Hybrids

by Robert J. Sawyer

  Ponter had clearly been listening intently, alternately frowning his wide mouth and rolling his continuous blond eyebrow up his doubly arched browridge. “And you believe,” he said, “that this thing your people have and mine do not-this religion-is tied to the functioning of your brains?”

  “Just so!” said Veronica. “A combination of parietal-lobe and limbic-system activity. Look at what happens in Alzheimer’s patients: people who’ve been devout their whole lives often lose interest in religion when they come down with Alzheimer’s disease. Well, one of the first things Alzheimer’s does is cripple the limbic system.”

  She paused, then continued. “It’s long been known that so-called religious experiences are tied to brain chemistry, since hallucinogenic drugs can induce them-which is why such drugs form the basis of ritual in so many tribal cultures. And we’ve long known that the limbic system might be one of the keys: some epileptics with seizures restricted to the limbic system have incredibly profound religious experiences. For instance, Dostoevsky was an epileptic, and he wrote about ‘touching God’ during his seizures. Saint Paul, Joan of Arc, Saint Theresa of Avila, and Emanuel Sweden-borg were all probably epileptics, too.”

  Ponter was leaning now against the corner of a filing cabinet, unself-consciously shimmying left and right, scratching his back. “Those are the names of people?” he asked.

  Veronica was briefly taken aback, then nodded. “Dead people. Famous religious people of the past.”

  Mary took pity on Ponter at this point and explained “epilepsy” for him. Ponter had never heard of anything like it, and Mary wondered-with the shiver she got whenever she contemplated it-whether epileptic genes were yet another thing the Neanderthals had dispassionately purged from their gene pool.

  “But even if you’re not epileptic,” Veronica said, “you can get that effect. Ritual dancing, chanting, and so on have been independently developed over and over by religions around the globe. Why? Because the deliberate, repetitive, stylized body movements during such ceremonies make the limbic system tag them as being of special significance.”

  “This is all well and good,” said Mary, “but-“

  “But you’re wondering what it has to do with the price of tea in China, right?”

  Ponter looked completely baffled, and Mary smiled. “Just a metaphor,” she said. “It means, ‘With the topic at hand.’ “

  “And the answer,” said Veronica, “is that we now understand well enough how the brain creates religious experiences to reliably reproduce them in the lab...at least inHomo sapiens . But what I’m dying to find out is whether I can induce one in Ponter.”

  “My own curiosity is not fatal,” said Ponter, smiling, “but nonetheless Iwould like it assuaged.”

  Veronica looked at her watch again, then frowned. “My grad student hasn’t shown up yet, unfortunately, and the equipment is quite delicate-it needs to be recalibrated daily. Mary, I don’t suppose you’d be willing...?”

  Mary felt her spine stiffen. “Willing towhat? “

  “To take the first run; obviously, I need to know that the equipment is functioning properly before I can take any results from Ponter as significant.” She held up a hand, as if to forestall an objection. “With this new equipment, it only takes five minutes to do a complete run.”

  Mary felt her heart pounding. This wasn’t something she wanted to investigate scientifically. Like the late, lamented Stephen Jay Gould, she’d always believed science and religion were-to use his musical phrase-“nonoverlapping magesteria,” each having relevance, but one having nothing to do with the other. “I’m really not sure that-“

  “Oh, don’t worry; it’s not dangerous! The field I use for the transcranial magnetic stimulation is just one microtesla. I rotate it counterclockwise about the temporal lobes, and like I said, almost all of the people-of theHomo sapiens , I should say-who try this have a mystical experience.”

  “What...what’s it like?” asked Mary.

  Veronica said, “Excuse us” to Ponter, and she led Mary away from him-her test subject-so that the Neanderthal would not overhear. “The experience usually involves the perception that there’s a sentient being standing behind them or near them,” said Veronica. “Now, theform of that experience depends a lot on the individual’s own preconceptions. You put a UFO fanatic in there, and he’ll sense the presence of an alien. Put in a Baptist, and she might say she sees Christ himself. Someone who’s lost somebody recently may see that dead person. Others say they’ve been touched by angels or God. Of course, the experience is totally controlled here, and the test subjects are fully aware that theyare in a lab. But imagine the same effect being triggered late at night when our friends Bubba and Clete are out in the middle of nowhere. Or while you’re sitting in a church or mosque or synagogue. It really would knock your socks off.”

