"A New Beginning", or "Not your old Site B"

[Ahgjan]

(This is the opening post.  Following posts may be short or long post as desired)

As Levi looked out the door of the helicopter out over the empty looking complex below, he was impressed.  From his seat in the circling chopper he got a good view of the massive complex and distant wilderness of the new island headquarters for the Paleo-Genetics Division.  After five years working in an understaffed, ruined, junk yard of a dump that was the old 1940s Brazilian complex, this new state-of-the-art arrangement was the contrast between night and day.

"Now remember the drill gentlemen...and lady."  Dr. Summerlee piped up in his stern but rather high-for-his-age voice as their transport began its descent to the landing pad atop the main building.  " Your bags will be taken to your apartments for you, but priority is to situate your offices today.  Secondary staff begin arriving tomorrow and we need to keep order - your football trophies can be put up on your own time."  Summerlee chuckled at his own sarcasm, knowing well that no one on the helicopter had ever played the sport. 

Sitting across from Levi, William Summerlee was tall and thin, with a full black beard and silver-gray streaks in his greasy black hair.  He held no resemblance to his grandfather who had started the Summerlee-Challenger Genetics Corporation so many years ago.  Beside him was Gerald Delfine', the division's chief financial officer, a short twig in a gray suit with a balding head and large glasses but always a cheerful smile and a tie that showed off his higher salary.  Beside him, quiet and half asleep gazing out the opposite window of the helicopter was possibly the most respected person in the company, Dr. Sarah Harding.  Of all the staff, she was the only one to face an uncontrolled, un-chipped, wild dinosaur with no security.  After her part in the "Site B" and "San Diego" incidents of 1995, she had come to Dr. Summerlee asking to continue her dinosaur observations in a ... more controlled environment.  And last but not least, sitting beside Levi on his computer as usual, was Dr. Franklin Chesterton, an achieved nano-engineer and Bio-Geneticist who headed the actual laboratory work.  Of all these, Levi was the youngest, but in this company, this line of work, and with the amount of training they all had, they all had over the years been humbled to equality.

As the chopper blades slowed, Levi stepped off onto the solid roof of the office complex and breathed in the fresh, warm near-equator jungle air, and then followed Dr. Summerlee toward the door and into the cool air conditioning below.

[Ahgjan]

Scrap gnawed on a stick he had found on the ground.  It was rather dry and weak, and eventually was ground to dust...and wasn't very tasty at all.  The fact that he hadn't eaten in a week preyed on his mind and his stomach.  His was a rather lonely life, an outcast, living in fear of those greater than himself, hiding alone in the dark corners even in the cold nights.  Rarely even sleeping in the same place twice.

His home had little tree shade, not even from the nearby jungle.  The only hiding places he had were along the walls and shrubs of the run pen that had been his world for his entire life.  While large, the pen was still too small to keep the pack of raptors, pack of herrerasaurus, small flock of Compsognathus, and the tyrannosaurus family unit from making it feel overcrowded, and with the rashioning of food he feared he and the compys would fall victim to pack hunger sooner than later.  Though shunned by the other raptors for his colors and oversize ridges, he had at least made an alliance with the compsognathus to protect them in exchange for a small portion of their food.  However the raptors had found out and began hoarding as much food as they could to prevent Scrap or the compys from getting any, and it obviously worked quite well.

Deciding to go take a drink if he could, Scrap stood and began to sneak along his shrubs, but he stopped to scratch an itching sensation in his leg.  Before he knew it he was back on the ground with a numb, immobile leg and a strong urge to go to sleep.  A deep...deep.....sleep.

[Ahgjan]

"Mosser, Levi?  That would be....first floor, west wing, room D."  the security guard at the desk in the front lobby replied, looking up from the computer screen.  The party had departed the Helicopter and taken a lift from the upper level to the first floor lobby, with the exception of Dr. Summerlee who remained in his top-floor penthouse apartment/office that made up almost the entire eighth floor of the structure.  "Welcome to Isla Joya Escondida, Mr. Mosser."  Levi nodded as the others inquired for their office assignments.

