For most people, the best part of living on Isla Nublar - and in the southern hemisphere - was that December was always warm. And even the dead of winter in July wasn't particularly cold. But Nic didn't mind the cold. Truth be told, she enjoyed winter getaways in a nice cabin in the mountains, relaxing with no internet and no cell phone reception. Just her, a warm fire, hot chocolate, and marshmallows with a blizzard raging outside. That was her idea of heaven.
Nic shook her head and smiled at the thought as she parked her car by the docks, next to the monorail. The large ferry was just arriving and the crew were working to get it properly docked before offboarding passengers, including her cousin Eric.
It had been ages since she'd last seen him and she was excited to show him around the park - and to have a full week off, even if she was scheduled to work on New Year's. But that was the tradeoff, having Christmas with her cousin in exchange for working the dreaded New Year's shift. It wasn't that the day was any busier than any other high travel season day - the opposite, in fact.
New Years was the most boring day of the year to work.
Yes, a lot was going on at the park, but IT emergencies were rare. It was more the restaurant and hotel staff going insane, along with a handful of animal trainers that were roped into doing shows for the tourists.
IT, though? It was mostly quiet.
Descending the stairs, Nic looked for a place out of the way on the docks to stand where Eric could easily spot her. Anywhere near the ferry was going to be busy. Those boats were effectively large overnight cruise ships that held up to 3500 tourists a piece.
The ferries docked alongside a large platform that led a bit past the doors to a guard station that guided them in the event of bad weather. That was probably her best bet, waiting past the doors, down by the guard station. One of the benefits to being staff was she could sneak into staff only areas, flash her badge, and avoid the crowds.
Grinning to herself, she did just that and watched as the masses poured out of the ferry. Excited children, tired parents, frazzled crew.
They all slowly made their way to the stairs and the monorail, which would take them to their hotel. Any luggage would be unloaded by the crew and brought to the hotels separately, where it would be safely waiting in their room on arrival. The crew always took a separate car to arrive before the monorail, which travelled slowly through the jungle to…well, Nic supposed it was to buy the crew time. But the brochure said the monorail afforded a luxurious trip through the jungle, arriving at the Jurassic World gates and opening the park to blah blah blah.
The commercialism of the whole park was her least favourite part of it. Well, that and Owen and his bullshit.
While it had been nearly a year since she found out Owen was her soulmate, she'd only recently told Eric about it on a long video chat. Mostly, she'd been able to avoid him with the exception of working at the raptor pen or a handful of times she'd seen him in the control room and offices. And even then, it seemed he was just as keen on avoiding her.
As soon as Eric found out, he insisted on coming down to make sure she was okay and cheer her up. He was older than her by six years and was basically her best friend. After her parents had died, Eric's parents took her in, but it was really Eric who'd looked after her, who took care of her.
He could be a little overbearing at times, but she was really glad to have a distraction during the holidays.
It took a solid hour of waiting before she finally saw Eric coming off the ship and she flagged him down.
Nic grinned and ran up to him, leaping into his arms with a laugh. "Hey, Sasquatch!"
"Tadpole," he greeted. "How long you been waiting?"
Waving off the question, she smiled. "How was the ferry ride?"
"Long," he deadpanned, glancing over his shoulder at the crowd. "Really long."
"Awww…poor baby had a private suite on the ferry?" she teased, ruffling his short hair. "Sucks to be you."
Eric laughed and dropped her back down on her feet, pulling her into a sideways hug. "Alright, smartass."
"You love me and you know it."
"I have to love you, you're family," he insisted, still smiling.
"I'm fucking delightful," she shot back. "You got all your shit?"
Eric gestured to the one bag over his shoulder. "The rest is…." He waved his hands at the ferry.
"It'll meet you in the hotel," Nic said, putting a hand in the crook of his arm. "Let's navigate the crowd."
Her cousin groaned. "Can't we wait for all this to…disperse? Not really thrilled with the idea of taking a packed train."
"Monorail," she corrected. "And I brought a car. So let's go, spoiled child. Don't let go, hold on to your buddy so you don't get lost."
"Funny," he grumbled.
