Second Chances (109 page)

Sandra looked thoughtful, tapping her fingertips on her mouth for a moment. “I'm not sure, but I think it may have to do with what we just found. Then again, perhaps not. A marker?” She mused out loud then shrugged. “I'll...” Sandra pulled out a tablet and made a note. “Okay, there, I made a note. I'll look into it,” she said. She looked up to them.

“Okay, a marker sounds good in theory,” Mitch said cautiously. The colonel grunted. “I'm not sure how they marked us though,” he said looking at his body. “We can't see it. Smell it?” He shook his head. He turned as a new woman came into the room.

She smiled at them. “Sorry, couldn't help but overhear from the hallway as I was coming in,” she said as she got herself a cup of coffee. “Markers right?”

“That's right,” Sandra said, indicating for the other woman to take a seat. Mitch tried to remember the woman. She was a fresh face, obviously one of the delegates. He wanted to sneak a peek at Sandra's tablet to look up any bio information Jolie or Anne had recorded, but Sandra kept a firm hand on the thing.

“I remember a couple episodes of NCIS LA where they marked people with a spritzer. Something about radiation,” Sandy Perez said. “I only remember because my cousin was an extra in one of the episodes.” She shrugged.

“It's an idea,” Sandra replied thoughtfully. “I'll look into it.”

“Okay, the genes,” Sandy said, looking first to Colonel Dunn then to Mitch and finally Sandra. “I'm a bit concerned about that. How did they alter our genes? Why aren't we mutants or something?” She asked.

“Okay, from what we've discovered they altered our genes by not so much altering the DNA in every cell of our bodies, but by altering our semen and ova,” the Doctor explained. “We checked in the lab. That's confirmed by the way.” Sandy's eyes widened. Sandra nodded. “Right. It's a simple thing. What they did was structure it so we pass on a direct gene structure of one parent or the other. They created some sort of dominant trait for every gene. Essentially a clone.”

Mitch stared at her in shock. His mind tumbled, off balance. If what she was saying was true, that meant Tucker was a clone. A clone of...him. He boggled at the thought. Mitch fought a scowl. It was obvious he needed to have a chat with his wife about this subject in the near future. One she probably wasn't going to enjoy.

“How...is that even possible?” Sandy asked in disbelief, also shaken. From the colonel's expression, he was struggling with the concepts but recognized what had just been said was earth shattering.

“I know it's possible in nature with some organisms, but I'm not up to speed on the mechanics. Ducky, that's Doctor Mallard, said he'd look into it, but he's been tied up with Maggie and the vet projects,” Sandra said making a face. “We're still wrestling with the concepts. On the face of it no, but we're dealing with alien tech in an area we're still muddy about to begin with,” Sandra sighed. “And we're not very well equipped to get too far into it even if we did have people with the skills,” Sandra said, making a disgusted face.

“I'm working on it,” Mitch said, sounding defensive.

His wife looked at him. “You mean
us
. We're working on it,” she said. He nodded.

“So, if we have a daughter, she's a copy of me. A boy is a copy of the father? No mixing of the genes?” Sandy asked. She wrinkled her nose. “I'm not sure if I like the idea of raising my own...twin.”

“Yeah, it's...odd,” Sandra said.

“Tell me about it,” Mitch said, eying Sandra. She didn't look his way.

“Not just odd. I remember what I was like as a kid,” Sandy said. “The crap I put my mother through growing up,” she said shaking her head. She chuckled suddenly.

“What?”

“I'm just remembering my mother's curse,” Sandy said, throwing her head back and laughing. “I hope you grow up and have a kid that is just...”

“Like you,” Sandra finished, lips pursing. She chuckled herself.

The colonel frowned thoughtfully then nodded as well. He didn't like the idea of a copy of himself. “A copy…down to what and how we think?”

“It's not,” Sandra sighed. “Okay, it's not a perfect translation. What I mean is, sure the biology is the same, but you experienced different things growing up. How you were raised then, food, environment, education, accidents, viruses you were exposed to...they all play a role in how a person is shaped. Biology is just the starting point.”

