I did not have breath to spare for an answer, so I just glared at him. I straightened up and motioned with my head toward the rebbe. Levi’s left eye spasmed frenetically as his glance ricocheted from one Lupan to the next.
Fur snorted. “We watched a few of the Lupans go through their shapechange.”
I understood. That could scare the shit out of anybody. Levi’s cowering acted like a challenge to the Lupans, and they displayed far more aggression toward him than they ever had toward Fur or me. When my companion Lupans changed back to humanoid form, Levi bolted in the direction of the ship to a chorus of barks and howls. He screamed obscenities at the Lupans as he ran, but no one pursued him.
Leader stepped before me. “You pass trial, Captain Berger.” It was the first time he had addressed me by name. “Welcome to People.”
A chorus of barks and howls deafened me, but they were congratulatory, rather than threatening. I could not help but grin. Fur followed suit.
I donned my returned clothes. I had thought that shoes would be a blessed relief, but my swollen feet did not fit into my boots. My socks gave me a bit of cushioning, which helped. I reinstalled my earbud.
“Okay. What next?” I asked.
Leader stared at me; his golden eyes seemed to see through to my thoughts. He reverted to his own growled language, and Ruthie translated. “You will be informed of our needs.” They were more fluent in their own language.
They took me to see someone called Former Leader, one of the elder statesmen, I presumed. The Lupan that sat on a stool in the middle of the room was the sorriest specimen I had seen on their world. Patches had fallen out of his dull dandruff-flecked mane, showing the raw red scaly skin beneath. There were bare patches elsewhere on his body.
He stood, but with hunched shoulders, body angled away from me. He would not meet my eyes. This was a far cry from the confident, almost domineering figures of the other People. Especially for one who had been top dog.
My Lupan guide had not even stepped into the room for an introduction, as if Former Leader was now taboo...or considered contagious.
“Greetings,” I said. “I’m Dr. Cy Berger.”
Nothing.
“I’m told that there’s a disease problem that threatens your society and that you can help me understand it. Does it have to do with your coat?”
Former Leader straightened up, met my eyes. “You are a healer?”
“Yes, I am.”
“You see me as I am? I was not always so. I was Leader. I stood above all others. Then this.” He waved a hand at his mane, then his body. “You can fix this?” His voice was as close to plaintive as I had heard in these beings.
“May I examine you?”
He nodded.
I examined his skin, mane, and coat, then asked, “May I take samples of your skin and hair? I only need to scrape the surface. It won’t be painful.”
He made a noise something like coughing up a hairball. “Pain is meaningless.”
“I need to go back to my ship and get some materials. I’ll be right back.”
He nodded again and sat on his stool.
***
“That’s it,” I told Fur. “I suspected as much as soon as I saw Former Leader. He has a bad case of mange. The parasites aren’t the same ones as on Terran animals, but they’re comparable. Microscopic mites that burrow into the superficial epidermis and cause inflammation and hair loss.
“It will be no problem to treat. What I don’t understand is why this is such a big deal. Former Leader is the only one we’ve seen who is badly affected. And even then, this isn’t a life-threatening condition.”
“Yeah, but remember the guard we first met?” asked Fur. “The one that scratched at his neck and was then shunned?”
“So?”
“What strikes you about Leader, other than his tone of overbearing superiority?”
“His appearance,” I replied. “His mane is by far the most luxurious of any of the People. And Former Leader is just the opposite. You think that their mane is their main status symbol? No pun intended. That it determines superiority?”
“I think that’s a major factor. Probably not the only one, though.” Fur smoothed his beard. “I can’t believe that physical prowess doesn’t play a role, but you have to have both to reach the top—and stay there.”
I nodded. “That makes sense. That’s why they expected you to be the leader, with your size and beard. Like the dragons did. Mange is contagious, so they isolate and shun those infected by the parasite. I’ll bet that’s why we didn’t see any others who were infected. They banish them to the forest or some isolated place. Everyone else is afraid of loss of their status.”
“Yeah. In a community where personal dominance is everything, a disease like this undermines the entire structure of the society.”
“We need to speak with Leader again.”
***
Leader listened to my explanation without change of expression. When I finished, he said, “This is good, Captain Berger. That you can cure this affliction will relieve the People. But that is not the entire problem.”
“Oh, what else is the matter? I’ve seen no other—?”
Leader growled, “Look at the People. What do you not see?”
As I glanced around, Fur nudged my arm. “We’ve never seen a female. Or kids, or cubs, whatever they call them.”
Fur was right. I had assumed that they were kept isolated from the influence of us offworlders, but maybe not. I looked at Leader. “Where are your females and young?”
There was a low, almost subsonic rumble from the surrounding Lupans.
“There are none,” Leader said.
“None? That’s not possible?”
“There has never been a female. And for many, many turns there have been few cubs. Captain Berger, the People die.”
***
Back at the ship, we puzzled over the plight of the Lupans. To help me think it through, I explained the problem to Levi.
