She gave him a sidelong glance and saw him take an insulted breath.
The audience chuckled.
“It would take several more generations, though,” Mahrree continued, “before it became clever enough to become a teacher.”
The audience broke out into applause and cheering.
Captain Shin remained immovable, keeping his arms folded.
Mahrree folded her arms similarly and looked at him.
His face was stern and set, but his dark eyes were bright and warm. She couldn’t bear to look into them for long. The captain waited until the audience started to quiet down. Then he took a few steps towards her midday-meal-turned-science-experiment and jiggled the table slightly.
“Moves all on its own, doesn’t it?” Mahrree pointed out. “Definition of something alive: begins, grows, moves, and dies. Just watch it for a moment and you’ll see it doing something like breathing.”
She was impressed that she could remain so poised. The blob had made her so nauseated that she’d been close to retching ever since she discovered it at school. Yet she knew it would be the perfect example for her class to test the Administrator of Science’s recently released definition of “life.” And when Rector Densal prepared her for the night’s debate a few days ago by telling her the topic, she knew she had to cultivate the blob as lovingly as the illegal mead brewers watched over their hidden stills.
Captain Shin nodded, and she was sure he knew exactly what she was doing. “So you’re suggesting that this is a form of life? You just recited the new definition of life in reference to it.”
“I thought you might approve of my using that definition. It came from your Administrators after all.”
There it was again, welling up in her chest: that inexplicable disdain for the Administrators. She had to be careful. She glanced around the darkening amphitheater, searching the area lit by torches for anyone wearing an official red jacket.
The captain opened his mouth as if to challenge that they were his Administrators, but she continued on, hoping to lighten the moment.
“Interestingly, the definition of life fits even for this world we live in, doesn’t it, Captain? We weren’t around for its beginning, of which there certainly was one, nor will we be for its end—at least, I hope I won’t be around to see the Last Day. Sounds a little frightening to me. But the world itself grows and moves, especially during a land tremor. Therefore, the world must be alive.
“But,” she continued, putting a thoughtful finger to her lips, “it seems tragic that trees and plants aren’t ‘alive’ since they don’t ‘move’ unless the wind blows them. Perhaps the Administrators will amend their definition to grant life to things that can’t move?” she said in a sugared tone. “Let our orchards, vineyards, and crops live? I may be only a simple teacher in Edge, but even my students realized that the university-trained Administrator of Science seemed not to recognize that ‘moving’ isn’t necessarily an indicator of life.”
Why did she keep saying such things about the Administrators?! She bit her lip in worry as the audience chortled.
But the captain didn’t look offended as he sighed loudly. “You’re drifting off topic again. What do the trees have to do with your . . . blob here?”
“Glad you asked!” she answered brightly. “This, according to the Administrators’ definition, is most definitely alive.” She gestured to the disgusting mass. “So now I have one more theory to present about our origins. I will be so bold as to suggest that we may have even derived from something similar to this, thousands of years ago. Look at the colors—they change daily. Yesterday there was a lovely pink streak right along there, but now it’s darkened to purply black. What if all of us derived from something like this lump of neglected midday meal? Under the right conditions, in the right temperatures, with the right elements, who’s to say something like this didn’t advance—progress—into something like us?”
Captain Shin stared hard at her with his deep dark eyes. They were nearly black, but still somehow warm. Mahrree tried not to look into them, but since he was only a couple feet away, he was impossible to ignore.
“I assure you, Miss Peto, I for one did not progress from something like that!”
“Can you prove it?” she dared.
The audience chuckled in expectation.
“Can you prove I progressed from that?” the captain challenged.
The villagers laughed.
“Prove to me that you didn’t!” she snapped back. “In a few days, there might be a strong family resemblance.”