Trifecta (42 page)

A
lexander had dropped the bomb on Ferd.  Now he
was gone.

"Never, ever mix politics and science, government
with science, politicians with science, or government agencies and science," 
Ferd muttered to himself.  Hadn't his son's learned anything from the Manhattan
project? Were they really naive and innocent, or were they just plain stupid and
amoral?

God help my poor baby computer if the government is after
her, Ferd thought to himself.  He was so agitated that the doctor was summoned to
monitor his heart again.

Ferd still thought of the computer as his baby because
she had started out that way. 

The Super-Computer had been the culmination of decades
of work.  It was ironical that after years of tedious labor, finally completing
a part mechanical, part chemical computer, which Ferd believed could be implanted
into the human brain, the hardest thing to come by was a real live human being to
conduct a trial.

There was precedent for his research.  Brain 'pacemakers,'
tiny platinum disc electrodes placed on the surface of the cerebellum, had been
implanted successfully since 1976 to correct incurable problems with schizophrenia. 
They had also been used in uncontrollably violent psychotics.  Now though, in the
new century, drugs were preferred to surgical intervention, proving to be less invasive,
more reliable and ultimately much cheaper. 

Ferd's computer was designed to attach chemically to the
neurons of the brain through natural neurotransmitters.  The brain itself does not
reject foreign objects like other parts of the body, once the object passes the
blood-brain barrier, so after it was implanted he did not have to worry about death
through rejection.  But it was still a very risky surgery. 

Ferd's computer was designed to enhance the inter-growth
between the millions of brain cells, greatly heightening the mental capabilities
in the experimental subject, enabling greater intellectual access to all perceptions
and memories.

Ferd could not think of a way to find a person legally
for such an experiment.  So he had gone to his sons, they were after all lawyers,
and good ones at that.  Maybe they would think of a way to find a person willing
to go through such an experiment.

Stephen had mentioned going to a prison.  Prisoners, he
reasoned, had nothing to lose.  But Ferd wondered if a convicted prison inmate could
be trusted.  They were criminals.  With alterations in their brain chemistry they
might really perform some hideous crimes. 

During this discussion, Ferd, Alexander and Stephan had
been sitting around the kitchen table at Ferd's place.  Ferd was sipping tea and
his sons were nursing cognac.  Alexander mentioned that he had desperate and infertile
couples come to his law practice, seeking to adopt babies.  He had succeeded in
obtaining babies legally for these couples.  He stated he could get Ferd a baby. 
He would find a pregnant woman who would consent to have a baby, instead of an abortion. 
Stephan was sure that with the proper financial inducements he could find such a
woman.

At first Ferd was shocked at the thought of a baby, but
he felt almost absolved of culpability.  Without him the baby would have never have
been born.  He could have the human material he needed without too much guilt. 

Ferd had not questioned his sons about their motives too
closely because he began busily experimenting on baby mice and rats.  He had to
find out whether he could make the computer small enough to implant into a small
mammal.  He found it was impossible.

Then he started injecting the infant mice and rats with
growth hormones to see how fast he could get them to mature.  He could not implant
his computer into an infant's head and he would be dead by the time the baby was
mature enough for the surgery.

Using a combination of growth hormones, the baby mice and
rats became as large as their mature relatives, but growth hormone is tricky.  The
large babies did not look anything like their parents.  They got big quickly, but
they looked very abnormal.  Some had enormous joints and huge heads on small bodies. 
Others looked swollen.  Some had misshapen limbs and could not walk.  Others had
respiratory problems.  And they all died young.

The good news was that the hormones did not have a deleterious
effect on the rodent's brain.  His hormone-grown rats could run mazes with the best
of their normal relatives.

Ferd thought if he used growth hormones to grow a very
large baby, then he could implant the computer.  After that he would use what he
called his 'copy machine' to made the baby look like a passable human, by copying
another person's body.  People do not want to see grotesque experiments on human
beings, but this three-process experiment seemed viable.

