DONAR Page 4

  “We’re as ready as you are,” said Selina.

  A moment later, a larger topless craft came skimming in, with Donar at the controls, Conran riding shotgun, and Brianne in the back. It quickly set down, and the head of the Quist Foundation’s newest project climbed out with her benefactors. The three of them quickly joined Brianne’s two assistants, who had been with her through every step of the expedition to Torado IV to find their specimen, from initial planning to execution. The five of them now faced the decontamination blister. The feeling of their momentous achievement warmed them all as much as the rays of Catalan coming down through the dome.

  “We’re all ready, then,” said Brianne. And, tilting her head at the silvery formation, “And she’s ready. She’s slept long enough. Time to wake her up.”

  “Go ahead and do the honors,” Burton said to Brianne. “Let’s see how Damara likes her new home.”

  From a pocket on her coverall, Brianne produced a square of silvery material with rounded edges. It matched the big bubble in the grass before them. A solemn expression came over her. Donar and Conran watched her, taking in what they knew was the meaning of this moment for all of them, but for Brianne especially.

  Softly, Brianne said, “Okay… We went and found you on your planet where you can’t live any more. I know you can’t understand any of this, but we’ve brought you all these light-years from home, and we’ve made everything as perfect for you as we could. And we’ll do everything we can for you now that you’re here. But now…this is your part. Now it’s up to you. Wake up, Damara. Wake up.”

  She raised the little square, pointed it at the shimmering mass, and pressed her thumb into its center. The rounded edges of the device lit up red, and Brianne and her companions all braced themselves for what would come now.

  The response was almost instantaneous. The silvery bubble appeared to shudder for a moment, then pulse as if it were alive, or as if it were an immense organ removed from an even more immense body. Then, the surface of the object split open in multiple places and peeled away like the rind of a gigantic fruit. The peels of the silver shape fell off into the grass and immediately began to shrink and shrivel, to become shreds of a darker, blackish substance that quickly disappeared into the grass until they were gone without a trace.

  There was more of the shiny substance on the turf beneath the shape that the dissolution of the silver mound revealed. It decomposed just as the rest of the mound did, leaving nothing of itself. In minutes, nothing lay in the grass between Brianne’s party and the lake except what the shining object had contained.

  The decontamination blister had broken down and rendered itself into the harmless compounds of which it was made. It had served its purpose and was now gone as if it had never been there at all. The shape that had slumbered inside it lay still, unmoving except for the rising and falling of its breaths. Brianne licked her lips. Her companions fidgeted and shifted around her, watching, waiting, just as Brianne did.

  “Come on,” whispered Brianne. “You’re safe. You’re okay. Just wake up. It’s time. Just wake up…”

  And then, the creature slowly, tentatively raised her head and let out a deep, rasping noise. Just as tentatively, she began to flex her limbs and tail.

  Her breath quickening with excitement, feeling the excitement of those around her, Brianne smiled. “Come on, that’s it…”

  With a snuffling, snorting sound, the animal rustled on the grass and started to clamber to her feet. She arched her back and extended her tail. She lifted her head to the sun and sky of a planet not her own and bellowed loudly as if to ask what had happened since the moment that some strange creatures approached her on the beach of her home, and something rendered her unable to move and made her go to sleep. Then, Damara the cralowog, up on all fours, fixed her eyes on the five creatures standing near her.

  Instinctively, Conran and Donar morphed to half-dragon, presenting themselves with serpentine necks reared back, horned heads held high, wings unfurled, and tails undulating in the grass, the primal weredragon stance of attack and defense. They hissed at the cralowog, warning the animal to keep her distance. Damara lowered her head and pawed at the ground, her own warning sign of readiness to charge or, if need be, defend herself where she stood.

  “We’ve got this,” called Burton. At once, he and Sondra drew forth thick, wand-like devices with lights at the tips. They pointed the wands at Damara. A sound issued forth, barely audible by human or weredragon ears, a sound as much felt in the back of the head and along the skin as it was actually heard. The cralowog reacted to the near-imperceptible sound by raising her head and rearing up, slashing her tail and emitting another, more piercing bellow.

  Burton and Sondra kept their rods pointed at the animal, which bellowed again and then turned tail and charged in the opposite direction from the three humans and the twin dragons. The talons of her feet digging and scraping in the grass, she took off, bounding quickly away to put as much distance as she could between herself and the source of the sound. The edge of the lake sparkled at her, and she made directly for it and the sanctuary that it represented.

  Brianne and the others watched Damara the cralowog retreat from them. They offered no pursuit; they only stood and watched the animal close the distance between herself and the water and lunge mightily forward into the lake, penetrating the surface with a huge, heaving splash. When the upheaval of water settled back into the lake, nothing was left on the surface but ripples and parting bubbles. Damara was gone, deep into the aquatic recesses of her new habitat.