The lobby was massive, with a 2 story tall ceiling, marble floors, and a fountain in the middle of the waiting/lounge area.  The desk was just as impressive, easily able to hold 5 to 10 staff behind working, with a door showing the surveillance room beyond.  Halls went back on each side of the desk, one to the right labeled "East Wing" and the other on the left labeled "West Wing."  Following the western passage  the first door lead to the large staff locker room, followed by the main restrooms, and then the remainder of the center section of the main building consisted of a massive public library for both research and relaxation.  At the very back of the building was a glass door showing beyond it a wide hallway running from one end of the west wing to the opposite end of the east wing.  There had been doors to access the wings before, but those were marked for emergency use only. 

Entering his card and allowing a fingerprint scan, Levi accessed the hall. and headed to the left, turning down a smaller passage marked "Labs" and looking for the door marked D.  Half expecting a rusted metal door with a plain hand painted letter like he had in Brazil, Levi was surprised to see all the labs, including his, had fine oak doors with frosted glass windows.  Painted over the glaze of his door were the words

Dr. Levi R. Mosser, DVM
Chief Veterinary Coordinator

"A bit over the top for an internal office..." he mumbled to himself, shoving his ID card into the slot until the green light blinked.  "Now for a look at the new digs..."

[Ahgjan]

Scrap growled a bit and snorted at the cold surroundings as he came to.  His leg no longer itched, but he realized that was the least of his concerns.  He was laying against a wall and floor of cold metal, his head on the ground, with a muzzle around his head and chains holding him in place.  It was dark, but he could make out the sleeping shapes of other creatures from his paddock similarly chained in the small metal cage.  At the end of the box, near his head, came a soft chirp, and the groggy raptor looked forward and strained to see an undersized cage holding the limp but living forms of his compy friends, one of them beginning to stir. 

Unable to speak or even hiss, Scrap snorted in defeat and examined the cage he was in as best he could.  it was large, cold, and quiet, and moved a lot.  It was odd, very odd.  The humans never treated them this way. as annoying and unintelligent as his keepers acted at times.  He was helpless to change the situation, but he didn't like this one bit.

[Ahgjan]

Flipping on the light, Levi looked around.  His office was spacious, already furnished with chairs, book cases, a table, and a desk.  A stack of papers - forms and the odd paperwork he would need to work on before the day was out most likely - sat on the desk.  Setting down his own bag on one of the chairs, he continued on to the next room, off to the side.  "Now this is a surprise, I expected to have joint labs like back on the mainland."  Room 1D-2 was his private examination and operation room, specially designed for some of the larger creatures, with an extra high ceiling, cabinets worth of supplies, rope and chain restraints, a saurian shaped examination chair in the corner, and floor-to-ceiling doors in the back which opened to the main hall, large enough to roll a triceratops in from outside.

Looking back to the desk with the paperwork, Levi inhaled the fresh paint and sterile tools smell of his new office.  "I think I can work with this."

[Siena]

Brat stood up carefully, still wobbly; there was a persistent itch in her leg that she couldn?t attend to without losing her balance all over again.  The sky wasn?t as bright as she remembered and the background noise had changed.  She was in a crate with several slits for ventilation but at least the horrible rocking motion had ceased.

Humans were moving around outside, shifting things noisily.  Brat shifted further away from the face where the sound was loudest, shying away as the crate door opened.  They hadn?t meant it to be so loud; she could hear one of the humans complaining and a pair of eyes appeared in the air slit.  Brat shuffled, testing her balance before she moved out into the light.

The crate led into a chute; only a few metres long before it joined into a huge fence.  The main fence looked very secure and Brat was vaguely aware of a buzzing sound that brought back memories of sparking wires and sudden jolts.  Two humans ? neither familiar ? stood outside the chute, one with some sort of grey object and a long, narrow item she didn?t like the look of.

But they seemed content to watch, even when the pachycephalosaurus stopped before the high perimeter.  The gate was creeping upwards, but it wasn?t yet tall enough for her to get under; nor could she see what was on the other side.  Brat turned very slowly, neck bent over to the side as she studied the gap between the chute?s sides and her crate.  Equally slowly she backtracked and stuck her nose through the widest opening.  It was on the opposite side to the humans.  The chute wall swayed a little and they began to sound very anxious.

