"How, daddy?" she pleaded. It was not that she could not be made to understand, but I didn't have time. The ship was leaving soon and I had to go make sure all the equipment was packed and all the gene samples were stable. But her senses were very fine tuned these days. Since the educators had solved the major issues of learning it was my daughter's generation which had benefitted the most. They rapidly reach searing performance levels so quickly, so enduringly these days. It's almost too effortless for them. Emotional maturity is still an issue of course, but they learn that too. But it's so damn fast, it is simply not possible for any parent to keep pace with their children. "Sleep darling. I'll explain everything when I get back".
That was a long, dry, airless age ago. The "cel gel" inside me takes the longest to clear. The training helps, but I'm still not used to it. I don't think anyone is. The immersion isn't long but the accelerations forces have gone way up as journey times are cut. My organs all feel fine, the pressure was spot on, with a days rest, even my liver didn't hurt this time and getting the suit on is painfree. Its annoying having to keep the ventilator on outside on this planet, but it has its advantages. The animals have no chance of personalizing us. We smell and look the same, its perfect.
Today we make history here, but nothing here will ever know it. All my training, my life has been focused towards this point. Countless trials and successes with animal breeding and now this. The evolution has been manageable for ages. We know the animal blends are past the convergent threshold for the scale and profile to support the survival of the first of the new species. I'm not volunteering for the monitoring crews and they won't need me, so I won't be back. I'm overthinking this, just do it. Clear my mind and press the button. Except now it is our genes and these animals, specially chosen as they are to closest genetically to our race. As I release it the system syncs with all the others, there's a small delay and then its done. The teams are excited, lots of chatter on air. I'm getting on the ship as soon as I can. I know there is nothing I can do in the rest of my life (well the 78.3+ years I have left) that can get close to what I helped do here to make the first humans.
That was a long, dry, airless age ago. The "cel gel" inside me takes the longest to clear. The training helps, but I'm still not used to it. I don't think anyone is. The immersion isn't long but the accelerations forces have gone way up as journey times are cut. My organs all feel fine, the pressure was spot on, with a days rest, even my liver didn't hurt this time and getting the suit on is painfree. Its annoying having to keep the ventilator on outside on this planet, but it has its advantages. The animals have no chance of personalizing us. We smell and look the same, its perfect.
Today we make history here, but nothing here will ever know it. All my training, my life has been focused towards this point. Countless trials and successes with animal breeding and now this. The evolution has been manageable for ages. We know the animal blends are past the convergent threshold for the scale and profile to support the survival of the first of the new species. I'm not volunteering for the monitoring crews and they won't need me, so I won't be back. I'm overthinking this, just do it. Clear my mind and press the button. Except now it is our genes and these animals, specially chosen as they are to closest genetically to our race. As I release it the system syncs with all the others, there's a small delay and then its done. The teams are excited, lots of chatter on air. I'm getting on the ship as soon as I can. I know there is nothing I can do in the rest of my life (well the 78.3+ years I have left) that can get close to what I helped do here to make the first humans.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting! Because of so many spam posts, to save us all from them, I've had to regrettably moderate submitted comments. Thanks for your understanding.
Kiat