can’t breed. It’s the Alphas all over again, isn’t it—seeing us as something degraded, less than human.”
I nodded. “That’s why they argue about undoing the bond—because it would put an end to Alphas, as well as Omegas. They say that there’d still be deformities. In everyone, by the sound of it. But not as serious as those we have now.”
“And Omegas would be able to breed, if they have this medicine?” Zoe said.
“There wouldn’t be any Omegas,” I said. “No Alphas, either. Just people.”
“But all with mutations,” the Ringmaster said. “All of them?”
I nodded. “That’s what it says.”
“And the Ark people chose to risk the whole species dying out,” I said to Piper, “rather than to see it continue with mutations.”
He was looking at the Ringmaster, as if daring him to defend the Ark dwellers’ decision. The Ringmaster met his gaze, but remained silent.
“It only talks about future generations,” Zoe said, gingerly taking the paper from me to read it for herself. “There’s nothing about undoing the bond, or fixing the infertility, for twins already born?”
“No.” I looked at her. If there had been a way to sever the bond between her and Piper, would she choose to?
Piper interrupted my thoughts. “So was that it? They knew how to fix the twinning, but they couldn’t agree to do it?”
“Getting consensus wasn’t the only problem,” I said. “There were other reasons, too.” I picked up the next page and passed it to Zoe. She read aloud:
The proposed treatment itself is not innately complex, but implementation presents some significant issues, exacerbated by the scattered population of Topside survivors.
These issues include the supply, storage, and distribution of the drugs. Our projections show that current stores in the Ark should produce enough of the compound for ›5,000 patients (allowing for proposed treatment schedule of 3 doses each, as per Fegan and Blair’s findings). However, the drug requires refrigeration and
main obstacle to implementing the mass treatment regime remains the growth in technophobic sentiment that has been witnessed Topside. Outside the Ark itself, the technology that survived the blast has been systematically destroyed. Several expeditions have reported hostile responses to medical testing, with equipment seized and destroyed on 3 occasions. Two of the latest expedition teams have not returned. Given the multiple innate risks of the outside environment, it would be premature to attribute their disappearance to the violent purges of technology that have been witnessed Topside. Nonetheless, this remains a pressing and valid concern.
“That’s the taboo,” I said. “The survivors turning against the machines.”
“You can hardly blame them for it,” said the Ringmaster. “They’d had to live with the consequences of the blast.”
“Not only that,” I said. “They had another good reason to be afraid of the Ark dwellers and their machines.”
I moved to the next bed, where I’d laid out a trail of papers, all covered by the same handwriting. The writer had been messy—his handwriting itself had presented almost as much of a struggle as the damp, crumbling paper.
“These pages are all written by the same person. Professor Heaton, it says here. And he talks about how they actually did their experiments.”
Thanks to the work of Professors Fegan and Blair, there is still a chance for the Ark project to prove its worth. We have it within our power to repair the twinning process that is now near universal on the surface. Blair and Fegan’s results consistently show that this treatment would, with careful management of our existing resources, be achievable (at least for the region immediately surrounding the Ark), and should significantly reduce mortality rates and rates of severe disability for subsequent generations.
The manner in which this research was conducted (regarding which I have already registered my objections, both in person and through the official grievance procedures) is an issue for another time. Notwithstanding these ethical concerns, the results of the study are now available to us and it would be foolhardy in the extreme to fail to act upon them.
“What does he mean, the manner in which this research was conducted?” said Zoe.
“Here,” I said, passing her the next sheet.
Piper leaned close over her shoulder as they read.
Of the many issues relating to Fegan and Blair’s research, the use of nonconsenting subjects from Topside has been the most egregious ethical breach. Given the exhaustive security protocols surrounding entry and exit from the Ark, the admission of these experimental subjects to the Ark could not have occurred without approval from the highest level, meaning that not only those directly involved in the