Terminal Event

by Robert Vaughan

  “I’m sure that like most lay people, you ladies do not realize the complex scientific protocol that will be required for an embryo transfer. Those not familiar with the procedure just assume that the woman goes to the reproductive endocrinologist where an embryo is implanted into her uterus, and the rest is history. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.”

  Doctor Scott stepped away from the podium and walked over to the table where the six women were sitting.

  “Embryotic transfer is not a natural means of birth. You’ll not be ovulating an egg to be inseminated by a male’s sperm; rather you’ll be receiving an already conceived embryo.

  “And therein is the problem. When a woman becomes pregnant, her body undergoes a number of natural changes. The changes are to prepare her body so that it may host the child that she has produced. And since none of you will actually be pregnant, at least in the natural cycle of things, we will medically induce the changes that will simulate a natural pregnancy.

  “First, you will be given a drug called estradiol. This will stimulate the development of the endometrium, or the lining of the uterus. You will be taking estradiol both before and after the transfer, and you will continue with this at least twice per week for the duration of the pregnancy.

  “In addition you will take progesterone, which you probably know is a hormone. It will be given daily by way of a vaginal suppository. This medication will enable your natural hormones to be released, allowing the embryo to implant.

  “You will be monitored and medicated throughout your pregnancy.” The doctor placed his hands on the table and looked into the eyes of each woman. “If any of you are having second thoughts, now is the time to say so. Beyond this day, there will be no turning back.”

  Three weeks after the embryo transplant, Dr. Scott called Damien and asked him to stop by his office for an urgent meeting.

  “Is something wrong?” Damien asked, anxiously.

  “I don’t know,” Scott replied. “But something is very unusual.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Damien’s first thought was selfishly of Ava. What had begun as a cordial relationship between the two had grown into much more. Now, he was frightened that she may be in danger as a result of this induced pregnancy.

  As he hurried over to the doctor’s office he was thinking of some of the warnings that had been put forth, everything from the extreme religious view that the embryos were spawns of Satan, to the more reasoned precautions that the embryos might be carrying some sort of ancient pathogen.

  Had he put Ava into a position that was threatening her wellbeing?

  Once he reached the medical clinic, the way had been cleared for him so that he was immediately taken to Scott’s office.

  “Is it Ava?” Damien asked, as soon as the door was closed and he was seated.

  “Not just Ava. It’s all of them.”

  “My God,” Damien said, lowering his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. “What have I done?”

  “What? Oh, no, Professor, I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea. Ava isn’t in any danger, nor is anyone else.”

  “Then I don’t understand. What is it?” Damien had a perplexed look on his face. “You said it was all of them.”

  “Tell me, how far along were the embryos when we implanted them?”

  “You examined them yourself. They were eight weeks.”

  “I want you to look at this,” Scott said. “I’ve had the sonograms digitized.” He turned on the monitor screen which showed a developing fetus.

  “How old would you say this fetus is?” Scott asked.

  “By the development, I would say about six months,” Damien said. “But why are you showing me this?”

  “Because it’s one of the embryos.”

  “You mean this is one of the Antarctic Six? No, that’s impossible!”

  “Impossible? One would think so, wouldn’t one?” Dr. Scott said. He began clicking through a series of pictures until he had gone through six of them.

  “But, as you can see, every one of them is in the same stage of development.”

  “Do you anticipate any problem from this? Any problem for the women?”

  “There’s no danger that I can detect,” Scott said. “All six of the women are healthy, and the fetuses are doing well. The heartbeats are strong.”

  “Are you going to tell them?” Damien asked.

  Doctor Scott laughed. “I don’t have to tell them. They’re definitely feeling the babies. If the pregnancies continue at this rate they could be delivering in two more weeks.”

  Damien shook his head.

  Though there were some rumors, as there were many people around the women all the time, it was Ava who, a week later, broke the news to the rest of the world. As she had done with every telecast since being confined in the Surrogate House, her appearance was done by remote.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make,” Ava said, beginning her broadcast. “It has only been two weeks since the embryos were implanted but our doctor is now certain that, within the next week, all six of us, Yukari Amano, Zala Ibori, Adrienne Moreau, Lei Ngyuen, Mary Beth Semmes, and I will deliver our babies.”

  As Ava spoke each name, the camera showed the smiling mothers to be.

  “You may ask how this can be. You have seen us on TV every day over the last two weeks and you have learned that Yukari plays classical piano, indeed, we all have been the beneficiaries of her talent; you know that Adrienne is an excellent cook, that Zala competed in the Olympics as a distance runner, Lei is a wonderful ballet dancer, and Mary Beth is an accomplished pilot who flies her own airplane.

  “You have seen us many times, and yet you had no idea that our pregnancies were advancing as far as they have.”

