She was looking at him. He took her gently by the elbow and turned her around to the window.
Long-stemmed grasses shivered in the light breeze, dotted by pale red flowers with white stamens that sparkled in the sun. In the distance, in a soft patch of Maiden’s hair weeds, a herd of dwarf cows watched two small calves butt heads with mock ferocity. Beyond the field, the tari forest rose like a jagged mountain ridge, silver, tall, and majestic. Above it all long feather-brush strokes of clouds highlighted the crystalline depth of the emerald sky.
*****
“Emily, I want you to understand what’s at stake here,” Jennifer said.
Sean remembered to unclench his fists. They sat in front of the Workstation, tapped into the mainframe of the unmanned orbital laboratory. The complex interface of the genetic synthesizer filled the screen. Verne hovered somewhere in the shadows behind them like some menacing guardian of the cybernetic treasure trove.
“You can never, ever, ever tell anyone about this,” Jennifer continued. “Otherwise all of us would lose our jobs and Sean, Santos, Verne, and I would go into a controlled habitat. I realize this is a lot of responsibility for a fourteen-year old. I’m sorry to have to ask this of you.”
“I understand,” Emily said. “I promise not to say anything. I give my word.”
Jennifer took a deep breath. “Very well then. Let’s begin. It’s a chimera, so give it to me piece by piece.”
“Head of a snake,” Emily said. “Body of leopard. Haunches of lion. Feet of a deer.”
“What are you selecting as the primer?” Sean asked.
“A Polberian running lizard,” Jennifer answered.
“It doesn’t sound like a lizard,” he said.
“Sean, shut up. Go on, Emily. What else do we know?”
“It was big. It made noise like forty baying hounds. It lived to be hunted and it was smart, because one time when Pellinore stopped hunting it, it came and found him.”
“We don’t want it too smart,” Sean said.
“I can’t guarantee the baying,” Jennifer said.
Sean thought of saying that he doubted she could guarantee anything. For all they knew the whole thing would come out as a puddle of goo, but under the present circumstances, he decided against voicing his opinion.
*****
Sean stood in the field, knee-deep in grasses. Somewhere a taina bird sang a trilling song. They had yet to catch one.
The incubation of Questing Beast took two days. They had less than twenty four hours until the Committee’s arrival.
A falling star winked into being. It blazed across the sky like a glittering emerald and streaked toward him. The pod. Finally.
The star grew into a white ovoid. For a moment it looked like the pod would plunge into the ground, and then the guides kicked in pulses of intense white flame, righting the pod, slowing the fall, and gently bringing it down in the middle of the field.
A hairline crack split the pod’s surface. Sean stared at the developing door with a sick feeling. Behind him Jennifer made a small noise.
The door swung upward, revealing the dark interior. Something stirred within the gloom, something large and alive. A long head attached to a flexible neck appeared from the darkness, elegant, narrow, almost equine rather than reptilian in its lines. Big eyes with cobalt-colored irises regarded them. The Questing Beast blinked and stepped into the grass.
“Dear Gods,” Sean said.
Lean and graceful, it stood on four muscled legs, ending in wide hooves. Silver fur, dappled with a spray of pale green and carmine rosettes, sheathed its body. A long silky mane flared on its sinuous neck.
It didn’t look like a chimera. It looked like a cohesive being, like nothing he had ever seen before, and it was beautiful.
The Questing Beast opened its mouth and a clear voice issued forth. “Dear Gods.”
Sean’s heart jumped into his throat.
Behind him Verne exhaled. “Oh, shit!”
“Oh, shit,” the Questing Beast said.
“It’s a mimic.” Jennifer strode toward it. “I told you I couldn’t guarantee the baying.”
“Jennifer!” Sean barked sharply. “Don’t get close to that thing!”
“Oh, please.” She reached over and the head dove to her hand. “It’s an herbivore.” She rubbed Beast’s silvery nose and it licked her palm with a long pale tongue. An odd noise emanated from it, as if it had swallowed a beehive and now the infuriated bees fought to escape.
“See,” Jennifer said. “It’s purring.”
Sean remembered to breathe.
“Well?” Jennifer asked. “Where is Nanny?”
Sean turned and waved his arms at Emily standing by the corral. She vanished behind the feed block and reappeared a moment later, followed by the Nannybot astride a dwarf cow fitted with a bridle and reins. The cow seemed surrendered to her fate.
“Is that a net he’s carrying?” Sean wondered.
“Emily’s idea,” Jennifer said. “He has to catch the Beast.”
The bizarre group approached them. Sean stood aside. “Sir Pellinore! This is the Questing Beast. Beast – Sir Pellinore.”
Nanny’s ocular unit swiveled. The Questing Beast blinked.
Without a word, Nanny dug his limbs into the cow’s ribs. The startled bovine jerked forward, the Questing Beast moved in a silver shimmer, and just like that both were gone, galloping across the plain, the lean elegance of the Beast followed by the bouncing Nanny on top of the orange puff of fur.
In a couple of breaths they reached the forest and vanished from the view.
“Ummmm,” Sean said. “Did what I think happened just happen?”
Nobody answered.
“What now?” he demanded.
“Now we hope Nanny catches him in his net,” Emily said.
“Did you see how fast it was?” Verne scowled. “He’ll never catch that thing.”
Santos shook his head. Sean glanced at the forest. Verne was right. Nanny would never catch it…
“It was me,” Jennifer said.
He looked at her. She swallowed visibly.
“I initiated the transmission that the millipede rode. It was me. I logged on after Sean. So blame me.”
Verne turned on his heel and took off toward the forest, punctuating each step with grim determination.
“Where are you going?” Sean called out.
“I need a new stick,” the Chief Programmer answered.
*****
The seven members of the Committee sat at the table like the keepers of keys to Hades, sitting in judgment of the sinners on the crossroads between Tartarus and Isles of the Blest. Sean didn’t even know their names, only the fields they represented. At least Jennifer sat next to him.