Lucy Malcolm stared out into the grey ocean and sighed, when her boss told her Costa Rica she envisioned blue skies, turquoise waters, Pina coladas and white beaches. Not sweaty fishermen, grey skies and rain. She turned around to look for Dr. King, and just saw his head duck into the cabin of the boat. He never liked being around this many people, he never had. She watched as Dr. Baselton ordered the fishermen around in Spanish, gesturing wildly at the equipment being loaded and shouting at them to be careful. She then turned her attention to Dr. Dodgson, who appeared to be talking to another woman—one Lucy had not met yet--, he then pointed to Lucy and waved her over.
"This is one of my grad students, Lucy Malcolm. Luce, this is Dr. Harding—she's a friend of Levine's. She's heading out to the island too and I have offered her a lift over."
Lucy felt her heart skip a beat. This was Dr. Harding, the Dr. Sarah Harding who was probably the most progressive animal behaviorists of this century. Lucy was a grad student—she was about 2 years away from finishing her doctorate on evolutionary theory and she had read almost every paper Harding had written. Harding had known her father—Ian Malcolm—he had been one of her thesis readers. Lucy felt her chest tingle at the thought that this woman had known her father, had worked with him, spoken to him. Lucy on the on the other hand barely remembered him
"It's wonderful to meet you, Dr. Harding." She said, extending her hand.
Dr. Harding smiled, "You can call me Sarah." She said, but did not return the handshake.
"Malcolm? You wouldn't be related to Ian Malcolm, would you?" Sarah asked
"He's my father, but I wouldn't know him. He left when I was 5." Lucy replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
Sarah nodded as if she heard this information every day.
"Well, it's good to meet another Malcolm. Excuse me." She said, and then she stepped away from Lucy and started talking to Dodgson about the trip.
Lucy shrugged, and then decided to walk on board and find Dr. King—her lab partner and friend. They had both started working for Dr. Dodgson at the same time, and back at Biosyn they managed a small team of interns together. Dr. Howard King would always be a mystery to her—he was tall, young and very handsome—but he also had a dark past, one that he refused to talk about, actually he refused to talk at all. She knew Dodgson was starting to get frustrated with King's silence, but she had no idea why. King would sometimes talk to her, if they were alone and if he was in the right mood but that was rare.
Lucy boarded the ship and walked past the strapped down red Jeep Wrangler that held most of their field equipment, then turned to the left and walked down the narrow stairs that went into the ship's cabin. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of fish and mildew, but continued through the small cabin until she found Dr. King sitting on one of the beds and working on his iPad.
"Hey" she said
He jumped slightly, but then looked up at her and smiled.
"It's pretty busy up there. I haven't heard Dr. Dodgson yell like that since that incident with Boris in the lab." She commented, pointing to the ceiling.
Dr. King smiled and nodded, but he still looked nervous.
"The only good thing about that incident was that the fire seared off Boris's unibrow. He looked way less creepy with no eyebrows than he did with that one unibrow."
They both looked up as they heard the captain's orders to launch, and then they felt the boat's motor start with a low rumble.
"I guess we're headed off. Oh wow, I can really feel the motion down here. I think I'm going to head up. I've never done well with boats. Want to join me?" she asked
Dr. King shook his head, and then pointed to his laptop.
"You've got some work to finish up?"
A nod.
"Alright. Come up when you're done, okay?"
Another nod.
Lucy turned around and went back up the stairs, feeling slightly disheartened that King didn't come up with her. No one knew, but she had a bit of a crush on Dr. King. And no one could know, for many reasons; they were coworkers, he was older than her (only by 6 years...but still), and the list went on and on. She still remembered the first time she met him in Dodgson's lab the day she had been hired. She had been so nervous and became even more so when Dodgson and pulled her into his office;
"I just wanted a word with you about your associate, Dr. King." He had said
"Sure."
"He's been through a lot, and I just wanted to let you know that he's struggling with PTSD—post traumatic stress disorder—and it might take him a while to adjust to the new lab and the new interns and you. I'm not supposed to disclose anything personal—he'll have to tell you himself what happened—but that's part of the reason I asked you in here. Howard—Dr. King—is or has been mute."
"Mute? As in?"
"He hasn't said a single word in 3 months, not since The Incident."
"Okay..."
I'm trying to make him as comfortable as possible, hopefully he'll start talking again but until then let's just take it one day at a time. Okay?"
"Okay. Is there anything I can do?" she had asked
"Just be there for him."
And she had been. That day at lunch she noticed that he was sitting by himself, so she sat with him. This was the start of their routine, and everyday after that they sat together, read and ate lunch in silence.
"Lucy!"
Lucy was brought out her memory by Dr. Dodgson, who was walking over to her on unsteady land legs.
"How you holding up? I know boats aren't your thing." He asked
"I'm doing okay so far. I might join Dr. King downstairs in a bit though. The seas are really rough. How much longer?"
"Maybe another twenty minutes, we are very close to the island."
"Really?"
"Yeah, look." He pulled her over to the railing and pointed to a dark mass that had popped up at an alarming rate on the horizon. They were a lot closer than Lucy realized.
"That's Isla Sorna."
"It's so big."
"Yup. Oh! Dr. Harding, pleasure for you to join us."
He smiled as Dr. Harding approached them, looking slightly green.
"Is that the island?" she asked
"Yup, we're making great time."
"That's good." She answered
"Lucy, why don't you go join Dr. King for a bit. I have to talk to Dr. Harding about a few things."
"Okay"
Lucy turned away from the pair and started heading back towards the stairs. As she was walking, she bumped right into Dr. King.
Oh. Hi. Feeling better? How was--?"
But Lucy never finished her question, she paused as King suddenly grabbed her arm and she watched King's face go pale, his eyes fixed on something behind her
"What's...?"
She turned around just in time to see Dr. Dodgson push Harding over the rail as the boat once again dipped down with the roll of the sea. Harding was visible for a moment, and then she disappeared off the railing and into the ocean.
"Oh my god."
King's fingers tightened around her arm, and he looked at her, eyes frantic.
"Did you see that?" he whispered
Lucy nodded, and tried to repress all the emotions she was feeling; horror (did Dr. Dodgson just murder someone?), seasickness (when were they going to land anyway?) and confusion (what the hell was happening?).
"What are we going to do?"
He shook his head and let go over her arm. She could see that his hands were shaking.
Dr. Dodgson saw them and waved cheerfully, like nothing had ever happened.