Tour Staging
Ch 06 - Tour Staging
Ellie and Alan walked back into the visitor center and collected Donald and the children. Hammond ran out with his toy human in his hand, “You guys should meet my entire staff at QP. HEY STAFF! HEY STAFF!”
Hammond’s caretaker, Susan, said, “Stop yelling, Johnny. Go upstairs and take a nap. I’ll do the introductions.”
Hammond scuffed his shoes, as he looked down at his lower talons. He did look tired. So, he quietly grabbed a nearby blue blanket, his favorite toy human, and headed upstairs dragging the blanket behind.
Susan turned back to the group as Dr. Ian Malcolm appeared from a recently arrived electric jeep. He seemed to have been summoned from a disco or avant-garde art exhibition?
Ian walked up to the group and introduced himself, “Hello everyone. Do not be distracted by my rugged handsomeness. I am a serious mathematician dressed in black cow leather and square-framed glasses. I am the Dr. Ian Malcolm. You know me, yes?”
Ellie blushed and giggled, “I have heard of you, Dr. Malcolm. I too am a very serious doctor as well. My name is Dr. Ellie, but you can call me Sweetie!”
Ian smiled and said, “Ian, please. Dr. Malcolm is my father. Hahaha!”
Ian looked over at a less enthused Dr. Grant who said, “I’m Alan Grant. I am a very serious doctor as well and you can call me Dr. Grant, Ian.” Ian registered Dr. Grant briefly while he looked over Ellie’s exposed legs. He seemed to appreciate her youthful sagging flesh and the spidery veins found there still undimmed by time.
The two kids finally got up from the table and hobbled over. Tim croaked, “Let’s go see some humans! I’m so stoked,” as Lex tried to see if the table was a computer interface. Once it was clear she couldn’t hack the table, she moved on and joined the rest of the group.
Another middle-aged dinopod arrived with a large weapon. He seemed more agitated than anyone else and his constant pointing of the weapon at anything that moved proved disconcerting.
“I’m Muldoon,” he said while jumping at the sound of a bird nesting nearby.
“My team handles security at the park; we will shadow you on the tour,” the tense dinopod offered.
Tim asked, “Why do you need a weapon? I thought humans were helpers! They don’t hurt things? They save things!”
Muldoon walked up to Tim and put his hands on the young man’s sloping shoulders, “Tim. You’re right. Most humans are truly great and awesome, but your grandfather insisted on reviving all sorts of humans. There’s a large pack of Immigration Kant Katch KorKill Enforcement officers of the past. They’re very dangerous.” Muldoon then pointed the gun at a nearby squirrel who had managed to make noise climbing a tree.
Grant angrily said, “You revived iKKKKe? Are you mad? They’re killers in the flesh. Even the soldier was prey to them?!”
Ellie was also concerned, “Why would anyone bring back the iKKKKe? They made life miserable for humans. They constantly tried to make things actively worse?”
Muldoon wanted to answer but was interrupted.
A very large, overfed dinopod entered, “Hi, I’m Nedry, the developer of all QP’s automation. I’m here to get your tour going. I’m also responsible for making sure you get seated correctly as well as any janitorial duties left undone by the service team.”
“So, I’ve re-installed my 1,000,000,000-line codebase so the tour can get going.” Somehow this dinopod could sweat, which was unique to him, but it did so profusely now.
“By MYSELF, I MUST ADD, since there’s not a single other developer here! You can start the tour whenever. I hope it goes well, as nobody else is here to help,” Nedry continued as two electric jeeps now awaited their soon-to-be-occupants.
Muldoon sneered and yelled at the puffed-up developer, “Get back to your sloppy station! I saw all that meat stacked up next to your monitor. So disgusting, Nedry.”
Nedry left with a scowl and the group of dinopods could see the awaiting tour jeep. Muldoon noted, “I’ll be shadowing the tour just to be safe. Don’t worry. I have this!” He hefted the large weapon to emphasize his point.
Ian invited Ellie and Donald into one jeep. That left Dr. Grant with Tim and Lex in the second jeep. The nascent best friends turned to the jeeps to start the tour.