Birth of a Dragon
Copyright (c) 1998 Chris
Dragon
All Rights Reserved.
kanis@draconic.com
Revision #10, Feb 21st
1998
Chapter 1
How could he think these
thoughts? Chris was only 12. He’d gotten the idea into his head that
“normal” people tended to have collections of things, so he’d started
collecting New York Seltzer bottles, a couple bottle caps, and then he latched
onto pictures of dragons. For some
reason he found dragons to be beautiful and fascinating. He struggled to understand this now. He hadn’t intended to read the book he just
read. It had a black dragon on the
front… Dark black glimmering scales, an
elegant neck and powerful haunches. A
fearsome creature, but he did not fear it - he loved it. He… wanted to be it. Why?
Why? He’d put such thoughts out
of his mind easily before, but this book had been about a woman who also wished
to become this black dragon. She was
given this chance and took it, only to return again to human form to remain with
the one she loved. Somehow it made it
seem possible. The idea tore at his
heart. It was impossible. It wasn’t right. He should not think it.
Yet the author of this book had thought it. He curled up into a ball on the soft gray back seat and cried as
his human parents drove towards his human home.
Chris
stared down at the ugly pinkish skin on his arms, his dark brown unkempt hair
hanging just within his site, mocking him.
He should not have hair. He did not want it. He imagined again golden scales. Wings at his back. He closed his eyes, trying not to cry. He needed to study.
Should not think of this now.
Another AP Biology test tomorrow.
But he always did well on them.
Whatever he read stuck. Perhaps
because it was so important to his goals that he remember it. DNA, RNA, gene splicing. It was more then fascinating, it offered him
hope. He’d clung to hopes like this
ever since that night in the back of the car.
He’d tried prayer. He’d hoped
for some magical spell like in the story.
But he was too logical to believe such things would work. He wished he did not feel these things. They were such pain. Was it just his sense of being an outsider
that made him want to leave these humans?
He hated the other children as a child.
They teased him, made him retreat within himself. But high school had been so different. People had left him alone, perhaps even
respected him. He’d found a few friends
and over time life should have seemed more tolerable. But the feelings did not leave him. They became stronger. He
could spend weeks just being depressed now.
His parents knew nothing about why.
Nobody did. He looked back down
at his book and forced himself to read on.
It was his only hope left.
It was a cold day in October, 2034
as Chris descended towards the airstrip in the middle of the brown California
desert. He needed to clear his mind
before he went into the lab this morning, but even the soothing grace of
watching the ground slip by far beneath him had not calmed his sense of
anxiety. They’d tried to engineer dragons
five times before. The first embryo
hadn’t lasted a day. The second, only
about a week. But those first trials
weren’t the problem. Chris could handle
seeing an embryo die. And it was
necessary. They simply couldn’t predict
all the variables that went into the creation of life. Oh, but how he’d fooled himself into
thinking the embryos would be the only experiments to fail. Emily had been the first dragon to actually
hatch. Everything went flawlessly at
first. Chris had greeted her with tears
in his eyes. Finally, finally his dream
was close to being a reality. Nothing
could go wrong on such a joyous day.
And nothing did--until five days later when they tried to feed her solid
food. An hour later she complained of
stomach cramps. So young, and yet she
had already picked up the basics of language through psychic
communication. Twenty minutes later she
was convulsing in pain on the floor.
There was nothing any of them could do.
They performed tests, broke equipment in their mad rush to save her
life, all the while feeling her pain in their minds, growing and growing until
he felt like vomiting...
“Warning! Altitude critically low for current airspeed. Compensating.” The intellipiolot pulled the stick back and throttled down as Chris
looked up to see black asphalt dangerously close. He growled softly to himself and hit the override button on the
console to take back control and land with a thump. The end of the runway was coming up too quickly as he deployed
the airbrakes and reversed the engines on full power. He ripped off his headset to get rid of the distracting air
traffic controller yelling in his ears and breathed a small sigh of relief as
it became clear he would stop in time.
He cursed his lapse of focus. He
could lose his license over a stunt like that.
But what did that matter now? He
sighed softly and closed his eyes, crying quietly. Why the hell hadn’t they been more careful? Looking over the genetic code, the flaw had
been painfully obvious. Of course,
anyone could make a mistake. But the
price of this mistake was too high.
Chris had almost given up the project - but he couldn’t. He’d spent his entire life on this. Even if he hadn’t done all the previous
work, even if he had just started today, he couldn’t give up. After Emily died, Chris and his team had
spent the next month reviewing the code to make sure it couldn’t happen again.
But it could. It could still
happen again. It could happen
today. Oh gods...
Chris was greeted at the lab by his
two colleagues, Jessica and Anthony.
Jess was 49, a nondescript woman with graying black hair who looked
older then she was. The only thing
really noticeable about her were her gray eyes. They were light and piercing, a high contrast against her tan
skin. Her parents were half Native
American, but she carried none of their beliefs. She was an expert programmer of genetic code, almost as good as
Chris. Anthony, on the other hand, was
52 and more of an expert in anatomy and various animal physiology. He was a bit stocky, with light brown hair
and whitish skin from staying indoors working all the time. Chris had been a bit stocky himself once,
before he’d tried flying and found that he couldn’t carry much beyond his own weight
in the smaller planes. They’d all met
25 years previously on the Internet on one of the old text based role playing
systems. They’d each been playing
dragons of course. Chris had
systematically questioned everyone playing a dragon, finding out about their
scientific background, seeing what their goals were. Jess and Anthony were the only ones he found that took him
seriously and stuck with the project.
