The Genome

by Sergei Lukyanenko

  “Depends on what kind of test …” A look of surprise appeared briefly on her face. “A test of your mutual compatibility?”

  Kim snorted.

  “No.” Alex strained to keep his cool. The thought that he was planning to start reproducing with a fourteen-year-old girl was a bit much. But the favor he was about to ask her was just as strange. “Janet, I’d like to make sure that Kim really is a fighter-spesh.”

  “Captain?”

  He sighed.

  “The situation is rather strange, Janet …”

  “I think I’m beginning to get the picture.” Janet was talking to him, but all her attention was concentrated on Kim.

  “Kim had her metamorphosis the night before last.”

  “Really …”

  Janet leaned on the table next to Kim. Authoritatively took her by the chin, turned her face to take a closer look. Alex had no idea what she must have seen. But the look of slight mistrust left her eyes.

  “It’s not in the traditions of the Empire to take aboard speshes immediately after transformation.”

  “Of course,” agreed Alex. “But there is no direct rule against it, either.”

  “I believe you. But what does genetic analysis have to do with it?” Kim herself had been silent, allowing them to discuss her fate. Alex suspected her silence wouldn’t last much longer.

  “She does not have a fighter-spesh certificate.”

  “I can issue that without any tests,” said Janet calmly. “Her ID has all her medical information. Specialization type, altered genes, and the probable somatic profile.”

  “She doesn’t have an ID. She’s … lost it.”

  Janet was silent for a minute. Then she said firmly:

  “Captain, any person, spesh or natural, who loses an ID can go to the nearest clinic. After a genotype analysis, the central databank will release the information on their identity.”

  “We cannot do that, Janet.”

  A brief glance from Kim was his reward for the “we.”

  “Why not?”

  “Kim has severed all ties with her past. She doesn’t want her family to know where she is. And if the databank receives an inquiry, they’ll certainly notice it—then there will be no avoiding them.”

  “Why?” the doctor was genuinely surprised. “I’m pretty well acquainted with the laws of the Empire, Captain. After the metamorphosis, a spesh becomes an absolutely autonomous person. She has the right to work, to keep in touch with those she chooses, to enter into or cancel any kinship alliance, to live or commit suicide …”

  Alex sighed, threw a questioning glance at Kim. He could not offer any objections at all—Janet was absolutely right.

  “I’m from Edem,” said the girl.

  “A little patriarchal, but a nice planet.” Janet gave an encouraging nod. “Kim, what are you afraid of? You are a fighter-spesh, so you are quite capable of protecting yourself from any unwanted attention. And the law is totally on your side. We can go to the spaceport’s clinic together …”

  “No!”

  Kim jumped up, backing away from them. Janet and Alex exchanged glances.

  “We’re wasting our time,” said Alex. “Janet, perhaps it might be better for you and Kim to talk alone.”

  “No,” cried Kim. “I won’t talk to her alone!”

  “Why not?” Janet’s voice was still warm and soothing. “Kim, I like you, let’s not quarrel, okay?”

  Kim relaxed a little.

  “It’s not you …”

  “It’s him, then?” Janet nodded toward Alex. “He’s harmed you?”

  Kim must have thought that was funny.

  “It’s hard to harm me.”

  “It is indeed. Let’s discuss the problem and find some way to solve it, all right?” Janet stretched her hand toward the girl.

  Kim hesitated a moment. Then she limply slapped the doctor’s palm and sat back down between them. Janet was silent, looking at the girl.

  “I’ll be killed if they find me,” said Kim shrilly.

  “It’s hard to kill a fighter-spesh,” rejoined Janet, not really challenging the remark itself.

  “It’s hard, but possible. They’ll send another spesh. Or two.”

  “Why? In that case, my dear, they would incur serious problems with the law. Especially since you are now under double protection—of the Empire itself, and of the space fleet union.”

  Kim gave a crooked grin.

  “You know, you’re older than I am, but I swear I know more about problems with the law!”

