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Jurassic Park The Dark Depths (Chapter 4)
By Vito_The_White
Chapter 4: Paleochaos
Thursday June 15, 2001
Dr. Richard Levine made his way around the campus of the Santa Fe Institute in Texas. He carried a briefcase and was dressed and ready for the coming lecture that he was to participate in. The time had finally arrived that he and a very special friend of his would begin their career of lecturing students about the combined qualities of both fields that they had majored in.
As Levine neared his final destination, he suddenly heard someone running up to him from behind yelling his name. Levine turned to see a young man stop directly in front of him completely out of breath.
“Mike,” Levine asked, not really believing that the lawyer that he’d known for several of the best years of his life, those being the college years, was standing right in front of him at this unsuspecting time.
Mike Freeman looked up at Levine and was barely able to nod before he looked back down at the ground. Levine walked over to the man and took his arm.
“Let’s get you inside where you can rest,” Levine comforted.
Levine led Mike into the building and they sat down in a couple of nearby chairs that were close to the entrance door. Levine knew that he would be late for the lecture if he had a conversation with this man, but he knew that Mike would have some very important news to tell him.
“What are you doing here,” Levine asked, placing a hand on Mike’s shoulder.
Mike sighed heavily as he looked up at Levine. “Dodgson was going to make me go with him to the island.”
“Wouldn’t that have been a good thing,” Levine asked. “We need some solid evidence of what is going on.”
“There is evidence enough as is,” Mike said. “Can’t you just leave well enough alone?”
Levine sighed. “You know that I have to bring this company down.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible. They have contacts all over the world that could bring you down at any second if they wanted to. To tell you the truth, I don’t really see why they haven’t already. I think they’re trying to set you up Richard.”
Levine laughed. “Nonsense. Biosyn is as blind as a bat.”
“I wouldn’t say that about everyone in the company. Lewis Dodgson is very…”
“Dodgson is a pushover.”
“You obviously don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
“I know enough to get by. I’m going to stop them.”
“And how do you propose doing that? They’re all the way out on an island in the Pacific Ocean. You’re here in Texas.”
“Yes, but I have a few cards up my sleeve.”
“Gambling with Lewis Dodgson and Jeff Rossiter could get you killed.”
Levine looked at Mike with disgust. “Why do you say that for? Do you have no trust left in your old friend? You know that I always get what I want.”
“You’re a spoiled brat Richard and you know it,” Mike informed the man beside him. “You think that you can always get what you want, because you’re rich, but I’m afraid that you won’t be so successful this time around.”
“I know what I must do Mike. It’s not up to you to decide what I can and can’t do. I don’t need you baling out on me now. I need your help.”
“I’ve done all I can do Richard. There are very few things that a lawyer can or will do.”
“I know. You have done a lot already, and I wouldn’t want to ask too much, because I’d be afraid that you’d never do anything for me again.”
“You’re damn Skippy I wouldn’t. Hell, I don’t want to do anything else now as is.”
“But you do know of all the money that you’ll get out of this right?”
Mike looked Levine straight in the eye. He could tell that the Paleontologist was being truthful. They had known each other long enough for him to be able to tell when he was telling the truth or lying. But was risking his life worth money? He had enough as it was. He was a lawyer for crying out loud. Money was never a problem for him. However, he had been friends with Levine for a long time, and he had never been lead astray in the past by him.
“Does this really mean that much to you,” Mike asked.
Levine nodded.
“Alright,” Mike said slowly standing. “I will continue to help you, but I must tell you now that I still don’t like any of this at all.”
“I know my friend. Just trust in me.”
Mike nodded and started to walk off. Levine stood up and grabbed Mike’s arm gently.
“Why don’t you stay for the lecture,” Levine asked smiling. “You might like it.”
Mike smiled and nodded again. “Alright.”
Mike and Levine turned and started off toward the lecture hall.
* * *
Dr. Ian Malcolm stood at one of the two podiums in the large lecture hall rambling on and on about God knows what. He was dressed completely in black from head to toe as usual, which was what everyone had gotten used to when it came to this cocky doctor of mathematics.