From previous experiences, Brat was pretty sure nothing bad would happen, so long as she went slowly.   Shouldering the portable barrier aside she paused beside the crate, before pushing right through.  It had all gone wrong for the humans who sounded very unhappy.  She ignored them and ambled back along the chute?s exterior.  It opened up to a rather dismal patch of grass but she could see now that the area was much larger, with more edible sustenance laying several metres beyond.  And the gate had opened.

It was a bit harder to force her way back through the gap, taking almost twice as long as it had taken to get out.  Brat managed it, hooting in satisfaction as she trotted toward the now-visible greenery.

[Ahgjan]

Levi yawned as he stood in a watch tower built into the docks.  He had gotten his first look at his new apartment at 11pm, and a call at 3am that the first ship was approaching and he needed to be there for the unloading.  From the call and his rushing to get ready and hop in a jeep to cross the entire island - to now- had been 4 hours.  A caffeine-less and exhausted man as he was, this was a delicate process and he tried to hold back his need for rest until it was done - then he could sleep. 

" 'ey.  You with the pole.  Get to the side or top, you'll get trampled when that cage opens." he shouted down at an obvious new hire who had a low voltage tazer guide pole at the ready while standing in front of a crate holding a pair of stegosaurus.  That was how the morning was going, one idiot after another already endangering themselves, it made him think back rather worriedly to stories from CNN about some of the employee deaths on Nublar and Sorna.

Looking down at the wall crew, he rolled his eyes and kept his shouting.  "Hurry it with that gate will you?  We've got eighteen crates to unload and we're waiting on you guys"  One of them grumbled, recieving a slap for it from another and only another shout from Levi above prevented the escalation to a fight. 

Finally the inner gate was lowered all the way down into the ground so the thick metal top was level with the concrete floor of the gateway.  "Lets get these smaller cages out of the way."  The door was unlatched on the first metal cage and after a few moments a familiar head peeked out and crept down the ramp toward the gateway as the workers shut off the power and opened the outer gate.  Levi chuckled to himself 'somehow I knew they'd make sure Brat was on the first shipment.  Hopefully with all this open space she won't be trying to break down walls anymore...'

As more crates unloaded and their contents were lead through the gate toward the open fields and forests of the island, another ship appeared on the horizon and Levi's hopes of a mid-day nap were dashed.

[Jin-Ah]

Foul, evil-tempered, bloodthirsty giant lizard. Most of the workers who came into contact with the large female nicknamed 'Ashie' would choose one, if not all, of those words to describe her. However they always forgot one word; Evil. Since the day she had hatched a few years ago, the female Rex exhibited an unusual hatred of humans to go along with her enhanced intelligence. Some wondered if the experimental dino was successful, seeing as she showed nearly no sign of the intelligence the scientists had expected.

Only a foul temper to go along with her frightening strength and agility showed.

As soon as the humans entered her pen, Ashtoreth, and all 6 metric tons of her, charged with gaceful and deadly speed. She knew full well that the humans could bring her down with a push of a button, but she didn't care, as she hadn't before. She had no intention of going anywhere and she wanted to make that as painfully clear as she could. Her charge fell short on time and the next thing she knew, she was rocking gently in place, chained down to a moving floor.

With an angry rumble she began to struggle, attempting to get up, only to be held down. Her brain worked furiously as she finally smelled the sickening scent of -humans- on the things...the chains that held her down. Clearly though, the humans who had delivered her dose of Tranq had not worked with her before, and had given her too little. Ashtoreth let out a loud snarl beore snapping loose of the chains that held her head down. Even if she were to get free of the chains, she realized, she'd have to contend with the too-small cage she'd been shoved into.

She struggled nonetheless.

[Siena]

Mary tipped her disposable coffee cup up hopefully, trying to dislodge the last few drops.  They were cold and particularly unsatisfying.

"Tell me I didn't see that," she groaned aloud, shuffling along with the rest of the line queued up for refills.  The second shipment was going to arrive shortly and the good doctor had already had a guts full of anxious new handlers wondering if their favourite compy was getting depressed because it hadn't left its crate yet.  Funnily enough, anaesthetised dinosausrs often were quite subdued, something to do with the tranquilizers still floating around in their systems.

"See what?" someone further up the line called back.

"Two idiots letting a pachycephalosaur out because they'd forgotten to latch the chute down."

"They got it back in again though," the man in front said reasonably, peering out the windows.  He looked even tireder than Mary felt.

