Senton
When Senton Trapp first received word that he had been selected to join Prospero, the first sustainable, planetside, human colony in centuries, he hadn't believed it. The field of xenobiology was a nascent one, and he'd spent most of his time studying what had been found on the few sparse worlds that had something that could be classified as "life". He'd never much cared about bacteriology or other microbiology, preferring the larger, more dramatic stuff himself. As a result, school was rather tedious. But Prospero was a different thing all together. It had comparable gravity to Earth That Fell, in addition to an atmosphere that, with some time and careful terraforming, could be used for future human use. Being outcasts among the stars, Humanity had lost some of its pride, but there was still a basic expectation that people could breathe in their home. And while Prospero would not become habitable without protection while Senton was alive, he was happy to be a small part of making that possibility an eventual reality. Which was why he now stared at the loaf-sized creature in front of him with a rapturous smile on his face and an eager anticipation as he waited for Chief of Security Timpson to arrive at the lab. He tapped his fingers anxiously on the lip of the counter, and considered sending a comm to her aedee about speeding things up, then decided against it. He knew she'd received the original summons--his aedee had verified the message seen--but why was she taking so long? He smacked his head. Of course it took a while to walk from one end of the Compound to the other: The Security Wing was on the easternmost side, and though there were pods that would taxi people from the major areas to others, there wasn't a direct path between him and Timpson's office. He shook his head, disgusted with himself for having forgotten. Pushing aside his irritation that he had to wait for Timpson at all, he tapped the viz-player on his private console. The three-dimensional image of a naked woman appeared--his home screen--which he brushed away. The viz-player shifted to his workstation, which contained a panoply of different files, each coded according to his own system. He viewed that particular choice as a bit of job security--if anyone wanted his information, they needed him to decode it. Pulling up the files on the Dentolura and arranging them in a grid, he fingered his way through the different images and documents, his aedee guiding the viz-player's display. "You, my beauty," he said to the creature inside the terraglass container, "are something else." He laughed a little and returned his attention to the display. "You're going to unlock secrets. Secrets nobody even knew they were waiting to learn." Involved in reviewing all that they had observed of the Dentolura--or, as he preferred the nickname, the "luras"--Senton didn't notice the passage of time. Blurred photos, taken by recon-drones, gave a sense of the different species within the genera. He wasn't sure how to classify this one--and it would take some time to create a consensus on where this infant fit into the established species--but he was excited to begin. After reviewing the information, he guessed that it would be a Dentolura ralli or, perhaps, a Dentolura terra, based upon the forepaws. He turned his attention to the creature fully now. He imagined the front legs of it could, given some time to grow, expand to the burrowing-friendly of the terra species. And that was part of what had him so interested in the Dentolura: The genera was expansive, with different species filling a lot of different biological niches, yet all clearly part Dentolura. Of course, binomial names were a vestige of the Earth That Fell. Maybe Prospero would provide the inspiration to change the classification system more than cladistics did back in the twenty-first century. Anything was possible. Glancing over the creature, he noticed something that hadn't been seen before: The body had a mass of nodules, small protuberances that pebbled the skin. Certain areas--near the knobby head's openings that, so far as Senton could see, looked like ears--had larger protuberances of a similar shape. What service they performed, Senton could only guess, but they fascinated him. The creature fascinated him. As it was an infant, it didn't have the hardened bone carapace over its head that they knew the adults had. The split tail was also something that must happen during pubescence, as this infant didn't have that feature. Its strangely arranged legs splayed more than Senton thought would be normal, though he was going off of video images--live specimens had yet to be captured. The door to the lab dilated and Ann Timpson arrived, her face clouded. "Chief!" said Senton, standing up. The fact that she had almost become his sister-in-law tickled the back of his head as he sized her up. She always struck him as a squat, rather unpleasant version of her sister, as if all the same basic features were squashed and smeared. While Charalee was tall, slender, and as attractive as a woman could be who had threatened to shear off his manhood with a scalpel if he called her again, Ann was rounder, shorter, and more muscular. That probably came from Ann training with Pas, he figured, as they could manipulate her digenetics to give her greater upper body strength and additional stamina. One thing they hadn't changed, though, was her tough demeanor. Senton knew Ann could be friendly and jovial, but when she was on the job, she didn't care that they had some history: He couldn't call her Ann and expect to keep unchastised. "Senton," said Ann in response, "tell me you didn't do what I think you did." Senton held up a hand, a flimsy smile crossing his face. "Now, calm down here." "I'm perfectly calm," said Senton, standing with her feet straight below her shoulders. She wore the same kind of coveralls that everyone in the Compound tended