Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel) (6 page)

“Come. We must go,” Mem said as he grabbed Jool by the hand. He signaled to Fey with his eyes and turned toward the door.

Together, they moved into the hallway. Upon seeing the excited expression on the face of her child, Fey-dracon forced herself to subjugate her feelings about the Keeper. For once, she would forget her loathing. 

She took Jool’s hand in her own and walked on.

Chapter 6

The jolly old beast

Is not deceased.

There’s life in him again.

~Edward Forbes, 1853

Dawann-dracon stood in the large entry hall of Mem-rax Labs, waiting for the greeting ritual to begin. She had experienced such affairs before; usually they consisted of a boring ceremony, replete with groveling dignitaries, monotonous speeches, and unappetizing refreshments.

But this was different, wasn’t it? Dawann glanced around in anticipation. Maybe the answers to her questions were in this building. After all, she had learned she’d been cloned here. She owed her existence to the work of Mem-rax and Fey-dracon. At any moment, they would appear. 

If only they would help her. They had to help her!

She felt someone’s gaze on her. Turning, she locked eyes with Slaven-varool and trembled before his might. Slaven and the other imperial bodyguards stood in a half-circle around the Keeper; their sharp-clawed fingers barely touching the hilts of their laser knives; their flashing, sulfurous eyes scanning the crowd for any hint of trouble. 

Slaven cast his glance away from Dawann, watching the crowd, his face seemingly impassive. Dawann knew it was an illusion, however. If anyone dared to threaten the Keeper, Slaven would strike out as surely and swiftly as a poison-fanged snake. She had witnessed one such incident five years ago, when a Shurrrian rebel attacked the Keeper at the end of a banquet.

Dawann closed her eyes, remembering. The Keeper had just finished giving a speech celebrating a major victory over the terrorists, who had created havoc in Moozrabian tourist sites like the Great Rift Valley. The rebel had come out of nowhere and rushed the Keeper with a knife. After Slaven and the other guards wrestled her to the floor, they’d ripped her apart, eating her alive.

A shudder passed through Dawann just as Slaven growled. Her eyes flew open. Was it her imagination, or had he, for the briefest moment, bared his fangs to her?

Dawann started to flinch, but then caught herself. Hoping she had not given anything away, she turned aside. To her relief, the Keeper was gazing at her with undisguised pleasure, and she acknowledged his
attention with a bow. She looked around the hall, hoping for a diversion, anything to keep her mind off her growing apprehension. 

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned. Coming down a corridor were a male and female accompanied by a youngster, and they were all holding hands.

The breath caught in Dawann’s throat. A
family
? Her mind was transported back to the parallel universe of her visions, and she remembered having a family, too, with human parents and––

Dawann jumped when someone touched her shoulder. “Over there. With the male and child. That’s Fey,” whispered Tima into Dawann’s earhole.

“I see her.” Dawann watched a Mem-rax employee hand a bouquet of pink flowers to the child.

Tima said, “I’ll try to get Fey aside. After the tour, you should be able to meet with her privately.”

“Yes.” Dawann dampened her excitement, assuming an imperial air. Leaving Tima behind, she walked forward until she stood beside the Keeper. 

“Her Royal Highness, the Lady Dawann-dracon.” The voice of the Minister of Science for Shurrr and Moozrab, the Alpha Nu-dracon, boomed throughout the hall. 

Dawann acknowledged the introduction with a graceful bow. The sea of Mem-rax employees, as well as Fey, Mem, and their child, bowed back. 

“How do you do?” Dawann gaily greeted them. She looked beyond Fey and her family and studied the staff of Mem-rax Labs. Most wore shiny laboratory garments that covered their torsos. She looked down at her own form, naked except for an intricate necklace made of multiple strands of gold beads and rare, black, Shurrrian coral. Unexpectedly, she felt strange and exposed, as if her nakedness should cause shame.

A human trait, Dawann realized. In public, Dawn had covered her body. 

