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English to Malay: Jurassic Park (1990) General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - English CONTROL
Walking back toward the control room, Malcolm said, “I have one more question, Dr. Wu. How many different species have you made so far?”
“I’m not exactly sure,” Wu said. “I believe the number at the moment is fifteen. Fifteen species. Do you know, Ed?”
“Yes, it’s fifteen,” Ed Regis said, nodding.
“You don’t know for sure?” Malcolm said, affecting astonishment.
Wu smiled. “I stopped counting,” he said, “after the first dozen. And you have to realize that sometimes we think we have an animal correctly made—from the standpoint of the DNA, which is our basic work—and the animal grows for six months and then something untoward happens. And we realize there is some error. A releaser gene isn’t operating. A hormone not being released. Or some other problem in the developmental sequence. So we have to go back to the drawing board with that animal, so to speak.” He smiled. “At one time, I thought I had more than twenty species. But now, only fifteen.”
“And is one of the fifteen species a—” Malcolm turned to Grant.
“What was the name?”
“Procompsognathus,” Grant said.
“You have made some procompsognathuses, or whatever they’re called?” Malcolm asked.
“Oh yes,” Wu said immediately. “Compys are very distinctive animals. And, we made an unusually large number of them.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, we want Jurassic Park to be as real an environment as possible—as authentic as possible—and the procompsognathids are actual scavengers from the Jurassic period. Rather like jackals. So we wanted to have the compys around to clean up.”
“You mean to dispose of carcasses?”
“Yes, if there were any. But with only two hundred and thirty-odd animals in our total population, we don’t have many carcasses,” Wu said. “That wasn’t the primary objective. Actually, we wanted the compys for another kind of waste management entirely.”
“Which was?”
“Well,” Wu said, “we have some very big herbivores on this island. We have specifically tried not to breed the biggest sauropods, but even so, we’ve got several animals in excess of thirty tons walking around out there, and many others in the five- to ten-ton area. That gives us two problems. One is feeding them, and in fact we must import food to the island every two weeks. There is no way an island this small can support these animals for any time.
“But the other problem is waste. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen elephant droppings,” Wu said, “but they are substantial. Each spoor is roughly the size of a soccer ball. Imagine the droppings of a brontosaur, ten times as large. Now imagine the droppings of a herd of such animals, as we keep here. And the largest animals do not digest their food terribly well, so that they excrete a great deal. And in the sixty million years since dinosaurs disappeared, apparently the bacteria that specialize in breaking down their feces disappeared, too. At least, the sauropod feces don’t decompose readily.”
“That’s a problem,” Malcolm said.
“I assure you it is,” Wu said, not smiling. “We had a hell of a time trying to solve it. You probably know that in Africa there is a specific insect, the dung beetle, which eats elephant feces. Many other large species have associated creatures that have evolved to eat their excrement. Well, it turns out that compys will eat the feces of large herbivores and redigest it. And the droppings of compys are readily broken down by contemporary bacteria. So, given enough compys, our problem was solved.”
“How many compys did you make?”
“I’ve forgotten exactly, but I think the target population was fifty animals. And we attained that, or very nearly so. In three batches.
We did a batch every six months until we had the number.”
“Fifty animals,” Malcolm said, “is a lot to keep track of.”
“The control room is built to do exactly that. They’ll show you how it’s done.”
“I’m sure,” Malcolm said. “But if one of these compys were to escape from the island, to get away …”
“They can’t get away.”
“I know that, but just supposing one did …”
“You mean like the animal that was found on the beach?” Wu said, raising his eyebrows, “The one that bit the American girl?”
“Yes, for example.”
“I don’t know what the explanation for that animal is,” Wu said. “But I know it can’t possibly be one of ours, for two reasons. First, the control procedures: our animals are counted by computer every few minutes. If one were missing, we’d know at once.”
“And the second reason?”
“The mainland is more than a hundred miles away. It takes almost a day to get there by boat. And in the outside world our animals will die within twelve hours,” Wu said.
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve made sure that’s precisely what will occur,” Wu said, finally showing a trace of irritation. “Look, we’re not fools. We understand these are prehistoric animals. They are part of a vanished ecology—a complex web of life that became extinct millions of years ago. They might have no predators in the contemporary world, no checks on their growth. We don’t want them to survive in the wild. So I’ve made them lysine dependent. I inserted a gene that makes a single faulty enzyme in protein metabolism. As a result, the animals cannot manufacture the amino acid lysine. They must ingest it from the outside. Unless they get a rich dietary source of exogenous lysine—supplied by us, in tablet form—they’ll go into a coma within twelve hours and expire. These animals are genetically engineered to be unable to survive in the real world. They can only live here in Jurassic Park. They are not free at all. They are essentially our prisoners.”
“Here’s the control room,” Ed Regis said. “Now that you know how the animals are made, you’ll want to see the control room for the park itself, before we go out on the—”
He stopped. Through the thick glass window, the room was dark. The monitors were off, except for three that displayed spinning numbers and the image of a large boat.
“What’s going on?” Ed Regis said. “Oh hell, they’re docking.”
“Docking?”
“Every two weeks, the supply boat comes in from the mainland. One of the things this island doesn’t have is a good harbor, or even a good dock. It’s a little hairy to get the ship in, when the seas are rough. Could be a few minutes.” He rapped on the window, but the men inside paid no attention. “I guess we have to wait, then.”
Ellie turned to Dr. Wu. “You mentioned before that sometimes you make an animal and it seems to be fine but, as it grows, it shows itself to be flawed.…”
“Yes,” Wu said. “I don’t think there’s any way around that. We can duplicate the DNA, but there is a lot of timing in development, and we don’t know if everything is working unless we actually see an animal develop correctly.”
Grant said, “How do you know if it’s developing correctly? No one has ever seen these animals before.”
Wu smiled. “I have often thought about that. I suppose it is a bit of a paradox. Eventually, I hope, paleontologists such as yourself will compare our animals with the fossil record to verify the developmental sequence.”
Ellie said, “But the animal we just saw, the velociraptor—you said it was a mongoliensis?”
“From the location of the amber,” Wu said. “It is from China.”
“Interesting,” Grant said. “I was just digging up an infant antirrhopus. Are there any full-grown raptors here?”
“Yes,” Ed Regis said without hesitation. “Eight adult females. The females are the real hunters. They’re pack hunters, you know.”
“Will we see them on the tour?”
“No,” Wu said, looking suddenly uncomfortable. And there was an awkward pause. Wu looked at Regis.
“Not for a while,” Regis said cheerfully. “The velociraptors haven’t been integrated into the park setting just yet. We keep them in a holding pen.”
“Can I see them there?” Grant said.
“Why, yes, of course. In fact, while we’re waiting”—he glanced at his watch—“you might want to go around and have a look at them.”
“I certainly would,” Grant said.
“Absolutely,” Ellie said.
“I want to go, too,” Tim said eagerly.
