We pull up in front of the visitor's centre. The largest building is the visitor's center, several stories tall, its walls still skeletal, unfinished. There's a huge glass rotunda in the center.
The second building looks like a private residence, a compound unto itself, with smoked windows and its own perimeter fence. The third structure isn't really a building at all, but the
impressive cage we saw earlier, overgrown inside with thick jungle foliage. John leads us up the stairs, talking as he goes, Two ladies open the doors to the Visitor Center. The lobby of the still-unfinished visitor's center is a high-ceilinged place, and has to be house its central feature, a large
skeleton of a tyrannosaur that is attacking a bellowing sauropod. Workmen in the basket of a Condor crane are still assembling skeletons. A staircase climbs the far wall, to another wing.
-"the most advanced amusement park in the world, combining all the latest technologies. I'm not talking rides, you know. Everybody has rides. We made a living biological attractions so astonishing they'll capture
the imagination of the entire planet!" John said, as we climb upstairs.
Dad stares up at the dinosaur skeletons and just shakes his head. Ellie catches his reaction.
"So what are you thinking?" Ellie asked.
"We're out of a job." Dad said.
Ian pops in between them
"Don't you mean "extinct"?"
Ellie and Ian move on ahead.
"I'm glad I'm here with you, Dad" I smiled. Dad looked at me with a grin.
(Forwarding to the part where they see the eggs)
The hatchery is a vast, open room, bathed in infrared light. Long tables run the length of the place, all covered with eggs, their pale outlines obscured by hissing low mist that's all through the room. John takes off his hat and hands it to one of the technicians.
"Good day, Henry." John greets one of the workers. Henry nods. I go to a round, open with various eggs under a strong light. One of the eggs makes strong movements - a robotic arm steadies the shell.
"My God! Look!" I point. John, Ellie, Dad and Ian join me, as does Henry.
"Ah, perfect timing! I'd hoped they'd hatch before I had to go to the boat" Henry smiled.
"Henry, why didn't you tell me? you know I insist on being here when they're born." John puts on a pair of plastic gloves. The egg begins to crack. The robotic arm moves away....a baby dinosaurs tries to get out, just its head sticking out of the shell. John reaches down and carefully breaks away egg fragments, helping the baby dinosaur out of its shell.
"Come on, then, out you come." John says in a baby voice.
"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." John said.
"Surely not the ones that have bred in the wild?" Ian asks.
"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." Henry said. Dad and Ellie exchange a look. She manages not to smile.
"How do you know they can't breed?" I asked curiously.
"Because all the animals in Jurassic Park are females. We engineered them that way." John keeps his attention trained on the new dinosaur.
"There you are. Out you come." John said. "Could I have a tissue please?"
The animal is now free, John sets it down carefully next to its shell.
Dad picks up the large, broken half-shell, but the robotic arm snatches it back out of his hand, and puts it down.
"how do you know they're all female? Does someone go into the park and, uh lift up the dinosaurs' skirts?" Ian asked, causing me to giggle.
"We control their chromosomes. It's not that difficult. 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." Henry said.
"John, the kind of control you're attempting is not possible. If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories. It crashes through barriers. Painfully, maybe even.. dangerously, but and...well, there it is." Ian said. Ellie listens to him, impressed.
Dad, ignoring the them, picks up the baby dinosaur, and holds it on the palm of his hand, under the incubator's heat light. 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.
"What species is this?" Dad asked.
"Uh, it's a Velociraptor."
Dad and Ellie turn slowly and look at each other, then look at John, astonished.
"You bred raptors?" I asked, and Henry nodded in response.
YOU ARE READING
Jurassic Park: Grant's Daughter
FanficA 14 years old girl is sent to Montana to live with her Dad and his girlfriend. They get invited to a theme park by the famous, John Hammond. Join them as they go through bumps through the park.