He asked, “Where could the Lupans come from, if there are no females? Or children?”
I shrugged. “I thought you would have no difficulty imagining them created that way.”
“Do not push me, Berger.” His glare could have melted ice.
Fur kicked my leg under the table. That had become an unpleasant habit.
I winced and rubbed my ankle. “There were things about my trial that puzzled me. The pack of feral wolves that threatened me looked like the sentient Lupans in their wolf form. Also, the Lupans watched me from hiding, and I sensed that if I had not driven the wolves off myself, they would have extricated me without significant harm, or at least before any damage was fatal. But they desired that encounter.”
Fur asked, “Do you think the sentient Lupans evolved from those creatures?”
I nodded. “Anatomically, except for the coats and manes and cranial capacities, the wild wolves appeared too similar to the Lupans to be coincidental.”
“So they are beasts,” Levi exulted. “These things are abominations. We should have no more to do with them. Fix their skins and we will be gone.”
I took a deep breath before I spoke. “We need some more information from Leader.”
***
We met him in his hut.
I said, “The pack of animals that cornered me was almost identical to the People in your shifted form, except for minor features like their heavier coats and sparser manes and smaller skulls. What’s their relationship to you?”
“They are our sires and dams,” Leader said.
I was not sure I heard him right. “You mean you were born of them?”
He nodded.
“But you said there were no females among the People. And I didn’t detect anything like sapience. How can that be? Do they think logically and plan? Can they communicate with speech?”
“No.”
“Can they transform, shape-shift?”
“No.”
“This makes no sense,” Fur said.
“How do you get from a non-sentient wolf to a thinking wolf-man?”
I did not believe they had some magic elixir that transformed them, like the fictional Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. “This has to be biological, a major evolutionary step.”
“The basis of evolution is a selection and accumulation of genetic changes—mutations—over time,” Fur replied. “It doesn’t happen overnight.”
“How many of you are there—the People—on your planet?” I asked Leader. “And how many of the wolf-only forms are there?”
“There are uncountable sires and dams to every one of the People. Once there were twice as many People.”
My heart pounded. “And there are no females among the People.”
It was not a question, but Leader nodded.
“Then there can only be one answer,” I said. “Every one of the People represents a genetic mutation, one that confers both sentience and the ability to change shape on the carrier of that mutation.”
Leader stared at me without comprehension.
“It’s in your seed,” I explained. “There must be a change in your seed that confers thinking and shape-shifting.”
Leader said, “Our seed is changed to make us different? How does this occur? Can it replace our People?”
“Before I know for sure, I will need some of your seed.”
***
Fur, Levi, and I sat in the laboratory of GCVS. I waved the genetic analysis readouts in frustration.
“Levi, can’t you see it? All of the species we have encountered have DNA or a closely related molecule. And they have structures analogous to chromosomes. Not to mention physiological forms congruent with Terran biology. The People are no different. Evolution wouldn’t work differently with Lupans than it does with us.”
Levi scowled. “Blasphemy. God created all these forms after he created man.” Before I could jump on that one, he rushed ahead. “If he did create these aliens, which I question. In any case, they do not have souls. They are not human but no more than animals.”
“I can’t deal with your steadfast ignorance and bigotry anymore,” I snapped.
Levi’s face darkened, and his stocky body became rigid. “You don’t speak to a rebbe like that. You don’t speak to me like that.” He rubbed his scar so hard I thought he might draw blood. “I am your spiritual advisor, and you risk your soul.”
I stared at him in amazement as my stomach churned. “My soul? Oh, of course, Rebbe. How foolish of me, Rebbe. You have my most abject apologies, Rebbe. I don’t know what came over me, Rebbe.” I glared at him. “Why don’t you just fuck off?”
His eyes widened to black pools of hate. He looked at Fur, who clearly was poised to step between us, looked back at me, but said nothing. After a few moments, he turned on his heel and marched out, his back as straight as if he had a steel post rammed up his tuches.
Fur said, “I think you just might have pushed him past his limit. You may regret what he does.”
I sighed. “I can’t help it. The man is beyond comprehension. Let’s finish this up.”
Fur took the readout from me and gazed at it. “The People are only males. Therefore, the mutated gene has to be on their version of the Y chromosome, so every time this mutation occurs, it creates a new member of the People. Leader said that they watched the wild wolves and when they identified an affected cub, they removed it and raised it themselves.”
“Yeah,” I added. “The cubs were recognized when they shape-shifted spontaneously. It seems to take a couple of years to get that under control. But why all of a sudden are there no more mutations and no more affected cubs? That’s what makes no sense.”
Fur’s brow creased. “Well, what are the usual causes of changes in DNA? Radiation. Chemicals. Viruses. I suppose that if any of those were responsible, they could have been removed from the environment, but that’s hard to imagine in this civilization.”
I nodded. “Viruses don’t cause mutations. They insert their own genetic material into cells. Most of the mutations important for evolution occur when a cell divides and it makes a faulty copy of its DNA. I agree that chemicals and radiation are not likely here. In any case, most mutations are random, not something this specific. It has to be something else.”
