A/N-This is a retelling of Jurassic Park 3 with some of the characters, both humans and dinosaurs, from The Spinosaurus added into it alongside the original Jurassic Park characters, it will take a minute for any to actually appear but once they do how scenes play out will start to see some changes, which will have butterfly effects with time. I've had this idea in some form for a few years at this point and decided, with Jurassic World: Rebirth coming, it'd be fun to finally write it. I hope you enjoy. I originally thought about doing all six, well now seven, movies but decided for now I'd just do JP3 since it was the one I originally had this idea with in the first place. If people want more then I'll see about delving into the other films with this same idea.
Just remember this is not a full rewrite, it is a retelling of Jurassic Park 3 with some new characters added into that story which will lead to new scenes and interactions. The characters from both have to survive dinosaurs in very different circumstances but honestly I feel like they blended well. The changes in scenes will be smaller at first but become more impactful as the plot goes along and more additional characters are introduced. I'm having fun with this, please enjoy.
…..
2001
Isla Sorna
207 Miles West of Costa Rica
RESTRICTED
In the skies above Isla Sorna, one might expect to see a free flying Pterosaur soaring in the clouds, but what you'd be more likely to see is the sight of a Costa Rican Air Force plane patrolling the airspace above the island. That was the sight that greeted Enrique Cardoso as he gazed through a pair of binoculars up at the partially cloudy sky. Rocking below his feet was his somewhat rickety speedboat, with its tattered canvas Bimini top flapping in the wind. Seated behind him was his co-captain and their two occupants.
They were idling just off the coast of the restricted island. Restricted but lucrative for the daring.
The waters around the island, and the skies above it, and the island itself, were restricted access and heavily patrolled. But there was nowhere else in the world to see living dinosaurs. Overgrown in thick jungles and hardwoods that covered the entire island like a sea of unbroken green, with open grasslands only further into the interior, Isla Sorna was in every sense the definition of a lost world; a fascination that pulled in many curious people every year who were willing to take the chance of legal trouble just for a glimpse. Hence the prevalent patrols specifically tasked with keeping all people out unless they had clearance from the Costa Rican government.
Knowing all of this, Enrique decided they needed to move to another less exposed spot further along the shore. The sound of the waves crashing against the rock cliffs of the island could just be heard. The heavy sloshes of water slapping and splashing was faint but not too unlike the hollow smacking sound of the water striking the hull of the boat. As the patrol plane vanished back into the clouds, he began speaking hurriedly to his partner. A moment later his co-captain fired up the engine and their, admittedly, rinky-dink looking speedboat chugged to life and sped off further down the coastline. The waves striking the hull now sounded like a heavy drum, not a light smack. The sea spray was splashing everyone aboard as the boat gilded and lightly jumped across the somewhat rough waves. Thank goodness his boat was small, Enrique thought. That combined with its white paint and white canvas top, along with the rough water and whitecaps, spray and glare of the sun on the water's surface, made them incredibly hard to spot from the air. However, they needed to be out of sight when they let their two passengers get airborne. The parasail was bright and the color would stand out against the deep blue and vivid green environmental backdrop like a sore thumb.
With the boat speeding out of open water and towards the mouth of a cove where a river poured into the ocean, Enrique turned to his passengers; two eager American tourists. He laughed, motioning them to get ready.
Here the cliffs would provide them cover from any more patrols unless one flew directly overhead.
Enrique operated an under the table business, bringing those who wanted their chance to see real dinosaurs close to the island and letting them parasail along the shoreline, where the animals would be just tentatively within sight.
Sometimes.
However he was most certainly not someone with the clearance to be here so staying out of sight was important.
"Here you go friend," he said as he finished getting his passengers ready for their trip. He'd given them both orange lifejackets, gotten them harnessed together, and attached them to the stern of the boat with a long safety line fed from a wench that connected to their harness, and explained how to open the glider they were harnessed to.
"Make sure you get us as close as you can!" The older of the two tourists shouted over the wind and engine. "I'll give you something extra if you make it a good trip!" The man, Ben Hildebrand, added. Enrique laughed and raised his hands outward, "Hey! I'm gonna get you close, my friend, but not too close, eh? You don't want to be eaten!" He laughed, a big smile on his face. His tourists looked much the same, both laughing and smiling excitedly.
"Ready, amigo?" Enrique asked.
"Ready!" Ben shouted.
"Ready!" The second tourist, twelve-year-old Eric Kirby, shouted. Ben wasn't his father, not even his step-father, but his mom's boyfriend. However they both shared their sense for enjoying a chaotic thrill ride. Ben had booked the trip as an impromptu idea just earlier that same day. Seeing they both had their thumbs up, Enrique finished getting everything ready for them and then nodded as the boat steered close to the mouth of the river. Beneath them all, the boat was now jumping over the large waves, its pointed bow breaking through the white caps and sending up large amounts of ocean spray into the wind.
