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Primal Prey: Jurassic Park - Repost
By Stryderman
Primal Prey
Jurassic Park
Part 1: Mainland
Prologue
Near Isla Nublar, 120 miles west of Costa Rica 1993
Enrico Rodriguez was a construction worker. He worked on an island, off the coast of South America. He was native to that part of the country, and knew how to live in the jungle, and how to avoid predators in the forests.
At the moment he was standing on the deck of a ship. His ship. He was vacationing in Costa Rica, and had decided to take his family out on a picnic on the nearest island. His long white ship streaked through the ocean, cutting a straight line beside a massive, green island.
He looked up as a helicopter soared overhead in the opposite direction, towards the coast of South America. Its rotors glistening in the light of the setting sun, it passed majestically over the boat. Enrico could make out tiny figures in the helicopter’s window.
His attention was then suddenly brought to a noise. It was the roar of an animal, and it sounded as if it was large. It was coming from the island to the boat’s left. It was a deep throaty scream of primal fury, which made Enrico shiver ever so slightly, despite the warmth of the sun.
Excited talking reached his ears. One of Enrico’s children approached him, holding out a can of some description.
“Father,” said the boy in Spanish, “I found this in the water. What is it?”
“I don’t know son,” replied Enrico. The can was caked in mud, and the label was peeled, but the nozzle on the top of the can was intact. He pressed it. White cream came out, and then the can stopped spurting out the foamy substance. Enrico smelled the substance. It was Shaving Cream.
He tried to get more out of the can, but it was empty. He frowned. It was freezing cold, and still felt heavy despite the fact that it was apparently empty. Enrico snorted and told his son to put it in one of the freezers on the boat.
Enrico decided that he would take it to the government tomorrow morning. Just then the mighty bellow reached his ears again. He sighed.
Enrico and his family had landed on the island. They had decided to go for a walk over a ridge before having their picnic. Ridges were to be found all along the island’s edge, making it difficult to get into the interior of the island.
The sun had now set. Enrico and his family were sitting on a hill, getting out their picnic things. Everyone was laughing and joking, setting up the picnic, and generally enjoying the rare family outing.
Then Enrico felt a slight tremor coursing through the ground. The others were still talking loudly. He scanned their surroundings; the ridge they had clambered over was standing ominously over them; a forest to their right harboured squawking birds; behind them, a valley stretched out.
The clouds shifted, and the moon came out. Enrico shivered as he felt the tremor again. He then dismissed it, and joined in with his wife and two children as they continued their merry-making.
Over the next ten minutes, Enrico felt the tremors a few times, but didn’t pay any heed, as he was having too much fun to notice. Then, it occurred again. Enrico felt the ground shake, and saw the wine in his glass vibrate, causing several concentric rings.
This time his whole family noticed. They all sat facing the forest, where the sound and vibration had come from. There was a strange snuffling sound coming from the forest. Abruptly, it stopped.
“Probably just a forest animal,” offered Enrico. The others agreed, and they continued eating, drinking and talking.
Then it happened. The forest exploded with movement. Something huge burst out of the trees, and moved with surprising speed to the picnicking family. The ground was shaking violently as Enrico stood up, getting his family to do the same, and ran for the ridge. He looked behind him and saw a huge set of jaws slam close, with a great snapping sound, just behind him. The jaws bellowed, the same sound Enrico had heard before he had landed on the island.
He and his family reached the ridge, and began the steep ascent up its green side. They heard the sound of their follower slowly die away, and then with a holler, the creature behind the Rodriguezes hit the ground. There was a huge crash and the ground shook, and Enrico fell to the ground.
He chanced a look behind him as he got back up. A massive mountain of grey flesh was lying on the ridge behind him. As he watched, the animal pulled two massive pillar-like legs under itself, and slowly rise. Then Enrico turned back to his waiting family and ran for the boat.
Chapter 1
The tests
Area 52, North America, 1993
Lewis Dodgson received the shaving cream canister by freeze-bag mail. He had heard of its discovery through a contact of his in the Costa Rican government. Apparently the family that had found the can were given one million American dollars to keep their mouths shut.
Dodgson was immediately interested when he heard of the can’s discovery; the report had said that it was found near an island off the coast of Costa Rica, and it was the same brand as the one that Dodgson had given to his associate, Dennis Nedry, to collect DNA samples of the creatures inhabiting the island.
Dodgson smiled as he pulled the can out of the bag in his office. His office was in Central America, in the middle of the desert. Actually, it was a couple of hours out of Roswell, New Mexico. He was in charge of some secret cloning facilities at the place, the military-controlled ‘Area 52’. He had leased it off the military the previous year for testing of his cloning technologies.
Dodgson gingerly held the can as he looked at it. The wrapper was off, but he could see the brand name clearly on the nozzle :Gillette. He screwed open the bottom and his smile widened. Out popped a separate chamber—full of DNA embryos. He scanned the names on the cone-shaped capsules, and he smile widened still more.
He ran outside of his office, onto the yellow dusty sand. He jogged to the main cloning facility, passing by a couple of buildings. The day was hot, and soon Dodgson worked up a sweat. His company, BioSyn Technologies, was nearly all represented here. Area 52, or A52 as it was known, was surrounded by mesas, and a tableland. Essentially, A52 was in a hole in the desert ground.
Dodgson ran past one of the few scrub-like bushes around the place, and made a mental note to get one of his men to get rid of it.
John Wills was working on the structure of a strand of DNA (that is, he was testing to see whether the cloning machines, or cloners, would accept the strand of lizard DNA) when Lewis Dodgson ran in through the door of Cloning Facility One. Dodgson often frequented CF1 for inspections, but this time, John could tell it was different.
Lewis Dodgson was a man of about thirty-five, with receding brown hair and a prominent nose. He looked excited as he came over to John, handed him a small cone-shaped object half filled with yellow liquid and said, “John, I need you to run a DCT scan on this, see if you can get anything”
“Sure,” said John. He read the name on the side of the cone. “This is DNA?”
Dodgson nodded.
“Is this a joke, Mr Dodgson?”
“No,” replied Dodgson. “I assure you that I’m serious. Can you just run a DCT on that, I’m busy, I got a lot to organise”
John nodded, and looked doubtfully at the DNA in his hand, and re-read the label, sighed and shook his head:
Tyrannosaurus
John then exited his testing programme and placed the Tyrannosaurus DNA on the DNA sliding tray and pressed the ‘Close’ button. The screen of his computer flickered, and asked ‘Test Now or Test Later’. John clicked on ‘Test Now’. The screen showed a progress bar, and, when it was finished, the PC asked if John wanted to find an existing match.
John clicked on ‘Find Existing Match’. Another progress bar popped up, this time moving slower. When it was finished, the computer told John that there were no matches known to mankind.
Then it was true, supposed John. It was real dinosaur DNA. Where did Dodgson get it? More likely, how much did he have to pay to get it?
John shook his head, then activated a DCT, or DNA Clonability Test. It simply involved the computer asking itself whether or not the cloning machines of A52 could replicate a living creature from the DNA. So far, the scientists had been unsuccessful with chimpanzees, and gila monsters. Dodgson had told the manufacturers of the cloning machines to make them able to take bird DNA. Maybe, thought John, that was why the chimps and gilas didn’t work out.
With a smart beep, the computer announced its accomplishment: the DNA in the sliding tray labelled Tyrannosaurus could be replicated and made into a living, breathing animal.
8/26/2003 4:14:18 AM
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