Darrell Bain Page 16

  "Why so much useless ... no, I take it back. Hardly anything is totally useless. I do hope you concentrated on scientific data first, though."

  "Of course, but after that, what we were wanted was a good representative sample of human knowledge, just in case."

  "In case we get stranded somewhere?"

  "Exactly. Want another drink?"

  "You bet. After that revelation, I need another."

  He tried sliding his chair back, and I got to snicker at him this time when it stayed immobile. He slid out sideways and went to fetch more whisky for us.

  I had another question for him when he returned.

  "Gene, I'd always heard navy ships were alcohol-free. How come we aren't?"

  "We aren't navy."

  "We're not?"

  "Space Force, remember?"

  "Yeah, but it's about the same. So how come, huh?"

  "It was left up to Captain Becker. He came down on the side of sanity. It's going to be a long voyage, six months minimum but probably longer.” He sipped his drink appreciatively, then continued. “That's not to say he'll allow a bunch of drunkenness. For instance, these portions are only two thirds of what's normally a shot and you get cut off after no more than a half dozen. That's all in your FAQ, by the way.” He raised a brow.

  "Guess I better read the rest of it before I get thrown in the brig for breaking some reg or another,” I responded while trying not to look like a schoolgirl who hadn't done her homework.

  "Wouldn't hurt,” he said seriously. “We do have a brig, y’ know."

  We were chatting casually over our third drink when I admitted to myself there was more to Gene than just the able recruiter or the can-do fixer upper a lot of people went to with problems. He was knowledgeable in history and politics and sociology and psychology among other subjects. He was, in fact, a generalist, as he told me.

  "I found out soon enough in school I wasn't cut out for the subjects with decimal points and squiggly equations, so I majored in General Studies. There's too goddamn many specialists as is. Take our young friend Smackers. He's brilliant so long as you confine him to quantum mechanics and its applications, but for most other things he can't pour piss out of a boot without getting it on his head."

  A mental image of the boy spilling urine all over himself from a leaky boot make me guffaw just as a group of officers entered the lounge. They were top heavy with gold and silver leaves on the lapels of their cammy uniforms. I caught a couple of glances that held mild reproof from them and ducked my head while I stifled the laughter that was still trying to bubble up from inside me.

  "See the light colonel, the brunette with her hair in a bob?” Gene motioned toward the group when I finally got myself under control.

  "Uh-huh.” The woman he pointed out had the face and figure of a model, one of the type becoming popular that weren't thin as a rail and looked as if they were mad at the world. She wore her dark hair shoulder length and was very well built. I caught Gene admiring her from the corner of my eye as I turned away.

  "That's Major Loraine Wong. She has a doctorate in physics and another in engineering."

  "What's her duty?"

  "Chief Engineer, what else?"

  Ask a dumb question. However, she hadn't been there for Becker's introductions or the orientation so I hadn't seen her before. It was a fairly unusual combination for a woman, but certainly not unheard of. I was sure she'd manage. Our ship's captain hadn't struck me as one who would brook incompetence in his personnel.

  Major Wong emanated a confident bearing to go with the face and body of the model. She had dark silky black hair to go with her other assets. I wondered how she felt with her doctorate in physics as well as engineering but now being described as a simple engineer. She'd probably take it in stride was my guess.

  "Who's the man sitting next to her? The one who looks like he wrestles grizzly bears for a living?"

  "That's Lt. Colonel James Jones. He's the CO of the security contingent on board as well as commander of the landing force."

  Landing force? I guessed that had to do with when we touched down on a planet. Lt. Col. Jones’ broad shoulders filled out his uniform nicely. He was short but sturdy and well muscled. I'd bet his bronzed face had seen more than a little action. I hadn't met him yet, either, and found myself wondering if he were married.

  I finished the dregs of my whisky and wondered how long it would last. I was sure there'd always be alcohol from the recycling system but I seriously doubted the labeled stuff would be around after the first few weeks.

  "Another?” Gene asked.

  "I've had enough for tonight, I think. I need to do a little more review before starting with Gordon tomorrow."

  "I'll walk you back."

  We passed Juan on the way out. I nodded and smiled at him. He returned it, but didn't look all that happy seeing me with Gene. Get a move on, I thought.

  The central passageway was busy with crew going both ways. It was mostly officers, but there were a few enlisted sailors or petty officers, and the lot was spotted with civilians like me. My quarters were down a set of stairs, ladder in navy speak, and on one of the narrow side passages.

  At my hatchway I surprised myself. I leaned into Gene and gave him a nice little non-sisterly kiss and didn't really give a damn who might be watching.

  "G'night, Gene. It was nice talking to you."

  "We'll do it again,” he said confidently.

  I suspected he might be right, especially if Juan didn't make a move soon. I went to bed thinking I might decide to do it myself. On the other hand, I had a crazy dream with Gene in it. The mind works in funny ways.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I interrupted a seaman in the process of wiring a doorbell to Gordon's entrance. It seems as if in the hurry to get the ship commissioned the designers had forgotten all about how to let someone inside a compartment know you'd like to come in. It took a hard knock to get the sound through, as I'd found out. The whole ship was like that. Bigger than the first one but thrown together even more rapidly. Supplies, tools and materials were stuffed to the gunwales with plans to sort it all out once in space.

