“No,” Aldry shook her head. “and there are multiple reasons. The viruses would also infect the fetus with untested effects on their development. The mother’s body is likely to abort the fetus anyway as her changes occur. The supplements we feed you at the start were never tested on pregnant women of course, and there is a risk for the fetus from them.”
“Damn!” Thad swore. “If we can’t have children this colony will be as good as dead in fifty years. What are we building for, what will we be able to preserve?”
Aldry held her hand up to forestall the pessimism.
“Thad, it’s true the pregnancies already underway will likely all abort. However, women with the gene mods already implemented when they conceive will have a stronger constitution, and should have a good chance of going full term, or close enough for a safe delivery. Gravity will still increase the risks and strain, but we think most women will be able to have healthy babies. If the fathers also have gene mods it will increase the chances of a successful delivery.”
“Huh?” Thad looked confused. “How can good old dad’s strength and well-being help mom give birth?”
“Thad,” Aldry answered patiently, “these are gene modifications. After they have established themselves throughout every cell, over some months of course, the traits are inheritable. They appear in DNA contained in the eggs and sperm. The babies will be born with a combination of both parent’s contributions. If only mom has modifications, the fetus will inherit some of the genes, and may or may not experience distress from the Koban environment. If both parents were boosted the baby will have them all.”
“Funny, I hadn’t thought about my mods being passed along to children. I thought of them as similar to body building.”
Maggi laughed. “Those genes will be passed along, plus your inherited longevity and immune system genes, your height, your looks, and a thick head will all be passed along to your unfortunate offspring. I hope you contract with a smart, beautiful woman for that poor child’s sake.” The barb proving she liked Thad.
“Ha! I guess your children would be short, irritating, and smart asses?” he retorted, in mutual admiration.
“Maggi,” interrupted Aldry, before the inevitable second strike would take them farther off track. “The inheritable nature of gene modifications has been established, so this is a good time for Rafe to tell us about the results of his lab’s research.”
Turning to the man sitting next to her, she said, “Rafe, would you please explain what your lab has been doing?”
51. Kobani to the Core
Rafe was a short man, and previously pudgy, before his wife Isadora was killed by a Krall exercising in the Fancy’s stair wells. He had lost his appetite and weight after that, and had asked for and received the first gene mods two and a half months ago. He had grown fit while setting up the second genetic research lab.
With his added energy and new focus, he devoted almost every waking hour to new research. Before joining the Midwife Project, he had worked on studying the occasional genetic mutations in children on the New Colony world of Brussels. That planet experienced a high incidence of Cosmic Rays because of a weaker magnetic field than Earth’s or most colonies.
He’d had an outgoing personality when Isadora was alive, but he had become withdrawn and intense after she was killed. Hatred for the Krall was at the focal point of that intensity.
He was still intense in his hatred of the Krall, but his research had given him a diversion and a new goal. When he realized that his new research had implications for the subjects of his hatred, he regained his former ebullience.
When Aldry asked him to stand and tell them what his research showed, Rafe bounced to his feet, his excitement obvious.
“You’ve heard how our colonists will be able to have children. Our children will be born with the strengths we give ourselves to better survive here. But those children will grow up to have children, and generations after that.” He looked around the table.
“You must answer this question. Do you want them to become true Kobani?”
The others recognized the rhetorical nature of the question and waited.
“Your grandchildren can do better than simply to be able to tolerate this planet, always living sequestered inside protective walls, as the Krall largely did. They can become fully adapted to this planet. They can inherit the same reaction speed as the native life, able to survive here as well as our ancestors did on the African plains, where modern humans first evolved. They can be much stronger, although never as powerful as a rhinolo or a ripper, but then our own ancestors were no physical match for rhinos and lions. Yet humans spread to be the dominate species on Earth. Our grandchildren can complete human domination on Koban.” He looked at them with satisfaction, waiting for a response.
Mirikami exercised his prerogative to go first. “Rafe, we have been told repeatedly that we can’t enhance our own DNA to achieve this. Clearly, you have something else in mind. How do you propose to reach this goal in two generations?”
Rafe looked directly at Mirikami, a slight smile showing. “When I asked if you wanted humans to become true Kobani I was being quite literal.”
He stared his explanation. “As we’ve discovered in life forms we’ve found on any planet, DNA holds the blueprints. It builds things like simple sponges and complex people on Earth, and some of the same genes in a sponge appear in higher animals, like us. Our lab has found genes in DNA on Koban that we share, despite having evolved hundreds of light years and billions of years apart. There are DNA building blocks that are common to many life forms that use the same basic chemical elements. And the blocks can be interchanged if intelligently selected.”
