The Psychopath and the Genetic Engineer
The Year of the Tuatara
The inmates of S5, the Sphere’s high security gaol, never did discover the reason why communications with the rest of the Sphere were lost but the incident presented a unique opportunity.
Abut Gotheroth, through a combination of family connections and being a violent sociopath, persuaded the other prisoners to overpower the remaining guards. This took two days of planning, i.e. Abut telling everyone else what to do and if anyone questioned him, well they didn’t a second time. And so on the third day, the prisoners of the S5 gaol attacked and overpowered the small number of guards.
Abut Gotheroth looked at the entrance to the S5 Spire, that was the way to freedom. He had thought about this moment for fifteen years and now all he needed to do was gain access. However, there were several problems. Mainly that the only people who could gain entry were the guards. The former-prisoners had attempted to fool the security systems but to no avail. He looked at the entrance, it shouldn’t be this difficult. After all, they were only machines.
But they were not just machines they were sophisticated machines that were able to detect any attempts of subterfuge. As well as the normal security protocols involving retinal scans there were special protocols that sampled the DNA of any person and attempting to gain access. Only unaccompanied guards could gain access to the Spire.
After the arrest of three of their members by the security systems, the ex-prisoners of S5 gave up their immediate attempts of entry. They would have to come up with at better plan.
The prisoners had easily gained access to the rest of the complex. Abut did a stock take of what they had. The answer was enough food for a year, some non-descript buildings with basic furnishings, eighteen assorted weapons, some miscellaneous equipment and three all-terrain vehicles.
Originally, the prisoners had held twenty former-guards as prisoners, however, in order to show how serious they were, the former-prisoners had been reduced the former-guard’s numbers to fifteen. This also had the advantage of reducing the demand for food.
“You know there are some laboratories around fifty kilometres to the west.” Henro Guopich said after Abut had taken out his frustrations on one of the former-guards.
“How do you know?” Abut asked.
“I bugged the former-guard’s cells, they’re holding out for a rescue.”
“What sort of laboratories?”
“I don’t know but I think we should find out.”
The inmates of S5, the Sphere’s high security gaol, never did discover the reason why communications with the rest of the Sphere were lost but the incident presented a unique opportunity.
Abut Gotheroth, through a combination of family connections and being a violent sociopath, persuaded the other prisoners to overpower the remaining guards. This took two days of planning, i.e. Abut telling everyone else what to do and if anyone questioned him, well they didn’t a second time. And so on the third day, the prisoners of the S5 gaol attacked and overpowered the small number of guards.
Abut Gotheroth looked at the entrance to the S5 Spire, that was the way to freedom. He had thought about this moment for fifteen years and now all he needed to do was gain access. However, there were several problems. Mainly that the only people who could gain entry were the guards. The former-prisoners had attempted to fool the security systems but to no avail. He looked at the entrance, it shouldn’t be this difficult. After all, they were only machines.
But they were not just machines they were sophisticated machines that were able to detect any attempts of subterfuge. As well as the normal security protocols involving retinal scans there were special protocols that sampled the DNA of any person and attempting to gain access. Only unaccompanied guards could gain access to the Spire.
After the arrest of three of their members by the security systems, the ex-prisoners of S5 gave up their immediate attempts of entry. They would have to come up with at better plan.
The prisoners had easily gained access to the rest of the complex. Abut did a stock take of what they had. The answer was enough food for a year, some non-descript buildings with basic furnishings, eighteen assorted weapons, some miscellaneous equipment and three all-terrain vehicles.
Originally, the prisoners had held twenty former-guards as prisoners, however, in order to show how serious they were, the former-prisoners had been reduced the former-guard’s numbers to fifteen. This also had the advantage of reducing the demand for food.
“You know there are some laboratories around fifty kilometres to the west.” Henro Guopich said after Abut had taken out his frustrations on one of the former-guards.
“How do you know?” Abut asked.
