by Luke Donegan
Jay shook his head.
“Why? What is so bad you can’t tell me?”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. It’s not good enough. I tell you everything. A master and scion have no secrets.”
“I am not your master anymore.”
The zeppelin appeared over the hills like a bloated, distant creature.
Jay picked up a handful of dust and rubbed it in his hands. He wondered if he could tell her. What would be her reaction? He couldn’t stand the idea that she would feel as he did.
“Rhada, it is nothing about you. It is a secret I share with the Teacher at the Museum.”
She swung to face him. “Then you should tell me,” she said. “I’m a Teacher. You’re only a Scion. I’m your superior. I order you to tell me.”
He smiled. The anger melted from her face.
“I could help you,” she said. “Share it with me. It will make it easier for you.”
“You can help me, by being my friend.”
“I will always be your friend, Jay,” she said. “It’s just not right. That’s all.”
The zeppelin slipped across the sky. It took three days for the zeppelin to fly between Sydon and Pars. A zeppelin had been lost months earlier. The previous scion-Teacher had perished on that voyage. Jay wondered what Erys had been thinking in that final moment as the zeppelin exploded and crashed.
The great zeppelin settled on the landing field. Ground crew ran out and secured the craft with ropes. Passengers disembarked into the blinding light. To the last person they were thankful to have their feet once more on solid ground.
Jay and the Teacher sat together on the tatami.
“It is good,” responded the Teacher, lifting a second helping of chicken to her bowl. “I am glad you can cook.”
“The children will eat anything,” said Jay.
The Teacher smiled. “Well, this is very good.”
“Teacher,” began Jay, placing his chopsticks on the plate. “I am sorry for the way I reacted in the Science Dome. I was disrespectful.”
The Teacher swallowed. “There was a lot to understand.”
“Teacher, I only did not believe you because it was too horrible to think about. I will not disbelieve again.”
“I forgive you, Jay. I only wish I did not have to tell you.”
They ate in silence and Jay carried the bowls to the kitchen. The Teacher sighed deeply and stared out the window.
“Teacher, is something wrong?” asked Jay, when he returned.
“The story I will tell today is emotionally draining. Aberration is a sorrowful story. But it must be told from time to time.”
“Will many people come?”
“Two departments of the Ascendancy, Law and Commerce. As well as Museum employees and general public.”
Xia Tsang, Curator of Nature arrived with her scion.
Jay and the Teacher rose to greet the visitors.
“We thought we would walk with you to the Nature Dome,” said Xia Tsang.
The Teacher and the Curator embraced. “Xia, thank you for coming. I feel nervous. I feel like I’m casting cast aspersions on your discipline.”
The Curator shook her head. “Do not think that way. You are telling a necessary truth.”
The Curator of Science and the Teacher were good friends. They talked together as they rode the elevator to the ground floor. Jay and Sian followed behind.
“How long have you worked at the Museum?” asked Jay.
“Scion-Teacher,” said Sian. Her eyes lifted up. “I apologize if I was rude the day we met. It was not my intention. I was close to the previous Scion-Teacher. His loss was ... is grievous to me. Though I do not begrudge you your coming.”
Jay looked kindly at the girl. “I was not offended,” he said. ”And I am sorry you lost a friend.”
She watched the shifting landscape. Over and beyond the scarp began the desert, three thousand miles of dust and emptiness.
“Since I was one,” said Sian to the view. “I came here when I was a baby. I was a child of the Reproduction Program. I have never known life outside the Museum.”
A large group of people gathered in wait on the grassy hillside beside the stream. Jay recognised employees of the Courthouse by their cream coloured robes. Those from the Treasury wore robes of green. Jay saw the Builder standing with a few of his workers. Paris Aristotle was present, talking with people from the Courthouse. Jay was surprised to see the Taxidermist and his scion, standing at the back of the crowd.
Jay noticed that neither Jack Gaunt, Curator of Science, nor his scion were present.
