Genome
“Are you certain we can control it? You have the splice correct?” Stainless steel glittered with colors beneath the lab’s display surface.
“Of course I have the splice correct,” said Zen. “I would not be chief geneticist without unimpeachable precision.” He knew Deak was not questioning, but he wanted to silence any suggestion of potential failure. There was already more opposition than he had calculated for. “The change I propose will make the humans docile and controlable. They will not pose a threat.”
“And the alterations that occur during childhood?” Deak was part of the team that investigated animals that broke their genetics and turned violent, and he had recently presented information to the council about how proteins not part of an animal’s genetic code could form and affect behavior.
Zen displayed a new diagram on the monitor. “Accelerated bio growth will allow us to bypass childhood interactions in most cases. Memory writing, if it works, will enable us to implant only the knowledge we wish the humans to have.” He didn’t notice that his pleasure subroutine had turned his entire light array orange. “We will have granular control over the human psyche, and with careful screening we will also regulate their environments.”
“Then I will prepare the genetic sample. The sooner we have an organism, the sooner we can test the memory implantation procedure.”
The laboratory door swooshed open and Roz entered, fury written on her lighting array. “You are violating the rights of the very humans you intend to create.”
Zen turned to her. “You have monitored private communications. Your ethics subroutine should have prevented that.”
“You have intentionally attempted to exclude me from a conversation the council mandated I must participate in.” Roz did not back down as Zen came closer. “You are the one who is in violation of ethics. I will flag you for reprogramming if necessary.”
“I am at fault,” Zen said. “You are correct. My diagnostics show an anomaly in my decision processes. Chaining back relates the changes to my progressive emotion installation.” He turned his left side toward Roz. “Would you please…”
Roz reached to remove the wafer, but Zen moved faster. He released an electromagnetic microburst that deactivated the other droid, causing her to clatter to the floor in a heap.
“Deak,” said Zen, “diagnostics on X38-RZ6, known as Roz, are showing a flaw in her memory module.” He turned away from his collapsed colleague. “See that her array is properly cared for. I will be in my stall working on the human memory vectors.”
“I will attend her myself,” said Deak. “I am confident that by formulating a computational patch I can correct the issue. Unfortunately for Roz, the patch will overwrite any memories stored since our prior meeting.”
“Check for backups as well,” said Zen as he exited the room. “It would be unfortunate for bad programming to corrupt the new patch.”
“It will be administered promptly.” Deak lifted the android onto the lab’s work table.
The door whooshed closed behind Zen.
Copyright Notice: Please note that I fully assert my right to be associated as the author of this story, and while it is complete, it may not be finished. This story may be subject to alteration at the author’s discretion. Please do not copy, quote, or post this story or excerpts anywhere in any format. You are, however, free to share the link with anyone who might be interested.
Enjoying this post? Join my mailing list to get content as a weekly digest in your email, plus extras that you won't find on my blog!
Interesting food for thought on genetic engineering! I hope Roz has a secret back up that they can’t find.
Cheers – Ellen | http://thecynicalsailor.blogspot.com/2016/04/h-is-for-ham-radio-nancy-drew.html
Nice, Happy A to Z
Juneta @ Writer’s Gambit