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Just Add Water -- Ch. 2
By CarnaRaptor
JUST ADD WATER
“There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance” ~ Hippocrates
“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny’….” ~ Isaac Asimov
"Out Of This World"
Location: Polaris Submarine ~ 20 miles off the Atlantic Coast
The sun brightly dimmed and pelted aside the crisp, cool Atlantic waters. Gentle waves scurried along the ocean, leaving a foamy white puddle after every splash back down. Twenty miles off the coast of the eastern seaboard and countless leagues under the sea, was the Polaris submarine – the most advanced submarine to have ever been constructed. It was here, below the crisp breeze of fresh air, that a triumphant earthquake was brewing up below under the depths of earth. The oceans inhabitants were and the submarine itself were all completely unaware of this upcoming catastrophe.
“Arnold. How’s that missile coming along?” asked a crew member jokingly above the giant missile on the catwalk. In the corner of its launch pad sat John Arnold, configuring and tweaking out all of the missiles, and ships, kinks and bugs. His trademark cigarette dangled from his mouth. John titled his chair back and looked above at the man and smiled at him, then he affectionately raised his hand and gave him the finger.
“That’s for you and your old lady Bob!” said John. They both shared a laugh and went back to what they were doing. John may be joking right now, but he takes technology very seriously. John Arnold was widely regarded as one of the best technicians in the industry today. His resume included numerous amusement parks like AstroWorld and Magic Mountain, and countless small businesses. He even programmed the stock market supercomputer. The pay had always been good, but alas he had a wife and kid who barely ever got to see their father. Never before had he been offered a six-digit sum, but now he has and the temptation was too much. He was here on the Polaris submarine to do a simple job – program the missile launch mechanisms and configure the subs accelerator.
“Hey John, man, you look like hell. C’mon up here and eat lunch with the rest of us. Take a break.” John certainly was quite worn out, but he was a certified worrier and he didn’t feel right leaving his workstation. Aside from the noticeable rings under his eyes, he had a lot of “stress spots” all around his head. John was thirty – nine years old and he looked a lot older than his age would suggest. He was quite built and he wore his trademark Oakley-glasses.
Arnold frowned and put out his cigarette, “I’ll be there in a minute” He punched in a couple keys and went up to the floor above. John walked down the corridor, which was patched with rooms on either side, and at the end of the hallway was the mess hall. Inside the large room, there were very few people on large break. Then again, this shift had the smallest crew. John was also the only black man on this shift. A hand motioned from the table farthest right of the room. It was Bob. Arnold recognized this and walked on over and took a seat.
Bob took a bite out of his apple, juices drizzled down his palm and chin. “So John, uh, you gonna be coming with the rest of us to the bar when we get back to Boston?” Most of the crewmembers resided from the Boston area. Some say it’s a coincidence, John thought it was a conspiracy.
John reached over and grabbed a couple fries and dined on them. “Uh, I don’t know, I got this whole family thing I gotta attain to and shit like that.”
Bob didn’t argue his case, he just went back to eating. John lit up another cigarette and just relaxed against the seat. He felt a jolt go through his body, forcing him to drop his cigarette.
“Did you guys feel that?” said Arnold, his eyes wide open.
“Feel what?” replied a crew member. Another tremor went through, this time even louder, and knocking over chairs and other small items along the way.
“THAT!” At that moment a ranking officer walked in and informed the crew. “Men, our sonar’s are showing a goddamn earthquake brewing. We will be conducting an emergency ascent immediately” Everyone nodded and some crewmembers started mumbling hysterical things. Just then, John remember the missile! If that thing is jolted to a point, it will explode. John started panting heavily.
An electronic voice came from the speakers. “Submarine…Complete ascent…In T-minus Two minutes”
“Two minutes? We’ll all be dead by then” pouted John. Crew members looked back at him with a puzzled look on their face. They all believed this was all going to be over soon. Arnold thought otherwise. He pushed and shoved his way out of the room and stormed to the missiles holding area. Some crew members decided to see why John had been acting so weird. After all, the earthquake had died down a bit.
“..Running outta time….Must get this missile out of here…Before it kills crew…” He repeated that phrase over and over to himself. He ran over to his control center and started punching in keys once again. Crew members above noticed that some of the ledges that held the missile were getting loose and quickly informed the captain.
“Cmon..Cmon” said an antsy John Arnold. Before who could do anything else, two security guards came up from behind him and pinned him to the ground. By now, John had gone completely hysterical and he was screaming hoopla. An officer reconfigured Arnolds computer commands and the missile was back in containment.
The security guards took him to the above deck and opened the door to the outside. John squinted as he noticed that they were above water again. His attention was quickly turned towards an angry captain walking his way.
“Mr. Arnold, what in the hell was all that about?” bellowed the captain. He continued. “You nearly released a nuclear missile worth millions of dollars. Do you have any explanation?” John was still trying to regain his composure. Beads of sweat trickled down his body .
“Th…the…the earthquake.” Mumbled Arnold.
“Yes there was an earthquake, just a minor one…..but still…” The captain continued “…You know what, no explanation. What you did was unacceptable. I’m relieving of any involvement on this mission.”
“You’re firing me?” said a melancholy John.
The captain was very blunt with his reply. “Basically”
Location: InGen Mainland HQ – Palo Alto ~ A week later
Ed Regis relaxed upon the couch that had been given to him as a present from John Hammond. It’s really been a joyride for Regis, he has gone from a public relations advisor of the National Zoological Society to head public relations of this International Genetics company and also consultant to John Hammond, whom he considered a very good man. Today, though, he was in charge. Most of the head execs have headed out for a meeting and, for the time being, he was “the man”. The headquarters of InGen was huge by today’s standards - A giant rectangular building that had a glassy exterior and a very incomplete interior. Dozens of construction workers were scattered around the building, and evidently hard at work judging by the excess noise they were making. Regis had just begun to watch a show on the overhead television when a knock was heard at the door. He walked over and turned the knob, the door squealed as it opened.
