Life Finds A Way
The main part of Jurassic Park is a large area with three main structures connected by walkways and surrounded by two impressive electric fence, the outer fences were almost twenty feet high.
Outside of the fences, the jungle has been encouraged to grow naturally. The largest building is the Visitor's Center, sever stories tall, its walls were still skeletal and unfinished.
The third structure is not really a building, but the impressive cage that we saw earlier, overgrown inside with thick jungle foliage.
The jeeps pulled up in front of the Jurassic Park Visitor's Center.
Alan and the others exit out of the vehicles and head towards the entrance.
And as they approach the doors, they slowly open to reveal a banner hanging on the ceiling, titled: When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, and also displaying fossils of a Tyrannosaurus Rex attacking a Brachiosaur as soon as they entered the building.
The workmen at the Center, in the basket of a Condor crane, are currently still currently assembling skeletons.
Hammond then speaks as soon as they enter the building, workmen still painting and working on the incomplete Visitor's Center.
"G'day, g'day, now-- the most advanced amusement park in the world, combining all of the latest technologies. I'm not talking rides, you know. Everybody has rides. We've made living biological attractions so astonishing, they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet!"
Grant stares at the skeletons as they head upstairs, shaking his head.
"So what are you thinking?" Sattler asked.
"We're out of a job." Grant replied dreadfully.
Ian Malcom pops in between them, interrupting with a reply of his own.
"Don't you mean "extinct"?"
Dante rolled his eyes at Malcom's joke. 'That man has a weird sense of humor.' He thought to himself.
Once they arrive at a theater room, they approached the seats nearby, and Hammond asks kindly.
"Why don't you all sit down?"
Drs. Grant, Sattler, and Malcom take their seats in the front row of the fifty seat auditorium, Gennaro, the 'bloodsucking lawyer' then sits behind them.
Dante, Grant's nephew, sat next to the row where his uncle, Sattler and Malcom were sitting at.
As everyone watched the show, of which a cartoon character called Mr. DNA took over from there.
"A DNA strand like me is a blueprint for building a living thing! And sometimes animals that went extinct millions of years ago, like dinosaurs, left their blueprints behind for us to find! We just had to know where to look!"
The screen image changes from animated to a nature- photography look. It's an extreme close-up of a mosquito, its fangs sunk deep into some animal's flesh, its body pulsing and engorging with the blood it's drinking.
"A hundred million years ago, there were mosquitoes, just like today. And just like today, they fed on the blood of animals. Even dinosaurs!"
The camera races back to show the mosquito perched on top of a giant animated Brachiosaur. The image changes, to another close-up, this one is a tree branch, its bark glistening with golden sap. Mr. DNA leaps on the sap.
"Sometimes, after biting a dinosaur, the mosquito would land on a branch of a tree, and get stuck in the sap!"
The engorged mosquito lands in the golden tree sap, and gets stuck while more sap slid down the branch , engulfing the mosquito completely.
"After a long time, the tree sap would get hard and become fossilized, just like a dinosaur bone, preserving the mosquito inside!"
The genetics laboratory was bustling with activity.
Everywhere, there were piles of amber, tagged and labeled with scientists in white coats examining it under microscopes.
One scientist moves a complicated drill apparatus next to the chunk of amber with a fossilized mosquito inside and drills into the side of the amber.
Mr. DNA continues again.
"This fossilized tree sap-- which we call amber waited millions of years, with the mosquito inside until Jurassic Park's scientists came along! Using sophisticated techniques, they extract the preserved blood from the mosquito, and -
A long needle is inserted through the amber, into the thorax of the mosquito, and makes an extraction of whatever dinosaur DNA the blood contained.
"Bingo! Dino DNA!" Grant and the others looked on in amazement.
Mr. DNA jumps down in front of DNA data as it races by at headache, full speed. He holds his head, dazed and overwhelmed by it.
"A full DNA strand contains three billion genetic codes. If we looked at screens like these once a second for eight hours a day, it'd take two years to look at the entire strand! It's that long! And since it's so old, it's full of holes. That's where our geneticists take over!"
He continues once more, explaining further on how DNA is extracted to bring back the extinct dinosaurs.
"Thinking machine supercomputers and genetic sequencers break down the strand in minutes-- and Virtual Reality displays show our geneticists the gaps in the DNA sequence. Since most animal DNA is ninety percent identical, we use the complete DNA of a frog-- to fill in the-- holes and - complete the-- code!"
"Whew! Now, we can make a baby dinosaur!" Mr. DNA concludes.
-Time Skip-
Alan, Sattler, and Malcom, all curious try to get a closer look, but they can't and are frustrated. So they leaned closely forwards, straining against the safety bars for a better look.
But the cars kept going.
Alan interrupted.
"Wait a minute! How do-- how the hell do you interrupt the cellular mitosis!?"
"Can you tell what kind of dinosaur you're just getting from the DNA?" Dante inquired.
"Can't we see the unfertilized eggs!?" Sattler added, enthusiastically.
"Shortly, shortly." Hammond replied.
