The Lost Ponies: Jurassic Park

by CompactDisc

4 - Deciphering

“Here we are,” Levine said as he parked his car, stepping out into the warm afternoon sun. He’d made it back to the Institute at four o’ clock sharp, just as he’d told Twilight via satellite uplink yesterday, and met her there. She was keen to get straight to the point and discuss the matter at hand, but he had insisted they wait until they’d returned to the safety of his flat. “There could be someone listening,” he’d told her as they drove away from the Institute.

It didn’t take the two long to arrive at the flat complex. Levine parked his car in one of the spaces and promptly the duo made their way inside.

Neither noticed a station wagon slowly pulling up, stopping across the road.

“Just in here,” Levine said as he opened his flat door. “Please, after you. Make yourself at home!”

“Thanks,” Twilight replied as she made her way into the flat. Immediately she noticed how orderly and clean his flat was – everything was neatly arranged, nothing appeared out of place. As she sat down on one of the sofas, Twilight noticed a door off to her right and peered inside: she could just make out piles of literature stacked up inside. Even these were arranged neatly.

She chuckled to herself as Levine busied himself fixing some drinks. Neat, organised, and an academic. Perhaps she did share some things in common with the man...

“Here you go,” Levine said handing Twilight a cocktail of sorts. “Figured you might want some refreshments.”

“Thank you,” Twilight replied as she awkwardly grabbed the glass in her forehooves. Taking a small sip she again looked over towards the door. “If I may, Richard... What’s in there?”

“Many, many years’ worth of knowledge and hard work,” he said proudly. “Not just mine, but that of many others. There’s probably close to a thousand journals in there that I’ve collected. Some I’ve contributed to, others I’ve not. But as I’m sure you’re aware, one does not just ‘throw away’ academia.” He took a swig of his beer. “There is also some, shall we say... more relevant knowledge in there. You see Twilight, I’ve been a busy man since last year, chasing leads and scouring whatever works I could, all to find clues. Clues that point me towards InGen’s dirty little secret.”

“I’ve tried to find what I can, and there seems to be hardly anything pertaining to this rumour—”

“Correct, there’s not much to go on,” Levine said interrupting. “That isn’t to say that there isn’t anything.” He smiled wryly. “I’ve spoken to more people than I care to think about it and their stories are patchy at best. Doctor Malcolm rebuffed my claims the best, for sure. Doctor Grant just kept trying to get me to go away when I spoke to him, and there’s a few others who I’ve spoken with that have done a poor job of keeping the truth from me. But I know, Twilight. I believe. All the thinly-veiled denials, the research I’ve undertaken, the InGen laptop – I’ll go and get that in a moment – and, of course, the aberrant corpses... InGen is hiding something. And that something just so happens to be a scientific and paleontological breakthrough the likes of which have never, ever been seen before. I’m not sure why it’s all still under wraps, though... InGen is no more. They do not exist. Hmm... Anyway, I’m digressing. If you’ll wait here for a moment...” Levine stood, setting his beer down and heading into the study.

~

“Get those photos ready, Howard,” Dodgson said in the station wagon outside. “Looks like he’s about to tell all.”

“Photos are right here, Lewis.” King was sat in the back of the car, photos of the InGen and BioSyn printouts to hand.

“Good. We’ll likely need them for referencing... Won’t be long now.” With a wry smile he turned the volume up on the microphone monitor. “Listen very closely, gentlemen.”

~

Twilight looked idly around Levine’s flat as he busied himself, allowing her mind to wander. Naturally her friends and family wound up filling her thoughts; she’d not seen any of them in a long while, even though the other Elements were themselves all currently on Earth. She’d hardly seen her own family – the last time she was in Equestria she only went to see her parents once and missed a chance to catch up with Shining Armour. And though he lived with her, she badly missed Spike.

Twilight sighed wistfully.

Memories of the day she left Equestria came flooding back to her. It was an emotional day for everypony involved as it marked the start of a year-long sabbatical. Twilight and the other Elements would spend an entire solar cycle in the human realm, building connections, relations, and studying their ways. Truly it was an exciting opportunity, but it was still one tinged with sadness: she and her friends would be such a long, long way from home. She remembered that morning, when Spike had clung to her leg, begging her not to go.

