A/N I finally have Chapter 3 up for you, and I'd like to apologize for the wait. I would have liked to get this up last Wednesday, but things came up and I ended up having 4 days that were not conducive to writing at all. So I'm sorry, and I hope it's worth it.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Nathan-P for giving me a bit of information on genetics. I try to do research, but not everything I'm writing about is a popular topic with researchers. Therefore, you can't take anything I say here as truth. Especially with genetic modification, I have to make some stuff up. As always, comments and crits are appreciated by the author. Thanks if you've already given me one.
This chapter is dedicated to Schubert's (unfinished) Symphony number 8 in B Minor, the divine intervention that gave me good writing music, and Breyer's Rocky Road ice cream. Otherwise, you might still be waiting. :D
Look at you over there, taking notes. You really care that much about what I'm saying? It won't really do you any good, you know. Even
if you're allowed to live, everything you've written here will be confiscated. You're only putting yourself more at risk. And a rebellion
would be futile, in case you're wondering. If you started an uprising, you would simply become one of those people you've always
looked down on. No need for hostility, I'm just letting you know. Telling the truth, as I promised. But I suppose you want to continue
now? Of course you do, such a silly question. Okay, then, we go on.
Did you ever learn about communism? Oh good, I was hoping you had. I'm sure you'll understand me, then, when I say our government
is almost a communist one. They control us so completely that most people have no idea we're being controlled. We are, though;
everything is regulated by the government. I'm not only talking about goods, but also all information. You figured that out, I know, but do
you know how far it goes? The words we use, the ideas we have…everything we have is only there because the government says it's
okay.
I'm not sure how they did it, to tell you the truth. Previous communist countries—before the Revolution, I mean—all failed. They were full
of poverty and civil unrest, much like many other undeveloped nations. The government was so strict that it was near impossible to
overthrow, and you couldn't even leave the country if you wanted to. Inhabitants were practically brainwashed by their governments to
love their countries. Some of them had no idea of what the outside world was like. They thought that communism was the only option.
These days, we do hear about other countries. They're all just like us, though, so there's nothing to be learned from them. I'm not sure
what our rules on immigration are today. I doubt there are any; they wouldn't matter. No one ever wants to leave, anyway. You never
consider it because the government never gives you the option. I'm sure that Ms. Janssen did that on purpose in her quest to plan our
government in a way that would ensure its stability. Though Old World communism was the furthest thing from perfect, Ms. Janssen saw
that the idea could be repaired and applied to the New World.
Communism originally took off because it really looked like it would work—on paper, the whole thing looked foolproof and failproof. The
only reason it didn't succeed was because of human inconsistencies. Like I've mentioned before, government was corrupted. Officials
were unconcerned with the well being of their countries as long as they were living in relative wealth. Communism would work, Ms.
Janssen figured, as long as the people in the government were dedicated to their countries instead of to themselves. If you could find a
way to remove that selfishness, then a communist country could flourish even if the government was filled with workers who weren't
very smart. In fact, having a world full of smart people might only increase the problems. In her head, Ms. Janssen was already planning
for this society and forgetting her previous arrangement. If a few smart people were born every generation, they could be relied on to
watch over the less clever citizens. Of course, there could still be problems, which was why human behavioral patterns would have to be
adjusted, but the idea in itself was sound. In a few years, once the plans for the New World were set, experiments could begin on how
DNA affected behavior, if at all.
Right now, planning the New World had to be top priority. Both Ms. Janssen and Mr. ter Borcht had always had an idea of what their
new societies would be like, but the two hadn't originally agreed. After their argument, it became clear that they needed concrete plans
before continuing. Of course, a general outline was simple—they already had one of those from existing communist countries. But the
matter needed to be researched more intently before the two could be certain that everything would turn out as perfectly as they
wanted it to. Though they would rather have continued with their experiments, the two were forced to sit down and draw up schematics
detailing everyone's lives.
During this time, Itex began to grow. It was done cleverly; Itex was not the known owner of many of their plants. Well, the government
knew, but they never bothered to tell everyone. The information was there if anyone had cared to look more closely. As far as Ms.
Janssen knows, no one ever did. But while Mr. ter Borcht and Ms. Janssen were working, the original team of scientists was asked to
split up and start their own operations. They were funded by Itex, but many of them took different names for their companies. Each
scientist was charged with finding their own team and setting up a plant; Itex wanted to spread out all over the world. Some scientists
went to the U.S. and Canada; some spread out through Europe and Asia; some chose to travel to Australia; and some even went to
South America and Africa. Ms. Janssen planned for Itex to spread out at the same time. With all of the new pharmaceutical research
facilities being created, she wanted to make sure that Itex still had some business.
It was all an act, of course. Itex didn't need to expand, because it effectively had the pharmaceuticals market cornered. Normally this
would be a cause for concern, but there were a couple of reasons that no one protested the matter. The first was the government, who
kept track of such things, didn't see a problem if this certain market became monopolized. Itex was advanced, and under the guise of
competition, had made prices the lowest they'd been in years. The second reason was simply that everyone fell for Ms. Janssen's trick.
