JURASSIC PARK III

1 - The Rapid Proto-typer

Pet couldn't believe she had been at the dig site for four years, now. The anniversary of her arrival to the site back in nineteen ninety-seven was circled on the calendar. To think, this time four years ago she had been forced to live in a shit hole bunker somewhere in the mountains of California. She cringed at the memory of recently being at the bunker just earlier that year. So glad those days were over.

Pet sighed and stepped out of her bedroom and into the warm air of Quarantine. Derek was stretched out on the couch wearing only a pair of black jeans as he watched TV.

The hybrid poked her head into the fridge to find the last of the water had been drank. "Damn." She reached for the last juice box, instead. She wasn't too partial to grape, but she was thirsty and it was better than a soda. "Get dressed, shit wad."

"We going to town or something?" Derek asked.

"No. We have work to do and a lot of it. Alan's gone off on another one of his presentations and since Billy is out finding the delivery truck with that new piece of equipment, the excavation responsibilities fall on me."

Derek sat up. "When's the Doc supposed to be back, anyway? I thought he said two to three days at most."

Pet shrugged behind a swig on the juice box straw. Once the drink was gone, she tossed the empty box into the trash. "Sometime this afternoon. I think he said around three, maybe closer to four."

The bounty hunter checked his wrist watch. "It's only eight-twenty in the morning..."

"Mhm." Pet slid on her socks and shoved her feet into her boots by the front door. Outside, repetitive blaring of the Jeep's horn could be heard. "Sounds like Terrence and Billy just got back."

"Woo hoo." Derek sarcastically stated, twirling a finger in the air.

The hybrid stepped out of the trailer and made her way through the excavation to where the office trailer sat. Pulling up behind the trailer was a medium sized white moving truck. Billy scampered up to join the woman, studying the truck with a cocked head. "You do realize Alan is going to be pissed when he learns you blew that much money on that thing, right?"

The junior scientist shrugged. "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission"

"Oh boy," the hybrid breathed out. "I'm so going to be fired from babysitting the dig site when he gets back."

"Eh." The two people approached the back of the truck being opened up, revealing the item in debate. "I think he'll overlook all this should everything work out."

"Key word, should..."

Terrence joined the forming group as they and the college students accompanying the moving truck unloaded the equipment. Derek joined the group just in time to help lower the heavy, table like equipment to the ground.

He stared at it in question. "What, exactly, is that thing?"

"A rapid proto-typer," Billy beamed.

"Looks more like 'you're fired' to me." Derek as well as Terrence, Billy and the college students hoisted the equipment and carried it to its temporary home in a large white tent. Pet ran ahead, making sure the way was clear and the area ready.


A little over an hour later, the proto-typer was in place as the last of the cords running between it and its joining computer were connected. "Alright," Pet stated, looking to a student just as eager to get started as Billy. "Start her up. Let's see if it's worth it." Her blue green eyes settled on the junior scientist next to her. "Just for the record, should Alan ask... I never said yes to this."

"Fine," Billy smiled. "I'll take all the credit, then, when the raptor resonating chamber is completed." He planted his hands on his hips and looked confusingly to the equipment. He lifted the lid and peered inside. "Okay, so how does this thing work, again?"

"Leave that to me," Pet stated. "You go...do some work, or whatever." She shot a sideways glance at the dig site to see Cheryl laying on the ground and working. Or, trying to work anyway. It was hard to tell, seeing how the student always seemed to be so confused and asking questions. Pet nudged Billy in the side. "Why don't you go talk to Cheryl? She looks all alone and I'm sure wouldn't mind some company." Maybe the two being alone would spark conversation. That is, if Cheryl took Pet's advice on hinting for help and explanations from the aspiring paleontologist.

Billy shrugged. "I suppose."

His attention was taken off the woman, looking comfortable and lovely as ever, and smiled to himself. His attention was inadvertently ripped off her, however, when seeing an unfamiliar man come into view not too far away. The stranger was tall and slim with a head full of strawberry blonde hair and wearing a dumb look on his face. Pet frowned at the stranger in uncertainty. Perhaps it was his horrible sense of style for he wore a tan suit coat, navy blue polo shirt and blue jeans. Or maybe it was his obnoxious mustache or the fact he was trying too hard at something.

Pet questioned. "Who the hell is that?"

"No idea, but only one way to find out." Both Billy and the hybrid approached the man, who looked to them a bit nervously, but smiled anyway.


Pet snorted and decided to take a break from cleaning a tiny fossil to watch the anxiously pacing man. He'd been hanging around the dig site for the past few hours, poking around curiously. Billy had told him several times to stop. Terrence told him several times to stop. It finally took Muldoon jumping down his ass to make him stay to himself. Now, all he'd done for the past while was pace in a circle and mumble to himself.

Seated in a patio chair not far from where the hybrid sat was Derek dressed in a dark teal shirt and black jeans. "I know that sound," when referring to her snorting. His chocolate eyes drifted up to study her for a moment. "What is it, now?"

"Same thing it has been for the past while. That guy...I don't like him."

Derek leaned over the right arm rest of his chair and used his pocket knife to make another tally amongst seven others in the dirt. "Yep. You've stated that. Eight times, now, to be exact and all within the past twenty minutes." They locked gazes. "But then again who's counting?"

The woman flared her nostrils in another snort like bark and returned to working. It didn't take long for her to stop in working yet again to intently stalk the man with her sharp eyes. "I wonder when Alan is going to get back. It's getting close to four-o-clock."

