The Antarcticans (29 page)

“I saw you were up. No sleep tonight?”

Noila shook her head. “I can’t. My mind is racing.”

“You’re becoming a true Antarctican, up so early when it’s coldest.” He smiled. “Need any help in the lab?”

“Sure. My last experiment should almost be done. You can help me interpret the results; it’ll make things go a lot quicker.” They walked into the bathroom, and Noila pushed the button to open the lab.

She handed him one of the two containers then moved to the computer screen so Addie could call out the results and she could input them.

He adjusted the eyepieces of the electron microscope for his wide-set eyes and leaned down to look into the lenses. He adjusted the focus and pressed the buttons on the side to move the sample around. “Noila, I think you should look at this.” He backed away from the microscope.

“Why?”

“Just look.”

She looked through the eyepieces.

“Yes, it’s what I have been looking at for the past two weeks. I can replicate the mutation over and over and even tell each cell how to mutate. But I still don’t know what happens down there that causes it.”

“Does it matter? If it works, it works.”

“Yes, it matters, because if I do the same experiment here in the lab, it doesn’t work. Something about the supercooled environment makes the mutation occur.”

“What are you doing to the cells before you send them to the environment below the surface?”

“I program them with pulses of photon beams. Once they encounter the cold environment below, the programming takes effect. I can do the same thing here and leave them, and the DNA will never change.”

Addie smiled. “Well, that’s definitely more than we knew. Light primes the atomic structure of the cells.”

“I just need to figure out why the cold in the environment below is so different than if I just expose them to cold temperatures here. Because I’ve tried that, and it doesn’t work.”

“Maybe the temperature is only part of it. Maybe it’s the unusual state of the water.”

Noila looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“Much of the water below the glacier is in an altered state—specifically, the fourth state. It stays in liquid form below the normal freezing temperature. It has something to do with the hydrogen atoms in the water.”

She stepped back. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” Her eyes were wide, and she put her hands up to the sides of her face. All traces of her tiredness and worry disappeared.

Addie shrugged. “I thought you knew.”

“It all makes sense now,” Noila said. “The electron balance of the water in that state allows for the hydrogen bond in the DNA to jump. If I can just alter the electron balance of the cells’ atoms through another means, like a reaction, I should be able to do the same thing up here. Once the bond goes into superposition, if I can hold it there, we can have both the traits that exist now, plus the new mutated traits that will help your species tolerate the warmer climate.”

“We’ve been at this for decades, trying to find the right combination of living cells and the environment to make the pairing successful. You’ve found it in a matter of weeks. They won’t believe you.”

“I don’t believe me.” Noila shook her head. “Let’s go through the protocol. I want to make sure we document everything.”

Addie nodded. “Definitely.”

“And I want to run the experiment again when we’re done. Please don’t say anything to anyone, not till we’re sure.”

“I’m with you.”

They recorded the result then called the Ptahs. They waited for thirty minutes, but the space they always came from in the ceiling remained closed.

Noila turned to Addie. “What do you think the problem is?”

“They could be busy. With all the melting that’s happening, the tunnels are in a serious state of disrepair.”

Noila sighed. “But I can’t run the experiment again without them.”

“I know. Don’t worry. They’ll come back. They know how important what you’re doing is.”

Noila’s phone rang—it was a video transmission; the number on the screen was unfamiliar. When she answered it, Gavin appeared on the screen. It was a still image of him, but she could hear his voice.

“Honey, hi.”

Tears filled her eyes as she realized how much had happened and how much she missed them. “Are you and Joshua okay? I’ve been so worried about you both. None of my calls have gone through.”

“Yes, we’re good, although some really strange stuff has been happening. When will you be back? Lucifer continues to be impossible to pin down.” The thought of their night with Lucifer and Arkita ran through his head, followed by his night with Arkita. He remembered how Lucifer made him feel like he would always just be a thought away.

She looked at Addie. “Any idea when I’ll be able to leave?”

He shook his head.

“Who’s that?” Gavin asked.

“Addie, my coresearcher.” It flashed through Noila’s mind that Gavin would be shocked if he saw him. So much had happened and become normalized in the days she’d been here. “It could be some time. We just had a breakthrough in our research that could be substantial. Do you need me there?”

“I could use the emotional support. Dealing with Joshua’s condition has been really stressful. I feel like our whole lives have been turned upside down, and there’s no end in sight.” The connection started to crackle. “Love you…I think I’m going to—” The phone went silent, and Gavin’s image disappeared.

She turned to Addie and wiped the tears from her cheek. She looked relaxed and content, knowing that Gavin and Joshua were okay.

“Your whole face changed,” Addie said. “I didn’t realize you were so worried. I thought Amun’s words had soothed you.”

“Yeah, a little, but there’s nothing like hearing from someone yourself to know they’re okay. I feel like I can really focus on what we’re doing now.” Noila turned back to the rack and pulled out the other container. She looked at the test she had run using a different photon wavelength. She pulled up the results chart and entered “failed” for the second container. “It doesn’t really matter. We found what we were looking for.” She dumped the contents of the second container into the disposal unit.

Addie stood up. “I’m going to set up a meeting to discuss the results with the Antarctican science council. I’ll put it on the schedule a few days from now, so we’ll have a chance to run the experiment one more time. The other scientists are going to be very interested in the results. It’ll impact all their work. You have no idea how big this is.”

“Okay, but I’m a little worried the Ptahs won’t come back. Jeez, I don’t even know what everyone else is working on—I’ve been so wrapped up in this.” Her mind went into overdrive, wondering if she should have taken more time to understand the other experiments and research that was happening in Chimeruth.