“Just go around the back of this building, past the support facility, and you’ll see the pen. But don’t get too close to the fence. Do you want to go, too?” he said to the girl.
“No,” Lex said. She looked appraisingly at Regis. “You want to play a little pickle? Throw a few?”
“Well, sure,” Ed Regis said. “Why don’t you and I go downstairs and we’ll do that, while we wait for the control room to open up?”
Grant walked with Ellie and Malcolm around the back of the main building, with the kid tagging along. Grant liked kids—it was impossible not to like any group so openly enthusiastic about dinosaurs. Grant used to watch kids in museums as they stared open-mouthed at the big skeletons rising above them. He wondered what their fascination really represented. He finally decided that children liked dinosaurs because these giant creatures personified the uncontrollable force of looming authority. They were symbolic parents. Fascinating and frightening, like parents. And kids loved them, as they loved their parents.
Grant also suspected that was why even young children learned the names of dinosaurs. It never failed to amaze him when a three-year-old shrieked: “Stegosaurus!” Saying these complicated names was a way of exerting power over the giants, a way of being in control.
“What do you know about Velociraptor?” Grant asked Tim. He was just making conversation.
“It’s a small carnivore that hunted in packs, like Deinonychus,” Tim said.
“That’s right,” Grant said, “although Deinonychus is now considered one of the velociraptors. And the evidence for pack hunting is all circumstantial. It derives in part from the appearance of the animals, which are quick and strong, but small for dinosaurs—just a hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds each. We assume they hunted in groups if they were to bring down larger prey. And there are some fossil finds in which a single large prey animal is associated with several raptor skeletons, suggesting they hunted in packs. And, of course, raptors were large-brained, more intelligent than most dinosaurs.”
“How intelligent is that?” Malcolm asked.
“Depends on who you talk to,” Grant said. “Just as paleontologists have come around to the idea that dinosaurs were probably warm-blooded, a lot of us are starting to think some of them might have been quite intelligent, too. But nobody knows for sure.”
They left the visitor area behind, and soon they heard the loud hum of generators, smelled the faint odor of gasoline. They passed a grove of palm trees and saw a large, low concrete shed with a steel roof. The noise seemed to come from there. They looked in the shed.
“It must be a generator,” Ellie said.
“It’s big,” Grant said, peering inside.
The power plant actually extended two stories below ground level: a vast complex of whining turbines and piping that ran down in the earth, lit by harsh electric bulbs. “They can’t need all this just for a resort,” Malcolm said. “They’re generating enough power here for a small city.”
“Maybe for the computers?”
“Maybe.”
Grant heard bleating, and walked north a few yards. He came to an animal enclosure with goats. By a quick count, he estimated there were fifty or sixty goats.
“What’s that for?” Ellie asked.
“Beats me.”
“Probably they feed ’em to the dinosaurs,” Malcolm said.
The group walked on, following a dirt path through a dense bamboo grove. At the far side, they came to a double-layer chain-link fence twelve feet high, with spirals of barbed wire at the top. There was an electric hum along the outer fence.
Beyond the fences, Grant saw dense clusters of large ferns, five feet high. He heard a snorting sound, a kind of snuffling. Then the sound of crunching footsteps, coming closer.
Then a long silence.
“I don’t see anything,” Tim whispered, finally.
“Ssssh.”
Grant waited. Several seconds passed. Flies buzzed in the air. He still saw nothing.
Ellie tapped him on the shoulder, and pointed.
Amid the ferns, Grant saw the head of an animal. It was motionless, partially hidden in the fronds, the two large dark eyes watching them coldly.
The head was two feet long. From a pointed snout, a long row of teeth ran back to the hole of the auditory meatus which served as an ear. The head reminded him of a large lizard, or perhaps a crocodile. The eyes did not blink, and the animal did not move. Its skin was leathery, with a pebbled texture, and basically the same coloration as the infant’s: yellow-brown with darker reddish markings, like the stripes of a tiger.
As Grant watched, a single forelimb reached up very slowly to part the ferns beside the animal’s face. The limb, Grant saw, was strongly muscled. The hand had three grasping fingers, each ending in curved claws. The hand gently, slowly, pushed aside the ferns.
Grant felt a chill and thought, He’s hunting us.
For a mammal like man, there was something indescribably alien about the way reptiles hunted their prey. No wonder men hated reptiles. The stillness, the coldness, the pace was all wrong. To be among alligators or other large reptiles was to be reminded of a different kind of life, a different kind of world, now vanished from the earth. Of course, this animal didn’t realize that he had been spotted, that he—
The attack came suddenly, from the left and right. Charging raptors covered the ten yards to the fence with shocking speed. Grant had a blurred impression of powerful, six-foot-tall bodies, stiff balancing tails, limbs with curving claws, open jaws with rows of jagged teeth.
The animals snarled as they came forward, and then leapt bodily into the air, raising their hind legs with their big dagger-claws. Then they struck the fence in front of them, throwing off twin bursts of hot sparks.
The velociraptors fell backward to the ground, hissing. The visitors all moved forward, fascinated. Only then did the third animal attack, leaping up to strike the fence at chest level. Tim screamed in fright as the sparks exploded all around him. The creatures snarled, a low reptilian hissing sound, and leapt back among the ferns. Then they were gone, leaving behind a faint odor of decay, and hanging acrid smoke.
“Holy shit,” Tim said.
“It was so fast,” Ellie said.
“Pack hunters,” Grant said, shaking his head. “Pack hunters for whom ambush is an instinct … Fascinating.”
“I wouldn’t call them tremendously intelligent,” Malcolm said.
On the other side of the fence, they heard snorting in the palm trees. Several heads poked slowly out of the foliage. Grant counted three … four … five … The animals watched them. Staring coldly.
A black man in coveralls came running up to them. “Are you all right?”
“We’re okay,” Grant said.
“The alarms were set off.” The man looked at the fence, dented and charred. “They attacked you?”
“Three of them did, yes.”
The black man nodded. “They do that all the time. Hit the fence, take a shock. They never seem to mind.”
“Not too smart, are they?” Malcolm said.
The black man paused. He squinted at Malcolm in the afternoon light. “Be glad for that fence, señor,” he said, and turned away.
From beginning to end, the entire attack could not have taken more than six seconds. Grant was still trying to organize his impressions. The speed was astonishing—the animals were so fast, he had hardly seen them move.
Walking back, Malcolm said, “They are remarkably fast.”
“Yes,” Grant said. “Much faster than any living reptile. A bull alligator can move quickly, but only over a short distance—five or six feet. Big lizards like the five-foot Komodo dragons of Indonesia have been clocked at thirty miles an hour, fast enough to run down a man. And they kill men all the time. But I’d guess the animal behind the fence was more than twice that fast.”
“Cheetah speed,” Malcolm said. “Sixty, seventy miles an hour.”
“Exactly.”
“But they seemed to dart forward,” Malcolm said. “Rather like birds.”