They’d discussed doing another round of recruiting, but the world was
becoming more aware of the possibilities of genetic manipulation and they
couldn’t risk being discovered. After
annoying the hell out of each other for the greater part of the project, Jess
and Anthony had decided to get engaged soon after Emily died. Chris thought they made a cute couple,
though was afraid their quick decision and lack of social life was an ominous
portent for the future of their relationship.
They all worked in a small lab in the middle of the California farm
country. The building was uncomfortably
small and cluttered with equipment and network cabling. It didn’t look like a lab at all from the
outside, which was good for secrecy. A
decaying brown picket fence marked the property line around the dirty white
walls and boarded up windows. There was
a small brown barn converted into a storage warehouse to the back and side of
the building. Chris looked down at a
chicken incubator resting on a folding table in the center of the room. In its warm interior an egg rocked slowly
back and forth. Its multicolored and
iridescent surface looked almost magical even under the buzz of fluorescent
lights, just as the team had engineered it to look. At first Chris had felt foolish for wasting time perfecting such
a trivial aspect. It would have been so
much easier to make it chicken egg white or perhaps just a glossy black. And yet, as he looked into its shimmering
surface, he felt he was truly in the presence of a magical, mythical creature.
Actually, the dragon in that egg was
very different from the traditional mythical dragons. For example, virtually all mythical dragons had tough armored
scales. But realistically, to provide
any sort of reasonable protection from even the weakest of modern weapons,
those scales would have to be made so heavy that flight would be impossible. She lacked the typical ridge of sharp spines
down her back because Chris felt dragons really shouldn’t be afraid to lay on
their own backs. She did have small
retractable claws on her hands and larger talons on her feet, plus a set of
very sharp teeth that weren’t susceptible to plaque and other forms of
decay. She also lacked the rather
pointless prehensile thumb on her wings, body hair of any sort, horns, and the
strange knobs, points, and dangly bits around the head that artists often added
to their dragon creations. Apparently most
humans didn’t think about the fact that such head ornamentation would not only
be heavy, but it would cause turbulence while flying and create so much wind
noise the dragon wouldn’t be able to hear much. For the same reason, Eva’s ears were internal with only small
crests to indicate their presence.
Actually the crests had also been added to make her look more
draconic. Otherwise her head would have
looked too much like that of a snake.
Chris smiled at the thought.
Suddenly the egg cracked. Chris and Anthony moved towards the glass,
eyes glued to the expanding crack.
Movement ceased for a moment, followed by what appeared to be a
frustrated squeak and jab at the shell from within. The blow fractured off a large section of the egg, exposing a
tiny black head on a long neck. The
creature looked ecstatic for a moment, but the expression quickly changed to
fright, and then bewilderment.
In his mind, Chris received an image
of the team of scientists around the egg.
A few seconds later, it changed to an image of dragons around the egg
and a feeling of confusion.
Anthony understood first. “She doesn’t understand why we’re not like
her - why we’re not dragons.”
For a moment, Chris wanted to laugh,
and then he realized that it must be very strange for her. Actually, Emily had never seemed to notice
the discrepancy. Was Eva more
intelligent? At any rate, what could he
tell her? He couldn’t make her
understand genetics with an image. A
minute passed. Eva seemed to forget the
issue and continued to break off bits of shell. Chris began wondering again what it would be like for a dragon
child growing up amidst humans. Not
that he hadn’t expected problems, or - something, but he was bothered that she
had brought up the issue so early.
Eva had now escaped from the shell
completely and was pushing on the clear plastic of the incubator, flapping her
tiny damp wings agitatedly. She acted
like a bird confused by a glass window.
Looking around, she seemed to spot the door and before any of them could
react, she had opened it and was perched atop the machine, looking very proud
of herself. Perhaps she wasn’t as
confused as she’d seemed. Anthony
reached out to grab her, but she backed away and immediately launched into the
air, flapping up to a high metal shelf.
Jess rushed over and shut the door to the lab. Eva glared at her, almost seeming to understand that she was now
trapped. Anthony was attempting to
climb the ladder of shelves to get at her, but Eva simply hopped to another
shelf and looked amused as the shelves nearly toppled over.
“Don’t try and catch her by force.”
Chris said, annoyed. He walked over
beneath the shelf Eva sat on and raised his arm. Eva looked suspicious for a few moments but sensing no danger she
flitted down and landed softly. For a
moment, her claws dug into his skin painfully, but she seemed to sense his
discomfort and quickly loosened her grip.
Chris brought her down to eye level and was caught in her silvery
gaze. He raised his free hand to stroke
her warm skin, perfectly smooth and more black then anything he’d seen
before. She looked like a shadow,
absorbing all the colors of light in a perfectly efficient form of
photosynthesis. The undersides of her
wings were threaded with gold, not an effective color for photosynthesis but
how often would she be flying upside-down?
Now Eva had turned around and was grasping the net-link on Chris’s wrist
with her tiny hands. The touch screen
lit with a flashing icon that caught her eye, so she touched it. She tapped again and startled backwards as
it began playing a short voicemail.
Chris would have stopped her, but he was too intrigued by her every
movement. He felt a pull, and suddenly
Eva had ripped the net-link’s thick plastic band in two. She lifted her prize in triumph before
holding it out towards Chris. He was
too touched to be angry. Shoving the
link into his pocket, he noticed that Anthony had walked over and was watching
Eva as intently as he was. Jess, on the
other hand, was still monitoring equipment.
He wondered briefly how she could do such a thing at a time like this,
but his attention quickly returned to the small dragon. She was now attacking his silver dragon
necklace, a symbol he’d kept since somewhere around age fifteen. This time he sent her a strong impression of
the word ‘NO’ and pulled her away. She
backed off, her silver eyes begging forgiveness. Chris was about to try and apologize when something registered in
his brain. Her eyes were supposed to be
a deep red. He thought for a
moment. Emily’s eyes had been red. They certainly hadn’t changed the code that
controlled eye color. So why did Eva
have these sparkling silvery eyes? He
tried to disregard it, but the possibility that Eva was somehow flawed made his
heart stop. Eva could die, just like
Emily... Horrified, Chris lost his
balance and fell back, bumping his shin painfully on a swivel chair. Eva flitted off his flailing arm and landed
on the incubator, looking annoyed and strangely concerned.
