Mother Read online

  #

  Bang bang.

  “The Senate Select Committee on the viability of the Artificial Life Project, Senator White of California presiding,” the man in charge announced to the tapping of keys and flash of bulbs. Each to his left and to his right were three grey men in grey suits, not a woman among them. He set his pale hands on the polished black table, his mouth an inch from the microphone spiking up from it. “I’m sure we’d all like an early lunch, so let’s keep the fairy stories to a minimum. We’re here to determine whether funding should continue for this project, taking into consideration the ethical implications of generating sustainable human life artificially, the reliability of the research proposing this as possible, and the proposed necessity of such an endeavour.” He peered over the top of his glasses, examining Laura’s table as if its occupants were curious specimens. “Dr. Syd, you may begin.”

  The chair scraped beside her, almost making her jump. Laura sighed inwardly. She had always planned to be relaxed on this morning, but a sleepless night and the pot of coffee it took to get her here were merging to make her jittery. Dr. Carter sat to her right in his whitest, most starchy lab coat, and hadn’t looked her way once all morning.

  “The Project is, according to our research, a viable alternative to traditional methods of artificial fertilisation. In fact, it is a step beyond mere fertilisation, producing the material of the egg and sperm cells themselves before implantation.”

  There was a murmur of interest around the room. In Laura’s mind, its tone was sceptical.

  “So we’re talking about genetic engineering of human life?”

  “No, Senator,” Dr. Syd insisted. “Not engineering. There are... variables we’re unsure of, each creation would be unique, and we cannot manipulate the development of the material to rule out random mutations. Each child would be as much a mystery as one created by natural fertilisation.”

  “Hmm. And how is this possible?” the Senator asked. “How do you create life out of nothing?”

  “Nothing will come of nothing, Senator, but...” Dr. Syd raised his finger to emphasise the point, “It can be wrought out of organic material from a variety of hosts. The science of the conversion process is involved and complex but--”

  “Thank you, Dr. Syd, I have read your report.” The Senator adjusted his glasses, looking over the document and flicking to the final page. “I must say the evidence is compelling, but it’s all just ink on paper. Are there any real results?”

  “We have been unable to perform experiments using human material due to ethical boundaries, but there has been success with other organisms, though they have not been complex enough to survive for more than a few days.”

  “So no outside observers have ever seen them living?” Senator White asked with a thin eyebrow raised.

  Dr. Syd wrung his hands. “It has been an unhappy coincidence that observers have never taken it upon themselves to inspect our work during those periods that we had living creations in our laboratory.”

  The Senator leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. Laura winced at the impatience on his face. There was the pen, rolling between his fingers. This guy wanted his lunch, and was about ready to make his decision.

  “I see...” the Senator said with a click in his voice like a school teacher hearing an excuse for homework not being handed in. “And are any of your colleagues at the University versed in your research?”

  Dr. Syd gritted his teeth. “Dr. Carter here has overseen the work in some capacity.”

  “Then I shall direct my next questions to him,” White said, sliding a piece of paper closer to his chest. “You may sit, Dr. Syd.”

  Dr. Syd sat heavily next to Laura, and so close to him she could feel the tremor running through him. The hem of his lab coat flapped like a flag, he was shaking so much.

  Dr. Carter rose, still not looking their way, and approached the Senator’s desk. “Yes, sir?”

  Senator White rested his chin in his hand, propped up by a thin elbow. “You’ve worked with Dr. Syd and his team for a long time, haven’t you, Dr. Carter?”

  “Too long, sir, and though I operate in a different division now, I still keep an eye on their reports.”

  “So what do you make of this proposal? Is it viable or would I just be throwing public money down a deep, dark drain?”

  Dr. Carter waited a moment, resting his hand on the polished black desk. He leaned forward, looking into the Senator’s eyes. “I think they’re crazy, sir.”

  Laura forced herself to let out only the merest whisper. “Son of a bitch.”

  Senator White smiled encouragingly. “Go on.”

  “I think all this back story about Mother Earth punishing us for being bad little warmongers and car drivers is all a load of bull designed to make us feel better about our fate. If something else made humanity infertile, it damn sure has the power to undo that damage all by itself. But we’re the ones who did the damage. In twenty sixteen the whole damn world went to hell and we had biological agents flying to and fro over the Atlantic like a game of Goddamn tennis. Radiation, toxins, whatever else is out there is what’s killing us off.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Cart--”

  “But don’t get me wrong. Just because they’re crazy doesn’t mean their work is. They created life in that lab, out of practically thin air. With the proper funding, and dispensation to get around the Executive’s Sanctity of Life Act, this can work. It will work.”

  The Senator nodded soberly. “We’re talking about a lot of money, here, and long time before we see concrete results, Doctor. And we’re losing tax-payers every day.”