“Yes.” In the contemporary world, only very small mammals, like the cobra-fighting mongoose, had such quick responses. Small mammals, and of course birds. The snake-hunting secretary bird of Africa, or the cassowary. In fact, the velociraptor conveyed precisely the same impression of deadly, swift menace Grant had seen in the cassowary, the clawed ostrich-like bird of New Guinea.
“So these velociraptors look like reptiles, with the skin and general appearance of reptiles, but they move like birds, with the speed and predatory intelligence of birds. Is that about it?” Malcolm said.
“Yes,” Grant said. “I’d say they display a mixture of traits.”
“Does that surprise you?”
“Not really,” Grant said. “It’s actually rather close to what paleontologists believed a long time ago.”
When the first giant bones were found in the 1820s and 1830s, scientists felt obliged to explain the bones as belonging to some oversize variant of a modern species. This was because it was believed that no species could ever become extinct, since God would not allow one of His creations to die.
Eventually it became clear that this conception of God was mistaken, and the bones belonged to extinct animals. But what kind of animals?
In 1842, Richard Owen, the leading British anatomist of the day, called them Dinosauria, meaning “terrible lizards.” Owen recognized that dinosaurs seemed to combine traits of lizards, crocodiles, and birds. In particular, dinosaur hips were bird-like, not lizard-like. And, unlike lizards, many dinosaurs seemed to stand upright. Owen imagined dinosaurs to be quick-moving, active creatures, and his view was accepted for the next forty years.
But when truly gigantic finds were unearthed—animals that had weighed a hundred tons in life—scientists began to envision the dinosaurs as stupid, slow-moving giants destined for extinction. The image of the sluggish reptile gradually predominated over the image of the quick-moving bird. In recent years, scientists like Grant had begun to swing back toward the idea of more active dinosaurs. Grant’s colleagues saw him as radical in his conception of dinosaur behavior. But now he had to admit his own conception had fallen far short of the reality of these large, incredibly swift hunters.
“Actually, what I was driving at,” Malcolm said, “was this: Is it a persuasive animal to you? Is it in fact a dinosaur?”
“I’d say so, yes.”
“And the coordinated attack behavior …”
“To be expected,” Grant said. According to the fossil record, packs of velociraptors were capable of bringing down animals that weighed a thousand pounds, like Tenontosaurus, which could run as fast as a horse. Coordination would be required.
“How do they do that, without language?”
“Oh, language isn’t necessary for coordinated hunting,” Ellie said. “Chimpanzees do it all the time. A group of chimps will stalk a monkey and kill it. All communication is by eyes.”
“And were the dinosaurs in fact attacking us?”
“Yes.”
“They would kill us and eat us if they could?” Malcolm said.
“I think so.”
“The reason I ask,” Malcolm said, “is that I’m told large predators such as lions and tigers are not born man-eaters. Isn’t that true? These animals must learn somewhere along the way that human beings are easy to kill. Only afterward do they become man-killers.”
“Yes, I believe that’s true,” Grant said.
“Well, these dinosaurs must be even more reluctant than lions and tigers. After all, they come from a time before human beings—or even large mammals—existed at all. God knows what they think when they see us. So I wonder: have they learned, somewhere along the line, that humans are easy to kill?”
The group fell silent as they walked.
“In any case,” Malcolm said, “I shall be extremely interested to see the control room now.”
which are quick and strong, but small for dinosaurs—just a hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds each. We assume they hunted in groups if they were to bring down larger prey. And there are some fossil finds in which a single large prey animal is associated with several raptor skeletons, suggesting they hunted in packs. And, of course, raptors were large-brained, more intelligent than most dinosaurs.”
“How intelligent is that?” Malcolm asked.
“Depends on who you talk to,” Grant said. “Just as paleontologists have come around to the idea that dinosaurs were probably warm-blooded, a lot of us are starting to think some of them might have been quite intelligent, too. But nobody knows for sure.”
They left the visitor area behind, and soon they heard the loud hum of generators, smelled the faint odor of gasoline. They passed a grove of palm trees and saw a large, low concrete shed with a steel roof. The noise seemed to come from there. They looked in the shed.
“It must be a generator,” Ellie said.
“It’s big,” Grant said, peering inside.
The power plant actually extended two stories below ground level: a vast complex of whining turbines and piping that ran down in the earth, lit by harsh electric bulbs. “They can’t need all this just for a resort,” Malcolm said. “They’re generating enough power here for a small city.”
“Maybe for the computers?”
“Maybe.”
Grant heard bleating, and walked north a few yards. He came to an animal enclosure with goats. By a quick count, he estimated there were fifty or sixty goats.
“What’s that for?” Ellie asked.
“Beats me.”
“Probably they feed ’em to the dinosaurs,” Malcolm said.
The group walked on, following a dirt path through a dense bamboo grove. At the far side, they came to a double-layer chain-link fence twelve feet high, with spirals of barbed wire at the top. There was an electric hum along the outer fence.
Beyond the fences, Grant saw dense clusters of large ferns, five feet high. He heard a snorting sound, a kind of snuffling. Then the sound of crunching footsteps, coming closer.
Then a long silence.
“I don’t see anything,” Tim whispered, finally.
“Ssssh.”
Grant waited. Several seconds passed. Flies buzzed in the air. He still saw nothing.
Ellie tapped him on the shoulder, and pointed.
Amid the ferns, Grant saw the head of an animal. It was motionless, partially hidden in the fronds, the two large dark eyes watching them coldly.
The head was two feet long. From a pointed snout, a long row of teeth ran back to the hole of the auditory meatus which served as an ear. The head reminded him of a large lizard, or perhaps a crocodile. The eyes did not blink, and the animal did not move. Its skin was leathery, with a pebbled texture, and basically the same coloration as the infant’s: yellow-brown with darker reddish markings, like the stripes of a tiger.
As Grant watched, a single forelimb reached up very slowly to part the ferns beside the animal’s face. The limb, Grant saw, was strongly muscled. The hand had three grasping fingers, each ending in curved claws. The hand gently, slowly, pushed aside the ferns.
Grant felt a chill and thought, He’s hunting us.
For a mammal like man, there was something indescribably alien about the way reptiles hunted their prey. No wonder men hated reptiles. The stillness, the coldness, the pace was all wrong. To be among alligators or other large reptiles was to be reminded of a different kind of life, a different kind of world, now vanished from the earth. Of course, this animal didn’t realize that he had been spotted, that he—
The attack came suddenly, from the left and right. Charging raptors covered the ten yards to the fence with shocking speed. Grant had a blurred impression of powerful, six-foot-tall bodies, stiff balancing tails, limbs with curving claws, open jaws with rows of jagged teeth.
The animals snarled as they came forward, and then leapt bodily into the air, raising their hind legs with their big dagger-claws. Then they struck the fence in front of them, throwing off twin bursts of hot sparks.