  “Maybe you’re from an influential, conservative family, and your clan is upset with your escape?”

  Alex thought Janet’s version of events was quite likely. But Kim shook her head.

  “No. But I do know what I’m talking about. The moment I surface … I’m a goner. I’ll be dead, and you guys will all be in a bind.”

  Alex expected a reproachful, or even an indignant, reaction from Janet. To bring aboard a girl-fighter who was more of a danger than she was a defense … But apparently, Janet really did like Kim.

  “Well, you tell me. If that’s the case, what can I do?” The doctor spread out her arms. “A spesh-certification is easy to issue. You are a fighter-spesh, I am sure of that. But I have a duty, dear, to establish your identity first. And you don’t have an ID.”

  Kim was silent.

  “We have one other option, Janet,” said Alex hesitantly, with a slight quiver in his voice. He had entered a tricky realm of loopholes, something he had never liked to do.

  “And what might that be, Captain?”

  “You could issue Kim a fighter-spesh certificate. Then …” Janet frowned, shaking her head, but Alex continued, unabashed. “… then Kim and I go to the nearest registration center. And file a temporary marriage contract—based on the spesh-certificates. They’re identification enough to do that.”

  “I understand that they’re enough. But I refuse to issue a fake certificate.”

  “Janet, wait! After the marriage, Kim gets a new ID, with the name Kim Romanov … Kim, will you take my last name?”

  Kim was staring at him wide-eyed, still not quite comprehending.

  “… and there are no inquiries to the databank. The information will be entered there, but so what? How many girls named Kim are in the galaxy?”

  “But I can’t break the law!” Even Janet’s patience had its limits.

  “And you won’t be breaking any laws. We’ll all come back to the ship right away, and you’ll enter all the information from her new ID. Suppose I asked you to issue a temporary certificate and promised to show you the ID a little later. You could go for this tiny infringement, couldn’t you?”

  “Not a single computer in the world would let this through. How can I write that the spesh-certificate was issued based on a document that hadn’t been received yet? Are you telling me you can travel back into the past, Captain?”

  “Yes, I can.”

  Janet was silent.

  “Ship time is determined by the captain. I could run the clock by Greenwich Time. Or by Great Beijing. The time at home port. The time of the planets we visit. You see? What time is indicated on your documents?”

  “Ship time …”

  “You see? If anyone checked, everything would look as though …” Alex took a deep breath. “… the ship’s captain had entered into a marriage union with a member of his crew, after which the bride had a genetic test that confirmed her status as a fighter-spesh …”

  “Wait a second!” Janet waved her hand. “Are you serious, Captain? Are these just theoretical guesses or …”

  “All captains use this trick. The union knows all about it, but they let it slide.”

  “They use this trick? To sneak aboard girls with no documents?” asked Janet quizzically.

  “No. To give the crew additional bonuses, or get an extra contract on the side, to hide unauthorized shore leave … for many other small infringements. No one can track all of this down, Janet.
Planets live according to their own time. And so do spaceships.”

  Janet looked at him darkly.

  “I have long reconciled myself to the fact that the Empire is a crazy and anarchic world, Captain. But I didn’t expect this kind of craziness.”

  “Will you help us, Janet?”

  “But I would know that the law had been broken,” she said wistfully.

  “Yes. You would. But I do believe Kim. She has no other way to become legal and re-enter society. If you refuse, you would, in fact, be killing the girl. And you are a doctor.”

  Janet sighed. Looked at Kim, who sat motionless, tensely awaiting her answer.

  “Take off your clothes. You can leave your underwear on.”

  “Thank you, Janet,” said Alex.

  “You’re a madman, sir. And you’re dragging me into your madness. Keep in mind that I am breaking the law not for you personally, and not even by your order!”

  Alex nodded.

  Kim had already taken off her suit and was standing there, waiting.

  “Over here.” Janet waved her hand. “You’ll have to step into the white circle for a minute or two. It’s a computer scan, nothing to be afraid of.”

