Norman Spinrad - The Iron Dream

A television camera had been set up for the occasion near the front row of vats; before these twenty ellipsoid porcelain wombs, twenty tall, blond SS scientists in black-dress uniforms with scarlet swastika capes and high black boots stood at perfect attention.

As Feric entered the chamber, fhese prime specimens snapped out a massed Party salute and shouted “Hail Jaggar!” with utmost vigor and dash. Feric returned the salute smartly, then strode to the microphone that had been set up facing the cloning vats.

“My fellow Helder,” he said, staring straight at the twenty SS heroes whose eyes blazed like chips of the finest blue steel with the triumph they had wrought, “today, at last, we are to witness the emergence of the first of the new master race fully grown from the cloning vats of the first reproduction works to go into regular round-the-clock mass production of SS purebreds. These magnificent specimens, cultured from the tissues of none but the absolute genetic cream of the SS, will spring to life fully grown, with godlike “physiques and razor-sharp minds, needing no more than six months of intensive instruction and indoctrination to take their places as full-fledged members of the SS and citizens of Heldon.”

Fire seemed to sparkle in the eyes of the SS scientists; Feric favored these fellows by meeting their fanatic gaze with his own before he went on.

“Within six months, ten more reproduction works will begin operation, by the end of next year, there will be two dozen turning out a million SS purebreds a year, and within five years Heldon will have the capacity to produce the amazing total of ten million SS supermen per year! This should be a sufficient productive capacity to totally repopulate the habitable earth with the master race within twenty years. Today we begin this repoputation of the earth with the genetic supermen that humanity has dreamed of creating for a thousand years, and a master race that will continue to advance to ever greater heights of genetic purity and evolutionary brilliance, since its reproduction will be done strictly according to the highest eugenic principles in the strictly controlled conditions of the reproduction works, leaving nothing whatsoever to the vagaries of chance.

“SS scientists, I salute you for your great triumph of eugenic research! High Commander Remler, I salute you for the spirit of total self-sacrificing fanaticism that you have instilled in each and every magnificent specimen in the ranks of the SS! People of Heldon, I salute you for your selfless dedication to the cause of the Swastika and to my own person! Hail Heldoni Hail the Swastika! Hail the Master Race!”

“HAIL JAGGAR!” the SS scientists roared, slamming the heels of their high black leather boots together, and shooting out their arms in a bone-snapping Party salute.

Then these gallant blond heroes executed smart about-faces, and set to work on the first rank of porcelain cloning vats. The nutrient fluids were drained out of the gleaming white vats through flush holes. The strapping blond clones were then jolted to final wakefulness with galvanic shocks.

A few minutes later, there were twenty blue-eyed blond giants standing before their vats, their expressions bright with superhuman intelligence, but blank as virgin parchment.

Viewing these magnificent specimens made Feric’s heart soar. Each of them shared his own great stature and perfection of physiognomy and physique, and the brilliance that shone in their eyes was unmistakable. Behind them were another one hundred and eighty specimens of no smaller perfection waiting to be decanted, thousands more in this reproduction works alone, millions in the next year, tens of millions soon after that. Within his own lifetime, he would see every last inch of habitable space on earth secured and and occupied by the Master Race of Heldon, the magnificent SS clones. And after that—

The idea that came upon Feric overwhelmed him with its grandeur.

Before him, each tall blond SS scientist in black leather stood beside a naked giant with a genotype to match his own. These beaming SS heroes then delivered a silent massed Party salute.

To Feric’s amazement and unabashed delight, fully half of the newly awakened SS clones mimicked the patriotic gesture of their tutors with a touchingly childish enthusiasm. Perhaps it was possible that loyalty to the Swastika could be impressed in the very genes!

“Today the world is finally and truly ours, my Commander!” Remler exclaimed buoyantly, his features shining with patriotic ecstasy.

“Indeed, Remler,” Feric said. “And that is only the beginning. Tomorrow we shall conquer the stars!”

Never had so great a throng been assembled at one place at one time in the history of the world. The great soaring spaceship, a pointed cylinder of gleaming silvery metal two hundred feet high, stood on its fins on the broad plain of northeastern Heldon. A small platform had been erected at a safe distance from the rocket’s mighty exhaust. Upon this platform stood Feric, and around it a ring of tall, blond SS clones in shiny black leather as perfect as themselves.

Two hundred thousand identical blond SS clone giants in black uniforms and red Swastika capes surrounded the central pillar of the rocket ship in rank after perfect rank, ready to begin the ceremonial circular march. Beyond this formation were perhaps a million more SS clones in trim black leathers stretching beyond the horizon in all directions, and beyond them, out of Feric’s sight, were uncounted hundreds of thousands of the older generation of Helder gathered to watch the blast-off from afar.

Standing before the cluster of microphones on the platform, Feric was filled with an excitement unparalleled in his entire experience. Every atom of his body tingled with ecstatic anticipation as he began to speak.

“Today, having conquered the earth, and populated it with a Master Race of superhuman specimens whose perfection transcends that of any creature ever created by the brute process of natural evolution, Heldon now takes its first step to the stars!”

At this, an incredible spontaneous roar issued from the vast throng, a sound that challenged the heavens and seemed to make the very earth tremble with joy on its axis. This became the greatest massed chanting of “Hail Jaggar!” that the world had ever seen, and millions of arms pumped frantically in repeated Party salutes, a forest of waving homage that filled Feric’s field of vision and overwhelmed his soul with happiness. Feric let this demonstration go on for a full two minutes before he raised his hand for silence, for none could deny that this magnificent folk had more than earned the right to this jubilation.

“Inside this spaceship—the most advanced achievement of Helder scientific genius—are three hundred of the finest SS clones, frozen in suspended animation. In this ageless state they will remain for the long years it will take this ship to traverse the immense distance to Tau Ceti. Once the ship has reached its destination, the automatic machinery will land it, and thaw out the colonists so that they may emerge and spread the seed of Heldon over the face of yet another planet. Within three years, we will be launching fifty such ships a year, adding fifty planets a year to the domain of the true human genotype, not for a year, or a decade, or a century, but forever! The universe is infinite and the Master Race of Heldon will spread itself throughout the stars without end, filling the vast infinities between the galaxies with our own noble kind!”

This time the demonstration of fanatic ecstasy surpassed even what had gone before, and it took Feric a full five minutes to still the massive chanting of “Hail Jaggar!” that all but threatened to topple the great rocket from its launching pad with its incredible force.