I haven't read Greg Cox's books, but I did steal two of his characters and secret-history'd his secret history.

I also verbed a genre.

Three.

From the notes of Commander Spock

Re: Noonien Singh Recording, Session 2

Shortly after Noonien Singh's tenth year, a pair of scientists arrived at the compound; he remembers their names as Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln. The neural imaging shows a suspicion bordering on hostility toward them both, though he hid those emotions well and associated with them both daily. Mr. Seven showed a great interest in the emotional development of all of the children, though he only expressed that interest when other scientists were not present. Ms. Lincoln spent a great deal of time teaching the children about the social customs of various cultures, as well as sociopolitical history.

Young Noonien wanted to trust Ms. Lincoln and stories of the outside world fascinated him. In spite of his status as a failed experiment, he understood and thrived in education beyond any of his brothers and sisters. In his eleventh year, the children began having lessons in the sciences and warfare from Mr. Seven. Noonien still sought time with Ms. Lincoln, which seemed to arouse the jealousy of Mr. Seven.

Noonien has very clear memories of the confrontation with Mr. Seven. After a lesson, upon request, he followed Mr. Seven to the scientist's own quarters, where Mr. Seven expressed the wish that Noonien would study genetics and improve humanity without use of political or military power. Noonien did not reject the idea, but inquired why Mr. Seven came to the compound, if he did not approve of the project's goals. Mr. Seven replied that he was interested in the nuclear reactor that ran the compound and an invention he believed could transport matter from one location to another, but needed an energy source as unlimited as the reactor.

Noonien, suspicious as a man but curious as a child, asked to see this matter transporter in action. Mr. Seven promised to show it to him later, but only if he did as he was told and... removed his clothing. Mr. Seven explained that he wished to know what a young god looked like.

Noonien refused at first. Dr. Seven argued, seeming more agitated over time. He tried to justify his request, then to use guilt to coerce, then threats. Finally, he attempted to physically force cooperation. Noonien, unsure of how to react to such behaviour from an authority figure, avoided the man but did not strike him. Dr. Seven became visibly angry and showed Noonien a device which he described as a remote. It would remove the graphite rods from the reactor core, causing a nuclear meltdown and destroying the compound, along with all of its inhabitants.

Any thorough reader will surely find that Doctor McCoy's notes end abruptly at approximately three hours into the session two recording. He left the room at this time. It falls to me to speculate on the emotional context of the following events, though I am not as skilled in such a thing as the doctor.

Noonien, feeling that he had no choice, obeyed. Mr. Seven then touched him and himself inappropriately, until Noonien's emotional reaction became a physical one- he vomited on his assailant. In the moment of surprise, Noonien took the device from Mr. Seven, disassembled it, then physically assaulted Mr. Seven until the man lost consciousness.

At this moment, it seems appropriate to note the incredible violence with which he exacted his revenge. In the recordings so far, even as he defended his adopted village from potential enemies, he did not intentionally cause pain. His enemies were killed in the quickest and most efficient ways possible. Mr. Seven did not have that blessing; he was beaten savagely, but without any intent to kill. He survived the encounter. Noonien carried him to the medical wing after.

Roberta Lincoln encountered the two in the corridor and seemed to know what had happened. She collected the children together, took them to the medical wing, and with Seven's matter transporter, moved them all out of the compound and several miles away. From their destination, it was possible to view the explosion which followed, as the incomplete matter transporter drew too much from the electrical system of the compound and overloaded the nuclear reactor. From my limited knowledge of 20th century nuclear reactors, I can only speculate that the explosion may have been caused by a pressure breach and control failure.

Once the children saw what had been done to their home, they wanted to kill both Mr. Seven and Ms. Lincoln. By force of personality, Noonien convinced them that the damage was done, and both of them would suffer more from being left in the desolate climate and unfriendly culture of Northern India. The children followed Noonien away, leaving Ms. Lincoln and the physically incapacitated Mr. Seven to die.

The doctor returned to the room long after the recording session was over and the prisoner returned to his cell. He paced for awhile in front of the glass, still upset. "That man was an abomination," he said at last. "What he did was unforgivable."

Noonien looked up from his meditative pose. "So am I, and what I've done is also unforgivable. We were all imperfect. Savage."

"We scan people's genes before they're even born, isolate genetic combinations that make people susceptible to that kind of mental illness, and prepare them. We can treat that kind of sickness before it... before they..." He punched the glass, which made a low, resonant thump.

"You're actually upset about this."

"You aren't?"

He raised an eyebrow. "It was centuries ago. That man is long dead. And as you say, it was the symptom of an undiagnosed mental illness."

