25 - Fallout

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Concept art of Jurassic Park’s visitor centre, by the movie’s team of concept artists.

The emergency meeting that took place immediately after the death of Morales took place under what Wu would, years later, describe as a “surreal atmosphere”. With the victim en route to the mainland aboard the medical helicopter, those in attendance spent more time eagerly awaiting for the decisive phone call than actively debating.

Harding wasn’t there - he and his fledgling team had sedated the three surviving Dakotaraptors, sedation risks notwithstanding. The animals needed to be checked for injuries, and the five carcasses needed removal.

Harding intended to conduct the autopsies himself - after all, he couldn’t rule out that a disease, a malformation, or another environmental factor could be behind what he considered aberrant behaviour.

Muldoon, however, was there, and that was enough to represent Harding’s opinions as well, given the strong professional understanding that was forming between the two veterans. Hammond and Wu were also in attendance, alongside Ray Arnold, the park’s chief engineer. (1)

It was Arnold who started the meeting proper, by reporting the failure of the automatic feeder, which led to the Dakotaraptors concentrating in one place. Hammond, eager for an explanation that would exonerate the animals, seized on this crucial event immediately.

Inevitably, Hammond was also thinking of the lawsuit that might well be coming InGen’s way. Security camera footage clearly demonstrated that Morales’ break-in and the failure of the feeder were independent events.

He’d gotten into the enclosure, he’d endangered himself. His portable camera had been recovered intact, and once the films came back from the darkroom in the visitor centre, the content might well prove valuable in court as well.

That proved one bridge too far for Muldoon. By all accounts, he kept his composure - in keeping with his detached character - but he spoke to his boss in no uncertain tones. The raptors were supposed to be social animals. Even if that assumption was wrong, the level of violence displayed over one single occurrence of competition for feeding was shocking and abnormal.

What worried Muldoon above all was the attack on Morales, which had immediately looked serious enough to prove potentially fatal. An animal that learned that humans were easy to kill would simply be too risky to work with. No zoo in the world would keep such an animal on display, much less forcing the keepers to interact with it on a daily basis. (2)

Muldoon had no intention of simply waiting for Harding’s autopsy results. He believed at least the raptor that had attacked Morales - but ideally all three - should be euthanized. Only then, following Harding’s autopsies, could a new generation be bred on Isla Sorna, with hopefully better results.

To say that this caused Hammond to explode would be an understatement.

Hammond refused to even countenance anybody laying a finger on his animals. Referencing Muldoon’s earlier requisition lists for large-calibre weapons, which included machine guns and rocket launchers, he asked the veteran ranger whether he was trying to relive his days in the military, or was simply out of his mind. (3)

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Reportedly, the meeting descended into chaos from there. Accusations flew around - perhaps Wu and his team had screwed up and something was wrong with the animals. Recriminations were made about the feeder and the seeming ability of one contractor to let himself into an enclosure without obstacles. Muldoon threatened to quit if his demands weren’t met.

What brought the shouting match to a halt was the long-awaited, and dreaded phone call.

In his autobiography, Wu references a brief flutter of hope once Hammond picked up the phone, and that said hope immediately withered when Hammond went silent and pale.

The call confirmed that Morales had died of his injuries. Thereafter, for a while, there was only silence.

When at last the meeting resumed, it was in far more subdued tones. An incident in and of itself was serious - but a human fatality was a catastrophe. A lawsuit would certainly come, especially once the family of the deceased discovered that the cause of death was no mere accident on a construction site.

Investor confidence in such a scenario could not be taken for granted. There were legal, political, and financial implications that were still too hazy to make out, but none of them looked good. Hammond was determined to do everything in his power to prevent Jurassic Park from being stillborn.

This common understanding that everyone’s jobs were at risk - and that legal consequences could affect everyone - at last managed to focus the minds. After a good deal of back and forth, Muldoon and Hammond managed to find a degree of common ground.

The Dakotaraptor responsible for the human fatality would be euthanized. (4) The other two raptors, however, would not, at least for the time being. A final decision on their fate would be made following the completion of Harding’s autopsies.

The cloning of new dinosaur species was temporarily suspended. Wu was however instructed to prepare his team to clone more Dakotaraptors - either in their current guise, or on a new version if the autopsies evidenced developmental abnormalities.

Finally, Muldoon would be getting some of the heavy weaponry he was requesting, subject to a number of conditions for use that he and Hammond would agree to in a follow-up meeting. Finding himself met in the middle, Muldoon agreed to stand down, at least for the moment.

The meeting came to a conclusion with the knowledge that the hardest part was yet to come. Things simply could not carry on as before. Moreover, it was highly likely that Jurassic Park’s very existence would soon be called into question and challenged, maybe even in court.

All attendees returned to their duties, which for Hammond in particular meant spending the rest of the day on the phone. After all, he had a lot of lawyers to call.

Footnotes:

(1) A character in both the novel and movie, although he’ll have a lot less raptor-fleeing to do in this story.

(2) Nor is that the only reason zoos are fairly liberal with euthanasia. Animals considered surplus to population requirements are also euthanized, for example.

(3) Conflict lifted pretty much straight from the book. I do find the idea of requesting rocket launchers to be completely and ridiculously over the top. But to be fair to Muldoon he’d rather over-estimate the job requirements than the opposite. He’s not going to take any chances, and if it turns out that you never need any of this stuff, all the better.

(4) Frankly an inevitability. It’s not just zoos that do this, either. I don’t see why Jurassic Park in the 1980s would prove an exception, no matter the sensibilities of his temperamental owner towards the animals he’s brought back to life.