  Ava laughed. “If your question is, how is it that you were unaware of our condition, the answer is quite simple. Until those on the staff were ready to let this new development in our adventure be known, we managed to hide the obvious state of our pregnancies from you, by clever positioning and camera angles. But, if your question is, how is it possible that we are set to deliver in less than a month, I have no answer for you.

  “Damien Thornton, whom you have all come to know, has postulated a theory.”

  The camera angle broadened to take in Damien, who was sitting in a chair next to Ava.

  “Doctor Thornton, you have been in charge of this project from the moment the embryos were brought back to St. Louis. As a matter of fact, I believe that you are the one who discovered the embryos in the first place, aren’t you?”

  “Only in a manner of speaking,” Damien replied. “The canister containing the embryos was discovered by Dr. Martin Nathanson and an ice-core sampling team working at the South Pole.

  “I am, however, the one who opened the cylinder to find the embryos, and, of course, I am the one who identified them as human.”

  “Are they human?” Ava asked. “I mean just what is it that I’m carrying in my body, that has such an accelerated gestation cycle?”

  “They are human.”

  “Then how is it that they’re developing so rapidly?”

  “I think it may well be a possibility that the embryos, before they were encased, were implanted with some sort of a rapid growth biology that has allowed the in utero time to be greatly accelerated.”

  “Then let me ask you this. If they have grown this rapidly before being born, what will happen after they are born?”

  “We don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  After the telecast, announcing that the embryos were developing at an exceptionally accelerated pace, God’s Legion made a statement.

  “As the whole world knows, for many years our organization has been adamantly opposed to abortion and we have fought it on every front. But that opposition to abortion is for human birth.

  “The fact that we have been told that the gestation period is so greatly accelerated should prove to everyone, that these embryos were
not, and are not human, and to carry non-human life forms in the womb of a woman is an affront to God, and to all humanity. We do not believe that these embryos should be brought to term. We are demanding an immediate abortion.”

  The opposition from God’s Legion was to be expected, but the opposition came from non-religious sources as well. Senator Kit Emerson, Republican from Alabama, and Senator Carl Andrews, Democrat from Oregon, introduced a bill in the senate, demanding that the Antarctic Six be aborted. The bill was referred to the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health.

  Those who were opposed to the birth got an unexpected boost from Sir Jason MacComber, the ninety-year-old Oxford University don and worldwide bestselling author who was considered by many to be one of the most brilliant scientists in the world.

  “There are only two possibilities to these embryos,” MacComber said on a BBC broadcast. “They are either of extraterrestrial origin, or, they are from a very old civilization about which we know nothing.

  “If they are extraterrestrial, it would be interesting to bring them to term to study, as if they were creatures in a zoo. But if they originated on earth, what happened to the civilization that spawned them? We cannot overlook the possibility than an entire civilization was wiped out by some sort of deadly pathogen, and these creatures may well carry that with them. If it destroyed a civilization once before, who is to say that it won’t do it again? I think the pregnancies should be terminated, and the waste incinerated.”

  In St. Louis all the major interstate highways were blocked off by protesters, carrying signs demanding that the Antarctic Six be aborted.

  There were similar demonstrations in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow.

  Only in Japan was there any support for the project. There, Yukari Amano was thought to be a national hero, and little girls played with dolls who looked exactly like Yukari.

  10

  The Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health exercised oversight of primary health issues including community health centers, access to vaccines, oral health, prescription drugs and the mental health of all Americans. It was this committee that issued an emergency subpoena for Damien to testify before the Senate. After being sworn in, he was seated before the committee, where the committee chairman, Senator J. D. Felker of Missouri, was delivering the opening statement.

  “Dr. Thornton, on behalf of the committee, I would like to thank you for appearing before us today.”

  “I appreciate your appreciation, Senator, but as I understand it, having been subpoenaed by the U.S. Senate, I really had no choice but to appear,” Damien replied.

  There was a smattering of laughter from those gathered in the committee room where the hearing was being held.

  “Yes,” Senator Felker replied with a smile. “Subpoenas can be quite helpful.

  “Dr. Thornton, there’s a project that you’re involved with that has caused the attention of the entire world to be drawn to St. Louis. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The senator pursed his lips before speaking. “Now I have a particular interest in this . . . this experiment because my home is in Manchester, a suburb of St. Louis.

  “But I also have an interest in it because I am chairman of this subcommittee, and we have been charged by the United States Senate to have a closer look at just what it is you are doing.

  “Ever since these creatures were found…”

  “Excuse me, Senator, they are human fetuses. They are not creatures,” Damien Thornton said, interrupting the senator.

  “Very well, ever since these human fetuses were found, there has been international concern and outright opposition to bringing them to term.

  “Much of the opposition is religious based, and ironically, on this issue at least, Christians and Muslims are united in not wanting them to be born. But my concern, and the subject of this investigation, has nothing to do with the religious nature of your project. As the name of our committee suggests, we are interested in the health aspects.