“I bugged the former-guard’s cells, they’re holding out for a rescue.”
“What sort of laboratories?”
“I don’t know but I think we should find out.”
The laboratories were lightly guarded and a geneticist’s dream, the latest in advanced biological labs, gene sequencers and embryo nurseries. To the west lay fields and buildings to house the resultant organisms. The computers held a full database of all the gene sequenced organisms from two planetary systems and hundreds of imaginated creatures.
“You what’s your name?” Abut asked one of the scientists who seemed to be in charge of the facility despite his prisoner status.
“Farar Wi.”
“So Farar, you’re one of those geneticists. I recognise the surname, your family did some work for mine.”
“Well yes, but that was a long time ago,” Farar replied.
“So what can you do for us now?” Abut asked.
“I’m not sure what I can do for you but what I was good at was designing organisms.”
“What?”
“Animals, plants, bacteria, I used to design them. In fact we still do but under strict supervision.”
“To do what?”
“Pretty much anything you like.”
“Can you design something that will gain us access to the Spire?”
Farar was silent for a while. Eventually he replied, “Not that I can see. It is sealed.”
Abut was not the brightest of people but he could see the logic in Farar’s reply.
“Can you design something to get past the Inner Sea?”
“Possibly.”
“Well what do you need?”
“Unrestricted access to the computer systems.”
“Where are the computer systems?”
“They’re here. All I need is a password.”
“I’ll get you a password, then you do it. Tell me when you’ve made something useful. If you fail then your friends will suffer.”
“You what’s your name?” Abut asked one of the scientists who seemed to be in charge of the facility despite his prisoner status.
“Farar Wi.”
“So Farar, you’re one of those geneticists. I recognise the surname, your family did some work for mine.”
“Well yes, but that was a long time ago,” Farar replied.
“So what can you do for us now?” Abut asked.
“I’m not sure what I can do for you but what I was good at was designing organisms.”
“What?”
“Animals, plants, bacteria, I used to design them. In fact we still do but under strict supervision.”
“To do what?”
“Pretty much anything you like.”
“Can you design something that will gain us access to the Spire?”
Farar was silent for a while. Eventually he replied, “Not that I can see. It is sealed.”
Abut was not the brightest of people but he could see the logic in Farar’s reply.
“Can you design something to get past the Inner Sea?”
“Possibly.”
“Well what do you need?”
“Unrestricted access to the computer systems.”
“Where are the computer systems?”
“They’re here. All I need is a password.”
“I’ll get you a password, then you do it. Tell me when you’ve made something useful. If you fail then your friends will suffer.”
“I’ve created something that will help us,” Farar Wi said three weeks later as Abut Gotheroth came to view progress.
“Created what?”
“A virus.”
“How will that help us get past the Inner Sea?”
“That’s not what this does.”
“So what is a virus then?” Abut asked, starting to cough.
“A virus is a small pathogen,” Farar replied.
Abut was now coughing so much that he didn’t see the look of success on Farar face. “What does it do?” Abut eventually managed to ask.
“Kills you,” Farar replied as Abut doubled up in agony.
“Created what?”
“A virus.”
“How will that help us get past the Inner Sea?”
“That’s not what this does.”
“So what is a virus then?” Abut asked, starting to cough.
“A virus is a small pathogen,” Farar replied.
Abut was now coughing so much that he didn’t see the look of success on Farar face. “What does it do?” Abut eventually managed to ask.
“Kills you,” Farar replied as Abut doubled up in agony.
Farar expected an imminent rescue from the Sphere’s security forces but when none was coming he dove back into his work. After five weeks and zero rescues he had the first hatchling from his latest project.
“What is that?” Sanit Singit asked as he entered the laboratory.
“It’s a baby dragon,” Farar replied.
“A real dragon? Breathes fire and everything?”
“Well it doesn’t breathe fire but it will fly and grow large enough to carry a human passenger, something other designed-dragons have never been able to do.”
