•Survival Of The Fittest• |Owen Grady| Jurassic World

CHAPTER EIGHT

"Isn't paleontology itself in danger of extinction?" One of the science reporters asked suddenly. Recognizing those as fighting words, the symposium leader was about to step in. But Alan took care of it.

"No, and let me be perfectly clear on this point. Dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago" he said serious "What's left of them is fossilized in stone the actual scientists spend years to undercover. What John Hammond and InGen created are the theme park of monsters. Nothing more, nothing less."

The class clearly disagreed with his assessment.

"You're saying neither of you wouldn't want to study them if you had the chance?" another student asked.

"No force on this earth or in heaven could get me and my father on that island" Aella said coldly.

EXCAVATION BASE CAMP

Alan and Aella returned to their camp, Billy Brennan an associate professor and site manager had something important to tell both of them. Billy took Aella's bags, talking as they leaved.

"How was your trip? Profitable?" Billy asked them.

"We'll be broke in four weeks" Alan said.

"Three weeks. I had to rent some equipment" Billy retorted. Aella scoffed.

"Great" she muttered "At least the University gave me a scholarship or I wouldn't be graduating."

They crossed into one of the tents, which only had two "walls". On a dust-taped table, a dusty Macintosh was feeing data into a strange machine the size of a dorm refrigerator. A mechanical arm swept back and forth across a tray of fine sand.

"You rented an automated litter box" Alan said in disbelief.

"It's a rapid prototyper. I feed in the scan data from the raptor skull, than the computer breaks it into thousands of slices which this thing prints, one layer on top of the other" Billy explained "It's the future of paleontology."

"Not if it can't dig" Aella muttered.

The arm stopped and suddenly the tray of sand shakes, dropping through holes in the bottom to reveal an object the size of a person's fist.

"I give you a raptor's resonating chamber" Aella was amazed by the result; she lifted the strange object up, shaking out the remaining sand. Billy took it and put it to his lips and blows it through it like a conch shell.

The resulting sound was a unique and piercing, the cry of an non-existent animal. The Grant's were speechless with excitement. And so Alan used it again and again, producing different sounds and variations.

Billy looked up to see a man and a woman getting out of a Cadillac. Cheryl one of the students was pointing them in the direction of the tent.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Some visitors wanted to come by and talk to both of you. I told them you'd be happy to see them. Maybe even have dinner with them" Billy said faking a smile.

"Absolutely not" Alan told him.

"They're here" Billy said looking at the couple.

"What?" Aella asked confused. She turned and saw the pair walking up to them. Putting on a friendly smile, Billy went up to them.

"Dr. Grant?" the man asked "Ms. Grant?"

"Yes?" Both asked confused.