You looked over your gathered staff with a quiet roiling in your gut. You knew that this was going to be a major upset, but hopefully you'd be able to spin this in a way that would keep them on your side.
"Okay, so I'm sure everyone has their theories about why I called an all-hands meeting." There were various murmurs of assent and confusion. You noted that both Nicte and Muldoon were calm, watching you a bit coolly. "First to settle any fears, no one is getting fired, downsized or whatever the hell the term is." That got some weak chuckles at least. "What is happening though, is that as of 10 am pacific time, we are no longer beholden to the board of investors."
That got the reaction that you'd been expecting. Lots of sudden shouted questions, Ray Arnold actually fumbled his cigarette, and naked shock followed by calculating looks appeared on both Wu and Sorkin's faces. Even Nicte looked gobsmacked, though Muldoon actually smiled slightly and nodded.
"Everyone, everyone please! You're all still getting paid!" That quieted down a lot of the noise. "Instead of relying on the board for our funding, I've entered into agreements with several countries to help re-establish endangered and recently extinct species. Specifically by using the techniques and technology that Dr. Sorkin and Dr. Wu have pioneered to create recombinant viable embryos to be shipped to reserves and zoos for implantation into surrogate mothers." You smirk a little. "Hell, we've even had Roy Disney reach out to us about a native bird that's only found in their park that's on its last legs. And if there's a company with money to burn for good PR, it's Disney."
Oh thank God, there was laughter for that one.
You've had four major contracts offered for the first set of reintroductions to be handled by InGen.
[][Revival]White Rhino. The new Ugandan government is looking to get any kind of good publicity that it can. To that end they've put out an open-ended offer for any person or organization that can help improve the number of white rhinos and help increase their genetic diversity. Probably the hardest challenge Wu would have had so far.
[][Revival]Pyrenean Ibex. The French Government is looking to get one over on the Portuguese, Spanish, and Andorran governments by bolstering this species of mountain goat back off of the endangered species list. As it's a species that matures and gestates much faster than a rhino, alongside having close relatives to use to help induce genetic diversity, it's a much easier challenge to Wu though still a stretch due to being a mammal.
[][Revival]Dusky Seaside Sparrow. Like you'd told the people, Disney was looking for a way to somehow save the Dusky Seaside Sparrow; the last known members of the species which lived in their Florida park. You might even be able to get your hands on some of those famous "Imagineers" of theirs to help with ride and enclosure planning... Much easier for Wu to hand off, the biggest challenge would be acquiring enough samples to work with.
[][Revival]Po'ouli. The US Government is also eager to get in on the act. Though it was only discovered last decade, this native Hawaiian bird is already getting the crap kicked out of it by disease, predators and the like. They're hoping that you can infuse some stronger immune systems into their gene pool to help combat the issues of disease and resisting pollution. The easiest of them all with a wide variety of samples to work with. Though Sorkin may need to be brought in as well because apparently they want to boost the immune systems of the snails these birds feed on as well?
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The Terror Birds have hatched, and thankfully it looks like the choice to use Ostriches as their surrogates was the right way to go. They're honestly pretty cute; balls of fluffy down like chickens or penguins rather than the featherless horrors of most corvids and other flighted birds. They were also growing like weeds, the oldest ones are already three feet tall.
Speaking of; it appeared that rather than being obligate carnivores, they were omnivorous; easily partaking of the same feed that their surrogates ate; and at one point to see how strong their beaks were, they were given a coconut. It turned out that they were exceptionally suited to cracking open hard nuts and then picking out the meat with their beaks; or scraping it out with their talons.
So far it seems that your worries about the Cassowary DNA were unfounded; but they're still juveniles. The real test will come when they reach full maturity. But so far as a real working proof of concept goes, they're a complete success.
But speaking of them reaching maturity; you have a couple of options for these creatures. One is to use them as a food source for the park. Their meat is edible to humans from all tests so far; though taste has yet to be determined and you're not going to kill one unless necessary at this stage. It's a little brutal, but your experience as a vet and at zoos has robbed you of the romance of the "law of the jungle". Animals gotta eat, and some animals have to die to facilitate that. They'd certainly be an interesting bit of prey for larger therapods to actively hunt. Probably a bit too gruesome for kids though.