The Alpha Nu introduced the Keeper. Glancing up, Dawann forced herself to concentrate on the employees again. Additional bowing and groveling. And more awestruck expressions. She turned aside, her gaze settling on the features of the child. Although still displaying the usual gawky form of a juvenile saurian, the young one’s face was already quite pretty. Dawann was sure she would be beautiful someday.

“Welcome, Your Royal Highness,” said the child in a squeaky voice. She placed the bouquet in Dawann’s hands.

“Thank you. They’re lovely,” Dawann softly replied as she sniffed the
flowers’ sweet fragrance. “And what is your name, my dear?”

“Joolenli. But everyone calls me Jool.” 

“Then I will call you Jool, too, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, no, my lady. I am, uh, yes, I don’t mind.”

Dawann nodded, noting the child’s nervousness, her parents’ anxious stares. She felt a desire to put them at ease. “You are lovely, Jool. Now tell me, my dear, what kind of flowers are these? I am not familiar with––”

“They are called fabloo,” the Keeper cut in. “Something recently developed from a wild Shurrrian form by Mem-rax Labs.”

Dawann dropped her gaze and took a deep breath.
Roses?
she thought.
Yes, I remember. Once I knew them as roses
.

After bowing low to the Keeper, Mem-rax said, “Fabloo. Why, yes, that is correct, Great One. I did not realize you kept up with our botanical research.”

The Keeper plucked a flower from Dawann’s bouquet and then held it to his nostrils. “Botany interests me greatly,” he said. He looked directly into Mem’s eyes and added, “I’m interested in everything that happens here.”

Dawann noticed that a swift, intense look passed between Mem and Fey. What could it mean? The Keeper seemed oblivious to it, however. For whatever reason, he now concentrated on the flower in his hand.

“My lord Keeper, may I remind you of the time?” asked the Alpha Nu in a polite tone. “We must begin the tour.”

By pre-arrangement, most of the lab workers moved off to other parts of the building, while Tima took Jool back to Fey and Mem’s office. 

Dawann followed the Keeper and the others down the long hallway, cacophonous claw clicks echoing off the stone floor. Mem and Fey escorted the party to a laboratory filled with metal tables covered with research equipment. 

The Keeper commanded his bodyguards to stay in the corridor and guard the door. Soon, he was engrossed in a conversation with Mem-rax, the Alpha Nu, several other members of the royal court, and a few laboratory technicians.

Unbelievably, Dawann found herself in a corner of the room alone with Fey-dracon. 

“Do you have any questions for me, Your Royal Highness?” Fey politely asked as she started to move toward the Keeper and the others, near a table loaded with vials, slides, and microscopes. “Perhaps, you would like to see our prepared slides? We’ve developed a foolproof method to obtain the full genome from the blood of the Keeper. Being an
alien, he has some unusual components in his circulatory fluid. For example, his blood oxygen is carried by the blue copper compound hemocyanin. Consequently, when he bleeds, the fluid is a distinctive purplish-blue.”

“Really?” Dawann asked as she continued to inch away from the Keeper, maneuvering Fey toward the furthest corner of the lab. “I’ve never seen my lord bleed.”

Fey droned on, “The Keeper’s blue blood has parallels in our Solar System. Shurrrian mollusks also use hemocyanin. Did you know the Keeper’s blood cells do not possess a full complement of DNA, like ours do?”

“Er, no.”

“Well,” Fey said, “our relatives, like the birds, have the complete genome in their red blood cells. The Keeper is different, however, for only his white cells possess the full complement of DNA. This has another parallel on Shurrr. Mammals lack the genome in their red blood cells, and they have white cells circulating in their bloodstreams with DNA.”

As Fey continued to talk, Dawann gauged their position. The Keeper and the others were now far enough away, while Slaven and the other bodyguards stood in the hallway. She could freely talk to Fey here. Moreover, by staying in this part of the room, there was little chance the Keeper would be able to smell Dawann or Fey’s pheromones.

“Fey,” Dawann interrupted the paleontologist in a low, insistent growl. 

Fey-dracon turned, looking self-conscious. “Forgive me for prattling on. I sometimes forget myself. Not everyone is interested in our scientific research––”

“Fey, please,” Dawann said in a rush. “I must speak to you. Tima told me your secrets.” 

