Friendship is Magic: Jurassic Park

by Triple B Studios

Chapter 11: In Exchange

John Hammond and Dr. Wu was standing in the living room of Hammond's exquisite bungalow, nestled amidst palm trees in the northern region of the park. The living room exuded an airy and inviting ambiance, adorned with a collection of six video monitors that displayed the captivating presence of the park's magnificent creatures.

“Was there any problem with the group?” Hammond asked.

“No,” Henry Wu replied, “there was no problem at all.”

“They accepted your explanation?” Hammond probed.

“Why shouldn’t they?” Wu said. “It’s all quite straightforward, in the broad strokes. It’s only the details that get sticky. And I wanted to talk about the details with you today. You can think of it as a matter of aesthetics.”

John Hammond wrinkled his nose, as if he smelled something disagreeable. “Aesthetics?” he repeated.

“Of course, there are practical consequences as well,” Wu said. “I really think you should consider my recommendations for phase two. We should go to version 4.4.”

“You want to replace all the current stock of animals?” Hammond said.

“Yes, I do.”

“Why? What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing,” Wu said, “except that they’re real dinosaurs.”

“That’s what I asked for, Henry,” Hammond said, smiling. “And that’s what you gave me.”

“I know,” said Wu. “But you see …” He paused. How could he explain this to Hammond? Hammond hardly ever visited the island. And it was a peculiar situation that Wu was trying to convey. “Right now, as we stand here, almost no one in the world has ever seen an actual dinosaur. Nobody knows what they’re really like.”

“Yes …”

“The dinosaurs we have now are real,” Wu said, pointing to the screens around the room, “but in certain ways they are unsatisfactory. Unconvincing. I could make them better.”

“Better in what way?”

“For one thing, they move too fast,” Henry Wu said. “People aren’t accustomed to seeing large animals that are so quick. I’m afraid visitors will think the dinosaurs look speeded up, like film running too fast.”

“But, Henry, these are real dinosaurs. You said so yourself.”

“I know,” said Wu. “But we could easily breed slower, more domesticated dinosaurs.”

“Domesticated dinosaurs?” Hammond snorted. “Nobody wants domesticated dinosaurs, Henry. They want the real thing.”

“But that’s my point,” Wu said. “I don’t think they do. They want to see their expectation, which is quite different.”

Hammond frowned.

“You said it yourself, John, this park is entertainment,” Wu said. “And entertainment has nothing to do with reality. Entertainment is antithetical to reality.”

Hammond sighed. “Now, Henry, are we going to have another one of those abstract discussions? You know I like to keep it simple. The dinosaurs we have now are real, and—”

“Well, not exactly,” Wu said. He paced the living room, pointed to the monitors. “I don’t think we should kid ourselves. We haven’t re-created the past here. The past is gone. It can never be re-created. What we’ve done is reconstruct the past—or at least a version of the past. And I’m saying we can make a better version.”

“Better than real?”

“Why not?” Wu said. “After all, these animals are already modified. We’ve inserted genes to make them patentable, and to make them lysine dependent. And we’ve done everything we can to promote growth, and accelerate development into adulthood.”

Hammond shrugged. “That was inevitable. We didn’t want to wait. We have investors to consider.”

“Of course. But I’m just saying, why stop there? Why not push ahead to make exactly the kind of dinosaur that we’d like to see? One that is more acceptable to visitors, and one that is easier for us to handle? A slower, more docile version for our park?”

Hammond frowned. “But then the dinosaurs wouldn’t be real.”

“But they’re not real now,” Wu said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There isn’t any reality here.” He shrugged helplessly. He could see he wasn’t getting through. Hammond had never been interested in technical details, and the essence of the argument was technical. How could he explain to Hammond about the reality of DNA dropouts, the patches, the gaps in the sequence that Wu had been obliged to fill in, making the best guesses he could, but still, making guesses. The DNA of the dinosaurs was like old photographs that had been retouched, basically the same as the original but in some places repaired and clarified, and as a result—”

“Now, Henry,” Hammond said, putting his arm around Wu’s shoulder. “If you don’t mind my saying so, I think you’re getting cold feet. You’ve been working very hard for a long time, and you’ve done a hell of a job—a hell of a job—and it’s finally time to reveal to some people what you’ve done. It’s natural to be a little nervous. To have some doubts. But I am convinced, Henry, that the world will be entirely satisfied. Entirely satisfied.”

As he spoke, Hammond steered him toward the door.

“But, John,” Wu said. “Remember back in ’87, when we started to build the containment devices? We didn’t have any full-grown adults yet, so we had to predict what we’d need. We ordered big taser shockers, cars with cattle prods mounted on them, guns that blow out electric nets. All built specially to our specifications. We’ve got a whole array of devices now—and they’re all too slow. We’ve got to make some adjustments. You know that Muldoon wants military equipment: LAW missiles and laser-guided devices?”

“Let’s leave Muldoon out of this,” Hammond said. “I’m not worried. It’s just a zoo, Henry.”