“… So I told him, ‘You sir are a pompous ass and if you don’t give me more of those drugs I’m going to show you what it’s like to be in a hospital bed for a painful leg injury.”
All of the students in the hall began to laugh hysterically at the joke. Obviously we would’ve had to have been there for the whole story to have gotten what the joke was truly about.
Malcolm looked up at a nearby clock mounted on the auditorium wall. Levine was already a good twenty minutes late and it was beginning to worry the good doctor. Levine had been late several times before for meetings and such, but Malcolm had made it a point to tell Levine that if he wasn’t at this lecture, being their very first one, on time, he was going to kill him with his bare hands.
Malcolm had never liked the ideas that Levine had brought to him. The field of study that Levine had wanted to do was of something that Malcolm had never liked taking a part in, but it had grown to become very popular among people all over the world. Of course it was dinosaurs that had to be talked about. When wasn’t it dinosaurs?
Malcolm found himself kicking himself day after day having to put up with Levine’s constant nonsense about the animals of Jurassic Park. There were a few times when he just wanted to jump out of a window after hearing Levine’s rambling. But, then again, Malcolm had very little room to talk. He rambled himself all the time. Expect his rambles were always about sometime much more important to society and everyone’s way of life.
Chaos Theory was the field that Malcolm proudly represented. He represented it so much, that he had grown to call himself a Chaotician instead of a Mathematician, which was his actual profession. Chaos was the surrounding point for the lecture that he and Levine were going to present, but if that arrogant ass didn’t show up soon, Malcolm was going to just call the whole thing off and go back to things that he really cared about, like his family. Yes, Dr. Ian Malcolm finally settled down permanently, without having to get a divorce a few years later. Malcolm was finally happy with his life and he was going to enjoy every single second of it… but Levine… Why did he ever have to meet Richard Levine?
Just as he finished his thought, the little shit came striding into the lecture hall with someone else beside him. Malcolm created a fake smile on his face.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Malcolm began, “I present to you the fashionably late Dr. Richard Levine.”
Levine waved out at the audience as he continued down the aisle with the other man directly behind him. The crowd showed their appreciation by clapping for the man. Malcolm didn’t know who the man behind Levine was, but he had concluded that he had been the reason for Levine being late.
The man behind Levine sat down in the front row in the only remaining seat and situated himself. Levine walked up the steps to the stage and moved over to his podium. Malcolm walked over to Levine and shook his hand.
Malcolm leaned over to Levine’s ear as he continued to shake his hand. “I told you not to be late.”
“You can kill me later,” Levine whispered back.
Malcolm smiled and moved back over to his podium. The crowd then became silent as they waited patiently for the lecture to begin.
“Well, uh, first off I’d like to start by saying that I’m very happy to that all of you have shown so much interest and fascination in this project that the both of us have been trying to put together for quite a while now,” Malcolm said.
“I second that Dr. Malcolm,” Levine said nodding. “I would like to speak for the both of us when I say that we are very much appreciated for all of the support from you, the student body, as well as this institutes staff. I mean, I know that everyone loves dinosaurs, but to actually want to take the time to learn that chaos stuff…” Levine took a quick break to shiver from what he just said. Malcolm looked over at him and sighed. “…Is a very wonderful thing to know… if you’re truly interested in chaos that is.”
“Now Dr. Levine,” Malcolm began, “Chaos is a very important factor to every day life.”
“You can’t be serious Dr. Malcolm,” Levine said turning to smile at Malcolm. “To think such a thing would make our students very skeptical of you and…”
“I must beg to differ,” Malcolm interjected. “Chaos exists in your everyday life. I would like everyone to just take a few moments to reflect on that point. Chaos exists in your everyday life. I’m sure that all of you can think of something that happened earlier this morning before you got here. I would like for everyone who got up late this morning to raise their hands.”
Out in the audience there were several hands that actually rose indicating what Malcolm wanted to know.
“What does this have to do with anything Dr. Malcolm,” Levine asked.
