Sector 2 - Western Isla Nublar

According to the simulations, Isla Nublar was going to run out of atmosphere in a few hours. Most people had been crammed into the Ballroom and wherever else they could find places to put them; most of the smaller dinosaurs had been saved as well, but their larger animals were still out on the surface, hopefully oblivious to their coming doom. The older Wu had been particularly upset about the Indominus being left out, but with so many people packed into the tunnels and not enough security to keep it under control, Claire had determined that it simply wasn't worth the risk.

Hoskins and Lowery had surveyed most of the island today, ensuring that they'd salvaged all that they could before the last of their air leaked out. They reached the top of a hill, breathing heavily as they overlooked the golf course. It was motionless, save for the slow fluttering of leaves as the remaining air wafted upward.

"Gettin' harder to breathe up here," Hoskins commented, squatting down. "Not a lotta time left. This island's gonna be dry as the moon before long."

"Well, the good news is, it looks like everyone's down below," Lowery said, sitting down in the dirt. "We might lose everything up here, but we'll survive, at least."

"For a while," said Hoskins. Lowery looked at him with apprehension. "Where d'you think we're getting air from in the tunnels? What we got left is sealed in, sure, but does anyone have a damn clue how we're gonna refresh it?"

Lowery was quiet for a moment. "I guess…I guess I thought the alien technology would do that."

Hoskins snorted. "That's what our fearless leaders have everybody thinkin'," he said. "Got a problem? No worries, the little green men have it all covered. Truth is, Owen and Barry have no idea what we're gettin' ourselves into here. They've got ideas, but we haven't taken action. Ideas are fine and dandy, but what're they gonna do for us when all the oxygen's been used up?"

Again, Lowery didn't have a response immediately. "Um…maybe we can explore more of the tunnels, see if we can find something for that?"

Hoskins laughed a little. "Boy, Barry's gonna be in a rough spot when that happens. With this many people we're gonna run out of air quicker'n he's willing to risk exploration. We're gonna reach a time when he's gotta make some tough decisions, and I'm not confident he'll make the right one."

This struck Lowery as ominous. "What d'you think the right decision would be?"

"What we need's a change in leadership, honest," said Hoskins. "Barry's a good man, but he's too non-confrontational, bein' French and all. Things on this island are gonna get ugly when air runs low, and he's not gonna be able to keep the people calm. Then there's Owen—I'm sure you've noticed his problem with authority?"

"I thought that was just with Claire," Lowery said.

"Did you know Owen was court-martialed at the end of his Navy career?" Hoskins asked. "He's got a dishonorable discharge to his name. Taking orders isn't what he does best."

"I…did not know that, no," admitted Lowery. "But, he and Barry have been friends for years. Owen trusts Barry's judgment. I don't think there'll be a conflict this time."

"That's my point," said Hoskins as they got up. "Barry's not gonna be able to make the tough calls, so when push comes to shove, we'll have Owen calling the shots. Barry's gonna go with whatever his buddy tells him is a good idea if it means he can avoid throwin' anybody else under the bus. Tell me, no lying now, d'you really want all our lives in Owen's hands?"

As they walked down to the golf course Lowery thought about this. Owen seemed like a good enough guy, but if what Hoskins was saying about his authority problem was true, then it wasn't unlikely that Owen might disregard input from Claire or other staff members in a tense situation.

"I guess…in an emergency, maybe we should have more sources of input?" suggested Lowery. He agreed that Owen wasn't the best leader for them, but he didn't want to voice it too much—he had a suspicion he knew where Hoskins was going with this.

"I'm gonna let you in on a little secret," Hoskins said. "You're not the only one who doesn't think our current leadership is good enough. There's a lotta people on this island, and a lotta them are scared, and they want something done about all this. Me and some of the Security guys are thinking that if things keep going the way they are, a…change in leadership may be in order."

"You mean a mutiny?" asked Lowery, not totally shocked, but still surprised.

"Let's not call it that," said Hoskins. "More like a recount of the election votes. Barry might've won when everything seemed safe. But when things start heading south, the people are gonna want a stronger leader, somebody who gets the job done and can make decisions on his own. It's not just Security who's backing me on this. Lots of tourists—passengers now, I guess—some of the animal handlers, some maintenance guys. They're worried not enough is gettin' done. If you're with me, you gotta let me know."

"I…I'm not looking to take sides, here," objected Lowery. "I'm happy if we all get out alive."

