Dr. Nora Darwin Barlow had always been considered progressive. She was, after all, one of the only female fabricators. And she had suggested the revolutionary approach that had resulted in the experimental perspicacious lorises. But in this matter she felt very conservative indeed.
"What do you think?" Dr. Fleming asked. He was a small man, with clever, searching eyes. She hadn't liked him from the start. Now she knew her intuition had been right.
"I think it's perfectly horrible," she answered. "And against several laws."
'Laws can be changed," he said with a wave of his hand. "They won't stand in the way of scientific progress."
She knew it was true. The science of fabrication kept the country running, and so had a hefty voice in Parliament. "But consider the ethical implications. You don't know what you could create. And what effect would it have on their minds?"
"That's what experiments are for – to find out." He frowned. "I suppose it's your female weakness that makes this so distasteful for you. Perhaps you never should have entered this field. It is not the place for you."
"I don't think it is," she said, and tossed her hat to the ground. "I quit. Or at least quit working with you. But I hope you listen to me and rethink this fool's errand."
Dr. Fleming watched as she stormed out of the laboratory. Good riddance. Then he pushed open a door and stepped inside. Rows of glass tubes contained unrecognizable balls of cells that would soon become human embryos. Well, almost human, anyway. He tapped one tube with a fingernail, raising a clink that to him sounded like a chime of victory. "Too late," he said, and smiled.
Note: For those of you following my other fic, And Still They Wonder Why, it's going to be a while before it's out. A last chapter – especially for a story like that – takes time to get it right. Sorry.