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Dramatis Personae

Athena

Hector and Lucy were engaged in some kind of passive aggressive contest to see who was the better secretary and it was getting on her nerves. Daddy and Professor Dart had spent the first ten minutes shadowboxing. It was already a given that Dart knew what he’d been up to at Essene University, digging into genetics to a degree the Pact wouldn’t approve of, but the two men still took the time to rehash it in person. “I’m not sure what I would be doing funding this Shrike fellow at Effratha,” daddy was saying. “Donations are something businesses do for good press. I’d expect you to know that, Professor. Write a check to a University, write a check to a civil service organization, make your own path smoother.”

“The name was Schuyler, Mr. Hutchinson,” Dart replied. His secretary pulled a sheet of flexi from a clutch purse and passed it to Hector, who glanced at it before setting it aside. “And you can see that we have an itemized list of how your donation to Essene University was disbursed. Most of it went to him.”

“An interesting thing to have, Professor. How did you come by it? I didn’t think Essene and Isaacs had any kind of academic fellowship outside of the basic rules set forth in the Pact.”

Dart’s insincere smile was amplified by his strange mustache. “All Universities understand the importance of transparency in assuring the public of our trustworthiness in educating their future leaders.”

“Odd that you’d need so much from someone like me, who never spent a day on campus until you folks came looking for money.” Daddy gave a half nod to Hector, who offered Lucy a different sheet of flexi. At the rate they were going Athena suspected they’d have passed each other the entire contents of their briefcase and purse, respectively, before the hour was over. “You have to understand that Wireburn is not Effratha. The kinds of investments I’d be interested in making here are very different from the ones there so some considerations will need to be made. We prepared a list.”

The Professor’s secretary actually took a moment to look over the flexi as if the whole conversation wasn’t heading to a foregone conclusion. It was a small deviation from the script but enough of one to give Hector the advantage in the secretariat competition. Athena knew she should count that as a win but giving Hector any kind of acknowledgment grated on her.

“Mr. Hutchinson. Let’s be frank with each other. This is a University Campus and this lounge,” Dart said, waving his hand at the small, empty room they sat in, “is quite secure. Your investments with Dr. Schuyler were not filtered through the administration. They were direct. You were trying to pursue a specific line of research into specific types of genetic engineering because you were interested in specific historical time periods. I’m curious about why.”

That was Athena’s cue to step in. “The Helena Hutchinson Foundation is dedicated to preserving and uplifting human culture in all its forms, past present and future. My mother was an anthropologist by education, Professor Dart. Her collection of art and culture of pre-Pact provenance was the largest in the dexter arm, once. When she… passed, I decided to continue her work on a larger scale.”

“Miss Hutchinson.” Dart’s gaze slid over to her, an uncomfortably sharp light glinting in his eyes. “For how long has the Foundation considered genetic engineering art or culture? It’s true that the human genome was once considered a thing to sculpt and optimize but the predictability of such ‘ideal’ genes proved a liability in its own right. There’s little art to it and to call it a piece of culture is dubious at best.”

“All technology is an extension of culture.” She worked her way forward in her chair a bit, warming to her work, but daddy cut her off before she could really get going.

“It’s alright, Athena.” He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back, studying Dart with an appraising look. “We’re being honest here. Not uncommon for these negotiations, which is why I never brought you in to them before, but it does save a lot of time. So as you asked I’ll be upfront, Professor Dart. This isn’t the first time a Dean or Professor has wanted to ask me questions about my ultimate goal in pursuing genetics in a way they hope won’t scare me and my money away. Let me answer the questions you’re afraid to ask directly. I do not now nor have I ever wanted to clone Helena back to life. I have had the science explained to me. I am aware of the fact that, even if my late wife were cloned successfully, there is no way to create the environmental and educational circumstances that caused her genome to express in the way it did. The result would be a totally different person in appearance and ability. I am aware that even if it were possible to duplicate her physically the clone would not have her memories or personality. This is not an attempt to convince you cloning is not my end goal by speaking about it so bluntly. Satisfied?”

Her father’s rapid fire delivery kept Athena from following his statements for a moment. His words seemed to ring hollow in her ears. She hadn’t even considered that daddy’s off the books research had anything to do with cloning. It was all focused in genetics. Which might make some sense if he was trying to clone a beast of burden with added genes for size or stamina. But this wasn’t a mere farm animal they were talking about. It was her mother.

Daddy took her hand and she realized her heart was racing and she was panting like she’d just run a mile uphill. Professor Dart refused to make eye contact with her. “Forgive me,” the academic said, making a note on his own tablet for the first time in their meeting. “With how deeply you are involved in all the other aspects of the business I had assumed you were aware of what your father’s research entailed as well. I could have handled that more gracefully.”

Her gaze swung from him to her father. “Cloning people, daddy?”

“It’s one potential application for a full genome sequencing, yes,” he admitted. He ran a hand over his mouth as if trying to wipe away something foul tasting and leaving his handsome face somehow more haggard than it was seconds ago. “Not the one I’m interested in but I understand why everyone asks about it.”

“There are a lot of wealthy people who would pay a great deal of money to clone back someone they’d lost, Mr. Hutchinson,” Dart said. “People with your level of wealth, especially the uneducated, are rarely discerning about their methods.”

“Everyone asks you about this?” Athena demanded.