“Welcome guests,” said Xia Tsang, hushing the crowd. “Please be seated.”
The group of visitors settled themselves onto the lush grass. The Teacher and the Curator of Nature stood above them on the slope.
“Aberration is a story we cannot be proud of, but its lesson is vital,” said the Curator. “Seldom has the breaking of Law produced more dire consequences for the human race. By meeting like this to hear the story of Aberration, we remember past mistakes and determine not to make them again.”
Xia Tsang bowed to the group and sat, making way for the Teacher. The Teacher needed no introduction. Everyone knew who she was. Her white robe shone like a pool of light. She brushed her red hair from her face, placed a hand upon the multicoloured sash across her chest, and began.
Jasmin Jared worked in a laboratory deep in the mountains west of Sydon. By manipulating the DNA of animal species she attempted to create organisms more resilient to pollutants and toxins abundant in the environment. Splicing gene fragments into parent DNA she gifted reptiles with the warm-bloodedness of mammals. Using stem cell molds she spliced wings to mammals. She replaced the soft, vulnerable skins of frogs with the hard exoskeletons of insects. She made these animals stronger, tougher, durable, and ultimately, harder to kill.
Jasmin Jared’s colleague. Digby Mue had the body of a man and the head of an emu. Perhaps Jasmin sought to recreate the animist’s perfection. His black beak snapped and his dark eyes flicked with agitation as Jasmin Jared molded animals into unnatural shapes.
It is against natural law, warned Digby. His words reverberated deep in his belly.
I am doing what evolution does, replied Jasmin. Just faster, in time to save the natural world.
Gob, gob, gob! said Digby. You do not do this for Nature, but for personal achievement.
He shook his head and his head feathers stood on end.
You are mistaken, said Jasmin kindly. With this technology I can strengthen Nature against the pressures we have placed upon her.
She smiled at her companion.
I love life, Digby. Look at what we have done to the planet. We have destroyed the great forests, plundered the seas. We have hunted some of the most wondrous animals to extinction. What little is left I would save and make stronger. I do what I do to save the world.
A terrible mistake was about to be made. On the other side of the planet, Kafka Yellis’ exploration of the subatomic ruptured space, and a thick, oily substance began to pour through.
Jasmin Jared thought Spirit surrounded her. She was in fact enveloped in Dark Matter.
The creatures of her experimentation whimpered in their cages. The nuclear bonds of their molecules shattered. On a dark and dreadful night these creatures began to mature. They grew and grew and eventually broke free of their cages.
They grew in strength also. Some had claws and talons the size of knives. Others had rows of teeth. Some had tail stings that whipped and stabbed the backs of fleeing scientists. Some of the creatures could fly and they dragged scientists up into the rafters.
The aberrants escaped the complex.
Jasmin and Dibgy the emu-man were the only scientists to survive. They searched the debris without finding any colleagues alive.
In the following days the aberrants continued to grow. They razed a nearby town and gorged on the population.
The army moved in with tanks and
planes. Jasmin and Digby watched the battle from the safety of a cliff top. Creatures as large as small houses rushed the tanks and tore at them with claws and pincers. A marsupial-scorpion stabbed through windows and men alike with its tail sting. A massive scaled snake with clubbed forearms wrapped itself around the armored vehicles and clubbed them until they were flattened wrecks. Flying machines rained flames upon the creatures. But some of the creatures could fly. They rose up, snatched the flying machines from the air, and threw them to the ground.
Five of the nightmare creatures were destroyed. The surviving beasts moved further east towards the great cities of the east.
What have I done? lamented Jasmin Jared.
Gob, gob, gob! You made them too well, said Digby. You broke natural law.
For good reasons, she said. I tried to do the right thing.
Guilt clawed at her heart.
Help me, she said to her companion, collapsing with despair.
Gob, gob, gob! said the emu man. He clacked his beak open and shut.
Jasmin looked into his black eyes. Will you not speak to me? she asked.
