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In the chapter The Grid, Tim Murphy uses the Control Room's computer to try to save the people stuck in the Safari Lodge and ultimately return Jurassic Park to order.

Plot[]

Tim tries to return to the main screen of the Control Room's computer as he and Lex are in panic. At first Tim is unable to return to the main screen as he tries various commands. However, he somehow does reach the screen he desires for a reason he does not know. He then pushes the label named "TEMPLATE-MAIN", which leads to a complicated diagram with interconnecting boxes and arrows. He goes back and pushes the label "COMMON INTERFACE", which changes to a screen with many tables.

Tim pushes the label "INFO" and a window appears on the screen with information about the user interface. Considering this window to be useless, he then pushes the label "FIND" on the screen, which gives him another window describing the what he had just pressed as a context sensitive command. Tim then tries the command "GO BACK", only for another window to appear telling him that he cannot use this command without a specific search option.

Robert Muldoon asks about his progress over the radio, though Timmy does not answer it due to his focus at the task at hand. As Timmy pushes several buttons, the main monitor goes black with no warning whatsoever before returning to the main screen. He studies the screen, noticing that "SAFETY/HEALTH" and "CRITICAL LOCKS" could be useful, but after hearing the growl of Velociraptors Tim chooses "SETGRIDS DNL". When the screen changes, he is unsure of what to select, so he pushes the command named "STANDARD PARAMETERS". This sends him to a screen contains grids of areas of the park.

He sees the grid for the Safari Lodge labeled "F4" and pushes it, but the computer gives him "Error-505": Power Incompatible with Command Error. He tries the command again and is given the same error. As he tries to think of a solution to the problem, Lex pulls him away from the computer, where he hears raptor snarls coming from the hallway.

At the Safari Lodge, the two Velociraptors there have almost chewed through the second metal bar of the skylight above Dr. Ian Malcolm's bed. Noting that there is not much time left until the raptors chew through the second bar, Dr. Malcolm attempts to radio Tim Murphy but gets no response.

Tim looks out of the Control Room and sees a Velociraptor at the far end of the corridor at the balcony. Initially believing it to be the raptor he and his sister locked in the freezer of the Visitor Center Kitchen in the previous chapter, another raptor soon appears, and Tim discovers that they are coming from outside. At first, aimlessly milled in the corridor, but then they begin to walk in single file towards the Murphy children. Tim tries to sneak back inside the Control Room only to find that the door will not open as much as he tries. Lex tells him he's been locked out and Timmy notices that the security doors have become activated.

Unable to return to the room he was previously in, he finds nowhere to flee from the raptors until he sees a dead security guard with his security card still clipped on his belt. He successfully retrieves the guard, though he alerts the raptors in the process. He then quickly opens a nearby door and he and his sister go inside it just as the raptors close in on them.


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