The velociraptors fell backward to the ground, hissing. The visitors all moved forward, fascinated. Only then did the third animal attack, leaping up to strike the fence at chest level. Tim screamed in fright as the sparks exploded all around him. The creatures snarled, a low reptilian hissing sound, and leapt back among the ferns. Then they were gone, leaving behind a faint odor of decay, and hanging acrid smoke.
“Holy shit,” Tim said.
“It was so fast,” Ellie said.
“Pack hunters,” Grant said, shaking his head. “Pack hunters for whom ambush is an instinct … Fascinating.”
“I wouldn’t call them tremendously intelligent,” Malcolm said.
On the other side of the fence, they heard snorting in the palm trees. Several heads poked slowly out of the foliage. Grant counted three … four … five … The animals watched them. Staring coldly.
A black man in coveralls came running up to them. “Are you all right?”
“We’re okay,” Grant said.
“The alarms were set off.” The man looked at the fence, dented and charred. “They attacked you?”
“Three of them did, yes.”
The black man nodded. “They do that all the time. Hit the fence, take a shock. They never seem to mind.”
“Not too smart, are they?” Malcolm said.
The black man paused. He squinted at Malcolm in the afternoon light. “Be glad for that fence, señor,” he said, and turned away.
From beginning to end, the entire attack could not have taken more than six seconds. Grant was still trying to organize his impressions. The speed was astonishing—the animals were so fast, he had hardly seen them move.
Walking back, Malcolm said, “They are remarkably fast.”
“Yes,” Grant said. “Much faster than any living reptile. A bull alligator can move quickly, but only over a short distance—five or six feet. Big lizards like the five-foot Komodo dragons of Indonesia have been clocked at thirty miles an hour, fast enough to run down a man. And they kill men all the time. But I’d guess the animal behind the fence was more than twice that fast.”
“Cheetah speed,” Malcolm said. “Sixty, seventy miles an hour.”
“Exactly.”
“But they seemed to dart forward,” Malcolm said. “Rather like birds.”
“Yes.” In the contemporary world, only very small mammals, like the cobra-fighting mongoose, had such quick responses. Small mammals, and of course birds. The snake-hunting secretary bird of Africa, or the cassowary. In fact, the velociraptor conveyed precisely the same impression of deadly, swift menace Grant had seen in the cassowary, the clawed ostrich-like bird of New Guinea.
“So these velociraptors look like reptiles, with the skin and general appearance of reptiles, but they move like birds, with the speed and predatory intelligence of birds. Is that about it?” Malcolm said.
“Yes,” Grant said. “I’d say they display a mixture of traits.”
“Does that surprise you?”
“Not really,” Grant said. “It’s actually rather close to what paleontologists believed a long time ago.”
When the first giant bones were found in the 1820s and 1830s, scientists felt obliged to explain the bones as belonging to some oversize variant of a modern species. This was because it was believed that no species could ever become extinct, since God would not allow one of His creations to die.
Eventually it became clear that this conception of God was mistaken, and the bones belonged to extinct animals. But what kind of animals?
In 1842, Richard Owen, the leading British anatomist of the day, called them Dinosauria, meaning “terrible lizards.” Owen recognized that dinosaurs seemed to combine traits of lizards, crocodiles, and birds. In particular, dinosaur hips were bird-like, not lizard-like. And, unlike lizards, many dinosaurs seemed to stand upright. Owen imagined dinosaurs to be quick-moving, active creatures, and his view was accepted for the next forty years.
But when truly gigantic finds were unearthed—animals that had weighed a hundred tons in life—scientists began to envision the dinosaurs as stupid, slow-moving giants destined for extinction. The image of the sluggish reptile gradually predominated over the image of the quick-moving bird. In recent years, scientists like Grant had begun to swing back toward the idea of more active dinosaurs. Grant’s colleagues saw him as radical in his conception of dinosaur behavior. But now he had to admit his own conception had fallen far short of the reality of these large, incredibly swift hunters.
“Actually, what I was driving at,” Malcolm said, “was this: Is it a persuasive animal to you? Is it in fact a dinosaur?”
“I’d say so, yes.”
“And the coordinated attack behavior …”
“To be expected,” Grant said. According to the fossil record, packs of velociraptors were capable of bringing down animals that weighed a thousand pounds, like Tenontosaurus, which could run as fast as a horse. Coordination would be required.
“How do they do that, without language?”
“Oh, language isn’t necessary for coordinated hunting,” Ellie said. “Chimpanzees do it all the time. A group of chimps will stalk a monkey and kill it. All communication is by eyes.”
“And were the dinosaurs in fact attacking us?”
“Yes.”
“They would kill us and eat us if they could?” Malcolm said.
“I think so.”
“The reason I ask,” Malcolm said, “is that I’m told large predators such as lions and tigers are not born man-eaters. Isn’t that true? These animals must learn somewhere along the way that human beings are easy to kill. Only afterward do they become man-killers.”
“Yes, I believe that’s true,” Grant said.
“Well, these dinosaurs must be even more reluctant than lions and tigers. After all, they come from a time before human beings—or even large mammals—existed at all. God knows what they think when they see us. So I wonder: have they learned, somewhere along the line, that humans are easy to kill?”
The group fell silent as they walked.
“In any case,” Malcolm said, “I shall be extremely interested to see the control room now.”
Translation - Malay KAWALAN
Mereka berpatah balik ke bilik kawalan, lalu Dr. Malcolm berkata, “Saya ada satu lagi soalan, Dr. Wu. Berapa banyak spesies yang telah awak hasilkan setakat ini?”
“Saya tak pasti,” kata Dr. Wu. “Saya rasa jumlahnya pada masa ini adalah lima belas. Ya lima belas spesies. Betul tak Ed?”
Ya, lima belas,” kata Ed Regis sambil mengangguk.
“Awak tak pasti?” kata Dr. Malcolm hairan.
Dr. Wu tersenyum. “Saya berhenti mengira,” katanya “selepas dozen yang pertama. Dan awak perlu sedar bahawa kadang-kadang kami terfikir yang kami telah menghasilkan haiwan yang sempurna dari sudut pandangan DNA. Ini adalah pekerjaan asas kami. Dan selepas haiwan itu membesar selama enam bulan, tiba-tiba sesuatu yang tidak diingini berlaku. Dan kami mengaku, ada beberapa kesilapan yang berlaku, seperti gen pelepas (releaser gene) tidak berfungsi. Ataupun hormon tidak dilepaskan dan beberapa masalah lain dalam urutan perkembangan dinosaur. Jadi, kita perlu kembali ke fasa sebelumnya untuk memperbaiki kesilapan itu.” Dia kembali senyum. “Ada satu masa, saya ingat saya sudah ada dua puluh spesies, tapi sekarang hanya lima belas.”
“Dan salah satu daripada lima belas spesies itu adalah —” Dr. Malcolm menoleh kea rah Dr. Grant.
“Apa nama tadi?”
“Procompsognathus,” balas Dr. Grant.