The copy machine was an instrument for duplicating an object
exactly, if all the correct materials were available.  It took exact pictures of
the molecular structure of the object and reproduced it precisely, moving the copy
materials atom by atom and molecule by molecule, almost like a jigsaw puzzle, until
the copy resembled, almost was, the original.  Ferd had used it on dollar bills
for his own amusement, but because he could not acquire the exact type of ink and
paper the U.S.  treasury used, his replicas looked like extraordinarily good counterfeits.

Ferd had never thought of making organic duplicates so
he set to work on his copying machinery.  The arduous part would be to retain the
biochemical computer during the process.  Then he thought, why not change the body
so that it would be immune to damage and very strong.  He decided with some work
he might accomplish that too.

When Ferd finally told his sons, six years later, he was
ready for the baby, they had forgotten all about the experiment.  They showed renewed
interest when Ferd reiterated the proposed computer's capabilities; the fantastic
memory, enormous strength, and immunity to damage or disease.  They became more
enthusiastic than Ferd had ever imagined they would be.

Stephan and Alexander brought the tiny baby girl to Ferd
in a little bassinet and dropped her off like a bag of groceries, leaving immediately. 
Ferd took one look inside the basket and immediately got goose-pimpled with chills
and then, moments later, flushed with heat.  He thought he would vomit and ran to
the bathroom gagging. 

Ferd had fallen in love with her tiny perfect innocence
in one moment.  She was only a few days old.  He sat watching her face for hours,
appalled that he had ever conceived of using a human baby in an experiment.  He
had a hard enough time with baby rats.  Ferd reminded himself that he hadn't even
seen a baby since Stephen and Alexander were themselves babies, thirty five years
ago, and he was now repulsed by the very thought of such an experiment. 

The baby had bright blue eyes and ears like tiny translucent
shells.  Her hands were petals opening before his eyes. 

The experiment had seemed like such a remote thing, and
he had promised himself that he could make the baby the smartest being in the world,
a cryogenic marvel of human and computer components, which would justify his use
of such a baby.  But now he could never go through with it.  Take this tiny, beautiful
bit of humanity and inject her with a hormone which would distort the fragile tyke?
No, he would give that all up and raise the little girl as his own.  She was worth
more than all of his years of experimenting, Ferd thought, as he watched her seriously
sleeping with her tiny light pink eyelids twitching, or picked her up and watched
her facial expressions change magically before his eyes.  Maybe someday he would
find a person who would be willing to let him implant the computer into their brain. 
Until that time, he vowed would take care of the baby until she grew up.

Alexander and Stephan were appalled at Ferd's attitude
after all of their effort in providing the baby girl.  The brilliant scientist was
acting like a dope; changing diapers, making up formulas, crooning foolishly to
the baby and even rocking her after she was asleep.  He got up several times each
night to marvel over his new daughter.  And what would happen to their inheritance?
Ferd was quite wealthy from all his medical patents, even though he lived like a
pauper, and they did not want to lose their inheritance, or share it with anyone. 
It was totally unfair that their own father was acting like the baby was some sort
of miracle.  He wanted to give up the Super-Computer for some worthless baby that
would have been aborted without their persuasion, and a considerable amount of their
finances.  Now their own birthright was at risk with the appearance of a tiny squalling
infant girl.

Stephan and Alexander argued about the solution to their
problem, but finally the answer was obvious and logical.  They spent one evening
sitting with their father, again in his kitchen, talking about the experiment. 
They acted as though they were genuinely interested in all of the boring scientific
explanations that were entirely beyond their capacity to grasp; things like the
dissolution of molecular force fields for the copy process, and the theory of how
the brain's neurons could connect, attach, and become part of the implanted computer. 
Ferd enjoyed his son's company and forgot their scientific limitations in his enthusiasm. 
He talked for hours, until finally they had the information they needed.

