Honor System (The System Series Book 4)

by Andrea Ring

  I take a quick sip of water.

  “I don’t want to discuss whether or not being a Dweller is a good thing. We all know the consequences. I believe the more serious issue is whether or not Tyrion’s stem cell blood is a good thing for the human race.”

  Tyrion comes out of his seat. “You are putting my research under scrutiny again? This is ridiculous!”

  “I’m not questioning you or your methods,” I say. “What I would like us all to question is the base pursuit. Please sit down and hear me out.”

  Tyrion looks around the room. Chris and Kenneth nod at him to sit. Kate just watches everyone. Jack stares at me hard.

  But I don’t flinch under her gaze.

  Tyrion sits.

  “Essentially, you created a therapy for two things. One, your blood allows fast and seamless DNA integration. I find no fault with that and feel that we should exploit that use. Two, it is a therapy for anti-aging. It induces the cells, all cells, it appears, to reproduce faster and without entropy. Cells appear to be creating perfect copies, which has never before been done. Of course, we won’t know for years to come how long cells will continue to reproduce perfectly, but let’s imagine that it works indefinitely. Anyone taking the blood stops aging. This is what could potentially be a problem.”

  “We’ll make billions,” Chris says, but he doesn’t sound that enthusiastic.

  “But?” I prompt.

  “If aging truly stops, we’d have to impose a minimum age for the therapy,” he says. “People stuck as children or prepubescents…no. I read a book once about vampires, and some were created as children. Since they never reached physical maturity, they couldn’t have proper sex, so they acted out in other ways, all of them violent.”

  Tyrion snorts. “We are going to base research decisions on vampire fiction? Maybe I should go home and read Twilight so I can properly participate in the discussion.”

  Kenneth frowns at him. “The idea is perfectly valid, Tyrion. If you have managed to stop the aging process, what happens with children? Would you want them stuck like that forever?”

  “I have not stopped the process. I have only slowed it down.”

  “Even if that’s true,” I say, “I’m sure you could perfect it. Or with time, someone else will. So we need to discuss whether or not it’s a good thing.”

  “It’s not a good thing,” Kate says. “Death is programmed into our genes for a reason. We reproduce, and then we decline. Declining bodies take fewer resources than growing ones. If everyone continues to use the same amount of resources indefinitely, the planet would be screwed.”

  “No it wouldn’t,” Chris says. “We’d move into space, which we’re already doing. And human beings would create new technologies to take into account the new drain on resources. I’ve thought this part through. I’m not really worried about resources.”

  “What about overpopulation?” Kate asks him. “That doesn’t worry you?”

  “Nope. We have a long way to go before the planet’s at full capacity, and as I said, we can always move into space. Plus, what did Jeff Goldblum say in Jurassic Park? Nature will find a way, or something like that.”

  “That was in reference to nature finding ways to reproduce if it is artificially sterilized,” Jack says.

  “It applies in this case, too,” Chris says. “If there’s too little food, people will die of starvation to even things out. New diseases will come along to take out the weak. Maybe climate change will create rain every day, all day, for ten years straight. Goodbye, overpopulation.”

  Kate grits her teeth. “But we don’t want anyone to die in any of those ways.”

  Chris shrugs. “No, but those things, or similar things, are going to happen whether we like it or not. All we can do is plan for them.”

  “Maybe you should get back into the space business,” Kate says, and we all laugh.

  “Let’s go about this more systematically,” I say. “Let’s say we have this therapy, and it can save a life, yes, but it also stops the aging process dead in its tracks. What’s the first thing that happens?”

  “Everyone wealthy enough to buy it will buy it,” Chris says. “Eventually it gets cheap enough and common enough to be delivered like Botox—ten minutes in a doctor’s office and you’re thirty forever.”

  “Not everyone can afford Botox,” Kate says. “And not everyone wants it.”