  Dr. Carter cleared his throat, and it almost sounded like a laugh. “Forgive me, Senator, but without this program we won’t have any taxpayers left within forty years. We won’t have any viable candidates for parenting these children in twenty. You can hang on to all that money if you want, but what’s the good of it if no-one’s around to use it?”

  Senator White sighed, and otherwise made no gesture as to his feelings about the case. He tapped his pen against the desk, again and again, his lips as thin and expressionless as his wrinkled eyes.

  “We need more children, Senator. Cleaning up the environment will take centuries, and we’ll all be dead before we make a dent in the pollution floating around. The only way for us to survive, to have a future, is for you to allow my colleagues to continue their research.”

  There was the scraping of a chair as Dr. Carter sat once more. The air thickened like fog, tension creeping through the bodies of everyone sat facing the Committee’s desk. Even the silent partners of the Senator, sat alongside him behind the long black table, seemed to brace themselves for what would come next. All were waiting, muscles flexed as though hovering over their seats, primed to react to the next words out of the Senator’s mouth. All except Senator White himself, silently musing in his chair, his eyes locked on the only person in the room who seemed relaxed. He couldn’t see Dr. Carter’s eyes, because his feet were in the way, perched up on the edge of the Committee’s polished desk.

  “I’d get to that decision before you die yourself, Senator,” Dr. Carter said.

  Senator White’s eyes narrowed further in a scowl. “As irritating as you are, Doctor, you make a good point. We cannot delay attempts to propagate the species any further. We are running out of time.”

  Laura’s heart squeezed tightly in her chest, and her throat felt like it had swollen shut. She daren’t blink, in case it somehow affected the announcement. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Dr. Syd’s coat stopped twitching, as he grown so tense he became rigid and unmoving.

  “Therefore, I shall approve funding and Sanctity of Life Act dispensation for the Artificial Life Project.”

  Laura felt her throat burst open in a gasp that she was only aware of when it reached her ears. Dr. Syd’s head slumped back over the chair as his tired body sagged with relief. His red eyes caught
hers, and they smiled.

  “The decision is still subject to Executive Review and Veto,” the Senator continued. “So I would get to spending that money before she notices where it’s gone. Dismissed.”

  #

  The cork burst from the bottle with such force it smashed the clock on the grubby staff room wall, but no-one was watching the time for once. Dr. Syd poured some for Laura first, and the student held the glass close to her lips, letting the bubbles tickle her nose as she anticipated the champagne’s taste. She hadn’t been able to afford to celebrate with the drink since graduating high school, with every penny going to surviving a lengthy doctorate.

  Dr. Syd found himself uncharacteristically popular now that he had some success under his belt and alcohol in his hand, with fellow staffers milling around him. Noticeably absent among them, however, was Dr. Carter. Laura looked around the room and found him relaxing in a chair, gripping a beer and clasping a telephone to his head. Their eyes met, and he raised his can in a salute to her success.

  “It’s getting a bit noisy in here, so I’ll call you back sweetheart.” He put down the phone, and for the first time since she’d known him, Laura saw John Carter smiling after talking to his wife.

  “Thank you,” was all Laura could think of to say, and she nearly spat on him trying to get the words out. Inwardly, she cringed.

  “It’s fine,” Dr. Carter said, not seeming to notice. “It’s the truth anyway, I can’t really hear her. Maybe my hearing’s going.”

  “You know what I’m talking about.”

  Dr. Carter’s casual grin faded, and he sat forward. “Yeah, I know. I didn’t do it for you, though, so there’s no need to thank me. Like I said: it was the truth.”

  “You’re a researcher, Doctor Carter, you know exactly how to present the same data twice and get two different conclusions from it. You could have sunk the Project if you wanted to.”

  Dr. Carter took another sip of his beer, and belched. Laura struggled to keep her face from wrinkling in distaste.

  “I could have, but I didn’t want to. I might hate a good portion of the people on this miserable water balloon floating through the cosmos, but I can’t imagine them not being there to annoy me tomorrow. I can’t imagine there not being a future, there not being new students to teach. Humanity can’t just stop, or the last humans left will go insane with the futility of it all.”

  Laura absorbed his speech, and couldn’t help but smile. He was lecturing her once more, just like he had for years before. “Dr. Syd and I would like you to come back to the Project, Dr. Carter.”

  Dr. Carter paused for a moment, then shook his head. “Nah, you don’t need me.”

  “I never said we needed you, Doctor. I said we want you to come back.”

  “Well...” Dr. Carter swigged down some more beer. “I suppose I do miss pointing out Ken’s every mistake.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Let’s make a baby.”

  “Any more of that and you’re off the team.”