“Which is one of the points we made to the Memes, they tinkered with the biology and that needs to stop. Organics need to adapt over time, not remain static,” Mitch said. The colonel nodded grimly. Sandy did as well. They were quiet for a few moments.

“I'm not at all happy about someone screwing with my body,” the colonel growled, eyes flashing. “Damned aliens have no business doing that.”

“I'm wondering about twins,” Sandy finally said, almost softly.

“Same deal. Boys are from a split egg. Girls too. But a boy girl would be two ova and two sperm, so one of each,” Sandra said then shrugged. “I'm more concerned about genetic damage due to exposure to retroviruses or radiation. Both can cause mutation, and therefore change. I'm not sure what mechanism the aliens have to deal with that,” she said.

“A virus can alter our DNA?” The colonel asked, feeling lost.

Sandra smiled sympathetically. “The medical field found that out years ago,” she said. “Even the common cold virus, the Rhino virus. The best example is a wart causing virus. It gets into the cells on the body and causes warts. HPV. Human Papillomavirus.”

Sandy nodded. “I saw a thing about that. A tree guy,” she said.

“So...we need to put a stop to this. How?” The colonel asked doggedly.

“It's wrong. Backwards,” Sandy said in agreement.

“It's stifling is what I was going to say myself,” Sandra sighed. “This...change is why so many animals and most likely plants as well didn't survive here. They say they let them adapt, then alter the DNA over time to lock it in, but we're not seeing that,” Sandra said with a scowl. “How we deal with it...” she shrugged. “The answer is we don't know. I'm going to check the genetic material Mitch brought along, run a comparison. Just having it will give us some wiggle room for the next couple of generations.”

“But they screened our DNA for a reason,” Sandy said. “Looking for defects?” She asked thoughtfully.

“What bothers me is a copy of a copy of a cop ....Like you said, eventually errors are bound to work their way in, either by a miss-copy or a virus, or radiation...it's not good. It also cuts down on our diversity. It makes us vulnerable to disease,” Mitch said. Sandy winced.

“Every family has some sort of defect in their bloodline,” Sandra said, still thinking about that train of thought. “I don't know what they screened for. I'd have to check with everyone and we'd need in depth interviews to get family histories in a database, then scan it for trends and things that pop up. But looking for what they screened out...” she shook her head.

“Besides, we've got more important things to work on,” the colonel said. “Cosmic crap can wait. Feeding people and keeping them healthy and alive is more important,” he said, losing his patience. He was starting to get a headache with all the science crap.

“Agreed,” Mitch said. He turned to the two women. “We'll leave it in your capable hands. Perhaps a meeting of the science or medical minds is in order in the future?”

“We can't leave our communities,” Sandy said. “Well, I can, but there are three medics where I am from.” She looked at Sandra.

“Same here. Not everyone is trained though. I know Evan's got a few medics too. Copper Town and Mountain Village have only the one each. But I can talk to Jolie. Maybe we can do some sort of radio chat. Or Internet when it is finally established properly,” she said, eying Mitch.

“We're working on it,” he said, getting to his feet. He nodded his head to the colonel who nodded back. Together the men retreated as the women began to hash out more of the science details.

------*------

Evan suggested they wrangle details on the various subjects still in contention in smaller groups. He requested a few presentations to provide new information about their world and the animals on it. Those who wanted to discuss matters in private in small groups excused themselves while Mitch called in a few of his department heads to see who could fill in the time.

Ducky was happy to oblige. He showed them a slide show of old and new animals they had encountered, then brought up some of his more intriguing thoughts. “Many of the dinosaur species that were in the Cretaceous on Earth are not here now. The Spinosaurus for instance, I expected it to flourish here with the mega fauna but no one has sighted one. We're also finding species that never died out on Earth, they evolved. Obviously the aliens made mistakes,” he said.