"One! Two! Three!" Ben cried out and yanked the pull cord on the backpack he was wearing. A large red and white parasail with the words "Dino-Soar" printed on it in large black text, along with a phone number, ejected from the pack and opened up, pulling Eric and Ben up into the air. Eric felt his stomach drop from the exhilaration as they dino-soared high up into the air above the boat. Eric screamed from the thrill, Ben was just laughing behind him. As they went higher and higher both began whooping, below they could see Enrique laughing and smiling up at them. He shouted something up to them, giving them a thumbs up but they couldn't hear him. Seeing they were good though, Enrique turned around and gazed at the ocean ahead, still grinning, and feeling a little rush of thrill himself. They could probably hug the shore a little closer he thought.
Sure, this was a business, an illegal one, and ultimately he was in it for the money, but he also wanted to give these two a good time. Enrique didn't think he was a bad man just because he ran an illegal, but ultimately harmless, business. He was just a…bold opportunist who seized a new opportunity that presented itself when the truth of the island was revealed.
Behind him, he heard the wench still unwinding as Eric and Ben soared higher. A bright orange safety rope traced its way from the wench all the way up their harness. The longer it unwound, the higher up and further back Ben and Eric got from the boat. Their view of the shoreline however was spectacular now.
"Scared?" Ben called out, grinning like a madman. Eric's wide eyes were locked on the island. Unable to stop excitedly beaming, he shook his head and said, "Uh-uh. This is great." Ben laughed again. They were probably a good hundred and fifty feet from the boat now, still steering up higher and further back from the boat. The cliff sides of the island seemed to shrink and fall below them, and the shoreline down at the ocean level looked distant and small. Yet the island itself still looked massive and utterly colossal. It just kept going as far as they could see.
By now Ben had raised his video camera and was pointing it at the tree shrouded coastline. Panning the camera up and down the forests along the coast, he sought for any sign of the animals.
"See anything yet?" Eric asked. Ben zoomed the image in to better examine the shoreline.
"No, not yet," he reported after a moment, panning the camera along as much of the shore as he could while still seeing the image clearly, searching for even just a single dinosaur. Eric's eyes were also intensely studying the shore line.
Below, the boat was nearing the mouth of the river, which was shrouded in a dense white mist. Enrique gazed at it. The water here was shallow, there could be anything hidden in the fog there. The last thing they needed was to scrape over a rock and split open the hull. From somewhere ahead in the mist was a heavy splash. It might have just been a large wave striking the shore or a rock. Still, that was enough.
His face turned more serious, businessman-like, and he waved a hand, ordering his captain to steer out of there and back out towards more open water. They'd have to briefly steer the boat through it though before coming back out and following along the coast again. At that moment a massive wave hit them and it threw the boat into the air for a moment before it crashed back down with a splash. Keeping his footing, and with the mist closing around them, Enrique looked back at his passengers one final time before the boat entered the mist and obscured his view of them. As they entered it and he lost Eric and Ben to sight, he double checked the safety line one more time. Two more large waves hit them and knocked the boat into the air. Then the mist closed around him, his co-captain and the boat. The hot sun was even shrouded by it as the boat sped deep into the fog.
As the boat was swallowed up by the fog neither Enrique nor his co-captain noticed the strange looking creature lying sprawled on its belly on a rock jetting out of the water near the mouth of the river, staring at the boat with two bulged eyes that looked like they were about to pop out of its skull. Its partially plated body was wet and slick, and it was more or less the same color as the rock it was lying on. Silently, it awkwardly clambered upright and slipped into the water with a fluid slide down the rock, its long fish-looking tail vanishing without even sloshing the water.
Meanwhile, the line trailing down into the fog below them was the only way for Ben and Eric to tell where the boat was. They weren't focused on that though, their eyes, and the camera, were still pointed and focused on the shore. Everything was calm, then the line, which had fully run out by then, was yanked down hard. It felt like something landed on the boat.
"Woah," Ben said, lowering the camera as he and Eric's gazes now dropped to the line trailing into the must. They couldn't see the boat, but it was still moving.
"What was that?" Eric asked. Ben hung the camera back on his belt, though it was still recording.
"I don't know," he replied, gazing intently down into the mist. Then the line started shaking, wobbling, and jerking though they couldn't see why. They were yanked down again and again before the line would shake and they'd rise back up.
"Hold on!" Ben said as they were shook and yanked up and down, their feet just touching the top of the mist.
"What's happening!?" Eric nearly screamed, his voice almost a squeak.
