Ch.3 Virtual John

Ch.3 Virtual John

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= THE TWO JEEPS pull up to the Visitor's Center. It has the appearance of being the nerve centre of the park, but it's still a work in progress. There's a big hole in the wall, covered by a tarp. Fellow workers open the large font doors with a smile.

Both Hammonds leads their guests inside, greeting everyone. The youngest had her hands clasped behind her back as she walks in front of the group. Greeting a few of the workers she knew.

"G'day, g'day, g'day. Now, the most advanced amusement park in the entire world, incorporating all the latest technologies -" John begins speaking, tapping his cane along the sturdy ground. "And I'm not talking just about rides, you know, everybody has rides. But we've made living biological attractions so astounding, that they'll capture the imagination of the entire planet."

"So what are you thinking?" Ellie asks her male companion curiously, looking around the place.

Alan sighs, it was believable to say he was gobsmacked. "That we're out of a job."

"Don't you mean "extinct"?" Ian smirks as he teases the pair, using their own language to them just as John Hammond leads them onwards to a room that appears to be a movie theater. Several seats with protective bars like roller coaster chairs sit in front of a screen.

"Why don't you all sit down? Uh, Donald, sit down, sit down." John ushers the group to sit, Madison wanted to sit at the very back but her Uncle made her take a seat beside the male palaeontologist. Him glancing to the girl beside him, watching her glare furiously at her older relative.

Hammond walks up to the screen, where another Hammond walks up to meet him on the screen.

"Here, Here he comes. Well, here I come, yes." John mutters, collecting himself.

"Hello, Hello." The hammond on the screen greets everyone and the real Hammond turns to them.

"Say hello, say hello!" The others weakly reply with hellos, Malcolm waving half-heartedly and Madison gracefully gifted the screen Hammond two middle fingers, a grin playing onto her face.

"Thank you Madison, hello John!" The screen Hammond thanks the girl, much to her own surprise. She didn't know the man added that part.

John Hammond looked like he got hit by a rock of realisation as he fumbles something in his hand. "Ah, yes. I've got lines." The group could hear him grumble.

"Well, fine, fine, I guess. But, uh, how did I get here?" The clone on the screen asks the man curiously.

"Uh, well, let me show you. First, I'll need a drop of blood. Your blood." The true Hammond responds.

"Right."

The virtual Hammond extends his finger, and the Hammond in front of everyone mimes poking its finger with a needle. They watched as the virtual one yanks his hand back with a hiss.

"Ooh! John, that hurt!"

"Relax, John. It's all part of the miracle of cloning!" As Hammond speaks, a second John appears on the screen, followed by a third, and then more, all greeting each other.

"Cloned from what? Loy extraction hasn't recreated an intact DNA strand." Alan asks loudly.

Ian responds with hushed mutter. "Not without massive sequence gaps."

Ellie Sattler was next to speak. "Paleo-DNA, from what source? Where do you get a hundred million-year-old dinosaur blood?" She asks him curiously.

"Shhh!" Donald made all four of those sat the front turn to him, all deadpanning at his concentrated expression.

"Why don't you shush?" Madison utters back with squinting eyes.

On the screen, an animated swirl appears from Hammond's finger. A cartoon DNA strand pops up over the shoulder of Hammond opposite the way he's facing, and taps his shoulder, zipping to the other side.

"What? What?" He turns on both directions, confusion written all over his face before he sees the DNA Strand. "Oh! Mr. DNA! Where did you come from?"

"From your blood! Just one drop of your blood contains billions of strands of DNA, the building blocks of life. A DNA strand, like me, is a blueprint for building a living thing. And sometimes animals that went extinct millions of years ago, like dinosaurs, left their blueprints behind for us to find.

We just had to know where to look. A hundred million years ago, there were mosquitoes just like today -- And just like today, they fed on the blood of animals. Even dinosaurs. Sometimes after biting a dinosaur, the mosquito would land on the branch of a tree and get stuck in the sap. After a long time, the tree sap would get hard, and become fossilized just like a dinosaur bone, preserving the mosquito inside."

Videos of a mosquito hopping of a dinosaur and being slowly encased into the tree sap were all shown, the members inside were fascinated by the sight as they then see an animated picture of miners digging down.

"This fossilized tree sap, which we call amber, waited for millions of years with the mosquito inside! Until Jurassic Park scientists came along, using sophisticated techniques, they extract the preserved blood from the mosquito, and, bingo: Dino DNA! A full DNA strand contains three billion genetic codes." They showed a laboratory with what seems to be a live feed. Now, Mr. DNA stands in front of a screen with data flying everywhere.

"If we looked at screens like these, once a second for eight hours a day, it'd take two years to look at the entire DNA strand. It's that long. Since it's so old--" Mr. DNA is suddenly dragged offscreen when he's caught by one of the flying data chunks. He soon reappears back on screen and continues talking.

"it's full of holes. Now, that's where our geneticists take over. Thinking machine supercomputers and gene sequencers break down the strand in minutes, and virtual reality displays show our geneticists the gaps in the DNA sequence. We used the complete DNA of a frog to fill in the... cold... and complete the... code! Phew! And now we can make a baby dinosaur." A baby dinosaur is born in an animated video.

John Hammond "This score is only temporary. It all has very dramatic music, of course. "Rum pum pum." A little march or something that hasn't been written yet and then, of course," John chuckles, explaining to the group and Hammond clicks a button on a remote.

"the tour moves on..." The safety bars click into place, and the seats begin to move, carrying them past glass windows, through which they can see scientists hard at work.

Over the PA, they could hear the voice of Mr DNA full well. "Well, looky here! Those hard-working cowpokes you see behind the glass--"

Donald Gennaro grumbles while Madison plays with the bars, seeking mroe interest into them than what was happening. This being seen by two pairs of eyes digging once again into her head. "This is overwhelming, John. Are these characters auto-erotica?"

"No, we have no animatronics here. These people are the real miracle workers of Jurassic Park." John smiles as Mr DNA continues

"in unfertilized emu or ostrich eggs. And it's no--"

Alan was now the one to interrupt the virtual tour. "Wait a minute. How do you interrupt the cellular mitosis?"

"Can't we see the unfertilized eggs?"

John Hammond smiles comfortably to the group and waves his hand while nodding. "Shortly, shortly."

"Now a whole team of genetic engineers goes to work on--"

"Can't you stop these things?" Alan once again interrupts the speech as he tries his best to push the bar. Eyebrows furrowing while Madison pulls away from bar, seeing him struggle.

John sheepishly apologises. "I'm sorry. It's kind of a ride."

After John speaks, Ian looks over to Alan then puts his hands on the bars, Sattler joins in with Madison pulling hers back.

"One, two, three." Alan counts and the trio work together and push up safety bars, getting out of their seats and walking off. Madison smiles and she follows while the eldest Hammond scoffs at their behaviour and lifts up the bars, walking after them.

"Uh, you can't do that. Can they do that?"

END OF CHAPTER THREE