“It’s no different to all the other times I’ve been gone, Spike,” she had uttered softly.

“I know, but this is different! This is the longest you’ll have been gone. How will I manage without you for a year?”

It was all in his tone. She felt herself breaking. She felt guilty. “Oh, Spike,” she cooed, scooping him into a hug. “You’ll be fine. The Princesses are more than happy to look after you!...” She trailed off. “Not that any of that makes leaving any easier.” She felt her eyes sting. “I have to go, Spike. These research missions to Earth are really important! Princess Celestia is relying on us.”

“I... I guess you’re right,” he whimpered softly in response. He returned the hug.

“I’ll come back and see you as often as I can. And I Pinkie Promise you that.” She smiled at him, planting a kiss on his snout.

“I’d better go—”

“Here we are,” Levine announced loudly, pushing aside the drinks on his coffee table and dropping two large folders onto it. This shook Twilight from her thoughts. She watched as Levine sat opposite her on the other sofa, a device in his lap. “What you see before you, Miss Sparkle, is everything I know about the biogenetics movement of the 1980s contained in these two folders. Namely, the two leading companies: InGen – International Genetics Technologies – and BioSyn, or Biological Synthetics Incorporated. And this,” he said as he patted up the device in his lap, “is an old InGen laptop computer I picked up in an auction I shouldn’t really have been at.” He beamed, an almost child-like arrogance coming off. “Now, let’s begin. InGen. I believe you are familiar with them?”

“I’ve read about them before,” Twilight confirmed. “And as you know, I’m also aware of the rumours surrounding them—”

“Good,” Levine cut her off. “Well, we don’t really need to go into any great detail with BioSyn so I’ll simply fill you in on the basics: They came into being in the early 1980s and met with limited success in their field, less so after InGen formed in 1983. After Lewis Dodgson was appointed Head of Research sometime in the mid eighties they resorted to industrial espionage and tried to compromise InGen’s technology for years.”

“Oh... Wow,” Twilight uttered. “I had no idea such a big corporation would resort to such... corrupt methods!”

“And now you do know.” Levine nodded. “There are a few important characters of BioSyn, namely Dodgson, but past him the other only notable names are the managing directors and one Dennis Nedry, who disappeared off of the map in August 1993.”

“What happened to him?”

“Officially, nobody knows.” Levine shrugged. “However, what is known is that he worked for – or, rather, was on the employee roster – of both BioSyn and InGen.”

“So he worked for both companies?”

“It would appear so. Knowing what we know about BioSyn’s modus operandi, it seems logical to conclude he was a BioSyn spy. That, or a saboteur.”

Twilight raised her eyebrows. If what Levine was saying was correct, the biogenetics companies had some dark secrets behind closed doors...

Levine continued. “Now, said ‘spy’ disappears in August 1993. InGen loses a lot of investors following Q3 of 1993 and files for bankruptcy in November that year – it’s all common knowledge, all here in this folder.” He opened the folder marked up as InGen, flicking to the financial documents. “Here, take a look if you like.”

Twilight took a brief look at the documents: they were very much as expected. Print-outs of InGen’s financial reports between 1990 and 1993, revealing nothing hugely remarkable aside the sudden drop in shares following August 1993...

“This is not what happens in ordinary circumstances,” Levine said as he pointed to the part of the report outlining InGen’s financial collapse. “A crash of this magnitude requires some extraordinary circumstances. Something happened, Twilight. Something big took place that ultimately doomed InGen. And I think I know what—”

“Isla Nublar,” Twilight interjected. She’d read that InGen leased the island from the Costa Rican government but past that, she didn’t know anything else about it. None of her research had revealed what happened on the island, but the past two weeks had given her a pretty solid idea. She had been waiting patiently for Levine to finish, but she couldn’t wait any longer. “These rumours – the ones you brought up at Doctor Malcolm’s lecture... InGen displaying dinosaurs on the island... It’s true, isn’t it?”

Levine smiled. “Yes,” he said. “Yes they are.”

“Oh – Oh, dear Celestia... This is incredible!”

“It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever heard before, for sure... Now, do you remember the conversation Ian and I had after his lecture? I claimed his injury was a result of the catastrophe that took place on the island?”