“Do you not think we have enough problems without bothering about dragons.” Sanit Singit stared at the tiny reptile, “So why won’t it breathe fire?” he asked.
“Too difficult to design,” Farar Wi replied. “There’s nothing like it in the databases and designing that sort of metabolism from scratch, I just couldn’t work it out. Nobody has ever been able to.”
“You know what dragons that couldn’t breathe fire were called?”
“What?”
“Wyverns.”
“Wyverns?”
“That’s not a dragon, it’s a wyvern.”
“Alright, we’ll call it a wyvern,” Farar decided. “So how are we with our problem?”
“We’re stuck. None of the remaining guards knows any of the codes to get back into the Spire or if they do, they’re not telling. And we can’t think of any way of getting past the outer rings. And even if we could then it is thousands of kilometres to the nearest inhabited land. Everything we can think of was thought of by the designers.”
“So we’re stuck.”
“Yes.”
“Absolutely stuck.”
“Yes, no way out unless one of the guards decides to trust us. We reckon they’re still hoping for a rescue. But as prisons go, it’s not too bad. There’s food, there’s a whole continent out there to explore, settle and design an ecosystem for.”
“Not enough people though.”
Of the fifty people who had been stuck on S5, the Sphere’s continent-wide prison, fifteen were former guards, three were scientists studying the unique weather systems and the rest were prisoners. Of the prisoners ten were women and four of them were psychopaths. Forty men and ten women. If they were to survive they were going to have to do something radical.
The prison of S5 was designed to hold more people but serious crimes on the Sphere were rare due to a combination of a general lack of poverty, psychological profiling and lie detection. If you did commit a crime, then unless it was undetected then you were caught. The result was a generally law-abiding population and a huge prison with hardly any prisoners.
“We need to make people,” Farar said.
“Err, that’s sort of illegal,” Sanit replied. “We’re here because we broke the first rule of genetic engineering, don’t play with sentient creatures.”
“I know, I worked on the yetis and they were definitely non-intelligent when I was working on them. But either we make people or we die out. There just isn’t a big enough gene-pool. All other problems are solvable, we can easily create food in the short-term and design crops and farm animals in the long-term.”
“But …”
“But nothing, if the guards do return. What are they going to do? We’re already in gaol for life.” Farar shrugged his shoulders.
The silence was broken by the baby wyvern giving out a small mewling sound.
“You made it sound like a cat?”
“Not deliberately, but it should roar when it’s fully grown. I reckon it is hungry.” Farar picked up a maggot in a pair of tweezers and pushed it into the baby wyvern’s mouth. A forked tongue darted out. “It can smell the others,” Farar said.
“They could stop us from carrying on …” Sanit said getting back to the problem of illegally making people.
“If they return. And how long was it before they built some genetic labs out here to keep us busy? We have the equipment, including artificial wombs, we have the knowledge and I know it’s a cliché, we have the power.” Farar lifted up a second maggot.
“Could we not …”
“No we do the bare minimum to build a society but we must never let the guards know. Now let us see how his brothers and sisters are coming along. These wyverns are designed to live as long as humans. If we do this right, we can have them grow up together.”
“As long as the wyverns don’t think of people as food.”
“It’s been programmed into their genes so that they won’t.”
Year of Edelweiss
“I am dying,” Farar Wi said to the inner core of the geneticists. “Ironically it’s a weakness of my genes that’s the ultimate cause. There is nothing you can do to save me. However, I have encoded my DNA, so if you want, I can live on through a clone without the weakness. I have one request though, if you recreate me, name my clone for my brother Jams, assassinated by the relatives of that evil bastard Abut Gotheroth we killed twenty years ago.”
He turned and watched as a group of children ran through the hall. “At least we will survive as a society,” he said as the children ran screaming and shouting through the exit.
“What is that?” Sanit Singit asked as he entered the laboratory.
“It’s a baby dragon,” Farar replied.
“A real dragon? Breathes fire and everything?”
