Chapter 19: SM03-Tau, Day 0, continued

Steve entered the room where he had awakened, and closed the door. Once he had done so, he addressed the ceiling.

"OK, assholes, here it is. You said you'd contact us only in an emergency. We'll I've got a nice juicy emergency right here. I've got a woman on the edge of insanity, because she was pregnant, and now she isn't. I need answers, and I need them now. If I don't get them, your entire species is going to regret ever evolving language skills." Steve knew he had no way of carrying out his exorbitant threat, but felt he needed to make his point. Much, much later, he found out how close he had come to the mark.

The emotionless voice from the video spoke. "Ask your questions. We will answer as best we can; much of what happened was under automatic control, and the controller does not have the language skills or introspection necessary for a complete explanation of its actions."

Steve shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Record this conversation; I'll need to show it to the women so that they are up to speed on our situation.

"To start with, what do I call you?" Steve continued. "I can't keep saying 'assholes'; especially if I want to get in touch with a specific one. And I'd like you to show yourselves; I want to see what I'm dealing with."

The voice replied, "I will show ourself. You may regret your request, however."

The wall lit up, and showed... something. Or somethings. The creature (creatures?) had said "I", but they'd also said "ourself". Steve stared at the image, shuddering, but it was so utterly alien that he couldn't really resolve it. "Shit. You weren't kidding. That's the strangest thing I've ever seen. Anyone else asks you to show yourself, tell him from me that he's going to regret it."

"Shall we withdraw the image?"

"No, what's done is done. I'll let you know if it gets too intense. But if any of the women try to walk in that door, kill the image before you open up. Let's go back to the first question; what do I call you?"

"Our names are not translatable into your language. You will have to supply a designation."

"OK, then I'll call you 'Zookeeper.'" Steve couldn't have said how he knew, but he got the distinct impression the creature he was looking at had flinched. He hadn't tried to be insulting, but he certainly wasn't going to withdraw it if he had. There was that little matter of six billion murders to atone for, after all.

Having gotten the introductions out of the way, he started on the big questions. "Now, we'll skip the minor question of how you managed to accidentally hit a tiny little planet with a tinier little spaceship in a big, big empty universe. What the hell was all of that about with the bodies? They looked dead. Where they? And what was that blue field all about? And the silver thing?"

There was a pause, then the voice spoke. "The bodies as recovered were in fact dead as you use the term. Sufficient organization remained that we could analyze the structure of your cells, and locate and copy the molecular mechanisms that drive your existence. We were also able to analyze and recover the memory structures in your brains, though that process had a lower success rate.

"The blue field you saw performed the memory and molecular-structure scans.

"The silver field was the scaffolding that supported your structure while we recreated new bodies from the materials of the old, supplementing with additional material as needed. The memory and structural scans were necessarily destructive in nature. What you call the Heisenberg principle applies. As a result of determining position and momentum accurately enough for replication to be possible, both values had to become indeterminate."

"Great. So we're not zombies, we're magic clones with the original memories, and our original bodies are essentially vaporized. What happened to the people that you couldn't get a good memory scan from?"

"If their genetic pattern was still coherent, it was recorded, but the remains of the original body were returned to the planet's surface."

"How many 'survivors' are we talking about? And what's with the gender ratio? It looked a lot higher on tape than in the room I was watching from."

"In round numbers, there are 11,000 survivors, in a ten-to-one female to male ratio. The original ratio was two hundred to one. The mechanism retrieving bodies for reconstruction was not initially programmed to recognize gender, and a vastly disproportionate number of males were in locations on the planet inconsistent with maintaining enough bodily integrity to be recoverable."

Steve blinked. "You're telling me you only got fifty guys off of the entire planet? And now there's a thousand? Where'd you get the extras?" He stopped dead. Then, shaken, he asked. "OK, I get it. How many of me are there?"

"There are twenty individuals with your genetic pattern and memories. Your calculations are correct; we only managed to collect fifty male personalities. However, we do have genetic patterns for an additional five hundred males, and twenty-six thousand females. We can either produce an embryo suitable for implantation in a fertile female, or grow the individual to a normal infant artificially. The former is preferred, in order to produce the proper bonding between parent and child. There are also questions as to the effects of a simulated uterine experience as opposed to the authentic one.