"I'm sorry. I just... I'm sorry." He struggled internally with what he had witnessed. "It's impossible to understand that kind of act. That's what makes it unforgivable, I guess."

Noonien's gaze softened, he stood and approached the glass, without hostility. "It did upset me for a long time. He was supposed to be someone we could trust, but he betrayed us. Many do, particularly when they discover what we all are. But Gary Seven was predisposed to his weakness by forces he could not control, exposed to temptations which were genetically designed for charisma and physical superiority. He was doomed in spite of his good intentions. I knew it when he first arrived and I believe Ms. Lincoln knew it, too."

"You blame that on the way you were created? That you couldn't have friends, because you had to expect everyone to betray you?" McCoy shook his head. "Sounds bleak. What about the Sikhs?"

He smiled sadly. "After I helped them achieve their political necessity, they were hunted and beaten in their homes and in the streets. I could only protect my village when I wasn't in the compound, and if I spent too much time out of the compound, the project directors would have sent men with guns to find me, and would have shot every one of my adopted family. I was away too often and too long. They had to move to safety. They moved to England and I tried to follow them, but they were not much safer there after our home was destroyed. They... forgot me." He tilted his chin up a modicum and narrowed his eyes critically. "You said 'couldn't,' and 'had.'"

The doctor had difficulty smiling past the weighty gloom of the day's revelations, but he managed. "It has been puzzling the medical and scientific community since the late 2000s, that certain genetic alleles documented in the 1990s with the mapping of the human genome, have mostly died out. These alleles being the kind of thing that encourages reproductive success- aggression, impediments to compassion, negative neural feedback during the learning process. I think you did pursue the genetic sciences, and I think you did something." His face darkened. "Of course, that would make us all genetically modified. Which is in violation of Starfleet regulation. In fact, I think it was us who proposed that legislation, because of the Eugenics Wars."

"The irony hasn't escaped me. It also occurred to me while reading the histories of the time I spent asleep, that no alien race would ever have given humanity any technology if you had remained the way you naturally were. Humanity in the 21st century could not have joined Starfleet. Which makes the irony even more wonderful." He paused. "I am not proud of it, however. It may have taken humanity longer to develop to where you are now, but you would have learned more in that time. Perhaps, if it hadn't been forced upon you, you might have learned that a species ought to control its own biological destiny. Without that, you are just animals."

McCoy's frown became less sympathetic and more horrified. "How?"

"A virus. An ordinary, simple retrovirus loaded with a few lines of code and the necessary chemicals to splice them in. The same way humanity made bacteria produce insulin for them. I put it in the drinking water of London, Hong Kong, and Rio de Janeiro, and it affected gamete production in the host so that the next generation was better. It spread from host to host by fluid contact, so it was a mathematical matter of time before all of humanity was exposed. Back then, antiviral therapies were only used for people with ebola and the human immunodeficiency virus, so it was unlikely to be stopped before doing its work." He didn't smile or gloat. In fact, he looked a bit sad. "But recent events prove that I did not succeed as well as I had hoped."

"Climate change caused viral epidemics in the early 2100s, so antiviral therapies became mandatory for every human. Your virus only had three generations to work."

Noonien winced. "Bad luck. But worth the try. You seem so much more stable, now; so much more willing to learn and explore and experiment. And you've stopped warring with each other. Now you just war with others. I suppose even that is an improvement."

"I don't get you," McCoy scowled at him. "You talk down to us, about us, but you try to make us better in your own sick way."

"You were expecting genocide, perhaps?" He chuckled. "I don't want you to fail. I don't want anyone to fail. I want everyone to evolve. What I am is an abomination, but I am also a goal. Humanity can be better. Humanity can be like us, but without our flaws, without our brutality. You just have to make a concerted effort."

The doctor shook his head. "We did make a concerted effort to make people better, and it ended in war. Your wars. You were there to see it."

"Your histories are wrong," Noonien insisted. "We were made because of the war. The war was in the making long before we were. The Eugenics Wars were over resources and religious superstition. Genetic manipulation and selective breeding were only weapons, not reasons. And you banned it like you banned lead bullets, white phosphorous, and land mines, when you should have been banning the atom bomb, the drone, and the remote laser. There are vast differences between tools, methods, and ideas."

"You should write a book," McCoy told him, baiting.

"You'll put me back to sleep before I could do any good, for fear of me doing any harm. As well you should. After all," he paced back to his bench, turning his back to the doctor and ending the conversation, "Even my ideas are dangerous." But he paused, and repeated, "'Couldn't. And 'had'?"

This time, McCoy turned his back and walked away, feeling very mysterious and cryptic indeed.