodsucking lawyer!"

Gennaro shrugged with approval. "Thank you."

Masrani got up from his chair. "Perhaps we could change your minds if you would look at the rest of the park. We've got plenty of interesting things planned for your day."

Arnold frowned at the computer monitor. He was looking at the weather program on his computer and realized a rather large storm moving in the direction of Isla Nublar. That can't be good, he thought.

"How bad is it?" Anthony asked.

"It's a pretty bad storm," Arnold answered. "But there's still a good bit of water space between it and us. It might shift. I'd like to wait and see if it does shift before we give a weather advisory."

"If the storm reaches us, it shouldn't affect us any, should it?"

"Nah. I was a little concerned about some of the park's electrical programs, but–"

"Ray."

Arnold and Anthony looked up to see Henry Wu approach them. Henry looked rather pleased with himself. "It's time."

Arnold winced. "Time for what?"

Henry raised his eyebrows, as if to say, Don't you remember? Then it clicked. Arnold nodded and got up from his chair. He turned to Anthony.

"Watch the Control Room for me, please, I'll be downstairs."

"Sure."

Henry and Arnold walked briskly toward the door leading to the basement. They walked down the long flight of stairs, finally reaching their secret laboratory. In this dark and dingy room, the equipment was all set up and ready. Today was going to be a very special day for them, because the Time-Transportation Device had finally been completed. If it worked, they'd be able to travel back to the time when Dr. Alan Grant and the rest of the JurassiQuest team was supposed to return to the present. After booting up the computers, it was time to see if the Time-Transportation Device worked. This would be their first time trying out the machine for the first time since that fateful day in 2013.

Arnold looked up at Henry. "Well, it's ready. Are you ready for this."

"You bet. We owe this thing to Dr. Grant...Ellie Sattler...Luke Grant...Bob Gerald...Alisha Roland...the soldiers...Robert Muldoon...I'll be glad to see them back safe and sound."

"Just to see if it works, I'm going to open the portal to a random time period. We're just not going to enter it because I'm not interested in loosing any more people to the past."

Henry nodded in agreement. The two men turned the TTD power's on.

"Hold onto your pants," Arnold said.

Anthony looked over in disgust at Nedry's desk. There were several other people working in the Control Room at the present time, but Nedry was no doubt the sloppiest. Anthony didn't even want to touch his desk.

"Nedry?" Anthony asked.

"Yeah?"

"Have you heard of this thing called 'personal hygiene'? You should try acting upon it sometime."

"It'll just get right back dirty."

"But doesn't all that clutter interfere with your work?"

"Nope. I'm used to functioning like this." Nedry finished his soda and left the empty can on his desk. Then he patted his stomach. "Gee, now I need something salty. Mind if I run to the vending machine right quick?"

"Sure, go ahead."

As Nedry left, Anthony decided to check the security camera footage from around the park. As he went from screen to screen, he didn't see anything too unusual...until he reached the live feed from Indominus rex's enclosure. He noticed something seemed to be missing from the exhibit – the resident! Wait a minute, Anthony thought, how could a 40+-foot dinosaur hide so easily? He went from one camera feed to another, and still no sign of the Indominus rex in her paddock. He began to get concerned. Finally, he reached the last one and gasped at what he saw – long marks streaked into the concrete wall of the enclosure. These were clearly claw marks. Without further ado, Anthony erupted from his seat and headed for the basement.

Henry and Arnold stared in awe at the glowing orb floated in the center of the TTD. It was calm and still with what appeared to be floating shards of glass dancing around it. It was beautiful.

"We did it!" Arnold exclaimed. He high-fived Henry. "Finally! 22 months of research, reconstruction and reconfiguration and we've done it!"

"Spared no expense, indeed!" Henry declared.

Just then, Anthony opened the door to the basement.

"Arnold! There's something you need to—wait, it works!" Anthony gasped when he saw the time portal before his own eyes.

"Yes, it works," Henry affirmed. "I'm so glad."

"I'm sorry," Arnold said, "did you need something, Anthony? Your facial expression looks pretty urgent."

"Yeah, I need you to come upstairs. There's something you really need to see."

A/N: So much good stuff happened in this chapter, am I right? How did you all like the appearance of the Mosasaurus here? She didn't get much time "on-screen", but don't worry, we'll be seeing her again real soon. What do you guys think of the conversation Malcolm, Sarah, Cheryl and Billy had with Hammond and Masrani. Obviously, there are some similarities between it and the one that appears in the film, but as usual, with a fun little twist. Last but not least, there seems to be some problems with the Indominus rex paddock. Where did she go? Of course, if you've seen the film's trailer, you'll probably have some idea. But keep in mind that this story won't be following Jurassic Park or Jurassic World completely regarding the plot, so expect loads of surprises along the way! Till next time, please be sure to favorite, follow and review on this story and I'll catch up with you all real soon! Spare no expense!