  "I'm just finishing up, ma'am. Would you like to test it?"

  "Thanks, uh, SM3 Chaglow?"

  "Right. Seaman Ernest Chaglow, Engineering.” He had dark hair and a thick mustache. “Call me Chag if you like. Most folks do."

  "Will do, Chag. I'm Mai Trung, Science Officer."

  "Um.” He glanced at his clipboard. “Yup. Ms. Trung. Chief Science Officer. I'll be getting to your hatchway sometime today. Say, is this BEM really gonna change to a human?"

  "Sure is, Chag, but you won't see much of him for a while. It takes time."

  "Yes'm.” He finished the wiring and capped the device with a magnetic cover. “There y’ go. All done. Ready to test."

  "Thanks, Chag."

  "No biggie.” He flipped me a salute of sorts and went on to the next stateroom on his list, not waiting to see if it worked. I liked that kind of confidence. I hoped all the crew shared it.

  I rang the bell. It worked.

  * * * *

  "Come on in, Mai,” Gordon said as he opened the door. He already had the coffee going for me, and the odor of the brew made from freshly ground beans brought a smile to my face.

  "Thanks. I sure hope we don't run out of coffee on this trip."

  "The navy can't operate without coffee or so a machinist's mate told me not long ago."

  "Good, because I can't either!"

  He laughed with me as he poured then handed me the cup, knowing I take my coffee the right way, without anything to dilute the fragrance and taste. Why ruin good coffee with cream or sugar?

  "Ready to get started?” I asked. I sat down in one of the chairs he'd already pulled down from its niche in the wall.

  "I've already begun the first stages of the physical changes. They're all internal so it's not obvious to you yet."

 
"Just remember, Gordon—don't get in a hurry."

  "I won't. This is just an internal organization, so to speak."

  "Good. Before we do anything else let's get our terminology straight. Okay?"

  "Fine. It is even necessary since so much of what we do in a conversion is very nearly instinctive."

  "Even to a different species?” The Crispies changed sex as naturally as a cat has kittens but it seemed to me that changing to another species should be somewhat different.

  "Yes. All of us assume the form of some of our more intelligent animals at one time or another. It lets us perceive the world from a different viewpoint."

  "All right, but explain it to me as best you can."

  I sipped at my coffee and let him talk.

  "Suppose I review what we learned from Kyle and Jeri's experience, since that's an outcome we'd like to emulate?"

  I nodded.

  "Jeri first got a gestalt of the human genome from Kyle then added to it by using her perceptive sense while analyzing other humans, and human females in particular. Kyle was under somewhat of a misapprehension when he spoke of Jeri being a blank slate, with her genome not having been influenced by environment. It's possible to create an organism in that form but it wouldn't function well, if at all. She used him as a general template and added and changed it after observing human females and other males. In other words, the human genome she created was one which functioned just as if it had been influenced by the environment and all that entails, with some genes turned on or off or functioning only in congruence with others, and so on.

  "Furthermore, once the human genome was functional, but before letting it take over the body, she modified it according to her own experiences over a lifetime. And then over a period of weeks, she modified the expression of her genes even more as she and Kyle lived and worked together, and she learned more of the world. I can't tell you in words exactly how all that works, but in essence the first part sets the gene changes in motion and then it cascades to envelop the whole body at a controlled rate. Some of it is moderated by MicroRNA where it's needed.

  "Of course that doesn't tell you how any of it works at the molecular level, but just so we know we're talking about the same thing, let's start with the human gene. One definition of a gene is a sequence of base pairs, ATGC. Adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, respectively, make up the nucleotide bases of DNA. Each gene's code combines the four chemicals in various ways to spell out three-letter words, so to speak, that specify which amino acid is needed at every step in making a protein the gene codes for. But a single ATGC sequence can code for multiple proteins and some of these can be blocked or speeded up by MicroRNA. Some sections of codes are switches that turn other sections on or off. Some have to be activated by environmental factors in order to work. Some are active only during periods of development, and others are active and inactive throughout a person's life. And interactions among and between genes affect others, along with environmental influences and hormones. There are also some other factors that you haven't discovered yet and consequently we have no words for. There are trillions upon trillions of permutations, and that's not even counting what you call the ‘nonsense’ portion of the genome.” He made quotation marks in the air to emphasize the word “nonsense,” then continued. “I can perceive how it functions but we don't have the terminology to describe most of the way I see it. I can tell you that the so-called nonsense portion of the genome isn't really nonsense, though. Parts of it code for microproteins that have specific functions, although most of them aren't germane to this discussion."

  "Whew!” I blew out a breath of air. “I'd love to have had you lecture in some of my postdoc classes. Let's leave it for now though, and get to specific actions. Have you been accessing the internet volumes from the main drives?"

  "Only skimming so far. I was waiting on you, but I did set up some categories and organization so that the data I survey won't be quite as random as it was for Jeri."

