Post by chimera on Apr 13, 2012 22:21:53 GMT -5
Djanath thudded down onto the soft earth outside the Ancient’s Hold. Kalliope didn’t have nearly as much time to dabble in the Ancient’s science as she would like, thanks to administrative concerns as the leader of Lakeside Wing, but this was special. Their first test of the ‘genetic engineering’ was ready to crack shell this afternoon.
Kalliope removed the riding straps from Djanath so the gold could enjoy some sun up on the bluffs. Then Kalliope strode into the dark opening that led into the Ancient’s Hold. She stopped by her rooms, and stowed the straps before heading back to the work room where the eggs waited.
In the nearly 6 turns since the Ancient’s Hold had been found, the Lakesiders had learned a lot. One team was working on the system that ran the power to all the ancient devices. They were able to reproduce smaller versions of the lights found throughout the complex, but were still struggling with the large panels that provided the power. The Ancients were much more adept at creating smooth flat glass than the current smiths were. Well, in actuality, what the Ancients made wasn’t glass-- it was much more resistant to breakage, but glass would be an adequate substitute, if the Lakeside smiths could successfully make large -flat- panels of it. Another team was working on scanning the information in the computers for anything usable-- a huge undertaking given the sheer volume of information in the system. There was even a team of harpers learning the ancient’s music and stories.
Today’s hatching was the work of the team focused on the Ancient’s ability to modify organisms to suit their needs. The Lakesider’s ultimate goal was to modify dragons, again. The information provided in the computers said that dragons were originally created from fire lizards, but given enhanced intelligence and size by the Ancient scientists. The way the Lakesider’s lived, as nomads in the Southern jungles, the current size of dragons was a hindrance. Kalliope’s plan was to make the Lakeside dragon’s a little smaller. Today’s experiment, or rather the results that would be produced today, was on a much smaller scale.
Kalliope arrived in the genetics lab. A small crowd gathered around a screen enclosure with soil and a few plants. Kalliope wandered over to another enclosure in one corner of the room, this one more heavily decked out with soil and plants from the jungle. It took a minute of searching, but finally she found what she was looking for; the two crawlies that were the soon to be proud parents twice over. One of the lizards, the male, was clinging to the side screen. It looked like most Pernese fauna; six limbs and a tail, but this kind had sticky feet that allowed it to climb just about anything. They were about as long as a small person’s foot. These guys only came in two colors, brown for males and green for females. The standard domed eyes and forked tail. The Ancients had something the called a ‘gecko’ that looked similar. The other, the female, was up in the leaves of a plant, just barely visible. Their clutch, the unmodified one, was just visible, buried in the soil and detritus at the bottom of the cage.
The soft muttering around the central enclosure grew louder and Kalliope made her way over to see the other batch of eggs, the modified one, laid out like a dragon’s clutch. Each egg was positioned carefully apart from the others, and not buried as the unmodified eggs were. One of the eggs had developed a crack. The Lakeside scientists (that was the Ancient word for Smiths that did this kind of work, the Lakesiders had adopted its use) had used the Ancient computers to ‘map’ the genetic structures of the Crawlies. Then they had taken genetic material from the two parent lizards, and rearranged the part of the structure that coded for size, with the goal being smaller offspring. If this test was successful, the next step would be to find firelizards. Many of the scientists already deemed this experiment a success, because the eggs were about three quarters the size of the ones still with Mom and Dad. Slowly, several more eggs developed cracks. The tension in the waiting audience escalated.
Finally a nose emerged, glistening wetly with egg fluid. “A male,” someone muttered. Kalliope leaned closer. The nose was dark, nearly black. Someone else softly replied, “The genes for color and size were closely entwined, don’t make assumptions.”
Time seemed to slow to a crawl, with all eyes on the eggs. Of the eight eggs, three did not hatch. The five that did hatch seemed very tiny, but it would be hard to tell for sure exactly HOW much smaller they were until the other clutch hatched, hopefully soon. That was the reason there was a second, natural, clutch to begin with. The Ancients called that a ‘control.’ There were changes to the colors ot this, the experimental clutch; obvious now that they were dry. The first one was a very dark brown, much darker than the normal treebark colored males. There were two pale green ones, almost a pastel shade. Another one seemed to be closer to red than brown, and he had stripes. The final one seemed to be grey at first, then as he (?) moved around the enclosure, it changed to a color very similar to the brown soil. Then it climbed up on a plant and changed to green! That set scientists to muttering about gene activation sites and protein sequences. Another group discussed breeding that one with one of its smaller siblings to try to create a sub type that changed color….
Kalliope moved back over to the other clutch, fighting down a rising tide of excitement. There were definite genetic changes, beyond what they had aimed for. While that was not necessarily a good thing --they didn’t want to change just anything, rather they wanted to manage the changes they caused-- but it did show that they were on the right track. Once they saw if the intended change was successful, they would be able to move toward their ultimate goal-- smaller dragons.
Kalliope opened the door to the planted enclosure, reaching in to brush the dirt off the clutch. Gently, she moved the eggs out of their pile, each one spaced a little ways from its fellows. The last one pulsed under her fingers, and Kalliope waved the scientists over. A short time later and the results were in. The modified crawlies were easily half the size of their non-modified counterparts. As the crew that did the bulk of the work laughed and congratulated each other, Kalliope quietly slipped out through a back stair, up to the top of the bluffs, where Djanath waited. The gold already knew the results of the crawlie hatching, of course, having seen through Kalliope’s eyes. The rider leaned against the dragon, and looked into sun sinking into the horizon. “It worked. We can do this. We can change your children.”