“You OK, man?” Anthony asked.
Even Jess seemed to come out of her
stupor and show some interest in the affair.
Chris ignored them both. He had to think. If their software was making random errors it was unlikely that
it would have randomly caused her eye color to shift to silver. He could see the possibility of it mutating
the code to produce no red pigment at all, but to produce a silver
pigment? The structure of the molecule
was completely different. It was nearly
impossible...
Then the obvious conclusion struck
him. “Jess? You didn’t mess with the computer model did you?”
Jess
was silent, a look of defiance in her eyes.
“You did!” Chris was temporarily silenced by his anger. He had been so horrified to think that Eva
might have... “Damn it Jess, why?! Did
you change anything but the color?!”.
“No... I simply thought she would look better this way,” Jessica said
stubbornly.
“You thought she would look better this way?! Do you realize how
frightened you just made me? God
damn...”
Jess rolled her eyes. “Jesus, it’s just her eye color. It looks better with the gold streaked
underwings then red does.”
Anthony moved in to talk to her
quietly. Chris was still extremely
angry. He felt completely violated that
Jess had changed the code without a group discussion. How could she... Then he
felt Eva on his shoulder rubbing her head against his cheek. His anger melted immediately.
Chris’s office was probably the
cleanest room in the building. He’d
realized early on that work was much more efficient in the long term when your work
environment was clean and he had the discipline to keep it that way. His huge computer monitor hung on the wall
with some older software and books on CD lined up beneath it. The computer itself and a small wooden
cabinet for holding data crystals acted as bookends. The rarely used keyboard pulled out of a drawer beneath the desk,
leaving desk space for projects and an input tablet. The walls were shelved up to the ceiling with books and
equipment. Pictures of dragons filled
up the remaining wall space. Chris was
pouring over data on Eva’s development and metabolic functions. Like a worried father, he found ways to see
every little discrepancy as a life threatening condition. There was a soft knock on the door. Why wouldn’t Jess leave him? Why the hell did she insist on working on
pointless plant research on the side?
She was slowing them down...
Chris opened the door to see a five month old Eva standing in the hallway. “Uh..
Hi Eva.” She was the last person
he had expected. Person? No, she wasn’t exactly a person...
Eva laughed. *I would consider myself more of a
‘creature’.*
Yes, a creature. Wait a minute, how had she read his mind
without him allowing it? He thought he
had more control then that... Chris suddenly
felt uncomfortable.
*Wait, no - I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to read your mind. I mean, I can’t usually, but you were...*
“It’s alright Eva.” Chris sighed. He just hoped she couldn’t read anything when he was
intentionally blocking her. “Come in. What would you like from me?”
Eva approached nervously, absently
closing the door with her tail. Chris
wished he could do that...
There was no extra chair in the
small room so Eva sat on her haunches staring down at the floor. Chris noticed, like always, how beautiful
she was. Her silvery talons gripped the
carpet slightly, her sleek tail sweeping down into a twisting snake behind her,
its tip swishing nervously. She was
already fully grown, standing about as tall as a human but moving with much
more grace. The stark black curves of
her unclothed body were astonishingly perfect in form as Chris traced them with
his eyes. He hid his thoughts with
greater intensity and looked down as Eva thought suddenly, *I’ve been
wondering... Why did you create me?*
Chris was caught off guard by the
question. How could he explain it? He couldn’t lie...
*No, look, I know about
genetics. You engineered me using
advanced software from combined sources of DNA including much that the
computers created from scratch. You
envisioned me years ago, a real creature based on a mythical one your species
has written about for centuries. I know
that what you did might be considered unethical by many people and I know you
could get into a great deal of trouble if your work is ever discovered. All I want to know is - why?*
Alright, he was prepared for
this. She would have asked sooner or
later. Not like it was really a big
deal to tell her... “We - all three of
us - want to be like you, dragons.”
Eva thought for a moment. *I thought as much. I’ve seen the way you look at me.* Chris looked away, embarrassed. *And I’ve caught stray thoughts now and
then. But why? Why dragons?*
Chris was almost baffled by the
question. How could she be what she was
and not see the advantages? “You don’t
see yourself as superior to us?”
*Well, certainly. I have better eyesight, hearing,
strength... But so what? It would have been much easier for you to
modify your own DNA and give yourself all that without changing your
appearance. Why this form?*
“Humans don’t have wings, do they?”
*So you want to be a dragon just so
that you can fly?* Eva asked with a
note of skepticism.
Chris chuckled. “No...
But really, you’ve obviously been thinking about this. I don’t have to list the abilities you have
that are not available to the human form.”
Eva seemed frustrated. *Yes, but... How can it be enough? How
can you leave your own kind? Your
species is generally very social, yet you spend all your time here working on
me. Did you think I would be happy here
alone while you studied me? What am I
going to do with my life as the sole member of a species that isn’t even
supposed to exist?*
Chris was too stunned to think for a
moment. Had he made a terrible
mistake? Gods... He looked up at her in silence, not sure
what to say, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
Eva grimaced and looked down. *I’m sorry... I came in here with the intention of not bringing that up. I…
can feel how you feel. You want
to be a dragon so badly that it pains you.
I don’t understand that, but I understand what it’s made you do. I don’t know if that makes it right…*
“Oh Eva... I don’t really understand it either. I don’t know if it’s right.
