Ravens of Eternity

228 The First Prophet

50 Years Ago

Commander Anatoli Drenn stood behind the lectern nervously. Despite his finely-pressed dress uniform and multiple commendations on his breast, his hands shook with uncontrollable anxiety.

Thankfully, they were hidden from view.

In front of the commander were five Federation Admirals, each one stately and judicious. And incredibly stern. Their faces were marred with a seriousness that Drenn had never seen or experienced before in his life.

They all sat behind a tall judicial bench that sat above Drenn’s lectern. It felt to him that they loomed over him, as though he was merely a curiosity for them to study and observe.

A spark of jealousy shot through him, and a small part of him desired to sit on the bench among those admirals. But he quickly waved that desire away. He knew he would get his chance to sit at the top, eventually.

“Commander Drenn,” said one of the admirals, “we’ve reviewed your request to restart the Federal Navy’s Biogenetic Engineering Program. And some of us are rather impressed with the Infodeck you put together. Some of your theories could be exactly what the program needs.”

“However,” said another admiral, “we won’t simply give you the green light, or approve the operational budget you’ve requested. We have major concerns as to your... commitment to Federation values. Previous program heads held a tendency to toe the legal line, if I may speak clearly.”

Drenn nodded sagely, then cleared his throat before he spoke. Although his words started out with a nervous warble, they smoothed out completely by the end.

.....

“I understand your concerns,” he said. “Editing human genes, from a legal standpoint, is very precarious. Unlike previous decades however, our laws have become increasingly strict as to what we can and can’t do. But I’m certain that I can accomplish what I outlined well within the limits.

“As you know, I graduated with top marks from the Federal Naval Medical Academy. More than that, I was awarded the title of Vale Primor. No-one else had been given that in twenty-five years. I believe that I have the knowledge necessary to bring the project to true fruition.”

One of the admirals leaned forward and arched an eyebrow at the confident young man. Though his bravado enthralled the bench, this admiral wasn’t all that impressed.

“Everyone who has stood in that exact spot,” he began, “has equally boasted about their own abilities. They’ve all said that they were the only ones to accomplish success. Let me be clear – your knowledge has highlighted you among your peers, but it has not guaranteed more than that.”

Drenn’s blood drained from his face as he was admonished. He suddenly wished to take back his boisterous words. Before he could retort, another admiral spoke up.

“More than that,” said the admiral. “What we need from you is far more than bluster. We need action coupled with revolutionary thought, along with a strict adherence to ethical practice. Can you do this?”

“Pardon my boldness,” said Drenn. “But those previous geneticists were fools. They sought to create permanent change within a single subject, as though that was the end of it. But as I’m sure you all are aware, life isn’t that simple. Genetic modification requires generational iteration.”

The admiral at the center of the five immediately interjected his argument.

“Commander, are you talking about reproduction between altered clones?” he demanded. “Because I’m sure you know very well that it is a highly illegal practice. And one we can never condone.”

Drenn shook his head adamantly.

“Rest assured, we’ll only be using genetic samples given only by volunteers,” he countered. “My plan is to edit their genomes, and crossbreed desired traits. We’ll use simulations to determine if it would be a success, and if that’s the case, we’ll print a synthetic body to biologically test the result.

“Think of it like how protohumans – our most ancient ancestors – did the same with crops and animals. They crossbred preferred traits and produced juicer fruit, or hardier beasts of burden. Except under my direction, we’ll make these changes with surgical precision. Best of all, my team won’t be doing anything that we humans haven’t already done for hundreds of millennia.”

There was a hushed murmur as the admirals all leaned back. They discussed amongst themselves, and peered down at Drenn occasionally. After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few minutes of debate, the admiral at the center leaned forward.

He once again spoke, but this time with a far sterner tone.

“Your proposition is approved, commander,” he said. “Do not fail the Navy.”