Gunny Usher nodded. “Like the T. rex? I was wondering about that. Didn't it live in the Jurassic not the Cretaceous? Someone goofed somewhere.”

“No, that was a myth some idiot cooked up. The T. rex was in the cretaceous right up to the K-T event in one evolved form or another,” Ducky said. “But it is strange that there are other fauna from the wrong time periods. Unless again, they weren't in the fossilized record we've uncovered...”

“Or the Memes erred on the side of caution,” John suggested. The gunny cocked his head and then shrugged.

“Maybe they liked them as pets or something?” Yuri suggested, eyes twinkling. “Wasn't that mentioned in a book?”

“That's right...” Adam snapped his fingers when the name came to him. “Anne McCaffrey,” he nodded. “Yes, she did it.”

“Oh god. Do they think of us as pets I wonder?” Yung Li Chow asked softly.

“But that's not how they responded to us in that meeting,” Mitch said doggedly. Ducky nodded.

“Any further word on them? Or what is happening on Earth? They've got what, sixteen years left?” John asked. “I'd think Jolie'd let us know, but I've got to ask,” he said, looking at Mitch.

Mitch shook his head. “Unfortunately no. We don't know anything that is going on there. Hopefully Bob has capitalized on our rather public departure to get them off their asses,” he said.

“Here's to hoping,” Ducky murmured. The others nodded. “I believe though we are on our own. The aliens haven't offered much support to us despite reclassifying us as ‘Inheritors,’” he said making a face. He took his glasses off and polished them.

“We're on our own,” Yuri rumbled with a nod as he stroked his long black beard. Mitch nodded. “I think it is the way I want it. I for one do not want to be dependent on an alien,” the Russian said. A few of the others cocked their heads or nodded.

------*------

The gossip about Tucker being a clone and the research Sandra had performed made the rounds. Mitch wanted to talk to her about it, but between his being tied up either with the conferences or checking on the workings of the base, and her being tied up with the radio medical conferences, they hadn't had the time to do so. He intended to damn well
find
the time. He knew from the sidelong looks she occasionally shot him and how nice she was being to him that she knew he was furious about her withholding the information from him. He wasn't sure he wanted to know how long she had known.

The discussions on cloning sparked more discussion on genetics as well as the human population. There was some natural hysteria involved when the population found out about the tampering. Apparently when Jolie reported the news over her nightly news broadcast it had stopped or stalled worship of the Memes in some of the far flung and more primitive villages. She followed that report up the next evening with an upload of what they knew about the alien Memes, and what they were using as supposition and the basis of the assumptions.

“The best way to kill nonsense like that is with education,” Mitch said as Sandra, Ducky, and Maggie came into his office to discuss the situation. Apparently he hadn't been the only one to want to get the discussion over with. It was a bit amused that Sandra had brought in their local animal scientists to back her up though.

Ducky shook his head. “Yes and no lad. Pulling the blinders off sometimes banishes ignorance...if one wishes it to be banished in the first place. There will always be those who will doggedly hold onto their beliefs no matter how wrong they are proven,” he said. Maggie nodded.

Mitch cocked his head and then slowly nodded. Ducky was right; the matter was tabled. Most likely muted, the matter hadn't been totally dropped.

“So, if I'm understanding this right, we no longer have a random gene factor in evolution. It is now selective...what, gene engineering?” Maggie asked looking at Ducky. Her partner nodded. “And it is set up not really for survival but to preserve our DNA and animal DNA.”

“That is correct my dear.”

“And we don't know how to stop it?”

“Artificial insemination with the gene stores you have collected can halt it temporarily. But if the aliens return, they can and possibly will add the same copy feature to the newborn.”

“So much for diversity,” Maggie mouthed. “Dominant versus recessive?” she asked.

“I would theorize that they are locked somehow so the body cannot swap them out. A virus or chance encounter with radiation might change that,” Ducky mused. “I've verified the clone package repeatedly.”