  “That’s a good point, Kate,” Kenneth says. “And Chris. Only the rich will get it at first, and maybe for quite a while. We already know that younger, more beautiful people have an advantage in society. We could be dooming the poor even more than they already are.”

  “Doesn’t it depend on society?” Jack says. “Some cultures revere their elders and take care of them, others ignore them and favor youth. But that can also be generational and cyclical. We’re in a period where youth is revered, but that could change.”

  “Would it change given the opportunity to never grow old?” I ask. “All those in perpetual youth would probably look down on people who look old or choose to grow old.”

  “And you’ll have all these people who don’t want it,” Kenneth says. “Who think it’s a bad thing, maybe against their religion. Hell, probably new religions will spring up decrying what we’ve done.”

  “Then it goes back to the soul,” Jack says. “If we can give proof of the soul, and of God’s blessing with what we’re doing, we wouldn’t have to deal with that.”

  “That is a huge leap, Jacqueline,” Tyrion says. “That God would give His blessing, or that He is even able to do so.”

  I turn to the board and write:

  Rich vs. Poor

  Want it vs. Don’t want it

  Natural vs. Unnatural

  God vs. Secular

  Youth vs. Age and Experience

  Finite Resources

  “I have a question,” Chris asks. “Say a woman takes the therapy at thirty. At ninety, assuming she looks the same, is she still able to have children?”

  “No,” Kate says. “Menstruation would continue, and oocytes, the egg cells, are finite. They would run out.”

  “Could a Dweller produce more?”

  Everyone looks at me. “Theoretically, yes. But I’m not a woman, so I’ve never tried it. Not all Dwellers produce Protein T, and I believe you’d need it to create oocytes, but I just don’t know. Jack?”

  She shakes her head. “I obviously don’t have your abilities, but no, I can’t do anything to my eggs. I think I probably do need Protein T.”

  “This is the nature thing again,” Chris says. “There will be mutations. Hell, look at all your kids—every one of them has different abilities. Giving everyone the ability to be a Dweller is like unleashing the power to do magic, and some will be strong with it, some weak, some good, and some bad. Kind of like what we have in the population now, just taken to a new level.”

  “You don’t see a problem with this at all, do you, Chris?” I ask him.

  He smiles. “Nope. I concede there will be societal issues. Think about it—if you can’t die naturally, then the only way to die will be unnaturally. That means a lot more assassinations when people feel a ruler has outlived his usefulness. More violent crime—if you want to inherit your parents’ estate, you can’t wait them out. You’d need to knock them off. And what’s twenty years in jail if you’re going to live five hundred years? We’d probably see more of the death penalty.”

  “And you don’t see a problem with that?” Kate shrieks.

  Chris shrugs again. “We’ll adapt. It’s what we do.”

  “And I say again,” Tyrion interjects, “that I have not extended anyone’s life to five hundred years. I agree that nature, while it can be tamed, cannot be stopped entirely. We are machines. We break down. We can slow this, we can fix things, but we cannot stop entropy.”

  “So how long do you think your therapy extends the lifespan?” Chris asks. “Give us your best guess.”

  Tyrion presses his lips together. “I do n
ot like to guess.”

  “Theorize, then. You must have thought about it.”

  “My best theory is…two hundred and twenty-five,” he says. “But at around two hundred, the brain will not be able to hold further memories.”

  Chris frowns. “So at two hundred…do you start replacing old memories, or are you unable to create new ones?”

  “Old ones will be replaced. Dwellers already have control of memory. I believe we will be able to choose which ones to keep and which to discard. Or we download them to a computer for future reference.”

  Chris whistles under his breath. “Cool.”

  ***

  I get home and go over the meeting with Tessa.

  “So the bottom line is that you guys are doing it,” she says. “You’re going through with it.”

  “We didn’t make a final decision,” I say. “Everyone agreed that we need a lot more data first.”

  Tessa sighs.

  “Look at it this way,” I say. “Cancer kills a hell of a lot of people, which serves to keep the population in check to a certain degree. But would you argue that we shouldn’t look for ways to cure cancer?”

