Part 14 (1/2)
Djjckett nodded sagely.
”I know what you mean,” he said. ”For anyone who elects to compete in modern life, the compet.i.tion is indeed stiff and merciless. But no provocation can ever be great enough to allow the meddling with human life that you are doing here. Animal life is different, it exists for man's purpose. On ethical grounds, and even on biological grounds, your experiments are not permissible. Our bodies have achieved a balance . . . we-we blas-pheme by trying to alter them. After all, there were experiments in the past; you will remember the sleepless men of Krokazoa.”
”That particular experiment failed. Others have suc-ceeded. And I particularly regret hearing a moral tone taken to EAMH attempts to enn.o.ble human life by any group capable of degrading animal life.
Allow me to say that you and I hold very opposed views on the sacred-ness of animal existence. Ah well. . . . We constantly 'meddle with human life', as you call it. Every surgical operation, every anaesthetic, every dose of cough stuff you take represents such an experiment.”
”What has all this to do with the babies you showed me upstairs, Tedden Male? Human gene-s.h.i.+ft is altogether a more serious matter than a dose of cough mixture.”
Tedden got up and thrust his hands into his swathe. He began to walk about, avoiding the vicinity of the portcase. Djjckett's eyes never left him.
”All that's happened to those babies is this,” the geneti-cist said slowly. ”We operated on their 'genetic dies', the primal cell moulds from which all subsequent cells are modelled in the building of an individual.
As you will know, the whole inheritance quota of any individual is contained in these dies. One gene was removed from their chromosomes before birth-before conception. As a result, the babies are able to stand almost as soon as they are born.”
”It isn't natural,” Djjckett said.
”It is for a baby animal.”
”Moderator, these are human beings!”
Ignoring the remark, Tedden turned to a cabinet under the wide windows, and shuffled in a drawer. He pulled a microacath out, studied it for a moment, and pa.s.sed it over for Djjckett to look at.
Round the glossy print trailed something resembling raffia, knotted at intervals with differently shaped knots; it formed an eccentric spiral, the middle of which was distinctly darker than the edges. Round the outside of the knots, a tendrilled haze gathered. Djjckett gazed at it in silence, twisting the print first one way, then the other.
”Is it a chromosome?” he asked.
”It's a jell taken by our infra-electronic micro-camera of a human chromosome. Those knotty points on it are the large molecules we call genes, which are the bearers of heredity, and carry certain characteristics over from one generation to another. There are one thousand two hundred and five of them. The outer ones are what we call negative or 'damper' genes.
”What we are doing is to s.h.i.+ft off some of the damper genes from the chromosomes of unborn children, before they leave the gametangiurn of the parent. It's a fairly simple freezing process, not even painful to the father. The operation must be far less drastic than the ones which produced the abortion at your feet.”
”I don't know, I don't know!” Djjckett said, standing up and scratching his head in an agony of perplexity. ”You must see that from my point of view, the more you say the worse you make matters.
What reasonable man would co-operate with you to have his children-well, made abnormal?”
Slowly Tedden pulled at his nose, as if he could con-trol another outburst of irritation that way.
”Any reasonable man,” he answered, heavily emphasiz-ing each word.
He took the microacath back to the cabinet.
”Any reasonable man,” he repeated, ”would give his child the chance to get a head start over its contem-poraries. Blessed are the first come, for they shall be first served! Children don't normally stand up till they're about a year old, Djjckett Male; ours stand when they are a day old. That is progress, say what you will.
”Knock off other of the damper genes and you get other advances.” He smiled briefly. ”Of course I admit we had a few failures at first-babies born covered in hair, others with fully developed-well, no matter; the point is that through a few mishaps the EAMH may have gained a bad name among the ill-informed. Un-fortunately, you see, we cannot try this sort of thing on animals first. Animals haven't got damper genes; from the few elementary jells you people have produced concerning your ... . er, work, I gather you work on the mammal's stimulator genes, which is a very different matter. Strange. I suspect humans developed their damper system as a safeguard against precocity-hence, compared with animals, the long period required to mature. Now that the world is long past its adolescence, precocity is exactly what we need. Once it was wiser that we did not learn too fast; now circ.u.mstances demand that we learn as quickly as possible. As I said the world's a rat race. Ah, it's a burden. . . .”
He came and sat down at the desk again. Again he pa.s.sed his hand over his face. His eyes remained blank, as if focused on something beyond the discussion, as he fingered his mask.
”You claim to have the world's interests at heart.” Djjckett said, not without sympathy, for he found him-self liking this odd man, ”yet you think exceedingly little of it.”
For the first time, Tedden looked deeply into Djjckett's eyes. He saw there, not the scarecrow he had imagined he was dealing with, but a shrewd man whose awkward-ness of manner did not entirely cover his firmness of purpose. Tedden looked away, drumming his fingers on the desk.
”What is there but the world?!” he exclaimed almost in a groan.
”I am a religious man, Dr. Tedden, a Theorist,' I have a positive answer to that question.”
”Ah, to, you mean? Sorry, Djjckett, count me out. I've never seen him on my microcaths,” Tedden said bleakly.
They looked at each other again, neither much enjoying what they saw, in one of those dead moments in men's lives when even hope seems hopeless.
”You would naturally be disinclined to believe in a creator, because you are playing creator yourself,”
Djjckett said, in an apologetic tone. ”I take it your future intentions are to knock more damper genes off, as more volunteer parents appear?”
”Yes.”
”But can you predict results? I mean, do you know certainly what change you will effect before the baby is born?”
Tedden was sweating; suddenly he looked a lesser man. Seeing Djjckett glance at his forehead, he brought out a tissue and mopped it abstractedly.
”No,” he said. ”Not exactly. In Life there are no cer-tainties.”
”Not exactly! You are madly irresponsible, Modera-tor, for all your talk of the common”
Djjckett had risen to his feet now, shaking off the enveloper, his collar in disarray, his hands clenching.
The portcase rose with him and stretched its legs. His speech was cut off by the jangle of the vibroduct.
Tedden flipped it on with terrible eagerness, almost crouching over the instrument. The face of the female who had appeared before flared into view; she had one hand up to her mouth, in a sort of nervous excitement.
”Oh, Moderator Senior Tedden,” she exclaimed. ”It's Tunnice-your partner, I mean. She's-the pains have started again. I think you'd better come up. Quickly, please.”
”At once, Mingra, coming at once.”
Tedden switched off. He was already out of his en-veloper, apologizing, moving towards the door, saying good-bye to Djjckett.
”You'll have to excuse me now, Djjckett. My partner is up in the labour ward-I must go to her. There have been unfortunate complications. I'm afraid it's an awk-ward case, premature. ... Excuse me.”
Instinctively, Djjckett was following, out of the room, into the corridor, going through the formal and perfectly sincere phrases of regret, keeping pace with Tedden as his portcase cantered behind them.
”Terribly sorry to hear. . . . Wouldn't have kept you if I had known. . . . You should have told me, intruding at such a time.... You've been so patient. ... It really embarra.s.ses me to think that I....”
Tedden could not shake him off. Djjckett pressed into the lift with him. Tedden closed the gates, thumbed the b.u.t.ton, and they slid upwards. The portcase was left behind.
”What has brought the birth on prematurely, Modera-tor, may I ask?”
”My wife had a fall last night,” Tedden said abstractedly, glancing upwards, biting his thumb.