Hoskins smiled condescendingly as he patted Lowery on the shoulder. "That's your trouble, you don't wanna be a part of the fight. You're a smart fella, Lowery, and underappreciated. The park would've fallen apart without geeks behind the screens to hold it together, and you're by a long shot the biggest of the geeks. If you wanted to, you could get people to listen to you. You could get respect, if you stepped out and made it known that you deserved it." Hoskins took a pause to allow Lowery to mull this over. "That's the same reason you haven't had luck with women," he added. "You gotta show that you're in charge, that nobody messes with you. Women like a guy who scares 'em, just a little bit."

"I don't think that's exactly what women like," said Lowery.

"Trust me on this one," said Hoskins with a fatherly expression. "I'm speaking as a former married man; I know what I'm talking about."

"Hoskins, didn't your wife try to stab you at one point?" Lowery inquired.

Hoskins was going to reply, but he was cut off by a sudden rumbling noise. The ground under their feet shifted slightly, and they both looked down. Hoskins put one arm out, stopping Lowery from walking any farther.

Seconds later, there was a loud hissing sound as a jet of gas shot from the earth. Hoskins and Lowery both jumped backward, and the smell of sulfur filled the air.

"Gas from the volcanic chambers," Hoskins said as a means of explanation. "They're emptying out. We gotta get back to the tunnels before anything worse—"

Once more the earth interrupted him, but this time instead of merely shifting it shuddered violently, knocking them both to the ground. Hoskins struggled to his feet as Lowery tried to get up but was knocked onto his face by another tremor. As he got to his hands and knees, he saw that large cracks were appearing in the ground at regular intervals, like a grid, and that more gas was venting out from them.

The nearest crack was widening quickly, even as the gas emptied out from below; he tried to crawl backward away from it, but he could already feel dirt pouring into it from under him. He struggled to his feet, but began to slip backward. Hoskins reached out and grabbed Lowery's arm, pulling him back toward the ground, but even as he did the earth gave way beneath them and they fell into the crevice.

It was only a few feet down. They landed side by side on a solid surface that Lowery initially took for bedrock. As he tried to stand, a sharp pain in his right leg, he realized that he was mistaken.

"It's metal," he said, astonished.

"What's that now?" groaned Hoskins, rubbing his head with one hand while brushing dirt from his eyes with the other.

"The bedrock of the island—it's metal, not stone," said Lowery. "It's the surface of the alien structure. The island itself isn't the spaceship—the ship's encased in the island!"

The wall of soil behind them was slowly sliding away, the crevice growing in size. Hoskins looked up at the opposite wall, his eyes widening.

"Come on—move it!" he shouted, pulling Lowery to his feet. The grid of gas jets had fragmented the island's surface, and the square chunks of land were beginning to slide loose and fall southward. Isla Nublar was shedding its skin. Lowery and Hoskins swiftly moved to the side, panting wildly in the thin air, as a massive chunk of earth slid past them. Off in the distance they could hear solid thumping sounds as earthen chunks slammed into the rear end of the force field.

"We gotta get to the hatch, now!" Hoskins shouted. The nearest one was to the north of them, and that meant dodging around the increasing number of soil sections dislodged by the island's motion. In the failing air, Lowery wasn't confident that they could make it.

Bridge - Beneath Isla Nublar

"It has been ten minutes too long, I want to know where they are!" Claire demanded. "Are any park security cameras still working? If we can't radio them, I want a visual on the golf course!"

"Still negative on the cameras," said Arnold. "The quakes must've knocked them all out. We're scanning now to see if anything up there is still active, but something's damaged the power lines."

Frustrated, Claire turned to Owen. "Isn't there something you can do to reconnect the power to surveillance?" she asked. "You've been all through these tunnels, you must know where the—the power junctions, or whatever, where they are."

Owen rolled his eyes. "Look, mechanics are not my thing," he said. "I work with the animals; the machines are Lowery's area of expertise. And currently, he is MIA on the surface while the island shakes itself apart, and whose idea was it to conduct a final surface survey?"

"Mr. Grady, this is really an inopportune time for you to give lip!" Claire exclaimed. "We've got two missing men up there, and I am not losing anyone today! Barry, what is the status on our air?"

"Contained within the tunnels, ma'am," Barry replied, trying to keep a level voice. He remained at the holographic map with Arnold; something was happening to interfere with it, and they'd lost their ability to track anything on the surface. The outline of the island's features had become blurry.

"The air on the surface!" said Claire. "How long do Hoskins and Lowery have?"

"It looks like the rate of air loss is increasing," said Barry through gritted teeth. "They have…maybe a few minutes. An hour, if they are lucky."

Zara bustled into the room. "Ma'am—I've got a report—"

"Not now," Claire interrupted. "Mr. Arnold, have you got that map fixed yet?"