“I certainly do, yes—”

“Well, before I met with you today I received a call from him: he finally admitted I was right. Honestly, part of me thought I’d never see the day when the stubborn Ian Malcolm would finally bow down and admit he was wrong!... He received the sample from the carcass in Costa Rica, and as I suspected it was enough to draw the truth from him. Anyway, he went to Isla Nublar alongside Doctor Alan Grant, and plenty of others, to inspect the dinosaur reserve, itself said to be named ‘Jurassic Park’.” There was a pause as Twilight made a small noise of acknowledgement. “Now, getting back to the point: I have pinpointed a chain of five islands not too far from either Costa Rica or the alleged location of Isla Nublar, and one of these five should be ‘Site B’.”

Twilight watched Levine as he flicked through the InGen folder, eventually stopping as he reached a map. He gestured to her and she looked closer; the map displayed the west coast of Costa Rica. Immediately she noticed a chain of five islands, circled by a red marker pen.

“Los Cincos Muertos. The Five Deaths. From top to bottom we have Isla Matanceros, Isla Muerta, Isla Pena, Isla Sorna and Isla Tacaño,” Levine began. “Initially I had deduced Site B had to be one of these from vague connections: they are near to the alleged location of Nublar, thus their climate will be the same and actually transporting the dinosaurs from A to B would be easily enough done. Ah, I should say briefly that the exact location of Nublar is unknown, but I had suspicions it was off the Costa Rican coast. Ian confirmed this: when we spoke earlier, he said it was roughly one hundred and twenty miles from the mainland. Now, if we look at this map, the Five Deaths are two hundred miles from Costa Rica – thus, Nublar is about eighty miles from the Five Deaths. And it makes sense that Site B be within range of Nublar: various notes that I was able to extract from this InGen laptop make reference to shipping dinosaurs, both in terms of cost, time, and quantity, and it adds up. It looks like a lot of the actual shipping movements took around three hours, which would make sense given the distance between Nublar and Site B.” Levine allowed a moment, downing the rest of his beer.

“Now, returning to the sample we sent to Ian. It was, apparently, also microchipped. He told me that the chip was incredibly small and full of radio transceivers but importantly it had suffered from some sort of acidic erosion – as if it were exposed to an acidic atmosphere. A volcanic atmosphere.” He pointed to the map. “Notice that only two of these islands have dormant volcanoes on them: Isla Muerta, and Isla Sorna. One of these two is our bag.”

Twilight peered closer at the map. “But we still don’t know which island we’re after... Can I look at the laptop?”

Levine handed her the laptop. “I’ve searched it a thousand times. See if you can find anything.” And with that he stood, grabbing another beer from the refrigerator.

Twilight pressed the power button and the old device whirred into life. She was greeted with a message:

>WELCOME TO INTERNATIONAL GENETICS TECHNOLOGIES

-PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD

“Richard, what’s the password for this?” she called.

“Hang on,” he replied in kind. Quickly he returned, taking the laptop from Twilight and entering a passcode. “Here,” he said handing it back. “You’re in.”

Twilight returned her focus to the screen. It simply read, WELCOME JOPHERY LAWES. ACCESS LEVEL: SITE A MAINFRAME, LEVEL 01. SITE B MAINFRAME, LEVEL 01. The information kept flashing. “There’s... nothing here,” she said. “Just information about ‘Jophery’, whoever he is.”

“Ah, but there is. Here, let me...” Levine once again grabbed the laptop, producing a sheet from his pocket. “When InGen went bankrupt they sold almost all of their technology on, hence how I came across it at auction. They had claimed to have removed everything from these old things but the very fact that it still recognises one of their workers implies information still remains. And it does.” He held up the scrap of paper. “I managed to work around the security systems on here with the help of a friend, and we wrote down each step. So...” he returned to typing, and soon looked up. “Okay, here you are. Private files.”

Twilight focussed back on the laptop. “Please don’t think I doubt your efforts, Richard – I’d just like to have a look for myself. You probably know just how handy it is to have somepony look over something you’ve already analysed; see if you’ve missed anything...”

“All too well,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s academia for you.”