"Just hold on," Ben replied, his voice tense, assessing and alert but calm and assuring.
"Make it stop," Eric's voice now did squeak in fear. The line shook more violently than ever. Then it was over and the ride became smooth again. For a few seconds everything seemed okay, the line was stable again and the boat was still moving below them like nothing at all had happened. In confusion, both of them gazed down as the fog began to finally break as they left the mouth of the river and hit more open water again.
The boat emerged from the mist looking like a ghost ship. It emerged with shredded canvas and its deck covered in blood. A long streak of blood also ran down the port side of the hull like a paint roller had been used on it there, trailing into the waves off that side of the boat. There was no sign of anyone on board.
"What happened to them!?" Eric gasped, feeling his stomach drop again at the sight, this time into a pit of horror.
"I don't know," a stunned sounding Ben said from behind him. Their eyes stayed on the boat, which was still in motion, flying over the water at full throttle, and they slowly brought their eyes up to see what was ahead.
"Oh my God," Ben gasped when he saw what was right ahead of the boat. The horror turned to terror.
"We're gonna crash!" Eric cried. "We're gonna crash!" The boat was flying over the water at full speed, cutting a path through the rough waves and leaving a long wide wake behind it, right towards a rocky shoal that jetted out from the nearest cliffside of the island.
"Alright, alright! No we're not," Ben quickly assured, his hands already in motion to get them free.
"I'm gonna cut us loose. I'm gonna cut us loose!" Ben said, looking up to see the boat nearly to the shoal. The sharp rocks jetted out of the water, the waves breaking over their sharp points. He dropped his gaze to the line holding them and focused all his attention on getting him and Eric free.
"We're gonna crash!" Eric was crying.
"I'm gonna cut us loose. Let go of the rope. Let go of the rope!" Ben said, raising his voice for the first time. Weeping, Eric threw his hands up and out of the way. It had changed so quickly, less than a minute ago he'd been laughing and whooping in excitement, now he was sobbing in fear.
The boat was getting nearer and nearer to the rocks. Eric looked up and saw they had only seconds.
"Move your hands," Ben was saying. "Come on!" he added; he just couldn't get the clip holding them to the rope free.
"Hurry up," Eric replied, his voice breaking, tears being ripped off his cheeks from the wind. Below them the boat struck the first rock, being thrown into the air as it jumped over it and splashed into the water again. There was just a second now before it would crash into the shoal itself.
"Here we go!" Ben exclaimed, freeing him and Eric. They began flying up higher as he reached up to grab the handles to steer the glider with and getting control as the wind began sweeping them away. At the same moment, far below them, the boat rammed itself up onto the rocks. It crashed with a violent collision, ripping open its keel and rolling onto its side on the rocks. Its engine kept roaring for a moment before it began burning itself out.
The parasail meanwhile was swept backwards away from it as the wind caught its sail, pulling both Ben and Eric away from the ocean and towards the island. Neither spoke, they both were still catching their breath as they watched the island draw nearer. They passed over the shore and now flew over an ocean of trees rather than water.
"It's going to be okay bud," Ben promised as the wind caught the parasail again and carried it far over the island's interior, miles passed below them as they neared the very center of the island, and slowly, very slowly, they were sinking towards the ocean of trees below them. All Ben could do was steer them, his teeth gritted tightly together, as they glided lower and lower and lower towards the lost world that they were going to get a much closer look at than they had ever expected.
As for what lurked in that sea of trees below, they had no idea what to expect. Little did Eric know at that moment though, but he was on the verge of discovering something that InGen had secretly hidden from the world in this place no one was supposed to go.
The truth of just how far InGen's genetic experiments had went were loose on the island.
…..
"Rawr." The Triceratops went for the Brachiosaurus' throat. Young Charlie was the referee in this vicious battle of the titans. The battleground was the mighty desert in his sandbox, located in the backyard of his Midwest neighborhood home, and the combatants his toy dinosaurs. As the Triceratops mauled the Brachiosaurus' throat, a man sitting behind the young boy chuckled and said matter of factly, "Actually Charlie, those are herbivores. They really wouldn't be interested in fighting with each other." Charlie looked over as the Triceratops was biting the Brachiosaurus on the head.