The telephone emitted a ringing sound, prompting Hammond to proceed towards it in order to respond. Meanwhile, Wu endeavored to conceive an alternative approach to advocate his position. However, the undeniable reality was that, following an extensive period of five years, the construction of Jurassic Park was drawing to a close, and regrettably, John Hammond had ceased to lend an ear to his concerns.

There was a time when Hammond listened to Wu with great attentiveness, particularly when he had initially recruited him. This occurred during the days when Henry Wu, a twenty-eight-year-old graduate student pursuing his doctorate at Stanford in Norman Atherton's laboratory.

The untimely demise of Atherton had not only plunged the laboratory into mourning but also into a state of confusion. The fate of the funding and the doctoral programs remained uncertain, causing anxiety among the lab members who were concerned about the impact on their careers.

Two weeks following the funeral, John Hammond paid a visit to Wu. It was widely known within the lab that Atherton had some connection with Hammond, although the specifics were never quite clear. However, Hammond approached Wu with a straightforwardness that Wu would never forget.

In those days, Wu desperately wanted to make his mark. John Hammond had his full attention.

"And now it appeared that the entire world would indeed become aware," Wu pondered.

Following five years of exceptional dedication, they were merely a year away from unveiling the park to the general public. Admittedly, those years had not transpired precisely as Hammond had assured. Wu had received guidance from certain individuals, and on numerous occasions, he had faced formidable pressures.

Moreover, the nature of the work had shifted—it was no longer solely focused on reptilian cloning, once they comprehended the striking similarities between dinosaurs and birds. It had evolved into avian cloning, an entirely distinct endeavor. Considerably more challenging, one might say.

Over the past two years, Wu had primarily assumed an administrative role, overseeing teams of researchers and banks of computer-operated gene sequencers. Administration was not the type of work he found particularly enjoyable. It was not what he had initially anticipated.

Nonetheless, he had achieved success. He had accomplished what many doubted could be achieved, especially within such a brief period. Henry Wu believes that he should be granted certain rights and a voice in the decision-making process, given his expertise and the efforts he has put forth.

However, he has noticed a gradual decline in his influence as time goes on. The existence of the dinosaurs is an undeniable fact. The procedures for acquiring them have been refined to the point of becoming routine. The technologies involved have reached a state of maturity. Consequently, John Hammond no longer requires the assistance of Henry Wu.

“That should be fine,” Hammond said, speaking into the phone. He listened for a while, and smiled at Wu. “Fine. Yes. Fine. Oh, and do make sure to send the woman, the trespasser, right away. I’ll handle her.” He hung up. “Where were we, Henry?”

“We were talking about phase two,” Wu said.

“Oh yes. We’ve gone over some of this before, Henry—”

“I know, but you don’t realize—”

“Excuse me, Henry,” Hammond said, with an edge of impatience in his voice. “I do realize. And I must tell you frankly, Henry. I see no reason to improve upon reality. Every change we’ve made in the genome has been forced on us by law or necessity. We may make other changes in the future, to resist disease, or for other reasons. But I don’t think we should improve upon reality just because we think it’s better that way. We have real dinosaurs out there now. That’s what people want to see. And that’s what they should see. That’s our obligation, Henry. That’s honest, Henry.”

While smiling Hammond opened the door for Wu to leave. Wu sighed and exited the room, passing by a woman that entered with a young man trailing behind her. Hammond shut the door then turned his gaze towards her.

The person before Hammond was a fair skinned woman with brown colored eyes and a rather modest, buxom body. Her brunette hair falls to her shoulders. She wore a plain zipped green jacket, a white undershirt, long blue jeans, and black hiking boots, as well as a brown stetson hat.

Hammond turned his gaze to the young man. “Is this the one, George?”

“Yup,” the young man, named George Henson, replied. “This is her.”

Hammond shifted his gaze back to the woman. She stood with her arms crossed, eyes narrowed. Hammond deduced the obvious that she was angry.

Hammond cleared his throat. “Well, I humbly apologize for the deinonychus that must have given you quite a fright, ma’am.”

“Oh trust me, they gave me more than just a fright.” The woman pointed at her right boot. “One of those things bit me. I barely got out of there with my life.”

Hammond nodded. “And I’m terribly sorry you had to go through that.”

“Are you?” She was unconvinced.

“Yes. And to be fair ma’am, you were trespassing their territory and the deinonychus don’t take too kindly to any stranger that wanders their turf.” Hammond stated. “But let’s put that aside and get to the important matter at hand, shall we? And you can start by telling me who you are and where you came from?”

The woman downcast to the floor with a sigh before meeting Hammond’s gaze again.

“My name is Dr. Carter, I’m a physician from the emergency medicine department at Michael Reese in Chicago.” Carter introduced herself. “I work at a village of Bahía Anasco, on the west coast of Costa Rica as their only physician.”

“I see.” Hammond nodded. “Why did you come here?”