With a smile and a nod, Twilight began looking through the numerous menus now available to her. There were plenty of folders and sub-folders – clearly, InGen hadn’t anticipated anyone finding these secret files, or perhaps they had simply forgotten to clear them. Regardless, here they were, and she intended to make the most of the information.

After a short period of time Twilight found that much of the laptop contents either made no sense whatsoever or simply wasn’t relevant to their search. Despite this, she pressed on, checking each folder in turn until eventually she accessed the folder titled ‘>SHIPPING HISTORY.’ She watched as reams of dates appeared before her. Immediately she noticed that there were very few in late 1992, most of the dates being between January and July 1993 – and of those dates in 1993, a few were of interest.

03.01.1993 – SPECIMEN 01138 – QUANTITY: 14

> INGEN SHIP 04 ‘ELORA’, ETA 13:37

03.07.1993 – SPECIMEN 01573 – QUANTITY: 1

> INGEN SHIP 02 ‘SARA II’, ETA 22:50

03.16.1993 – SPECIMEN 01295 – QUANTITY: 5

> STEINER, DE. SHIP ‘KATHARINA IV’, ETA 05:39

“Hmm... It looks like this Mr Lawes had access to shipping dates and times,” Twilight said aloud. “Maybe he was a dock hand of sorts?”

“Yes, I had found that some time ago,” Levine answered.

“Did you notice that one of these ships isn’t an InGen one?” She pointed a hoof towards the screen’s printout. Levine furrowed his brow and quickly scuttled over.

“The ‘Katharina IV’... Steiner, De.? Sounds German to me—oh my God.” He stopped himself mid-thought, staring at Twilight. His face contorted into an enormous smile. “My dear I think you’ve done it!” He leapt up and charged towards the phone, frantically dialling away. “I have a friend who might just know enough to help us here.”

“German?... Oh, of course! Die Funf Todesarten! That book in the Institute library! Germany had links with the Five Deaths—”

“Give me a minute,” Levine said, interrupting Twilight yet again. “Hi, Marty? You there?... Yes of course it’s me. Tell me, The Five Deaths... Which ones were owned by that German Mining Company?... Steiner De., that’s the one, yes... Hurry up man, I’m on the verge of making a discovery here!... Site B, yes... Calm down man! I’ll get back to you if it all falls into place... Isla Sorna, okay... Are you sure?...Then check!... Okay... Yes... Look, I have to go but I’ll fill you in later... okay. Goodbye.” He put the phone down.

“It’s Isla Sorna,” he announced. “That’s Site B!” Levine laughed aloughed. “It’s got to be. It all makes sense.” He drew a breath. “And to think I’ve been trying to find out for a year or so...”

“I don’t know why neither of us picked up on this before,” Twilight chuckled. “Especially as the Germans’ history of mining these islands is well-documented. Yes, I found Die Funf Todesarten that night you called, and despite my limited understanding of German I was able to work out what was being said. There was a heavy emphasis on Isla Sorna, for sure, but this is still a rather tenuous link to base your entire expedition on—”

“Tenuous, yes, but with hindsight the puzzle completes itself.” He interrupted her once again and Twilight was beginning to see why others at the Institute took a dislike to him, despite his brilliant mind. “Isla Sorna was bought out by Steiner De. in the late 1960s, that’s common knowledge... apparently. I was unaware of this although I was also unaware that InGen were ever involved with German mining companies. My friend Marty Gutierrez, of whom I met in Costa Rica, knew of this connection; apparently InGen were leasing amber mining to them. To get the DNA they needed to make dinosaurs. Do you follow?”

Twilight nodded.

He remained stood by the telephone receiver. “Good. Well, Steiner, already in possession of Sorna, seemed to be one of these many companies that InGen worked with. They didn’t just lease work out to anybody. They went for smaller companies that they could trust and, if they couldn’t completely trust them, they would pay them until they could. Steiner, according to Gutierrez, was a small company back when they owned Sorna. Small, but wealthy.

“I imagine that once InGen was ready to produce dinosaurs en masse, they must have realised the need to acquire a big enough space to do so: Isla Nublar was too small. Hence, they purchased Sorna from Steiner but, trusting the company, continued working with them, by leasing shipments of dinosaurs to them.” Levine paused, taking a breath. “That’s how I make sense of it all. It’s not as concrete as I would have hoped, but it’s far more than I’ve had in the past year of looking.” He looked uncomfortable, impatient even. “I don’t think we’ll get any guarantees unless we go – as such, I’m willing to take my chances and mount an expedition to Isla Sorna and see what we find.”