  “We will be asking you a lot of questions during this hearing, and it is my sincere hope that, by the time this hearing is over, we’ll have enough information to be able to reach a decision.”

  “Senator, if I may...reach a decision on what?” Damien asked.

  “Why, I thought you knew, Dr. Thornton. It was spelled out in the subpoena.”

  The senator sitting next to Senator Felker placed his hand over the microphone, then leaned over to whisper something to the committee chairman.

  “I beg your pardon, sir, I have just been told the information wasn’t a part of the subpoena, so I will inform you now. The purpose of this hearing is to determine whether or not we will allow these fetuses to be born.”

  Damien started to respond to the comment, but decided it would be better to withhold his statement.

  “With that, I will turn the microphone over to Senator Carlisle, of Wyoming.”

  “Dr. Thornton, you mentioned a few minutes ago that the fetuses are human. Are you absolutely certain of that?”

  “I am one hundred percent certain, Senator. When they were still in the embryotic stage I examined them thoroughly. And I have since seen sonograms of the developing fetuses.”

  “Is it true that they may be born within another two weeks?”

  “Sooner than that, I would expect.”

  “Where did they come from?”

  Damien was quiet for a moment.

  “Doctor?”

  “We don’t know where they came from,” Damien admitted.

  “Is it possible that they are extraterrestrials?”

  “That question has been asked of me a hundred times or more, and my answer is always the same. I cannot, with certainty, rule out the possibility that they may be of extraterrestrial origin,” Damien admitted. “But whether they are extraterrestrials or not, I can say with absolute certainty that they are human beings.”

  “I don’t know which scenario is the more difficult to comprehend,” one of the other committee members said. “The idea that they are from some other planet, or the idea that they originated from here on earth.

  “If they are from earth, do we know of any ancient race who had the technical ability to isolate embryos, put them in a canister, and bury them thousands of feet below ice?”

  “We know of no such civilization,” Damien replied.

  “Then it is possible that this could be from a race, many years ago, that for one reason or another, became extinct?”

  “Of all the scenarios we have examined, that one seems the most probable.”

  “Why have we never found any trace of this civilization?” Senator Carlisle asked.

  “It was too long ago.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Our most educated guesses suggest that this civilization may have existed one hundred thousand years ago,” Damien replied, giving the answer that had become the standard response to this question.

  “What happened to them?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “Exactly, we don’t know,” Senator Carlisle said. “So that brings us to the reason this inquiry is being handled by the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health. Is it possible, Dr. Thornton, that the entire civilization of people, from which these embryos came, could have been wiped out by some sort of plague that we know nothing about?”

  “That is possible.”

  “Then isn’t it also possible that these embryos you are attempting to foster on us now, may, in fact, be infected with whatever it is that wiped out that civilization?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “First of all, Senator, there is a general consensus that the civilization that spawned these embryos, was at least as advanced as we are, and perhaps even a little more advanced. If these embryos are, as we think they are, ‘survivors in a life-boat,’ so to speak, it would strain credulity to think that they would leave behind diseased specimens.

  “Also, the embry
os were thoroughly examined by a team of medical and biological authorities, and we have found no sign of a pathogen of any kind,” Damien said.

  “But given the rather unique aspect of these embryos, and given your own admission that we know nothing of who they are, or from whence they came, is it not possible that they could be infected with some, heretofore, and therefore, undiscoverable disease?”

  “No.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “We are sure that they are human, and so we understand their physiology. The tissue we have so thoroughly examined is without insult of any kind. Even if we didn’t know whatever virus, bacterium, prion, fungus, viroid, or parasite that might be the cause of infection, we would be able to see its effect on the subjects, and there is nothing present on any of them.

  “Also, they will probably be born within a week, and if there were any dangerous pathogens to contend with, they would have already presented in the surrogate mothers.”

  The hearing lasted for two days, with two other biologists and three doctors testifying on behalf of non-interference with the project.

  But there was one man, anthropologist Clint Remington, another expert witness called to testify before the subcommittee, who made a very strong case against allowing the babies to be born.

  “They are indeed, life forms of some sort, but I am not ready to concede that they are human. Whether they came from some other planet, or whether they were placed, far underground by some heretofore unknown species which called earth, home, we have to admit the obvious...they are not of our civilization.

  “I’m sure that you members of this committee are aware of the Neanderthal. Opinion is still divided as to whether the Neanderthal were human, or a parallel species. It might be interesting to point out that one of the leading authorities on the Neanderthal is the same biologist who testified here, and who is, in fact, in charge of the Antarctic Six. I’m talking, of course, about the esteemed Doctor Thornton. It is he who is convinced that the Neanderthals also were human.

  “But, what happened to them?