I’m so sorry. I was never sure
how you would react. Your life, right now,
must be very lonely. Eva, already I
love you like a father. Please believe
that I would never knowingly hurt you.
Yet I fear that I’ve hurt you more then anyone else ever could…” He sighed softly and closed his eyes.
Eva smiled sadly. *Better to be given the opportunity to live
as a dragon then not live at all. I
can’t blame you, Chris, feeling how you feel.
Besides, it’s too late to change what’s happened. Better to move on and hope for the best.*
Chris looked up into her softly
sparkling eyes and smiled slightly. She
was already so… mature. “You won’t be
alone forever. Some day there will be
many dragons in the world. We can start
a colony… Gods, I’m still not sure
about that part either. What if we
begin to multiply out of control or spread some disease or…” He paused and smiled wanly. “At the very least there will be us. We are all dedicated to becoming dragons. We had to create you first as a template, to
make sure the body works before we work on the process of transformation, which
is almost as complex. I knew creating
you would bring serious problems… but
there was no other way.”
Eva
laughed slightly. “Despite the fact
you’re doing something most of your kind would consider appalling, you
generally seem to be a very ethical person.
You’re just lucky I didn’t turn out to be Frankenstein’s monster.”
Chris
snorted softly and nodded. “It’s damn
near impossible to remain ethical in this pursuit, Eva. I’m ashamed of some of the things I’ve had
to do. Why am I so weak? Why do I let these feelings control my
life?” He shrugged helplessly, watching
Eva. Her wings rustled softly as she
shifted them into a more comfortable position on her back.
Eva
finally thought uncertainly, *I don’t know if you’re weak, Chris. I’ve met few of your kind.*
Chris
smiled a bit at her honest, logical assessment. He hadn’t expected her to answer.
*I
don’t think there’s anything else I wanted to ask you. Thank you for talking to me. I’d think I’d like to be alone to think on
what you’ve said.*
Chris
nodded and Eva rose to pad softly out of the room. He sat back in his beat up swivel chair and looked at a picture
of a glossy black and red dragon backflapping.
He should talk to her more. Slow
down the study a bit. He couldn’t
believe he was so close, that it had all come together so perfectly. It seemed like they’d been working on this
project for many lifetimes, and yet it really hadn’t taken that long. What was the phrase, “standing on the
shoulders of giants”? You couldn’t
wield the power responsibly if you hadn’t worked for it? The world was changing so fast. Computers had become so powerful they could
store and model an entire genome and create a virtual representation of the
creature it represented. Chris
certainly hadn’t had time to create that software. It had been a national collaborative effort. It was meant to study the effects of genetic
diseases, create genetic treatments for diseases and even for certain cosmetic
things like weight loss. It was the
only way to quickly study such things without testing on a live subject, which
was far too dangerous. So many
incurable diseases were now a distant memory because of it. Yet some third world countries had used its
power to wage a horrible biological war.
They’d tried to control the software’s distribution from the start, but
it could be sent anywhere on the World-Net in seconds and could be leaked from
any one of hundreds of collaborating institutions. Chris was afraid of what others would use it for in the
future. Mankind’s power was growing
exponentially, standing on the shoulders of those that had gone before.
*Come on guys, I know this stuff
already!*. Eva had learned more in just
under a year then the average American youth learns by the end of graduate
school. In fact, they had run out of
useful things to teach her. They had
been forced to go on to advanced textbooks dealing with subjects they didn’t
even understand themselves. Yet
whenever they stopped teaching her, she would get incredibly bored and
moody. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have
other interests. She could work wonders
on her computer, had the observation and coordination to be an artist, a
writer, a dancer, the math skills to be a physicist, a chemist, anything, and yet nothing seemed to
truly interest her. Was everything just
too simple for her? Was she still upset
that she was the only one of her kind, trapped in the small confines of the
warehouse and lab? She wouldn’t
say. Gods it was frustrating.
Anthony had had it with her. “Alright, I’ll just go wait in my office
till you get bored and ask me to come back again. But I won’t this time.
I’m sick of this game.”
Eva narrowed her eyes at him as he
walked out. *You’re wrong, you know.*
Chris sighed. Eva had become quite secretive and
cryptic. “Wrong about what?”
*I’m not moody because your science
is too simplistic or because I want to leave.*
She had read his mind again. She was getting more and more lax in asking
permission to do so. “Then what’s
wrong?”
Eva was silent for a long time. *Never mind.*
“Never mind!? Damn it, Eva…” Chris shook his head and followed Anthony outside.
Anthony was waiting for him. “What the hell is her problem?”
“I don’t know. She won’t tell me.”
“Won’t tell you? Jesus... You always seem to get along with her so
much better then me and... Well, Jess
doesn’t seem to like her at all.
Sometimes I can’t blame her. But
you have no idea what’s going on?”
“Nope.”
Eva padded over to her bed to
brood. Why had she done that? She had meant to tell him... She almost had. But how would he react?
She wished she could read farther into his mind. She could do it with Anthony and Jessica. But Chris was too damn closed. She could only sense stray thoughts. And stray thoughts were enough to tell her
that Chris was now frustrated and upset with her. Damn it, damn it, damn it...
Eva watched the sun set slowly
through the dirty glass of her warehouse home.
She yearned for the night as the shadows stretched towards her. The darkness hardly made a difference to her
eyes, but to the eyes of humans her shadowy form was practically
invisible. Tonight was a new moon, the
starlight masked only by the lights of encroaching cities, and Eva planned to
explore farther then she’d dared before.
She loved to fly, to explore the land, the mountains, the rivers -- to
look down on the sparkling cities from high high above. Sometimes she found abandoned vehicles,
houses, even ruins with her keen eyesight.