~

Captain Drenn, now a decade wiser, stood at a design table in his lab, and peered at the holographic string of genomic sequences in front of him.

On both his sides were multiple other Federation researchers, all of whom were mired in their own genetic work. Some spliced code, others simply recorded and cataloged what they observed.

One of his officers walked up behind Drenn, and stood at attention.

“Captain,” he said, “I’ve the initial reports from Project Alpha/Omega, ready for review.”

Drenn immediately beamed and spun around to hear the great news. But his smile immediately faded when he saw the officer’s dour face. It already told him everything he needed to know.

“I’m sorry sir,” continued the officer. “The results are better, but it was still a failure. We ran quite short of the minimum threshold.”

Drenn took the datapad from the officer’s hands, but didn’t bother to read it. He simply transferred its contents to his terminal using his DI, then handed it right back.

“I don’t get it!” he suddenly shouted out. “The sequences were perfect! The rejection chances were in the single digits! It’s statistically impossible to hit three failures in a row, not with the numbers that the simulations concluded.”

“There might be an issue with the simulation’s circuits,” offered one of his researchers, “or maybe the code we’ve written has some small flaw. We need to do another audit and figure this out.”

Drenn immediately looked offended, and glared at the researcher.

“We all wrote that code ourselves,” he said. “We know it inside and out. We did hundreds of audits. The circuits are perfect. The code is perfect. There must be something else going on here!”

Everyone around him murmured as they tried to think of an explanation for the failures. Drenn himself pored through his designs in his head, and tried to suss out where he had gone wrong.

And then it hit him.

“Of course,” he said. “It must be a biological failure. Some kind of rejection at that level. It’s the only explanation. We need to narrow the scope. Greatly. Let’s go back to our initial trial set and eschew the volunteers.”

The researchers looked at each other warily.

“Captain,” said one of them, “not to break the ice from under you, but we can’t do that. The trial set was only for demonstration purposes, not for active development. Naval policy forb-”

“Screw the ethics committee,” interrupted Drenn. “We need to at least make a test using that trial set. If that data can produce a functioning synthetic, then we prove our method is the right one.”

“No, absolutely not,” the researcher repeated.

“Hold on,” said another. “Makes sense though, we do one test. If it succeeds, we’re on the right path. If it doesn’t, then we’ve got bigger issues. And if we’re on the right path, then-”

“Then we begin picking out prime candidates out of the volunteer pool,” Drenn interrupted again. “We figure out why certain genetics are preferred, then move forward with those.”

“Then that makes it doubly no,” said yet another researcher. “Variance and randomization is written into our operational requirements. We can’t thin out the gene pool with only a few, that’s... that’s inbreeding, not crossbreeding.”

The other researchers murmured in agreement, even the one who defended Drenn’s idea.

Drenn himself felt betrayed by his researchers’ actions. He felt as though his ideas were the only way forward. He was, after all, the Federation’s foremost mind in bioengineering. The others in the room knew half as much as he did, combined!

“And besides,” added a researcher, “that trial pool is using our personal genetic data! I definitely don’t want my genes part of anything that crosses Federal law. That’s like signing my own damned malfeasance charges!”

Drenn immediately exploded and lashed out at them.

“You’re all fools!” he yelled.

They were all caught completely off-guard by his reaction. It was a side of him that they had never seen before. Sure he had been angry here and there, but he never burst out to that degree.

It was like they were looking at a different person, suddenly.

“We’re on the verge of a true genetic discovery,” he continued. “Humanity’s on the cusp of reaching all new heights, and you want to turn away from that? You’re fools! And cowards!”

The officer who presented the report had been watching their debate, and tried to keep his mouth shut. But he couldn’t any longer.

“No,” said the officer, “that’s only some of humanity reaching all new heights, not all of humanity. There’s a big difference between the two, and it isn’t just a legal one. If you keep going down this line of thought, I’ll have no choice but to report you. All due respect, sir.”