“I’m getting to that Dr. Levine,” Malcolm replied. “You must be patient.”
“Then please continue,” Levine said.
Malcolm nodded. “Now I want all of you that had your hands raised to think back to what you did when you realized that you were late. I’m betting that some of you that weren’t too late didn’t really care all that much and just went along with your normal routine of the day correct?”
There were several mummers through the audience and some nodding of heads.
“Alright… Now for the rest of you, and I don’t want the others who agreed to tune me out, because I’m sure that, maybe not today, but probably some other time you woke up quite a bit later then you would normally…”
“You’re rambling Dr. Malcolm,” Levine interrupted.
Everyone in the audience laughed as Malcolm turned toward Levine with a malevolence look in his eyes. He then turned back to the audience and smiled.
“You’ll just have to get used to that quality in me,” Malcolm said. “I’m a certified rambler. I’m supposed to be approached by the Genus Book of World Records for ‘Person to get off topic the most in a lecture’.”
The audience laughed again. This lecture was going quite well. In order to make lectures more enjoyable, Malcolm had always tried his best to add a bit of comedy here and there just to lighten the mood. There was always too much tension at this institute. There were too many hard asses here that just didn’t know the meaning of fun and made their class lectures extremely boring to have to sit through and their monotone voices were just the start of it. Having Levine as a second to his lectures already seemed to help as well. This was one of the first times that a class involved two professors, because the Santa Fe institute wasn’t much for joint lecturers. It would seem to cost more money then they were willing to give out.
Malcolm smirked. “The point to what I’m trying to get across to all of you is that if you get up late in the morning, and you know that you have a lecture that you have to get to in, oh let us say, twenty minutes, you’re going to be in a bit of a hurry. You’re going to have to put on your cloths, brush your teeth, fix your hair perhaps, eat your breakfast, and who knows what else and then get over to the lecture before you’re counted absent. You’re going to be running all over the place trying to get ready, and let’s say that you have a roommate or two that accidentally did the same thing, because of the fact that your alarm clock didn’t go off. That means that there are going to be two or three people in the bathroom at the same time trying to get ready. You are going to be lucky if you don’t fall over each other and end up a dog pile on the floor.”
The audience began laughing as Levine moved away from his podium to join Malcolm at his own. In the process of moving, Levine tripped over a wire holding the microphone in his own podium. He then fell to the ground as the wire rapped itself around his ankle. As Levine tried to stand back up the wire became more taught around the doctor’s ankle and caused Levine to fling himself back to the ground. This action also caused the podium to tilt over as well and crash on the stage floor.
Malcolm moved away from his podium and went over to help Levine, but at that very moment Malcolm tripped himself on his own podium and fell right on top of Levine. The laughter from the audience boomed throughout the whole lecture hall as they continued to watch the mess on stage. Malcolm slowly started getting up himself limping on his injured leg, as Levine did the same trying to get up. Malcolm gave a hand to Levine and pulled him to his feet. The two men stood there breathing heavily as the audience started applauding the two nut cases. Both scientists took a bow and Levine then proceeded to untangle his leg from the wire.
They both moved back to their podiums, Levine having to set his back up on stage.
Malcolm straightened out his shirt and coughed. “That, my dear students, was a prime example of Chaos in action. Chaos is all around you. It is everywhere you go. You can never escape it no matter what. Think of driving. Now I’m sure that all of you love to drive, but you have to understand that Chaos has a very large standing role out there on the open road. ‘On the road again! I just can’t wait to get on the road again!’”
“Dr. Malcolm,” Levine said smiling. “I don’t believe this is a chorus class.”
“Forgive me,” Malcolm said. “My point is that there are so many accidents on the road now a days that I’m afraid to ever drive or to be out there with all of you hooligans in the first place. I mean, have any of you seen Final Destination 2?”
Almost every single hand in the audience rose at this question.
