The Last Day

by Glenn Kleier

  “Jozef's objective was to design, for lack of a better term, nervous system patches. These patches would be used to help restore motor function in cases of paralysis, such as in severe spinal column trauma. The idea was to insert the patches into damaged pathways to reconnect severed or damaged nerves.

  “By activating individual, microscopic areas of the chip, the theory was, you could turn on or turn off various, random nerve pathways through the chip. Through trial and error, you would finally locate all the correct connections to unite the proper brain impulses with the proper muscles to make the limbs function normally again. It was brilliant and very promising research.

  “But, as advanced as Jozef's work was, Marie's injuries proved far too extensive to benefit. There was no hope of restoring her faculties, even if she could be awakened from the coma, which was unlikely.”

  She now allowed Feldman to resume his note taking.

  “Prior to Marie's accident,” she continued, “a colleague and great friend of many years, Dr. Giyam Karmi, had offered Jozef a department directorship at the Israeli Negev Research Institute to conduct advanced genetic studies on livestock. For reasons that only became clear to me later, Jozef felt this position would allow him access to specialized equipment and technologies that might be of some help to Marie. So, while maintaining his fellowship and research at the university, in the fall of 1994 Jozef took the position at the institute and began working closely with Dr. Karmi.

  “In merging their different fields of expertise, along with that of other brilliant scientists at the institute, Jozef and Giyam developed a number of ingenious processes for accelerating bovine growth.”

  “Super cattle?” Feldman suggested.

  “No, not super cattle. Not larger or stronger, necessarily. Just faster growing. Much faster growing. Reaching optimum size and weight far more efficiently and cost-effectively than with conventional animal husbandry. Their work was stunning. Light-years ahead of anyone else. You see, the cattle weren't raised in any way similar to the standard methods. No pens. No food lots. They were gestated.”

  “Gestated?” Feldman questioned. “Like incubating chicken eggs?”

  “Well, no. They were maturated in artificial wombs.”

  Feldman and Anke exchanged questioning glances.

  “The process involved surgically removing the embryos from the host mother and transplanting them individually into special nurturing vessels, complete with artificial amniotic fluids and placental systems.

  “The vessels were managed by a complex network of computers that would automatically monitor the developing fetuses and administer precise dosages of nutrients, vitamins, proteins and hormones, including specialized bovine and fetal growth hormones, stimulants to promote healthy, mature muscle development, and other compounds to force rapid growth. Unbelievably rapid growth.

  “The maturing cattle embryos were kept tranquilized through the process and could be induced to develop to optimum adult size in less than five months.”

  “Five months!” Feldman exclaimed. “You mean two months in the mother's womb and five months in the incubator?”

  “No,” she replied, with some pride in her voice. “I mean a total of five months’ gestation, including both natural and artificial womb. Jozef and his associates’ process exploited the accelerated growth that all fetuses typically undergo during their final month of development. And magnified it sixfold.”

  “Holy cow!” Feldman blurted out, despite himself.

  For the first time, Anne Leveque showed a full and genuine smile. “Yes. A cow that could be raised entirely to adulthood in a virtually automated, efficient completely monitored and controlled environment Free of injury and infectious disease.

  “With a little time and perfecting, Jozef and Giyam could have turned their process into a highly cost-effective operation. An ideal means for providing this country of limited pastureland with high-quality, whole-some, lean beef, at dramatically reduced production costs.”

  “What happened?” Anke asked.

  Mrs. Leveque's face faded back into the familiar, anguished mask. “I could never have imagined that Jozef had an ulterior motive for the relentless passion he poured into his work. To him, this great achievement was simply a means to restore our beloved Marie to us.”

  “I don't understand,” Feldman interjected. “If Marie's condition was irreversible, I don't see how this artificial gestation system, as miraculous as it sounds, would be applicable.”

  “And now we come to the damnation of it all,” Mrs. Leveque spoke this as if releasing a terrible burden. “Jozef's intent wasn't to cure Marie. It was to re-create her!”

  Feldman and Anke looked flabbergasted.

  Mrs. Leveque paused for a moment stared down at her tightly clasped hands, and then continued.

  “You are familiar with some of the recent experiments that have resulted in the successful cloning of higher-level mammals and primates?”

  The couple nodded their heads.

  “Well”—she looked up, readily apparent pride showing in her eyes—”Jozef eclipsed all of these remarkable accomplishments—and by more than a full year, I might add. His methods, however, were quite different. He utilized a procedure he developed called polar body fertilization.”

  Feldman wrinkled his forehead with puzzlement.

  “Let me explain. If you've ever taken a biology course, you may recall that during the early stages of egg formation in the human female, the immature ovum cell undergoes a change known as diploidy. That is, it doubles from forty-six chromosomes to ninety-two. Next, the egg cell undergoes haploid division. That is, it splits into two cells of forty-six chromosomes each. Finally, in a process called meiosis, it divides for the last time into four cells of twenty-three chromosomes each, all contained within one common membrane.

  ‘Two of these four cells are larger, one of which will win out over the other cells and eventually become a mature egg. The two smaller cells are known as polar bodies. These smaller cells also contain twenty-three chromosomes but very little cytoplasm—the substance that surrounds the nucleus and makes up the bulk of a cell.