…

Several nights later, Vinettea was standing backstage with an assistant. She wore a green evening gown, encrusted with large stones and sequins that covered her left shoulder and hugged her body in an
S
that flared into a circle at her feet. It reminded Noila of the green-and-pink hula hoop she used to gyrate with for hours on end in her driveway when she was a child. Since Vinettea floated above the ground, her legs didn’t need to move; they were bound tightly inside the dress, accentuating the wideness of the gown, which draped into the space between her body and the floor. Behind her was the stage curtain, which was closed. Noila, standing in the wings, heard the crowd settling in the theater. The ear of Vinettea’s assistant was cocked toward Vinettea, listening, and she waved Noila over to them.

“Noila, are you ready to present your findings?” Vinettea asked. Noila nodded. “I’ll introduce you and the work, and then I’ll let you talk. There’ll be a lot of questions, as we’re all very eager to understand what you’ve found. I’ll be with you the whole time. Don’t be afraid to defer to me.” She turned to one of the stagehands and gave the signal to open the curtains.

When the curtains parted, Noila faced a theater full of humans and Antarcticans, most of whom were dressed in formal attire. She suddenly felt self-conscious of her corduroy pants, T-shirt, and lab coat.

Vinettea floated out on stage; Noila followed her closely.

“Good evening, everyone, and thank you for coming on such short notice. Tonight Dr. Noila Pennings is going to present the findings of her research, which give us hope that we Antarcticans may adapt to our environment.” Vinettea then did something Noila didn’t expect: she opened her arms, and her voice took on a rhythmic cadence as she recited a traditional chant describing Antarctican history. Once she was finished, she resumed her usual tone of voice. “Since the Great Episode, sixty thousand years ago, when the glaciers melted, and we retreated to the southern pole of our world, we’ve had a vision of our survival, which would take us into the future. We succeeded for some time in bringing this vision to life, and what we see every day, living on the wonderful continent of Antarctica, is a testament to this.” She gestured around her at the magnificence of the theater. “Sadly we’ve made mistakes along the way as we have made this our home. One of the areas we haven’t paid enough attention to is the changing climate and how fast we’ve been confronted with the single issue that could extinguish us.” The crowd was deathly silent. “Dr. Pennings’s research gives us hope that once again we will be able to alter our own biology and survive in our changing world. Our standard protocol is in effect, meaning we’ll hold questions until the end.” Vinettea turned the stage over to Noila.

Noila stepped to the front of the stage and looked out at the serious faces.

“Thank you, Vinettea, for the kind introduction, and thank you for your warm welcome. I think all of you are aware that genetic mutation is the likely way your species will be able to survive the coming warmer temperatures. Lucifer is on a quest to reduce the environmental changes that not only are causing the Antarcticans’ predicament but also will eventually affect all of the earth’s inhabitants. Unfortunately those changes will not come quickly enough to save your species.

“It has been proposed that mating with a species similar enough to your own will allow reproduction but with enough genetic diversity to create a new species capable of surviving the warmer temperatures, which have been climbing steadily. It appears, however, that this option has been exhausted. I don’t particularly like this option, even if it were to work, because it leaves those who are alive now to die off, much like the Srechritoris did during the Great Episode. Which brings me to the advancement of the research that Dr. Eldridge Cummings worked on for years before my arrival. I believe, had he lived, he might have discovered this himself.

“The field of quantum biology is only about fifty years old and isn’t well understood. And because it isn’t well understood, scientists tend to avoid using it to solve practical problems. We revert to what we know about adaptive evolution to solve genetic problems. But sometimes there are cases where one or the other approach doesn’t work. What I mean is that either something is mutated or it isn’t; there’s a gene expressing itself or not—it’s on or it’s off. Sometimes the solution to the problem is found when a gene is in a state of superposition, meaning it occupies two states at the same time, a state in which the gene can be turned on and off at the same time and the advantages of both expressions are realized. Your species’s biology requires extremely cold temperatures because the atomic structure of your anatomy in comparison with most biological organisms on earth cannot handle the interference caused by higher temperatures. As most of you know, temperature is just a measure of how fast molecules are moving. The lower the temperature, the slower the molecules, and thus the less interference, which allows an effect called quantum tunneling to occur in your atoms. I know this sounds rather abstract, and it is, but I’m trying to explain it at a level everyone here will understand, because I think it will affect all of you.

“What I’ve found during my experiments is a way to make that superposition occur in your DNA. And I’ve confirmed through my experiments—repeated fifty times—that this superposition is stable. What I still need to figure out is how to create a delivery device to each of you en masse. Think of it as a vaccine, if you will. A vaccine against negative environmental change. Right now the superposition can only be created naturally in the very low temperatures beneath the glaciers.

“What I’ve found could be considered forcing Mother Nature’s hand, but I believe it will make her write a story that all of us will be around to read. As soon as I have any updates on this work, I will let you know. Thank you for your time.”

The crowd broke into raucous applause; some of the Antarcticans even stood up as they applauded her.

“Thank you,” Noila said again, and bowed before she left the stage. Vinettea was waiting for her behind the curtain.

“Brilliant, dear, just brilliant. And being blatantly honest with them about our predicament, well, I’m sure that just sold you over to my people. As you know, honesty is our most treasured moral quality. If you have time, Henri and I would like to meet with you for a few minutes.” She looked expectantly at Noila.

“Sure, I have time,” Noila said.

“Great. Follow the hallway from backstage, and go to room number eight. We’ll be there in a bit.”