Gob, gob, gob! said the emu man.
He turned and walked away to the west, towards the desert.
Alone and broken, Jasmin Jared journeyed through ravaged lands, passing town after destroyed town. She met refugees coming the other way.
Turn around! they warned. The aberrants are destroying everything. They will kill you as well.
And she passed animists, kangaroo people, wombat people, spiny dragon people, wide eyed and in their animal forms, escaping to the desert.
If you meet an emu man called Digby, tell him I am sorry, she said.
The city of Sydon was a smoking shell. More than half the population was dead. The rest had fled. Toppled skyscrapers blocked the streets. Bridges half submerged punctured the harbour. Fires ripped through the remaining debris.
Smoke poured from the ruins of the Opera House. Where have the creatures gone? Jasmin asked a man sitting by the harbour. The man hugged his knees and stared across the water.
North and south through the coastal cities, he said. The army tried to stop them. They were bigger than the tallest buildings. Some waded out to sea, heading for Zealand. Some flew across the ocean.
My family is in the north, she thought. She salvaged a life raft from a half-sunk ferry boat and paddled slowly across the water. She searched on the opposite shore for her parent’s home. Nothing remained.
One morning a great reptile with eagle wings flew across the sky and perched on the remains of a factory building, a mile from where she camped. Its wingspan was three hundred feet across. The creature screeched and flicked its head back and forth, searching for food. She feared that the creature would fly away before she arrived. But it waited. The creature towered above her. Talons crushed the factory walls and roof in their grip. It screeched and she covered her ears against the terrible sound.
Jasmin Jared cried out with all her might. The lizard eagle looked down, tilting its head to the side. It seemed surprised by the fearlessness of the woman.
She looked into the creature’s black eyes.
They are like Digby’s eyes, she thought. Digby, I’m so sorry. Although I wanted to save Nature, I was blind to what was in front of me. You, emu man. Nature was in you, my friend. And in all the animists. Nature was in you but I did not see it. Why didn’t I listen to you? What have I done? Oh Digby. This calamity I have wrought ... I am in hell!
She faced the monster above.
I offer myself to you, she cried.
The creature did not hesitate. It shook its wing feathers and snatched her up in its shiny beak. Her pearly store of memories, and her wash of emotions broke and were gone.
The morsel did little to sate the beast’s hunger. It beat its mighty wings and lifted into the air, whipping up whirlpools of smoke and ash. It flew to the south towards the great city of Merub snatching up refugees as it went.
“In the end the creatures of Aberration were killed by the very weapons that Kafka Yellis made possible with his manipulation of fundamental law – the quark gun and the quark bomb. However, this victory and success concealed the greater calamity to come. While the Jared mutants were vanquished, the quark weapons went on to destroy the world.”
So finished her story of Aberration.
Jay and the Teacher remained in the Nature Dome after the others had left. Jay sat on a lip of earth and grass banking the stream. His bare feet splashed in the water.
The Teacher leaned back, resting on her arms. Her eyes were closed, looking up at an imagined sky. She felt the cool fiber of grass between her fingers. A Siberian deer and her foal nuzzled at the grass nearby in perpetual stillness.
The Teacher remembered herself as a little girl. The Hearth-Mother of Forest-Hearth brought her children to the Nature Dome to show them a real forest. Ariel climbed amongst the trees, hiding and laughing with her friends. She fell and broke her arm. Pain filled her eyes. Tears of laughter mixed with tears of pain.
I never knew my parents, she thought as she looked down the slope towards the forest. But my Hearth-Mother was enough. My friends. My lover. And my work, restoring the world from confusion.
It has been enough, she thought.
“Teacher, can I ask you a question about Aberration? About Passage?”
She opened her eyes. “Of course,” she said.
“When it happened, when the scientists ...”
“When they unleashed Dark Matter on the universe,” she prompted.
“I always thought that most animal life was killed during the Quark Wars. Did Dark Matter kill everything at once?”
