Fifth Time's the Charm
 

Shay watched with interest on the monitors as the command center slowly came back to life. The screens flickered on, and began to show feeds of all of the major dinosaur enclosures, as well as most of the formerly high-traffic areas of the theme park.

"Geeze, they really did a number on this place," she muttered.

"Of course they did," Jalia muttered, picking a station and getting it running on diagnostics. "Doesn't help that everything's been left here for five years." She shook her head a bit, rather disgruntled with the sheer amount of work facing them. "At least we've still got air conditioning."

"Seriously," Shay replied. "I'm surprised any of this still works, to be honest. Five years of dinosaurs roaming the place? I expected it to be in worse shape."

"Much worse. Apparently they didn't figure out how to get in here." Jalia tapped out a few commands. "We'll have to get a closer look at the whole island, of course, but it looks like they've made territories and settled in."

"And didn't get eaten by Regina in the meantime," Shay said, nodding. "I'll go out and scout the place once we know where she set up her home base. Are the thermal sensors working?"

"Most of them," Jalia said after a few more moments. "There are a few that are down, but we should be able to get them replaced in a few days, when the next shipment comes in." She was already making a list of all the supplies they'd need to bring everything fully back online. Except the gates and enclosures, those were a lost cause.

"We'll have to get people in here and check on the animals," Shay said, jotting down some notes. "See how many of them still have functional chips for when we get the invisible fences back online. I remember reading something that said the pachys tended to knock theirs offline."

"With the headbutting, yeah," Jalia said, sounding distracted as she went through all of the available information. "The invisible fences won't be enough, we'll have to herd some of them in and out of areas again, I'm sure the herbivores are ranging all over... And there's a good chance there are eggs to consider, too."

"Most likely," Shay agreed, nodding. "They've had five years to adapt." She couldn't help a bit of a snicker. "It's like the Park all over again. You'd think the science nerds would learn."

"You'd think so." Jalia made a face. "You'd think the pets would be enough, they shouldn't need to reopen the park. Why can't we just leave them be for once?" She grumbled a bit more to herself, even as she made more notes.

"Because money," Shay sighed. She passed her notes over to Jalia to add to the stack. "This place was more lucrative than all of the Disney parks put together. There's no way they would leave it to rot."

"True." Jalia stacked all the notes together. "Well, at least we've got a decent start. I think the B team was checking out the structural integrity of the rest of the building. I'll go ahead and fire these off, shipment is in three days so that's when we'll start getting all of the equipment we need to upgrade, things like that."

"I'll go scout out the herbivore territories, then," Shay replied. "I'll take Indy and Garnet with me, it'll be good training for them."

"Just make sure she doesn't try to eat anything," Jalia said. "These ones aren't as passive as the ones we're used to." She sent off the first list of materials they'd need.

"I'll make sure," Shay said, nodding. One hand went to the whistle around her neck absently, as if making sure it was still there. Then, with a wave to her sister, she headed outside to see where her raptors had gotten off to. Time to do some scouting.

Jalia just went back to her computer and her tasks. Her own little group was fine and settling in for the moment, so she didn't need to check on them. And fortunately Ruby was calm enough that she didn't need to be taken on runs all the time.

Once she was outside, Shay gave a sharp blast of her whistle and then went to start her bike. She knew her raptors heard both the whistle and the rev of the engine, and she smirked when they came darting around a corner and scared the hell out of some poor security guard.

"Come on, guys," she said, "let's go." She got on the bike, and looked at each raptor in turn. She revved the engine one more time, and then took off into the field.

Jalia pulled up the map to track her, since the bike had a tracker in it. So far, at least, everything was good.

Shay was relaying everything she saw back to Jalia.

"The triceratops have definitely adapted and figured out how to breed," she said into the walkie as she and her raptors sped past the three-horns. She whistled sharply when Indigo tried to veer off towards the herbivores, and the raptor stayed close. "There are some smashy-tail ones out here, too, they must have moved out of the trees when Regina moved in."

"Makes sense," Jalia said, marking things on the map as Shay relayed them to her. "I'd be surprised if the brachies and apatosaurs weren't nearby, they were in the same area as the triceras."

"We're getting close to the river," Shay replied. "I can see the long-necks from here. The pachies shouldn't be far, either." As they came to the top of the hill, Shay slowed down her bike to get a look around, and her raptors slowed down with her. "Indy, Garnet, stay close. Li, I can see the flock of gallies, it's got to be twice as big as the records say was here when the park closed down. They definitely got the hang of breeding."

Jalia snickered at that. "Doesn't surprise me, all the herbivores are supposed to be good at breeding. Kind of like rabbits, but bigger. It's the carnies we have to watch more carefully."

"I'm thinking we're going to need to cull at least some of the smaller herbivores," Shay said, looking out over the herds. "The gallies, the micros. The gallies especially would be good exercise for Indy and Garnet, they at least put up a good chase."

"Right. If you do that, take Ruby with, she'll enjoy that." Jalia made more notes. "Anything else interesting out there?"

"Nothing yet..." Shay looked around the valley again. "They're definitely staying out of the trees, though, I'm betting Regina's in there still going strong."