21 - A New Kingdom​

The Muertes Archipelago and Isla Nublar in relation to the Costa Rican mainland. Credits to Wikimedia.​

As the year 1987 ground on, InGen scored a major victory.

In keeping with so many of the company’s successes before and after that date, this breakthrough came in spite of Hammond’s instincts, and required careful coaxing by Wu to ensure an optimal outcome.

After prolonged discussions and continued insistence from Wu, Hammond had grudgingly agreed that Jurassic Park needed to recruit a veterinarian with impeccable credentials, from outside the company’s ranks.

Much like Muldoon, the vet would essentially have to write the book on an entirely new branch of their profession. That task was daunting enough as it was. Pushing it onto someone with less than stellar qualifications and experience was simply too dangerous.

Of course, much like Muldoon, internal promotion from Hammond’s African preserve was a possibility. But while Muldoon had been a star signing for Animal Kingdom, the veterinary staff was not the best suited for an internal transfer to Jurassic Park, primarily because they naturally specialised in large mammals.

In the end, Hammond relented, and agreed that the park needed the best vet on offer. For all his poor judgement, Hammond did care about the animals. And besides, Wu knew just how to sway him. He’d done his research, and identified a potential candidate that he knew would immediately appeal to Hammond.

Gerry Harding was perhaps the world’s foremost expert of avian veterinary care at the time. More crucial from the point of view of gaining Hammond’s approval, however, was his place of employment.

After several years spent touring the world, consulting about the health of bird species held in captivity in a variety of contexts, Harding had assumed a position as head vet for San Diego Zoo.

Poaching such a high-profile employee from the zoo he sought to surpass proved irresistible to Hammond. Once convinced, he became personally committed to winning Harding over. A few phone calls were made to arrange for a meeting, and here Hammond really unsheathed all of his charm and magnetism. (1)

Hammond invited Harding to Costa Rica, on the pretence that he wanted to consult him on the care of “exotic birds” for his brand-new natural preserve in the country. A lavish offer of compensation was just the start for the bait. Arrangements were made to fly Harding in on Hammond’s private jet.

Upon landing on Sorna, Harding was quite taken aback by what he saw. After all, the place didn’t look like any preserve Harding had ever seen, even more so now with the construction crews building monumental constructions on Nublar, while all non-essential Sorna facilities remained half-finished and ramshackle.

Sorna’s geographical location also puzzled the experienced veterinarian. Even assuming a desire to house tropical birds in an environment suitable to them, surely the Costa Rican mainland would have served just as well?

Hammond skillfully evaded his guest’s questions, leading him on an impromptu tour of the Workers’ Village that ended with Hammond personally introduced Harding to the Tyrannosaurs.

At almost two years of age, the seven Tyrannosaurs were nearing 30kg of body mass, and the staff knew to keep their distance. Even when seen at a remove, however, there was no mistaking what they were… and what they would become one day.

Hammond proceeded to fill in a shocked Harding about what InGen had been up to. It was the first time in years, and certainly the first since the hatching of Roberta, that a complete outsider had been let in on the big secret.

But if Hammond was anxious about it, it certainly didn’t affect his performance, which had by all accounts the old flair he’d used during the years of the Pachyderm Portfolio. Right after concluding his technical and commercial explanation to Harding, Hammond delivered his punchline.

Sorna was not the intended final destination for the animals, he told Harding. Just a supply depot of sorts. Hammond would be very grateful to consult with Harding over how best to move the animals from Sorna to their new home. This done, Harding’s consultancy would be over, and he would be free to return to San Diego.

But, Hammond pointed out, there was another option. Harding could also decide to stay, work with animals no vet had ever worked before, and enter the annals of history by one day authoring a book he could title Veterinary Internal Medicine: Diseases of Dinosauria.

The choice was Harding’s. But truthfully, after the bedazzlement and shock of the reveal, and with the greatest professional challenge of his life beckoning, it was no choice at all.

The two men shook hands, and just like that, InGen had its first head of veterinary medicine.

The first question Harding was immediately confronted with was, of course, how to best transport the animals from Sorna to Nublar. And he began by completely ruling out sedation. This, he argued convincingly to Muldoon, should only be done if absolutely unavoidable.

The stress it would place on the animals, the very high risks of getting the dose wrong, and the unpredictable medical side effects, made it simply not worth it to even try, particularly while the animals were still young.

Ranging from one to two years of age, the dinosaurs were still small enough to be corralled without extreme difficulty, (2) although the prospect still looked daunting. In any case, any cargo ship equipped for the transport of cattle would suit the young animals well enough, in terms of size and weight.

Most favourably, the voyage would be rather short. Only 87 nautical miles separated Sorna from Nublar, and Harding was quite convinced the healthy animals could make the trip to Nublar unimpeded. The others - particularly the survivors from the very first wave of hatchlings - would stay behind, while InGen decided what to do with them.

Perhaps the biggest problem was not about animal health, but contracted personnel. Stockmen experienced in animal cargo, even exotic species destined for zoos and conservation programmes, would of course have no experience handling Mesozoic dinosaurs, even if juvenile.

And naturally, there would be need for plenty of grease, and a few implied threats, to make sure they kept their mouths shut about what they were carrying.

Overworked as ever, Wu had pushed this new task onto Weaver, even though it had arguably very little to do with Embryonics Administration. But as always when the health of the animals was concerned, Weaver delivered.

She identified a cargo operation that specialised in ferrying exotic animals to zoo facilities all over the world, and organised a meeting at the highest level with Hammond to ensure that secrecy would be properly encouraged.

To prevent herding attempts that were almost sure to end in failure, Weaver arranged for crane transport of the relevant cages to do most of the work onloading and offloading the animals off the ship.

Perhaps miraculously, given the context, the transport from Sorna to Nublar went off without a hitch, save for the obvious bewilderment and confusion of the stockmen. By 1988, Nublar had at least a few specimens for each of the eight species cloned thus far, with more species soon on the way.

In terms of InGen’s internal politics, this was a very significant development. Wu had thrown Weaver another curveball, and she’d delivered to perfection.

This greatly increased Wu’s trust in her professional dependability, and first brought her to Hammond’s attention.

Weaver herself, however, noted in her diary at the time that she was making the best of a bad situation. Relocating is an inherently stressful activity for most animals, and this was true of InGen’s dinosaurs, as well.

Beyond this, it was hard for InGen’s staff - even for Harding, let alone for the others - to pick up on cues of stress among the animals. Relatively expressionless by human facial standards, and unknown in terms of baseline behaviour, the dinosaurs nominally passed muster upon relocation to Nublar.

Most would work out the stress without incident, eventually - it simply took them a little while to get used to their new surroundings. Others ran into practical, but eminently solvable problems.

But for a few, stress levels would continue to build. And in time, this would present the fledgling park with its direst test yet.

Footnotes:

(1) Harding’s background here largely matches that of the book, as I believe that is eminently suitable for the purpose. Hammond seizing on the connection with San Diego Zoo is my own contribution, and I think it makes sense in the context of his character.

(2) This would inevitably vary from species to species. While the T.rex body mass of 30kg at two years of age is pretty well corroborated, in more general terms I’m making some rather generous assumptions towards InGen. It is likely that even at two years of age the sauropods and hadrosaurs would be intimidatingly large already. How much varies depending on which growth model you choose. Take a look at this graph on Maiasaura from Woodward et al. (2015) and thank the heavens you’re not a stockman in 1988 Costa Rica.