Olympian Complex

“Tell me again about the night I was born”

The eggs were penetrated, not by dedicated sperm cells, but by impartial needles attached to a robotic arm; the needle carefully removed the nucleus with its half-finished, mortal data and instead impregnated the little capsule with perfect, fully-formed DNA. The needle then withdrew, the arm turning its attentions to the next in the factory-line of eggs harvested from the same donor. Nearby, in a seperate dish, another group of eggs were fertilized with the exact same DNA – exact, save for the single chromosomal shift needed to produce a viable population. A new world awaited the eggs, a new species yearning to be born.

The eggs were tucked in and left to sleep in their chambers, implating themselves in the artificial linings to be nurtured and loved until the day the real work began. Each began to divide, carefully monitored from time to time by the tender, gentle arm of the governing console; their epigenetic layers were herded gently, allowing them to differ from their genetic parent only in the ways the console found beneficial. The console carefully monitored each one, selecting the strongest eggs and transferring them to invididual wombs units, to grow to maturity, much as carrots in a patch would be thinned to ensure the healthiest survived.

The console watched over the embryos as the matured into fetuses, and carefully monitored the fetuses until they were viable enough to be removed from the developing chambers, their umbilical cords carefully clamped, the infants removed from the watchful eye of the console to be placed in carefully structured enviornments to be fed a carefully calculated diet.

But the console was not all powerful. The console, much as a loving parent, could only provide the best it knew how; and, much like loving parents, the console made mistakes.

Five infants survived to maturity; each an individual despite sharing pre-natal enviorments, despite sharing the same DNA (save for the two with one altered chromosome). Five infants survived long enough to be named. Five infants survived long enough to ask about their heritage, to wonder about their parentage.

Yet only one did.

Once more, the circuits fired like neurons, dredging up an old memory to impart to its child, who never grew tired of the same questions. Once more, never tiring of the duty, the Artificial DNA Observation and Nurture of Intellect and Sentience console began its recitation: “Egg 573 was implanted at 22:03:25….”

Subject 005 notes: She is ready. Commence phase 2.