  "Good. We'll pretty well follow the same process she and Kyle did. I'm going to be with you about 16 hours a day most days and available at night if you need me. If I understand it right, you won't need to sleep at all for the first week or so."

  "Correct. When we're not talking I'll be reading. And may I remind you that I read very fast."

  "Right.” Don't I wish I could do that! “I know you've talked to various people already and gained a pretty good understanding of what a contrary species we humans are?"

  "Yes, Mai. You're very strange to a Crispy but ... the human species is much more ... dynamic, shall we say, than Cresperians."

  "If you say so."

  And so it began.

  * * * *

  The big difference between Gordon and me and Kyle and Jeri is that I was forewarned and prepared, while those two had been thrown together willy-nilly with no preparation at all. A second factor was that they were almost constantly in danger or the threat of danger and discovery the whole time. It had pretty obviously drawn them close together as the conversion proceeded, and culminated with them falling in love once Jeri became fully human.

  I certainly wasn't planning on that. Falling in love with him, I mean. Nor was I planning on introducing him to sex personally. I had no intentions at all along those lines. Not at first.

  I suppose I could write a really long book about what took place over the next four weeks and maybe I will someday, like Jeri had intended to do before being rushed into space. All she had time to do was dictate a lot of notes for those who'd follow. I'll just hit the high spots. Besides, most of what I did was talk with Gordon whenever he ran across subjects or things he didn't understand clearly or thought were crazy. Some of them were. We certainly have enough craziness in our own species to confuse us, much less an alien.

  One thing we discussed a lot was religions and all their perturbations.

  "We have mathematical proof that there is no creator,” Gordon remarked during one trying day while he was attempting to sort out how we could possibly believe and practice so much contradictory and impossible nonsense as our religions encompass. I had no real answer for him other than the one Kyle had used to good effect.

  "Gordon, there seems to be something inherent in our genome, our very nature, that impels a high percentage of humans to believe in something greater than themselves. And as senseless as it sounds, most religions personify their gods in the form of humans. I personally believe it began as a survival trait while we were just becoming self-aware. We had to have some explanation for the world about us; death, birth and aging, tornados and lightning and earthquakes, drought and abundance. Our caveman ancestors would have gone mad or not been able to survive had they not invented gods to explain the natural world. And you're well aware of how, at our level of understanding, we haven't yet been able to rid ourselves of the genes, or the genes that code for proteins that contribute to the wiring in our brains, that let us believe such stuff. It still has survival value, you see. Even today in many parts of the world if you don't follow the acceptable religious practices you won't live long, or if you do, you won't thrive because you'll be discriminated against."

  "I see. And children will be tormented if their parents don't believe like the majority. I can see that the practices aren't universal, though. You, for instance. You don't believe in a God, do you?"

  I shrugged. “I neither believe nor disbelieve. There's no proof either way so far as I can see. I most certainly don't think religions as they're practiced have anything to do with the real world. They are all fabrications and perpetuated by human inertness and the power of the majority. As has been said, the majority is always sane. I don't believe it, but there's some truth to the statement."

  "Uh ... that would indicate that you don't personally become involved in trying to dissuade your associates from their beliefs?"

  "Correct. It's damn near impossible to win a political or a religious argument. It takes the slow roiling of history to eliminate the truly contra-survival prac
tices, but we're slowly getting there. I think. It's damn frustrating sometimes, though."

  "I can see how it would be for a person of your or Kyle's nature. You believe the scientific method should guide mankind's actions."

  "Yes, although not completely. But Gordon, don't expect humans to act that way. Don't even expect scientists to be rational. And to really get personal don't expect me to be rational in all things. If you begin to believe I am, you'll be disappointed. I'm as subject to rationalization as the next person, even though I try to avoid it."

  There was a long silence while he integrated our conversation with his prior knowledge. Then he smiled with his mouth that was not yet quite human. Had I not grown used to the gradual changes toward his human form by then, it would have been nauseating. That was one big reason we kept the conversion confined to his stateroom.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  There came the day when I could look at Gordon and not see a sign of the alien form he'd once worn. He looked just as human as the next person. No, let me rephrase that. He looked like a tall, well-built and handsome human male with dark wavy hair, and skin the color of a mid-summer tan. He was also forming a personality as pleasing as his body with the help of my gentle guidance. He was soft spoken with a deep voice that resonated well and was as congenial as a boy scout on Sunday, but with a bit of occasional mild stubbornness that differed enough from his other traits to be sort of attractive. He had a wry sense of humor and was fun to talk to. And of course he was more knowledgeable than just about any other man in existence. In short, he turned into a dreamboat of a man. So why wasn't I attracted to him sexually?

  Well, I guess I was, in a way. It wasn't just a sense of duty that made me decide to introduce him to sex myself, rather than take a chance on him getting off on the wrong foot from being hurt by some woman because of his inexperience. After he became fully human we kidded around a bit and kissed some and one day I took him to bed, more in the sense of a graduation ceremony than anything else. Or possibly I was just horny.