Free Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel) by Deborah O'Neill Cordes

meat, but prefers fruit. Physiologically, he needs fruit to survive, even nuts.”
    “Oh!” Dawann shivered with revulsion at the thought of eating nuts. “What else is different about him?”
    “Unlike us, he has long dreams when he sleeps,” said Mem. “When questioned, he told us about them. They’re wild stories, the most fantastic tales we’ve ever heard.”
    “And he’s afraid of snakes,” Fey said. “He acts as if all of them are poisonous.”
    “But snakes are beautiful,” Dawann said in disbelief.
    “Yes,” Mem agreed. “The clone hates them, though. A peculiar trait, unless you take into account his mammalian heritage.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I have a theory that he evolved from mammals, and reptiles and dinosaurs hunted his ancestors. That’s why he has an inborn fear.”
    “Oh, I want to see him!” Dawann said excitedly.
    Fey glanced over at Mem. “Yes, Your Highness,” she said. “It is time.”
     

 
    Chapter 7
     
    Very old are we men;
    Our dreams are tales
    Told in dim Eden...
    ~Walter de la Mare, All That’s Past
     
    After Dawann sat in the chair, the nano-components went to work and molded to her shape. She grabbed the headset, disengaged it from the monolith, and affixed it to her brow. As she moved the tiny scanner screens to the level of her eyes, she asked Fey, “What did you name the clone?”
    “We didn’t give him a name.”
    Dawann raised an eyepiece and looked at her. “I’m surprised. You treat him like a lab specimen then?”
    “Actually, he chose his own name,” Mem said. “He is quite intelligent, and decided when he was two years old that he wanted to be called Da. It was his first word.”
    “Da?” Dawann recalled Tima saying she had made that sound, too, during her brief “awakening” incident. A coincidence? Or do all human babies make such sounds?
    “Yes, it’s a strange name,” Mem acknowledged.
    “And how old is Da?” Dawann asked.
    When Mem squinted in thought, Fey jumped in, “Ah, in Shurrrian years, he is forty-four. In twenty-six days, he will turn forty-five.”
    “He is young then.”
    “We’re not certain about that,” Fey admitted. “His hair has started to turn gray, which may indicate advancing age in his species. There is still much to learn about him. We tried to clone other specimens after we sequenced the complete nuclear genome, which, as we indicated before, was successfully extracted from the samples found in the amber fossil.”
    “From a molar and two hair strands, to be exact,” Mem added.
    “But even though we had the complete genome, no viable embryos resulted after these initial attempts,” Fey said. “We blundered by using donor eggs from saurians, which, of course, did not work.” 
    “Donor eggs?”
    “Yes,” Mem explained. “Donor eggs with their genes removed. When you clone something, you need an egg to provide the nurturing, maternal chemicals that switch on the genes in your DNA sample, making them become embryonic again. An entire living being can grow from your original DNA sample. We already knew how to do this, but in our excitement, at first I’m afraid we rushed a bit.” Mem shot Fey a self-conscious look. “In our rush to clone the alien DNA, we ignored the fact the genetic material was from a mammal. At that point, we decided to use the ova of the primitive Shurrrian lemurs. To our delight, one egg began to divide. The embryo grew in an artificial egg––”
    “Actually, it was an artificial womb. T o be more precise, an incubator womb,” Fey interjected, “because of the embryo’s mammalian status.”
    “Quite right,” Mem said.
    “And the embryo was Da?” Dawann asked.
    “Yes,” Mem said. “We nearly lost Da, however, when he was very young. After we removed the seemingly full-term fetus from the artificial womb – the time of full gestation was a guess in itself – we could not immediately find an acceptable food source for him. Fortunately, we stumbled on a