Scrupuli
blunt essays with sharp points
Adamah
by ScrvpvlvsSep 4, 2012 12:58 PM–She did her best, but she was young. She had been paying attention in lecture, really she had; well, much of the time.
The new garden seemed perfect. Moist, red clay, rich with minerals. Uncounted colonies of fungi and bacteria, transforming the land into soil, fit nourishment for the higher organisms: fragrant grasses, trees, vines heavy with fruit. Small creeping things, making homes for themselves or spreading seed from place to place.
She was particularly proud of her bees.
But it had been hard not to daydream, sometimes, about new worlds, worlds she would one day make real. Now, at her lab station, her first real garden was getting away from her.
The problems surfaced when she introduced the wolves. She was horrified to discover that they had an innate craving for mutton. It was the same with the cats. Her cows and goats quickly became lion food.
Her professor shook his head ruefully, then reminded her that her garden reflected her design decisions, right down to the basic DNA template. This was not something she could repair or work around; a world is an organic whole. She would have to start again from scratch.
The thought of destroying her new creatures was heartbreaking to her. Sadly, she carried her garden to the recycle bin. There she stopped. She couldn't bring herself to tip it in.
Maybe I could repurpose one of my creatures to be a shepherd, she thought, one to rule them all.
She mused over the problem as she returned to her table. She would need to edit one of her beasts. None of them possessed the necessary innate intelligence. And the DNA template did not contain the necessary potential.
She wondered if a drop of her own blood might do the trick.
Labels: The Overlook Hotel
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Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sometimes they fool you by walking upright.
What part of “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” don’t you understand?
Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life. —Terry Pratchett
Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig. —Robert Heinlein
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Power lines abruptly stopped causing cancer in 1997 after the U.S. National Cancer Institute conducted a better study. —Robert Parks
Встретимся под столом! (Vstretimsja pod stolom: To meeting you under the table!)
The more you cry, the less you’ll pee.
Relish the love of a good woman.
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