to use, with her favorite jacket pulled over the top. "But I'm also unhappy. You know, Senton, that I don't appreciate surprises." He looked into her brown eyes, seeing a hint of familiarity written there, but then it was gone. While it wasn't unusual for an eighty-year-old to still be in the prime of life, were it not for her salt-and-peppered hair, he would've guessed her age at no more than early thirties. Her attitude, though, was entirely cantankerous old woman, so far as Senton could tell. "Look, this isn't a surprise as much as it is a massive discovery! You know how long we've been trying to capture a lura." "I do." "And we had this opportunity…" "How did you come by this 'opportunity' in the first place?" she asked, glowering into the guilty smile that Senton couldn't keep off his face. "I…" He cleared his throat and bobbed his head as he struggled to figure out what he wanted to say. He hated that she did this to him, made him feel so inadequate. He was a doctor, for the love of Earth! She shouldn't be able to make him feel like a kid simply by setting her jaw in that particular way and shooting daggers from her eyes. "I went out with a fence crew." Ann's shoulders slumped. "You're kidding me. You're not authorized to get within ten meters of those fences! You don't have the training!" "But that's the thing, I didn't have to get close. I was out there to see, not interact. I wasn't trying to get anything more than a closer look at the foliage. Honest. I wasn't trying to pick anything out." He gestured at the creature. "It just…happened." Ann's jaw shifted. "Happened? Care to elaborate, Doctor?" Senton swallowed, his nerves creeping over him. It wasn't because of the almost-familial connection, but more the idea of who Ann was and what she could do if he didn't cooperate. A flare of irritation and rebellion stirred within him, but he smothered it quickly. Better to go with the flow then try to be a dam, he'd always been taught…though he'd had to look up what a dam meant, since naturally occurring waterways were as gone as Earth. Part of the reason Prospero was so interesting was because of the fact that it had liquid water on the surface. "You know Jank?" "Yes." "I beat him at a round of poker the other night. Rather than paying the ante, I asked for a favor." "To go out with him." "Yeah." "And?" "Well, they were repairing the ruined part of the fence--you know, from the storm last night?" She nodded. "Right, so I was going along. Only to observe, I swear by my mother's love." When she didn't indicate either way if she believed him, he continued in a rush. "So I went out with him. And on our side of the fence, looking forlorn, when this little lura showed up." Ann's eyes clicked onto the baby creature. "It was portentous." "I don't think I like that idea," said Ann. "I like predictable. I like familiar. I like secure. You have brought this creature into our home. We have no idea what it can do--what any of its kind can do. You study them, Doctor. You should know this better than I." Senton puffed up his chest. "I do. Of course, Chief, I definitely know that there's a risk. But that's the beauty of scientific discovery, isn't it?" "I don't think so." He groaned, gesturing at the specimen. "This thing has come across our path, pointing to new ways that evolution can benefit certain characteristics." "We have plenty of documentation about how evolution works from before Earth Fell, Senton. We don't need to see it played out again." "But imagine if Earth had taken one small deviation, one small change from what it took! We could be a completely different species. We could have a different physiognomy, a different physiology, a different--" "We wouldn't exist. Humans are what we are, and the rest of it is, at best, an interesting way of passing time and at worst a gross negligence of wasted potential." Senton felt a wave of cold anger wash over him. "What I'm doing is important, Ann. You never know when a biological solution will be what you need to solve your problems." "That may be, Doctor Trapp, but you have brought an alien into my Compound…" "I'm a xenobiologist! That's my job!" "…and done so without my express permission," she continued, ignoring his outburst. Senton felt his jaw tighten with frustration. "So, what, you want me to just…throw it out? Burn it? Dispose of it?" "I want it gone, Trapp." He reached out and grabbed her arm. "Ann, look…" He searched her eyes, his expression as imploring and pitiable as he could manage. "Please. I know that you don't hate me." "Quite the contrary. You took my sister out of my life for a good eight months. That sort of sacrifice deserves a medal, in my estimation." "Then repay that. Give me a day. Please. Don't let me put it out yet." Ann took in a deep breath, then seemed to remember something. Her eyes grew distant and, for a moment, Senton thought that she might explain what was on her mind. The expression faded, the harsh demeanor returned. "Twelve hours." "Eighteen?" She paused. "Sixteen. Two hours for every month you dated my sister. That's all." He smiled, relieved. "Thank you. Thank you, I will put it back just as soon as I'm done." "See that you do." Ann turned on her heel. "And next time you think about bringing in a specimen from Prospero's surface?" "Yes?" "Don't. I dislike getting EMERGENCY-labeled messages. It increases my stress." "Yes, Chief," he said, trying to salute. "Also, don't do that again. You wouldn't know how to salute if your life depended on it." "Thank you!" he shouted after her, but Ann was already through the dilating door. He looked at the lura, which hadn't moved since he'd put it into the container. "Well? Where should we start?" |
What is this?This is a NaNoWriMo project that publishes, day by day, the chapters I'm writing for 2017. If you're confused, go to Chapter 1 Ann and start there. ArchivesCategories
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