eye circled. Underneath she put four symbols: a circle, a square, a triangle, and a short straight line. Then she began to rapidly write a whole string of these, as if they were an alphabet.
When she was done, she stood and stretched. “Tess, want some corn chips?”
“Sure, just a minute, I’m not quite done.” Carlo said, “Theresa, what … what are you going to do with that?”
“Take it to Major Fenton. She’s leading my group.”
“Do you like her?” Lillie asked.
“She’s okay. A little staff-assed.”
“Yeah, I think so, too. But she’s okay.”
Keith said, “Do you want me to call her? To give her this … thing?”
“No, I’ll take it when I have my appointment this afternoon,” Lillie said. “But thanks anyway, Uncle Keith. C’mon, Tess, let’s eat these chips on the way to basketball.”
The girls left the men staring at each other blankly.
“The decision has been made,” said a female major—yet someone else Keith hadn’t met yet, this project had more personnel than an aircraft carrier—“to pass on to you parents everything we learn about the children’s messages from the pribir.”
Eighty-three parents sat again in a room at the Officer’s Club. Keith counted; evidently seven had gone home. Probably they were from two-parent sets, with other children or critical jobs to see to. He had a critical job, too, and it was going down the toilet, but he couldn’t leave.
“We recognize the dangers in this open communication, and hope you do as well,” the major continued. “It’s much better for everyone if the press receives its information through official government channels, to guarantee both accuracy and security. On the other hand, these are your children.” She smiled. The smile came out a bit thin.
She started reading from a prepared statement. “This morning all sixty children produced the same drawing, in most cases immediately after being outdoors. Each child told his or her counselor that the pribir wished to help us with our genes. The four symbols, as you probably guessed—circle, square, triangle, line—correspond to the four bases of DNA, adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine. The long string of symbols matches the gene that creates the eye in a developing human fetus. Its base sequence is very close to the sequence for the eye gene in mice and fruit flies.”
The audience began to buzz. Keith saw that not everybody here understood even the basics about DNA. The major was going to have to get a prepared statement that started genetic education a great deal earlier.
“We think,” she continued, “that this message is designed to establish a basic language between pribir and us, in order to communicate future genetic information.” She looked up. “Any questions?”
“Are they going to give us the ‘genetic information’ to understand what was done to our kids?” a man called. It was Carlo Romero.
“We don’t know what they’re going to say in the future, Mr. Romero, any more than you do. We can only wait.”
Keith left the meeting early, as the major struggled to explain concepts so basic to her that she had trouble understanding that her audience didn’t all already know them: base pairs, DNA, chromosomes, codons, amino acid formation. Keith had only undergraduate biology, but it was enough for this. So far, anyway.
He caught a base bus back to the bungalow, rather than waiting for designated transport. The bus was filled with military and civilian personnel. A few of them stared at him strangely, and he realized that Andrews Air Force Base knew who had invaded its midst and sealed its perimeters, and not everyone liked the visitors. He stared back.
Lillie and Theresa were in their bedroom, the door half closed. They didn’t hear him come in, and he stood in the darkened living room and listened to the conversation he was not supposed to hear.
“Are you scared?” That was Theresa.
“No. I keep thinking I should be, but I’m
When she was done, she stood and stretched. “Tess, want some corn chips?”
“Sure, just a minute, I’m not quite done.” Carlo said, “Theresa, what … what are you going to do with that?”
“Take it to Major Fenton. She’s leading my group.”
“Do you like her?” Lillie asked.
“She’s okay. A little staff-assed.”
“Yeah, I think so, too. But she’s okay.”
Keith said, “Do you want me to call her? To give her this … thing?”
“No, I’ll take it when I have my appointment this afternoon,” Lillie said. “But thanks anyway, Uncle Keith. C’mon, Tess, let’s eat these chips on the way to basketball.”
The girls left the men staring at each other blankly.
“The decision has been made,” said a female major—yet someone else Keith hadn’t met yet, this project had more personnel than an aircraft carrier—“to pass on to you parents everything we learn about the children’s messages from the pribir.”
Eighty-three parents sat again in a room at the Officer’s Club. Keith counted; evidently seven had gone home. Probably they were from two-parent sets, with other children or critical jobs to see to. He had a critical job, too, and it was going down the toilet, but he couldn’t leave.
“We recognize the dangers in this open communication, and hope you do as well,” the major continued. “It’s much better for everyone if the press receives its information through official government channels, to guarantee both accuracy and security. On the other hand, these are your children.” She smiled. The smile came out a bit thin.
She started reading from a prepared statement. “This morning all sixty children produced the same drawing, in most cases immediately after being outdoors. Each child told his or her counselor that the pribir wished to help us with our genes. The four symbols, as you probably guessed—circle, square, triangle, line—correspond to the four bases of DNA, adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine. The long string of symbols matches the gene that creates the eye in a developing human fetus. Its base sequence is very close to the sequence for the eye gene in mice and fruit flies.”
The audience began to buzz. Keith saw that not everybody here understood even the basics about DNA. The major was going to have to get a prepared statement that started genetic education a great deal earlier.
“We think,” she continued, “that this message is designed to establish a basic language between pribir and us, in order to communicate future genetic information.” She looked up. “Any questions?”
“Are they going to give us the ‘genetic information’ to understand what was done to our kids?” a man called. It was Carlo Romero.
“We don’t know what they’re going to say in the future, Mr. Romero, any more than you do. We can only wait.”
Keith left the meeting early, as the major struggled to explain concepts so basic to her that she had trouble understanding that her audience didn’t all already know them: base pairs, DNA, chromosomes, codons, amino acid formation. Keith had only undergraduate biology, but it was enough for this. So far, anyway.
He caught a base bus back to the bungalow, rather than waiting for designated transport. The bus was filled with military and civilian personnel. A few of them stared at him strangely, and he realized that Andrews Air Force Base knew who had invaded its midst and sealed its perimeters, and not everyone liked the visitors. He stared back.
Lillie and Theresa were in their bedroom, the door half closed. They didn’t hear him come in, and he stood in the darkened living room and listened to the conversation he was not supposed to hear.
“Are you scared?” That was Theresa.
“No. I keep thinking I should be, but I’m
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