"It's gonna take time," Arnold replied. "First I've got to figure out what's causing it to blur like this."

Claire groaned in frustration. Zara took a step closer. "This report. It's from—"

"Zara, if you can't tell, we are very busy trying to get a crisis under control right now, so if you wouldn't mind waiting a few—"

"The report's from ACU, it's about what's happening on the surface!" Zara interrupted. Claire, about to speak, closed her mouth. "ACU reported that the island began venting sulfurous gases in a grid-like formation several minutes ago. Now the separated areas of earth are sloughing off the island in a north-to-south direction. There's massive loss of surface infrastructure, loss of surface water, and damage to the southern end of the force field. The atmosphere isn't just leaking anymore, it's gushing out. And…" She shifted the papers. "The loss of soil is exposing what appears to be a metallic surface."

"Then it's clear," Claire said. "We need to return home. It's the only way to prevent the island from falling apart entirely. Mr. Arnold, we need you at the control panel."

"But I think I'm close to understanding the change in the map," Arnold protested. "If what your assistant says is right, then the map's probably reconfiguring."

"Mr. Arnold, I respect your persistence, but there are more important matters than the change in the island's surface now," said Claire. "We are losing our atmosphere at a rate that will be unable to support us, and without any plants or water left on the surface, it cannot be replenished. We need to get ourselves home, right now, or everyone in this ship is going to die."

Atlanta, who had been pacing the bridge, stopped to look to Claire. "And what about Lowery?" she insisted. "If we don't attempt a retrieval, he'll never make it back!"

Barry put up a hand. "We may be able to save them if we can return quickly," he said. "If we are able to settle Isla Nublar back down in reality, they will have air again."

"And if we can't do that quickly enough?" demanded Atlanta.

Barry couldn't make himself give an answer. Owen spoke up for him. "I'm afraid there isn't much we can do for them at this point," he said solemnly. "We can't afford to lose any more air down here."

Atlanta threw up her arms and turned to stalk swiftly out of the bridge with an angry groan.

Claire sighed. "Look, I don't want to look like the bad guy here. I don't want to lose Lowery or Hoskins any more than the rest of you. But opening an airlock to retrieve them would mean sacrificing some of the air we have left in here. With so many people, we can't risk that."

"We wouldn't have to lose much," argued Arnold. "Lowery's got a good brain. He's got an intuition for technology that nobody else has got. Isn't that worth a little air?"

"I hate to put a price on somebody's life," said Owen. "And I hate to leave a man behind. But Lowery and Hoskins volunteered to go out, knowing the risks. We've got some techs left—maybe none who understand the system like Lowery does, but…" He sighed. "Dammit, there has to be a way we can do both!"

Arnold didn't respond. He was watching the holographic map. The indicator he knew to be Atlanta was moving rapidly toward the south, and as the exterior of the ship began to solidify on the holograph again, it was becoming pretty clear what she intended to do.

Jurassic Park Maintenance Tunnels - Beneath Isla Nublar

"Damn soldiers, coming in here with their guns…who does InGen think they are? What happened to genetic research and preservation of—"

"Dr. Sorkin!" Atlanta shouted. Sorkin looked up in surprise, her four parasaurs nervously eyeing the ceiling as the sounds of the island's soil sliding away rumbled above.

"Atlanta, yes, what's happening?" asked Sorkin. "I've had InGen Security personnel all over the area, saying they're concerned about a stampede if I don't—"

"Not now, which way is the nearest airlock to the golf course?" asked Atlanta.

"Why the hell does this park need a golf course?" asked Sorkin in frustration. "The feeding demonstrations I can understand, but how are we supposed to maintain a focus on the animals if our resources are going to—"

Atlanta groaned. "Never mind!"

She ran off again.

Sector 2 - Western Isla Nublar

Most of the chunks of dirt had passed, sliding out of sight over the island's southern edge. Lowery suspected that they had punched holes in the force field like Jurassic One, but with so many of them breaking through, the air was now audibly rushing southward. It was a struggle to fight the wind and rapidly-decreasing oxygen at the same time, and Lowery and Hoskins were barely able to crawl over the smooth metallic surface toward the airlock.

Just feet away from the entrance—now raised, with the soil gone—Hoskins collapsed into unconsciousness. Lowery grappled with the raised platform the airlock was now on top of, reaching for the handle. He could feel his consciousness slipping away as he felt the handle come to his palm, and though he couldn't grip it hard enough to turn, he felt it move without his assistance. As the airlock door opened, he fell back to the ground. He remained conscious just long enough to hear another loud hiss of air like the one that had preceded the calamity, but couldn't think clearly enough to discern its source.