"But these ones here are carnivores, and they really like fighting with each other," the man continued, holding up a toy Velociraptor and Allosaurus. "They use their teeth and their claws to rip each other's throats out," Paleontologist Alan Grant continued. Survivor of the now infamous incident at Jurassic Park back in 1993. The world had not known for the longest time, Grant had accepted the company's hush money like most of the other survivors had, but Ingen, the company that owned the park and created the dinosaurs they stocked it with, grown from ancient samples of DNA recover from amber fossils, had been forced to come out with it all publicly after they had accidently set a Tyrannosaurus rex loose in San Diego in 1997. They had been trying to salvage something from the ash that was left over from the figurative fire that had been the collapse of Jurassic Park, and the assets that had been cloned for it that were now roaming free on their factory floor island Isla Sorna had been too tempting of an opportunity following InGen's slow descent towards bankruptcy following the fire of Jurassic Park. In their attempt to bring a dinosaur to the mainland and revitalize the idea, they had accidently set an angry drugged-up Tyrannosaurus loose on the city and the entire world had learned about the existence of living cloned dinosaurs
So the world had learned that about the incident at the park on Isla Nublar and that on Isla Sonra large numbers of cloned dinosaurs were living in the wild. Following the San Diego Incident, the whole island had been declared a biological preserve for the dinosaurs and access to it was strictly restricted by the Costa Rican government.
In the years since Jurassic Park, and everything coming out, Alan Grant had continued his work studying dinosaurs. Specifically the kind he liked, the ones fossilized in the rocks. Rocks are where the truth of dinosaurs was, not on Isla Nublar or Isla Sorna. The truth, and all that could truly be learned, about dinosaurs was frozen in time in the planet's rock. That was something he stood by, and his mind hadn't been changed by seeing cloned dinosaurs on Isla Nublar. The secrets of dinosaurs were there if you knew how to look. A new discovery he had been working on only furthered his belief that they could learn more about dinosaurs from rock than the clones on those islands as well. The rocks are where the truth was.
"Alan," a voice said behind him as he began making the toy carnivores rip into each other as an example to accompany his short lecture. He turned and saw Ellie Sattler standing behind him, holding her youngest child in her arms. "He's three. Let's wait till he's five," she whispered, though she had a small gain on her face. Alan chuckled, realizing he had gotten a little ahead of himself, "Oh, right. Sorry Charlie," he said. Charlie went back to the epic battle of the herbivores in his corner of the sandbox. A true battle of the ages it was too.
Alan softly chuckled as he did.
"Ellie?" a new voice called out from the house's backdoor. Alan Grant and Ellie Staller were in her backyard and Ellie's secretary, Hannah, had just poked her head out of the back door, holding up a phone.
Yeah?" Ellie asked, readjusting how she was holding her youngest in her arms as she turned around. Hannah waved the phone idly, "It's Tom again. He says he has to talk to you about the last chapter." Ellie laughed, "Just tell him I'm not going to lose the Jack Horner quote." She turned around to face Alan again and smiled at him. "My editor thinks he's a paleontologist," she explained in a whisper. She and Alan both chuckled, both knowing the pain of an editor thinking they knew best. As they were laughing, the sound of a car pulling up, and then a car door opening and closing, made them both turn their heads toward the side of the house.
"Hey Mark," Ellie greeted, walking towards her husband. She held her baby up higher and added in a higher pitched eager voice, "Hey babe, look who's here!" They met in the center of the yard next to a large tree. Ellie passed their youngest over so Mark could hold his youngest. They shared a kiss as Alan stood up and walked up to introduce himself.
"This is Alan," Ellie said as he walked up. Smiling, he reached out and shook Mark's hand.
"Nice to meet you Alan. I've heard a lot about you," Mark greeted with a polite smile. Charlie suddenly ran over, clutching the wounded but victorious Brachiosaurus close to his chest.
"Daddy daddy!" he excitedly said, eager to share what he had learned. "This is an herbivore," he said, holding the toy out before he looked up at Alan, "and that's the dinosaur man."
"Dinosaur man," Alan replied, bursting into a short fit of mused laughter. As did the other two adults.
…..
Dinner went well, Ellie had cooked up something special for their guest. Once they'd eaten they stayed sitting at the dining room table and engaged in chitchat for a while before cake was served. Around the time the cake was being served, Alan had gotten up and was standing in front of Ellie's pet parrot, holding up a treat.
"Jack," he said, "Say my name. Is my name Alan?" At the lack of an answer Alan tried again, "Is my name Alan?" The bird remained silent, he just stared at Grant with wide eyes. No neurons seemed to be firing in that feathered head of his. Shrugging, Alan put the bird treat down and walked back to the table in defeat as Ellie started laughing.
"He used to know me," he said, sitting down.
"It's sad, isn't it," Ellie agreed between giggles. Mark was walking back to the table at the same time, holding out a coffee pot.
"Here you go," Mark said, setting the pot of coffee down on the table between them all. Each of them had a mug already and had already drunk one pot, he'd gone and made half of another in case anyone wanted a little more.