The Teacher sat up. “No, not all at once. It was a complex process. With the onset of Passage life-spans for all living organisms were cut short. Many animals could not reproduce before dying. These species died out immediately. Small organisms like insects and some one-celled organisms like bacteria became extinct because they could not reproduce.
“Higher organisms like mammals on the other hand were able to reproduce. However, with the loss of lower organisms, the ecosystems that mammals and birds rely on were broken. These creatures died out more slowly. But not all. The species alive today are those that found ways to adapt. Humans, for example. But the species represented here in the Nature Dome are no longer living in the world.”
Many of the nearby animals seemed to be looking at him.
“If somehow things were made right again, if Dark Matter was destroyed, could they be brought back?” he asked.
“No,” said the Teacher. “They are extinct.”
“What about genetics? Could scientists ...?”
“No. That’s the whole point behind the story of Aberration. It was the tampering with genetics that led to Aberration in the first place. Did you not listen?”
“I’m sorry,” said Jay. “I can see how easy it is to fall towards evil. Jared wanted to do the right thing.”
“I did not mean to be angry,” said the Teacher eventually. She turned away and fell silent.
I somehow touched on a nerve, thought Jay. He decided to leave her alone for a while. He walked amongst the animals, crossing the stream into the polar wastes. The temperature plummeted. He approached a polar bear where it stood frozen on the snowy plain.
Jay crouched before its face and looked into its eyes. Its eyeballs glistened with moisture. A thin film of mucus lined the insides of each nostril. Jay ran a finger around the inside lining, feeling moisture and warmth. He smelt his finger. There was no scent. He wiped the finger on his robes, then carefully touched it on one of the bear’s eyeballs, half expecting the creature to blink or pull its head away. The eyeball was moist and firm.
Jay ran his fingers through the bear’s soft, white coat. What a catastrophic blunder? he thought. He closed his eyes, but even imagination could not animate this creature again.
Returning across the stream from rock to rock he saw that the Builder had joined the Teacher on the
grass. The Builder held out his hand and pulled the Teacher to her feet. She brushed grass from her robes and playfully punched him on the arm.
“We were just about to get back to work,” Jay heard her say. “Now look what you’ve done.”
The way they looked at each other made Jay smile.
Jay invited Rhada to visit the Museum.
“I’m not sure if I should stay for dinner,” she said as they met in the foyer. “Grace has only been Scion-Teacher for a few weeks.”
“You have to stay,” said Jay. “Besides, Hearth-Father is there. I want you to meet the Teacher.”
“Who else will come?” she asked nervously.
“The Builder. I think he and the Teacher are together. He is the person who built the statue.” Jay gestured to the three-legged statue they stood beneath. “Also the Scion-Curator of Nature, Sian.”
“Oh,” said Rhada. She did not like meeting strangers. She was happy in the Hearth where the children relied on her. Now that she was Teacher, she had little time for anything else.
They studied the various holograms in the Science Dome. Her mood lifted as they explored the Solar System. Jay taught her how to fly the hover car and she sailed the car above the rings of Saturn.
Rhada changed the hologram and guided their car through the model of the universe. Galaxy clusters brushed her face like mist.
It is so beautiful, but empty, she thought.
Galaxies reflected in Jay’s eyes. She understood still wanted to know what he would not tell her. Was he protecting her from something terrible?
“I am sorry you have a secret that you cannot share,” she told him. Her voice hovered in the darkness. “I don’t understand why but I respect your decision.” She turned back to the universe and sighed. “It is a little sad, don’t you think, Jay? I still feel like a little girl.”
“I’m sorry that I left Ocean-Hearth,” he said. “I feel guilty asking you to become Teacher so soon.”
“No, it is okay,” she said. “I would rather become Teacher because you got another job than because you died. I get to be Teacher and still have you around. At least a little.”
“Let’s go. I need to cook dinner. You can look at the view from my office.”