They pushed their way into the crowd, Nic tugging him along as they ran between families and friends and various tour groups to the station. Instead of taking the stairs, though, she pulled him inside an 'employees only' area and called the elevator.
"Sneaky."
"I think you mean 'smart'," she said as the elevator doors opened. "After you, Bigfoot."
"My feet are regular-sized!"
"For a sasquatch, sure," Nic conceded with a smirk, pressing the button for the top level.
She expected him to fire back, but instead the grin he gave her made her heart drop into her stomach; he was up to something. "So we don't have to go right to the hotel?"
Nic narrowed her eyes, but otherwise didn't reply.
Shrugging, Eric said, "I was just thinking maybe we could go see the raptors."
"No."
His arm wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her close. "Come on! I just wanna meet the dumbass who thinks his soulmate isn't good enough for him!"
The elevator doors opened and she led him through the crowd to where she parked the car. "How about we deal with one dumbass at a time?" she said, grinning at him. "Let's go get you checked into the hotel."
Eric stopped in his tracks as they reached the car and lifted a hand to his chest, feigning offence. "Did you just call me a dumbass?"
The elevator doors closed as Claire hung up her cell phone and took a sip of her black coffee. Already she was abandoning her nephews to Zara and they'd only arrived…what, half an hour ago? She couldn't even go meet them at the docks because she'd been in a meeting. And would be for the rest of the damn day.
Karen was going to kill her.
This trip was supposed to be a distraction for the boys while Karen and Scott discussed the state of their marriage. Karen never got her soulmark, neither did Scott. But up until recently, their marriage had worked. And both of their sons had their soulmarks, so Claire had always figured Karen and Scott were a perfect match, an exception to the rule.
Now they were talking about divorce. And they'd sent their kids to Isla Nublar while they ironed out the details.
But she ran a 20,000 person capacity theme park with live dinosaurs. It wasn't exactly as though she could just…say no to meetings. Especially when finance was involved. What, she was going to tell Masrani 'I know we have a billion dollar deal on the line, but I need to go pick up a couple of kids'? Even if they were her nephews.
She had responsibilities.
Besides, she could spend the whole of tomorrow with them. It was a Saturday and Zara had already cleared her schedule. Though neither of the boys had exactly looked thrilled at the prospect of the control room. What the hell did boys their age like?
Not that they were even remotely the same age.
Twelve and seventeen were so vastly different.
And she'd been dumb enough to ask if they went to bed at different times?
Claire groaned at her own stupidity.
She wasn't any good with kids. Between them, Karen was the mom. Oh god, she could already hear her sister scolding her like their mom used to do.
The numbers ticked away above the doors and Claire squared her shoulders. One day. It was just one day. Then she could handle a teenager and a kid for a few days. She was their aunt, right? How hard could it be? Seventeen year olds were basically adults. And Gray was a bright kid.
It should be a piece of cake.
The elevator doors slid open on the control room. Electronic maps of the island with red dots indicating incidents such as lost guests, sick animals, and the like lined the far wall, along with weather reports and images from security cameras all over the island. A voice on the radio was confirming an incident with a pair of juvenile triceratopses needing to be tranquilized. And on the floor lay rows of monitoring stations, watching over various aspects of the park.
Claire came to a stop between two of the control room workers, Vivian and Lowery. They were both integral to the success of the park!
"What's the live count?" she asked, sipping her coffee.
"22,216," Vivian replied.
They were almost at capacity, which made sense, given it was the week before Christmas. Peak travel season for families looking to escape winter.
"And the incidents?"
Lowery spoke up. "Yeah, six kids in the lost-and-found. 28 people down with heatstroke, and some -."
And that's when Claire noticed his t-shirt. Jurassic Park. Of all the days to wear it, he had to pick the day Simon Masrani was coming to visit the park. "Where did you get that?" she sighed.
Lowery looked down at his shirt, then back up with the biggest smile she'd ever seen. He glanced between her and Vivian as he spoke, clearly trying to impress Vivian. "Oh, this? I got it on eBay! Yeah, it's pretty amazing, got it for $150, but the mint condition one goes for 300, so I got a -."
"And it didn't occur to you maybe that's in poor taste?" Claire interrupted his rambling.
