James informed me last night that pills containing our modifications had been discovered on the black market. They were starting to be spread around the world. There was also information available on the net as to exactly what those modifications would do for both you and your children, and the likely consequences of not taking them.
“I have no idea,” I say. “I was arrested before that happened.”
“So who is in charge in your organization, EidoGenesis?”
“I was, along with a number of others.”
“Did you give the order for this modification to be released?”
“It was always our intention to release it once it was finished, but if I had had a choice I would not have released it so soon.”
“And what did you imagine would happen once it was released?”
“The modification we were working on was designed to protect Homo sapiens as much as it was to protect their offspring. We imagined that eventually our new species, Homo novus, would begin to take over from Homo sapiens.”
“So you imagined that Homo novus would wipe Homo sapiens out?”
“No. I believe that Homo sapiens are taking care of that themselves.”
There is silence in the courtroom.
“Would you care to elaborate, Michael?”
“Science has proven that global warming has reached the point where, within the next fifty years, eighty percent of Homo sapiens on the planet will be wiped out. To stop themselves being part of that eighty percent, governments and corporate leaders around the world are resorting to bio-warfare, wiping each other out in the millions but protecting themselves. The problem is, this is a zero-sum game. We’re all going to lose. So what I imagined happening was a slow replacement of the surviving Homo sapiens with Homo novus, much in the same way Homo sapiens took over from Neanderthals. Homo novus is not only better adapted for disease, but they are also, thanks to their augmented cooperation, much more likely to establish a fair and just society.”
“So you did want Homo novus to take over from Homo sapiens?”
“Let’s not talk about them as if they are two completely separate species. They are identical to humans, in fact they are humans. The only difference is, they are better adapted for the future. A future that we’re creating.”
After lunch, Danny Brown gets up to cross examine me. This has always been the risk with putting me on the stand, but it is one we thought was necessary to take.
“Michael, can you please explain to us why you didn’t hand the modified children over to the government as soon as you realized they were a potential threat to the population?”
Without being able to say anything about the government’s role in the mass-murder of those people once living in the de-reg zone, explaining this is going to be hard.
“Quarantining the children on the islands was the safest and quickest way of dealing with the situation.”
“Do you really think you had the right to make that decision? To potentially put at risk the population of this country?”
“As I said, I believed it was the best thing we could do to protect the population, and to protect those children.”
“And you didn’t think it was necessary to report this incident?”
“We didn’t have time. I was arrested before we’d even had time to finish dealing with it.”
“Were you yourself not about to flee the country at the time of your arrest?”
“I wasn’t fleeing the country. I was going where I was most needed — to help the modified children and their mothers settle on the New Church islands.”
“Can you tell us exactly who was behind this project, Michael? Who was funding and supporting it?”
“You mean apart from the government? We did receive a fairly large grant from them.”
“Yes. Apart from the government.”
“The name of the company was HGM Industries. My original company, Geneus, was also involved, but they pulled out about two years ago for financial reasons.”
“You said before that governments and corporations are resorting to bio-warfare, and that you did what you did to protect people from that, but weren’t you yourself resorting to bio-warfare to help your new species survive?”
“That was never my intention. As I said, our modifications were also designed to help existing Homo sapiens survive. What would be the point of modifying children if they killed their own parents with diseases before they were even old enough to look after themselves?”
Barnaby and Danny give their closing statements and then for nearly three days, the jury deliberates. On the fourth morning, I once again sit in the courtroom. Once everyone is seated, the jury files slowly in.
“Has the jury made their decision?” the judge asks the foreman.
“Yes your honor, we have.”
“And how find you?”
The woman stands up and looks across at me. “On the count of intent to release a bio-weapon on Australian soil, we find the defendant not guilty. On the count of organization of terrorist activities, we find the defendant not guilty. On the count of conspiracy against the Australian people, we find the defendant not guilty. On the count of reckless endangerment of human life, we find the defendant guilty. On the count of attempt to avoid prosecution, we find the defendant guilty. On the count of withholding information of terrorist activities, we find the defendant guilty. On the count of conspiring with a terrorist organization, we find the defendant guilty.”
