Scrupuli

blunt essays with sharp points

Adamah

by Scrvpvlvs
Sep 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.

This blog post is a writing exercise from writers.stackexchange.com. Visit the Writers chat room every Tuesday for new writing exercises. This week’s exercise: Write a microfiction story (no longer than 600 words) using the first line prompt: “She did her best, but she was young”.

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Adamah

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