Twilight was shocked at Levine’s brashness. True, she knew that he was one to get an idea and to commit fully to it; she had seen that displayed during Malcolm’s lecture. But here, the man had a loose link connecting InGen to an island and was willing to contribute the necessary time, money and effort into mounting an expedition there, without hard evidence of dinosaurs ever having been there. The man was a definite theorist, finding links and reason in whatever he saw. Even so, Twilight would never have thought he’d risk so much based on so little. One part of her was screaming out at his impatience.

Another part of her was smiling at him. For what he was, Richard Levine was a man with a great mind and the enthusiasm to match.

“Now, Twilight,” Levine began as he briefly disappeared into his study. “I want to show you one final thing.” He reappeared with a videotape, quickly inserting it into the television. “I got this through some friends of friends – some ex-employees at InGen. During the breakdown of the company, they must have grabbed this for themselves, and thankfully I have ended up with it.” He smiled. “This is why I’ve been so adamant about the Lost World.”

He started to play the video.

“Just watch,” he said in a hushed tone. “You’ll see.”

Twilight turned her attention to the television screen as a poor-quality video began to play. A sequence began of two men, none of whom she recognised, filmed themselves getting into a grey and red jeep, the vehicle humming into life and heading into a jungle. The next few minutes were entirely uneventful; a collection of jungle shots and the men making idle chat.

“Okay, here,” Levine blurted out. “From here.”

Zoning Levine out, Twilight focussed once again on the video which showed the jeep pulling off of the jungle track and onto a dirt road, an enormous electric fence running along its side. The vehicle stopped and one of the men grabbed the camera as they exited the vehicle.

‘This is Doctor Gerry Harding, chief veterinarian for InGen. Present at Isla Nublar, date July 5^th 1993. Travelling with security chief Robert Muldoon to undertake a routine examination of the Tyrannosaurus enclosure.’

Twilight’s eyes widened as she worked her lower jaw once. “I...” She trailed off.

‘Let’s make this quck,’ said the man named Muldoon. ‘I get uneasy when we spend too long around here.’

With rapt attention Twilight watched as the two men took footage of the gargantuan electric fence and its various struts, the pair obviously following some sort of checklist. All seemed to be going to plan until Muldoon froze on-camera, gazing into the leafy enclosure.

‘I heard her,’ he said. ‘She’s not normally active during the morning.’

The video displayed the enclosure and zoomed in, moving from tree to tree. Twilight felt her own heart rate increase as she too scanned the treeline, eyes darting across the screen. She was suddenly drawn from her thoughts as Levine paused playback and stood.

“There,” he said as he pointed to an area on the screen. “Right there.”

Twilight peered. “I’m not sure what that’s supposed to be – Oh, oh my...” Suddenly she was able to see it. In amidst the undergrowth was a pair of small yellow eyes and a very large, dark shape. It was difficult to make out, but it was definitely there. She was stunned.

“Is – is that... a T-Rex?”

“I would believe so,” Levine said excitedly. “Yes, I think so. Here, watch.”

He began playback at a quarter speed as Twilight kept her eyes glued to the shape. Through the camera wobble she thought she could see the eyes blink slowly twice, before part of the dark shape turned. Its eyes were trained directly on the camera and she felt a chill run down her spine. It was looking directly at her...

At that point, the camera angle changed and the dinosaur was lost from view. Playback paused once again and immediately Twilight turned to Levine. “Play that bit again.”

Without hesitation Levine rewound and replayed the tape, Twilight moving closer to the screen. The second time around, she could make out the animal a little clearer. It was still very difficult to gauge anything about it – size, colour, shape – but she could roughly guess based on what she saw, and it looked enormous. Again, as playback continued the creature disappeared from view, and this time Levine stopped the video.

“There you have it,” she heard him say distantly. The image of what looked to be an adult Tyrannosaurus burned brightly in her mind. Her thoughts went back to the museum trips she and Fluttershy went on, gazing intensely at the Rex’s colossal skeleton.