Two days later, I sit before the judge for sentencing.
“Michael Khan, given that you still refuse to disclose the names of the other members of the organization for whom you were working, I hereby sentence you to fifteen years in prison without parole.”
EPILOGUE
I SPEND MOST of my time reading these days. Not many books are being written any more, as most people are just struggling to survive, so I read all the old classics.
It's taken me a good six months to adjust. Before I came here I was a scientist, a husband, a friend. Someone who was trying to do the best for the world in the only way I knew how. And now what am I? A prison inmate. No better or worse than the guy who killed three women who's locked up in the cell next to mine. It takes a while for one's ego to get used to that kind of change.
Now I have, though, I almost feel free. Funny that I should feel freer in here than I ever did outside, when I had all the freedom in the world. It’s a freedom from myself. I’ve come to terms with my incarceration. And although I don’t think I should be locked up for the things the government has locked me up for, I do think I should be locked up — for my part in what happened to the people in the de-reg zone.
I guess they call that karma.
Annie comes and visits me regularly and tells me about the lives of little Shy and Harvey, who she adopted out to two different families but keeps a close eye on. She never tells me who the families are, but I presume they’re nice. She occasionally gets a call from Dylan, who managed to avoid prosecution, and apparently all the other children are growing up healthily as well.
Even Justin comes in to visit me occasionally and tells me about a new job he’s working on: genetic modification of the digestive system so people can eat all the crap they want without ever getting fat. It’s the best job he could find. At least he’s happy with Shung, and they have two children of their own — both Homo novus.
Most importantly, though, our genetic modifications have gone viral. Now they’re open source, people all around the world are taking them. For a while they were outlawed by governments and corporate states, but given that everyone else was using them even those laws were soon overturned.
We weren’t the first species in this line of evolution, and we certainly won’t be the last. We’re nothing, after all, but perfectible animals.
DEAR READER,
ALTHOUGH Perfectible Animals is my debut novel, it is the result of nearly twenty years of writing! They say you have to do something for 10,000 hours before you
get really good at it, and I think I just about put in my time before I got to the final draft of this novel.
Hopefully the sequel, which I am working on already, will be a lot quicker. In fact, I hope to have it out by mid-2014.
I am a self-published author and rely solely on my readers to promote my work, so please recommend Perfectible Animals to your friends (or do the modern equivalent and put a post on Facebook or Twitter.)
Also, please sign up to my mailing list at http://www.thomasnorwood.com.au/mailing-list/ and you’ll receive a free copy of my short story The Last Reader, which tells a little more about the life of the character, Sam, from this novel. You’ll also receive offers to be beta-readers of my works in progress (including the sequel to Perfectible Animals), have access to ARCs (Advanced Review Copies), and keep up to date with everything I’m doing. Not only that, but I’m pretty lazy about sending emails, so you can be sure I won’t SPAM you!
If you liked Perfectible Animals, please leave a review for me here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G190NXS
If there is something you think I could have done better, or you would like to contact me for any other reason, please don’t hesitate to send me an email, and I promise to get back to you. My email address is [email protected]
Thanks again for reading and I’ll see you next time.
Thomas Norwood.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
I WOULD like to say a huge THANK YOU to the following people who helped in the development of this novel. Without you this novel would never have become what it has.
Iliana Hernandez (Manuscript assessment and life support), Allan Dyen-Shapiro (Science advisor and manuscript assessment), Ezra Lunel (Story development consultant), John Robert Marlow (Story development consultant) and Derek Broughton (line editor).
And my beta readers: Lucy Norwood, Zara Officer, Niyati Mavinkurve, Sara Marschand, Alysia Seymour, Derek Broughton, Catalina Perez, Chen Xi, Darlene Suber, Juliette Hughes-Norwood, Tristan King, and Kathleen Reagan.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Thomas Norwood is an Australian novelist. He lives in the hills of the Yarra Valley with his wife Iliana and their two cats, Camila and Sawa. Perfectible Animals is his first novel.
Perfectible Animals: A Post Apocalyptic Technothriller (EidoGenesis Book 1) Page 25