Free Xeno Sapiens by Victor Allen Page A

People are born with
their death shrouds written into their genes. I’d like to see if I
can change that.”
    Clifton lit another cigarette. He had
actually been involved in research to discover the function of
introns; ostensibly genetic junk with no protein coding function.
It was theorized they were either part of our genetic past or
future, or simply latent instructions placed there by -for lack of
a better word- God. Who knew what these genes would do if unlocked?
Somehow, the body knew to skip over these instructions. Clifton had
succeeded in reactivating these genes and had been astounded to
discover that some of these genes were instructions for complex
hormones that seemed to activate psychic abilities. The best
thinking was that they were programmed to either switch on or off
at some time in human evolution, a process called punctuated
equilibrium. Whether these genes created very old or very new
abilities was a question still very much up in the air.
    “ Everybody against what we do,”
Clifton continued, “seems to abide by the old saw ‘do the ends
justify the means’ or, worse yet, are the ends justifiable? If I
subscribed to that kind of thinking, I would have been drummed out
of the corps long ago with my name tag clipped off my jacket and my
sleeves ripped from my lab coat.”
    “ Do you see anything as off
limits?”
    Clifton considered briefly. “Not much.
Not really. Progress is when the improbable becomes commonplace. I
guess what I’m really doing is looking for God.”
    “ Do you believe in God,” Ingrid
asked.
    “ Actually, I do. I don’t have all the
answers, you don’t have all the answers. We never will. That’s why
I have no reservations about discovering my own little piece of the
unknown. The more I find out, the more I realize I don’t
know.”
    “ You won’t take anything on
faith?”
    Alex smiled. “My faith is
weak.”
    “ Faith is the only leg on which
religion can stand,” Ingrid said. “Nobody I know has ever seen God,
except for crazy Retty in the trailer park, but she also saw
leprechauns in sunhats riding pink dragons. All we have is
unshakable faith, scriptures of dubious origin, and this immutable
ideal. ‘Daddy said God was a Baptist. That’s all I know and all I
need to know’.”
    “ You sound like you don’t put much
stock in religion.”
    “ I grew up with the usual Sunday
School lectures, showing up in my pink dress and black shoes. But
after I started my love affair with biology, I asked myself some
hard questions. When I saw the disease and illnesses and birth
defects all around me, and thought about my mother’s death, I knew
God didn’t have all the answers, either.”
    Clifton rubbed his hand across his
raspy, two am beard shadow. All their previous meetings had been
conducted with Clifton sharp as a razor and clean as a pin. He was
silent for a few seconds, then spoke in a rush as if what he had
meant to say all along was coming out.
    “ Look, you might want to think about
getting an apartment in town. Take my word, this place will get to
you after a while. I know you’ve only been here a few days, but I
thought I would suggest it before you really settle in.”
    “ I don’t want to think about that now.
If I need to get away sometime, I’ll deal with that
then.”
    “ I have a place in town,” Clifton
said. “If you do decide you want a place, I can talk to my
landlord. You surely can’t plead poverty.”
    “ I’ll stick it out here awhile longer.
I’ll be alright as long as I can stay away from that Randy Bare.
Isn’t that an awful name to be stuck with?”
    “ You don’t have to worry about Randy.
He’s scared to death of women. He might even be a member of the
brown grommet club. The fella you will have to worry about is Kim Hyung. Little Korean
guy about four foot six. He’s an absolute whiz with numbers,
though. Just tell him we’re a hot item and he’ll leave you alone.
I’m his idol. He wants to be just like