"Well," Derek placed the fossil he had been working on in a heavy box situated between him and Pet. "It depends on how long his presentation lasted, really, on top of traffic coming back." Pet sighed and blew the loosened bits of dirt off her work and examined it. "Boy Scout seems to be doing alright in making the moves on that new brunette." Derek pointed to the two a distance away with the tip of his knife, laying on their bellies and working on the fossil. "Think he'll actually strike it right this time?"

The hybrid shrugged. "I sure hope so. All they do is shoot googly eyes at each other."

Whatever Billy had said to the woman made her laugh. Their moment was broken, however, by the clunking of a familiar brown F-350 double cab pickup pulling up to the dig site. Derek smiled. "There he is. Well, I'm all done with my stuff." He began loading up his lap full of tools back into the box and reached over to get the ones from the hybrid. Afterwards, he hoisted the box onto his left shoulder stating, "I'm going to take these to the processing tent," and strode away.

Pet watched the newly returned senior scientist walk around the truck and call for Billy. Like an obedient dog, the protégé ran to greet his boss. The younger man grabbed his mentor's bag from the backseat of the truck and led the man to a large, tan tent. The hybrid put her work on hold to meet the two at the tent. She was eager to see Grant's reaction at Billy's latest endeavor.

Pet poked her head into the tent and questioned the computer operator. "Status?"

"Almost done," the man answered in all smiles.

"Excellent." She turned just in time to come face to face with the senior scientist. "Welcome back."

The two met in a hug, Grant giving her a small kiss on the cheek. "Everything been good since I've been gone?"

Pet nodded her head and followed the two men into tent. "Couldn't be better, unless you count the rain."

Billy gestured to a large, white machine busy creating something Grant couldn't immediately identify. "This is what you spent some of the site's funding money on? What is it?"

The younger man smiled in pride and began explaining the best he could in a way he was sure his boss would understand. "It's a rapid proto-typer. I enter in the scanned data from the raptor skull. The computer breaks it down into thousands of slices." He motioned a hand over the machine. "And this thing sculpts it, one layer at a time." As if on cue, the computer beeped in conjunction to a message reading 'complete'. "It's done!"

The excitement couldn't be contained on Billy's face. He was so overly ecstatic with himself for even thinking of the idea during Grant's absence. He just hoped the end product would bail him out of whatever potential trouble he might've landed himself in with the excessive spending. Pet leaned around the senior scientist in utter curiosity to peek inside the machine as the top of it was lifted.

Billy reached into a rectangular opening within the machine to snap out and extract a resin model. It was roughly a hand's length and looked something like a beige deformed squash. She tilted her head to the side. So that's what that looked like.

Like a trophy won in a competition, Billy held up the object. "I give you the resonating chamber of a Velociraptor. Listen to this!" He held up the broader end of the object and blew into it, it making a high pitched, drawn out bawl of a bark sound. Just hearing it made Pet roll her head on her shoulders and grimace. It was like nails on a chalk board to her.

"Don't do that again." Pet stated, but the spark igniting in Grant's eyes was all Billy needed. He blew into it again, the hybrid clenching her fists and left the tent. She stepped outside and exhaled a breath to calm the streak of anger tugging at her insides. Yeah, sure the crafted resonating chamber resembled something of a raptor's call, but it was the slightly off pitch of it that didn't settle well on her ears.

Coming up to her was the excavation's visitor. Kirby pointed at the tent. "Is Dr. Grant in there? I was told by that gentlemen over there," he pointed at Derek smirking and waving, "that I could find him here."

Pet gave the bounty hunter an acidic stare. "He's currently busy, at the moment," the woman answered.

He didn't have time for this. Time was of the essence. He poked his head into the tent to see a tall man wearing a tan jacket and hat standing just inside the tent. "Dr. Grant?" At hearing his name, the paleontologist turned to see who it was calling to him. "Paul Kirby." The excavation visitor extended a hand. "Kirby Enterprises."

Grant stepped out of the tent expecting to find Pet, but she was already storming over to where Derek was. Great. He wasn't really wanting to talk to anyone and hoped she would've used her people skills to assist him in thwarting the anticipated questions to come. Instead, she was using more aggressive skills to deal with whatever Derek had said or done to her.

Pet joined her friend and slapped him across the back. "You son of a bitch...What the hell was that for?"

Derek held up his hands as though innocent and defending himself. "What? I didn't do anything!" He stepped around her and around a table to assist in carrying equipment to a nearby trailer. "You must have the wrong person!"

"You're so full of shit." She gathered a handful of equipment and too helped carry it. She could barely make out what was being said between the two men. Kirby insisted, "Believe me, this will be worth your while."

Coming up behind the job propositioning man was Billy, answering for Grant. "We'd love to."

"Oh terrific! That's the spirit! This evening then," Kirby gleefully stated, patting the junior scientist on the shoulder. Grant did his best to conceal his annoyance by forcing a smile to the two men, but the subtle cutting of his eyes spoke his true thoughts.

Pet saw this and frowned. "Yeah, that wasn't such a good idea..."


Also, just to note, any time I reference a movie / actor / actress / song in my own little way at any point in the story, I am in NO WAY 'shitting' on it. If I reference anything in a joking or lighthearted tone, it's because I'm a fan (sometimes a really big fan) of what I'm referencing. I mean no disrespect to what I'm referencing. I'm a big movie buff and greatly appreciate and respect the work an actor or actress does regardless of the movie genre and of their ethnicity, gender or sexual preference. Hell, I even poked fun at myself in a previous chapter xD