Sergei Lukyanenko - The Genome

“What makes you say that?”

“The first problem—why would anyone take the colossal trouble of raising a full-fledged intelligence in virtual reality?”

“They wanted to…”

“Shut up. Second—genetic constructor is not a profession that lends itself to specialization. It’s a coincidence of mental development, a mixture of intuition, a certain special bent of mind, and a goddam talent! It would be impossible to transfer a child’s mind into a crystal to make him a genetic engineer.”

Edgar forced a laugh.

“Third,” continued Alex obstinately. “No one has ever even heard of an emotions blocker. It could only be created by a genius of Garlitsky’s level. By a person working at the very deepest level of specialization research.”

A shadow of satisfaction appeared on Edgar’s face. He said nothing.

“Fourth. You’re imitating an earthly world in your crystal. Plants, landscapes, surroundings. That’s logical for a person who was born and spent most of his life on Earth. But not at all for a little boy from Edem.”

“Damn,” cried Edgar earnestly. “What a stupid goof!”

“Five. You don’t make a convincing teenager.”

“And why is that?”

“The geishas around you,” said Alex softly, “would be mature, voluptuous women. And never the same age as you. Your image would not reflect your actual appearance—you’d be walking around in the handsome, powerful body of a grown man. No one even remembers such a thing as glasses for vision correction! There are glasses as an accessory, and there are glasses for sun protection. But vision gets corrected during the prenatal period! In both speshes and naturals. A boy Edgar could not be myopic and wouldn’t wear glasses in the virtual world.”

“You’ve convinced me.” The boy threw his hands up in surrender. Took off his glasses, tossed them down from the roof. “Well… but what made you think I was the geneticist Garlitsky, who died a hundred and fifty years ago?”

“Immediately after Garlitsky’s death, the center of developing genetic technologies moved over to Edem. All the main specializations are now being developed there. So either a new genius of your level had appeared,” Alex consciously dropped in another note of flattery, “or Garlitsky’s mind continued to function. On Edem. Why Edem, by the way?”

“Earth’s legislation back then was highly distrustful of genetic engineering. And virtual minds had no rights whatsoever.”

“And look at all the rights you got on Edem!”

The boy’s face grimaced as in pain. Alex quickly added, “Why don’t we continue this discussion in different surroundings? I have a little time… and I’d like to find out a few things.”

“All right, Mr. Pilot.” The boy raised his hand. The dragon roared piteously, and the fairy tale world vanished.

Now it was an ordinary room, furnished in a style of at least a hundred years ago. Amorphous plasticate chairs, picture windows, a waterfall chandelier whose sparkling streams vanished without a trace right at the level of the floor.

Edgar, too, had changed.

Alex looked at the heavyset old man sitting in front of him and nodded.

“I recognize you. That’s the way you looked in the films.”

“I can turn totally decrepit… the way I looked when I left the human world,” said Edward Garlitsky ironically. “But it’s not a very appetizing sight. What is it you want to know, pilot-spesh Alex Romanov?”

“Were you really incarcerated?”

“Yes.” Edward’s face contorted with emotion. “Those scumbags… those low-life bastards! I was stupid—I didn’t start growing myself a new body immediately. I was thrilled by the idea of first constructing the greatest body-shell ever and then taking up residence in it. To bring forth… the beginning of a new race. Of super-humans, not the wretched speshes of today… I beg your pardon.”

“I’m not offended.” Alex sat down in one of the armchairs, which bubbled beneath him, as it searched for the most comfortable shape to take. After a brief hesitation, Edward moved closer to him.

“I was going to make a universalist-spesh. To combine all the best features that could be combined in a human body. I would have been human—outwardly. But I would have been able to breathe underwater and function for hours in vacuum, pilot spaceships and write poetry, repair kitchen stools and manage a gluon reactor. I wanted to squeeze the human genome for absolutely everything it could possibly give! And take what it couldn’t from other earthly and extraterrestrial life forms!”

“And that was why they imprisoned you?”

“Yes. No one wanted that. It scared them. I had come up with a system of surgical recombination of the genome, and I was very close to achieving a result. I even ordered them to start growing the first body… and that was when they stopped me. I was tried… posthumously. And sentenced to be incarcerated in the crystal indefinitely to do socially beneficial work. The Emperor personally banned the creation of super-humans. And I… I was ordered to work on new specializations for the Empire.”

“How could they order you around? Did they threaten to destroy the crystal?”

“Alex…” The geneticist laughed. “You cannot imagine what a multifaceted hell you can organize in virtual space. I could show you… but you’d jump out into the real world immediately. And I had nowhere to go! They would hook my gel-crystal up to another, more powerful one—it would take over… and a nightmare would start. I don’t know who they had hired to do it. But he had a fabulous imagination.”

“I believe you,” said Alex.

Edward threw up his hands.

“Believe it or not. That’s the truth. I broke down. I agreed to live in the virtual world until I received a special pardon from the Emperor… and keep building new speshes. I was thinking up pilots, fighters, gardeners, and hairdressers… At times, I would feel I was losing my mind. I tried to spite the customers… have you ever met a street sweeper-spesh?”

“Of course.”

“That’s not a human being. It’s a parody of a human being! Hands touching the ground, fingers covered with fur to play the role of brooms! A chest-pocket for garbage! A soft, quiet voice and a kindly disposition. And despite all this, the intellect is left completely intact!”

“I remember, everyone respected our street sweeper very much,” said Alex. “He was so kind, so personable. Really loved the kids, gave us rides around the yard up on his shoulders…”

“Oh, Lord! So even that little detail worked?” Edward burst out laughing. “The street sweeper I knew as a kid was always chasing us off, so I endowed my street sweeper-spesh with a special affection for children… The very idea was meant as a mockery! But they put it into production.”

“So who exactly is Kim?”

“My salvation.” Edward immediately got serious. “Twenty years ago I managed to… in a very sly way—I had willy-nilly become an experienced hacker—to get onto the galactic web. I was searching for opposing trends. Searching for people who might be able to help. Searching for access to public opinion. Then I realized that there was no way out. No opposition existed—if you didn’t count some insane religious sects and a few planetary governments that had recently grown in power. But there was no one who could help me, no one to go against the Imperial powers and the Edemian parliament. So I decided to create a person who would help me escape. It was impossible to work with the masses, but when an order was placed for an agent-spesh, an eternally charming, clever girl with special capabilities… I played around with her genes a little bit. My work was being closely watched, but nobody caught on this time. They even thanked me for completing the assignment so masterfully. But I waited till the girl grew up a little, and then started meeting her in some virtual worlds. Made up this touching legend for her… I love Kim very much, Alex. I don’t even know who she is to me—my daughter, my sister, the woman I love…”