“That’s what I thought,” Malcolm nodded. “That movie shows more truth then you might ever think. I mean, we all know that the whole death is out to get you thing isn’t really realistic, but the parts with the car wreck at the beginning holds more truth then you might think. We have traffic accidents like that one all the time in this day and age, and what do you believe controls it? Chaos. Chaos is the major factor in traffic accidents. You’re either on its good side, or it’s bad. There is no in between when it comes to the factors of chaos.”
The audience was completely quite. The way that Malcolm projected these facts to the audience had them all on the edge of their seats. They all wanted to know what the gothic dressed doctor would say next.
“But we’re not just here to talk chaos,” Malcolm informed. He then brought a book up from the shelf in the podium. “If you’d like more on chaos, please read “The Proportions of Chaos Theory” by none other then me.”
The audience chuckled again. It was obvious that Malcolm had successfully drawn the students into the lecture without going directly into the dinosaurs. He knew in his heart that these people were really here to learn about the dinosaurs and hear the stories of what had happened on the islands, but Malcolm could truly see now that they were willing to listen to other things then dinosaurs, and that made Malcolm smile whole heartedly for the first time during a lecture in the past seven years. That’s about as long as it had been since Malcolm had been to Isla Nublar. He pushed that thought away.
“So, I think I’ve spit out my thoughts enough for one lecture,” Malcolm said. “I believe it’s time for the good Dr. Levine to take over.”
Levine leaned into his microphone and smiled as he nodded at Malcolm. “Thank you Dr. Malcolm. Now, I’m sure you’re all wondering ‘what does chaos have to do with the study of dinosaurs’? Well, I can answer that question for you in the simplest way that I possibly can. Dinosaurs still exist.”
The crowd suddenly started cheering at hearing this announcement. Malcolm rolled his eyes, but continued to pay attention to what was being said.
“We all know it’s true,” Levine said. “It’s been on the news, in the papers, and it has even came out of the mouth of the man standing beside me. Hell, the people of San Diego got the picture up close and personal.”
More laughing from the audience was heard. Levine looked over to Malcolm.
“Would you like to tell us a little about what happened there Dr. Malcolm,” Levine asked. “I mean you were there after all.”
“I would much rather stay neutral on that subject,” Malcolm replied.
There was a lot of groaning throughout the audience.
“Come on Dr. Malcolm,” Levine said. “They’ve listened to your preaching about Chaos. Now why don’t you enlighten them on something as spectacular as the San Diego Incident?”
“It was far from spectacular,” Malcolm replied. “If you had been running all over that city with a humongous leviathan like a Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing after you, you wouldn’t find it very spectacular either, and I’m sure the fair citizens of San Diego who lost family member’s lives weren’t quite happy with it either.”
Levine looked down not exactly expecting this kind of reaction from Malcolm. The lecture hall was in utter silence as everyone just stared forward at Dr. Malcolm and the obvious rage he appeared to be in.
“I want all of you to know something right now,” Malcolm said. “We are here to talk about Paleochaos, which is the study of the combined interests of Paleontology, which is the study of extinct animals, and the study of Chaos Theory, which I’ve already defined for you. But going back to what I said the definition of Paleontology was, I know that each and every one of you in this room heard me say the word extinct. We are here to discuss extinct creatures that no longer roam this world. What we are not here to discuss are genetically engineered monsters that a greedy company lead by a snobby old man created. We are here to talk about the real thing. The only true prehistoric creatures to ever exist on this earth. Do you people see a geneticist up here talking to you right now? No you do not. Standing up here is a Chaotician and a Paleontologist. What we are here to teach you about, is the history and the understanding of prehistoric animals and the chaotic factors that ruled over them all and helped them to thrive, evolve, and then to eventually become extinct for reasons that none of us understand to this very day. That is what we are here to talk to you about today. Now I want all of you to take a few seconds to decide for yourself if that is what you’re here to listen to. Are you here for the same reason that we’re here, or are you just here to find out about InGen’s creations, because if you’re here about those monsters, then I suggest that you leave right now. I will not be talking about what happened on those islands, or of what happened in San Diego ever again. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this new course, and that it’ll help you to better understand the fields of work that we both majored in.”