“Awak sudah hasilkan berapa ekor procompsognathus?” Dr. Malcolm bertanya lagi.
“Oh ya,” kata Dr. Wu. “Compy (nama samaran) adalah haiwan yang sangat unik. Dan kami hasilkannya dalam jumlah yang lebih besar daripada biasa.”
“Kenapa ya?”
“Oh, kami mahu menjadikan persekitaran Jurassic Park seakan-akan zaman dinosaur dulu—dan procompsognathid adalah haiwan pembangkai (scavenger) zaman Jurasik. Mereka seperti serigala. Jadi, kami ingin mempunyai sekumpulan compy yang besar untuk membersihkan taman ini.”
“Maksud awak untuk membersihkan bangkai?”
“Betul itu. Kalau ada. Tapi dengan hanya populasi dinosaur sebanyak dua ratus tiga puluh ekor, tak banyak sangat bangkai yang kami jumpa,” kata Dr. Wu. “Itu bukanlah objektif utama. Sebenarnya, kami memerlukan compy untuk pengurusan sisa yang lain.”
“Sisa apa?”
“Hmm, kami mempunyai beberapa ekor herbivor yang bersaiz gergasi di pulau ini. Walaupun kami telah cuba sedaya upaya untuk tidak membiakkan sauropoda yang besar, tetapi masih ada beberapa ekor herbivor besar melebihi tiga puluh tan di sini, dan beberapa ekor yang lain seberat lima ke sepuluh tan. Jadi, kami ada dua masalah. Yang pertama, untuk memberi mereka makan secukupnya. Jadi, kami harus mengimport makanan ke pulau ini setiap dua minggu. Dan mustahil untuk pulau sekecil ini mampu untuk menampung dinosaur-dinosaur ini.”
“Masalah kedua pula ialah sisa buangan mereka. Saya tak pasti sama ada awak pernah tengok najis gajah,” kata Dr. Wu, “ia jauh lebih besar daripada itu. Setiap najis lebih kurang saiz sebiji bola sepak. Bayangkan najis brontosaurus yang sepuluh kali lebih besar itu. Dan bayangkan najis sekumpulan dinosaur pula. Kebanyakkan dinosaur di sini tidak dapat mencerna makanan mereka dengan baik, jadi mereka mengeluarkan lebih banyak najis. Selain itu, bakteria yang memecahkan najis dinosaur juga sudah lenyap seperti dinosaur, sejak enam puluh juta tahun dulu. Sekurang-kurangnya, najis sauropod tidak mudah terurai.”
“Masalah besar itu,” kata Dr. Malcolm.
“Saya boleh jamin,” kata Dr. Wu. “Kami sudah menghabiskan banyak masa untuk selesaikan masalah ini. Awak mungkin tahu bahawa di Afrika, terdapat sejenis serangga, kumbang najis (dung beetle) yang akan makan najis gajah. Banyak spesies besar yang lain dibantu oleh haiwan pemakan najis ini selepas evolusi berlaku. Dan ternyata compy akan memakan najis herbivor besar dan mencernanya semula. Dan najis compy pula mudah terurai oleh bakteria kontemporari. Oleh itu, dengan adanya compy yang mencukupi, masalah ini dapat diselesaikan.”
“Beberapa banyak compy yang awak hasilkan?”
“Saya betul-betul terlupa, tapi saya rasa anggaran populasi sasaran kami ialah lima puluh ekor. Dan kami sudah pun mencapai sasaran, ataupun hampir dengannya. Ia dihasilkan dalam tiga kumpulan. Kami hasilkan satu kumpulan setiap enam bulan sehingga capai sasaran.”
“Lima puluh ekor,” Dr. Malcolm mencelah. “banyak untuk dijejaki.”
“Itulah tujuan bilik kawalan dibina. Mereka akan menunjukkan cara-caranya.”
“Semestinya,” kata Dr. Malcolm. “Tapi, katakanlah ada salah seekor daripada mereka melarikan diri dari pulau ini, untuk bebas dari sini…”
“Mereka tak boleh melarikan diri.”
“Saya tahu, tapi andai kata seekor saja yang melarikan diri…”
“Maksud awak, macam haiwan yang dijumpai di pantai itu?” Dr. Wu bertanya sambil mengangkat keningnya, “Yang tergigit kanak-kanak perempuan Amerika itu?”
“Ya, sebagai contoh.”
“Saya tak ada penjelasan untuk haiwan itu,” balas Dr. Wu. “Tapi saya pasti, kami bukan penyebabnya. Ada dua sebab. Yang pertama, prosedur kawalan. Haiwan kami dikira oleh komputer setiap beberapa minit. Kalau ada yang hilang, kami akan dapat tahu dengan segera.”
“Dan sebab kedua?”
“Tanah besar sangat jauh. Seratus batu jauhnya. Ia akan mengambil masa hampir sehari untuk sampai ke sana dengan bot. Dan di dunia luar, haiwan kami akan mati dalam masa dua belas jam,” jelas Dr. Wu.
“Macam mana awak tahu?”
“Sebab saya telah pastikan perkara itu yang akan berlaku,” balas Dr. Wu, dia kini kelihatan sedikit rimas. “Kami bukanlah bodoh. Kami tahu mereka adalah haiwan prasejarah, sebahagian ekologi yang sudah lenyap—sebuah rangkaian kehidupan kompleks yang telah pupus berjuta-juta tahun dahulu. Mereka mungkin tak mempunyai pemangsa di dunia komtemporari, tiada sesiapa yang memeriksa pertumbuhan mereka. Kami tak mahu mereka boleh hidup di dunia luar. Jadi, saya menjadikan mereka bergantung kepada lisin (lysine dependent). Saya telah memasukkan gen yang menghasilkan satu enzim rosak dalam metabolisme protein. Akibatnya, mereka tidak dapat menghasilkan lisin asid amino. Mereka harus mendapatkannya dari luar. Melainkan mereka mendapat sumber diet lisin eksogen yang dibekalkan oleh kami, dalam bentuk tablet. Jika tak, mereka akan koma dalam tempoh dua belas jam dan mati. Mereka direka bentuk secara genetik untuk tidak dapat bertahan secara semula jadi di dunia nyata. Mereka hanya boleh hidup di Jurassic Park sahaja. Mereka langsung tak bebas. Mereka macam banduan kami.”
“Inilah bilik kawalan,” ujar Ed Regis. “Awak sudah pun tahu macam mana haiwan di sini dihasilkan, awak mesti nak tengok bilik kawalan taman pula bukan? Jadi, sebelum kita keluar ke—”
Percakapannya terhenti. Melalui tingkap kaca yang tebal itu, bilik itu nampak gelap. Monitor dimatikan, kecuali tiga buah yang sedang memaparkan nombor yang berputar dan imej bot besar.
“Apa yang tengah berlaku?” tanya Ed Regis. “Oh, mereka sedang berlabuh.”