  “I really don’t want...”

  “Please,” said Veronica. “I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to check a Neanderthal-and the baselinehas to be set first.”

  Mary took a deep breath. Reuben had indeed certified the process as safe, and, well, she certainly didn’t want to let down this eager young woman who thought so highly of her.

  “Please, Mary,” said Veronica again. “If I’m right about what the results will be, this will be a huge step forward for me.”

  Canadian women taking the world by storm.How could she say no?

  “All right,” said Mary reluctantly. “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Our strength is our wanderlust; our curiosity; our exploring, searching, soaring spirit...”

  “Are you all right?” said Veronica Shannon over the speaker next to Mary’s ear. “Comfortable?”

  “I’m fine,” said Mary, speaking into a little microphone that had been clipped to her shirt. She was seated on a padded chair inside a darkened chamber about the size of a two-piece bathroom. The walls, as she’d seen before the lights were turned out, were covered with little pyramids of gray foam rubber, presumably to deaden sound.

  Veronica nodded. “Good. This won’t hurt a bit-but at any time if you want me to shut the equipment off, just say so.”

  Mary was wearing a yellow headset that had been fashioned from a motorcycle helmet, with solenoids on the sides, directly over her temples. The helmet was attached by a bundle of wires to a rack of equipment leaning against one wall.

  “Okay,” said Veronica. “Here we go.”

  Mary had thought she would hear a buzzing, or feel a tickling between her ears, but there was nothing. Just darkness and silence and-

  Suddenly Mary felt her back tense and her shoulders hunch up. Someonewas there, in the chamber with her. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel his eyes boring into the back of her skull.

  This is ridiculous, thought Mary. Just the power of suggestion. If Veronica hadn’t primed Mary with all her talk, she was sure that she wouldn’t be experiencing anything. Christ, the things you could get research funding for sometimes amazed her. It was nothing more than a parlor trick, and-

  And then she knew who it was-who was there, in the chamber with her.

  And it wasn’t a him.

  It was aher .

  It was Mary.

  Not Mary Vaughan.

  Mary.

  The Virgin.

  The Mother of God.

  She couldn’t see her, not really. It was just a bright, bright light, moving now in front of her-but a light that didn’t sting the eyes at all. Still, she was sure of who it was: the purity, the serenity, the gentle wisdom. She closed her eyes, but the light did not disappear.

  Mary.

  Mary Vaughan was her namesake, and-

  And the scientist in Mary Vaughan came to the fore. Of course she was seeing Mary. If she’d been a Mexican named Jesus-Hay-sooz-she’d perhaps think she was seeing the Christ. If her name were Teresa, it would doubtless be Mother Teresa she’d think she was seeing. Besides, she and Ponter had been talking about the Virgin Mary
just yesterday, so-

  But no.

  No, that wasn’t it.

  It didn’t matter what her brain was telling her.

  Hermind knew that this light was something else.

  Hersoul knew it.

  Itwas Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

  And why not?thought Mary Vaughan. Just because she was here, at a university, in a lab, inside a test chamber, that didn’t mean anything.

  Part of Mary had been skeptical of modern-day miracles, but if miraclesdid happen, well, then the Virgin Mary could appear anywhere.

  After all, she’d supposedly come to Fatima, Portugal.

  She’d supposedly come to Lourdes, France.

  And to Guadalupe, Mexico.

  And La’Vang, Vietnam.

  So why not to Sudbury, Ontario?

  Why not to the campus of Laurentian University?

  And why not to talk to her?

  No. No, humility was what was called for, here in the presence of Our Lady. Humility, following her grand example.

  But...