“Then make your pitiful report,” seethed Drenn. “I’m going to finally succeed where all of you fools and cowards failed.”

He then spun around, and went to his design table. There, he began to edit nucleobases by the handful, and completely ignored everyone behind him. As though they never existed in the first place.

Everyone else in the room was utterly dumbfounded at what had just happened. They realized that Drenn’s true nature had finally come out, and were incredibly disappointed with him. They knew if any of them stayed, it would have been a death sentence for them.

Then each of Drenn’s researchers resigned right then and there, and left him to his own devices.

Of course, the officer sent in his report.

~

It was another three years before Drenn found himself before the five admirals once again. Although these five had approved him long ago with eager but tense faces, now all their faces were etched with disgust and disappointment.

“You promised us real change,” said an admiral. His face had a scowl on it that could sour lemons.

“More than that,” said another, “you were supposed to be brilliant enough to bring us success. Instead you completely ignore our mandates and do the exact thing we told you not to do.”

“You would have had that success!” Drenn retorted. “I only needed a few trial specimens to prove the path was viable! And I achieved that. I created a synthetic with perfected genetics! Moving towards a perfected human was one step closer! Could you imagine a Federation filled with people like them? Could you imagine a battlefield with soldiers like them? On our side?”

“All you’ve succeeded in doing is handing us a legal monstrosity,” said another admiral. “You sold us on the idea of true crossbred superiority – a population that generationally empowers itself through standard diversity. But what we instead received is an inbred nightmare!”

“Furthermore,” said yet another, “the majority of the genetics used in your proof of concept was determined to be yours, was it not? Are you attempting to tell this panel that you are the optimal human?”

“Of course not,” said Drenn, “that was only a test – I would’ve cherry-picked-”

“You would’ve made it worse!” shouted the admiral in the center. “You would’ve used a narrow genetic pool to create super soldiers! That is most certainly against Federal law, not to mention Naval code. And you were blatant enough to admit it right here! Utterly astounding.

“Anatoli Drenn, you are hereby stripped of all rank and titles. All of your projects are immediately shut down. On top of that, this panel will be placing you under arrest while we investigate the full depth of your work.”

Drenn immediately turned red with anger at the admiralty’s decision. He shoved the lectern aside with great strength and caused it to tumble off the podium. It shattered on the floor below.

“You incompetent old devils!” he screamed. “You’re all fools and cowards, too! Just like I suspected from the start! Looks like no-one but me is actually willing to do what’s needed to move humanity forward.”

The admirals were immediately shocked by Drenn’s outburst, even though they were used to seeing similar behavior.

“Officers!” said an admiral. “Arrest this man immediately!”

Lightly armed and armored soldiers quickly ran into the hall. At the same time, the admirals were escorted out by their security team. During all of the confusion and commotion, Drenn shot forward with incredible speed and grabbed one of the soldiers by the wrist.

He turned it excessively, and broke it with a loud SNAP.

Then he grabbed the soldier’s gun in midair, fired on another soldier, and killed him.

~

A bedraggled Drenn sat on the floor of the dirty, grimy hab with his head buried in his hands. He was drenched in sweat and covered in blood, some of which had long since dried.

By his side was a heavy pistol, but it was empty. It too was covered in blood.

.....

As he lamented his position, a notification came on his DI. Although he initially blocked it, it quickly came right back.

But this time he didn’t get a choice to block, and a message link was forced on him.

–

[REDACTED]: Let’s talk.

Drenn: who are you?

[REDACTED]: What I am, is impressed with your work.

[REDACTED]: A pity the admiralty didn’t agree.

Drenn: how did you get past my security intelligence? i blocked out every network in the federation!

[REDACTED]: How naive, to think you could block yourself out of every network.

Drenn: ... what do you want?

[REDACTED]: I want you to continue your work.

[REDACTED]: I want you to explore your ideas to the fullest. I’ll even be your secret benefactor. Except I promise not to interfere.

–