"Thanks," Ellie said, smiling at home fondly as she brought her still partially filled mug to her mouth. "So you know Mark's been working with the State Department now?" she added before taking a sip.
"Yeah, what do you do Mark?" Alan asked curiously, wiping the corner of his mouth with a napkin.
"Uh, it's international relations mostly," Mark answered, a little surprised to be put in the spotlight. "Mostly treaty law, things like that," he explained.
At that moment they all heard the baby start crying in the other room. Ellie looked up, "Uh oh," she said, starting to stand. "Call of the wild one." Mark, who was sipping on his mug of coffee, held a hand up, "Here, I'll go," he offered, a little grateful for the opportunity. Setting his mug down, he took a quick, hurried, bite of cake and stood up. "You guys ah…you guys catch up," he said, smiling understandably, and knowingly, at Alan and Ellie before leaving the table.
"Thanks babe," Ellie called after him before she turned around and faced Alan again.
Alan smiled, "He's a great guy." For a moment they both sat there in silence, smiles plastered on their faces but both diverted their eyes from the other, each clearing their throat slightly awkwardly. Ellie suddenly perked up.
"So what are you working on now?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Raptors, mostly," Alan answered. Ellie bit her lip, "My…favorite," she said after a moment, a slight grimace on her face. There was a mutual understanding on that topic. They'd both been cornered by the raptor pack in the park's Visitor Center on Isla Nublar, chased from the control room all the way to the lobby, not even to mention Ellie's horrifying solo encounter with one in the claustrophobic subterranean tunnels of the park's bunker-like maintenance shed less than an hour prior.
"Do you remember the sounds they made?" Alan asked softly. Ellie stiffened for a moment, an old familiar chill creeping down her spine. She could never forget it. She shook her head, "I try not to," she admitted. She cast a glance down at her hands as the old echo of their trilling and screeching entered the forefront of her mind for the first time in a long time.
"But Ellie," Alan was explaining, excitement sneaking into his voice, "all our theories about raptor intelligence and what they were capable of…we weren't even close." His eyes were wide now, and Ellie's quickly followed suit. They had worked long and hard together in their shared theories of raptor intelligence, and now, to Ellie, it sounded as if they weren't even close to the right idea. Despite herself she was fascinated.
"Tell me," Ellie eagerly said, leaning forward over the table. Alan did the same, "So Nick and I have been working on this little project about raptor behavior, you remember him right?" he asked and she nodded. She remembered Nick Edwards, the young biologist and animal behaviorist who she had met on the flight to Isla Nublar. Like her and Alan had been, he'd been called down to the island to give his expert opinion on its attractions and how they might…react. At the lunch table that afternoon he'd shared many of her own concerns, about truly having no way to control dinosaurs, adding that they only had theory to predict their behaviors and not real world examples to pull from. He'd also been concerned about stresses park visitors and tours might put on the dinosaurs and how that might influence their behavior and aggression. After the evacuation of the island they'd met a few times with their fellow survivors, but it had been years since she had last seen him though, close to eight now. Though they still had each other's contact information and sent cards around the holidays. She hadn't gone to John Hammond's funeral after he had died but from what she heard Nick had. It was good hearing Alan was working with him now though. "We did some cranial scans of a fossil skull and we found what looks like a very sophisticated resonating chamber," Alan had continued.
"Wait a second, so we were right?" Ellie asked, fully engrossed. "They had the ability to vocalize?"
"I'm convinced it's the key to their social intelligence," Alan confirmed.
"Which explains why they could work together as a team," Ellie continued, taking the next step beyond Alan's conclusion.
"They'd coordinate their attacks, so their prey wouldn't know what was going on," Alan eagerly replied, almost automatically, all but finishing her thought for her. Ellie paused for a moment as the next logical conclusion entered her mind, and it left her open mouthed.
"They could talk to each other?" she gasped.
So as it turns out they had been on the right path, Ellie realized. Alan had just found that piece they had been missing when doing their own research. She felt that same familiar thrill of discovery pass through her at that notion. It was like the old days, she and Alan almost seemed to still be on the same wavelength even.
"To a degree we never imagined," Alan confirmed with a nod. He was clearly awestruck by the discovery. She had to admit it, she was too, and somewhat horrified. She remembered how effectively and efficiently the raptors on Isla Nublar had hunted them. This discovery explained so much about their behavior. Her mind and imagination was racing, so was Alan's as he tried to picture it as it might've really been in the Cretaceous. Ellie shook her head, almost not believing it. Alan smiled, "Ellie, they were smart. They were smarter than dolphins or whales…they were smarter than primates," he said in unbridled awe. Ellie looked a little horrified, but Alan had an excited, awestruck, smile spreading across his face and he was unable to stop it.