"Lowery…Lowery can you hear my voice?" He was pretty sure it was Atlanta.

"Mmmmmpheghrghlphugghhhhh," he replied.

"I think he's coming back to us," said another voice. He didn't recognize this one.

Lowery tried to sit up, but felt a hand gently push him back down. "Don't exert yourself," the second voice said. "You've suffered from oxygen deprivation. You need some time to recover."

He was able to open his eyes, squinting in the light. They were just past the airlock, and he felt himself lying on something soft. He realized it was a gurney from the medical center. Turning his head to one side, he saw Hoskins in the next one over, still unconscious but breathing steadily. Atlanta was standing nearby along with a doctor; farther back, he made out Claire, Arnold, and Owen.

"Lowery, how're you feeling?" asked the doctor.

"Leg hurts," he groaned, rubbing the leg he'd injured in his fall. "And…everything…is blurry."

"Don't worry about that. You broke your glasses while you were struggling outside. We'll have a new pair for you soon. Your leg doesn't have any broken bones, but there is a large bruise and possibly some muscle damage. If you keep it rested, it should begin to recover within a few days."

"And…and Hoskins?"

"He may have a mild concussion, but otherwise he appears uninjured."

"Good…good."

"You've got your friend Atlanta to thank for your rescue," the doctor said. "If she hadn't dragged you back inside, you might have suffered brain damage from a lack of oxygen. You only had a few minutes left."

Atlanta smiled, and Lowery grinned back weakly.

Claire spoke up. "Your friend did act against orders, but in the end it may not have been as risky as we anticipated," she said. "I admit that we might not have considered all possibilities. Vivian discovered a way to refill the atmosphere—the sulfur jets turned out to be emanating from the ship's atmospheric generators, and after they had emptied out the built-up volcanic gases, we were able to configure them to produce an atmosphere for us. If we'd known about this earlier…what I'm trying to say…is I would like to apologize. For not retrieving the both of you when we realized something had gone wrong."

He might have only been half-conscious, but getting an apology from Claire was something he wasn't about to forget. He smiled broadly and managed to give a thumbs up. "Thanks…you're good. It's all good."

"If I'm being perfectly honest, the airlocks were supposed to be sealed from the bridge, so I'm not entirely sure how this one was opened on site," Claire continued.

"I have no idea how that happened," Arnold assured her, with a glance at Lowery.

"What matters is that you're back inside, and safe," Atlanta said. "You're gonna need rest. We think we've got a way to make the force field auto-repair, but don't worry yourself about it right now, you need to let yourself recover."

"Rest up that brain of yours," added Arnold. "I'm glad we've got you back. We've been hard-pressed to make anything work right without you."

Bridge - Beneath Isla Nublar

With Hoskins and Lowery recovering in the medical bay they'd set up in one of the larger chambers, Claire and the remaining staff had recollected in the bridge. Zara had returned with another status update from ACU about the island.

"The soil appears to be completely cleared from the island," she read. "The underlying structure is totally exposed. There's no question about it. It's a spacecraft." She shuffled her papers. "Some of the buildings do appear to have survived, at least those with deep foundations. It seems that they became partially fused with the spacecraft's hull. We're working on a way to descend those areas of the hull to make the buildings accessible from underneath as well as the surface. The atmosphere is slowly returning, but we've lost most of the assets that couldn't be herded into the tunnels or placed in paddocks."

"So Indominus is safe?" the elder Wu asked impatiently.

"ACU was able to verify that she's still in her paddock and appears unharmed," said Zara.

Young Wu raised a hand. "It's in my understanding that this is a…larger dinosaur," he said. "It seems strange to me that it should have survived with little oxygen for so long. Humans were barely able to survive those conditions."

"I designed her to have a more efficient oxygen-extraction ability," said Old Wu dismissively. "We can discuss it in the lab later. For now it's simply important that she's alive."

"Yes, she's alive," said Claire with an air of finality. "Barry, Owen, are we nearing a conclusion on how to maneuver the ship?"

"We are coming close," said Barry. "Without any major landmarks to guide us, it is difficult to tell if we are going anywhere, but there are indicators on the control panel that show we are drifting. Using these, we should be able to determine whether we are moving purposefully, in the event that we learn how to use the propulsion system."

"Turns out the volcano is more of a rocket," elaborated Owen. "There's one on each side, so it looks like we can direct ourselves. Once we know how to operate 'em, we'll be able to get this boat moving."