Jurassic Park: New Blood by TempestK

Words: 13k+

Link: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/jurassic-park-new-blood.108457/

(The King is dead, long live the King! John Hammond is dead; a brain aneurysm during a heated conference with his investors resulting in the passing of a man with the will to move mountains and the intent to make the unbelievable real. But he has left a legacy even now. One is the company he founded; InGen. The company is on the bleeding edge of genetics research. Another is his daughter Elaine, married to Edgar Murphy, and the two children they have had within their happy marriage.

And finally, there's you. Elliot Hammond. Youngest child of John Hammond, and the one elected through both his will and the bylaws of his company as the one to pick up his torch. To carry the dream that he'd been building towards forward into reality. Jurassic Park. Your practices and decisions will shape the future of this dream. And perhaps, unravel the nightmare it became.)

New Blood

You stood solemnly as the bagpipes played. Your sister was beside you; along with her husband and their children. All of you dressed in mourning for the passing of a great man. John Hammond had always seemed like he contained an endless fount of energy. That there was nothing in the world that could bring him down and that it would take the Grim Reaper physically wrangling him into the underworld to secure his demise.

Instead his own body had betrayed him, and he had died during an impassioned speech to his investors about his pet project. InGen, and the park that he had been so secretive about. You had flown in for the funeral from your:

[][Background]Veterinary Practice - As a child you've always loved animals. You sank that love and your inherited stubbornness into attending veterinary school, and learning not just the usual cavalcade of dog and cat breeds; but how to attend to the health and welfare of exotic animals of all types; including a time spent working with the Columbus Zoo. You have an innate understanding of the requirements to care for and feed large groups of animals and will gain more options in regards to their care and upbringing.

[][Background]Tech Startup - You were a programming engineer at a startup technical firm; having secured the job solely on your own merits rather than the influence of your father's name. You had honestly ended up acting as tech support for your father on several occasions as he began calling you at all hours asking questions about processors and programming and which of what was better for this or that. You have an understanding of hardware and software that opens up more options in the creation of automated and mechanized systems.

[][Background]Investment Firm - You were a man much like your father, one who saw opportunity and seized it, wringing it out for every penny you could get. All ethically and legally done of course. You've got a background in business law and international permits that helps cut through the red tape involved in any mega-project. You're able to spot business opportunities and attempts at corporate sabotage and espionage, giving you more options in dealing with those areas of the business.

---

You stared at the attorney in shock. You... you had to have misheard him. "I'm sorry, but did you just say that not only did my father leave his entire company to me; but that the investors are also backing that decision?" The lawyer shuffled his papers, looking over them before glancing at you over the tops of his glasses.

"Yes Mr. Hammond, I did. And as you've signed the NDAs required, I can now tell you about the biggest asset that you've been left; though most of it is now tied up in more liquid assets."

And that's how you learned of your father's greatest endeavor, what would have been the pinnacle of his career. Jurassic Park. He already had teams of geneticists working on the base technology, and there was a chain of islands off of Costa Rica that had been scouted as a good place to set up the park, both because of it's relative isolation, and the tropical climate that would theoretically be beneficial to the dinosaurs.

But was that really the best way to go? There were notes about a smaller operation on the Mainland US, one that would have been much more accessible to the average tourist; and with a lot easier access to building materials. But by the same token heavily susceptible to industrial espionage and the involvement of the US government.

Whereas the islands will have much more room and a much freer reign to design the park and its enclosures. Though the lack of good anchorage, the isolation of the islands, and the indigenous people being somewhat recalcitrant about InGen's presence on the islands. Not to mention the local legends of the islands being the sites of trials by a hero; having to endure each form of death the islands were named for.

[][Location]The Muertes Archipeligo

[][Location]San Diego, California

Right now the research is being headed up by the energetic and young Dr. Henry Wu; though there is a second branch of research being conducted by Dr. Laura Sorkin on an alternate means to clone dinosaurs. Both methods are in their infancy, so you'd decided to meet with the two. Dr. Wu was friendly and cheerful, though he seemed to be a little irate about being pulled from his work for the face-to-face. Dr. Sorkin was much more subdued, but she was attentive and listening to everything you said carefully, practically dissecting each sentence for some kind of hidden nuance and meaning it seemed.

"Really Mr. Hammond, you'll find that my fill-in method will be much more economical and faster. It will allow us to go directly to dinosaurs and begin producing them quite a lot faster than the iron-extraction method." Sorkin scoffed lightly, and Wu cut a glare in her direction.

"Mr. Hammond, before you begin to entertain this, what Dr. Wu is forgetting to mention is that there will be an incredibly high rate of infant mortality through his process. Not only that, rather than bringing back real dinosaurs, they'd be chimera creatures taking on aspects of all of the DNA that was slotted into their genomes. The Heavy Iron Extraction method is able to gather much more complete genetic strands and allow for a purer strain of dinosaur to be created, one closer to what they were really like in life."

"And what Dr. Sorkin is failing to state is the extreme cost and time involved in the process. It increases the cost per-egg by an order of magnitude." Both scientists glare at one another now.

[][Approach]Go with Dr. Wu's faster and cheaper method.

[][Approach]Go with Dr. Sorkins more expensive and slower method, but get more realistic dinosaurs in the end.

[][Approach]Middle Path. Each of them has their points. Why not try to balance them against one another? Have Sorkin focus on developing her process in order to make it either cheaper or faster, and continue working with the faster Wu method to produce viable specimens within a shorter timeframe, with the intent of cycling them out for Sorkin's creatures as time goes on.