Malcolm suddenly heard the sound of a ringing bell indicating that the class time was over and it was time for everyone to leave for his or her next course. Dr. Malcolm sighed and turned back to look at Levine. Levine simply nodded to him. Malcolm turned back to the students.
“Thank you all for your time,” Malcolm said. “We will hopefully see you all tomorrow morning.”
The students in the lecture hall all stood and began to exit the building as quickly as they could, hoping to get to their next class on time. Malcolm whipped the sweat off his forehead and sighed heavily looking up at the ceiling. Levine walked over to him and placed his right hand on Malcolm’s left shoulder.
Malcolm turned to look at Levine with distain in his eyes. He then began to walk away from Levine and over to his podium to gather his things. Levine sighed and crossed his arms, but remained where he stood.
“I’m sorry I was late,” Levine said.
“It’s not the problem of you being late,” Malcolm replied. “It’s the fact that you brought up the whole San Diego thing.”
“Yeah,” Levine said. “But because I brought it up, you were able to tell the students right then that this class wouldn’t be about the InGen dinosaurs. It was a much easier way for you to tell them that then for you to just automatically blurt it out.”
Malcolm looked up at Levine. “You gave me a set up?”
“Yes,” Levine replied. “Go ahead and thank me.”
“I don’t have any reason to thank you. I try my best to continue to lecture and to teach students the truth about life that existed… Oh hell, what am I talking about? I’m a Chaotician, not a Paleontologist.”
Levine smiled and started over toward Malcolm. “That’s the point. You have become a Paleontologist whether you realize it or not.”
“What are you talking about,” Malcolm asked.
“Do you remember the first time we met,” Levine asked.
“Yeah. I was giving a lecture about…”
“Extinction.”
“Yes… So?”
“You are a Mathematician-“
“Chaotician.”
“Sorry. You are a Chaotician, and you were giving a lecture about dinosaur extinction.”
“And you tried to interrupt me with your theories about a lost world.”
Levine smiled thinking back. “Yeah… that was when we first meet, but things have changed drastically.”
“No shit they’ve changed, but what does this have to do with anything?”
“It has everything to do with anything,” Levine replied.
“What,” Malcolm asked looking at the man confused.
“You are more attached to those animals then you ever thought you were and you know it.”
“I have no earthly idea what you’re…”
Malcolm stopped talking as he suddenly heard footsteps. He turned to see that the man that had entered the lecture hall was coming up the steps onto the stage. He smiled as he extended his hand for Malcolm to shake. Malcolm accepted it half-heartedly.
“Hello Dr. Malcolm,” the man said removing his hand. “I’m Mike Freeman. I’m a lawyer.”
Malcolm rolled his eyes. “Just what I needed. You’ve finally decided to sue me huh Richard?”
Levine laughed. “No, of course not. Mike is an old friend. He’s been helping me with our little Biosyn problem.”
Malcolm turned his body to where he could look at both men. “I’m not getting involved in this.” He started walking away from the other two men.
“Ian,” Richard said trying to keep up with the man.
“I’m not having this conversation with you Richard,” Malcolm said. “You want to chase after that company you can go right ahead.”
“But I have proof of what they’re doing now,” Levine informed stopping in his tracks as Malcolm suddenly turned back around.
“I told you a long time ago that I want nothing to do with InGen, Biosyn, Isla Nublar, Isla Sorna, or anything else that you want to throw at me that deals with having my ass chased around by a bunch of genetically engineered monsters.”
“If you turn your back on this, you won’t have to go where those monsters are to be chased by them. They will come chase you.”
“Do you think that I don’t know that,” Malcolm screamed. He then took a deep breath and looked back at the man before him. “I will not go along with any plan of yours. I do not want to be put in anymore dangerous situations ever again.”
Malcolm then pulled his coat on over his shirt and began to walk down the steps of the stage. Mike walked up to Levine and they both watched as Malcolm walked out of the lecture hall.
“What are we going to do now,” Mike asked.
“Pray,” Levine replied.
Thanks for reading. Comments are welcome:)
9/28/2003 4:52:42 PM
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