Anthem's Fall

Chapter Twenty Six

“A cell?”

“Well, not in the natural sense. I imagine it would function in a similar fashion as a cell. But it would have to be designed and created in a laboratory using artificial means.” Kristen shifted uncomfortably. “I am getting way ahead of myself here.”

“Exactly.” A thin smile surfaced on Professor Vatruvia’s face as though he had won some sort of dispute. “You and I are thinking along the same lines. I believe we have both perceived of a similar vision.”

Kristen maintained a noncommittal expression as she sipped her latte.

Professor Vatruvia sat back in his chair and folded his legs, regarding Kristen earnestly. “I am about to start a research project that will turn our individual visions into a reality. I’ll cut right to the chase. I would like to formally ask you to come work for me.”

Kristen choked and picked up a napkin to dab her chin. She shook her head emphatically. “Professor Vatruvia, I haven’t applied to graduate schools yet, let alone to Columbia. In truth, I don’t know if I want to go to graduate school. Thank you. Really, thank you. But I’m not ready to make any kind of commitment.”

“Look, Kristen. None of that is an issue. I can get you accepted and taken on for the spring semester. Our program would be a good fit for you. You can start research in the lab as soon as possible. I desperately need a talented mind like yours on the research team I’m bringing together. We visionaries can’t work alone, you know.”

Kristen stared at him in absolute bewilderment. “I don’t understand. What would I be researching?”

“The creation of your thesis.” Professor Vatruvia smiled with an enthusiasm nearly childish in its exuberance. “We can unravel the mystery of this synthetic system we have envisioned.”

In the months that followed, the research team Professor Vatruvia assembled was its own private research entity, barely affiliated with Columbia. The various minds Professor Vatruvia had drawn together for his research team were each brilliantly innovative, though from the very first day, the enterprise’s youngest member, Kristen Jordan, always stood out as one of the most gifted.

As time progressed, it became increasingly clear that their research was going to foster a scientific breakthrough. Supercomputers were put to work and laboratory technicians were hired in droves. Never before seen laboratory techniques were discovered and implemented. Each day Kristen and Professor Vatruvia came closer to conceiving their synthetic cell; each month a new impediment was toppled. Then, in the early spring it finally happened. After a year of labor and toil, Professor Vatruvia along with Kristen Jordan and the research team successfully brought about the genesis of their technology.

The Vatruvian cell.

Some experts celebrated their invention as the greatest technological breakthrough not only of the twenty-first century, but of the entire history of science. Technology had given rise to a new and unique form of artificial life. In the process, Professor Vatruvia had earned a Nobel Prize. Kristen Jordan had even appeared in the background of a Time magazine photo of their laboratory. The world had found its modern visionaries to extol, and their creation, the Vatruvian cell, was like nothing even the most decorated academics could have foreseen. Many of Professor Vatruvia’s peers correctly pointed out that his team had not created a form of life at all, because of the Vatruvian cell’s inanimate structure and loneliness of relatives within the tree of life. On the contrary, a complex machine—they said—was a more appropriate classification for the Vatruvian cell. Man had not created life; he had created the most involved and complex machinery in existence.