Though limited by technology, the Artist yet dreamed

The next year ended up being a whirlwind of excitement for James. Not only had the common reed frog DNA turned out to solve almost all of the viability issues, the lab had begun sequencing and cloning other species of dinosaurs. The Galimimus had already progressed to phase three of Wu’s plan and they’d begun mass production of the dinosaur several months ago, as well as figured out the appropriate sized egg; the ostrich egg had been far too big.

Parasaurolophus had just begun mass production with the third species, Triceratops, finishing phase two. With three species under their belt as finished and two nearly ready to be shipped to the Park, Wu had gained permission from John to try something a bit more ambitious for their fourth species: Brachiosaurus. Previously, Triceratops had been the largest species of dinosaur to clone with an estimated max weight of 13 tons. At a max weight of 64 tons, Brachiosaurus made the Triceratops look like an ant.

Overall, James had come to enjoy his coworkers and found them a great deal more agreeable than all the other places he’d worked. As was typical when a large group of doctorates congregated in the same area, there had been verbal posturing to see who’d gone to the more prestigious school, who had published or co-published the most papers, and other such comparisons.

Once everything had been compared, it turned out that most of them were on the same playing field. Though, those in the lab who’d been in research positions, such as James, had a bit of a ‘leg up’ in the published paper area. However, in the scheme of things, it wasn’t enough to really impact things. Once more, John Hammond proved that he’d only wanted the best of the best for his ambitious project.

His work life hadn’t been the only thing to see changes. Against his better judgement, James had started dating one of his coworkers, Cathy, eight months prior. He wasn’t one to form romantic relationships where he worked, owing to the problems that could form from it, but they got along far, far too well…To the point of them tossing around the idea of potentially getting married. Neither of them were really sure about the idea, despite the constant encouragement from their coworkers.

To add onto the changes in his personal life, James had quickly become good friends with Henry. The two of them had immediately pegged each other as men who were interested in pushing the limits of current genetic sciences. However, thanks to how busy the lab had been, they had never gotten any time to really sit down and share a few drinks, as they’d always talked about doing. When the Brachiosaurus DNA turned out to be viable with the common reed frog DNA, they got the chance to do just that, the following day.

Hammond had given the entire lab a week off, for not only making progress in creating park ready dinosaurs, but also how they had been able to sequence multiple dinosaur genomes. So, naturally, the bulk of the lab went to the mainland since they were in between projects, due to awaiting more ostrich eggs, and because the mass production aspect was handled by a different department.

After getting his chicken pasta and beer, James made his way around the patio tables to where he saw Henry sitting; most everyone was by the DJ, dancing to music. Not his sort of thing. Sitting down across from the other man, he offered a smile. “Not a fan of dancing?”

Henry looked up from his salad and closed the journal he’d been attempting to read; the music hadn’t done much to help in that regard. “I’m afraid not. However, I thought the offer of free food was too much to pass up.” He glanced over at a table when someone laughed loudly. “What about you?”

“I can’t say I am, but coming out of the lab never hurts, lest I start looking like a cave dweller.” Lightly, James indicated the journal that sat to Henry’s left. “Am I disturbing you?”

“Oh, no. I brought it to read over dinner and hadn’t been aware that they’d be playing music. If I’m honest, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about one of your papers. Theoretical Possibilities. John included it when he sent me your resume. While I don’t know a large amount about virology, I still found the idea of genetic engineering via viral delivered payloads to be fascinating. Do you mind explaining your thoughts behind this?”

If he’d been a bird, James would have preened from the flattery. “Of course. It would essentially provide a cure for any number of genetic illnesses. We know several illnesses are sex chromosome linked, hemophilia, for example. Presently, it has no cure, but imagine if we could specifically target the gene causing the clotting issues. We could not only prevent someone from passing the faulty gene on, but we could cure someone who has the illness.”

Henry leaned back in his seat and took a sip of his water, thinking things over for a moment. “What about cancer? It’s known that faulty tumor suppressor genes can cause the formation of different cancers, independent of exposure to carcinogens.”

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“Theoretically, yes. However, we’d need to find the faulty genes, first. Otherwise, it would be more of a shotgun effect and could be more disastrous, than anything.” Lightly, he tapped his finger on the table as he tried to calm the churning thoughts he had. “Honestly, anything could be altered as long as we know where the gene is at. Our work with the dinosaurs has proven this. While science has managed to sequence the human genome, we’re still figuring out which gene affects what function. Until that’s known, we’re going to be limited on what we’re able to do. Unfortunately, the bottleneck of progress is technology, the very thing that allows us to do what we’re able to do.”

Having resumed eating, Henry slowly nodded on occasion to indicate that he was still listening to the other man. When he was able to speak again, he gave James a smile, one that said he was thoroughly enjoying the conversation. “Hypothetically speaking. You suddenly had the technology to do everything in your paper. What then?”