Even the people hired to work at Itex plants had no idea what they were doing. It was believed that Itex was just a general
manufacturer and research facility, not an organization dedicated to saving the world. I find it ironic that these workers were in fact
funding people who would destroy everything humankind had built up. They didn't even care enough to learn about the place that
employed them! Of course, at this point Itex itself wasn't doing much experimenting. It was their profits, though, that were funding the
people who were.
When the team split up, there was more purpose behind it than simply spreading out. Each scientist was also given an assignment;
certain subjects to be researched. If everyone worked separately and then shared information, much more could be learned than if each
team had to cover every topic. Ms. Janssen was aware that if the world was going to be saved, the pace of the work would have to
increase greatly. She asked teams in the Americas to work on hybridization, researching the possibilities of superhuman characteristics
or different habits that would make her humans better than the old version. The Asian and Australian teams worked on cloning. First,
they had to perfect the art, but after that, they would be improving the clones by fixing their genes. The teams in Europe and Africa were
asked to research DNA as extensively as possible, filling the gaps in current information and helping the other teams achieve their
objectives. Knowledge was power, and everyone working toward the New World wanted to be king. Along with the scientists
researching genetics, there were others at work with Ms. Janssen and Mr. ter Borcht. As smart as the two were, they knew that they
would need help planning society. While illegal experiments started to take place all over the world, Ms. Janssen and Mr. ter Borcht had
to tear themselves away from the science they loved and try to conquer sociology.
I'll finish telling you about their work later, I suppose, because I'm not sure if it fits in right now. No matter what Ms. Janssen and Mr. ter
Borcht thought up, it would need the weight of science behind it. And though the team had made some discoveries, many more would
have to be made before anything that had been planned was feasible. Ms. Janssen's entire idea was centered on the fact that humans
would not be greedy and selfish. Accomplishing that would be a battle in itself. For the first time in her life, the focus of the project was
being directed away from Ms. Janssen. Because even though she had the ideas, it was other people that did most of the work.
After the scientists went their separate ways, everything changed for them as well. It took them awhile to find people to work with, of
course; remember genetic engineering was a very controversial subject at the time. Eventually, though, new teams were created and
new compounds were built. The scientist from the original team had to learn to adjust to the new circumstances. They had grown so
used to working with each other that it was hard for them to get used to heading their own operations. The people were different, and I
remember hearing that there was more than one personality conflict. One team in Asia almost split up because they couldn't get along
at first. But the scientists eventually realized that they needed to put aside all personal grudges and work together. There was still a
world to be saved, and time would not slow down to accommodate them.
The Asian teams were, of course, working on cloning; I told you that already. Some work had been done on the subject before, but
never very much. There were still too many unknowns. And with a science like this, things didn't always turn out as they were supposed
to. That was to be expected, especially given the methods the scientists were using at the time.
The only known way to clone something at the time was, as I said, horribly behind where it should have been. To make a clone,
scientists removed the nucleus from a fertilized egg and replaced it with genetic material of the person who was being cloned. Ms.
Janssen's scientists were the first to actually attempt this; the idea had been a theory for years but had never been tested on anything.
However, it was the only method that had even been theorized about, and seemed like a logical place to start. I'm sure you can see
how this could cause problems; a method that had never been tested being used on some of the most complex animals out there. When
the cloning was attempted, it was clear from the beginning that nothing was working in the way the scientists had assumed it would.
The cells, instead of dividing themselves evenly as they were supposed to, had split up randomly. Most of the embryos that were
created didn't even make it to birth. Those that did were horribly deformed and died a few hours later. The results were discouraging,
and the cause wasn't even known.
Being scientists, the team soon figured out that some part of the egg's nucleus was vital to development of a fetus. Though they didn't
know it at the time, the nucleus contained certain proteins that directed how the cells split. When those proteins had been removed, the
cells didn't know what to do. This was the cause of the random divisions that had been made, and the cause of all the defects. The
scientists even went so far as to examine the nuclei that had been removed from the eggs, but to no avail—without knowing what they
were looking for, they had no chance of finding the problem's source.
Other Itex plants and affiliates around the world were having the same sort of problems. They were finding that technology had not
advanced far enough to support the work being done. The American teams had not yet managed to produce a viable hybrid. Indeed,
they hadn't even made an embryo that looked promising. Much like the science behind cloning, the science behind genetic modification
was not solid. Many things the teams needed to know had never been studied. The lack of information only served to slow them down
more.
The first problem was, again, the method of gene transfer. The scientists knew what genes they wanted to inject into human DNA—or at
least, they thought they knew—but they didn't know how to introduce them in a way that would produce the desired results. The only
known way of changing the genetic structure of anything was with a "gene gun." The gun lived up to its name by shooting DNA
wherever you wanted it to be. Again, the problems this might cause are apparent. First off, this method was not meant for use with
humans or indeed, animals. The gene gun was being used to experiment with food, making hybrids by shooting DNA from one plant into
a seed from another. Then there was the problem of the gun itself. DNA was simply not made to be forced together in such a violent
way. The genes, once shot into the egg, were scattered throughout instead of being linked together as they should have been. The
human DNA was often broken as well by the force of the alien DNA's introduction. Obviously, development of the embryos was seriously
retarded by this. At times, the scientists found it hard to continue with their work. The genetic material may have been willingly donated,
but everything they had tried to create had ended up destroying itself. The teams admitted to themselves that they had no idea what to
do, and turned to the DNA researchers for help.
