CHAPTER FOUR
Burton Hawkes and Sondra Kimura stood patiently under the conservatory dome, knowing they would not be waiting there for long. They faced the large, opaque silver bubble sitting there in the grass between them and the lake beyond, a far more durable object than it appeared to be. The moment to burst the bubble was fast approaching.
“She’ll be all right,” said Burton confidently. He was a brown-skinned, short-haired, solidly muscular man. “The hibernation procedure before we put her in for decontamination went without a hitch. Brianne left nothing to chance.”
“I know she will,” agreed Sondra, an Asian woman with short black hair. “I’m not worried. I’m just…I don’t know what to call it. It’s a bit like being a parent with a child in the hospital. Except this was about making sure the ‘child’ isn’t sick, not about making her better.”
“She’ll be fine,” Burton said, repeating his point. “And we’ve checked the conditions in the dome so many times and found everything the way it needs to be; nothing’s going to go wrong. Brianne would never have allowed anything to go wrong.”
The dome of the conservatory had a ceramic-metallic portal set into the lower rim on one side. Burton and Selina, riding in a topless hovercar, had accessed the interior of the dome through the portal and set down just a few steps away from where they were standing. A whirring sound welled up from the distance, letting them know that another vehicle was skimming in from about a kilometer and a half away, where they had entered.
The comm units in their coveralls gave forth a tone. Burton looked over at Sondra, silently asking, You want to get that? Sondra understood the unspoken question. She touched a surface on her sleeve.
From Sondra’s sleeve unit came Brianne’s voice. “How’s it looking?” she asked.
“All looks good, just as you’d expect,” replied Sondra.
“Good,” replied Brianne’s voice. “We’re just a few seconds away.”
Burton looked off in the direction from which they had come and saw the shape of another vehicle, larger than the one they had ridden in, moving quickly towards them. He nodded in that direction, and Sondra looked and saw it.
“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 chimed 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.