"We can also provide gametes created from the preserved genetic patterns, for use in creating new individuals. Exactly how this material will be used will be decided by your race; it is your legacy, after all."

"OK, that gets me to the bottom line. Do you have a copy of Anna's baby's DNA? Can you give her her baby back?"

"We have a record of the genetic pattern. We can not produce a fetus of the same age as the one that perished with her original body. If we did, it would not be possible to re-implant it in her. We can either provide a fresh embryo, or provide what is visibly a newborn baby. Again, the former case is most likely to succeed, as the grown baby would not have had a typical prenatal environment, and the effects of this are unknown to us at this time.

"Observe the replicator to the left of the doorway to the rest facility. There is a device inside; remove it."

Steve saw a small alcove set into the wall, and in it a long, narrow object that looked vaguely disquieting, like an alien sex toy. He fetched it as instructed.

"If inserted into the female's reproductive tract, this device will deliver and implant the new embryo. Insert it until it reaches the cervix. The light on the bottom will glow green when this is accomplished. Leave the device in place until the light goes out. It will take approximately 35 of your minutes for this to occur. When the light goes out, remove the device and return it to a replicator for retrieval.

"The subject should abstain from sexual activity for several days after implantation. There is only a minuscule chance that sexual congress will dislodge the embryo. The larger problem is that in order for implantation to succeed, the uterus must be ready to accept an egg, and this happens only during the subject's natural ovulation period. The subject will most likely ovulate, even if implantation was successful, so the introduction of sperm may result in a second pregnancy."

"That's actually fairly common among our species. We call it 'fraternal twins'. Is there something different about this process that makes that dangerous?"

"No; we were unaware of that aspect of your reproductive process. The information available to us is extremely limited, due to privacy constraints."

Steve hefted the object in his hand. "And this already contains Anna's baby? Nice little ethical conundrum you've given me, there. What am I going to do with it if she doesn't want it back?"

The voice had no answer.

Steve looked at the implantation device. "What's the deadline on this thing? How long to I have before it goes bad? And when will Anna be ready for her baby?"

"At least a month," came the reply. "You can insert it into a replicator for reconditioning if it becomes necessary. She is ready now, however, and will be for approximately the next three days."

"Another question. If we're grown from scratch, do the women have their hymens back? It's a small membrane that closes off the reproductive tract during childhood. It's usually broken during the first sexual activity of the female."

"Yes, the women all have hymens. The device is programmed to deal with that, if it is present. When the device encounters the barrier, the green light will blink. When the obstruction has been dealt with, it will go out, and you may continue insertion."

"All right. I need to get this train on the tracks. I'm not through with you yet, though. How do I get in touch with you again?"

"The voice-response system in your room will provide voice or visual connections upon request. Simply ask to speak to 'Zookeeper'. Goodbye."

The wall went blank, and Steve asked the room voice, "Can you provide an audio-only version of that conversation? I want to play it back for Erica and Priya."

"I can do so," came the reply. "Should I summon them?"

"No," Steve said, "I'll take care of it." He slipped the rod containing Anna's baby into a small pocket inside the sleeve of his pajama jacket, and left his room.

When he got back to the common area, he found the women gathered in a circle, discussing what they had seen, and asking the room voice for clarification. Priya was not present, so Steve assumed that she was examining Anna and Lorraine.

Erica was there, however, so Steve sat down beside her, and put his hand on her knee. When she turned to him, he said in a low tone, "I've gotten some information that I'd like you and Priya to look at before we share it with the others. Can you come with me?"

Erica nodded, and when Steve stood, she stood with him. She made her excuses to the rest of the women, and the two of them left for Anna's room. On the way, Steve asked, "Did you get any interesting information out of our hosts while I was gone?"

"Nothing but trivia," answered Erica. "Did you have better luck?"

"Well, I don't know if it was lucky or not, but I got a lot of information. A lot more than I can handle easily, to be honest. I had the room voice make a record of the conversation, and I want you and Priya to review it, before we show it to the rest of the women."