  “No,” she says, “but this is different. Death serves a purpose. Death gives our life meaning, Thomas. Imagine having all the time in the world. What would be so great about visiting a Mayan temple or the Grand Canyon? Nothing, because you can see it again. And after you’ve traveled the world, and done the same job for hundreds of years, don’t you think people will get bored? Depressed? Suicide will be the new cancer.”

  “Suicide wouldn’t involve suffering,” I say. “Imagine not a lengthened lifespan, but just a healthy, youthful life. Wouldn’t that be a benefit to humanity?”

  “Not necessarily,” she counters. “Age brings wisdom and a different perspective. As our body slows, we appreciate things more. We focus on different pursuits, things less physical. And that’s not a bad thing.”

  “But being young and healthy doesn’t mean you can’t develop other perspectives, that you can’t gain wisdom or focus on things that aren’t physical. Life will be different, but it doesn’t have to be worse. The saying is that youth is wasted on the young. Well, not anymore.”

  “I think aging is what brings wisdom, though,” she says. “Wisdom is not just accumulated experience and knowledge. It’s the ability to apply those things properly. Think about it—why would anyone exercise or eat healthy? They don’t need to. You can just will yourself to be fit.”

  “That’s not true, and it never will be,” I say. “Yeah, if I gain ten pounds, I can dissolve the fat. But if I don’t feed my body properly, its ability to heal is hampered. Garbage in, garbage out. That applies even if you’re a Dweller.”

  “Yes, but if the consequences don’t show for years, what’s the incentive? If I can live a gluttonous, lazy life, and it gives me ninety or a hundred good years, so what?”

  “If you can live to two hundred with good habits, then you’d be sacrificing half your life,” I say. “No matter how fantastic our abilities seem, it’s still all about science.”

  Tessa nods. “Okay. What about our basic motivations? Living a meaningful life? Losing our ability to feel wonder and awe?”

  “I agree those are issues. But they’re issues now, aren’t they?”

  “Not to the same degree.”

  I sigh. “It’s progress, Tessa. Either we do it first, or someone else will.”

  “Is that what this is about? Being first?”

  “Of course not. But if we do it first, we can control it. We can mitigate the downsides.”

  Tessa smiles sadly. “I hope to God that’s true.”

  ***

  “One more question,” Tessa says, looking me in the eye. “Have you stopped aging?”

  “Of course not,” I say automatically. But then I really think about it. “At least, Tyrion doesn’t think so. He thinks he’s slowed the aging process, but not stopped it.”

  She looks away. “Would you tell me the truth? If you really stopped aging?”

  “I always tell you the truth—”

  “No, you don’t,” she says. “We’ve already been through this. You tell me what’s convenient and easy. And I’ve accepted that, I mean, I went ahead and married you anyway because I love you, and I know you try to do the right thing, even if I don’t agree, so I don’t know on this one. I don’t know if you’re telling me the truth. And that scares me, because in ten years I could wake up looking like I’m almost thirty and you’d still be seventeen.”

  “That’s—”

  “If you say that’s ridiculous, I’m gonna strangle you.”

  I sigh. “The truth is, we don’t know. Tyrion’s smart, and he doesn’t think he’s stopped anyone from aging. I agree with him, but you’re right. We won’t truly know for years.”

  Tessa paces around the kitchen. “And it’s only you and Dad who’ve had the blood, right?”

  “And Chris is a Dweller because of something Em did, and we don’t know if what she did is similar to Tyrion’s blood.”

  “The key would be using the kids’ stem cells, right? And Em didn’t do that. She couldn’t possibly have used her own, either, since she never actually touched him.”

  “We don’t know,” I repeat, growing frustrated. “There’s so much we don’t know. We need to get in the lab.”

  “Just a couple more weeks,” she says, her eyes softening. She knows how frustrated I’ve been.

  “Is there anything that would change your mind?” I ask her. “About becoming a Dweller?”

