Carvalho surprised both women as he leapt from his seat, briefly but passionately kissed Stella and declared this a remarkable insight. “I’m returning to Marineris immediately, please thank Pascal 2 for his guidance, he’ll know what I mean.”
Scillacci asked if he was not going to wait for the Cheverry decision. He claimed it would make no difference to what he had to do next, but requested Stella to let him know the outcome. When he had left Scillacci turned to Stella and remarked, “Nobody has ever managed to evoke such a spontaneous gesture of affection from the Iceman since I have known him. I hope he didn’t embarrass you.”
‘If only you knew’ - thought Stella.
When Carvalho reached base he sought out Alex 2 and began the interrogation: “Pascal 2 is about to put into operation a medical procedure which could well change everything. I’ve been informed he has the consent of the mother. I want to ask you a couple of questions and I appeal to you not to reply in the ‘assisting promise’ mode.”
“Go ahead.”
When he had summarised the ‘brainchild’ of his fellow Symbiant, Alex 2 concurred. “It would appear to be the best option.”
“I need to know if the new QSD projected interstellar capability will demand anything like the reinforcement of human physiology that the Axis needed to survive their journey.”
Alex 2 replied instantly. “No, because it is space which is deforming in front of the unit; the vessel will only ever travel at modest velocity. The stresses will be considerably lower than the method by which the Axis left their home. Of course there are still effects such as protracted periods in space to think about, but there will be remedies for them. I believe I know where you are going with this Commander. I am also pleased to say I was pretty sure you had all bypassed this branch of logic a couple of years ago. It is fortuitous that Pascal 2 was presented with an emergency, which allowed him to elucidate sufficiently to jog your own hippocampus/neo-cortex connection.”
Carvalho thought ‘so far - so good’. “Now we can contemplate interstellar travel without sacrificing the ability to procreate. My second question relates to the degree to which this hybrid Human/Symbiant being will reflect the respective characteristics of each species?”
Alex 2 did not disappoint. “If you are referring to specific attributes like hibernation, there will be some cross-inheritance. Your metabolism will respond to ‘shut down’ stimuli and gradually adapt to more efficient ways of handling this new source of data. The storage and retrieval of all data will be enhanced. However, you need not worry about turning to crystal – you have not got sufficient inorganic back-up for events like this. You may have to produce an exhaustive list of areas of concern for me to give reliable predictions. I can say the effects will be minimal. I hope I have managed to avoid too much generalisation in attempting to answer your queries.”
Carvalho was not going to repeat the urge for a second passionate kiss in one day; he had his reputation to think about. He contacted Stella to check the status of the meld and was informed that Pascal 2 was almost ready to begin copying. He half-apologised for any embarrassment he may have caused. “Yes, it was out of character according to Dr. Scillacci. I refrained from telling her that was not my experience, as I think she harbours desires for you.”
********
Tom Bedford had managed to ‘squeeze the lemon’ by talking budget constraints for the military. As this was part of his remit he knew he could raise the emotion bar by a throwaway remark. The increase in consumption of old brandy always lubricated the abandonment of protocol sufficiently to expose some indiscretion. It was always justifiable as it was within house, and for a good cause – correcting the mindset of the bean counters. General Phelps bristled at the cuts in overseas operation of land forces. Bedford said, “We have been gradually reducing this allocation for a number of years General, in line with withdrawal of forces, to the point where we contribute more political support than occupation. I thought you were totally on board with this.”
“I am,” insisted the angry heavyweight, “but we have to make exceptions for unforeseen circumstances. This bloody madness in Korea has to be serviced; otherwise we cannot deliver adequate protection of our serving personnel.”
This provoked some Generals to quietly disperse and others to pursue the mention of Korea. Bedford left Phelps to limit the damage on his blunder and align himself with the ‘deserters’. He had to lead, and whispered, “He has crossed the line this time, absolutely nobody else should know about this. Of course we have a secret contingency for this, but we can’t have that in the wider military domain.” This bravado opened up questions about how much, when, distribution and timing. Bedford continued, “I’m sorry gentlemen, but I’m only prepared to deny or not deny specifics, otherwise I would be no better than Phelps.”
It came out piecemeal, but in detail which ruled out the allegation that Kinsey’s scenario had no substance. Bedford broke the huddle by backing toward the exit and proclaiming he could reveal no more. The rest descended on Phelps to condemn his loose-tongued bellyaching and predicted dire consequences if this leaked out.
********
Pascal 2 reported success with Sabine’s correction procedure and her mother was relieved. She had also demonstrated some recognition of how disclosure of this might affect her daughter throughout the rest of her life. She had asked for confidentiality; she was certain that on reflection her husband would want this too. She refrained from any other message to him than - all is well with Sabine, she sends her love and we hope she will be released from hospital soon.