Fey’s nictating membranes flickered. “Secrets?” she asked as the scent of fear rose off her skin.

“I know about the clone of the unfeathered creature, the one with hair on the top of his head,” Dawann explained. “The one who is an intelligent mammal.” When Fey took in a sharp breath, looking as if she might faint, Dawann forged on, “His DNA was found in an amber fossil from Shurrr. You cloned my predecessors and me, but the Keeper killed the others. Only I survive.”

Breath expelling in a horrified burst, Fey-dracon sputtered, “But – but how did you...?”

“Fey, I don’t want to die like the other clones. Please, I need your help.”

“My help?” Fey-dracon glanced at the Keeper, who was still busy with Mem and some of the others. “I, I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I. I don’t know how it is possible, but I have weird memories. You see, I believe I was once like your mammalian clone. I think I looked like him, but I was a female.”

“Dear Goddess!”

“No one else knows about this except Tima. She believes your clone may hold the answer to all my questions. Perhaps, if I could meet him, I’d find out where I belong.” 

Fey gave a little hiss. 

“Please, Fey, I must know. I must find the answers.”

“Do you realize the dangers?”

“Yes.” Dawann almost nodded, then caught herself. “But I will not be deterred. I do this for my freedom. The Keeper must be stopped.” 

There was an immediate change in Fey’s eyes. “What do you mean? Do you wish to join the rebellion?”

“I, er...”  Dawann hesitated. “Yes, I suppose I must take a stand.” She made a move to return to the group. “Steady now, Fey,” she said, sounding more confident than she actually felt. “No one must know about this. No one must suspect.”

She watched as Fey-dracon caught Mem’s eye. When she saw his answering look of devotion, Dawann drew strength from his presence, and she guessed he might agree to help her, too.

“My mate must be told,” Fey said.

“Of course.” Dawann breathed a sigh of relief. Had she done it? She hoped so.

Then Dawann-dracon walked forward, taking her place by the Keeper’s side, impatiently waiting for the tour to end, and for her plan to begin.

***

“My Lord Keeper, I will escort you to the cloning lab, where we will retrieve your DNA.” The chief technician of Mem-rax Labs gave a bow, and then indicated the door with a sweep of her hand.

The Keeper looked over at Dawann. “I shall leave you now, my dearest pet. I trust our hosts will find something for you to do,” he said as a mixed group of courtiers and scientists filed out of the room.

Mem bowed to him. “Yes, my lord. We’ll keep the lady occupied this afternoon. We have some outstanding fossils to show her. Some are very pretty.”

“Good. That should amuse her.” The Keeper tilted his head toward Dawann. “I’ll expect to see you at the banquet this evening.”

“Yes, my lord,” she replied. In silence, she watched as the room emptied. Soon, only she, Fey, and Mem remained behind.

“Your Highness, would you like to see our office, or go straight to first lunch?” Mem asked.

“I am not yet hungry,” Dawann said, hoping their office would provide a private space where she could speak to them without fear of being overhead.

“Perhaps a tour of Fey’s discoveries, then?” Mem looked at Fey with affection. “My mate has some extraordinary fossils and geological samples on display here, things she found on her many expeditions to Shurrr and also on her last dig at the Great Rift Canyon.”

“Yes,” Dawann said. “I would especially like to see what she found on Shurrr.”

Fey-dracon’s gaze nervously locked on Dawann’s, but she said nothing as they walked to the office. Mem gave Dawann a description of the blood and tissue-sampling methods the Keeper would undergo that day, assuring her he would suffer no real pain from the procedures. 

Soon, Mem halted before a pair of finely carved, wooden doors. “Do come in, Your Royal Highness,” he said as he pushed opened the double doors and stood aside.

Dawann studied the room. Glass display cases occupied the far wall, while a scattering of overstuffed nano-chairs and a receptionist’s desk stood nearby. There was another door behind the desk. She guessed Mem and Fey’s actual offices were located in the room beyond.

Mem looked around at the empty office reception area. “Where’s Vash?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Fey gave Dawann a look that said,
Good
.
We
are
alone
.