The European and African teams were also suffering from a lack of knowledge. Their experiments were not nearly as numerous as those
of the other teams, and they weren't even sure that they were researching anything relevant to the other teams' work. DNA is incredibly
complicated, and the scientists had only been able to discover the purpose of about half of the DNA that humans had. They were sure
that the remaining fifty percent was just as important as everything they had studied before, but the role of the DNA was near
impossible to find. Though they had heard about the failures of the other teams, they had not gotten enough information to be able to
look into why the experiments had not worked. Some of the scientists had given up on altering DNA and instead tried to write their own,
but those attempts had failed as well. Everyone knew that the success of Ms. Janssen's society rested on their ability to figure out the
hidden abilities of DNA, and the pressure wasn't helping the work be done any faster. The teams were exhausted, but were almost glad
to take on the problems of someone else. They were on the brink of losing hope, but a discovery made now could restore all that they
had lost.
The causes of the problems were simple enough, but the solutions were hard to find. If cloning and hybridization were going to work,
different methods would have to be found. New ways to clone wouldn't be as hard, figured the teams, so they decided to tackle that
issue first. They surmised that if the problems were caused by removing the nucleus from the egg, the nucleus should stay put and the
genetic material of the clone should just be introduced. It wouldn't take much, they figured—just a few cells implanted into the egg at
the right time should do the job. It was similar to making hybrids in a way, but should be much easier—after all, this was only human
DNA. Satisfied with the answer, they turned to the problems of the American teams.
Hybrid creation was much harder than the creation of clones. After all, the clones were still human, whereas hybrids were purely of our
creation. The main problem with the hybrids was, again, the method of creation. A gene gun was simply not precise enough for this sort
of work. The animal DNA at least needed to be injected in a way that would allow it to remain whole. It would have been preferable to
simply weave the human and animal genes together, but there was not enough time to perfect such a complicated technique. Instead,
the scientists focused on finding a way to make sure the genes arrived in the egg attached and could then bond with human DNA.
The solution was unexpected, but actually easier than the scientists had imagined it would be. Certain viruses and bacteria were
already able to work their way in to cells in order to change them. If this ability was added onto the genetic material that the scientists
wished to inject, it could deliver the genes peacefully into the egg and then the cells. The idea was accepted gratefully by the American
teams and immediately put to test in various laboratories.
Meanwhile, the cloning teams were experiencing another set of difficulties. Though embryos now often reached birth, there were still
apparent defects in the babies. The first defect was that not all of them were exact clones. By leaving the original genetic material in the
egg, alternate genetic makeups had taken hold. Some of the embryos actually had DNA from three people. This did not seem to cause
any problems with the baby, but was undesirable to the team. The few embryos that were true clones also seemed to be much more
developed than expected. Though their appearance was that of an infant, their internal organs were those of a much older person. The
clones were both middle-aged and infantile at once, which was the cause of quite a few problems. All experiments had to be terminated,
and the cloning teams went back to the drawing board once again.
The teams working on hybrids were having slightly more luck. They were now able to insert animal DNA into human eggs without
destroying either, but their problems were far from over. As had been observed before, the implanted genes did not always trigger the
expected reactions. If embryos made it to birth, they were deformed. Since the whole human genome had been left in the egg, some
embryos had two completely different sets of genes for the same thing. In normal human beings, this is sometimes the case, too; the
dominant gene will end up expressing itself over the recessive gene in this scenario. However, if both genes are dominant, neither can
fully express itself. Humans, who all have the same basic anatomy, are not caused problems by this co-dominance. When you throw
animal DNA into the mix, though, co-dominance can be a problem.
Another problem—almost the opposite of co-dominance—was taking place in other experiments. There were cases of the animal DNA
ripping itself away from the human DNA it was paired with. Some embryos rejected the non-human DNA implanted into their cells and
killed every cell containing the alien genes. The whole batch of experiments had to be retired, and the scientists working with them
needed to explore new avenues. It seemed that, in this line of work, one problem was solved and two more would surface.
Itex was facing another standstill, this one more extreme than the last. Ms. Janssen and Mr. ter Borcht were stuck on their model
society, unable to continue unless progress was made in the laboratories. None of the researching teams were able to advance any
further because there were too many obstacles. No one wanted to stop their work, but it was becoming both futile and impossible to
continue. This time there was to be no new colleagues, and compromises could do nothing to help the situation. Ms. Janssen knew that
the only way to keep her project alive was to find out how to control science, and fast.
Sorry to cut you off there, because that wasn't where I intended to end the chapter. However, it's already long enough and it would take too many more words to give you the solution to the big problem. However, I'm hoping to have chapter 4 up very soon. So you'll get the solution then.
Right now, I'm a bit worried about the story's pacing. Is there not enough happening? I want to build a solid background for Itex, but is that not what you're here to read? Let me know.