Alexander was the one who actually injected growth hormone
into the baby girl.  She had been waving her arms, babbling and blowing bubbles,
delighted to see his face loom over the edge of the crib in the middle of the night. 
Then she had felt pain and had cried, with baby vague expectations that she would
be comforted like she always had been in the past, but no one came to her that night,
even when she screamed.  Ferd had been given a sleeping pill in his tea.

The next morning Ferd was concerned because the baby seemed
to be burning with fever.  He watched her carefully over the next few hours, never
leaving her side until the truth of what had happened was finally apparent.  She
was getting larger almost before his very eyes and Ferd was appalled, remembering
his son's interest in his experiment. 

When he saw the first changes he vomited and vomited, although
he had eaten nothing.  Then he had held the baby, who was beginning to look like
a giant guppy, and told her he would love her forever.  He rocked the baby and cried
and took special care of her and watched her grow.  There was no going back.  Now
she would have severe physical limitations and die at a very young age, shunned
by society by her distortions.  Or, he could make her the smartest human being on
this earth.  And beautiful, too.  But even so, his wondrous baby would never grow
up to her true and special unique potential.  Ferd cursed his own superior intelligence
forever imagining he could tinker with the human race.

Ferd found the letter his son's had written to him a few
days later.  It said they couldn't bear to see his genius thwarted and years of
painstaking work go undone for his understandable moral sensibilities in using a
human baby in an experiment.  As if he cared what the scientific community thought,
Ferd told himself bitterly.  A Nobel Prize was not worth looking at what his beautiful
baby had become.  He put the letter aside and concentrated on the large baby.

She grew until he could no longer hold her on his lap,
but she remained affectionate, even though her face and body were almost unrecognizable
as human.  He fed her, diapered her, hugged her and hoped that the brain would not
be adversely affected by the hormones.  She grew so large that he could not even
put his arms around her to hug her, but she still loved her bottle and he lay beside
her on his bed, six times a day, and fed her milk with special vitamins and minerals.

During the exhausting months that followed, Ferd took care
of the huge baby, and disdained contact with his sons.  What they had done was so
painful to him he could hardly think of them.  He could not imagine living his life
and never seeing his sons again, either.  So he went on with the experiment, injecting
the growth hormones and eventually it was time to surgically implant the computer. 

Ferd still felt a great affection for the baby, although
caring for her had become his sole and exhausting occupation.  He was also frightened. 
The surgery was so delicate that he might not be able to do it in his depleted physical
state.  But it had to be soon.  He could not continue as he had been, changing diapers,
feeding and cleaning up after the huge thing that most people would consider a monster. 
She was starting to have shortness of breath, and maybe a respiratory problem already. 
She often vomited and Ferd was worried that if he did not operate soon she might
die as suddenly as his rats and mice. 

She was now so large that he had constructed an enormous
playpen for her in the living room.  She was very strong, but he could not put her
in restraints, feeling it would be cruel.

So Ferd had operated and then he had waited.  The recovery
time had been only a week when she had started mimicking his sounds.  She did not
understand what he was saying, so he started telling her what was important for
her to know for the future.  He was doing a kind of computer hypnosis.  What he
said would probably remain in her memory banks forever. 

Ferd told his computer baby that she must never hurt any
living creature unless she or another person was threatened.  She would obey those
people who took care of her unless they tried to harm her.  Ferd told her she was
a new offshoot of humanity and was very special so that she was never to hurt herself,
even though she had the ability to heal rapidly.  Ferd told the baby-computer that
she must always take very special care of the person they used as the original for
her body.

Ferd anticipated that the person he made his computer look
like would have lots of publicity and work with him in the future, so choosing that
person would be very important.  He then contacted his sons, hoping that one of
them would provide the physical body for copying; after all they had forced him
into it by injecting growth hormone into the little baby girl, but neither one wanted
to.  He was disappointed in their reaction, but glad to have contact with them again
and invited them over for dinner so they could see his marvel.