With Nicte's help the suggestion of the tribe being employed by InGen had gone over rather well. And after the NDAs had been signed and the full scope of what you had planned was laid out to the tribal elders with some helpful context provided by Nicte, they'd been amazed at your father. And his hubris. Though the fact that you were moving things at a slower pace helped calm their nerves. You also had quite a few of the younger tribespeople intrigued by the prospect of learning English as well as being exposed to mainlanders on their "home turf".
"I wouldn't expect too much. Tourists can be extremely rude. Best way to deal with them is to just keep smiling until they blow themselves out. Then you're still the reasonable one and they've made themselves look the fool." The dry comment, passed on via Nicte, had many laughing and nodding along. Especially those who had gone to the mainland before.
You'd also come to an agreement with the tribe about the area they'd use for their housing. It had been a bit back and forth, but they'd agreed to allow the ruins that were in the lower areas of the island be included in enclosures. You'd then moved on to the subject of their employment.
[][Jobs] Heavy Lifting. It's going to be a long time before you begin receiving actual guests. See if you can include them on the general work and construction crews.
[][Jobs] Laser Focus. These people are going to be learning systems and procedures that a lot of them don't really have context for. On top of dealing with a major paradigm shift as they dealt with the reality of the deal they'd accepted. Best to keep them focused and bring in licensed contractors for the construction instead.
[][Jobs] Rotation. While none of the tribespeople are certified to work construction, the younger and more athletic individuals could work as roustabouts moving materials and the like. It would also let them start putting their English training into useful practice. Of course this would slow down the training of the elderly because they'd have to shoulder the extra workloads.
----
With the issue of the tribe dealt with in a manner that left everyone mostly satisfied; construction on the park began in earnest. Before the enclosures, the streets, or even the guest housing could be done though, there was the question of the docking facilities. Nublar, as the largest of the islands, had the most shoreline to take advantage of; but the majority of it was rocky cliffs. However there were two areas that had water entries into the island interior. One was a relatively compact river that traveled through some fairly steep terrain. But the other was an inlet on the north-east side of the island.
Originally the plans had been for there to be a southern port and a northern port for ships, along with a heliport that had, for some godforsaken reason, been placed far, far away from the rest of the park centers. With your own personal perspective and the new idea of how to proceed with the park layout, you were considering how much impact adding in a third port in that inlet to allow for cruise ships to have a more sheltered port.
Originally it had been slated for some kind of aquatic enclosure, with notes about a Mosasaurus. You'd had to look up what that was, and then had spent a good ten minutes turning the air blue. Your father had wanted to put what amounted to a killer whale on steroids in an enclosure that was one good earthquake from being cracked open like an egg! You immediately sent out a memo emphasizing that under no circumstances was the park going to house anything confirmed to be fully aquatic and adapted for sea travel.
You'd immediately gotten some pushback from the investors, but sending them a copy of the reports on how prone to illness and other issues killer whales kept in captivity were; along with the records of the geological activity in the archipelago was enough to quiet them down again. You even got a few approving private messages about foresight and knowing the limits of the technology. Truth was that you'd simply dated a worker from Sea World during college and gotten to hear all about the various issues whenever she needed to unwind.
But you'd take the credit.
[][Inlet]Third Port. Create a third anchorage point for ships; one that will allow the island to be serviced at the top, middle and bottom. It will mean that the area directly around it won't really be useful for much else though.
[][Inlet]Water Park. Instead of another set of docks, instead you could turn the place into a water park of sorts; complete with beach and water slides. A good place for people tired from the heat and wanting some fun in the sun to hang out. But it would still require you to pull back the exhibit boundaries from the area to minimize the chance of accidents.
[][Inlet]Preserve. Keep the area undeveloped instead in order to allow the land near it to be integrated into the enclosures as they're constructed. It will mean that much more space to insert enclosures.
---
Wu looked incredibly proud as he showed you the round dish of sorts that held eight enormous eggs. It looks like he'd had to use ostrich eggs for the process; which made sense. Pointing to some of the ultrasound pictures that they'd taken of the developing fetuses; Wu was smug.
"They're developing along my expected timeline. They should be reaching maturity and hatching within a month." You nodded, observing the eggs as they were gently warmed in the sand within the basin. "So far there are no signs of any outstanding abnormalities."
"Good work Dr. Wu; but I have to admit that I'm very curious as to what you used for the patches in the DNA?" Wu smiled at your use of his title. Remembering your father's fondness for addressing people by their first names and how that would likely grate on the young genius, you made a mental note to only address him as such when offered the chance.