"Can't you stop these things!?"
"Sorry! It's kind of a ride!" Hammond apologized.
"Let's get outta here!" Grant whispered to Malcom, who agrees.
The two of them start to team up on the safety bars.
Grant shoves his all the way back with one foot, Malcom does the same with his own foot.
But much to everyone's surprise, Dante didn't even have to use his foot to move the safety bars. For he was so strong, that he pushed his safety bar all the way back with one hand.
They stand up from their seats, and they all head for the door of the hatchery.
"Hey! You can't do that!" Gennaro reprimanded.
"¡Cállate, Gennaro!" Dante replied.
Gennaro looked at Dante in shock. Nobody has ever dared to talk back to him.
"What did you just say, boy?"
Dante turned and fixed the bloodsucking lawyer with a death glare which was immediately met with Gennaro widening his eyes in fear. "One: That was Spanish I was speaking. Two: It means, shut up."
Dr. Sattler slipped out from under her safety bar as well, following Drs. Grant and Malcom, moves right past Gennaro's seat.
"Can they do that?" Gennaro asked.
"Relax Donald, relax. They're scientists, so they ought to be curious." Hammond replied, chuckling. But then Hammond gave Gennaro a look of primal warning. "Although, I would strongly advise you to do what Dante says. Dr. Grant warned me that you wouldn't like his nephew when he's angry. And I do suggest you take that from me. Because the young lad used a painful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wrist lock called the Chicken Wing when he restrained me in the Badlands. For a thirteen year old boy, he is insanely strong and probably could've dislocated my arm for good if he really wanted to. If I didn't know any better, I would say that Dante's probably strong enough to rip a human apart limb from limb."
Gennaro's fears quickly got worse when he heard about the moment when Dante subdued Hammond with a Chicken Wing in the Montana Badlands. He'd heard about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques but Gennaro did not wish to experience them himself, especially the Chicken Wing.
Hammond approaches a security code box.
It's a retinal scanner. He pushes various code numbers and the door begins to open quickly, granting them access.
He steps aside, and the group eagerly goes up the stairs.
The doors to the lab began to open as everyone entered the lab.
"Good day, Henry!" Hammond called out.
"Oh, good day, sir." Wu replied back in acknowledgement.
The blue shirted paleontologist then looks around, and goes to a round opening with various eggs under a strong light.
One of the eggs started to move rapidly - a robotic arm then steadies the shell.
Grant stares at the egg that was about to hatch.
"It's turning the eggs." Ellie murmured.
"Absolument incroyable." Dante replied in astonishment. (Translation from French: Absolutely amazing.)
"Ah, perfect timing!" Wu said, checking the time on his watch.
"I hoped they'd hatch before I had to go to the boat."
Hammond joins in enthusiastically.
"Henry, why didn't you tell me? You know I insist on being here when they're born."
Hammond puts on a pair of plastic gloves while the egg begins to crack slowly.
The robotic arm moves away...a baby dinosaur tries its best to get out, just its head sticking out of the shell.
Hammond reaches down and carefully breaks away egg fragments, helping the baby dinosaur out of its shell.
"Come on, then, out you come." Hammond called out with an encouraging tone.
He then replies.
"They imprint on the first living creature they come in contact with. That helps them to trust me. I've been present for the birth of every animal on this island. Just look at that."
"Surely not the ones that have bred in the wild?" Malcom asked.
Wu answered in response to Malcom's question.
"Actually, they can't breed in the wild. Population control is one of our security precautions here. There is no unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park."
Grant and Ellie exchange a look before staring at the baby dinosaur, who let out a mewling cry.
She manages not to smile.
Malcom interjected, breaking the silence. "How do you know they can't breed?"
Wu answered again.
"Because all the animals in Jurassic Park are female. We've engineered them that way."
Hammond keeps his attention focused on the new dinosaur, before asking for a tissue.
"Could I have a tissue please?" Asked the Ingen CEO, who was still holding the baby dinosaur.
"Right away. Coming right up." The geneticist then goes to grab a tissue, takes two or more if need be and returns to Hammond shortly.
The animal is now free, Hammond sets it carefully next to its shell.
Grant picks up the baby dinosaur, and holds it in the palm of his hand, under the incubator's heat light, astonished and replied,
"Blood temperature of the dinosaur really feels like the high eighties."
Hammond turns to the geneticist.
"Wu?"
The doctor in the lab coat replied back with a definitive answer.
"Ninety-one."
Grant picks up the large, broken half-shell to have a better look, but the robotic arm snatches it back out of his hand, and puts it down.
"Homeothermic? It holds that temperature?" Dr. Grant was astonished.
Grant turns to Dr. Wu.
"Incredible."
Malcom was still a little skeptical.
"Again, how do you know they're all female?" Malcom replied.
"We control their chromosomes. It's really not that difficult." Added Dr. Wu.
He continues again.
"All vertebrate embryos are inherently female anyway. It takes an extra hormone at the right developmental stage to create a male, and we simply deny them that."