“Mr. Regis I presume?” said the tall black man.
“Uh, yes, yes that’s me. What do you need?” said Regis, resting his elbow against the door.
“I’m John Arnold, Mr. Hammond told me to meet with you about some paperwork involving my employment with the company”
“Oh, yes, yes. You’re the engineer aren’t you? Come on in and have a seat” said Regis as he walked over to his desk and sat down.
“I’d just like to thank you and your company for accepting me in. I heard this kinda work is a real challenge. Something “out of this world”. You wouldn’t happen to know what that means, do you?” Arnold exclaimed as he nestled into the maroon-colored chair opposite the desk.
Regis had to be honest. “Truthfully, I’m as stumped as you are. Though I think it’s safe to say this company will excel in providing civilians quality entertainment and bring forth huge scientific advances to the unsuspecting world” At least Regis got the last part right.
“Umm, ok. The paperwork?” directed Arnold
“Oh, yes of course. Regis slid his chair back a little and opened the top desk drawer. He pulled out a couple files and handed it to Arnold.
“Those files need to be returned within a week. Hope to see you then” Both men stood up and exchanged a handshake.
Location: Isla Sorna
Lushes green foliage were evident at every side of the island. Bird chirped and crickets croaked. Gentle waves rustled up aside the beaches on each side of the island. This was what nature was. This was what Hammond wanted and got. He was on the island today to discuss the floor plans of his project. With him was a contractor named William Scott. They walked through a shallow underbrush along the entrance to the densely suffocating jungle.
“Well Mr. Hammond. Everything seems to be in working order. I believe we have commented on pretty much every aspect necessary. Unless of course, you see something that needs fit” said William, drenched in sweat. He swiped at a couple of bugs swarming around him and awaited a reply from Hammond.
“Ah yes, I’d really like to thank you and your company for complying with the Hammond Foundations requests for this biological preserve” said Hammond, who was dressed in all white to repel as much heat as possible. John Hammonds health had greatly improved compared to when the project was at its very early phases. He was now as ecstatic as ever. Williams shoved his hands inside his pockets and nodded in thankfulness.
“If you don’t mind me asking Mr. Hammond, what exactly is the Hammond Foundation?”
“Well my dear boy, we’re simply an organization that funds digs of prehistoric animals”
“Like dinosaurs?” interrupted William. Hammond smiled.
“Exactly” He continued. “We also have been studying the latest advancements in scientific research. All for a good cause of course, spared no expense”
“Of course” proclaimed William. The two men than began to hear the faint sound of the helicopter blade at the end of the beach. It was time to go.
Hammond rested his arm on Williams shoulder and said, “We’ll talk more about this on the ride back home”
Location: Symbolics Co. – Near Cambridge
Dennis Nedry trumpeted through the halls of the Symbolics headquarters, looking confused yet at the same time excited. He had just received a letter from this company called International Genetics and they were hoping he would follow up on an offer of theirs. Including in the letter was the offered salary, which was huge, and the necessities of what’s needed for job if he were to agree to be hired by them. Dennis Nedry was not a person you’d call “elegant”. He was a rather obese fellow and he really was never considered much of a gentleman. Nonetheless, he was widely known for his involvement in setting up worldwide telephone communications for multinational corporations.
He found the door titled “B. Fellows, C.E.O” and walked in. In a desk at the corner of a large, majestic office sat the man he was looking for.
“Dennis? This is quite a surprise. Hold on let me just finish up with this phone call” Dennis patiently waited as Fellows went about with his business.
“Good ol’ Dennis, what can I do for you?”
“I just got a concern that I’d like to consult with you with”
Barney grinned in approval, “Ok, Shoot”
“What kind of database has three billion records, Barney?”
“A mistake” chuckled Barney. “They put in an extra zero or two”
“It’s not a mistake, I checked. It’s what they want”
“But that’s crazy. It’s not workable. Even if you have the fastest processors and blindingly fast algorithms, a search would still take days. Possibly weeks”
“Yeah, I know. Fortunately I’m not being asked to do algorithms. I’m just being asked to reserve storage for the overall system. But still…what could the database be for?”
Barney frowned, “You operating under an ND?”
“Yes” replied Dennis. Most of his jobs required Non-Disclosure agreements.
“Can you tell me anything?”
“It’s a bioengineering firm”
“Bioengineering” Barney said. “Well, there’s the obvious…”
“Which is?”
“A DNA molecule”
“Oh come on” Nedry explained. “Nobody can be analyzing a DNA molecule….This is a private company”
“With three billion records, I don’t know what else it could be. Maybe they’re being optimistic designing their system”
“Very optimistic” Dennis added.
“Or maybe they’re just analyzing DNA fragments, but they’ve got RAM-intensive algorithms” That made more sense. Certain database search techniques ate up a lot of memory.
“You know who did their algorithms?” asked Barney.
“No, the company seems to be very secretive”
“What’s the system?”
“Multi-XMP”
“Multi-XMP? You mean more than one cray? Wow” Barney was frowning now, thinking that one over. “Can you tell me anything else?”
“No, that’s about all I’m sure of myself. Well I gotta go” Nedry stepped up and walked out the door.
Same copyrights as Ch.1
PLEASE COMMENT :)
6/16/2002 8:33:05 PM
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