"I think we have to go out and move him," Arnold said,
"We will," Muldoon said. He didn't sound enthusiastic.
"That's a valuable animal."
"I know it's a valuable animal," Muldoon said.
Arnold turned to Gennaro. He couldn't resist a moment of triumph. "I'd point out to you," he said, "that the park is now completely back to normal. Whatever Malcolm's mathematical model said was going to happen. We are completely under control again."
Gennaro pointed to the screen behind Arnold's head and said, "What's that?"
Arnold turned. It was the system status box, in the upper corner of the screen. Ordinarily it was empty. Arnold was surprised to see that it was now blinking yellow: AUX PWR LOW. For a moment, he didn't understand. Why should auxiliary power be low? They were running on main power, not auxiliary power. He thought perhaps it was just a routine status check on the auxiliary power, perhaps a check on the fuel tank levels or the battery charge. . . .
"Henry," Arnold said to Wu. "Look at this."
Wu said, "Why are you running on auxiliary power?"
"I'm not," Arnold said.
"It looks like you are."
"I can't be."
"Print the system status log," Wu said. The log was a record of the system over the last few hours.
Arnold pressed a button, and they heard the hum of a printer in the corner. Wu walked over to it.
Arnold stared at the screen. The box now turned from flashing yellow to red, and the message now read: AUX PWR FAIL, Numbers began to count backward from twenty.
"What the hell is going on?" Arnold said.
Cautiously, Tim moved a few yards out along the muddy path, into the sunshine. He peered around the waterfall, and saw the tyrannosaur lying on its side, floating in the pool of water below.
"I hope he's dead," Lex said.
Tim could see he wasn't: the dinosaur's chest was still moving, and one forearm twitched in spasms. But something was wrong with him. Then Tim saw the white canister sticking in the back of the head, by the indentation of the ear.
"He's been shot with a dart," Tim said.
"Good," Lex said. "He practically ate us."
Tim watched the labored breathing. He felt unexpectedly distressed to see the huge animal humbled like this. He didn't want it to die. "It's not his fault," he said.
"Oh sure," Lex said. "He practically ate us and it's not his fault."
"He's a carnivore. He was just doing what he does."
"You wouldn't say that," Lex said, "if you were in his stomach right now.
Then the sound of the waterfall changed. From a deafening roar, it became softer, quieter. The thundering sheet of water thinned, became a trickle . . .
And stopped.
"Timmy. The waterfall stopped," Lex said.
It was now just dripping like a tap that wasn't completely turned off. The pool at the base of the waterfall was still. They stood near the top, in the cave-like indentation filled with machinery, looking down.
"Waterfalls aren't supposed to stop," Lex said.
Tim shook his head. "It must be the power. . . . Somebody turned off the power." Behind them, all the pumps and filters were shutting down one after another, the lights blinking off, and the machinery becoming quiet.
And then there was the thunk of a solenoid releasing, and the door marked MAINT 04 swung slowly open.
Grant stepped out, blinking in the light, and said, "Good work, kids. You got the door open."
"We didn't do anything," Lex said.
"The power went out," Tim said.
"Never mind that," Grant said. "Come and see what I've found."
Arnold stared in shock.
One after another, the monitors went black, and then the room lights went out, plunging the control room into darkness and confusion. Everyone started yelling at once. Muldoon opened the blinds and let light in, and Wu brought over the printout.
"Look at this," Wu said.
Time Event System Status [Code]
05:12:44 Safety I Off Operative [AV12]
05:12:45 Safety 2 Off Operative [AV12]
05:12:46 Safety 3 Off Operative [AV12]
05:12:51 Shutdown Command Shutdown [-AV0]
05:13:48 Startup Command Shutdown [-AV0]
05:13:55 Safety 1 On Shutdown [-AV0]
05:13:57 Safety 2 On Shutdown [-AV0]
05:13:59 Safety 3 On Shutdown [-AV0]
05:14:08 Startup Command Startup - Aux Power [-AV1]
05:14:18 Monitor-Main Operative - Aux Power [-AV04]
05:14:19 Security-Main Operative - Aux Power [-AV05]
05:14:22 Command-Main Operative - Aux Power [-AV06]
05:14:24 Laboratory-Main Operative - Aux Power [-AV08]
05:14:29 TeleCom-VBB Operative - Aux Power [-AV09]
05:14:32 Schematic-Main Operative - Aux Power [-AV09]
05:14:37 View Operative - Aux Power [-AV09]
05:14:44 Control Status Chk Operative - Aux Power [-AV09]
05:14:57 Warning: Fence Status [NB] Operative - Aux Power [-AV09]
09:11:37 Warning: Aux Fuel (20%) Operative - Aux Power [-AVZZ]
09:33:19 Warning: Aux Fuel (10%) Operative - Aux Power [-AVZ1]
09:53:19 Warning: Aux Fuel (1%) Operative - Aux Power [-AVZ2]
09:53:39 Warning: Aux Fuel (0%) Shutdown [-AV0]
Wu said, "You shut down at five-thbirteen this morning, and when you started back up, you started with auxiliary power."
"Jesus," Arnold said. Apparently, main power had not been on since shutdown. When he powered back up, only the auxiliary power came on. Arnold was thinking that was strange, when he suddenly realized that that was normal. That was what was supposed to happen. It made perfect sense: the auxiliary generator fired up first, and it was used to turn on the main generator, because it took a heavy charge to start the main power generator. That was the way the system was designed.
But Arnold had never before had occasion to turn the main power off. And when the lights and screens came back on in the control room, it never occurred to him that main power hadn't also been restored.
But it hadn't, and all during the time since then, while they were looking for the rex, and doing one thing and another, the park had been running on auxilary power. And that wasn't a good idea. In fact, the implications were just beginning to hit him-
"What does this line mean?" Muldoon said, pointing to the list.
05:14:57 Warning: Fence Status [NB] Operative - Aux Power [-AV09]
"It means a system status warning was sent to the monitors in the control room," Arnold said. "Concerning the fences."
"Did you see that warning?"
Arnold shook his head, "No. I must have been talking to you in the field. Anyway, no, I didn't see it."
"What does it mean, 'Warning: Fence Status'?"
"Well, I didn't know it at the time, but we were running on backup power," Arnold said. "And backup doesn't generate enough amperage to power the electrified fences, so they were automatically kept off."
Muldoon scowled. "The electrified fences were off?"
"Yes."
"All of them? Since five this morning? For the last five hours?"
"Yes. "
"Including the velociraptor fences?"
Arnold sighed. "Yes."
"Jesus Christ," Muldoon said. "Five hours. Those animals could be out."
And then, from somewhere in the distance, they heard a scream. Muldoon began to talk very fast. He went around the room, handing out the portable radios.