And it occurred to Ellie at that moment, just how lucky they really had been that they had survived.
Thank goodness they'd never be anywhere near those animals again.
…..
Ellie walked Alan to his car. He would've stayed later, she and Mark had even offered him the guest room but he refused. He had a symposium he had to get to by a certain time. The sun had set by the time he and Ellie walked out to his car. He unlocked it and got into the driver's seat, and saw she was still standing right outside. He turned the key and lowered his window with a small smile up at her. Ellie had one too.
"I just wanted to say that if you ever need help with anything, sometimes you forget to ask. So you can call me. Anything, anytime," she said, a slightly sad smile now on her face. Alan knew his smile looked similar. He nodded though, "Sure," he promised, turning the key the rest of the way and starting the engine.
"You're still the best," Ellie promised. "I mean that."
"The last of my breed," Alan replied. They stared at each other for another moment before Alan put the car in reverse and eased out of the driveway. Ellie stayed standing in her driveway and watched him back into the street, turn the car and drive off into the night. She watched him go with no small amount of worry. Only when he was gone and out of sight, did she, with a small look of concern on her face, turn and go back inside.
In truth, Alan's true love was, in some ways, still and always had been dinosaurs first; even after Isla Nublar and Jurassic Park. The fact that love and study was threatened now more than ever was hard for him, but she'd seen that spark in his eye when he was explaining his discovery. She knew that was what made him truly happy and hoped he would still be able to do it.
…..
Alan stood at the podium in the lecture hall, to his right was a long table covered in an assortment of raptor fossils, everything from a skill to the sickle shaped toe claws. Trying not to pay attention to just how many people were walking out, he continued as if he hadn't seen it. A majority of the crowd was still here at least, but it was hard to see with the lights dimmed. These were the people he needed the support from in order to continue the breakthrough studies he, and many others, were working on. Sure you could dig just about anywhere for bones but a true paleontologist needed money to actually learn something from those fossilized remains and money was something Alan Grant seemed to always be far too short on. People seemed more content than ever that everything there was to be known about dinosaurs was already discovered due to the InGen clones living on two isolated islands, never mind the fact that brand new species to science were discovered every year; discovered in the rock not on those islands.
People were, in a sense, more curious than ever about dinosaurs but not in the right way it seemed. People wanted to research Hammond's creations, thinking those things had all the answers. Actually paleontology was suffering more than ever. People thought "Why pay to study rocks when he can study the living ones?" People just didn't care about what was in the rock anymore.
Without pausing or showing any reaction, he continued speaking to the remaining crowd, now fully ignoring those still walking out. Even if the sight wore on him.
"It is through the study of the anterior chamber in multiple specimens that we can determine the correlation between the upper palate and the larynx. This lets us theorize...theorize, mind you," Alan said, repeating the word with a little extra emphasis, "that the raptor was capable of sophisticated vocalizations which would've been a tremendous evolutionary advantage." He paused for a moment, his eyes scanning the crowd. Many were still leaving, but, more importantly, a majority of people were staying. At least the people left, from what he could see, looked genuinely engrossed.
"Raptors were fierce, intelligent and socially sophisticated," he continued, eyeing a different section of the room with each word, hoping now to keep the interest of everyone left. "They were able to hunt in numbers and coordinate their efforts. Were it not for the cataclysmic events which overtook them, it is entirely possible that raptors, rather than humans, would have become the dominant species on this planet." He paused for a moment to let that sit with the crowd before he spoke again. "I hope this has been of interest. It certainly excites us as paleontologists. There is much, much more to discover." People were leaving again but Alan continued anyway. "That is why we continue to need, and ask for, your support," he finished, giving the still more than half full auditorium a smile. When total silence followed he felt they needed a little prompting that he was finished.
"Thank you," he added. Still total silence greeted him, except for one single person clapping from somewhere way off to his left. No one else joined in though. The symposium leader sitting at the back of the stage behind him stood up and began clapping as well with the mystery person from somewhere in the crowd. With her additional encouragement, the rest of the remaining crowd finally followed suit with a polite applause. Alan hoped the lack of response wasn't indicative that he hadn't convinced anyone. The symposium leader stepped forward and warmly smiled, "Thank you very much, Dr. Grant," she said into the extra microphone mounted to a stand. The lights came back up while the crowd was clapping and the applause died down as they reached full brightness.
