Quietly, the Artist observed the creations to see which would fit for his plans
By the time March of 1988 had arrived, James’ life had taken a dramatic turn. Cathy and him had finally tied the knot in August of 1987 and happily announced the news that they were expecting in December of the same year. Because of her pregnancy and the hassle of going back and forth for prenatal checkups, Cathy chose to return to America. While James wasn’t a fan of this, he knew it was important. Afterall, he had a son who was due in June.
After a great deal of deliberation, they had decided to name him Michael Fredrick. It wasn’t easy staying in contact with Cathy and it required weekly use of the satellite phone, but James managed it. He knew he wasn’t supposed to tell her about the ongoing lab work, since she was officially off the project, but he did so anyway. She’d invested too much time to be kept in the dark. Besides that, he felt that he could use her experience for the few issues they occasionally encountered.
Work at the lab remained steady with most of the dinosaurs planned for phase one having been finished. All that remained were Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor, and Pteranodon. John had chosen to delay the sequencing of the Tyrannosaurus genome due to Robert’s insistence. The game warden hadn’t felt comfortable with the planned fencing around the enclosure, which resulted in going back to the drawing board to come up with something that would satisfy him.
When work finally began on the Tyrannosaurus genome, it moved quickly. By this point, they were all experienced and the act of putting the DNA into frog ova was only a courtesy towards John. It was his project and he was funding it, but none of the scientists in the lab felt that it was needed. However, none of them were willing to try and skip it since John requested weekly updates. If nothing else, it only added a day to the schedule and they were ahead of the planned timeline. In the scheme of things, it really didn’t hurt anything.
Steadily, time ticked closer to when the Tyrannosaurs would hatch and James anxiously waited for the first hatchling to tumble out; several of the eggs already had cracks. The lab had a betting pool, as they always did, on if the hatchling dinosaurs would be cannibalistic like current literature claimed. Already, the dinosaurs they’d created had shattered a number of preconceived notions about the ancient beasts. Brachiosaurs, for example, had proven to be warm blooded, opposed to cold blooded. Despite the time spent in the lab, James still felt excitement on the papers he could write once the Park opened and his NDA ended.
Granted, any papers he wrote would have to pass through InGen’s legal department to make sure he hadn’t accidentally divulged any trade secrets. James looked up from his microscope to stare at the wall for a moment. The idea honestly annoyed him, because he was certain that most of what they’d done here would qualify as trade secrets. As Henry passed behind him, James turned slightly in his chair. “Hey, Henry? Any word from John on what he wants us to work on next?” Really, it was going to be a bit of a coin flip since they’d only have two left. “Or what does he have planned?”
Henry paused to James’ right. “Velociraptor. He wants us to save the Pteranodons for last, owing that they’re a bit different than anything else we’ve worked on. Besides that, they’re still working on the aviary. Once we finish with them, he wants us to begin work on updating the current genomes since a breakthrough has been made in growing the dinosaurs.”
Looking up at the other man with a slight head tilt, James raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What’s that?”
“Adding a specialized growth hormone to accelerate dinosaur maturation. Right now, it’s practically a given that the dinosaurs won’t live to their full lifespan and will need to be replaced within a few years…Especially the first few species, since we’ve learned a lot about altering their DNA. If nothing else, it’ll allow us to rapidly replace the dinosaurs as the ones currently in the park die off or begin to have health problems.”
Slowly, he nodded. Early on, several of the Galimimus had died due to susceptibility to modern day illnesses. A native bird had passed on a respiratory tract infection that the young dinosaurs had no immunity to, prompting the creation of another department to study dinosaur immunology and work on vaccinations. While unfortunate, the setback had resulted in no further losses since it’d become standard for the hatchling dinosaurs to be immunized shortly after hatching. “I assume that’s why we brought in another incubator that’s solely dedicated to hatching Compys?”
Henry followed James’ amused glance towards the incubator in question. Presently, it had fifteen former chicken eggs in it, with hatching scheduled to start next week. At a quick incubation period of 25 days, they were easily mass produced and had quickly become the guinea pigs for any sort of change relating to the dinosaurs. While the Compys were largely considered adorable due to their musical chirps, no one was allowed into their pen alone thanks to a loose pack behavior and their tendency to attempt to overwhelm handlers.
“Animal rights activists would have a field day if they knew what we were doing with those damned things.” James didn’t care for them, not after one of the little bastards had tried to take off his finger while he’d been trying to help its sibling out of the egg. “But they’ve honestly proven to be useful in testing things out for the dinosaurs.”
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“Correct on both counts.” Henry agreed before he quietly snorted. “They were testing the growth hormone back when we were having to dedicate two of the incubators to Compys. Evidently, the first few versions of the hormone caused unregulated tissue growth that resulted in numerous cancerous growths.”