  But still, did it make so little sense that the Virgin Mary would visit Mary Vaughan? Mary was traveling to another world, to a world that didn’t know of God the Father, a world that was ignorant of Jesus the Son, a world that had never been touched by the Holy Spirit. Of course, Mary of Nazareth would take an interest in someone who was doing that!

  The pure, simple presence was moving to her left now. Not walking, but moving-hovering, never touching the soil.

  No. No, there was no soil. She was in the basement of a building. There was no soil.

  She was in a lab!

  And transcranial magnetic stimulation was affecting her mind.

  Mary closed her eyes again, scrunching them tightly shut, but that did nothing. The presence was still there, still perceptible.

  The wonderful, wonderful presence...

  Mary Vaughan opened her mouth to speak to the Blessed Virgin, and-

  And suddenly she was gone.

  But Mary felt elated, felt like she hadn’t since her first Eucharist after her confirmation, when, for the one and only time in her life, she’d really felt the spirit of Christ coming into her.

  “Well?” said a female voice.

  Mary ignored it, a harsh, unwelcome intrusion into her reverie. She wanted to savor the moment, to hold on to it...even as it dissipated, like a dream that she was struggling to transfer into conscious thought before it slipped away...

  “Mare,” said another, deeper voice, “are you okay?”

  She knew that voice, a voice she’d once longed to hear again, but right now, for this moment, for as long as she could make it last, she wanted nothing but silence.

  But the moment was fading fast. And after a few more seconds, the door to the chamber opened, and light-fluorescent, harsh, artificial-spilled in from outside. Veronica Shannon came in, followed by Ponter. The young woman removed the helmet from Mary’s head.

  Ponter loomed closer and he brought up a short, broad thumb, and wiped Mary’s cheek with it. He then moved his hand away and showed her that his thumb was wet. “Are you okay?” he said again.

  Mary hadn’t been aware of the tears until now. “I’m fine,” she said. And then, realizing that “fine” wasn’t anywhere near sufficient for how she felt, she added, “I’m terrific.”

  “The tears...?” said Ponter. “Did you...did you experience something?”

  Mary nodded.

  “What was it?” Ponter asked.

  Mary took a deep breath and looked at Veronica. As much as she had taken a liking to the young woman, Mary didn’t want to share what had happened with this pragmatist, this atheist, who would dismiss it as just the result of suppressed activity in her parietal lobe.

  “I...” Mary began, and then she swallowed and tried again. “That’s a remarkable device you have there, Veronica.”

  Veronica grinned broadly. “Isn’t it, though?” She turned to Ponter. “Are you ready to try it?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “If I can gain insight into what Mary feels...”

  Veronica proffered the helmet to Ponter, and she immediately realized there was a problem. The helmet was designed to accommodate a standardHomo sapiens head with a high forehead, a head that was short front to back, a head with no or negligible browridges, a head, not to put too fine a point on it, that housed a smaller brain.

  “It looks like it’s going to be a tight fit,” said Veronica.

  “Let me try,” said Ponter. He took the thing, turned it upside down, and looked inside, as if gauging its capacity.

  “Maybe if you think humble thoughts,” said Ponter’s Companion, Hak, through its external speaker. Ponter scowled at his left forearm, but Mary laughed. The idea of bigheadedness apparently crossed species lines.

  Finally, Ponter decided to make the attempt. He turned the helmet right-way up and pushed it down over his head, wincing as he did so. It was indeed a tight fit, but there was lining inside, and with a final massive push, Ponter got the foam to compress sufficiently to accommodate his occipital bun.

  Veronica stood in front of Ponter, appraising him like one of those clerks at LensCrafters fitting new glasses, then adjusted the orientation of the helmet slightly. “That’s fine,” she said at last. “Now, again, as I told Mary, this won’t hurt, and if you want me to stop early, just say so.”

  Ponter nodded, but winced again as he did so; the back of the helmet was digging into his thick neck muscles.

  Veronica turned to the wall rack full of equipment. She frowned at an oscilloscope display, and adjusted a dial beneath it. “There’s some sort of interference,” she said.

  Ponter looked puzzled for a moment, then: “Ah, my cochlear implants. They let my Companion communicate silently with me, when need be.”

