Fic: That's How it Always Starts, chapter 4 (Jurassic World/Saiyuki)

[daegaer]

Simon deals with inter-staff trouble. There is no trouble. John Ni would never.



Simon sighed at the incoming call notification. He liked Claire Dearing, he truly did, but she always gave the impression that she was two minutes away from a stress-induced heart-attack. He was seriously considering ordering her on a yoga retreat.

"Claire! How lovely to hear from you!"

"Mr Masrani, good morning."

She would never ever call him Simon, no matter how much he tried. On his screen she looked as immaculate and as wound up as ever. He tried to model a relaxed, calm demeanour.

"I believe the enclosure for the Indominus Rex has had some problems?"

"That's why I'm calling, sir. We're not going to be opening for showing the animal in the suggested timeframe. It's under control, I assure you."

"Maybe I should come over there. I've been in the research labs quite a lot recently, it'd only be a short journey."

"That'd be very much appreciated, sir. I could show you first-hand what we need to do – the animal is, hmm. More resourceful than anticipated. You've seen the document I sent?"

"Yes, yes, higher walls, stronger voltage. Dr Wu seems to have outdone himself!"

She smiled: a tight, strained smile.

"Actually, Mr Masrani, if I could talk about Dr Wu? Not precisely Dr Wu, he's a long-standing InGen employee. Sir, I know I'm not connected with the genetics division, and you placed me in charge of the park rather than of anything to do with research, but –" she paused, and then simply didn't go on.

"Yes?" he said, encouragingly. The sooner he cleared whatever tiny problem she'd magnified the sooner he could take a few deep breaths and get rid of the headache that she seemed to be able to transmit over the internet.

"It's a problem of sexual harassment," she said. "Female employees –"

"Henry?"

"His colleague," she said, looking awkward. "I'm sorry to have to phrase it this way, sir, but the rumour is, so I've heard, that you put out for John Ni or you get fired."

"No," Simon said with great assurance. "I always thought that he and Henry –"

"The couple of times I've met the man," Claire interrupted, "I can tell you, sir, he has a definite interest in women. And he really doesn't care about making it obvious."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Simon said. "He's always been perfectly polite to me."

She looked at him like she was going to say something she really thought for once, then nodded. "I'd imagine so."

"Leave this with me," he said gently. "It's probably just a cultural clash."

"Mr Masrani," she said. "I don't think the continent he was born on has anything to do with it. Or his country of origin. Thank you, however."

They exchanged a few more pleasantries and he cut the connection. He had been looking for an excuse to go back to the labs. Every week there was an exciting update, and he could have a chat with John while seeing the new creatures. He sent a quick mail to his secretary to arrange travel. He'd be with his animals by morning.

The research facility seemed strangely understaffed when he arrived, although he was quickly directed to Henry Wu. He found Henry in his office, stylus in one hand and tablet in the other, reading peacefully.

"Slacking off, Henry?"

"Simon! We weren't told you were coming." Henry gestured towards a chair. "Sit, please. Is there a problem?"

"No, not really. Shouldn't there be more people around?"

"They're probably in the small paddock," Henry said. "The zhuchengensis infant is very popular. I was taking the opportunity to read one of Dr Xu's recent papers. Thank God he publishes with English speakers, because I tried to get Dr Ni to translate one of his papers from a Chinese journal and –" He shook his head. "I guess that's why professional translators exist."

"What baby?" Simon said eagerly.


Henry pulled a picture up on his tablet and held it out. It was a ridiculously cute looking mini-dinosaur with a frilly head and a little horn on its nose, standing next to John. It came up to his hip, so, a couple of feet tall.

"It's grown quite a bit since that picture," Henry said. "His previous bosses didn't believe in waiting long for results."

"How big is it going to get?"

"Twenty feet long and about seven feet tall, Dr Ni says. I'll take you out to see."

"Great!" Simon jumped up and paused. "Before we go, Henry – what's your view on how he treats the women on staff?"

"Fine," Henry shrugged. "Why?"

"I had Ms Heikkinen transferred," Simon said. "John seemed worried about her – I think it's caused some misunderstandings."

"I can understand his worry," Henry said. "She asked him about China more than once. Whatever the misunderstanding is, it'll blow over. Come and see this, you'll enjoy it."

It was a relief to be out of Henry's office. Simon would never offend the man by saying anything, but he'd rarely seen such a soulless room in his life. Sure, it was a place to do work but there wasn't so much as a coffee cup to show he did anything but work. They circled the low white labs and walked towards what looked like nothing so much as a large stable.

"That's new."

"Relatively. Dr Ni wanted it as a comfortable place to acclimatise juvenile herbivores."

"You never call him John," Simon said.

Henry looked at him in surprise. "No. I find it best to be formal during the work day when talking about colleagues. I call him Jianyi when we're speaking."

"Say that again."

"Jianyi."

Simon ran through it a couple of times and Henry smiled encouragingly. "That's a much better attempt than the first time."

"I should probably stick with John," Simon said ruefully. "Did your parents send you to language classes?"

"Twice a week," Henry sighed. "Some of it even stuck. As long as I'm ordering coffee or a snack, I'm fine. Yours?"

"Oh yes. 'So you can speak to your mother and me! You need to be able to speak to the workers!'" He smiled. "We usually spoke English at home and the companies were already worldwide but I wasn't going to escape Hindi and Marathi classes, oh no." Sounds of laughter drifted out of the stable. "What's going on?"