She only wished she had someone else to share her discoveries with. She opened the door of the warehouse
casually, ignoring the creaking hinges she knew no one could hear. Slowly she spread her wings, and the wind
seemed to rise up in answer, tugging her towards the sky. A lone bat passed overhead and she leapt,
catching the wind and gliding low along the ground below it. Her wingbeats fell inches from the ground as
she looked down, thrilled to see it rushing by so close. She rose to loom above the bat, admiring its
tiny wings, so similar to her own. The
delicate creature didn’t veer away as she had expected, but moved behind her,
riding her wake. She looked back and
laughed, noticing the sky behind her was still brightened by the sun below the
horizon. Glancing down, she almost
thought she saw a man standing on his front porch before the roof blocked her
view. A wave of fear swept over
her. She should have waited for full
darkness before leaving…
Chris woke up to the sound of
pounding on a door. What the... Great, he’d fallen asleep in his
office. 3 AM? Damn... He didn’t feel
like driving back to his apartment. The
pounding resumed. How did this guy even
know there was anyone in the building?
“What is it?!” Chris yelled,
stumbling out of his office and towards the main door. There was no reply, just more pounding. He finally reached the door and opened
it. There stood Mr. Benson, one of
their “loving” neighbors. He was
obviously angry, but there was also a hint of fear in his eyes.
Deprived of the door to pound on,
Mr. Benson spoke. “What the heck are
you people doing over here?!”
“What do you mean?” Chris yawned, attempting to appear
indifferent.
“Don’t play me for a fool, boy! What kind of monsters are you people
creating?! I just saw a darned bat of
some sort fly over my farm. But this thing
wasn’t no normal bat, this thing had a twenty foot wingspan! Black as night, with a long neck and a
tail. Like a... dragon!
And don’t think I don’t know you people are responsible!”
He’d seen Eva? How?
She wouldn’t have gone out...
Maybe it was his imagination. A
coincidence. He was exaggerating the
wingspan if it was Eva. “I don’t know
what you’re talking about. We’re
engineering plants that will...”
“Yeah, I heard that story
before. Where are all your plants,
huh? You’ve been working here for
years, but I ain’t seen no gardens, no greenhouse, nothing! I’m gonna go see for myself.” Mr. Benson walked off towards the warehouse.
“No! Wait!” Oh, what the hell,
the door would be locked anyway. Chris
followed him. What? The door was open! Shit...
“Plants, huh? I don’t see no plants. I do see three mattresses in the
corner. That where your ‘plants’ sleep,
is it? And I suppose your ‘plants’
watch this TV here too?”
This was bad. “Look… sometimes we work late and sleep
here. I don’t know where you get off
blaming us for whatever you saw, but I can tell you it had nothing to do with
us. Now kindly get off our
property.” God that had sounded
pathetic. If only he had lied more as a
child...
Mr. Benson glared at him. “If I thought there was a chance the sheriff
would believe me, I’d have you freaks arrested. But you can’t keep this secret forever. I’m watching you.” Mr.
Benson strode out the door without waiting for a reply.
Chris
was shaking with anger and fear. EVA!!!
Damn it, he couldn’t make her hear his mental call unless she was tuned
to his mind. How long had she been
doing this? For a moment, Chris was
extremely angry with her. Yet he would
have probably done the same thing in her situation. He realized that was why he had been so opposed to Jess’s idea of
putting a lock on the door. They
couldn’t keep her prisoner in that warehouse.
Chris looked over to see Eva creeping around the corner towards the door
to the warehouse. “I see you, Eva.”
She jumped. Apparently she hadn’t seen him. She had been staring in the direction Mr.
Benson had walked off in. *I...* She was shaking.
“What’s wrong, Eva? I didn’t mean to startle you. Look, I know you were out, and I
understand. It’s alright. You’ve just got to...”
*They shot at me! I was flying back over this house... The Bensons? I don’t know... But the
lights were on and everyone must have been awake. A boy... He was standing
on the porch with a gun... And he shot
at me! Why, Chris? I was just flying over...*
Chris growled softly to
himself. He’d taken to making draconic
noises when he was young. Why did his
kind try to destroy things they didn’t understand? Eva wouldn’t even hurt a fly.
She was shaking. He moved closer
and held her gently. “I’m so sorry. I wish people didn’t have to react this
way. We’re… not all like that.”
Eva sobbed softly. *I’m an alien in this world, Chris…*
“I know, Eva. I’m sorry.
I…” He didn’t know what else to
say. He felt guilty. If he became as alien as she he would become
a target as well. He didn’t care. She was still shaking slightly. He began to purr softly to her. Another draconic sound he’d learned to
make. Other dragons on the net had
suggested that dragons purred to show pleasure like cats do, and he had
embraced the sound. It was a comforting
sound. Eva stopped shaking and began
laughing softly.
*You sound like a cat…*
Chris
smiled. “You can purr too, Eva. It’s a natural sound for you.”
Eva
purred hesitantly. It was the most
beautiful sound Chris had ever heard.
He smiled and held her more tightly.
It was the first time they had embraced.
Chapter 2
Jessica still couldn’t believe she’d
wasted so much of her life on this idiotic dream. But now Chris and Anthony were ready to go through with it! It was insane! No, she couldn’t lose Anthony this way. “Tony, are you sure about this?”
“Sure? Hell yeah! Do you think I
would have wasted thirty years on it if I wasn’t? Why? Aren’t you sure?”
Damn it. Why did he have to be such a fool? “Well...”
Anthony’s excitement seemed to
drain. “Jess, if you have any doubts, I
want to know about it.”