“Well it doesn’t breathe fire but it will fly and grow large enough to carry a human passenger, something other designed-dragons have never been able to do.”
“Do you not think we have enough problems without bothering about dragons.” Sanit Singit stared at the tiny reptile, “So why won’t it breathe fire?” he asked.
“Too difficult to design,” Farar Wi replied. “There’s nothing like it in the databases and designing that sort of metabolism from scratch, I just couldn’t work it out. Nobody has ever been able to.”
“You know what dragons that couldn’t breathe fire were called?”
“What?”
“Wyverns.”
“Wyverns?”
“That’s not a dragon, it’s a wyvern.”
“Alright, we’ll call it a wyvern,” Farar decided. “So how are we with our problem?”
“We’re stuck. None of the remaining guards knows any of the codes to get back into the Spire or if they do, they’re not telling. And we can’t think of any way of getting past the outer rings. And even if we could then it is thousands of kilometres to the nearest inhabited land. Everything we can think of was thought of by the designers.”
“So we’re stuck.”
“Yes.”
“Absolutely stuck.”
“Yes, no way out unless one of the guards decides to trust us. We reckon they’re still hoping for a rescue. But as prisons go, it’s not too bad. There’s food, there’s a whole continent out there to explore, settle and design an ecosystem for.”
“Not enough people though.”
Of the fifty people who had been stuck on S5, the Sphere’s continent-wide prison, fifteen were former guards, three were scientists studying the unique weather systems and the rest were prisoners. Of the prisoners ten were women and four of them were psychopaths. Forty men and ten women. If they were to survive they were going to have to do something radical.
The prison of S5 was designed to hold more people but serious crimes on the Sphere were rare due to a combination of a general lack of poverty, psychological profiling and lie detection. If you did commit a crime, then unless it was undetected then you were caught. The result was a generally law-abiding population and a huge prison with hardly any prisoners.
“We need to make people,” Farar said.
“Err, that’s sort of illegal,” Sanit replied. “We’re here because we broke the first rule of genetic engineering, don’t play with sentient creatures.”
“I know, I worked on the yetis and they were definitely non-intelligent when I was working on them. But either we make people or we die out. There just isn’t a big enough gene-pool. All other problems are solvable, we can easily create food in the short-term and design crops and farm animals in the long-term.”
“But …”
“But nothing, if the guards do return. What are they going to do? We’re already in gaol for life.” Farar shrugged his shoulders.
The silence was broken by the baby wyvern giving out a small mewling sound.
“You made it sound like a cat?”
“Not deliberately, but it should roar when it’s fully grown. I reckon it is hungry.” Farar picked up a maggot in a pair of tweezers and pushed it into the baby wyvern’s mouth. A forked tongue darted out. “It can smell the others,” Farar said.
“They could stop us from carrying on …” Sanit said getting back to the problem of illegally making people.
“If they return. And how long was it before they built some genetic labs out here to keep us busy? We have the equipment, including artificial wombs, we have the knowledge and I know it’s a cliché, we have the power.” Farar lifted up a second maggot.
“Could we not …”
“No we do the bare minimum to build a society but we must never let the guards know. Now let us see how his brothers and sisters are coming along. These wyverns are designed to live as long as humans. If we do this right, we can have them grow up together.”
“As long as the wyverns don’t think of people as food.”
“It’s been programmed into their genes so that they won’t.”
Year of Edelweiss
“I am dying,” Farar Wi said to the inner core of the geneticists. “Ironically it’s a weakness of my genes that’s the ultimate cause. There is nothing you can do to save me. However, I have encoded my DNA, so if you want, I can live on through a clone without the weakness. I have one request though, if you recreate me, name my clone for my brother Jams, assassinated by the relatives of that evil bastard Abut Gotheroth we killed twenty years ago.”
He turned and watched as a group of children ran through the hall. “At least we will survive as a society,” he said as the children ran screaming and shouting through the exit.
