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The older Armitage smiled. I'll take that as a compliment, he said. The
actual figure is more like forty years, but certain drugs can do wonders for a
man."
Grimm suppressed a shiver at the word drugs', remembering his own recent
addiction to the herbs Trina and Virion, but he said nothing. Further
revelations must be forthcoming.
"The original Administrator of the Haven Correctional Facility was George
Armitage, the Professor said. When I say original', I mean that he was the
Administrator before the Final War.
"As I understand it, he was a fine, pragmatic scientist of the first order; a
capable, dedicated man, who inspired all around him to give their utmost in
the struggle to uncover the essential inmost workings of the human mind. Haven
had a fine team of people working for him, with a number of scientific disci-
plines at their disposal. One of these was genetic engineering."
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Grimm's brows furrowed. He had read these last two words once before in an
ancient book in the Arnor Scholasticate Library, but they had meant nothing to
him.
"Is any of you familiar with the word clone'? Robert Armitage asked.
During his long, lonely hours in the Library, Grimm had cultivated an
interest in the study of horticulture, which had stood him in good stead in
his basic training in Herbalism.
"That is when a plant is grown from a cutting, so as to preserve the unique
properties of an interesting or rare mutant, he said, not understanding the
bearing that this might have on the issue.
Armitage clapped his hands. That's almost a textbook answer, my young
friend. Do you know anything of genetics?"
Grimm nodded. A little; genetics is the study of heredity, allowing desired
traits of animals and plants to be selectively bred and enhanced, with a
known, statistical chance of success."
"You are correct, as far as your definition goes, the scientist said.
However, in the decades before the Last War, the science became almost an
art. We learned the very mechanisms of genetic transference and became able to
manipulate them, almost at will. Each living thing contains within each of its
cells the information required to build that man; that tree; that fish; that
fungus .
"During sexual reproduction, the parents units of genetic information, the
genes , become mixed and shuffled before being passed on to the offspring,
ensuring a unique genetic identity for each child, with the exception of
identical twins, who are split from a single fertilised egg. The complete
genetic information of an individual is called agenome. "
The man's bearing was that of a teacher lecturing a group of rapt students.
Indeed, he had a captive audience, since Grimm and his companions were
surrounded by armed guards, with belligerent expressions which quelled any
thought of rebellion.
Nonetheless, Grimm found himself engrossed by this new old Armitage's
monologue, and he leaned forward, ignoring a sour look from Xylox.
"At the peak of human scientific achievement, we became capable of separating
an individual's unique genetic information from almost any cell of his, her or
its body, placing it into an evacuated egg cell and stimulating it to act as
if newly fertilised. At first, the success rate was low, and individuals so
produced died young, since they had been born from a genome that was already
old. However, it became possible to rejuvenate the genome, to reset the clock,
so to speak, and it became feasible to recreate a human being who was an exact
copy of his genetic donor."
Armitage's gaze locked upon each of his students in turn, as if the force
of his will alone could lock his arcane learning into their brains. Grimm
almost expected the man to add,"I shall be testing you on your retention of
this knowledge later," in the manner of Magemaster Crohn, although he did not.
"Any creature formed from the complete genome of another, by whatever means,
continued Armitage, is called a clone'. When the Final Destruction came, no
more individuals came to Haven. The decision was made to sterilise all
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personnel to prevent inbreeding, and its concomitant problems of the
proliferation of undesirable genes and mutations."
Tordun's pale face reddened. How do you decide which genes are
undesirable'? he snapped. Those of people like me , perhaps?"
The white titan shivered with apparent rage, but he kept his huge fists
lowered.
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