Science and Sarcasm

Zander laughed.

He didn't laugh because Angela's claim was amusing, or absurd, or even because it was surprising, despite it being all of those things. The real reason he laughed was that it prevented him from having to come up with any other reaction. Exactly how was one supposed to react to the news that their father was a completely different species? That meant that Zander's mother… Oh, God. He stopped laughing. If he ever got back to his own world, his mother had better have a good explanation. Speaking of good explanations…

He looked back at Angela.

She didn't need asking before she took a breath and began. "First, Zander, you need to know a few basic things about genetics. Bear in mind this is very generalised and simplified so most people can understand it. Each person has two sets of genes; one from their mother and one from their father. Each gene in each set pairs up with the corresponding gene from the other. With me so far?"

Zander gave a slow, silent nod.

"Good. Now, each gene can be either dominant or recessive. If a dominant gene pairs up with a recessive gene, the dominant gene is the one that ends up having an actual impact on the physical appearance of the individual. So, simply put, if blonde fur was dominant and black was recessive, then you would end up with blonde fur. However, the black would remain dormant in your genetic structure, potentially being passed on to the next generation. Understood?"

Zander again nodded, but added; "So if you got two recessive genes together, they would show up?"

"Exactly, only both would have an impact instead of just one. Say you had genes for black and red fur. You'd probably end up having a mix of both, possibly in patches or mixing to result in dark red fur, but that's irrelevant to you".

An idea started to form in Zander's head, but he let Angela continue anyway.

"As it turns out, Zander, nearly all of the genes you inherited from your mother were dominant. The ones that weren't were just from junk sections of your genetic code, which most every species has to some extent. Whether human genes are naturally dominant over lombax genes, or all of what you inherited from your father was recessive, it resulted in you looking and by all rights being physically human".

Zander lowered his head in thought. It was a long shot, but if a genetic engineer thought it was possible… He then took the logic, and followed it. "So when the nanites changed me, they were just-"

"-repairing what they saw as a damaged genetic structure, yes. It was nothing to do with Ratchet, and repairing your injuries was a completely different operation".

One by one, the pieces of the puzzle in Zander's mind fell into place. But there was one last piece missing; one that he did not previously know existed: The identity of his father. His thoughts were interrupted by a beeping from his wrist comm. He raised his arm. "What is it?"

"Zander, you might want to come back to the square. Jerec's demanding you turn yourself in again".

"What, after we just escaped him?"

"The signal's coming from orbit".

Great.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Lo and behold, from the blackness of space returns MrBlack103!

How long has it been since posting a chapter here? Six months? Eight? It feels good, regardless. I would be lying if I said that I had not been tempted to abandon this project altogether. I've had to re-read much of my own work to re-acquaint myself with this whole shebang. In the end, though, I feel that I owe it to myself (and my reviewers. Can't forget those) to finish book II at the very least.

For those who might ask, my life has taken a few more sharp turns since my last chapter, but in recent weeks I seem to have gained some sense of stability. I also have a general idea of where I'm going next, so all is good.

In regards to this chapter, I've discovered that if I re-wrote the entire Omniverse Chronicles up to this point (unlikely), I would definitely include a bit more foreshadowing. That I have to have Angela explain basic genetics for some sentences is in hindsight somewhat poor planning. I just hope that, barring a minor bit of "WTF?" from my readers, I managed to cover all the bases. Any biologists among you may want to debate the possibility of the scenario outlined above. I welcome this, and will point out that this is amateur fan-fiction based on a sci-fi video game universe which contains groovitrons, morph-o-rays and sonic eruptors.