  “Can you shut them off?”

  “Yes,” said Ponter. He flipped open the faceplate on his Companion and made an adjustment to the revealed control buds.

  Veronica nodded. “That’s the ticket; the interference is gone.” She looked at Ponter and smiled encouragingly. “Okay, Ponter. Have a seat.”

  Mary got out of the way, and Ponter sat down on the padded chair, his broad back to her.

  Veronica left the test chamber and motioned for Mary to follow. The chamber had a massive steel door on it, and Veronica had to exert herself to get it to swing shut; Mary noted that someone labeled the door “Veronica’s Closet.” Once it was closed, Veronica moved over to a PC and started darting her mouse pointer about, clicking buttons. Mary watched, fascinated, and after a moment she said, “Well? Is he experiencing anything?”

  Veronica lifted her narrow shoulders slightly. “There’s no way to tell, unless he says something.” She pointed at one of the speakers hooked up to the PC. “His mike is open.”

  Mary looked at the chamber’s closed door. Part of her hoped Ponterwould experience exactly what she had. Even if he dismissed it as an illusion-as doubtless he would-at least he’d be able to understand what had happened to her in there, and what had happened to so many people who had felt the presence of something holy throughoutHomo sapiens history.

  Of course, maybe he’d be experiencing an extraterrestrial presence. Funny, that: she and Ponter had talked about so many things, but somehow whether or not he believed in aliens had never come up. Maybe to Ponter, to the Neanderthals, the idea of life on other worlds was as silly as the notion of a god. After all, there was a complete absence of credible evidence for extraterrestrial life, at least in Mary’s version of reality. Ponter’s people would say, therefore, that believing in such beings was yet another ridiculous leap of faith...

  Mary continued to stare at the sealed door. Surely religion was more than just a neuronal trick, a microelectric self-delusion. Surely it-

  “Okay,” said Veronica. “I’m shutting off the current.” She moved over to the steel door and managed to get it open. “You can come out now.”

  Ponter’s first order of business was removing the tigh
t-fitting helmet. He brought his massive hands up to each side of his head and gave what appeared to be a mighty push. The contraption came off, and he handed it to Veronica, then set about rubbing his browridge, as if trying to restore whatever circulation might normally be there.

  “Well?” said Mary, when she could wait no longer.

  Ponter opened Hak’s faceplate and adjusted some controls, presumably reactivating his cochlear implants.

  “Well?” repeated Mary.

  Ponter shook his head, and for a heartbeat, Mary hoped it was just a further attempt to restore circulation. “Nothing,” he said.

  Mary was surprised by how depressed that single word made her feel.

  “Nothing?” repeated Veronica, who, for her part, seemed elated by the announcement. “Are you sure?”

  Ponter nodded.

  “No visual phenomena?” continued Veronica. “No feeling that something was there with you? No sensation of being watched?”

  “Nothing at all. Just me, alone with my thoughts.”

  “What were you thinking about?” asked Mary. It was possible, after all, that Ponter wouldn’t recognize a religious moment.

  “I was thinking about the midday meal,” said Ponter, “wondering what we were going to have. And about the weather, and how soon winter will be here.” He looked at Mary and must have seen the disappointment on her face. “Oh, and you!” said Ponter, quickly, apparently trying to alleviate her pain. “I thought about you, of course!”

  Mary smiled wanly and looked away. Surely one test of one Neanderthal didn’t prove anything. Still...

  Still, it was provocative that she, aHomo sapiens , had had the deluxe, full-blown experience, and that he, aHomo neanderthalensis , had experienced...

  The phrasing came unbidden to her mind, but it was the sad truth.

  Ponter Boddit had experienced not a blessed thing.

  Chapter Eight

  “It was that questing spirit that led our ancient ancestors to spread throughout the Old World...”

  Veronica Shannon was pacing back and forth in her lab. Mary was sitting on one of the office’s two identical chairs; Ponter had found his chair’s width between its metal arms too narrow for his bulk, and so had perched his rear on the edge of Veronica’s surprisingly tidy desk.