"Now, does anyone have a question?" the woman continued. Just about every single hand that was left in the entire auditorium immediately shot up. Alan bit his lip, suddenly realizing what the remaining crowd might really have been here tio unique about..and that wasn't raptor bones or new discoveries. If he had a crowd put this many hands up before Jurassic Park he would've been jumping for joy on the stage, but now he just had that familiar feeling in his gut on what the real curiosity of the people was directed at; and it wasn't raptor resonating chambers. He sighed and pulled the microphone mounted to the podium free and held it to his mouth, "Fine," he said. "Does anyone have a question that does not relate to Jurassic Park?" he prompted. It took a moment but about half of the hands went down. Alan shook his head, "Or the incident in San Diego? Which I did not witness." All but a very few of the remaining hands went down. A few scattered hands lingered in the air before their owners hesitantly or sheepishly brought them down as well. Some of those people also looked down in slight sheepish embarrassment as well. Alan watched as most of the hands sank like submarine periscopes into the water, but some were still up. Deciding to throw a bone at one of them, the ones left were likely his only chance left at this event for getting any additional financial supporters for his research, Alan pointed to the nearest one, "Yes, sir?" he asked.
The young man he pointed to stood up. He looked like a college student, at the very least he was definitely college age. Another woman, one of the aids for the symposium, approached him and held up a microphone for him to speak into.
"Your theory on raptors is great and all, but isn't all this conjecture kind of moot?" the young man said, "I mean, once the U.N. and Costa Rica and everyone decides how to handle that second island, the scientists will just go in and look for themselves," he mused.
There it was.
It more or less proved Alan's point, people thought all the answers were right there on those islands rather than in the rocks. Those were not dinosaurs, not really, they were things with dinosaur traits mixed with modern animals; the dinosaurs were in the rocks not on those islands. Still, it was a fair question, and Alan thought maybe he could put the matter to rest a bit if he explained why those things were not dinosaurs in the sense everyone thought. Alan held the microphone up and spoke, nodding to the young man slightly as he did, "Dinosaurs lived sixty-five million years ago. What is left of them is fossilized in the rocks, and it is in the rocks that real scientists make real discoveries," he said, putting emphasis on the word "real," pointing a finger dramatically as he did. Some heat did slip into his voice as he continued, though he was trying to keep himself outwardly neutral to the topic. "Now what John Hammond and InGen did at Jurassic Park is create genetically engineered theme-park monsters. Nothing more and nothing less." And that's all they'd ever be.
Another woman, who looked like she might've been a reporter, popped up out of her seat, "Um," she started, trying to phrase her question, "are you saying that you wouldn't want to get onto Isla Sorna and study them if you had the chance?"
"No force on Earth or Heaven could me on that island," Alan replied in a firm, even tone. An ever so slight derisive smile spread across his face as he spoke.
…..
Rubbing his eyes, Grant thanked the symposium leader one more time then stepped off the stage. The bones he had brought were packed away and a worker was going to load them for him.
It could have gone worse, Alan told himself as he walked down from the stage and started up the aisle between the seats. Sure, there was no new backing but he had gotten a few interested comments after the questions had ended. You have to start somewhere with people, he also reminded himself. A man, the only one left in the audience, stood up from his seat and stopped in front of him as Alan was about to pass. Dr. Grant hadn't even really paid attention to him up to that moment.
"Nice speech," he said. Alan looked up and did a double take, not believing it. He hadn't seen the man standing in front of him in years.
"Steve Eldridge?" Alan asked. Steve nodded and laughed, "Sure is," he confirmed..
"Wa…well, it's good to see you," Alan replied, reaching a hand out and eagerly shaking Steve's. Smiling, Steve returned the gesture. Alan genuinely smiled a big smile, for the moment feeling as if all the weight he'd been carrying on his shoulders had fallen away. "If I'd known you were coming…ah this is a great surprise," Alan chuckled, giving his old friend's hand an additional shake.
"Came all this way just to see an old friend speak," Steve said. "I've seen some of your other ones on TV, lately it's seemed like you could use some cheering up." Alan paused again, "You were the one clapping?" Steve nodded, "That was me," he confirmed. Steve was one of Alan's fellow survivors of the original incident at Jurassic Park back in 1993. They'd kept in contact over the years since, but they hadn't actually seen each other in probably the full eight years since the incident. Like Nick always had, they sent holiday cards to each other and had the occasional phone call.
"It was a good speech," Steve was saying. "Sounds like you have got some big discoveries there."
"It's the kind of stuff I dreamed about finding," Alan confirmed. "I'm afraid it's come out a little too late. You heard it there, people would rather study the animals on the islands and not the rocks anymore. Since it all came out after San Diego, trying to get funding for research anymore has been a nightmare."
"I'll admit I still don't really understand much about how dinosaurs work, not much more than I did in '93, so some of what you said went over my head. I can tell you were really excited about it though, you looked like the raptor was your first love up there," Steve chuckled. "It's good to know some people are still digging."
