Year 6, Week 5, Sunday
The heavy door swung open, the lab-coated man pushing it talking animatedly with the midnight blue alicorn following him. “Well, there was some... peculiarities with the last test that Azure discovered, I think you’ll be very interested to hear this, Luna. The diamond dog's DNA is incredibly stable.”
Luna tilted her head as she entered the laboratory, an armored pegasus and two tall, doglike humanoids following her. “What do you mean by this, Dr Lewis?”
“I mean, their DNA is highly resistant to thaumatic radiation. Regrettably, this resilience does not prevent the eventual alteration of human DNA, only prolongs it. However, this stability might well prove to be useful in it’s own way.” Lewis led the group to a bank of monitors showing DNA strands, analysis diagrams, and a dozen other reports.
“Forgive us, Doctor,” Luna said as Cloudhammer, K’rik and Ferrik all tilted their heads in simultaneous confusion, “but what exactly do you mean by this DNA’s stability being useful?”
“Ah, well, give me a second...” Lewis led the group into an adjacent viewing room, where piles of folders were neatly stacked. Searching through the stacks, he found what he was looking for and picked one up. “I’ve been studying the reports from Arcane Light and Steel Glimmer, back from the expedition to Africa. Their hypothesis on the attraction of magic to thinking minds is I think on the right track. The problem I’ve encountered from my models, which I must stress are incomplete with regards to humans, is that even with an unconscious mind, magic is still drawn to the body in uneven doses, which is the root cause of thaumatic radiation poisoning.”
“I believe I understand what you mean Doctor,” Luna said quietly. Behind her, Cloudhammer spoke quietly to the two diamond dogs, whose expressions remained perplexed.
Lewis nodded. “Unfortunately, it’s not as if we can just turn the brain off, give their body time to become acclimated to thaumatic radiation, and then wake them back up.” He sighed, looking at the last page in the folder. “However, there is an alternative, which might work...”
Luna just stood there quietly, waiting for Lewis to finish.
“Essentially, the idea is we would saturate a human embryo, the closer to conception the better, with thaumatic radiation. Because the embryo doesn’t have a functioning brain, it would be unaffected by the poisoning. Then, we would take the now-saturated embryo, and implant it into a surrogate mother who is resistant to magic. The process is called in vitro fertilization, it’s normally used for women who can’t naturally have children.” He looked up at the ponies and diamond dogs in front of him, taking a deep breath. “My idea would be to use diamond dog females to act as the surrogate mothers for the saturated embryos. Their physiology is closer to a human’s, not to mention their size making it easier for them to carry a human child to term than it would be for a pony. The canid DNA is stable in the presence of thaumatic energy, therefore, I think that they would serve best for surrogate mothers. Now, it’s still early to say for sure without further testing, but I’m starting to believe that this might well be a chance to save the human race from extinction.”
Cloudhammer translated for the diamond dogs, his eyes neutral, while they stiffened and growled at each other for a few seconds. K’rik finally snarled something, and Ferrik lowered his head submissively.
Luna’s eyes narrowed. “I admit that I’m not familiar with some of humanity’s advancements, but it strikes me that this method was not intended for something like this. Is there any assurance that you’d even be able to ensure the safety of the embryo? Or that of the surrogate?”
Lewis nodded. “Well, you’d be partially right. We have had instances of implanting wild zebra embryos into horses, horse embryos into donkeys and the like. But for something like this, no, it’s never been attempted before. But this is the continuation of my species we’re talking about. If there’s something, anything that I can try that might work, I’ll try it.”
“Your resolve is admirable, Dr. Lewis,” Luna said softly. “My only admonition is to not allow yourself to become blind to the long-term consequences of your decisions. I did, once, and still carry the weight of that choice on my conscience to this day.”
Lewis sighed, scratching the back of his head as he glanced over at Cloudhammer and the two dogs. “I’m well aware of that. But from where I stand, if the chance exists, I’d want to at least try and fail, rather than not try at all. Even with the fact that we’ve still got a little under fourteen years till Rejection, every day we wait is time lost.”
Luna opened her mouth to reply when there was a knock at the door. Everyone turned as it swung open, a man in a military uniform entering. His shoulder epaulets marked him as a colonel, and to his credit he only stopped for a second as he saw the two canids. Turning to Luna, he inclined his head slightly. “Colonel Harkness, your Highness. Our ‘guest’ has arrived, and will be here in a moment.” He scowled. “I want to voice my concerns about using a convicted terrorist for this mission.”
“Your concerns are noted, Colonel Harkness,” Luna said calmly. “However, Steven Rangel’s candidacy was discussed at length between myself, my sister, President Foster, and your Joint Chiefs. His actions during the St Louis Massacre make him suitable in my eyes for such a mission, where independent thinking might be needed. And,” her voice grew harder, “should the Conversion fail, or he not return, then his loss is more easily mitigated.”
Before anything else could be said, the door to the lab swung open, two guards escorting a man wearing a prison jumpsuit in. Luna carefully schooled her expression and gestured toward the door. “Shall we?”