“Well, yes, I have a few
doubts. Like, maybe this whole thing
was just a stupid children’s’ fantasy we took a little too far. Like maybe we might die in the process. Like maybe...” She could no longer see through the blur in her eyes. What was her problem anyway? She’d really wanted it for so long... An escape from the crap she saw around her
every day. But maybe it wasn’t really
an escape... She’d devoted her damn
life to this project. She had few
friends, no social life. Hell, maybe
she had latched onto Anthony out of sheer loneliness. But she didn’t want to leave now. She was finally understanding human relationships, and now
Anthony wanted her to leave it all to become some alien animal? Why don’t you see it, Tony? It’s a mistake...
“Honey, you’ve just got cold
feet. Come on! You can’t honestly want to abandon what
we’ve worked so hard for? Come here...”
“You don’t understand! Tony...”
She grudgingly accepted Anthony’s embrace. She was sure now. This
idea had been nagging at the back of her mind since Emily had died and she had
first approached Anthony. Maybe Emily
had been a reminder of her mortality. A
reminder that she couldn’t waste any more time. Yes, she was sure it was a mistake. A horrible, horrible, mistake...
Dragon eve. Chris stood at the door to their building
taking a break from the last minute preparations for the next day. The wind was hot and dry on his face, and
the brightness of the sun made his artificial light accustomed eyes
squint. He stared down the road towards
a line of lemon trees marking the property line of the Bensons. In a month, he would be out in this world,
away from the climate controlled lab and the computers and the net. He would be free to look down on those trees
rather then up. It would be such a
major change. And now Jess and Tony
wouldn’t even be with him. He wasn’t
surprised about Jess after the way she had acted towards Eva and towards the
project in general, but he had been counting on Tony. Anthony still wanted to go through with it, Chris was sure, but
his love for Jessica held him back. How
could he allow this love to crush his life’s dream? He had to resent her for it, if not now, then at some point. Could they ever really be happy? He didn’t know... A beat up car was bouncing up the road towards him. It had bad shocks. A line of blue and red lights along the top indicated it was a
police car. Chris’s heart sank. Not now.
Please, not now.
As it pulled up, an officer shouted
out the window, “We gots reports of a wolf round these parts. Ya seen an’thin?”.
A wolf? “No. Sorry. Haven’t even heard a howl.”
The officer scowled. “Tha Bensons said ya might know
sumthin’. Said ya might even be
breedin’ wolves. Messin’ w’their
offspring. That true?”
Why would the Bensons say they were
breeding wolves... But obviously they
wouldn’t get anywhere if they said they were engineering dragons. “No, sir.
We just do research on plants.
Right now, we’re working on plants that can resist insects. Might help the farmers in this area earn a
lot more money.”
The officer paused, thinking. Chris had guessed correctly, the cop owned a
farm. “I reckon ya could be right. But I still gots ta check the place out, ya
know?”
Check them out? Damn.
Eva! God, what were the chances
she’d be listening? “Uh, sure officer. You can park around the side there.” Chris pointed, hoping he would have a moment
to warn the others while the car parked.
The officer turned off the engine
and got out. “That’s awright, I don’t
reckon ya gets much traffic up here an’way.”
Damn it! Chris forced a smile.
“Come right this way.”
*Chris?*
Eva!
*What’s wrong?*
There’s an officer here. Get out of the warehouse. Go hide over the ridge or something, and
don’t leave any tracks.
*Of course. I’ll tell Anthony and Jessica.*
Yes, tell them I told the cop we
were engineering plants that resist insects.
*Alright. Good luck, Chris.*
Thanks. For once he was glad she had been intruding on his thoughts. He was also glad to feel the calmness and
clarity of her mind. It helped him
focus.
The officer followed Chris quietly
down the hall until Chris stopped at the first door. “I’d like ta check out the warehouse in back firs’.”
Great, a cop with brains. “I’m a little busy, can I introduce you to
one of my associates and let them show you around?”
The officer narrowed his eyes for a
moment. “Ya didn’t look too busy when I
came up.”
This guy certainly was smarter then
he sounded. “I was just finishing my
break when you came up and… I’ve got an experiment that needs tending.”
“I’ll be quick. Jus’ lead the way. An’ then we can both go an’ see your exper’ment afterwards.”
Chris shut up. He was just digging himself deeper. He didn’t really have an experiment to show
this guy when he was done in the warehouse.
Eva?
*Yes?*
Chris held the door while the
officer stepped out of the main lab building.
You’re out of the warehouse, right?
*Yes.*
Good. He shouldn’t have even bothered trying to stall this guy. Eva, ask Jess if she’s got any experiments
running. The officer waited while Chris
unlocked the warehouse door. He looked
down for a moment and then knelt to examine the ground. *Jess says she does.*
“These are odd tracks,” the officer
said. “They weren’t made by an’thing
heavy, but they’re large. An’ they end
a few feet from the door. Know what
made em?”
“Nope.” Chris forced a laugh. “I
hope they aren’t wolf tracks.”
The officer scowled. “Awright, les’ see the inside.”
*Chris?*
Yeah, sorry Eva. Ask Jess to give me some details on the
experiment. Can she leave it
unsupervised? The officer was examining
the mattresses carefully, probably looking for some evidence of who slept on
them.
*She says she’s not even watching it
right now. It’s a simple amplification
of some plant DNA.*
What room?
*Room 2.*
OK, thanks Eva. Tell Jess to stay out of that room.
*OK.*
The officer walked up to Chris. “Wha’s this warehouse used for? Don’t look like no plant exper’ments.”
“Oh, no. This is just a kind of rec. room. Sometimes we use those mattresses to sleep the night here if we
need to keep an eye on an experiment.
Other times, we just take naps.”
Chris forced a smile.
“Don’t see no hair on them
mattresses. No smell either. Yet they’ pretty beat up, like they’ used
every night.”
