“He’s already tried. The simulations show the genes to be safe though, and the government certainly doesn’t want to be accused of stonewalling on this one!” She took another look around her insectary. “So, aren’t you impressed with this?” She waved her hand to take in the thousands of healthy insects.
Pala shook his head sadly. “Saira, you always get ten times more done in half the time than anyone else. I’m always impressed. But what are you doing?” He looked straight into her eyes, and did not look away.
A shade of doubt crossed her face, and she dropped her gaze. “I thought I was trying to help save the world. Why? You have a better idea?”
He smiled slightly at this. No, he shook his head. “I would just like to avoid the path where everyone with a good idea feels they can alter anyone’s genes.”
She looked startled, as if it hadn’t occurred to her that genetic alteration might proceed beyond her attempt to save the world.
Pala unzipped his cabin bag and pulled out the box containing her hard-won, ultrapure template. “This,” he spoke softly, “is yours. I would not keep it from you, and what you are doing is in the best of causes. But, if not for your own sake then for mine, think about how you might use it more fairly.”
She looked at him, her eyes wide with sorrow, and now filled with doubt. “Oh Pala,” was all she said at first, sitting down heavily on a bench. “I don’t know how else to use it. Effectively, at least. We may as well not use it at all. Wait for the uterine replicators, like everyone else.”
She was so truly miserable, Pala felt like crying himself. “Saira, no, I didn’t mean…” He was so distressed for her he sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulders to comfort her. She didn’t move away. “You’re not supposed to give up, Saira. You’re the one who does the impossible. You’re supposed to figure a way out.”
However, she just sat there, leaning into him slightly, hunched as if she were cold. “There’s no way,” she muttered. “To be effective it has to be universal. Give people a choice, and they’ll dither and procrastinate, even if it’s an idea they approve of. Like organ donation.”
“Well, so you can’t give them a choice at the front end, give them a choice at the other end,” Pala said suddenly. Saira looked up, not sure of his meaning. “Don’t engineered genes all have to be destructible, for safety reasons?”
“Yes, but normally they only lose effectiveness after ten or fifteen years. There won’t be much point having one that only works for a few weeks.”
“No, no, that’s not what I mean. Don’t you have to show the ability to turn them off, in case there’s a problem?”
“Yes. Mine get turned off by a sudden spike of galactose to the system.”
“Well, then. Provide free gala-what-ever to people who want it. You’ve reintroduced choice, but now people have to do something to activate it, so if they dither and procrastinate, it’ll help the cause!”
The limpness went out of Saira’s body and the look in her eyes was one of calculation. “It just could work. It’d be very expensive, of course. I’ll begetting royalties for agricultural applications of my genes, which would probably be enough to begin with, but soon it would have to be government money”
“I could help,” Pala broke in. “My father know s half the politicians anyway.”
“And we wouldn’t want too many people actually choosing the antidote…”
“I’ll spend my time marching around the country,” Pala said, smiling and earnest, both at once, “convincing people that the one true path is not to select genders. It’s the one thing I’m good at,” he said, taking both her hands in his, “talking about right and wrong.”
“Not just talking,” said Saira quietly.