  No sooner had Damara committed herself into the lake than Brianne let out a sharp, joyous whoop of success. “Yes! We did it! We’ve got her here! We’ve got her!”

  Burton and Sondra turned off their sonic prods and slipped them back into their coveralls, laughing, sharing with Brianne the pleasure of their mutual success. They had indeed done it. Laughing, congratulating each other, they elatedly exchanged hugs and back pats, pleased with what they had done and the progress that they’d made. A few steps away, the Quist brothers watched the humans share their happiness. They morphed back to their man-shapes and let Brianne and her assistants have their moment before Brianne turned from Burton and Sondra to the pair who had made their success possible.

  She approached the brothers, beaming at them the biggest smile they had ever seen. She radiated a warmth greater than Catalan itself at them. Brianne held out her arms to them, and Conran and Donar each took her by one hand and welcomed her gratitude. “We couldn’t have done any of this without you,” she said. “This is your success too. I’ve said this so many times already, but…thank you. Both of you, thank you so much.”

  “It is our success too,” said Conran. “But it’s the success that you started. We’re proud to be a part of this with you.”

  “Very proud,” said Donar. “Congratulations, Brianne.” And to her assistants, “Good work, all of you.”

  Donar and Conran continued to bask in Brianne’s smile like two dragons sunning themselves. The only thing better than seeing a beautiful female happy was knowing that they were the ones who had made her happy. And there were so many other things they could do to make her even happier, if only…if only…

  Disengaging from that thought, Conran said, “Now, while our guest gets used to her new accommodations, I’d say there’s one other thing to do for now.”

  “What’s that?” asked Brianne.

  “Celebrate!” replied Conran.

  “Celebrate?” Brianne repeated. “We’ve just gotten started. We have to being monitoring Damara’s progress, her condition, her adaptation to…”

  “Yes, yes, you and Dr. Hawkes and Dr. Kimura can get started on all that right away. My brother and I, meanwhile, can start planning the celebration of the official start of your progress—and your official welcome to our planet. We’re going to give you, your partners, and your project a proper reception.”

  “Really? Now?”

  “Yes, now,” Donar ch
imed in, agreeing with his brother. “You’re on Lacerta now. You’re a guest of one of the wealthiest families on the planet. We’re sponsoring your work, and we’re very proud and excited about it. Everyone in the community has been very interested in what you’re doing and in meeting you. The occasion demands a reception. You can get to work for now—but tonight, there will be a reception, and you’re going to be the guest of honor.”

  Brianne looked over her shoulder at Burton and Sondra, who only smiled and shrugged, clearly not minding the idea a bit. She looked back at the twins and saw how proud they were of her and how happy they were for her—and seeing the pleasure on their handsome, perfect faces, she found she did not mind either.

  “Well, if you insist,” said Brianne.

  “Absolutely, we insist,” replied Conran. “And if you’ve brought nothing formal to wear, we can help the three of you with that.”

  Brianne chuckled subtly. Her work seldom gave her the opportunity to dress up. A simple coverall was the most she usually wore. But now, on the estate of the Quists, at the prospect of being introduced to the elite of weredragon society…it might be fun, at that.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  For the benefit of Damara, the cralowog, her new surroundings were slightly deceptive.

  It was not only the hidden technologies that maintained the exact air temperature that she required at all times, and the ones that kept the water in the lake at the exact optimal temperature with the perfect layers of temperature circulation and oxygenation, and the ideal mud and sediment content. It was not only that the lake was stocked with Lacertan fish and crustaceans that were found to be the most similar to the ones that Damara would find at home and the most compatible with her body chemistry for consumption.

  And it was not only that the surrounding planted forest and meadow were stocked with similarly compatible land animals, providing the alien beast with the optimal prey as food sources.

  Throughout the habitat that had been so painstakingly created for Damara, both under water, on the ground, and in the trees, there were hidden devices, sometimes disguised as flying insects, whose function was to keep track of her every move, record everything she did, watch her at every hour of the day and night. Then all visual data, including other math and measurements, was relayed back to the laboratory that had been set up for Brianne Heatherton and her assistants at the Quist mansion. Some of the monitors were in rocks. Others were in vines and fronds and branches. But they were everywhere, and they were always watching.

  At their lab, Brianne and Drs. Hawkes and Kimura would be watching as well. Immediately after releasing Damara into the habitat, the three scientists retired to their new center of operations to finish setting up shop.

  The Quist brothers had converted one of the large, airy-looking and generously windowed parlors on the lowest level of their family’s home into a room filled with monitor screens and holographic imaging tables, as well as diagnostic and surgical tables in the event that they needed to bring Damara out of the habitat and get her physically into the lab for treatment of any unforeseen condition. They were ready for anything.

  Soon the three scientists had themselves settled in front of a large holo-display, watching Damara move like a shark through the waters of her lake, chasing a school of Lacertan grouper eels that were carefully selected for their similarity to a species of eels on Torado IV that the cralowogs had been observed to eat. It pleased them, as only scientists could be pleased at the success of their endeavors, to see their cralowog starting to make herself at home.