“Quite eye-opening, no?” Twilight was pulled from her thoughts. “This was one of the first of InGen’s items I came across in 1994. I know everyone thinks I’m deluded by insisting that dinosaurs have been and are alive once again. But this,” he said with a wide gesture towards the television, “this proves me to be right. This is obviously something that has been under very tight wraps, but no longer.” He was clearly proud of his efforts; despite having been stunned to silence Twilight could pick up on that. “So, what do you think of all this?”

Twilight blinked repeatedly, searching to find the right words. “I – well...” She took a moment. “I wasn’t expecting the video. I was confident we’d work something out, but that was just... It makes it that much more real.”

“I totally agree,” Levine said as he sat down once more. “If you’re feeling up for continuing, I have something I’d like to ask you.”

“Oh – sure, of course.” Twilight focussed, clearing her mind. “Please carry on!”

“Okay. Once I’d shortlisted these five islands, I pushed plans for the expedition ahead by three weeks which, according to schedule, would have had it leave in fourteen days. However, with this new information I will push it ahead again; I want to leave in three days.” He paused, pursing his lips. “I’d still like you to join me. I believe your intellect will serve us well and I think you will learn a lot. Not to mention the groundbreaking nature of what we’d be conducting! Field research on living dinosauria. This is not something any academic can claim to have done, let alone any other person. Or indeed, any other pony.” He downed his second beer. “I ask that, despite the date being no more than three days away, you would consider joining us.”

Before the battle could even take place in her head, Twilight pushed aside thoughts of Celestia’s warning and the dangers that could very well lie ahead. She had already decided. She’d had a number of panic attacks surveying the situation, and had mulled it over more times than she cared to remember in the past two weeks, but Twilight found that she was always drawn back to the idea of agreeing to go. It was almost out of character for her; she was aware that she could potentially be risking life and limb and that she was so very far from her home realm. But at the end of it all, deep down Twilight knew she had to accept Levine’s proposal. This was not an offer that she would see again in her lifetime.

“I have considered it,” she began, a grin appearing. “And I’d love to join you and your team.”

“Wonderful,” he happily replied. “Wonderful! Fantastic. Okay, I have a few calls to make. Rather, I have a lot of calls to make. I think I’ll start by visiting Ian at the Institute, then call Doc Thorne from there... Oh, but I could just call Thorne from here... No, no, I will head back to the Institute. I don’t know if you were aware, but Ian’s girlfriend Sarah Harding is back from Africa, and her pony attaché is with her... oh, I can’t remember her name—“

“Fluttershy’s here?!” Twilight beamed. “We have to go! I’ve not seen any of my friends for months, this will be fantastic!”

Levine nodded. “Looks like it’ll be a good night for us both then! Now let’s not waste time.” He set the folders down, switching the InGen laptop off. “Let’s go.”

~

Outside of the block of flats, the station wagon hacked into life. “Did we all get that?” Dodgson asked, turning to face his colleagues.

“Yeah,” King replied, Baselton nodding in agreement. “Yeah, we got our island.”

“Excellent. Right, here’s what we’ll do next. Howard, are your contacts in Costa Rica still about? Get on the phone to them. Arrange for a ferry to take us to Isla Sorna tomorrow morning at 8AM. Gotta be big enough to take one jeep. We need to get there before Levine.”

“Makes sense. Will do,” King said producing his phone.

“Okay. A little later, we’ll swing back here and pick up our microphones. I kinda don’t want Levine to stumble across one of them before he leaves – the last thing we need is any alarm bells raised. In the meantime I’ll make the call and arrange for our flight down to Costa Rica – it’ll leave at midnight. Now, I’d like to amend tonight’s plans if I may: if we’re going to a dinosaur island tomorrow I want a last beer before we go. So, gentlemen, the drinks will be on me tonight.”
And with that, the old car slipped away into the evening.

Author's Note:

Surprise! Uploading two chapters today. More to follow soon!

Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

this is my done. point. I see NOTHING of the movies in this and frankly if this is how Lost world book is I think the movie did it better. the idea that nobody wiped the the computer drives is insane AND there is no way you can make an island disappear from all photos and maps. I think you needc ot rethink how you are doing this.

[Iredwolf]

I agree