"Breathing is normal… vital signs are stable. The little guy is out of danger; it seems he just overexerted himself while clawing out of the shell. But Dr. Wu, the size of this hatchling is a bit too..."
Muffled voices drifted into his ears as the consciousness within the Giganotosaurus hatchling slowly flickered to life.
Ha… what a weird dream. I was in a giant egg. Why would I be in an egg? I'm supposed to live in a sofa… no, on a sofa. Wait, what… is a sofa?
The consciousness within the hatchling froze for a moment, then realized with a surge of panic that his eyelids felt like they were made of lead. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pry them open.
Instinctive terror began to set in, but soon, he slipped into a strange, heightened state.
He could feel several people standing around him. To be precise, his nose was telling him they were there.
There were two men standing beside him, a woman sitting not far away, and another man pacing back and forth behind her. It was a bizarre sensation—his nose acted like a real-time radar, feeding a constant stream of information directly into his mind.
Oh, another man just appeared. His footsteps were fast, heading straight… for him?!
"Wu! What have you been doing behind my back!" A man with a European face, dressed like a lab technician, slammed a file onto a nearby table. His voice trembled with rage as he interrogated Dr. Wu.
Henry Wu finally looked away from the Giganotosaurus hatchling, turning slowly toward the man. Before he could speak, the technician became hysterical.
"Damn it! A giant egg just appears out of nowhere in front of everyone! Don't tell me you don't know what this means. Do you want the tragedy of over a decade ago to repeat itself?!"
The man's eyes were bloodshot, glaring intensely at Wu. Clearly, he was a survivor of the incident from fourteen years prior.
"Right now, there might be a pack of dinosaurs out there without trackers, growing up where we can't see them, and then—"
"On that point… I think your concerns are misplaced."
Dr. Wu's tone was calm, cutting through the man's frantic gestures.
"The moment we confirmed that Giganotosaurus… what was her name again?" Wu tilted his head slightly toward his assistant. His voice carried an unshakable confidence, the kind of poise that suggested everything was under his control.
"Caroline… her name is Caroline." The assistant was clearly choked by the tension in the room, answering nervously, though her eyes betrayed an excited spark of curiosity.
"Ah… yes, Caroline." Wu nodded. "Once we confirmed she had laid eggs, we immediately swept every habitat on the island and cross-referenced the DNA of every animal."
"Fortunately, this was an isolated incident. Our preventative measures worked; out of the five eggs she laid, only one survived."
Wu turned back to the incubator, staring at the Giganotosaurus hatchling with eyes full of excitement… and perhaps a hint of madness.
"And the hatchling born from this egg contains a genetic sequence, the very sequence his parents lacked as Giganotosaurus. There is no known biological DNA that perfectly matches it."
(Note: ARK dinosaurs are bio-engineered for war, so it's only logical they wouldn't show up on a standard test.)
At this, Wu couldn't help but smile.
"If he isn't a monster, then he is a true dinosaur."
"You mean he atavistically regressed? Damn it, is that even possible? To regress back into a genetic fragment that shouldn't exist?"
The technician's anger had vanished, replaced by pure disbelief at Wu's hypothesis.
"Why shouldn't it be? I once had a… colleague… who said: Life finds a way. While I don't agree with his philosophy, his phrasing… was quite good."
Wu was in a grand mood. Seeing the man standing there stunned, he steered the conversation back.
"These things are inevitable. All we can do is ensure my creations remain within our control. Those who believe they can master nature are fools; I learned that lesson from Hammond years ago."
The hatchling's eyes opened a crack. The heavy weakness had finally faded, and he began to curiously survey his surroundings.
He had heard their conversation clearly, but unfortunately, he didn't quite understand it. They were speaking English, and the knowledge of that language in the little Giganotosaurus's head was sparse.
However, he managed to piece together a few key facts.
One, his mother's name is Caroline. Two, he is a purebred Giganotosaurus. Lastly, this seems to be… the past? His mind held information about the story of Jurassic World, but those events all seemed to take place in the future. And the man in front of him was the creator responsible for those future disasters.
"Gentlemen," the female researcher, who had been watching the drama from her computer, finally spoke up. "If you don't mind, we should return the little guy."
She pointed to her screen, which showed two sleeping, adult Giganotosauruses.
"If they wake up and realize their only living offspring is missing, I suspect it will be a catastrophe."
Wu nodded and gave a light chuckle. "Yes. And they need a better environment. I don't think Mr. Masrani will mind investing a bit more in our first 'true' dinosaur."
"And the research budget," the assistant added solemnly, seeing Wu had stopped talking.
Hmm… Caroline… then my name will be Carlo. Having processed the intel, the hatchling, now Carlo, didn't stay idle and gave himself a name based on the information in his mind.
Moments later, staff members lifted him out of the incubator and moved him onto a transport truck heading toward the exhibit, accompanied by a researcher.
On the truck, Carlo suddenly realized something. According to the data in his brain, a newborn dinosaur should only be about the size of a human hand. But he… he was less than a day old and already stood nearly half as tall as a human?!
None of that mattered right now, though. He missed his mother terribly. Because as his control over his body returned, he felt… hungry.
Godforsaken scientists! Did it not occur to you to feed me?!
In truth, it wasn't Wu's fault. Because Carlo was so large, they had already fed the unconscious hatchling an amount of food far exceeding what a "baby" only a few hours old should have been able to eat.
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Note 1: Carlo is named after Rubén Carolini, the discoverer of Giganotosaurus carolinii.
Note 2: Caroline is derived from the species name Giganotosaurus carolinii.