We puzzled silently for a few minutes until a thought hit me.
“Wait a minute. What if we’re dealing with a segment of DNA that is inherently unstable? There are plenty of examples of that in humans and animals. Like the fragile X chromosome in humans. Say some Y chromosomes have a fragile area that can mutate to the sentience gene. Every time that occurs, that particular defective Y is removed from the wild wolf population because one of the People is born.”
Fur added, “So, over time, there will be fewer and fewer carriers with the defective Y until there are no more. And no more sentient cubs.”
“Right. But how do we fix this?”
Fur smiled. “What they need is a population of sentient females who carry the critical gene on their X chromosomes. Then the People are self-reproducing and no longer rely on a chance mutation in the wild wolves.”
“That’s it, Fur. Brilliant. And it won’t matter if the gene is dominant or recessive, because it will be on all X and Y chromosomes.”
“What is ‘brilliant,’ Berger?” Levi couldn’t stay away, but acid dripped from his words.
I grimaced. “We have figured out a way to solve the People’s problem. The male Lupans carry a mutated gene for sentience. We’ll isolate and copy it, then insert it onto the X chromosomes in ova from wild female wolves. Once we fertilize the ova with sperm from the sentient males, we will have offspring, both males and females, who all carry the critical gene. From there on, the People will be a self-reproducing population, not one that depends on a rare chance mutation to survive.”
“But this would take years.” Levi’s face went from dark to pale in seconds.
I laughed. “Not what you think. The forced embryonic maturation incubators we got on Sammara can accomplish what we need to do in a couple of weeks. The People can take care of the babies from there.”
“Weeks? We should never have come at all. Now you tell me weeks?” His black eyes bored into mine. “You deny God, Berger, but now you endeavor to play God for these abominations. So be it.” His eye did not twitch, and he made no threats. He turned and left.
This behavior worried me more than his usual belligerent ravings. Well, I could do little now.
***
I explained our plan to Leader and a cohort of his pack, simplifying as much as I could. There were many perplexed thoughts, particularly when I told them we would have to tranquilize and collect ova from wild females and fertilize those with “seed” from themselves. I would have bet anything that some of the more recent sentient offspring were the result of breedings between the People in their wolf forms and the wild females. This behavior would not have been widespread since, if discovered, it would cause permanent loss of face in their stratified society. I wondered if the mange might have been picked up from the feral wolves after such an encounter and passed back to the People.
The collection of ova was not difficult. I had Ruthie set the GCVS down on the plain in the area of a wolf pack, on directions from a guide Lupan who came with us. Fur and I followed the Lupan to a grove of trees. We stayed downwind and crept up to a clearing where the pack rested. Fur raised the trank rifle and shot two females in quick succession. We had decided to take no more than two from any pack to diversify the gene pool. The rest of the pack jumped up in confusion, but when our Lupan guide stepped into the open and growled, they dispersed into the wood.
I did quick laparoscopies and harvested eight ripe ova from each female. We repeated this effort five more times, so we had ova from twelve females, then headed back to the settlement.
When we met with Leader again, I explained the plan. “We will use four eggs from each female to produce young. All of the young, males and females, will be of the People.”
“That
is good,” Leader said. “You will use my seed for all. We will have strong cubs.”
I frowned and glanced at Fur, who suppressed a smile.
“Um, no, Leader. That won’t work.” I plunged ahead despite a growl from the Lupan. “Every ovum must be fertilized by a different one of the People. We need to diversify the gene pool as much as possible.”
Leader shook his head, mouth open. I didn’t think I was getting through to him.
“Think of it this way. If we used your seed to produce all the pups, then they would all be just like you.”
“Yes. Good.”
“No. Not good. You are the strongest and most impressive of the People. If every one of the males from this breeding produced you, no one would be dominant. They would fight each other for control, perhaps killing each other off until only one remained. Then this whole effort would have been wasted.”
Leader shrugged. “We would have females. We could breed them.”
“And this would be done by a few dominant males and you would have the same problem again. The whole point here is to give you a new population of young males and females. The rest of the People are aging. Yes, you can breed the new young female People, but you need those young males for your future.”
Not convinced, Leader grunted and turned away.
Before I lost him, I said, “Leader, you must be the first to donate your seed. You may have the first choice of eggs. We have images of the females that match the eggs. Then you may choose the other forty-seven males to participate.”
He turned back to me. “I will look at the images.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing like selling a little alien porn.
As we walked back to the GCVS to prepare the lab and incubators, Fur grinned at me. “This one might surpass anything we have done yet. Cy Berger, father to werewolves.”
I snorted and punched him on the arm.
He laughed. “As impressive as the People are, shape-shifting and all, these relative Goliaths were in danger of being brought down by a bunch of microscopic Davids. Before we ‘play God,’ we do have to deal with a bunch of mangy curs.”
CHAPTER 20
The Galactic Circle Veterinary Service Page 28