This request for respecting doctor-patient confidentiality was welcomed, and was the green light for Carvalho to explore the breakthrough on Mars. He wanted to present it as if the idea had just materialised during discussion with Pascal 2 about researching reverse engineering of the Axis reproductive system. It was bending the truth, but he felt it was worth it to protect Sabine, and Pascal 2 agreed. Even Alex 2 feigned ignorance of any previous discussion when Carvalho presented the concept to the reformed think-tank.
Many questions rained down on the idea, especially how to evaluate it in practice, how subjects would be chosen or allowed to volunteer. It was an edgy session yet positive. When Carvalho repeated his question to Alex 2 about the implication for the QSD project, the Symbiant delivered the prediction again, and this was the ignition of a clamour for more information. Alex 2 stared in silence, amazed at the different reception this would have had on Earth. Politicians and those with religious beliefs would be horrified at these irresponsible scientists, and in turn those scientists would be scathing about such restrictive governance. It made him wonder, which was a strange feeling for him, whether he would encounter this at some stage with the Axis.
Carvalho held up his hand. “This is so important for all three species living here on Mars that we must take it slowly, and incorporate the views of each, to provide appropriate safeguards for our growing numbers. What we can rule out is anything other than individuals who volunteer, but even that should be within the accepted principles of their species. This meeting today is only intended to scratch the surface of an opportunity which Pascal 2 has presented.”
Carvalho made contact with Stella and asked if she would like to disappoint Dr. Scillacci and join him for dinner. She declined. “Commander, I don’t want to do that, she has already invited me, and we need to cooperate with her on many projects. I’m sorry.”
His elation from the think-tank meeting was abruptly guillotined by the officious tone of her rebuttal. “But I could be persuaded to let my hair down after dinner. You know where my quarters are. I certainly need to relax after the last couple of days.”
The orbiters were ready for launch. Carvalho asked Pascal 2 to keep a little red crystal back for impending experiments; it would need to be kept in a place inaccessible to human inspection. A drill hole deep in Pandora’s Rift would be suitable. This also meant that all attention could now be diverted to QSD prototypes. The mood w
as upbeat despite the mixed signals coming from the blue planet.
********
The ripples from the military retirement party had compromised the assumed closely guarded plan to assist the Chinese. Bedford had informed Kinsey of the imminent disinformation of the cover up, and the polarised positions of the military and politicians which had now fermented. “There’s no doubt that Rodham is up to his neck in this, but he has been clever enough to structure levels of deniability. My little charade, if it achieved nothing else, has united the ranks of the armed forces. They strenuously deny any knowledge of a ‘replicant’ strategy, and if it was to be true, they would veto any involvement in Korea. The deal-making politicians are now scrambling to distance themselves from any negotiations with the Chinese, which they allege were brokered by Rodham. Unfortunately there is no hard evidence he was involved, but their own travel history of several visits to locations near the Chinese border with N. Korea doesn’t look good. In contrast he appears in Beijing at dates exclusively linked to meetings with the five and the Council. My prognosis at this stage is that the media may see to it that involvement in the plan is denied, then abandoned, commensurate with a few decapitations. Then we will see the wrath of an oriental nation scorned. That nation would have no option but to treat it as typical American hallucinatory politics. Keep your Chinese General safe Marvin, he will be hunted down, but I suspect Ayala might be first.”
Chapter 19
Pascal 2’s procedure had pitch-forked all things related to reproductive systems to the top of the list. It was also the only project which could derive no major direct benefit from Symbiant or Axis experience. The Axis had altered their physiology after being afflicted by sterility and the Symbiants had no predictive modelling to draw on. Carvalho wanted the best compatible team on this. It had to start with Pascal 2 and Doctors Aragones and Scillacci. The top Axis medical presence was represented by the entirely synthetic Doc, and Mac, which was the obligatory human abbreviation for ‘Make Conform’. He wanted to be part of the team himself because of the potential flak it might attract. He felt his time would be more profitably invested in this than the fruitless cackling Earth agendas.
They started out with a refresher of Doc’s work to date. He admitted that he had not made much progress after discovering that remnants of sexual drivers remained in their colour displays. The missing link was living, unmodified Axis individuals for study of the structure and functionality of organs, albeit sterile ones. The archives had been helpful in a data compilation sense but no real research had been done after the radiation exposure because the exodus predominated. The human situation offered only a starting point, to determine what results would occur with alteration of genetic code. The human option was obviously the only viable one of a pre-existing, working template from which to reverse engineer and modify if necessary. That was, of course, if replication was not considered procreation.
