The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Q&A

"I still don't completely understand this Siren and Astral subspecies thing you talked about. I get humans are in essence the baseline species, and humans have variants. Why not? They already do, right? People that evolved at the Arctic Circle don't look like ones that evolved near the equator, right? I don't quite understand how all that works in this case. Angel, for example, did not show us fangs, but she is not human. A member of the human subspecies called Astral? A human her age would be in menopause but she just had a baby. No issue. She is long-lived, even if not as long as a Vampire? Then there is Vera. She was a Siren, which is a human-based variety, but now she is a Vampire? A completely different human-based variety. How does that all work? You can be a human or an Astral or a Siren and become a Vampire, but not go in the other directions?" Don asked.

Mom fielded that. "Don. Those are really good questions. The original point of the Siren Lab was to try to take Vampires and make them at least partially back into Humans. It is theoretically possible, but far more complicated because of the way the Vampire immune system works. To put it one way, the immune system is ruthless. Any damage is torn out and replaced. It can detect damage in things like teeth and replace them. Morgan grew new kidneys. Helen a brand new womb and ovaries. The severe damage to joints, bones and nerves Ginger sustained were fixed. Vampire updates provide many additional checks and balances the human immune system does not have. When the Sirens tried their Serum on your brother, it made him sick, but it did not work. His immune system fought off their engineered pathogen. Could we create something that did work? Eventually. Jessica and I have identified several of their mistakes. The thing about that is? I cannot see any reason I would do that."

"Reward a Siren on Assembly that was turned against their will for good behavior by reverting them?" Ginger ventured. "I would never take that deal, but there are some that would."

Mom and Jessica both considered that a moment. "That is a fair point. I did not like doing that. The end result was good, but the end and the means and my part in it? I do not have a long-term point of view about that. Coming over should be a choice. It is the one Ben and DeWayne and I are making, but we are doing so knowing what we are signing up for." Mom agreed.

"It would take a lot of time, money, and more researchers than what we have right now. I do agree. We should figure that out, but I think we do it a different way." Jessica said. "We create a version with easy-to-find start and end markers. A sort of genetic 'cut along the dotted lines'. We program the immune system to accept updates if they match characteristics. This does not help those already turned, but Mom: I don't want a weapon that can be used against me."

"I see. No. You are right dear. That is all a very slippery slope. To the Vampire's long-time credit, they have never recruited, even if how that was enforced against male Vampires was ultimately wrong-headed. It is being rectified. Even in the AsiaPac Geo, they are seeing value in male Vampires they did not before. Perhaps only as breeding stock, but better than slaughter." Mom said. "Don. To answer your question about the subspecies, I'll need to get into how genetic updates were done in the days before we had labs. Selective breeding. When you want cows with big udders, dogs that herd sheep, or humans that look and act a particular way, you breed for it. That is how Astrals and Sirens came to be. Vampires are from an utterly different evolutionary path."

Mom launched into a deeper history of Ninovan and focused on the genetics of that unique closed culture and how this created Astrals. How Vampires and female Sirens came and went, mixed in with indigenous peoples who were healers, all enabled to genetically mix because of the community having a Catalyst. Natural human empathic traits that were amplified down the centuries. This genetic mix created longer lives as a side effect. You sometimes breed for one thing, and you get other things along for the ride. You wanted a cow with big udders, and they ended up a particular color you were not selecting for at all.