He took a deep breath. “We can incorporate segments of selected genetic components of native Koban life into our own DNA. The crucial first steps are a bit risky, but we can incorporate the genes that build the same Kobani organic superconducting nerves into our own nervous system. Not to replace our native nervous system but to build the framework of a new one, in parallel.
“We can do this within our own generation, incompletely for sure, and we will not be able to use it to full advantage. However, we would pass this trait on to the next generation, our children. They would be born with an unused parallel organic superconducting nervous system. That generation will be able to accept additional genetic enhancements to add in the connective nerve tissue that can connect our human muscles to the second nervous system.
“This will furnish them with the same fast reaction times we see in Koban animals. Our children would not only sense the need to move sooner than we can, but their brain would transmit the command for the muscles to do so sooner.” He had their attention, but also saw doubt.
“Note that for our children the reaction times would be much faster, but the physical response would be no stronger than our human muscles can exert now. However, the generation after that is when the end product of this effort becomes possible.
“Our children would pass their new DNA to their own children from birth, to our grandchildren. At that stage, we can incorporate additional Koban DNA for musculature construction like the one all of the animals here employ, and for stronger bones. We can do this at the fetal stage, or even prior to conception so our old weaker muscle structure isn’t built at all. If we deactivate development of the normal human nervous system, we will build only the superconducting nerves that connect to tougher, stronger muscle, cartilage, bones, and tendons, to give us the strength to move as powerfully and as quickly as any native animal of comparable size.” He looked around the room.
“This can be achieved in only two generations. If we start on ourselves soon, and our first children marry younger than has been customary, say in late teens, and they produce babies by age twenty, the first humans fully adapted to live on Koban could be born well within our long lifetimes. All subsequent generations will inherit their abilities.” He spread his hands, in obvious invitation for comments.
Noreen asked, �
��Would our grandchildren and their offspring still be human? Aren’t you proposing a man-made new species as a successor to Homo sapiens?”
Rafe seemed startled. “That’s not what I’m proposing at all! Our children will be as human as we are, and …” he paused in thought, before continuing cautiously.
“It is possible that in doing as I just proposed, employing the fastest possible pace of changes, that our grandchildren might be unable to reproduce with unmodified humans. I thank you Noreen for an excellent observation. It isn’t a trivial matter, but the solution is nearly so.” He told them how.
“It means we have to be careful and selective of the alien genes we introduce and what original human genes we suppress. We must, and can, maintain the ability to interbreed with a control population of unmodified humans. Two generations is probably rushing things to reach full Koban capability. I was expressing my eagerness to finish sooner.” He admitted.
“Rather than replace one nervous system with another, we should be able to retain both in parallel as we would do with ourselves and our children. That would permanently give our descendants the ability to control our enhanced muscles with either nervous system.” He nodded.
“By encouraging parings with an unmodified control group, we would ensure our future offspring can reproduce with unmodified humans, but then there would be a range of offspring with various levels of Koban traits. Some few would inherit normal human capability, some others full Koban speed and strength, with most placed somewhere in between. That would be enough to make us competitive on this planet. Not everyone is cut out to be a hunter, explorer, or pioneer.”
Dillon knew a lot more about the research Rafe was doing, and had even furnished some lab time to identify and isolate genes from wolfbats, rhinolo, skeeters, kants, gazelles, and even the Krall. However, he had spotted a flaw with maintaining an unmodified control group as proof of interbreeding capability of future Kobani generations.
“Rafe,” he hesitated to add even a minor complication, but didn’t want it brought up later by the opposition. “The control group will have to be composed of people like you and me, and anyone that has had our first two sets of new modifications. Avery just explained that women can’t have children here without those.”
Of course, that didn’t make him or any of the boosted people superhuman, unable to reproduce with unmodified humans. That was self-evident, but he offered the evidence anyway.
“In actuality there are no artificially unmodified humans any longer, not anywhere in Human Space. There hasn’t been since the twenty first century, when our species tinkered to add longevity, a better immune system, removed many dozens of genetic defects, let parents select for preferred traits like height, hair and eye color, against obesity, baldness, color blindness, and so many others. We all can still interbreed, as a nearly one trillion population effectively demonstrates.
“I brought this up because I don’t want a Cahill group’s argument to blind side us. When we count the synthetic genetic changes we all carried when we arrived here, each of them have perhaps a hundred modifications to my now one hundred and four. I like your proposal Rafe, but I’m biased in its favor since I helped a bit.”
Tet wondered how the genes for organic superconductors would get the supplements they needed in order to develop properly. He asked that very question.
Rafe chuckled. “As a biologist I’m frankly not sure how they form. Various salts in the local environment appear to combine to form the final materials with contributions from a list of elements we found that are possibly involved.