“Not everyone,” daddy admitted. “But if they didn’t I wouldn’t work with them. If someone isn’t honest enough to ask me about cloning it doesn’t speak well of their character. Believe it or not I generally agree with the reasons behind the prohibition on gene editing and I feel better if people at least pay lip service to them before we agree smash them to splinters.”

“Yet you still ask us to do just that,” Dart said.

“And here you are, listening to me.”

For a moment the two men just stared at each other then Dart gave a chagrined laugh. “Fine. We are interested in working with you, Mr. Hutchinson, but as you say, breaking these kinds of taboos is not something to embark on lightly. You’ll forgive us if we study our prospective partners with a great deal of caution.”

“I understand completely.”

Athena found that she did not. Well, that was not entirely true, skirting the law for a time was a part of running any worthwhile business after all. Being cautious in how you did so was naturally a part of that. What she didn’t understand was how casually daddy could sit there and discuss cloning her mother – his wife! – with such a callous attitude. If just thinking about the matter and deciding against it turned her father into such a strange creature what might the other things the wanted to know do to them?

The thought of it worried her. Worried her a lot. She leaned over until she practically butted heads with daddy and whispered, “Is this really necessary? Why do you want this so badly, anyway?”

The barest hint of a sigh whispered out of Agamemnon Hutchinson’s nose. “Now is not the time,” he said in the same tone. “If I could have kept this from you until I had a clear understanding of what could or could not happen I would have. As it is, I won’t explain myself in front of this man.”

That, at least, was something she did understand. “Fine.”

Dart watched their sidebar but didn’t comment on it directly, instead fidgeting with his tablet until they were done. Once they were he picked up the conversation as if nothing had happened. “Mr. Hutchinson, given how thoroughly you understand the nuances of the technology and its applications I think we can dispense with many of the formalities. You don’t sound like you need a tour of our facilities to understand what’s really possible, for example. Having our best historical and forensic geneticists explain their credentials to you probably won’t mean anything to you, either.”

“Yet I’ve heard such things before often enough not to be overawed by them,” daddy added.

The professor nodded amiably. “I’d expect no less. In which case I suppose we should move on to the more practical side of our negotiations. I’d like to offer you a list of the projects we are currently pursuing that intersect with your interests, in case you’d like to pick one of them as a starting place. Let me just say right away, we aren’t interested in the Agartan gene therapy right now. It’s messy and has few practical benefits.”

“I’m primarily interested in genetic work done in the colony ship era,” daddy said. “It doesn’t have to be that specific technique. That was the project I shared with Essene because of Schuyler’s research rather than any particular enthusiasm I had for it. Let me see what you’re working on right now and we can work something out.”

“Of course.” Dart punched a few commands into his tablet then glanced up at them. “I don’t have the files on hand so I’ll have to break the secure network this room is currently operating on. Any infotech you and your people brought with you will be visible to the campus. I trust that’s acceptable to you?”

Daddy shot Athena a questioning look. She could guess why. There wasn’t any reason for Dart not to have that information on hand already so this felt an awful lot like some kind of gambit. The problem was she wasn’t sure what kind. Neither of them had brought anything containing sensitive data to this meeting precisely because they were putting themselves directly into the University’s hands. Dart couldn’t be so naive as to not realize that. Was he trying to make it look like he trusted them more than he actually did? She wasn’t sure.

Ultimately, given what they knew, there was only one way to find out if there was some kind of secret to his question and that was to answer it. So she said, “As you like it, Professor.”

He nodded and keyed in a final command, saying, “I think you’ll find our work in suspended animation technology interesting, Mr. Hutchinson. Lots of applications outside conventional interstellar travel.” His tablet lit up with some kind of flashing notice and he fell silent, reading something for several seconds before straightening and pushing the tablet in his secretary’s direction. “Forgive me. A highly unusual situation has just come up.”

“Highly unusual?” Daddy asked.

“Yes. You might call it a black swan event.”

“Tarn!” Lucy got up from the table as she called out towards the door to the lounge. “It’s time to work.”

Daddy leaned back in his chair, looking interested for the first time in the entire meeting. “You know, I can’t assess much about your research labs, Professor. However, a transport firm spends a lot of time making sure of the safety and security of its premises. It might be worth our while to look into how well you handle that side of things.”

“I assure you, our campus is quite secure,” Dart replied.

Athena looked up at the huge man who had entered when Lucy called for him, a man with the presence and confidence of a born predator, and asked, “Are you sure about that?”

“Of course.”

Lucy took Tarn by his elbow and the two slipped away in to the sidereal. For a long moment daddy watched the space where they’d been and Athena waited for him to send her after them. Dart studied them, apparently unsure what they were waiting on. Then daddy said, “Hector.”

He slipped away after Lucy without even bothering to get up. Athena stared at the seat where he’d been, slack jawed, then stammered, “Daddy, you can’t trust this to -”

“Athena, I made my decision.” He gave her a stern look. “Please don’t question me about it.”

Stung, she blinked twice, her mind whirling. This wasn’t what she’d expected at all but it was immediately clear to her that daddy wasn’t going to change his mind. He hadn’t gotten where he was by being indecisive. She’d just have to be more decisive. So before he could say anything else she popped up out of her chair, pivoted to the sidereal and extended her etheric senses after Hector.