This information prompted James to make a face. Personally, he didn’t care what happened the little fuckers, but it was an appropriate response to what had been said. “Was there any type of cancer that it caused, over all, or did it just throw everything into overdrive?
“The latter.”
If that was the case, he could definitely see why the growth hormone had undergone extensive testing. He could also see why the growth hormone was needed, even if he wasn’t a fan of the idea. They were, more or less, developing a product and it wouldn’t work out very well if that product took five or six years to reach adulthood…Which very well might be the case for the larger dinosaurs. Certainly, the Brachiosaurs had put on an incredible amount of weight each day, but 30 pounds was drop in the ocean compared to 64 tons.
“Well, I look forward to see the Velociraptor hatchings. I’m curious to know if they’re as intelligent as what the literature claims.” James paused and then quietly chuckled. “I assume Robert is throwing a fit about them and whatever their enclosure is planned to be?”
Henry made a noise of agreement. “Supposedly, they’re highly intelligent with complex pack behavior…But you’d be wrong. Right now, he’s focused on current security measures with the dinosaurs presently on Nublar. He won’t begin giving recommendations for the velociraptors until he has better data on their behavior. Robert just wanted the Tyrannosaurus paddock to have extra security measures since she’ll be the largest predator in the park…For the time being. I don’t know if John has something bigger planned, later down the road.”
There were certainly larger theropods. Spinosaurus, came to mind from James’ light research. Honestly, he had an interest in seeing a number of dinosaurs brought back to life, due to how giddy it made him feel to see an ancient beast taking a breath for the first time in millions of years. However, he’d have to be satisfied with whatever John tasked the lab with recreating. For now, anyway.
“Hey, I think the eggs are starting to hatch.” Someone called out from the other side of the room. Henry and James glanced towards the incubators, glanced at each other, and immediately got up to look. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen dozens of times before, but hatching a new species always brought the same sort of excitement to it. Sometimes, it took all day for the hatchlings to free themselves from the eggs, other times it only took a few hours. Whatever the case might be, someone would remain at the lab to watch over them.
However, by the time they reached the incubators, a large chunk of shell had fallen off the hatching egg, revealing a patch of pebbled, medium grey colored skin. The dinosaur within the egg squirmed, causing another crack to form before it finally gave another kick and popped the top section of the egg off. It flopped onto its back and blinked rapidly as it stared up at them. After resting for a moment, the hatchling squirmed again and freed itself from the egg before flopping over on its side to rest.
“Seems to be lively.” Henry mused as he pulled on a pair of latex gloves in order to carefully remove the larger remains of the egg. However, he kept a close eye on the Tyrannosaur hatchling. Prior batches had taught them that the theropods could have a very robust biting instinct right out of the egg. However, this one seemed uninterested in trying to nip at him. Instead, it finally managed to get itself onto its belly where it partially curled up to take a nap. “Hm. Keep an eye on it. I can’t tell if it’s tired or weak.”
By the time James left for the day, several more eggs were in the process of hatching, but likely wouldn’t finish until sometime that night. He didn’t think much of it and instead focused his thoughts on calling Cathy to see how she was doing; she had a prenatal visit scheduled and he was excited to find out how his son was doing. As it turned out, both her and Michael were doing well, which meant the conversation shifted towards the hatching of the Tyrannosaurs. As was expected, she wanted to know if the hatchlings proved to be cannibalistic and James promised to let her know as soon as he found out.
When he returned to the lab the next morning, it was a flurry of activity, more than he’d ever seen. As someone moved past him, carrying a bucket of cleaning supplies, he grabbed their arm. “What happened?”
He was met with an unhappy look. “The Tyrannosaurs decided to cannibalize each other, last night. There’s only two left in each incubator. Henry had to euthanize one of the hatchlings in incubator three because it was still alive after they’d eaten part of it while it was still in the shell.”
James released his coworker’s arm and blinked a few times as he looked towards the incubators. After a moment, he walked over. Sure enough, the interior of the incubators had spots of blood in them with the remaining Tyrannosaur hatchlings looked quite fat and happy as they slept. Each of the incubators had a divider slotted down the middle to prevent the hatchlings from getting to each other. No doubt, the two would otherwise try to kill each other when they finally woke up from their food induced slumber. All of this meant that Henry had been correct and John’s idea of have having an adult Tyrannosaur with a juvenile wouldn’t work. The only way it would is if it were a mother-daughter pair, which was something that wouldn’t happen.
In short, these creatures wouldn’t work for his hypotheticals. James hadn’t really considered them, in the first place, considering their size. However, he couldn’t rule out the notion of being able to tinker with their genetics to adjust their final size. Still, a creature that would cannibalize each other, despite there being ample food available, wouldn’t work…Even if it was paired with human intelligence. Something that was capable of working with others was needed. The two halves needed to complement each other and he had yet to find what he wanted.