“We’ve… had them a long time. Ever since we came here, actually. Almost thirty years. They probably don’t smell because we washed
them recently.” He was going to add
that they used sheets but he was afraid the officer would ask to see them.
The officer didn’t look too
convinced, but he didn’t have much to go on either, so he led Chris back to the
lab building. He seemed mildly
surprised when Chris showed him Jess’s experiment and managed to answer all his
questions about it. Next they went to
the room Jess was working in and Chris waited while Jess explained various
aspects of her research to the officer. Chris was frantically wondering how he
would explain the room they had set up for the next day’s procedure when the
officer received a call on his radio and had to leave. Chris went into his office and collapsed in
his swivel chair. What if he came
back? What if he came back
tomorrow? Or any time within the next
month or so while the transformation was taking place? Perhaps they should lie low for a week or
two. Damn the Bensons.
A week had passed hellishly
slowly. The officer hadn’t returned,
and Chris couldn’t wait any longer.
“You sure you’re ready for this,
Chris?” Anthony asked.
Chris growled softly. “You know I’ve been ready for it my entire
life, Tony.”
Anthony smiled. Chris was never one for small talk or
protocol. Alright then. He inserted the intravenous needle.
Oww. Chris had always hated needles.
He could still remember not being able to sit down for a week after
getting a shot in the rear as a young boy.
And then the next time when they wanted to give him a shot in the arm he
had started crying before they’d even done anything. The virus Anthony was
injecting contained engineered DNA housed in a very large strain of virus. It would infect his cells like a normal
virus, but rather then replicating itself and destroying the cells, it would
simply replace the human chromosomes with new ones. These new chromosomes would eventually contain DNA identical to
Eva’s, but at the moment they had extra code that would, in theory, transform a
human body into a dragon body. The “in
theory” part was a big concern, but who else could they test it on? Hopefully any problems that came up could be
handled during the transformation.
Since they didn’t want the virus to be able to escape and become some sort
of disease, it couldn’t replicate itself like a normal virus. That meant Chris needed a lot of it injected
into his body. Any cells that weren’t
infected would be destroyed by his new immune system as foreign bodies, and
cells that were already infected would be modified by the virus so they
wouldn’t be infected again. To make
sure his current immune system didn’t do too much damage to cells infected with
the new DNA, he would have to stay high on immune suppressant drugs for
awhile. Of course that meant he was
highly susceptible to any normal disease that came along, so he would have to
stay in a makeshift “bubble” that separated him from the external environment.
“What’s happening with you and
Jess?” Chris asked, trying to ignore
the discomfort of the needle in his arm.
“Oh...” Anthony paused. “I’m
going to stay with her I guess. For now
anyway. I mean, I can do this
anytime...” He trailed off.
Chris shook his head. He was right, he could go through the
process later. But would he? Not as long as Jess was around. And he couldn’t wait too much longer. The younger the body, the better the
chances. So unless Jess met with an
untimely demise, they would probably grow old and it would be too late. “I’m sorry.
Gods, I don’t know what I would do in your place. Of course, you do have someone who loves
you. Maybe I should be jealous.” He tried to smile.
Anthony put a hand on Chris’s
shoulder. “I do love her.” He tried to sound cheerful, but part of him
still wanted to be dragon and always would.
He hoped someday perhaps it could still happen.
The next day, Chris woke up inside
the bubble in the warehouse. His body
appeared unchanged, but he couldn’t expect anything to have happened yet. He tried to sit up but felt dizzy and weak,
probably because of the drugs he was on.
The clear plastic walls around him looked so fragile. They hadn’t had the resources to build the
bubble properly. It sat in a corner of
the warehouse so that two of its walls could be reinforced by the warehouse
walls. Outside all sorts of equipment
hummed quietly to supply him with clean air and water and monitor his
vitals. He noticed a cable snaking away
from him and realized he had sensors attached to his chest and belly. He smiled wanly.
*The police came again.* Eva was lying in a dark corner of the
warehouse. Her eyes reflected the light
far more then her body, making them appear to float in the darkness. *They wondered where you were. Anthony told them you were on vacation. Mr. Benson doesn’t seem to give up easily.*
No!
They couldn’t find him now. He
was so close… “How’d you keep them out
of here?”
Eva looked down. *I suggested that they leave.*
Chris propped himself up on an elbow
to face Eva. “You what?”
*When they were getting close to the
warehouse I planted the thought in their minds that they’d seen enough, that
everything was alright here and that they had other things to do. There were two of them this time, and they
were ready to search quite extensively.
They had a warrant. I didn’t
know what else to do.*
Chris frowned. He hadn’t known she could do anything like
that. He wasn’t sure he approved. Then again, what else could have been
done? He sighed. “Anything else?”
*Mr. Benson knows he saw something
and he’s scared. After he called the
police he managed to gather up a small group to search for the ‘wolf’ that was
‘eating his chickens’.* Eva snorted at
being called a wolf.
“He won’t get much support if he
tells the truth,” Chris muttered,
disgusted with the whole situation. He
should have waited the full two weeks like he’d intended. He hoped life wasn’t conspiring to teach him
a lesson in patience.
*The wolf story kept people
searching all last night. Of course the
first place they searched was around here.
I didn’t dare leave the warehouse.
Some of them were knocking on the doors and walls. If they had had a ladder to get up to the
windows...* Eva trailed off, then
changed the subject. *How long will the
transformation take?*
“I don’t know. I’d say about a month with growth
stimulation.” They really should have
tried their transformation technique on higher life forms, but it viral gene
therapy was now common and Chris hated animal experimentation, especially when
used to test something like this. He
sighed, thinking of all that had been sacrificed just for him. He couldn’t even say it had been done for
Jess and Anthony too, now that they’d backed out.