"I've been working pretty close with Nick on this project for a while, this discovery is his achievement as much as it is mine," Alan said. Steve smiled, "It's good to know there's still two people digging then," he said.
"Maybe I'm not totally the last of the old breed," Alan mused with a small nod.
"Well, would you like to get some dinner? My treat?" Steve offered. Alan looked up and smiled, "I already ate," he said. "Ellie and I had dinner this evening."
"Sounds like a whole reunion has been happening over here. How about coffee and a chance to catch up then?" Steve asked next. Alan couldn't help but chuckle and crack a smile, "That'd be great," he agreed. After that not so great symposium, coffee really did sound like what he needed.
"You know if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind at all joining you at the dig site for a bit," Steve said as they started walking out of the auditorium. Alan looked over at him, "What about your daughter?"
"Oh, Kate is staying with her mother till the end of the month so I don't have to head back to Ohio for about two weeks," Steve replied. "Thought I'd take the chance to get away and see an old friend for a bit."
"Well, you came at a not so great time, funding is all but gone, but we'd be glad to have you for what time we have left. Since when are you so interested in digging up dinosaur bones?" Alan asked.
"Well, I'll just say, or better or worse the one thing Jurassic Park did have on me was a lasting curiosity about dinosaurs. Even if I haven't exactly fed it much in the years since. I did read your books though" Steve said as they left the room.
"I'll sign your copies if you brought them," Alan chuckled and put a hand on Steve's shoulder as they walked out, a happy smile on his face. "It is really good to see you," he said.
…..
M. B. Nash was a largely built man. He probably wouldn't win an arm wrestling competition with The Rock or anyone, but he had an impressive body build. He could've probably held his own against him for at least a little bit. He was standing out amid a boneyard of airplanes, finishing spray painting a decommissioned aircraft's nose and cockpit windshield to resemble the face of a dinosaur. Well, not really. The similarities were vague at most. He had drawn some teeth on the nose of the plane, and a pair of eyes on the windshield, all in bright red paint, but it would suffice for their test. As he jogged away from the plane he passed the sagging, occasionally, mangled or outright obliterated hulks and pieces that were once planes or other aircraft of varying size. From small private planes to massive old cargo jets.
It was an airplane graveyard, privately owned, and the old plane that had just been turned into a dinosaur was about to join the others, not just in the quiet world of sad disuse but it being blown to pieces. The owners recycled planes at this airplane graveyard, just not in the traditional way one might think.
"So what we got here, Nashy?" Nash's partner asked as he jogged up next to him. The man was holding three very large shells, looking positively excited for what was about to happen next. He couldn't keep the grin off his face. Nash got down on a knee next to his partner Cooper.
"Einhorn 20-millimeter, gas operated semi-automatic," he recited almost automatically. "10-shot, magazine fed, rotating bolt recoil-reducing muzzle brake. High explosive incendiary…." and so on. It was an impressive gun to put it simply. In front of Cooper was a large gun and he began loading the shells into it.
Their employer, a middle-aged man named Udesky, meanwhile climbed down the cockpit of a parked, also wingless, C1-30 behind them and strolled through the cargo bay and down the loading ramp towards the two mercenaries. As he did he stopped to pick up a ringing yellow satellite phone.
"Udesky," he greeted, answering the call.
"Mr. Udesky, it's Paul Kirby. Just checking in," the man on the other end said.
"Ah, yes sir!" Udesky replied. "We're good to go here," he assured, strolling casually down the ramp as the two mercenaries he had hired were getting finished with loading the gun and preparing to test fire it.
"As a matter of fact, I can lock things down just as soon as you drop me that payment," Udesky was saying as he reached the bottom of the plane's cargo ramp.
"Well, that's right, two of the very best men I could possibly find," he said in response to a question from his employer. "No, sir, I haven't worked with them personally, but believe me, sir, both of these men come very highly recommended."
To go to that corner of the world they were going to be healing to you not only needed mercenaries but you needed the best ones. This was the thing about Udesky though, if you paid him for a service he made that he delivered for you. He walked up behind the two right as they both put on thick ear muffs. Cooper laid on his stomach, shouldered the gun, aimed it at the plane and fired. The gun barrel flashed but that was nothing compared to the fireball that erupted where the dino-plane had been. It immediately was obliterated in a powerful, loud explosion and only sad pieces of scrap landed again where the plane had been. Everything else was obliterated by the explosion, and the pieces that were left were burning. Very highly recommend men indeed.
"Are you alright!?" Udesky heard Paul Kirby ask through the phone, sounding almost frantic. Udesky chuckled, "Nothing to worry about sir. It's going to be a walk in the park," he assured, looking at the burning, crumpled heap of metal where the plane had been.
Nash's drawn on dinosaur face was still staring back at them.