Nancy Kress - Nothing Human

Emily talked first, and Lillie had a sudden, useless flash of memory: Emily standing shyly alongside Rafe in the classroom aboard the Flyer, supplying Pam with the English words for genetic concepts. Emily blushing, proud of her ability to help these wonderful teachers in this most wonderful school.

Emily surveyed the tense faces in the great room and spoke with restraint. Lillie saw what that cost her. ” — and the rabbit population is poison to us now, or soon will be. There may or may not be difficulties with eating some plants, and more difficulties might develop later. The pribir say we can’t survive with all the changes that are going to happen on Earth. So they want to… want to…”

Emily licked her lips, and chose her words with care. “… to reengineer our genes again. To create embryos and implant them in fertile females, as they did aboard the ship fifteen years ago. But this time, the embryos will be much different from us. The pribir say they will have a different shape, different internal functions, different diets and… they’re not sure yet of all the necessary changes. But one thing the aliens are very clear on. These offspring we will give birth to will not be human, and they will eventually replace humans on the planet.”

There was stunned silence. Lillie stepped into it.

“Emily has told you the truth, but she’s left a few things out. First, the alternative to the pribir plan is death to the human race, forever. The genemods we already have, that the last two generations have, aren’t enough to let us adapt to what might happen to Earth. The bioweapons are too many and too persistent, and they’re mutating. Also, climate changes aren’t settling back down as we hoped they would. Rafe ran a computer simulation, and the global warming is caught in a feedback loop. All the sensors still transmitting from the upper atmosphere say the methane, ozone, and carbon dioxide are all increasing. Down here it’s only going to get worse. Our choice is simple: we do what the pribir suggest or our descendants all die.

“Second, there’s a big difference between this engineering and the last one. The pribir are asking our permission. They won’t go ahead with any embryo implants in anybody without consent.”

Scott stirred on his bench. Lillie met his eyes steadily, and held her breath. If he disputed that statement, the argument was over. Scott said nothing.

Rafe called out, “Lillie, you said ‘what might happen to Earth.’ Maybe the jackrabbits are the only thing that will be affected, and otherwise we can go on like we are now. Or the Earth’s natural homeostasis might kick in.”

“No homeostasis has kicked in so far. At all.”

Sajelle said, “I’d rather take our chances with Mother Nature than with the pribir!”

“Me, too!” Alex.

“And me!”

“And me!” The calling came faster, louder, angrier.

Spring, the peacemaker, stood. “I’m no scientist, God and everybody else knows, but couldn’t the pribir just… Emily said the rabbits and maybe the mesquite, couldn’t the pribir just reengineer those things? Instead of us?”

Shouted agreements. Lillie held up her hand, but it was a long time before she could get their attention. She said, “The problem with that idea is that other genetic changes might affect other foods, and not even the pribir know which ones. There are some nasty transposons out there, splicing genes into many different living things. The pribir can’t tell what will be next. The increased UV is causing a lot more mutations than ever before. Plus, the pribir are leaving soon, so they can’t go on fixing things for us.”

“Fucking things up, you mean,” Robin called bitterly.

“At least they’re leaving!”

“Maybe this time they’ll stay away!”

No chance at all, Lillie thought. A few more months in space for Pam and Pete, a few decades gone on Earth, and they’d be back.

Senni snarled, “Lillie, why are you on their side anyway? Deserting your own race?”

She’d expected this. “No. Trying to help it.”

Rafe stood, a far more dangerous opponent than Senni. “You hated what the pribir did to us as much as anybody. You were a major victim, remember? Rape, manipulation, experimenting on human beings… what happened to your outrage at those things, Lillie? Are the pribir manipulating you right this minute, with mind drugs?”

“No!”

“How would you know?”

Emily said harshly, “She wouldn’t.”

Julie stood. Julie, fearful, clutching Spring’s shoulder for support. “I think… I think Lillie’s right.” Everyone turned in amazement.

“I lost one of my babies, remember. Dakota and Felicity’s sister. We don’t even know what killed her. I held that little still body and… If the pribir can make it so no other mother loses a child… then it’s worth it. It is! None of the rest of you except Angie know that because you haven’t gone through it. But I did. It doesn’t matter what your children look like, as long as they get the chance to live.” She collapsed into her seat and buried her face in Spring’s chest.

Ashley shouted, “It matters to me whether what I give birth to is human. If it’s not, it’s not my child.”

Lillie said, “Who gets to define ‘human’?”

“It’s already defined!” Sam yelled. “If you can’t see that, Lillie, you’re a fucking idiot!”

Mike stood and started toward Sam. Only Scott’s urgent hand on Mike’s arm made him sit down again, glowering.

Emily said, “No personal attacks, Sam. I mean it. This is too important to decide that way. Put out reasonable arguments or leave.”

Lillie glanced at Emily in admiration. Emily did not return the look.

Cord stood. “Clari’s and my son has all the life-saving stuff the pribir built into my genes. Dr. Wilkins says so. That’s good enough to survive a lot of climate dangers. I should know, it saved me during a sandstorm in the desert. Is Earth going to get worse than that? I don’t think so. We already have enough genemods for our descendants to survive.”

He won’t look at me, Lillie thought. My son refuses to look at me. How had she and Cord changed sides? Once it had been she who feared the pribir and Cord who idealized them. Well, he’d met his ideal and changed his mind, and she was more afraid of the extinction of the human race than of the pribir. The pribir were bullies, tyrants even, short-sighted, selfish, uncaring. They were also the only antidote available to what humans themselves had done to their planet.

She tried to say all this, but the crowd had gone past lengthy, reasoned speech. They shouted and interrupted and no amount of calm orders from DeWayne or Scott or even Jody could stop them. Finally, Sam screamed for a vote.

“How many want to tell the pribir to leave us the hell alone?”

Every hand went up except four: Lillie, Scott, Spring, and Julie. And that was that.

Lillie, completely drained, left the big house to look again at her new grandson, sleeping peacefully beside Clari, unaware that the fate of his children and his children’s children had just been decided for him.

Lillie wasn’t present when Scott told the pribir of the farm’s decision. He emerged from the interview gray-faced, saying only, “They say we’re crazy.”

“But-“

“I’m going to lie down now. Don’t pull at me, any of you. All they say is that we’re crazy.” He stumbled down the hill toward the lab. Lillie, watching this old man bent and defeated, pushed down the impulse to offer him her arm. Scott wouldn’t take it.

Sajelle, standing beside Lillie, said, “What are you going to do now, Lillie?”

Lillie knew it was a challenge: Are you going to go on opposing your own? Stirring up trouble? Sajelle waited, looking scarcely older than when they’d left the ship together fifteen years ago, although both she and Lillie were grandmothers. At twenty-nine, to Scott’s sixty-nine.