"I ended up using Seriema DNA for the most part; it was the easiest match thanks to the close relationship. But some of the gaps had to be covered with Cassowary DNA. I didn't want to risk Ostrich DNA inducing some kind of gigantism issue." You nodded, before what he'd said registered.
"I'm sorry, you used what as a patch?! Are you insane? I'd rather have had to deal with the gigantism; at least ostriches are relatively docile and run away when spooked. Cassowary are known killers!" Calming yourself down with an effort, you let out a breath.
"Okay. Fine. We'll deal with that. But please tell me we've got a brooding mother of some kind to help socialize them." At Wu's blank look you firmly clasped your hands behind your back. The better to keep from strangling the idiot genius. "Doctor; while I will always give way in matters of genetics and the hard sciences that go into the cloning process, I am the one with the veterinary background. Which includes animal behavior. We're going to need creatures to help socialize these animals. Humans are hardly the only creatures that come into the world with no idea how they work. Baby elephants can take up to a full year to get proper control of their own trunks."
Wu nodded dumbly. It seemed that the usually loquacious man was at a loss for words. Right, now how best to salvage this mess?
[][Surrogates]Cassowary. Might as well go all in. Get a mated Cassowary pair and see if you can get them to adopt the eggs. It'll massively complicate the process of the incubation, but it'll mean that the Terror Birds will be learning from the moment they break the shell.
[][Surrogates]Ostriches. Ostriches may be herbivorous for the most part, but they're also much more docile and easier to handle than Cassowary or Emu are. Plus their size means that they'd be able to keep up with their adoptive chicks easily. On top of that getting them to perform said adoption is simplicity in itself. A broody ostrich would incubate rocks if they were the right size and shape to be mistaken for eggs.
[][Surrogates]Hand-Raise. This is going to make things... complicated. Very very complicated. Because you'll be learning as you go and there's likely going to be at least one major incident before things are said and done. But it does allow you the most control over the raising of the birds and keeping track of their development.
---
"I'm sorry, you want us to do what?" You looked at the man on the other side of the video conference call, one of the perks of being the head of a bleeding edge company. Mr. Yanagi smiled toothily.
"I want to see if we can clone some Dire Wolves!" He gestures excitedly. "Can you imagine the impact they'd have? Regular wolves are already massive!" You resisted the urge to facepalm.
"Yes, they'd be very impressive. But they'd also probably die if we tried to keep them in a tropical environment. Same with a large number of megafauna from the ice age. Most of it was adapted for cold environments." Yanagi's face fell then.
"Well then what about Saber-tooth tigers? Tigers are tropical." You swear to god you felt the migraine behind your right eye go up a notch in intensity.
"Honestly Mr. Yanagi with how things are shaking out we'd probably need to have an entirely separate park set up for holding and displaying most ancient mammals." You felt your gut clench a bit at the man's smile.
"That would do wonderfully! It would also mean much faster return on our investment! I'll propose it at the next investor's meeting!"
[][Branching Paths]Bow. Bow to the whims of the investors and start organizing a second park dedicated to Ice Age mammals. And start popping aspirin like popcorn.
[][Branching Paths]Bend. Instead of giving in fully, see if you can find some kind of compromise. Perhaps turning Sorna into a sister attraction to use for tropical mammals like the glyptodont? It wouldn't be nearly the same as Jurassic Park, but it would be something to give the tourists a bit more variety beyond dinosaurs once the shine finally wore off. Not as extensive as creating an entirely new park.
[][Branching Paths]Break. {Veterinary Option} Okay, this is a step too far. The investors apparently think they can jerk you around since you're not as business savvy as your father. But there are hundreds of grants for helping re-establish various endangered species in the wild. Most of those through breeding programs that still result in a massively reduced gene pool. Using your cloning labs to produce embryos for implantation in surrogate mothers would be simplicity itself; and you'd be able to collect on monies from grateful Department of the Interior equivalents around the world. It would also mean that you'd be penalized by the investors and have them invoking their emergency clauses to get back their money. But you're pretty sure that you can get past that.
As much as Jurassic Park had been your father's dream, it was quickly becoming your own personal Tower of Babel. But you weren't about to shy away from this. You relished the thought of seeing people's faces when they got their first sight of actual dinosaurs. Not to mention the hilarious reactions of the archeological community.