This question caused James to go silent as he considered it. Quite a few things would be possible, some of them veering into the ethically questionable. Finally, he made a slight shrug. “The sky would be the limit.”

“All of that silence and thinking for that answer?” Henry raised his eyebrows before laughing. “I want to hear your honest answer. I’m legitimately curious.”

“It’s true. There wouldn’t be any limits outside of ethics. It would also usher in the idea of multi-transgenic organisms. The idea of being able to custom make pets, for example.” James hesitated for a moment before quietly sighing. “Super soldiers. Imagine a soldier who could carry his gear without fatigue, see in the dark without night vision goggles. Faster, stronger, sturdier.”

Henry was silent a moment before abruptly smiling. “You’re suggesting adult humans who’ve been genetically altered via targeted viral modification?” When the other man nodded, hesitantly, he couldn’t help but laugh. “I didn’t peg you as a transhumanist…But the idea of multi-transgenic organisms would be a difficult one to tackle. I know geneticists have tried in the past, but…”

“The genome unravels itself.” James finished with an unhappy sigh. Of course, those were just in cell culture studies. There was no telling what would happen to a living organism, potentially something similar to radiation sickness. “That’s part of the reason why I applied to InGen. The idea of successfully cloning dinosaurs was science fiction a year and a few weeks ago. Not only have we cloned them, they hold genetics belonging to another animal in them. Already, we’ve laid the foundation for multi-transgenic organisms.”

This caused Henry to make a soft sound of agreement. “We have, and in that year and few weeks, we’ve already successfully cloned three, almost four more dinosaurs, with each time between getting shorter. Considering how viable the common reed frog DNA is, I almost want to say we can skip the testing phase. However, John won’t go for it. He wants each new line to be tested in the frog ova first.”

“Speaking of the DNA, when do you plan on going back to the Gallimimus to patch the DNA from the bones InGen recently purchased?”

“Right now, John wants us to get the dinosaurs he has planned for Phase 1 finished before we start work on updating the genetic libraries, unless the lab doesn’t have anything going on. He’s hoping for a soft open for investors in ’92 or ’93…But I think we’ll be done with everything, before then. He has 12 on his list and if we keep going like we have?” He shrugged at James. “We’ll be by ’90 or ’91.”

Curiously, James leaned forward. “Do you know which dinosaurs?”

Henry nodded. “We’ve already cloned Gallimimus, Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, and are working on Brachiosaurus. For herbivores, he wants to include Herrerasaurus, then a nice number of carnivores: Dilophosaurus, Compsognathus, Troodon, Pteranodon, Velociraptor, and the biggest of them all, Tyrannosaurus. He’s mentioned Tylosaurus, but I’m not sure if he’s made up his mind on that one, yet.”

“That’s an impressive number of dinosaur species, and you said that’s Phase 1?” Leaning back in his chair, James mused over this idea for a moment. “Do you know how many phases he has in mind?”

“Three, I think, but he’s only talked about his plans for Phase 1. While I look forward to knowing more about what he has planned, I’m going to satisfy myself with what’s already on my plate. Once we finish with the Brachiosaurus, John wants us to try our hand at Dilophosaurus followed by Tyrannosaurus.” Henry finally pushed his plate to the side for it to be picked up by the waiter. “He wants the Tyrannosaur to have a juvenile with her, but I’m not sure how well that idea will work.”

“Why’s that?”

“Paleontological evidence suggests cannibalistic tendencies in all stages of the life cycle. While a female may lay two or three eggs, the first to hatch would be the strongest. It would then eat its’ siblings as they hatched…Which isn’t too dissimilar from how some bird of prey chicks will kick siblings out of the nest. It’s a means of insuring survival of the fittest, and considering what Tyrannosaurs had to contend with, there wasn’t room for the weak.” Henry offered a slight shrug. “However, there’s also the possibility that the Tyrannosaurs were scavenging. A hatchling eating a dead sibling would prevent detection by larger predators while an adult would get an easy meal.”

“Mm. I could see where that could cause some issues. I suppose we’ll find out when we have the first batch hatch.” As it stood, James was excited to see a number of the dinosaurs that Henry had listed, the Velociraptors in particular. Paleontology had suggested that they were immensely intelligent for years, and he was curious to find out if that was the case or not.

“It could. If nothing else, we’re learning a great deal about dinosaur behavior, just from what we’ve been doing…Not to mention, the advances in genetic engineering, as we’ve been discussing.” Henry finished off his drink and offered the other man a smile. “Well, as much as I’d like to sit and chat, I have an early phone call in the morning. Though, we really do need to sit down and talk some more. I’d love to hear more about your ideas.”

After giving a nod of farewell, Henry left, leaving James to quietly muse over everything he’d learned tonight and what the future might bring.