  “Is this really necessary? The genetic analysis and …” began Alex. Janet glared at him.

  “Listen, Captain! You’ve already dragged me into this shady business! So spare me your advice! I must do a tomography scan.”

  She turned and walked over to the main sick bay control panel. Kim cast a brief, stealthy glance at the doctor’s back and then dipped her hand under her little camisole. Another second, and the heavy, warm crystal lay in Alex’s hand.

  Kim, the picture of innocence, stood in the circle of the tomographer, while Janet did her magic at the control panel. Alex lowered his gaze to look at the iridescent cone in the palm of his hand.

  He was under no obligation to report his crewmembers’ personal belongings. Besides, the crystal was not the object of an official search. And maybe it wasn’t even a real gel-crystal. With a price ten times higher than a ship like the Mirror. Maybe it was just a masterful fake.

  An appeal based on your own stupidity was always the best defense.

  “All right, that’s it. Get dressed,” said Janet brusquely. “No, wait a minute.”

  She got a syringe out of a small cabinet, tore open the packaging.

  “You afraid of blood?”

  “Not blood, but I’m afraid of shots,” said Kim gloomily.

  “Sorry to hear that,” rejoined Janet, unsympathetically. She took hold of the girl’s arm and brought the syringe over to the inner elbow. There was a smell of disinfectant, and the transparent little barrel filled up with blood.

  “You could do a skin test instead!” protested Kim belatedly. Backed up toward Alex, put an urgent hand behind her back, taking advantage of the fact that Janet had turned around again for a moment. Alex silently returned the crystal.

  “No, I couldn’t. This isn’t a fully equipped clinic, it’s just an express-analysis lab. That’s it, we’re done, get dressed and go to your quarters.”

  Kim seemed to realize that there was no point in arguing, and especially in trying Janet’s patience. She quickly dressed, darted an indignant glance at Alex, and left.

  “Why did you send her away?” inquired Alex.

  Janet pensively studied the syringe barrel. Sighed.

  “Just in case. Captain, are you aware that the Zzygou race has been attempting to send spies into human society?”

  Alex took a deep breath, mentally counted to ten.

  “That’s paranoia, Janet. Any Zzygou could be detected from ten yards away. Even if you’re blindfolded. By odor alone.”

  “They’ve found a way to neutralize the odor, and the guise of a young girl is their best-developed transformation,” said Janet dismissively. “This could be the reason for having no documents, and the unwillingness to undergo genetic analysis… . One minute, Captain.”

  Alex waited while she divided the blood between a dozen test tubes and took reagents out of cabinets. It was useless to argue with her. As useless as derision, or appealing to reason. He had to keep in mind that Janet was, after all, from Eben. What might seem like crazy paranoia to Alex was for her a routine precaution, as normal as washing fruit before she ate it.

  “This is our express field methodology,” she commented while dripping the reagents into one of the test tubes. “It could give a false positive, but it’s generally reliable. Let’s not wait for the results of the serum reactions, especially since they can be falsified by injecting the necessary anti-glutinogens into the bloodstream. Okay, here we go …”

  The doctor silently examined the test tube.

  “What’s supposed to happen?” Alex asked. He tensed. Paranoia was contagious.

  “Already happened. The blood coagulated.” Janet shook a small lump of red jelly onto her hand. “See?”

  “And what does this mean?”

  “That Kim is human, of course.” Janet went over to the sink and thoroughly washed her hands.

  “I could have told you that from the get-go, Janet, without any crazy tests!”

  “But this way, I know for sure.”

  She was from Eben … Alex half-closed his eyes. If he could see his Demon now, what would it look like? Weary, annoyed, or beside himself with rage?

  “Janet, let’s do a specialization analysis.”

  “Okay, just a minute.”

  Janet went back to manipulating her test tubes. She opened a flat plastic case, which turned out to contain at least a hundred tiny vials. She took a speck of something out of each one, then began adding that to the blood in the test tubes.