Another option was to use them as a mascot animal, or at least, the initial mascot until you had actual dinosaurs in the park. Marketing would have a fit though. But that leads into the last option. Let someone else handle the headache of marketing them and using them as a mascot creature. Reach out to the company that made that video game your niece was enjoying so much, and see if they'd be interesting in licensing the use of the Terror Birds as a mascot creature.
[][Next Steps] Good Eats. Use the Terror Birds as a potential food source not only for quests at the park, but for the dinosaurs themselves. Having live prey will be a great boon to keeping the theropods engaged and happy. Though again, this could be something that could see some backlash. Albeit you're going to have to feed the animals something.
[][Next Steps]Mascot Monster. While the park itself is going to use a dinosaur as the mascot, perhaps InGen can adopt the Terror Bird as their personal company mascot. It could make for a great way to represent InGen's revivification of extinct species.
[][Next Steps]Lending Out. Reach out to the "Square Soft" company and see about their potential interest in licensing the Terror Birds as mascot animals for their flagship video game series. You're not sure how well these new "home video game" systems will take off, but having a living unique mascot to help spread the word of mouth can't be anything but a benefit.
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The update from Sorkin is one that is welcome. She's had some success in pushing down the costs of the cloning process; and so far the species she's cloned have all been small synapsids and amphibians. You're avoiding insects simply because they'd need a specialized super-enriched oxygen atmosphere. She's also resurrected a few frog species that you're keeping a close eye on in order to determine how big they would get as well as whether they may have any useful pharmaceutical applications from skin excretions.
Now though, she's wanting to try out something larger. Either an early dinosaur or a close relative. There are a couple of different possible selections, each with their own positives and negatives.
[][Sorkin]Dimetrodon. One of the largest of the early non-saurians that are still associated with the age of Dinosaurs. They were supposed to be fairly slow and unwieldy, but someone looking at a crocodile or alligator on land would say the same thing. They'd also require you to get an enclosure for them properly sorted out on the island.
[][Sorkin]Pareiasaur. An alternative choice, still large but they're theorized to have been herbivorous. The skeletons are rather intriguing to look at, almost like a turtle without the shell. They ranged from just two feet to almost ten in length, and were estimated to have been upwards of half a ton. They would face the same housing issues as the Dimetrodon, but they'd at least be slightly less likely to take a hand off of a caretaker. At least not to actively feed on them...
[][Sorkin]Plateosaurus. Another choice is the Plateosaurus, a precursor to the more well-known sauropods like Apatosaurus or Diplodocus. And also much, much smaller. Having them will be a good starting point for determining safety procedures to use with the dinosaurs.
[][Sorkin]Coelophysis. Finally, in order to start preparing for proper predators, you can instead have her revive a Coelophysis. Small predatory dinosaurs roughly the size of a goose. It'll be a good trial run for small theropod procedures. She had been interested in reviving the Troodon instead, but you had presented this as more of a challenge and her ego had jumped at it.
Everything else is proceeding apace. With the institution of a third port and the decision to have your new workforce double-down on focusing on studying for their new jobs, you're left to begin bringing in the construction crews for the park proper. You just need to figure out what to focus on after the port is finished.
[][Construction]Monorail. Focus on getting the monorail system up and running first. It will make moving materials around the park much easier and allow for swift construction of the various visiter villages. It also leaves the interior of the island largely untouched and thus easier to divvy up as needed once you have a better idea as to the habitation requirements of the animals. With a crane mounted on one of the monorail cars, you wouldn't even need roads to unload the construction materials.
[][Construction]Trailblazing. Have the construction team focus on creating the road network to allow for movement all over the island. That does however, mean that there will be much less untouched territory to divvy up between the various habitats, and you'd need to establish the locations for your guest facilities too.
[][Construction]Science! Focus on getting more expansive labs set up for the research and raising of young creatures. Your father had had an idea of integrating the labs into the whole big entry tour for the park, but frankly that was asking for trouble. Better to have them in a properly safe and secure area. Perhaps have camera feeds showing what they were doing in the lab, as well as some of the pens and holding facilities for juvenile animals.
[][Construction]Inside-out. Start with the arrival center for the main dock where the people will get their first experience of Jurassic Park. You've elected to keep the giant gates for the park entry. It was a little ominous, but it worked. It would also be where you'd have the worker lodgings set up; along with the cafeteria. You were making sure that they had the best possible medical care on-hand, as well as good food. It was expensive but it also meant that they weren't likely to get too unhappy.