“We’ve identified Bechgaard and Fabre salts, higher than typical levels of copper, molybdenum, zinc, rubidium, bismuth, strontium, yttrium, and barium. There are also plenty of the rare earths. In fact, the makeup of this whole planet is a dream of mineralogy, precious and rare elements. It’s why it has such high density in a relatively small package with this lovely gravity.”
“Rafe!” Dillon complained. “How the hell can you create a room temperature organic superconductor if you don’t even know what is needed?”
Maggi moved closer to Dillon. “Can you do complex rapid computations, or do you simply make use of what a computer can do for you? Rafe can use the Koban DNA to make organic superconductors that he can’t assemble himself.”
“But I’d know what data to feed to the computer.”
“Whack!” went the sound of small knuckles to the back of his head.
Maggi, satisfied with that sound effect, said “And we can supply the new DNA the same things available in the local environment that it uses. Some of those might be unnecessary, but you are what you eat, and we know what they eat. I’ll wager that most of the supplements are contained in plant material because all of the grazers find plenty of what they require. Predators eat the grazers, and could get it from them.”
Thad added his opinion. “You really don’t have to sell me, since I’m already committed to the mods. There will be eager participants out of the thousands of volunteers for all of the mods you already have. However, you know there will be a strong push by Ana Cahill to oppose this new proposal, and probably a majority of the last arrivals will agree. Perhaps we need some physical separation from them.”
Mirikami though about this a few seconds, lip tug holding everyone else’s opinion at bay. “You are probably right about the opposition. However there isn’t any place for us to go.”
“I wasn’t thinking of us moving. I had the malcontents in mind when I said that. We really should probably move some of our human eggs to another basket; pardon the pun. I doubt the Krall bothered to destroy their compound on the coast, and Jake had images of other abandoned clan compounds on other continents.
“How about we take some shuttles to explore them? If the last one they used is still livable, we can let some of the people that can’t tolerate us lawbreakers move there and make their own way. We have a lot of material to share now, and this small circle is already feeling crowded.”
“That’s an outstanding idea Thad, Mirikami agreed. “Rafe, Aldry, I personally love that proposal, and not for mere survival on Koban. If we are able to produce humans that can flourish here, then we will not only be smarter than the Krall, but also ready to meet the arrogant ruthless bastards in a face-to-face fight. Up close and personal, the way they like it.”
Mirikami reminded them of something. “I told Telour that when the Krall returned that our children might not give this planet back. We may have hundreds of years to wait for their return. We can spread out and prosper on this world in a lot less time than that. There is detailed knowledge in our computer records to teach us how to build any industry we need including, eventually, Jump ships.”
Standing there, looking into each of their faces, Mirikami told them, “Wait for them hell! I want us to go looking for the Krall. Payback can be a bitch.”
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
HUMAN
Crew of Flight of Fancy
Tetsuo Mirikami
Captain of Flight of Fancy. From Old Colony of New Honshu, in Hub area.
Noreen Renaldo
First Officer of Flight of Fancy. From Old Colony of Ponce, in the Hub area.
Jake (almost human)
Advanced JK series AI computer, installed on Flight of Fancy. Able to operate many of the ship systems autonomously.
Nannette Willfem
Drive Room Officer on Flight of Fancy, and a Jump Engineer.
Roni Jorl’sn
A Flight of Fancy officer and shuttle pilot.
(Chief) Mike Haveram
Chief of the Drive Room on the Flight of Fancy. In charge of the “Drive Rats” and conventional thruster engines.
Macy Gundarfem
Motorfem. One of the “Drive Rats.”
John Yin-Lee
Motorman. One of the “Drive Rats.”
Andrew Johnson
Motorman. One of the “Drive Rats.”
Nory Walters
Chief Steward.
Steward and primary Medical technician.
Cal Branson
Steward and Medical technician.
Javier Vazquez
Alfon Hanson
Jason Sieko
Stewards.
Bob Campbell
Machinist Mate.
Neri Bar
Machinist Mate.
Chack Nauguza
Cargo Specialist, handy man.
Ricco Balduchi
Cargo Specialist.
Passengers on Flight of Fancy
Dillon Martin
Professor of biological sciences, sent to Midwife to study developing primitive life. Hidden specialty is forbidden genetics research. From Rhama, a New Colony, close to the Hub worlds.
Maggi Fisher
Professor of biological sciences, Chairfem of Board of Director’s on Midwife project. From Rhama. Organizing unofficial teams to recover lost genetic knowledge.
Aldry Anderfem
Professor of biological sciences, granddaughter of Claronce Anderson, a former President of Alders world. Supports secret Genetics research.
Ana Cahill
Professor of biological sciences, Vicechairfem of Board of Directors. Political and snobbish, wanted to run the Midwife program. Doesn’t support or know of hidden genetic research.
Zulma Krat
Professor of biological sciences, on the Board of Directors for Midwife Project.
Koban Page 74