“Berlabuh?”
“Setiap dua minggu, bot bekalan akan masuk dari tanah besar. Salah satu benda yang tak ada di pulau ini adalah pelabuhan ataupun limbungan yang bagus. Agak susah untuk melabuhkan kapal, semasa laut sedang bergelora. Ini akan mengambil masa beberapa minit.” Dia mengetuk tingkap tetapi tidak dipedulikan pekerja-pekerja di dalam itu. “Saya rasa kita kena tunggu sajalah.”
Ellie menoleh ke arah Dr. Wu. “Awak ada sebut tadi, kadangkala ada haiwan yang dihasilkan, pada awalnya nampak baik, tetapi sebaik sahaja ia membesar, ada beberapa kecacatan…”
“Ya,” jawab Dr. Wu. “Saya masih tak jumpa cara untuk mengatasinya. Kami boleh mengklon DNA, tapi kerja ini banyak bergantung kepada tumbesaran dinosaur. Dan kami tak pasti sama ada semuanya berfungsi melainkan kami sendiri yang tengok mereka membesar dengan sepatutnya.”
Dr. Grant pula bertanya, “Macam mana awak tahu ia membesar dengan sepatutnya? Tak ada siapa yang pernah melihat haiwan ini sebelum ini.”
Dr. Wu tersenyum. “Saya pun selalu terfikir tentang itu. Pada pendapat saya, ia macam paradoks. Dan saya berharap, ahli paleontologi macam awak akan bandingkan dinosaur kami dengan rekod fosil untuk mengesahkan urutan tumbesaran mereka.”
Ellie mencelah lagi, “Tadi awak ada cakap yang velociraptor itu adalah mongoliensis?”
“Ya, lokasi penemuan ambar itu, ia dari China.” Kata Dr. Wu.
“Menarik, saya baru saja menggali bayi antirrhopus. Ada tak raptor dewasa di sini?” jelas Dr. Grant.
“Ya, lapan ekor raptor dewasa betina. Betina adalah pemburu sebenar. Mereka juga berburu dalam kumpulan.”
“Adakah kita dapat tengok mereka dalam lawatan nanti?”
“Eh, tak.” Kata Dr. Wu secara tiba-tiba. Dia kelihatan sedikit resah. Perbualan terhenti seketika. Dr. Wu terus memandang Encik Regis.
“Buat masa sekarang tak.” Ucap Encik Regis. “Velociraptor belum lagi menyesuaikan diri di dalam persekitaran taman. Kami masih lagi meletakkan mereka di dalam sangkar pemantauan.”
“Boleh saya tengok mereka dekat situ?” kata Dr. Grant.
“Sudah tentu boleh. Sebaiknya, sementara kita menunggu,” Ed Regis mengerling jam tangannya. “awak nak ke sana dan tengok mereka sekarang?”
“Boleh sangat!” kata Dr. Grant.
“Jom!” sambut Ellie gembira.
“Saya pun nak ikut,” kata Tim dengan penuh semangat.
“Awak jalan ke bahagian belakang bangunan ini, selepas awak lalu bangunan kemudahan sokongan (support facility), awak akan nampak sangkar itu. Tapi jangan pergi terlalu dekat dengan pagar. Awak nak ikut sekali?” Ed Regis bertanya kepada kanak-kanak perempuan itu.
“Tak nak,” kata Lex. Dia memandang Encik Regis lalu berkata, “Awak nak main dengan saya tak? Main lontar bola?”
“Boleh.” Kata Ed Regis. “Apa kata kita turun ke tingkat bawah dan main dekat sana sementara kita tunggu bilik kawalan dibuka?”
Dr. Grant berjalan bersama-sama Ellie dan Dr. Malcolm di bahagian belakang bangunan utama, Tim juga turut serta. Dr. Grant suka kanak-kanak—mustahil untuknya tidak menyukai kanak-kanak yang sangat bersemangat bercerita tentang dinosaur. Dr. Grant pernah melihat kanak-kakak di muzium sambil ternganga memandang rangka besar yang tergantung di atas mereka. Dia tertanya-tanya apakah yang menyebabkan mereka sangat teruja. Dia membuat kesimpulan bahawa kanak-kanak menyukai dinosaur kerana ia adalah makhluk gergasi ini menjadi personafikasi kuasa yang kuat dan tidak terkawal. Mereka merupakan simbolik kepada ibu bapa. Menakjubkan dan menakutkan, sama seperti ibu bapa. Dan kanak-kanak menyayangi mereka, seperti mana mereka menyayangi ibu bapa mereka.
Dr. Grant juga mengesyaki bahawa itulah sebabnya kanak-kanak kecil pun mempelajari nama-nama dinosaur. Dia sentiasa terkejut apabila terdengar kanak-kanak tiga tahun menjerit: “Stegosaurus!”. Dengan menyebut nama-nama rumit ini, ia seakan-akan kita lebih berkuasa dari gergasi itu, seperti mengawal mereka.
“Apa yang awak tahu pasal Velociraptor?” Dr. Grant bertanya kepada Tim. Dia cuma mahu berbual.
“Haiwan karnivor kecil yang memburu secara berkumpulan, sama macam Deinonychus,” jawab Tim.
“Tepat sekali,” kata Dr. Grant, “walaupun Deinonychus kini dianggap sebagai salah satu velociraptor. Dan idea yang mereka adalah pemburu berkumpulan, itu semua mengikut keadaan. Ini semua berpunca daripada rupa mereka, yang mana mereka begitu tangkas dan kuat tetapi kecil. Mereka dikira kecil agak untuk dinosaur, dengan berat sekitar enam puluh lapan ke seratus tiga puluh enam kilogram. Kita mengandaikan yang mereka akan memburu dalam kumpulan jika mangsanya adalah lebih besar. Dan terdapat beberapa penemuan fosil di mana seekor haiwan mangsa yang besar dijumpai bersama-sama rangka raptor, menandakan mereka memburu dalam kumpulan. Dan ternyata raptor mempunyai saiz otak yang besar, lebih pandai daripada kebanyakkan dinosaur.”
“Pandai? Pandai yang macam mana?” tanya Dr. Malcolm.
“Bergantung kepada siapa awak bercakap,” kata Dr. Grant. “Macam apa yang dikatakan oleh ahli paleontologi bahawa dinosaur mungkin adalah haiwan berdarah panas, dan ramai juga yang berfikiran bahawa mereka mungkin agak pandai. Tapi tak ada siapa yang pasti.”
Mereka meninggalkan kawasan pelawat dan kemudian mereka terdengar bunyi dengung yang kuat dari penjana elektrik dan terhidu bau petrol. Mereka melewati sebatang pokok palma dan ternampak sebuah bangsal konkrit besar beratapkan bumbung keluli yang rendah. Bunyi bising itu seolah-olah datang dari situ. Mereka terus melihat ke dalam bangsal.
“Itu mesti penjana elektrik,” kata Ellie.