"Yes, see how they masterfully stood by whilst it went in of its own accord," she grumbled.  "But then," Mary was forced to concede after a moment's thought, "they're not as bad as the trigger-happy lot unloading the raptors...I think we've got four under surveillance after being tranq'd again?"

"Something like that; but they have got pretty sharp teeth on them," he argued, revoltingly kind-hearted.

"Feh," Mary muttered under her breath, close enough now to see the 'empty' light flashing above the vending machine's selection.  "Dogs have got sharp teeth, cats have sharp teeth..."

Tossing the treacherously empty cup into the nearest bin, Mary headed back to catch the shuttle over to where the carnivores were being handled.

[Ahgjan]

During the entire uncomfortable journey, Scrap decided not to struggle.  He knew chains and human devices well enough to know it would just be a lot of wasted energy.  He also decided he wasn't going to get anywhere with the cage he was chained in even if he was able to get lose.

So he waited.  By the time others in the mutual cage were waking from their drug induced sleep he had fallen back asleep, and he slept the rest of the trip.

Finally light came through the cracks of the cage, the warmth on his side waking him up as he strained to see.  Humans at the top of whatever pit his cage was in were yelling, and strange calls and scrapes could be heard from behind them.  He heard several loud bangs that vibrated the metal box, and then suddenly there was a jolt that shook the rest of his riding companions awake.  The box was lifted higher, higher, then out of the hole and into the bright mid-day's tropical sun.  It was an odd feeling as the cage swung on the steel cables that had lifted it out of the ship's hold, and an odder sensation as it lowered onto an awaiting truck.

Levi yawned again.  Second ship almost unloaded, and non scheduled to come in till the evening.  Sleep would soon be his!  "Dr. Mosser," a shout came up from the ground below "the primary carnivore crate is on the truck. The driver wants to know how far to take it."  Looking around at the herbivores being lead out the gate into the wilderness directly beyond, and not wanting to risk a mess right at the beginning, he shouted down his reply "Two miles should be good.  Make sure the unloading crew is at least twenty strong and all armed."  "Yes sir!"

A minute later the cage vibrated as a strange growl came from up ahead, startling Scrap...and then it all began moving again.

[Ahgjan]

"So in your opinion, from what you've seen out there, do we have enough security or should I make a request for real weaponry."  The man in a wide brimmed hat relaxed in the opposite chair as Levi romanced with an iced mocha.  "You know, I'm not all that sure Raul.  Probably would be a good idea for the extra backup plans but so far the GLT seem to be working just as expected..." 

It was after the lunch rush so very few people were in the food court at the moment, save a few of the loading staff who had been out at the north dock guiding the first two of many loads of dinosaurs, but Raul Gomez had come seeking Levi being the two would be working together often.  Raul was a somewhat new hire, having been with the company just under a year, but he was no stranger to his line of work, having had been one of the InGen handlers and later having been slated for their Site B expedition - one of the few survivors of both incidents.  Now he was the "Wildlife Management Warden" for the IJE facility.

"...but yeah, it would be nice to have a few spare rifles on hand in case of emergency, I know its hard to keep an adequate tranq dosage as some of these bigger animals get larger." Levi continued.  "Better to be safe than sorry, but besides that all I can say is I'm quite tired and should turn in."  "Fair enough, fair enough"  Raul replied, getting up.  "It was a pleasure to finally meet you, senior."  Levi agreed and both headed toward the elevator in idle conversation.

----

with several ropes tied around his neck holding tight in each direction, the humans unchained Scrap from the cage and lead him out into the grass.  They were separating the carnivorous species by a quarter mile or so as they unloaded, and he was the last of the raptors to be taken off.  Much to his disgust they lead him to where they had placed the rest of the raptors that had been in his pen back at the old facility.  Metal cuffs were latched around his arms and legs , and to the latch for the muzzle he still wore.  Trying to hiss at the torturous primates he struggled to no avail, as the other raptors seemed to be doing.  He was still helpless, but at least he was outside again, and there seemed to be no fence anywhere nearby.  Once he was out the humans left, their large machine growling as it headed off into the distance still carrying his Compsognathus companions, leaving him alone with the other raptors, with only the sounds of the other raptors and the ticking of the clocks on his restraints breaking the silence of the still air.