  Tessa sits next to me at the kitchen counter and props her chin in her hands. “I don’t think so. You guys really don’t know what you’ve done. What if it stops working in ten years and you all suddenly age twenty years? What if this is putting more pressure on your hearts and you all have sudden heart attacks? I guess if we didn’t have kids, I could experiment along with you, but since it’s not just about us, I have to be cautious. Don’t you think?”

  “I just want you here,” I say softly. “As long as you can be.”

  “When you figure that out,” she says, taking my hand, “I’m all in.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  The first floor of the lab is finally finished, and we develop a plan to split our research.

  Dad is working with Jack and Chris to help them develop their abilities. Sometimes Erica will participate, but they want to wait until she delivers before she really exerts herself. When all of them are up to speed, Jack will focus on the soul, and Chris will focus on whatever is his strength.

  Kate and Kenneth handle administration, paperwork, the running of the lab and tests, as well as consulting on neurology cases referred to them from the local hospitals.

  Tyrion focuses on the anti-aging portion of his therapy. He’s trying to determine how long the effects will last and if there are any negative consequences.

  And I’m working with the kids on psychic ability, particularly the ability to block incoming psychic waves. We hire Mateo full time to help me. He seems to have an affinity for the kids, and we get along.

  The best part of the new lab is the third story built entirely with the new generation of Dwellers in mind. It will be our home away from home, and I marvel at the space as I do a final walkthrough with Chris and the contractor.

  “You’ll notice the lack of door knobs,” Kevin the contractor says. “All doors on this floor have openers operated by the foot. Step on the button, and the door opens. Alternatively, we also have retinal scanners at both child and adult heights. You can program the scanners to be required, as in a lock-down situation, or you can disable them, even individually, to open with the foot.

  “Three restrooms, all within easy access of the main areas,” he continues, pointing his finger. “Take a look here.”

  He steps on a button and the door flows open. We follow him into the restroom. The urinal is the longest one I’ve ever seen.

  “The toilets are low, for children,” he says. �
�Sinks and urinal, too. Real child friendly. We figure it can comfortably accommodate them until they’re ten years old. At that point, you’d probably want to renovate anyway. Kids are hard on interiors.”

  I crouch down in front of the urinal. If I used it now, I’d probably splash the mirror. “Any adult bathrooms up here?” I ask.

  “The last stall in each restroom is normal height,” Kevin says. I nod.

  We exit and move to the next space.

  “Full kitchen and dining room here. Child-height prep area at the end of the island. We also have a built-in step stool for the kids to reach the sink. Then down here…five classrooms, both hard-wired and with wireless Internet access, Smart Boards, projectors, the works. And across the hall…this is the large meeting space, for working on gross motor skills, I think you said.” Kevin walks to the far end of the room and pushes a button on the wall. The floor rumbles. “The stage elevates from the floor, so it won’t be in the way if you don’t want to use it. Automatic window shades.”

  “None of the windows opens, right?” I ask.

  “Right. Bullet-proof glass. The shades are an additional safety feature—they’re steel and lock in place to prevent entry, plus they are effective as bomb shields.”

  “How many people can this room accommodate?”

  “One hundred,” he says. “Let’s move on.”

  We head down the hall.

  “This is the lab classroom. Eight stations with four students each. Same tech setup as the other classrooms. But you’ve got the additional sinks, the eyewash station, and an extra storage slash office area for the teacher and supplies. And then the final room—the actual laboratory.”

  I smile at this room. It’s a lab in miniature, with most of the same equipment, the same layout that we have downstairs, but with lower counters and cabinets. Everything a kid would need to conduct actual experiments.

  “This is awesome,” Chris says. “When can we get the kids in here?”

  “The county inspector signed off yesterday,” Kevin says. “We’ve gone through everything with a fine-tooth comb. Kate said not all of the furniture has arrived, and obviously, you’ll have to stock the place, but it’s fully functional.”