Kalliope removed the riding straps from Djanath so the gold could enjoy some sun up on the bluffs. Then Kalliope strode into the dark opening that led into the Ancient’s Hold. She stopped by her rooms, and stowed the straps before heading back to the work room where the eggs waited.
In the nearly 6 turns since the Ancient’s Hold had been found, the Lakesiders had learned a lot. One team was working on the system that ran the power to all the ancient devices. They were able to reproduce smaller versions of the lights found throughout the complex, but were still struggling with the large panels that provided the power. The Ancients were much more adept at creating smooth flat glass than the current smiths were. Well, in actuality, what the Ancients made wasn’t glass-- it was much more resistant to breakage, but glass would be an adequate substitute, if the Lakeside smiths could successfully make large -flat- panels of it. Another team was working on scanning the information in the computers for anything usable-- a huge undertaking given the sheer volume of information in the system. There was even a team of harpers learning the ancient’s music and stories.
Today’s hatching was the work of the team focused on the Ancient’s ability to modify organisms to suit their needs. The Lakesider’s ultimate goal was to modify dragons, again. The information provided in the computers said that dragons were originally created from fire lizards, but given enhanced intelligence and size by the Ancient scientists. The way the Lakesider’s lived, as nomads in the Southern jungles, the current size of dragons was a hindrance. Kalliope’s plan was to make the Lakeside dragon’s a little smaller. Today’s experiment, or rather the results that would be produced today, was on a much smaller scale.
Kalliope arrived in the genetics lab. A small crowd gathered around a screen enclosure with soil and a few plants. Kalliope wandered over to another enclosure in one corner of the room, this one more heavily decked out with soil and plants from the jungle. It took a minute of searching, but finally she found what she was looking for; the two crawlies that were the soon to be proud parents twice over. One of the lizards, the male, was clinging to the side screen. It looked like most Pernese fauna; six limbs and a tail, but this kind had sticky feet that allowed it to climb just about anything. They were about as long as a small person’s foot. These guys only came in two colors, brown for males and green for females. The standard domed eyes and forked tail. The Ancients had something the called a ‘gecko’ that looked similar. The other, the female, was up in the leaves of a plant, just barely visible. Their clutch, the unmodified one, was just visible, buried in the soil and detritus at the bottom of the cage.
The soft muttering around the central enclosure grew louder and Kalliope made her way over to see the other batch of eggs, the modified one, laid out like a dragon’s clutch. Each egg was positioned carefully apart from the others, and not buried as the unmodified eggs were. One of the eggs had developed a crack. The Lakeside scientists (that was the Ancient word for Smiths that did this kind of work, the Lakesiders had adopted its use) had used the Ancient computers to ‘map’ the genetic structures of the Crawlies. Then they had taken genetic material from the two parent lizards, and rearranged the part of the structure that coded for size, with the goal being smaller offspring. If this test was successful, the next step would be to find firelizards. Many of the scientists already deemed this experiment a success, because the eggs were about three quarters the size of the ones still with Mom and Dad. Slowly, several more eggs developed cracks. The tension in the waiting audience escalated.
Finally a nose emerged, glistening wetly with egg fluid. “A male,” someone muttered. Kalliope leaned closer. The nose was dark, nearly black. Someone else softly replied, “The genes for color and size were closely entwined, don’t make assumptions.”
Time seemed to slow to a crawl, with all eyes on the eggs. Of the eight eggs, three did not hatch. The five that did hatch seemed very tiny, but it would be hard to tell for sure exactly HOW much smaller they were until the other clutch hatched, hopefully soon. That was the reason there was a second, natural, clutch to begin with. The Ancients called that a ‘control.’ There were changes to the colors ot this, the experimental clutch; obvious now that they were dry. The first one was a very dark brown, much darker than the normal treebark colored males. There were two pale green ones, almost a pastel shade. Another one seemed to be closer to red than brown, and he had stripes. The final one seemed to be grey at first, then as he (?) moved around the enclosure, it changed to a color very similar to the brown soil. Then it climbed up on a plant and changed to green! That set scientists to muttering about gene activation sites and protein sequences. Another group discussed breeding that one with one of its smaller siblings to try to create a sub type that changed color….
Kalliope moved back over to the other clutch, fighting down a rising tide of excitement. There were definite genetic changes, beyond what they had aimed for. While that was not necessarily a good thing --they didn’t want to change just anything, rather they wanted to manage the changes they caused-- but it did show that they were on the right track. Once they saw if the intended change was successful, they would be able to move toward their ultimate goal-- smaller dragons.
Kalliope opened the door to the planted enclosure, reaching in to brush the dirt off the clutch. Gently, she moved the eggs out of their pile, each one spaced a little ways from its fellows. The last one pulsed under her fingers, and Kalliope waved the scientists over. A short time later and the results were in. The modified crawlies were easily half the size of their non-modified counterparts. As the crew that did the bulk of the work laughed and congratulated each other, Kalliope quietly slipped out through a back stair, up to the top of the bluffs, where Djanath waited. The gold already knew the results of the crawlie hatching, of course, having seen through Kalliope’s eyes. The rider leaned against the dragon, and looked into sun sinking into the horizon. “It worked. We can do this. We can change your children.”