  “Without the cytoplasm, these polar body cells are quite similar in composition to male sperm cells. Under the right conditions, it is possible to reunite the polar body with the matured egg cell, producing a complete, fertilized egg.

  “It's a process known as polar body fertilization, and the resulting offspring, if the pregnancy goes to term, would be female, and always identical to its mother. That's to be expected, because obviously the baby will possess all the chromosomes, exactly the same chromosomes, as its mother. A carbon copy.

  “Jozef's strategy was to perform a polar body fertilization procedure with Marie's ova, without my knowledge, because he knew I would never agree to such a thing. On certain days when I was teaching at the university, Jozef would dismiss Marie's nurse to conduct his operations. He extracted numerous ova from Marie, separated out the polar bodies at the lab, and performed in vitro polar body fertilizations. Subsequently, in December of 1995, Jozef implanted numerous fertilized ova back into Marie's womb, four of which ultimately developed into viable fetuses. Later, he removed all the embryos in a cesarean section and secretly installed them in special gestation vessels at the Negev Institute.

  “Jozef attempted to explain away Marie's incision as an emergency appendectomy. But I saw through him and he finally opened up to me with the entire story. To my eternal shame, I must admit to you that, after my initial shock and disbelief, I, too, was lured into his madness.

  “The thoughts of having my Marie back, of being able to look into her eyes, to hear her laugh, to hold her close to me, normal, healthy, happy again—my angel child—it was too much for me to resist! And I could not help but support Jozef in his plans. Although I must also admit to you that I lived in constant fear of God's retribution, which I feel is now coming to pass.”

  “Excuse me, Anne,” Anke interrupted, “but how could the same hor
mones and artificial gestation methods developed for cattle be used on human embryos? And wouldn't the laboratory personnel detect the difference between human and bovine fetuses?”

  “Jozef had all that figured out, Anke. For his special vessels, he altered the endocrinology, changed the growth hormones from bovine to human, adjusted the nutrients, proteins and medicine contents accordingly. He substituted new computer programs modified specifically for human subjects.

  “With his authority as a director of the institute, he was able to restrict access to the vessels. We knew we'd have to be extremely calculating to gestate even one of our developing daughters—or granddaughters perhaps—to adulthood without detection. But we were willing to take that chance.”

  Feldman stopped her again. “Did I understand you correctly that your husband used growth hormones and intended to artificially gestate your daughter's fetuses all the way to adulthood?”

  “Correct.”

  “But why? Why not simply remove the healthiest baby at the equivalent of nine months and raise her normally?”

  “We were prepared to do that, if necessary, but we faced a problem that even Jozef's resourcefulness couldn't solve: time.

  “I was thirty-seven years old and Jozef a year older when we had Marie in 1968. We were sixty-two when she was injured and sixty-six by the time Jozef introduced Marie's embryos into the gestation vessels. Jozef was not in the best of health. We were simply too old. There was not time enough left for us to raise a child safely to adulthood in the conventional manner.”

  “But I should think,” Feldman persisted, “you'd be faced with raising an infant in an adult's body.”

  “That brings us to the next, most complicated aspect of Jozef's strategy. And here, we enter again into proprietary research areas that must be kept in confidence.”

  Feldman set aside his pen and pad once more.

  “This is where Jozef drew upon his greatest expertise. Not only did he wish to accelerate Marie's physical growth, he wanted to do the same for her mind.

  “The idea and mechanism for doing this came to Jozef several years earlier from a series of experiments at the university. As I mentioned before, Jozef had been working with a team of researchers developing biomicrochip circuitry, a type of artificial bridge to carry nerve impulses across severed areas of the central nervous system, helping to restore limb movement in the treatment of paralysis.

  “Independently, he'd also conducted tests on some alternative applications of this neurochip technology. Instead of neuromuscular cells, he focused on brain tissue, which is also a form of nerve tissue. However, he knew that regular brain cells—unlike nerve cells—would not grow onto the artificial chip surface because, after birth, brain cells soon lose their ability to multiply.

  “So, Jozef began experimenting with fetal subjects. Sheep. And the receptivity of fetal brain tissue proved to be even better than with neuromuscular applications. By implanting the chip early during fetal development, Jozef found that the brain cells would readily grow onto the surface and integrate with its circuitry.

  “More interestingly, he found that the neural brain cells would actually adapt to the circuitry and learn how to respond to it. The mesh of neural cells that formed on the chip would act like an informational placenta, allowing input to permeate between the chip and the neural passages of the brain. The brain could incorporate input from the chips as if they were a natural, organic, sensory element of the nervous system.

  “All the circuitry of the neural chips was hardwired. Micro-fine wires from the chip would extend from inside the brain and out the skull, gather into one strand, exit through a port in the back of the fetus's head, and then out through the mother ewe's abdomen. By sending mild electrical impulses into select circuits in the neurochip, Jozef could artificially stimulate and precisely identify which areas of the brain were connected to each specific circuit.