“Yesterday, one of your workers came to my clinic with an injured boy,” Carter recounted. “They told me that the young man was in a construction accident. But what didn’t add up was that the young man didn’t have any mechanical trauma. No soil contamination of the wounds, and no crush-injury component. Mechanical trauma of any sort—an auto injury, a factory accident—almost always had some component of crushing. Instead, his skin was shredded, ripped across his shoulder, and again across his thigh. I knew immediately he was mauled. Mauled by what? I didn’t know at the time. But before the kid died he muttered only one clue to his attacker: Raptor.”

Hammond and George exchange knowing glances before looking back at Carter as she prolonged.

“That word kept repeating in my head like a mantra, so I did some research. All I’ve found was the definition but after a while I’ve found the attacker’s full name. I didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t like it. So I decided that if I wanted answers, I was gonna find it myself. And now that I’m here, I wanna know.” She took one step close to Hammond. “I wanna know what’s going on, what you people are building here, and how the hell there are dinosaurs on this god for-saken island?!”

Hammond nodded. “Alright.”

Hammond began to tell Carter all she needed to know. But not too much information to ensure not to spoil anything or to alarm her. After answering a few questions from Carter, the room was silent. Hammond broke the air by clearing his throat.

“Now, ma’am,” Hammond began. “I don’t take too kindly of anyone trespassing my property, especially my island. I’m already dealing with a certain acquaintance who’s judging whether or not my island is safe; I’ve got enough to deal with. If the helicopter was still here I would’ve sent you home. But that option is out of the window now.” He raised one finger. “However, I am willing to let your little trespassing slide under one condition.”

Carter raised a brow at the elderly man.

“And that is?” Carter inquired.

“Despite what you’ve gone through, I can tell by the look in your eyes that you wanna see the other dinosaurs. Which I honestly wouldn’t blame you. I mean it’s not every day that one would get the chance to see a real life dinosaur in the flesh; and you’ve only encountered the small carnivores such as the deinonychus. You my dear, have not seen the herbivores - so let’s make this official. Starting for now, through your time here on my island, you are my seventh guest.”

“Seventh?” Carter repeated. “I’m not the only one that came to this island?”

“Yes,” Hammond replied. “There are a few other guests of mine that are roaming around the facility center, three experts, my grandchildren, and three Equestrian ambassadors.”

Carter’s eyes widened a bit. “Equestrians? They’re here?”

“Indeed, and I’m quite fond of them if I do say so myself. But I’m getting off track. For now you can spend your time with both the experts and the ambassadors and see all the dinosaurs we have here, on the condition that once you leave this island you keep everything you see here to yourself. My park is not quite ready yet and I planned to get it ready when the time is ripe. So if you can be so kind as to not tell anyone of what you saw here, I would humbly appreciate it.”

Carter pondered Hammond’s words for a moment. On one hand, she didn’t like the idea of being stuck on an island surrounded by ancient creatures that could potentially kill her. But on the other hand, she could see the rest of the animals on the island that hopefully won’t kill her.

She’ll get to meet the ambassadors for the first time; she only saw them once in a newspaper but never met them in person. Carter also heard from folks of how kind and pure hearted the equestrians were. So maybe it would be a good opportunity to talk with one of them.

However, she won’t forget why she came here.

Even though Hammond answered some of her questions, Carter still felt that the old man was still withholding something. She didn’t know what, but she didn’t like it. But for now she’ll play along.

“My backpack.” Carter narrowed her eyes at George over her shoulder before quickly returning her gaze back to Hammond. “One of your men took my backpack before I came here. You give me back my backpack, and we have a deal.”

Hammond smiled and nodded. “Of course.”

Comments

[Star Shimmering]

“But they’re not real now,” Wu said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There isn’t any reality here.” He shrugged helplessly. He could see he wasn’t getting through. Hammond had never been interested in technical details, and the essence of the argument was technical. How could he explain to Hammond about the reality of DNA dropouts, the patches, the gaps in the sequence that Wu had been obliged to fill in, making the best guesses he could, but still, making guesses. The DNA of the dinosaurs was like old photographs that had been retouched, basically the same as the original but in some places repaired and clarified, and as a result—”

“Now, Henry,” Hammond said, putting his arm around Wu’s shoulder. “If you don’t mind my saying so, I think you’re getting cold feet. You’ve been working very hard for a long time, and you’ve done a hell of a job—a hell of a job—and it’s finally time to reveal to some people what you’ve done. It’s natural to be a little nervous. To have some doubts. But I am convinced, Henry, that the world will be entirely satisfied. Entirely satisfied.”

[Star Shimmering]

“Indeed, and I’m quite fond of them if I do say so myself. But I’m getting off track. For now you can spend your time with both the experts and the ambassadors and see all the dinosaurs we have here, on the condition that once you leave this island you keep everything you see here to yourself. My park is not quite ready yet and I planned to get it ready when the time is ripe. So if you can be so kind as to not tell anyone of what you saw here, I would humbly appreciate it.”

I doubt she would tell anyone of what she saw. Even if she did, no one would believe her.

[Moonlight Tome]

Well! Bobby is definitely in for the ride of her life!

[redmar]

Henry Wu's speech to Hammond about the dinosaurs not being real is similar to the one he gave to Masrani about the animals not being original because of the foreign DNA the use to plug the holes.