  They were so engrossed watching Damara slice and spin and flip her way through the waters in pursuit of her prey, so quietly mesmerized at the sight of it all, that the three of them jumped a bit when they heard a new voice in the room.

  “How is everything so far in here?”

  As one, the three scientists turned in their seats and were greeted by the sight of Donar Quist approaching. They quickly relaxed, and Brianne smiled at him. Donar hoped her smile meant she was as happy to see him as she was to be watching Damara.

  Brianne stood up facing Donar. “Everything’s great. Perfect. I don’t think it could be any better. It’s all working beautifully.”

  “I’m very pleased to hear it,” Donar said. “It really seems like we’re getting your project off to an auspicious start.”

  “I think so,” Brianne agreed. Then, curiously: “You’re down here by yourself? Where’s your brother?”

  “Conran is off attending to details. If you want to know the truth, he’d already gotten your reception plans under way some time ago, as soon as we knew you and Drs. Hawkes and Kimura would be with us. He’s been busy planning the menu, transmitting the invitations, hiring the entertainment, everything one does for a party. Lacertans love parties—especially wealthy and socially connected Lacertans. Give us a reason to celebrate, then just stand back. It’s one of the things we enjoy best.” He paused meaningfully. “One of them.”

  Brianne smiled and suppressed a chuckle. One of them, indeed. She was fully aware of what male Lacertans in particular enjoyed best.

  “So, Conran arranged everything?” she asked.

  “Well, I assisted some, but he took the lead. There are some things he likes to do best, and other things I like to do best.” The further observation, and one specific thing we both love to do best, went unsaid but understood by both of them.

  “And what are you most interested in?” asked Brianne, again leaving aside the answer that they both knew.

  “Right now,” replied Donar, “I’m most interested in your work.” He glanced at the hologram that filled the air in front of them and the other two scientists. “What really interests me most is administering to projects like yours. Conran and I both have our particular concentrations.

  He usually takes the lead on funding for the arts and assistance to business people on developing planets. On scientific things, we overlap. When it comes to things about nature—wildlife conservation, restoration of habitats, rehabilitation of planets after global disasters, terraforming—those are more my areas.”

  He looked again at Damara. The animal had settled down in a bed of aquatic weeds at the bottom of the lake. “I looked at a number of different projects for conserving different species on Torado IV. There were plenty to choose from—but I liked yours best.”

  “Why mine?” Brianne was ever more curious.

  Donar fixed his eyes firmly on Brianne now, giving her his rapt attention. He did not want to say, because of how my brother and I felt when your work first came to our attention and we first saw you. That was hardly a professional attitude, nor was it a professional answer, as true as it was.

  Instead, he replied, “I suppose because, in a way, the cralowog is the animal on Torado IV that most reminds us of dragons. Not exactly, you understand. The cralowog is a mammal, and we—at least when we’re not like this,” he indicated his human form, “are all reptile. Warm-blooded, but reptilian.

  But the way the cralowogs are…,” he again looked at the animal in the hologram. “There’s something vaguely almost dragon-like about them. They seem to have something like the strength of a dragon, the physical presence of a dragon. If they were evolved a little more, even the pride of a dragon. In a way, perhaps we saw a little bit of ourselves in these creatures.” Looking back at Brianne, he asked, “Does that seem a little self-serving to you?”

  “Not necessarily,” Brianne replied. “I think it sounds a bit empathetic. I think a lot of the time, when we feel something for another person—or another creature—maybe it’s because we see something of ourselves in them. Or we relate a bit to what they’re going through. I’m not saying you can relate personally to an endangered animal from a distressed planet, but if you see a quality about Damara that’s like a dragon in any way, it’s only natural you’d respond.”

  “Well, we did respond,” said Donar. “Something about these animals…touched us.” Again, there were words not said. Something about the w
oman who wants to save them touched us as well. And if we could, my brother and I would touch that woman. We’d do more than touch—if we could.

  “So,” said Brianne, changing both the subject and the subtext, “am I right in guessing we’ll be seeing some very interesting people at the reception?”

  “I’d rather let the actual guest list be a surprise,” Donar replied a bit playfully, “but I can promise you the most interesting people always attend Quist parties. Was there anyone in particular you were interested in meeting?”

  “There are a few people who have been in the news in the last year,” Brianne said. “You have to admit the last year was a pretty eventful one for this planet. It seemed like as soon as one crisis situation was over, another one was right behind it.”

  “That’s true enough,” Donar agreed.

  Sondra chimed in, “On the way here, Brianne and I were talking about that Knight, Sir Thrax Helmer, who was in the Scodax invasion crisis. He and that athlete, that Agena Morrow, who ‘won’ the right to get pregnant with him in one of your Lotteries…”