"The shirt?"
Claire almost rolled her eyes. Of course the shirt.
"Y...yeah, it did," he said. "I understand people died and that's terrible, but…." He paused and took a deep breath, and Claire wondered what words of wisdom could possibly follow 'people died, but'. "That…that first park was legit," Lowery continued, awe in his voice. "You know, I have a lot of respect for it."
A sigh escaped Claire as he continued on his rambling.
"They didn't need these genetic hybrids, they just needed real dinosaurs!" He grinned at Vivian, who was very obviously not interested. "That's kind of enough -."
"Okay, please don't wear it again," Claire said, returning her attention to the monitors. One day Lowery was going to get them all fired.
"Yeah, I wasn't gonna," Lowery muttered, turning back to his workstation.
The monitors all looked steady, nothing too far out of the ordinary. Everything was under control.
"Did you close the deal?" Vivian asked.
"Looks like," Claire replied, standing a little straighter. "Verizon Wireless Presents: the Indominus Rex." As much as she understood the need for marketing, the words felt wrong even as she spoke them.
"Ugh, that is so terrible," Lowery muttered. Not that Claire could entirely disagree - these were animals, not auditoriums. "Why not just go the distance? Let the corporations name the dinosaurs."
A red blip on the main screen caught her attention. "Why are the West Plains closed?"
"Pepsisaurus…Tostitodon…," Lowery continued, ignoring her question.
Claire wrinkled her nose at 'Tostitodon'. She didn't even want to know what else he'd come up with if left to his own devices.
Thank god for Vivian. "Another Pachy roaming outside his zone," she explained, stopping Lowery's rant. "But he's fully sedated and ready for relocation."
A sigh escaped her. Another thing going wrong. "Security said the invisible fences were a no-fail. That's the second time this month!" She focussed on the sedated animal being loaded onto a veterinary vehicle. It looked really out of it.
"The Pachys short out their implants when they butt heads," Vivian explained.
Maybe they could put the implants somewhere else to keep the invisible fences intact. "How much longer until they get it out of there?"
"He just got five milligrams of carfentanil," Vivian chuckled.
"Yes," Lowery agreed. "He's very stoned, so why don't we show a little sympathy."
Biting back on a smile, Claire took another sip of her coffee.
"You do understand these are actual animals, right?" Lowery asked.
He had a point, but Claire hated being reminded. Especially by someone like Lowery. Instead of answering, she nodded to his desk and said, "Clean up your workspace. It's…chaotic."
Ignoring Lowery's rambling about his chaos, she turned back to Vivian. "How long until Mr. Masrani arrives?"
Before the other woman could reply, a voice came over the speaker. "Inbound chopper, Jurassic One."
Claire smiled at Vivian and saw that Lowery was about to knock over his soda, so she pushed a trash can under his workstation and walked off. The satisfying clunk when the drink fell in made her grin; she still had it.
Behind her, she heard Lowery complaining about his lost drink as she made her way up the stairs to greet Mr. Masrani. She arrived on the roof just in time to see Mr. Masrani himself landing the chopper. A less-than-smooth landing. Even his instructor looked nauseated.
As soon as the chopper landed, the instructor looked away and tried to discreetly swallow some pills - probably Gravol, if the landing was any indication.
Steeling herself, Claire approached the helicopter and hopped inside.
"Mr. Masrani," she greeted. "I didn't realize you had your license."
"Two more," the instructor said before Mr. Masrani could reply. He held up two fingers and gave a hard look to his trainee.
Waving off the instructor, Mr. Masrani muttered, "Yeah, yeah, two more days." As though it was a foregone conclusion that he would be a fully qualified pilot in two days, despite the rough landing. He turned in his seat to face Claire with a smile. "So, how's my park doing?"
Claire ran through the statistics, including guest satisfaction. She barely batted an eyelash when Mr. Masrani told her to look into the eyes of the animals to see how happy they were.
Biting back on a smart remark, she said, "Of course."
Her boss grinned widely at her, then turned back around. "Now, show me my new dinosaur!"
And the helicopter took off, just as shaky as the landing.
Was it wrong of her to wish she'd sent Vivian to show him the Indominus?