Sergei Lukyanenko - The Genome

An interesting world. It looked like a giant playground. A place where a dragon might suddenly fly up, or a mermaid might lift her head out of the water. Well, according to Kim, this world had been a child’s creation. And even if this child was now years older, it mattered little—those who spent a lot of time in virtuality were slow to grow up.

“Edgar!”

Alex slowly plodded toward the woods. The gel-crystal dweller should be nearby. He had to have sensed the presence of an intruder. That would mean the boy was hiding, watching closely, still not sure whether to make contact. In his small universe, he was a king and a god. He could easily toss Alex out. But the boy was not stupid. He had to understand that his microcosm depended fully on those who held the gel-crystal in their hands. A hard blow, or a few seconds in the microwave, and that would be the end.

“Edgar, I know you’re here!” Alex shouted out. “I’m not your enemy!”

He preferred to avoid saying “friend” just yet.

“Kim wanted us to talk! She says ‘hi’! Edgar!”

“I’m here.”

Alex turned around.

In his own world, Edgar could look any way he chose. He could be a giant, towering a hundred yards tall. A monster. An innocuous-looking scientist. Or a warrior.

But the boy looked as though he preferred his normal appearance—if one could use such a term to describe someone who had no real body. A youth in his teens, awkward and lanky, with a pale, untanned face and black hair, long in need of a cut. He was barefoot. He wore only a pair of pants cropped below the knee and… glasses. This antique trinket on his face looked rather weird.

“I’m Alex,” the pilot said.

“I know.”

“How?”

“You left me an entry channel yourself. Thanks.” The boy’s voice bore no trace of irony. But not much real gratitude, either. His was the tone one might use to thank an executioner for promising to take extra care to sharpen his ax.

“I’m glad you’re well informed.” Alex smiled. It hadn’t occurred to him that the crystal-dweller could download data from the sensors inside the captain’s quarters. Well, nothing could be done about that now. “So then you know that Kim managed to complete your plan.”

“Complete?” Edgar frowned and sat down on the grass, crossing his legs. “If she had managed to complete it, she’d be working somewhere on a quiet planet, no one would know about the crystal, and in a few years, I’d get a new body.”

After a minute’s hesitation, Alex sat down beside him. The damp dirt was unpleasantly cool to the touch. But this was virtual dampness—no risk of getting sick from sitting on it.

“If your story is true, then your plan will be completed just as you say,” he told the boy. “Working on a spaceship, Kim can make money way faster than on any planet.”

“And why should I believe you?” asked Edgar testily.

“Why? A difficult question. You’re a genetic construction specialist, right?”

The boy gave a vague shrug.

“Which gene is responsible for my ethical qualities?”

Edgar smiled at such a simple test.

“Not just one gene. You have a whole complex of genes activated—the Zey-Matushenski complex, also known as the Aristotle Operon. It is responsible for your heightened honesty and your need to seek out the truth. And it’s also a very strong behavioral operon that strengthens your parenting instincts. Subconsciously, you consider all the people who enter your life to be your children. You feel they all need you to care for them and to defend them, regardless of age, real abilities, or even their wishes. The genetic Kamikaze complex, or, rather, the Gostello Operon, as it is properly called, was discovered by Russian scientists. It makes you always ready to sacrifice yourself. You have several other minor alterations, but those I just listed are the main ones.”

“The crystal could have a database you might be using,” Alex noted.

“Of course. So how do you test me? If I told you something that can’t be found in widely available databases, you’d have no way of knowing if it were true or I was just making it up.”

Alex nodded.

“All right. You’ve convinced me. So you know that I am a pilot-spesh. You should also realize that pilots don’t lie.”

“As a general rule, they don’t.” The boy burst out laughing, plucked a blade of grass, squeezed it between his teeth. “But I’m a thief, after all. And you’re an honest citizen.”

“You’ve run away. You were deprived of your body. That’s not fair.”

“But I have also stolen the crystal, haven’t I? It costs more than a thousand human bodies.”

“What are you going to do with it, once you have a body?”

“Send it back to the lab on Edem. Empty. Let them kick themselves.”

“Then it’s not a theft. I have no reason to turn you in.”

The skinny boy, who had no real body, sat a long time looking down the river, watching the sun, which was setting, but never seemed to be able to roll below the horizon.

“These are just words. A lot of words. I can’t trust you. I can’t trust anyone.”

“No one at all?”

Edgar didn’t answer immediately.

“Only Kim. I’m like a brother to her… or like a child.”

Alex bit his lip.

“Don’t hold a grudge against her.”

“What is it to you?” sneered the boy.

“When you get a body, everything will be different. You know I’m incapable of love. I’ll be happy for her… for the two of you.”

The boy pierced Alex with a look that spoke volumes.

“How I’d love to turn you into a toad and… squash you!”

He looked away again, making no attempt to fulfill his threat.

Damn, damn, damn! Alex sighed. Now, on top of everything else, he also had to deal with a moody, jealous boy incarcerated in a gel-crystal.…

“Well, go ahead, do it, if it makes you feel better. You can do anything, right?”

“In my toy land, yes. But who will stay your foot, when you crush the crystal?”

Alex reached out, touched the boy’s shoulder. Edgar tensed.

“I have no intention of getting back at you. I won’t harm you. But I can’t reject Kim, either. You see, she hungers for love. I’ll try to make our encounters as… rare as possible. Though I won’t lie to you—I find them pleasurable.”

“Give her a neuro-shunt,” asked Edgar. “I haven’t seen her for a long time.”

“If she doesn’t have one, she can have mine. No problem. Don’t be angry.”

“Slaves don’t have the right to be angry.”

Alex felt rage boiling up. He wasn’t mad at Edgar, of course.

“What has been done to you, Edgar, is a heinous crime. I’ll make every effort to help you.”

“Maybe it is heinous.” The boy slowly lifted his hand, and the sun suddenly started slipping quickly below the horizon. “But it’s commonplace in the galaxy. Everyone’s creating slaves. Strong arms, sharp eyes, excellent mind, beautiful figure—what else to demand from a slave? Ah, yes! Loyalty. Well, it’s easy to increase people’s need for a leader. But I had no need of a body, so they left me none.”

“And made a huge miscalculation.”

“Yeah. Loyalty, obedience, submission—these are just biochemical reactions. I lost my body, but gained my freedom from those invisible chains.”

“Why do you choose to look this way?”

“This is exactly the way I would look. I managed to find my own genetic map, so I reconstructed my appearance.”

“But why the glasses?”

Edgar touched the thin frames. And said curtly:

“I’m very nearsighted.”

“No one wears glasses. It’s the simplest correction.”

“But I have nothing to correct, mister pilot.”