  “Depending on where the chip had been inserted, the electrical impulses could create, for example, isolated muscle responses in the tail, or the right forelimb. Through trial and error, Jozef would eventually learn exactly which nerves controlled what functions.

  “Once, in a whimsical effort to demonstrate his results to me, Jozef played a tape of a John Philip Sousa march he dearly loved and made one poor little lamb dance a silly, repetitive step across his mother's womb.” Mrs. Leveque hummed a few bars and the familiar tune was immediately recognizable to Feldman, if not by name.

  “Wouldn't this type of procedure,” Feldman inquired, “implanting a foreign object in the brain and shooting electricity through it, damage the brain?”

  “Not that we could determine. The brain is very tolerant to intrusive procedures during the fetal stage. Also, the brain functions on electrochemical impulses any way, you see, as its natural means of transmitting messages. Sheep embryos that were allowed to go to term after the implantation seemed perfectly normal, healthy and active after birth.”

  “What became of the experiments?” Anke asked.

  “Sadly, it was just at this time that Marie's accident happened and Jozef abruptly discontinued his work. Of course, you can see how he would have hoped to use this wonderful science to help Marie. But even if it were possible for her adult brain cells to integrate with the neurochip, so much of her brain tissue had been destroyed that, mentally, it was very unlikely she could ever be normal.”

  Once more, the emotions welled in Mrs. Leveque and her eyes brimmed with tears. “But, God forgive him, my husband was an incredibly stubborn man, and simply wouldn't believe Marie was lost to us. He wouldn't allow her to be disconnected from feeding tubes. And he wouldn't give up on his obsession that somehow, he, with all his resourceful ingenuity and miraculous technologies, would someday devise a way to reverse our tragedy.

  “It was this obsession that drove him to implant the neurochip devices into our daughter embryos. That was his answer to our time limitations. He would use these neurochips to transmit information from computer cyber-systems directly into their developing brains. ‘Intelligence infusion’ he called it.

  “Jozef would build their knowledge as they gestated. Accelerate their minds to keep pace with the growth of their bodies. This was our best and only hope for preparing our girls in time to cope with a world that, in a manner of speaking, had already victimized them once before.”

  “I'm a little fuzzy on how the artificial learning process works,” Feldman confessed.

  “Unlike in his sheep experiments earlier,” Mrs. Leveque explained, “Jozef had devised new, far more sophisticated neurochips. When our daughter fetuses grew large enough, Jozef selected three of the four and implanted a dozen neurochips into the audio, visual, spatial and thought-processing centers of each child's brain.

  “And in one of the girls, he also implanted a different type of neurochip into a separate, cognitive receptor site. This was a brand-new chip he'd developed. It included a unique microtransmitter-receiver, capable of both receiving and sending communication signals. The device was completely untested and was conceived as almost an afterthought. Jozef's intent was to provide this one, special child with a continuing source of communication, input and output, even after birth. Through this chip, her intellectual capacities would be unlimited, powered by the unending source of natural chemical electricity of her brain.

  “With the two daughters who had only the regular neurochips, you see, their input wiring would have had to be disconnected during the birth process. After which, their neurochips would no longer function.

  “The last remaining embryo we decided to leave completely unaltered so that if anything went wrong with the highly risky procedures, we would still, God willing, be blessed with one, healthy adult daughter. Infantile of mind, perhaps, but nevertheless healthy.

  “In that way, we allowed the unaltered fetus to serve as a control in the experiment. Except for the intelligence infusion, she went through the entire process with her sisters. She wore the monitoring helmet and electrodes on he
r scalp—everything. Everything but the neurochips.

  “Even though she would have been born infantile in intelligence, her brain would not have been infantile in its physical development. Hers would have been a full-grown, mature, adult brain, with far more capacity to learn than an infant's. Especially with the help of her artificially educated sisters, who could assist her even if Jozef and I were no longer able.

  “But almost immediately, there was a problem. Shortly after the implantation procedures, one of our embryos suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. That night the monitors recorded internal bleeding in the occipital center of her brain, and by morning, we'd lost her. Fortunately, however, our two other girls tolerated the procedures well and all three continued their incredible growth, at about seven times the normal rate.”

  “Excuse me, Anne,” Anke broke in, “but how could Jozef have possibly expected to infuse decades of normal, day-to-day learning through these—these computer signals. Knowledge isn't just quantitative. It's qualitative. And it's tempered with things like emotion, interpretation and a host of cross-pollinated experiences too complex for me to even imagine.”

  “That's true, my dear. We didn't expect the artificial education process to give them comprehensive knowledge about life and the world. There would be many gaps to be filled in after birth. Jozef's diary does a better job of explaining all this than I can, but, unfortunately, the diary contains none of his scientific records. They were all lost in the explosion.

  “In any event, the multiple neurochips gave us the ability to synchronize input to many different brain centers at the same time—hearing, vision, thought-processing and so forth. That way, our daughters could experience things three-dimensionally. Understanding how to crawl and walk, for example. And then we built upon that knowledge, training and instructing them bit by bit to understand speech and language. To identify images and spatial orientations. To grasp mathematics, geometry and so forth.”

  “Like virtual reality?” Feldman decided.