“Besarnya,” balas Dr. Grant sambil mengintip ke dalam.
Loji jana kuasa itu sebenarnya adalah bangunan dua tingkat di bawah tanah. Sebuah kompleks besar yang dipenuhi turbin dan paip, serta diterangi dengan cahaya dari mentol elektrik. “Mustahil semua ini hanya untuk resort,” kata Dr. Malcolm. “Mereka macam tengah menjana elektrik untuk sebuah bandar kecil.”
“Mungkin untuk komputer-komputer itu?”
“Mungkin.”
Dr. Grant terdengar bunyi seperti kambing mengembek, dan dia berjalan beberapa langkah ke utara. Kini, dia berada di sebuah kandang kambing. Dia segera mengira, dalam anggarannya, terdapat lima atau enam puluh ekor kambing.
“Untuk apa kambing sebanyak itu?” tanya Ellie.
“Itulah, saya tak pasti.”
“Mungkin untuk jadi makanan dinosaur,” kata Dr. Malcolm.
Mereka terus berjalan mengikut laluan tanah, menyusuri hutan buluh yang tebal. Mereka tiba di pagar yang berantai setinggi dua belas kaki, dilingkari dawai berduri di bahagian atasnya. Terdapat bunyi dengung elektrik di sepanjang pagar luar.
Di sebalik pagar, Dr. Grant ternampak gugusan paku-pakis besar yang sangat banyak, setinggi lima kaki. Dia terdengar bunyi dengusan seperti sedang semput. Kemudian dia terdengar bunyi tapak kaki bergerak yang semakin dekat. Tiba-tiba, semuanya senyap.
“Saya tak nampak apa-apa pun,” bisik Tim.
“Ssssh.”
Dr. Grant menunggu. Beberapa saat pun berlalu. Hanya bunyi lalat kedengaran di udara. Dia masih lagi tidak nampak apa-apa.
Ellie menepuk bahunya dan menunjuk sesuatu.
Di tengah-tengah paku-pakis, Dr. Grant ternampak kepala seekor haiwan. Ia tidak bergerak, sebahagiannya tersembunyi di antara pelepah, ada dua mata gelap yang besar sedang memerhati mereka dengan dingin.
Kepalanya sebesar dua kaki. Dari muncung runcingnya, terdapat sebaris gigi yang panjang hingga ke lubang meatus auditori (auditory meatus, saluran telinga luar ke gegendang telinga) yang berfungsi sebagai telinga. Kepala itu mengingatkannya kepada cicak besar ataupun buaya. Matanya tidak berkelip dan haiwan itu tidak bergerak. Seluruh badannya seperti tekstur kulit dan berkerikil. Warnanya sama seperti bayi sebentar tadi: kuning-perang dengan tanda kemerahan yang lebih gelap, seperti jalur harimau.
Sambil Dr. Grant memerhatikannya, ada satu kaki depan (forelimb) sedang menjangkau dengan perlahan untuk menepis paku-pakis daripada muka haiwan itu. Daripada anggota badannya, ia kelihatan berotot. Tangannya mempunyai tiga jari yang mencengkam, masing-masing dilengkapi kuku melengkung. Tangan itu dengan kadar perlahan, menepis paku-pakis.
Dr. Grant berasa seram sejuk dan terfikir, dia sedang memburu kita.
Untuk mamalia seperti manusia, ada sesuatu yang tidak dapat digambarkan tentang cara reptilia memburu mangsanya. Patutlah manusia sangat membenci reptilia. Keheningan, kesejukan dan gerak-geri, semuanya serba tak kena. Jadi, apabila terserempak dengan buaya atau reptilia besar, ia mengingatkan kita tentang perbezaan kehidupan dan dunia yang kita alami. Dan dunia mereka yang kini sudah lenyap dari bumi. Sudah tentu, haiwan ini masih tidak sedar bahawa ia sudah dikesan, dan dia—
Serangan datang secara tiba-tiba, dari kiri dan kanan. Raptor-raptor itu menyerang dengan kelajuan yang amat dasyat, dalam waktu yang singkat sahaja mereka sudah di depan pagar. Semuanya kelihatan kabur di mata Dr. Grant. Dia menyedari bahawa mereka mempunyai badan yang sangat berotot, setinggi enam kaki, ekor yang mengimbangi badan, kuku yang melengkung, rahang mereka terbuka luas dengan gigi yang bergerigi.
Haiwan-haiwan itu menggeram ketika mereka bergerak ke hadapan, dan melompat ke udara. Mereka juga mengangkat kaki belakang menggunakan kuku belati yang besar. Kemudian mereka menghempas pagar itu, dan terdapat beberapa percikan api.
Velociraptor-velociraptor itu pun jatuh ke belakang, ke atas tanah. Mereka pun berdesis. Para pelawat semua bergerak ke hadapan, teruja dengan apa yang berlaku. Selepas itu, ada haiwan ketiga menyerang, melompat ke atas dan menyerang pagar sehingga paras dada. Tim menjerit ketakutan apabila percikan api meletup di sekelilingnya. Makhluk-makhluk itu menggeram, bunyi desis reptilia itu semakin perlahan, dan mereka melompat semula ke sebalik paku-pakis. Kemudian mereka berlalu pergi, meninggalkan bau busuk yang tidak begitu kuat dan asap yang menusuk hidung.
“Ya Tuhan,” Tim berkata.
“Mereka sangat laju,” Ellie mencelah.
“Pemburu berkumpulan,” ucap Dr. Grant sambil menggelengkan kepalanya. “Pemburu berkumpulan yang mengamalkan serangan hendap, itu adalah naluri mereka… menarik.”
“Saya tak rasa mereka pandai,” kata Dr. Malcolm.
Di sebalik pagar, mereka mendengar dengusan di pokok palma. Beberapa kepala menjenguk keluar secara perlahan dari dedaun. Dr. Grant terus mengira, tiga… empat… lima… haiwan-haiwan itu sedang memerhatikan mereka. Merenung tajam.
Seorang lelaki berkulit hitam berlari ke arah mereka. “Awak semua okey?”
“Kami okey.” Jawab Dr. Grant.
“Penggera berbunyi tadi.” Lelaki itu melihat pagar yang kemek dan hangus. “Mereka serang awak?”
“Ya, tiga ekor.”
Lelaki berkulit hitam itu mengangguk. “Mereka selalu macam itu. Langgar pagar, dan terkena renjatan elektrik. Mereka tak kisah pun.”
“Tak begitu pintar, bukan?” Dr. Malcolm berkata.
Lelaki berkulit hitam itu terhenti seketika. “Encik bernasib baik sebab adanya pagar itu,” katanya kepada Dr. Malcolm sambil mengecilkan mata kerana cahaya matahari.
Dari awal hingga akhir, serangan itu hanya mengambil masa kurang dari enam saat. Dr. Grant masih lagi terkejut dan sedang berfikir. Kelajuan mereka sangat dasyat—haiwan itu sangat laju, sehinggakan dia hampir tidak nampak pergerakkan mereka.
