Power is the tenth chapter in the Third Configuration. The men further explore the island and Arby suddenly contacts them, informing them where Levine is.
Plot[]
As Eddie, Doc Thorne and Ian Malcolm drive towards the power plant behind the facility, they pass by an old worker village consisting of overgrown cottages, a tennis court, a drained swimming pool and a small convenience store. Looking at the abandoned village, Thorne wonders aloud how many people the island could have supported. Eddie responds that there may be people still on the island, considering that the electricity is still running after all these years. A short while later they arrived at the power plant, a featureless concrete blockhouse with steel vents thoroughly rusted and flecked with yellow spots. Approaching the plant's doors, the three men notice a strong sulphuric odor coming from the building and after opening the door, they find that most of the gauges and valves are encrusted with a yellowish substance. Eddie identifies it as sulphur, and is extremely impressed by what he sees. He explains that its a geothermal power plant the likes of which he has never seen.
Eddie explains how the plant works: InGen's engineers probably tapped a heat source such as gas or steam and piped it up into the plant and used it to boil water in a closed cycle which turns the turbine which in turn generates the electricity power. The turbines are made of a gold alloy, which largely negates the corrosive side-effects of geothermal power which Eddie notes that at such facilities maintenance is usually brutal. InGen's setup is so compact and efficient that no one else has figured out how to do it. Eddie notes that while a chunk of the power grid is spoilt, the plant itself is still fine. As they exit the power plant, they notice that of the two large manufacturing bays they saw earlier and only one was still pristine. The other had largely collapsed and the glass at the rear of the building had shattered completely. Thorne asks if an animal could have done that and Malcolm replied that some animals could easily do that kind of damage considering how heavy they got. Thorne wonders why InGen didn't think about animals causing that sort of damage when they were released and Malcolm responds saying that InGen only intended for them to be in the wild for a few weeks, not long enough to reach full adulthood.
As they moved toward the car they heard an electrical hiss and shortly afterwards Arby's panicked voice comes over the radio telling them to get in the car. Thorne, apologetic with rage, grabs the handset and starts to yell at Arby. Malcolm suggests they should listen to Arby and get in the car. They finally enter the car and patch into the trailer's network to see what has Arby so upset: on their monitor they see an adult Tyrannosaurus moving down the game trail towards them. Thorne asks Malcolm what to do, but he is frozen in fear. Suddenly the T.rex reappears in front of them, its large body blocking their view as it disappears back into the foliage only to reappear a few moments later with a dead animal in its jaws. The T.rex cautiously sniffs the Explorer before sitting on it and covering it with his musk, scent-marking it as its territory.
After the T.rex leaves, they get another call from Arby who has spotted Richard Levine on the security cameras. He is following the T.rex on a bicycle. Thorne gets the motorcycle off the back of the Explorer, readies one of the Lindstradt rifles and sets off after him. Eventually, he comes across partially consumed carcasses and notifies Malcolm, who responds that he must be nearing the T.rex's nest and needs to be very careful. Slowly moving toward the nest, Thorne parts some vegetation ahead of him aside and stares at the nest ahead of him.
Trivia[]
Michael Crichton wrote that female T.rexes were larger than males. This was true when he wrote the story, though recent studies dispute this. Also see a similar article or an article that agrees with what Crichton wrote.
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