"He's brilliant," Henry said. "He really is. The visitors will love this."

It was cool and dim in the stable, but Henry led them straight through and out the other side to a fenced off area about sixty feet wide. What had to be the greater part of the staff were lining the fence cheerfully clapping and laughing. In the centre stood John with the now much larger baby dinosaur. It was up to his chest, and stood there peaceably chewing his lab coat.

"You naughty boy!" John said playfully, and caught a net of oranges thrown to him. "Look, isn't this tastier?"

The dinosaur's eyes fixed on the bright fruit held above its head and it made a small squeaking noise, looking up with great attention. If it were a dog, Simon would have said with hope. Maybe it was hoping. The squeaks were very funny, coming from such a hefty animal.

"That's a baby?" he checked.

"Mm-hmm," Henry said, watching the show. "Sinoceratops zhuchengensis, a juvenile male. Zhu-zhu, as the staff insist on calling it."

Zhu-zhu. It was a cute name for a creature that was undeniably cute, despite being a reptile the size of a small pony. Zhu-zhu squeaked in obvious excitement as a single orange was tossed high into the air in a slow, easy lob. The fruit was seized as it reached mouth level and chomped with clear pleasure. Not all the catches were successful, and Zhu-zhu snuffled after his prizes in the grass as the onlookers laughed. Finally, when there were no more oranges to be had he forlornly leaned his bulk against John, who tumbled down looking rather surprised – to even greater laughter – and stood there, blinking in mild astonishment at the world.

"A dinosaur petting zoo," Simon murmured. "He'd be a star."

"It's too big now for children," Henry said. "It imprinted on Dr Ni when it hatched. He had it following him around the lab like a duckling until it got too large."

"How old is he?" Simon said.

"Less than two months," Henry said and nodded at Simon's expression. "Yes. You can thank Dr Ni's expertise for the fast rate of growth, as I said. He said he wanted to prove his worth as a designer of – and you'll have to excuse him, and remember where he's worked – ordinary animals."

"Simon!" John called, climbing up and patting Zhu-zhu firmly. "Come and meet my baby!"

There was more laughter. Simon gingerly entered the paddock and went over to Zhu-zhu, who regarded him placidly. He put a hand on the leathery skin of his side, marvelling at how warm and alive he was. Which was ridiculous, because given what he was spending every month the creature should have more vitality than an whole building of office-workers.

"He's lovely," he said, and got a wide, pleased smile from John.

"He's going to be a behemoth – that's the word, isn't it?" John said. "Just look at him now, he thinks he's a little puppy." He beckoned to one of the women sitting on the rails of the fence. "Yes, Anna, you! Come here, come here!"

She looked at the women to left and right, the smile fading from her face then slipped down into the paddock. She approached cautiously and stopped well short of John and his pet, which was probably a good idea, Simon thought. Zhu-zhu clearly didn't know his own strength.

"Did you need something, Dr Ni?"

"I want to show Simon how well-behaved Zhu-zhu is, come on, come closer! I know you all sneak him treats behind my back; he's not so scary." He turned to Simon. "What if you had a range of miniatures? You could have toddlers riding them."

The mental picture was both adorable and funny, and no doubt animal rights people would disapprove.

"Anna will show how tractable the juveniles are. Sit up on his neck, dear, behind the crest. I'll help you up."

"I can't," she said, taking a step back. "Really!"

"Of course you can," John said with great good humour, a thread of steel in his voice. "Don't be a baby in front of Mr Masrani, that's Zhu-zhu's job!"

"John, if she doesn't want to –"

"Suppose he bucked and threw me!" she said at the same time.

"What do you think of its crest?" Henry said, drawing his attention away from John as he said something in a low murmur about bucking and unseating her. "It'll be magnificent when it's adult."

"Brilliant!" Simon said smiling widely. He turned back to see Anna looking at John in outright disgust, which faded into blankness as she looked from him to Simon, to Henry and back to John.

"Put your foot here," John said, making a stirrup of his hands, and boosted her up onto the mildly interested Zhu-zhu's neck. He stood beside her like a proud father showing off his creature's party trick, his hand resting lightly on her calf. "What do you think, Simon? She's like an Amazon riding into battle!"

"Amazons were bare-breasted," Henry said, looking down at his tablet. He looked up in sudden alarm. "Anna. Forgive me, I didn't mean –"

"We're all colleagues," John said. "Anna can take a joke, right?"

"Yes, Dr Ni," she said, looking down at Zhu-zhu's crest. "It's OK, Dr Wu."

Simon laughed a little awkwardly. It was just a case of two scientists more interested in DNA than living humans. They didn't quite know how to interact with women. They were both clearly harmless.

Yes, that was all it was, social awkwardness. He smiled with greater confidence at Anna, who sat there, silent and blank-faced, John's hand still on her leg.

Comments

[indelicateink]

Ni, please create a raptor that will devour you and Henry both. Immediately. Perhaps Simon for dessert.

[daegaer]

The women of InGen wholeheartedly agree!

Claire: I need to report that your pet evil scientist is a creep and a lech to your female employees.

Simon: He's never done that to me!

Claire: *thousand-yard stare*

[theskywasblue]

Yes, Ni would never ever be a creeper. Never.

I can just imagine Claire miserably staring into the camera like she's on The Office.

[daegaer]

Ni's happy smiling face! His gross little comments! His wandering hands!

Simon: He probably just said a word that meant something different in Chinese.

All the women: HE IS TOTALLY FLUENT. ARGH!