Dalam perjalanan pulang, Dr. Malcolm pun berkata, “Mereka betul-betul laju.”
“Ya, lebih laju dari mana-mana reptilia hidup. Buaya lembu jantan (bull alligator) juga bergerak laju, tetapi dalam jarak yang dekat, lima atau enam kaki. Cicak besar seperti komodo sebesar lima kaki di Indonesia juga telah mencatatkan kelajuan tiga puluh empat puluh lapan kilometer sejam, cukup laju untuk melanggar dan mencederakan seorang lelaki. Dan mereka membunuh manusia sepanjang masa. Tetapi, saya rasa haiwan di belakang pagar itu dua kali lebih laju.”
“Kelajuan cheetah,” Dr. Malcolm mencelah. “Sembilan puluh enam ke seratus dua belas kilometer sejam.”
“Betul itu.”
“Tapi, mereka nampaknya macam meluru ke depan, macam burung.” Kata Dr. Malcolm lagi.
“Ya.” Dalam dunia kontemporari, hanya mamalia yang sangat kecil seperti cerpelai yang melawan ular tedung sahaja yang mempunyai tindak balas sepantas itu. Mamalia kecil dan burung. Burung sekretari Afrika; si pemburu ular ataupun burung kasuari. Tambahan pula, velociraptor memberikan gambaran ancaman maut dan kepantasan yang sama dengan burung kasuari, seperti yang pernah dilihat Dr. Grant sebelum ini. Sama seperti burung unta yang tidak boleh terbang di New Guinea.
“Velociraptor memang nampak macam reptilia, berdasarkan kulit dan rupa mereka, tapi mereka bergerak macam burung. Kelajuan dan kecerdasan pun macam burung. Betul tak?” Tanya Dr. Malcolm.
“Ya, saya rasa mereka ada campuran sifat.”
“Awak tak terkejut?”
“Tak sangat. Ia sebenarnya hampir sama dengan pendapat para ahli paleontologi satu masa dulu.” Kata Dr. Grant.
Semasa penemuan tulang gergasi pertama pada tahun 1820-an dan 1830-an, para saintis berasa bertanggungjawab untuk menjelaskan bahawa tulang-tulang itu adalah kepunyaan haiwan besar zaman moden. Kerana mereka percaya bahawa tidak ada spesies yang boleh pupus. Hal ini kerana, Tuhan tidak akan membenarkan salah satu ciptaan-Nya mati.
Lama-kelamaan, ia menjadi jelas bahawa tanggapan mereka terhadap ciptaan Tuhan ini telah tersilap dan tulang-tulang itu adalah milik haiwan yang sudah pupus. Tetapi haiwan apa?
Pada tahun 1842, Richard Owen, seorang ahli anatomi British terkemuka, memanggil mereka Dinosauria, yang bermaksud “cicak yang teruk”. Owen menyedari bahawa dinosaur seolah-olah gambungan ciri-ciri cicak, buaya dan burung. Terutamanya, di bahagian pinggul dinosaur, ia kelihatan seperti burung, bukannya cicak. Dan tidak seperti biawak, kebanyakkan dinosaur boleh berdiri tegak. Owen membayangkan dinosaur sebagai makhluk yang bergerak pantas dan aktif. Pendapat ini diterima selama empat puluh tahun.
Tetapi, apabila tulang-tulang bersaiz gergasi ditemui, haiwan yang seberat seratus tan, para saintis mula membayangkan dinosaur adalah makhluk gergasi yang lembab bergerak dan tidak aktif. Mereka adalah haiwan yang ditakdirkan untuk pupus. Imej reptilia yang lembab pula mendominasi imej dinosaur sebagai burung yang pantas. Dalam beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini, saintis seperti Dr. Grant telah mula beralih arah, dia berpendapat bahawa dinosaur berkemungkinan lebih aktif. Rakan sekerjanya berpendapat bahawa Dr. Grant sedikit radikal dalam konsep tingkah laku dinosaur. Tetapi sekarang, dia terpaksa mengaku yang pendapatnya berbeza daripada kenyataan sebenar tentang pemburu besar dan sangat pantas ini.
“Sebenarnya, apa yang saya tengah fikirkan sekarang adalah,” Dr. Malcolm berkata, “adakah mereka betul-betul sejenis dinosaur?”
“Bagi saya, ya.”
“Dan tingkah laku serangan yang selaras itu…”
“Memang sudah dijangka,” ulas Dr. Grant. Menurut rekod fosil, velociraptor mampu mengalahkan haiwan yang seberat empat ratus lima puluh tiga kilogram seperti Tenontosaurus. Ia boleh bergerak sepantas kuda. Jadi, serangan yang selaras amat diperlukan.
“Macam mana mereka berkomunikasi, tanpa bahasa?”
“Oh, mereka tak perlukan bahasa untuk memburu,” jelas Ellie. “Cimpanzi pun bertindak macam itu. Sekumpulan cimpanzi akan mengintai seekor monyet dan terus membunuhnya. Mereka berkomunikasi menggunakan mata.”
“Dan adakah yang jadi tadi, dinosaur itu tengah serang kita?”
“Ya.”
“Mereka akan bunuh dan makan kita kalau mereka dapat?” Dr. Malcolm bertanya lagi.
“Saya rasa macam itu.”
“Saya bertanya ini bukan sebab apa, cuma,” Dr. Malcolm berkata, “setahu saya, pemangsa besar seperti singa dan harimau tidak dilahirkan sebagai pemakan manusia. Betul tak? Jadi, semakin lama mereka hidup, mereka akan terdedah dengan pengetahuan yang manusia mudah dibunuh. Barulah mereka jadi pembunuh manusia.”
“Ya, saya pun terfikir macam itu,” balas Dr. Grant.
“Tapi saya rasa mereka kurang berminat dengan manusia, tak macam singa dan harimau. Lagipun, mereka ini hidup pada zaman sebelum manusia dan mamalia besar wujud. Hanya Tuhan saja yang tahu apa yang mereka fikir bila nampak kita. Jadi persoalannya: adakah mereka terdedah dengan pengetahuan yang manusia ini mudah dibunuh?”
Kumpulan pelawat itu terdiam sambil meneruskan perjalanan.
“Tapi,” Dr. Malcolm berkata, “sekarang ini, saya dah tak sabar nak tengok bilik kawalan.”
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Translation education
Master's degree - UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
Experience
Years of experience: 3. Registered at ProZ.com: Mar 2024.
Across, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, CafeTran Espresso, ChatGPT, DeepL, Google Translator Toolkit, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, ProZ.com Translation Center, Smartcat
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Bio
An aspiring translator and English lecturer who loves to embark on new journeys with solid background of English language and literature, as well as translation. Major interest is literary translation where I can have the liberty to express myself without altering the meaning.
Expertise