Sattler turns to the geneticist, responding to what she just heard, skeptically.
"D- deny them that?"
Dr. Wu nods 'yes'
"Well from what I heard, we recently had an albino male Tyrannosaurus brought here from Isla Muerta, and he is currently in the T-rex paddock with our resident female; Roberta, but we call her Rexy" Hammond interjected.
Sattler's eyes widened in shock.
"An albino Tyrannosaurus? From another island?"
Hammond smiled enthusiastically.
"Yup. There's actually a few other islands which serve as quote-unquote factories where pure-bred dinosaurs are created before being transported here to Isla Nublar. That albino male T-rex from Isla Muerta, is the first pure-bred male dinosaur that we've ever had here. His primary purpose is to be a companion for Rexy. That male also has a fearsome reputation as the unchallenged king of Isla Muerta. We call him, Kratos.
Malcom continues on.
"Well, John, the kind of control that you're attempting, uh, it's- not possible."
"If there's one thing that the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life cannot be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories. It breaks through natural barriers. Painfully, maybe even... dangerously, but--"
A moment of silence fell.
Grant, who was ignoring the others, picks up the baby dinosaur, holding it in the palm of his hand under the incubator's heating light.
'Wait, I know what this dinosaur looks like, and what it has, but, I'm not sure if I really want to know, but need to be sure of what species this dinosaur is.' Grant thought to himself.
He spreads the tiny animal out on the back of his hand and delicately runs his finger over its tail, counting the vertebrae.
A look of puzzled recognition crosses his face. He dreaded the answer, but knew it from the back of his mind.
"You're implying that a group of composed entire of females will breed?" Dr. Wu asks, skeptically to Malcom's response.
Malcom replied back.
"No, uh, I'm simply just stating that life, uh, finds a way."
Dante knew what Malcom means.
"What Malcom means Dr. Wu is; Where there's a will, there's a way."
Dr. Wu smiled and was astonished by the young boy's wisdom. "I never thought one of our guests would be a poet."
Grant was still obsessed with the dinosaur, he then asked the question to the answer he dreadfully knew of in the back of his mind.
Dante offers to hold the baby dinosaur, Hammond agrees, much to Wu's disdain and hesitation.
A quiet gasp left Dante's mouth as he felt the creature's body heat permeate through the thin plastic gloves.
The little dinosaur stretched out its quaking limbs and let out a little cry as it repeatedly blinked its eyes.
Dante could feel its tiny muscles twitching, feel its skin crinkle as it turned its head this way and that.
He was holding a dinosaur... a bonafide, living, breathing dinosaur.
Dante's heart was pounding, and his lips were quirking into an affectionate smile as he talked sweetly to the little creature in his hands. "Hello there, little one. You're certainly a cute little baby dinosaur, aren't you? Yes, you're a real sweetie. Absolutely adorable."
The infant looked up at Dante with mottled golden eyes and snake-like pupils, observing him with a gaze shockingly acute for a creature that had just hatched. The little dinosaur began to nuzzle Dante's hand in a rather affectionate manner. It seemed to like him.
"Awww, look at that Dr. Grant. I think our newborn likes your nephew. They certainly are getting along quite well." Hammond said joyfully.
Alan watched from over his shoulder, just as awestruck as his nephew. He couldn't believe that an infant dinosaur had bonded with Dante. Grant had to admit that seeing his nephew bonding with such a creature did seem rather cute.
But that awe slowly began to morph into something much darker, something that sank into the pit of his stomach like a stone.
Something that made him want his nephew as far away from the dinosaur as possible.
He thought of how its bone structure must be organized, what its skull must look like... he took note of the proportions of is limbs and pieced together what kind of dinosaur his nephew was holding.
"Dante... may I?" Alan asked. Dante nodded and Hammond helped him pass the dinosaur off to his uncle.
He held it in both of his hands and observed it more closely for a fleeting moment as it peeped, stretched and gazed around.
He dreaded the answer to the question that he was about to ask.
He quietly turned away from the incubator, feeling his own hands begin to tremble as much as the infant dinosaur that he held in them.
"What species is this?" Grant demanded, asking.
"Oh. Uh, it's a- Velociraptor."
Grant dreadfully knew that it was coming.
"You bred raptors?" The paleontologist asked with a suspicious look, to which Dr. Wu nods 'yes.'
Back at the T-rex enclosure, Kratos was fast asleep, snoring loudly.
But Rexy was determined to see what the male was capable of. So she decided to approach the sleeping male.
As Kratos snored loudly, despite it being daytime still, he felt the ground shake.
The male T-rex woke up to look at the female, who was staring directly at him.
"Okay, outsider. you want to live with me, you're gonna have to at least show me that you can fight."
Rexy added sternly, with a slight mix of flirting.
Kratos growled back.
"If you insist. But I must warn you that I am stronger than I look. So, I don't want to kill you."
Rexy nods in understanding, wanting a sparring match for quite a while.
So the male Tyrannosaurus reluctantly agrees and gets into a fighting stance.
The battle begins.
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