It
was a warm day in the forest, the sun shining bright on the narrow,
delicate leaves of a peach tree. A small cluster of leaves had been
carefully arranged in the crook of the two main branches. To most,
the collection of leaves would have appeared to be just a haphazard
arrangement, but to a trained eye its true nature was clear. It was a
home, a simple tent of sorts built to keep the worst of the elements
from a single, sleepy resident who had called the tree home for
years. With a yawn and

A
young woman named Julia Young was seated at a makeshift lab station
in the basement of a female unisex dorm. The station was little more
than a folding table beneath a fluorescent light, scattered with
assorted multimeters and writing implements. The centerpiece was
something that l looked like a particularly elaborate toaster oven
covered with wires and sporting a robotic pincher on the inside.
Behind the thick glass viewing window of the device was a strawberry,
and laid out in front of the