Stella asked Pascal 2 if there was any way at all he could comment on whether progress on human fertility improvement would be a ‘transferable’ methodology to begin investigation of Axis restoration. He said there were no statistical probability analyses available to him, and the lack of specific raw data would be a problem. However, he asked everyone to retain the word ‘reproduction’ in their dialogue. It could be semantically sandwiched between procreation and replication. It should not be forgotten that part of the reason they were having this very discussion was because of the Continuance characteristic of reproduction of a component and not necessarily retaining the entire system. “I believe we should look at all individual steps as either, candidates for the most appropriate terminology, or combination of those three terms. They are not mutually exclusive. I would have to ask all other Symbiants to be sure, but there appears to be adaptive evidence in this community of the Continuance. My personal experience definitely shows developmental characteristics in the language we use with humans and Axis. There are some perceptible redefinitions of criteria in my tiered registry. If that proves significant it would surely give more probability to adaptation in the other species if there is a subtle means of altering bits of genetic code. The requirement to do so would be more acute than the environmentally triggered alterations, as perceived changes. Some qualitative evidence of this may surface sooner than we think, if Sabine does show minute changes in her development other than cerebral advancement. I am referring to transition from child to puberty. In conclusion I would place a strong emphasis on both human and Axis sentience having arrived, courtesy of a massive contribution from the reproductive system, as one of the major drivers of inherited characteristics. One of Darwin’s consistent messages was that, in humans, successful propagation was inextricably linked to cerebral advance.” After quite some deliberation over his self-confessed limitations they made order out of it all.
First, a thorough, up to date library of human research and application of fertility treatments would be made. This would include the use of drugs but the main focus would be on identification and correction of miscopied or rogue genes. A separate study of cases of recent failure and their mechanisms would be catalogued. This was to include archive genetic data for the Axis; on the basis that DNA research had shown with embryos of different species there was a remarkable percentage of commonality in early stages. Humans even had substantial chunks in common with plants. The developing embryos went through processes of switching on or off requirements for limbs, wings, etc. The reproductive systems were in this jigsaw, and it was felt necessary to compare all possible data for the Axis at every stage of embryonic growth.
The link between sex and the brain had to be more explicit than current knowledge. The framework of observation and experimentation would need to include volunteers who did have or were going to have cerebral implants to help complete the study. The most controversial point came at the end. There would have to be differentiation tags for those who needed implants from those who desired them. Any such programme depended on the subjects of procreation itself, and therefore would take years to gain statistical momentum. It had to start somewhere and could not be forced to suit objectives. The cooperative programme was named ‘Genesis Pool’.
As it was mainly derived from extrapolation of observational data initially, it would remain low key in publicity terms. At the end of this first session, Pascal 2 requested Doc and Mac to devise an automatic computer comparison, of embryonic humans studied alongside the known Axis data, at absolute age and corrected lifespan equivalent ages.
During their next assignation Carvalho had fortuitously heard Stella stray from a professional commentary on the aims of the programme, to dismay that she had not contributed any conference of genetic code in a personal sense. He was intrigued and could not help thinking it may be too late for such plans of his own. He simply expressed the identical sadness. The long silence hinted at a profound difficulty for either of them to take the next step. He was scared to let the moment go and at the same time terrified of rejection. He was amazed at his inability to reconcile his clear, decisive professional ability with an immature, reticent emotional disability. “Stella, I apologise.”
“What for Daniel? Have I missed something?”
“No, it is for what I’m about to say rather than what I have failed to say. I’ve known you for only a few weeks and at the same time, it seems like it has been for all my life. It’s the latter which makes me sure that I’ll never be the same again now that it has happened. I also know how ridiculous it is that my professional persona sees this disregard for respectable periods of relationship building, when my off-duty character sees it as irrelevant. I don’t want to be without you ever again, time won’t change that.”
She was choked with emotional turmoil and found herself saying, “Daniel, I haven’t dared to say what I feel. You’ve just said it for me.”
********
The media had got their teeth into the plethora of rumours of American support for an inhuman campaign in North Korea. T
hey seemed to have an unusual uniformity of sentiment compared to their normal competitive takes. All were scathing about the Korean internal manipulation of their people by the dictatorial elite, but that did not justify the type of alleged response. They also seemed to have conformed to the tactic of a ‘serialised’ indictment rather than explosive revelation. The resulting jockeying for safety within the administration predictably began with subordinates to the hierarchy accreting blame and ‘resigning’, but the intermediaries decided that this cleansing would only ever terminate if ‘a particular head had a long drop into the basket’. The President’s closest aides were at first monitoring this but advised a tipping point would require a sacrificial lamb. As the intermediaries were now unanimous in their testimony Rodham took the lonely walk to the customary severance.
It shook America more than the rest of the world; nevertheless it all had a crippling initial effect on the trade deficit. Rodham’s successor, Hal Devonshire, wasted no time in accusing China of failing to disclose their real agenda, which was now known to be that for which the United States was being wrongfully accused. This breaking of ranks spawned a contest of claim and counter-claim. Behind the scenes Kinsey was trying to break the lock-jam of insult Ping-Pong without personal intervention, by a negotiated appearance of Sadat’s hidden General at a United Nations court of appeal. Although the initial response was frosty, Kinsey reminded Sadat that he was the first to express concern and the Americans had done the honourable thing in cleansing their own government. “This was also a risky business for me, to snowball your allegations from utter bizarreness to credibility. I’m sure there is also mileage for the USAr being perceived as instrumental in overseeing integrity. China will eventually lose this case and much influence with it. You should consider this Mr. Sadat, where danger lurks – there is opportunity in the vicinity for those who can see it.”