Unnatural, impossible (cracking the code)
“They´re simply better than us, in every single way we can measure”, said the Scientist proudly.
The Official was not convinced. “What if they get out of control? The human race would be dead as the proverbial Dodo.”
In the corridor outside, the Synthetic, who was using his enhanced hearing to listen intently, smiled slightly.
In outline he was much like a human being, but slightly more compact and muscular. In motion there was something cougar-like in his loping gait, which some opponents of the new species found slightly threatening or even sinister.
On the other side of the door, the Scientist explained the safeguards. “You know that all life on Earth is written in the DNA code made up of the letters A, C, G and T, standing for the four nucleotide bases adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine?
“Well, in the laboratory we have added two extra nucleotide bases to the code for all Synthetics – longramine and retatosine, which we call L and R for short.”
The Official shrugged and gestured at the Scientist to continue.
“Nucleic acids contain information which is used by a living cell to construct proteins. The sequence of nucleobases on a nucleic acid strand is translated by the cell machinery into a sequence of amino acids making up a protein strand…”
The Official muttered impatiently something about ‘gobbledegook’, causing the Scientist to speed up his disposition in fear of being cut off in mid-explanation.
“…The beauty of the system is that the cells in Synthetic beings can’t reproduce without L and R, which are not present in nature. We have to make that in the laboratory and feed it to them. Without L and R they age and die extremely rapidly”, the Scientist concluded.
The Official frowned. “Have you even read Jurassic Park? Seen the movie? They said the dinosaurs could not reproduce, but nature found a way.”
“Totally impossible”, said the Scientist proudly. “Just think! A race of intelligent workers, optimised for different tasks, who are totally under our control and dependent on us.
“No more dirty windows, no more badly-cooked canteen food, and no more insolent strikers telling us what we can and cannot do!”
Outside the Office, the Synthetic watched without expression as a shabbily-dressed maintenance worker exited from a nearby secure laboratory.
The man stormed up to the artificial being and shoved him roughly aside. “Out of the way you damned robot!”
Alerted by the security cameras, two guards ran to the scene of the confrontation and began to hurry the workman away. They held him firmly, but treated him gently since they knew he had just been given four-weeks’ notice of redundancy.
After bitterly protesting his innocence of any wrong-doing the workman began to berate the guards and the whole institution for “betraying the human race”.
“They are going to take all our jobs”, he said.
Once outside the workman reached in his pocket and withdrew a small piece of paper with carefully written instructions on how to carry out an untraceable electronic transfer for a considerable sum of money.
Inside, the Synthetic waited contentedly in the corridor for his Master.
From time he fingered the tiny contact lens case labelled ‘L’ and ‘R’ that he had deftly lifted from the workman’s pocket, while shielded from the watching cameras.
------------------
If you like this story (or hate it) please leave feedback and check out the other episodes in the short story arc. The other stories, which can also be read on their own, can be reached by cutting and pasting the links below into your browser.
https://theprose.com/post/130358/unnatural-impossible-the-beginning