Eva interrupted his thought. *Why didn’t you build the bubble in the main
building? All that equipment you had to
move... It seems unnecessary.*
“We would have, but there’s no room.”
Eva grunted. *There’s an entire room in the south.*
“Yeah, but Jess... How did you know there was a room empty?”
Eva gave him a smug smile. At least it looked like a smug smile. *I’ve seen it.*
Chris rolled his eyes. “You could have just asked, you know. I would have let you in.”
Eva just smiled. It almost seemed that Eva’s eyes turned a
lighter shade of silver when she smiled.
Gods, she was beautiful.
The pain... Two weeks had passed, the transformation was
about halfway complete, and Chris was dying.
They had tried to prevent this of course, but the dragon immune system
was more powerful then the human and quite hard to suppress. Before they started they thought they had
worked out a drug that could do it, but it wasn’t enough. Chris’s body was attempting to destroy
itself and doing a very nice job of it too.
Jess, Anthony, and even Eva were working on the problem, trying to come
up with a more effective drug. But they
were too slow. Oh how he’d screwed
up. The rate technology was advancing,
he could have lived to be well over two-hundred. But no, that was too ordinary.
He had to have more. So now he
was going to die at age 46, a strange mutant, half man, half dragon. Chris let out a garbled sort of roar as
another wave of pain threatened to knock him unconscious again.
Eva
burst into the warehouse. *You’re
conscious! Oh, Chris… We didn’t think you’d make it this
long. Jess and Anthony are in the
lab. Should I get them?*
Her
thoughts sounded frantic, sad, confused.
So different from her normal calm presence. It upset him further. He
tried to speak. He couldn’t. He couldn’t speak in this screwed up hybrid
body. But Eva should still pick up on
his thoughts. No. Don’t get them. Let them keep working.
Get me some pain killers.
*No, we can’t. They would only make you weaker. Please Chris, hold on. We’re close. We modified the previous drug.
We’ve just got to synthesize it.
About... Three hours. Please, we’re sure it will work. You’ve got to...* Eva swung her head away.
Was she crying? He couldn’t tell. He was crying from the
pain. Three hours? Oh gods...
For a few minutes, he couldn’t think of anything but the pain. No...
He wasn’t sorry... He’d known
the risks... He wasn’t sorry... Not sorry... He fell unconscious again.
*Wake up!!*
No.
He didn’t want to wake up. Go
away.
*Please! You’re going to die if you don’t stay conscious! Wake up!*
Oh what was the use. It was so much more comfortable here... He couldn’t feel the pain...
“Chris? It’s Anthony. Come on
man, you’ve got to snap out of it!”
Eva spoke directly to Anthony. *He can’t hear you. He can hear me but he won’t listen. We’ve got to go in there and shake him or
something.*
“We can’t do that! He’ll get sick and be worse off then he is
now! Please Eva, keep trying.”
Anthony was right of course. Eva willed her thoughts to be calm. *Chris, you’re going to die if you don’t
wake up. Remember your dream? Fight for it. Wake up!*
Yes. Of course he should wake up.
But that would mean going back to the pain... No, this was better. He
could still survive. What difference
did it make whether he woke up or not?
Ah, so comfortable....
Eva looked over to Anthony, eyes
pleading for an answer. He shrugged
helplessly. She looked down at the
ground, then back at Chris.
*Chris… I love you.*
What? Yeah, right. She loved
him. Ha-ha. Very funny Eva. You’re
just trying to get me to wake up.
Ahhhh...
Eva roared, sick with worry and
frustration. She hadn’t been ready to tell
him that. And now she had, and it
hadn’t even done any good! *He’s not
listening to me, damn it!* She looked
down again, trying to calm herself, then made her decision. She opened the door, squeezed in, and began
to shake Chris.
“What are you doing?! Damn it, you’ll kill him!” Anthony rushed over and slammed the door
shut, nearly pushing over the whole structure.
*Come on, you’ve got to wake up!*
Chris felt an earthquake. He was shaking... Oh damn, the pain was back.
Eva was shaking him. Stop
shaking me! I’m conscious! Oh gods, stop!
Eva hugged him. *Oh, thank you! Please, you’ve got to stay awake now. Please stay awake. Don’t
leave me here alone...*
I
wouldn’t leave you alone, Eva. But when
the pain was gone… Everything had
seemed so unimportant... I’ll stay
awake now. Oh, but the pain...
Anthony was angry. “That was a stupid thing you did, Eva. You may have just killed him.”
*I may have just saved his life!*
Anthony shook his head. “Alright, it’s done. But you’re going to have to stay in there
with him. We can’t open this door
again.”
Eva nodded and sat back on her tail,
her hand touching Chris’s chest. She
wouldn’t let him fall asleep again.
Two weeks and three days later, the
transformation was more or less complete.
After being delirious or unconscious on medication for the past few
days, Chris woke up to find himself completely in control of his
faculties. He felt good. Very good.
Where was he? Oh yes, the
bubble. He felt Eva beside him. Still beside him. She could have left by now.
Suddenly it struck him. It had
really worked! My gods. He was a dragon. It had worked. A
dragon. A dragon. A dragon. That was all he could think about
for... He didn’t know how long.
*You’re crying. Are you alright?* Eva had awakened from a light sleep.
He was? He hadn’t noticed. Why,
he hadn’t cried in... Oh gods, who
cares! He was a dragon! He could think of nothing else. After 46 years...
*Chris?*
What? Stop distracting me, damn it. He tried to say something to her. He couldn’t speak. Why? He didn’t want to take the energy to try and figure out why. Oh yeah... He didn’t have human vocal chords. Though he did have something better. He could imitate human speech. He could imitate his old voice even. But he didn’t seem to be able to control it just n