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Prologue
Utopia Planetia, Mars- half a billion years ago
Helie watched the fires burn on the horizon. She knew that their world was doomed no matter what. The nuclear weapons were corruptive, power was an unstoppable lust. She knew they would all die.
Maybe not all of them.
She was one of the seven people she'd recruited to be part of a secret genetic experiment to make it to the other planet in the system. They would have to change their DNA a little and make themselves more adaptable to the climate- it couldn't support their kind of life. Helie figured they could start their civilization again on the new planet, and then once they were able to, return to Mars and live in the beautiful red sand and the glow of the moons again. The other planet had no moon, nothing to light the nighttime when they did their work.
Helie was not the only member of the experiment. There were female twins, L'reh and Siren; a man from the other side of the planet, Natsen; her husband, Kel; Lellin, her best friend; and Justit, a villager who was against the war since before it began. She would clone them, but install a genetic memory with a timer for a half-billion years. By then, the radiation would be gone and Mars would hold them as its children once again. These genetic memories would be passed into offspring of a predetermined genetic code- making them the most likely choices for re-adapting back into Mars' environment.
“Will they look like us?” Justit looked down at the rusty orange blood that Helie had just drawn. She brushed her red hair back out of her eyes. On the new planet, I mean. Or will they change?” She glanced down at her golden, shining skin as if she was saying goodbye to it.
“Their outer colors may change. There is already a species there somewhat like us. If there is any interbreeding between the two, then we will take on some of their characteristics, and they would take on some of ours.” Helie said, looking up at Justit as she prepared the incubators for their blood samples. She watched two explosions, in succession, on the horizon. Phobos lit the night, and Deimos took on a sick bloody glow. Helie wondered if it reflected the blood of those killed so far.
“Why do we have to clone ourselves? Why not just go?” Natsen asked Helie.
“We could. But then there would be no genetic memories stored within us. Once we died, the memory of Mars would be forgotten forever.” Helie shrugged slowly. “We would never be able to go back. See, stored in these memories, is us. The very essence of what we are, what makes us Martians. What separates us from the diseases and the animals. The thing that makes us different.” She pointed to the computer, with a complex map of the genome on it. She showed them the ladder-like strands of DNA. “The memories will be awakened. When it is necessary, and not a second before.”
“Why do you have to change our genes? Inserting the memories can't mean you have to change that much.” Natsen gestured to the computer screen.
“You are very well educated, Natsen. I am changing the thermal needs and sensitivity to light as well. The days are only a half-unit longer, but the sun shines brighter, so much that it will certainly kill us. This new planet is only seven light-minutes from the sun.” Helie looked at the sun, distant in the sky. Her eyes shifted to the third planet, soon her home. It shimmered like a star, but it was solid like their own home. It was hard to believe. “Even in the coldest zones, we'll still need to change very much to adapt. The sum may not shine there, but the solar radiation will give us cancers and kill us slowly if they reach our bones and our brains. We need to change our bodies to absorb this radiation, and give ourselves some kind of natural sun protection.”
“How well will this 'natural sun protection' work?” Natsen was obviously nervous.
“Chances are, not very well. But it will work better than nothing, guaranteed. But we need to keep out of the sun as much as possible.” She responded.
“Will the one who's supposed to be me, in a half-billion years, will she still be psychic? I've found it was a useful skill to have. It's not genetic.” Justit looked concerned about her double's future.
“She will be. The genetic memories will be triggered to make the person into an exact duplicate of your abilities and personality, starting form birth.”
“Her birth or mine?”
“Both. In a technical sense, you'll be reincarnated, but with the same soul. Just in a different body.”
Justit nodded, satisfied.
Helie set the incubators to grow at an accelerated rate. By the time the ship they were on reached the third planet, in a few months, they would be fully grown. She watched the explosions and wondered if it was the end, forever.
 Beautiful Propaganda · Sun Jun 28, 2009 @ 10:24pm · 0 Comments |
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