  “I thought you were going to do the genetic analysis,” remarked Alex.

  “This is the genetic analysis. These vials contain the indicators for a number of specific genes. If a reaction occurs, then Kim has that particular gene.”

  Leaving the test tubes on the table, Janet walked over, sat down next to him.

  “Do you have a cigarette, Captain?”

  “Here, please take one.”

  Janet lit up. Some ashes fell to the floor, and she nodded approvingly when a small cleaner bug crawled out of a corner with a rustling sound.

  “I have my quirks, Captain … you’ll have to be tolerant of them.”

  “I understand …” And then he blurted out, before he realized it, “My whole crew has quirks, damn it!”

  “Is this your first flight as a captain?”

  Alex bit his lip. This is what happens when you spill your guts.

  “Yes.”

  “It’s all right. It’s easy to get used to. I’ve been a captain on a torpedo boat … in my past life. Two hundred subordinates. Do you think any of them were without quirks?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Yeah, a few. Five or six people at the most. The ones who could hide their quirks. Ah! The first test tube’s lost its color!”

  Alex looked at the tabletop.

  “And what does that mean?”

  “It’s called the cheetah-gene. Responsible for the transformation of the musculature, makes you capable of short-term super-overloads. Well, we saw this one in action recently. So, as I was about to say, Alex … if you ever need help … or advice from a former captain … you can always count on me.”

  Alex searched her face for any sign of irony or ridicule. No, Janet was serious.

  “Thank you. I’ll remember that.”

  “The second and third test tubes,” Janet noted. “The remodeling of neurons, the increased pain threshold, and accelerated synoptic reactions.”

  “Then Kim is a fighter?”

  “Yes, of course, Captain. I had no doubts about the results of these tests. And here is the fourth test tube … transformation of the retina and the eyeball … by the way, you should also have a positive on this test. You know what that means, don’t you?”

  “The possibility of inheritance?”

  “Exactl
y. If you ever decide to have progeny with Kim … What is it, Captain?”

  Before he answered, Alex also lit a cigarette. The doctor waited patiently. Two more test tubes changed color—but Janet had no comment on what was happening.

  “Are you well acquainted with fighter specializations, Janet?”

  “Reasonably well. I’m not a geneticist, of course, but …”

  “Does etiquette constitute any part of a fighter-spesh’s preparation?”

  Janet frowned. “Pardon?”

  “Yesterday, Kim and I were at a restaurant. A very decent restaurant, by the way … Well … the girl acted like a young lady from the highest circles of society. I’ve had etiquette lessons at the academy, but next to her, I felt like an uncultured natural.”

  “And how do you know how many restaurants she’s been to? Captain, if the girl is from an influential Edemian family, she must have had very expensive and well-qualified teachers.”

  “Possibly,” murmured Alex. Why hadn’t he thought of this obvious possibility? Maybe because he was used to measuring everyone according to his own standards—those of a provincial bumpkin, who received his first lessons in proper conduct at the flight academy?

  “Okay … There was no modification of the skin,” reported Janet after a brief look at the test tubes. “Well, you don’t need a test to see that.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing. Skin modification—the grayish tint and increased resilience—is not a necessary characteristic of a fighter. And all the main things have already been established, so I can issue a certificate.”

  “One more thing, Janet. During her metamorphosis, Kim enumerated all these poets, artists, political figures …”

  Janet frowned. “Now that is strange, Captain. Are you saying she’s been pre-programmed with some knowledge of history?”

  “Yes.”

  “And not just military history, but the cultural realm?”

  “Exactly. She didn’t recall Alexander the Great or Kutuzov, or Moshe Dayan, or Lee Dong Hwan, or Mbanu.”

  “You consider him a great commander?” Janet grinned wryly. “In reality, his glory is slightly exaggerated—he wasn’t the one who made the main decisions; it was his flag-officer … Well, that’s beside the point … You amaze me, Captain. It really is a strange education for a spesh.”