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 woman 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…”
“Oh, Sir Thrax and Agena Morrow,” Donar recalled. “That was a very big thing, with the Scodax. The whole planet was on edge for quite a while after that—at least until Sir Rawn Ullery turned up alive. When he appeared, he was all that anyone could talk about.”
“Sir Rawn!” said Burton. “That was an incredible story. The greatest Knight of Lacerta, the only one who’d been genetically engineered for enhanced strength and fire-breathing—he’d been lost in space for all those years. Everyone thought he was dead—and then, he just showed up again, right when everyone was catching their breath after the Scodax thing.”
“And then, there was the news about his relationship with that reporter, Joanna Way, who was kidnapped by that deranged scientist who served the Chimerians,” Brianne remembered. She looked off a bit at that, as if her mind were suddenly somewhere else—perhaps imagining Sir Rawn with Joanna. Sir Rawn—the biggest, most powerful, most beautiful dragon male of them all, now the lover of that media woman.
What must it be like for Joanna Way to share the bed of Sir Rawn, to be the object of his constant and all-consuming desire? To have him mounting her and entering her at every opportunity, to be on the receiving end of what was surely his mighty and prodigious Lacertan maleness every night and likely every morning? A faraway look came over her.
She snapped back to attention at the sound of Donar’s voice: “Hello? Brianne?”
Mildly flustered, she focused back on Donar. “Oh…I’m sorry. My mind wandered a bit, thinking of the things Lacerta has been through recently.” That was exactly the right diversion from what had actually taken hold of her thoughts.
“The whole thing with the mutated grass dragons and the clone of the High Chimerian—imagine that old nightmare coming back to haunt the world. And that Interstar Fleet Officer, Leanne Shire, who saved the whole planet from it with that tech of hers. What happened with her wanting to become a Lacertan?”
“Lieutenant Commander Shire was one of the few to pass the screening, from what I’ve heard,” replied Donar. “By this time—I’m sure with the help of her lover, Sir Coram Dunne—she should be a full-fledged weredragon.”
Brianne shook her head. “Three human women, going through all that danger…”
“And ending up with dragon Knights as partners,” Donar observed. “Imagine that.”
“Yes,” said Brianne. “Imagine.”
There was a beat of silence in the lab now. Burton and Sondra glanced at each other and looked away, turning their attention back to the hologram, in which Damara was now swimming up to the surface of the lake.
Brianne found her voice again. “Well, I guess danger and adversity can bond people pretty strongly. Though in the case of that Agena, the ‘bonding’ was already going on when the danger happened. I’ve heard about the Lotteries, and the Courting Chateaux where they go after they’ve been matched, and how busy they get once they get there.”
“Busy indeed,” said Donar, “trying to compensate for the difficulty we have in breeding and maintaining our population. It can take a great deal of time.” He paused, then added very meaningfully, “And a great deal of effort.”
A tingle shot through both Brianne and Donar when he mentioned that. Brianne took a breath to calm the slight jolt in her nerves. A new and further curiosity came over her. “What about you and Conran? Why haven’t you two been in the Lotteries? Why aren’t you away somewhere in a Chateau trying to help with the population problem? That is, if it isn’t too personal, if you don’t mind my asking…?”
“No, I don’t mind. If you want to know the truth, Conran and I have both considered submitting ourselves for the Lotteries. It would be seen as our duty, after all, to help maintain the numbers of our people, to help keep our economy sustainable. And we are very eligible, being in our position…”
“So…why haven’t you been…involved?”
Donar replied with a gentle smile, “Because of the great amount of time and effort we were discussing. Admittedly, it’s the most pleasing effort and the most pleasing way to spend all that time. Many Lacertans leap at the chance to be paired in the Lotteries because once we’ve been paired, we are given a special exemption from all other activities.
Jobs and work are suspended, and all of the citizen’s needs are provided for, until a pairing has been successful and a nest has begun.” He leaned in to her and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Some of us actually call it ‘subsidized screwing.’ Or even ‘financed fucking.’”
Brianne almost burst out cackling at that. She gave a little yelp of sudden amusement and put her hand to her mouth, restraining a peal of loud laughter, as Donar leaned back from her, grinning and nodding. She looked over at Burton and Sondra and caught them casting her a somewhat bemused expression.
As Brianne composed herself, Donar went on, “My brother and I are so eligible that we don’t have any need for it, if you take my meaning. Being wealthy, we have no need to be paid for Lottery service. And there are exemptions and deferments for persons highly placed in government and industry, who help to maintain our society in other ways.
Conran and I have considered waiving our deferments and exemptions and taking on the duty. But our parents wanted us to devote ourselves to the transition of the family business from their hands to ours. Some day we still might submit ourselves for the Lottery. As I said, it would be…fun.”
Her burst of laughter having subsided, Brianne allowed herself a soft, subtle little chuckle. “As much fun for whoever the Lottery matched with you as it would be for you.”
“Of course,” said Donar.
Again, they settled into a beat of silence. Brianne reflected on the Lotteries that they had discussed. It was a fact of Lacertan life that the mutation that had rendered them from human space colonists to awesome dragon metamorphs had inhibited their ability to reproduce. Once contact was reestablished between Lacerta and Earth and its other colonies, the planet had instituted the Lotteries to bring in pure humans with whom the dragon men and women could breed more easily, saving their colony and helping them to build one of the most beautiful and prosperous worlds in known space.
The Lotteries had become an established part of Lacertan culture, as celebrated as any festival or major sporting event on any other planet, and frequently the object of fierce competition for the chance to participate.
Brianne could only imagine how many human females would compete for the opportunity to lie with Donar and Conran Quist, for the pleasure of their beds, even knowing that they would thus be obliged to bear weredragon young. Many women of Earth and its territories would consider it a small price to pay—and would even find the Quist brothers desirable husbands or life partners. And Brianne had to admit, she could hardly blame them.
Donar turned his attention to the holoprojection. Damara had climbed up from the edge of the lake and found a rock on which to perch and sun herself. She sat on the rock with her head held up and took in the rays from above, the wet fur of the pelt on her back glistening in the daylight. “You know,” Donar said thoughtfully, “the purpose of our Lotteries and the purpose of your project are not so far apart. We try to sustain a population. Your work is about bringing one back from the brink.”
“The cralowogs won’t be on the brink for long,” said Brianne. “Damara will be the start of it. I can feel it.”
“I can feel you’re correct,” Donar agreed.
Brianne and Donar allowed themselves one little look at one another and one little smile before they returned their attention to the view of Damara.