‘Dr Walker,’ said Aryel. Eli stood up and turned round to face the room.
‘There’s a very widespread misunderstanding about the rights gems now enjoy.’ Behind him he could hear the air go out of Rob. He cringed inwardly at the thought of how hard this must be for his friend.
‘The fact is you exist in a sort of legal limbo,’ he went on. ‘What the UN acknowledged a year ago was that on the back of the Syndrome society had drifted into allowing certain categories of human beings to be treated as property. That had been illegal in every country of the world for centuries, but when the various governments allowed embryos to be genetically modified beyond what was necessary to avert the Syndrome and other illnesses, they neglected to define the legal status of the resulting people. They just let the gemtechs get on with it.’
Another roar erupted, the bitter flotsam of generations of hurt washing furiously around the room. Aryel let it go on. She raised an eyebrow at Eli when he glanced at her. He raised his own hands for quiet instead. When the noise dropped to a manageable level he pitched his voice over it as Bal had done.
‘I think you have every right to be angry, and we could have a very long discussion about whether they were being collusive or just incompetent, but it was a hundred years ago and I’m not sure it would serve much purpose right now.’ The growl fell back to a murmur. ‘The thing you need to know about the Conference is that it will finally recommend – for Europe at least – what that legal status should be, and what rights gems should have. The expectation is that the various governments within the Union will ratify its recommendations and turn them into law within, say, another year. Since we’re the first to get our act together on this, and assuming it doesn’t all dissolve into chaos, it’s likely that the other continental federations will follow our lead.’
He looked around again and Aryel beckoned him up. She nodded acknowledgement of the shouted questions and checked her tablet while he was mounting the steps. Rob was still there, eyes on the ceiling, sucking air in between his teeth. ‘Sorry, mate,’ Eli muttered. ‘They were starting to think you were avoiding the subject.’
‘I was.’
‘It was making you look bad. They’ve been through worse than straight talk from you and me. And they might have to again.’
He faced the crowd. Aryel looked up.
‘The question everyone seems to be asking is, what about the Declaration?’
Eli looked pointedly at Rob. The Acting Commissioner took a deep breath and stepped up.
‘The Declaration doesn’t actually grant you any unequivocal rights, except for one. It doesn’t grant me any more either. What it sets out are six principles on which it says all laws should be based. All of them, except the sixth, are just restatements of legal tradition, and all of them, except the sixth, allow for exceptions. So the second, for example, says everyone should be free from unwarranted oppression, which implies there might be some form of oppression that is warranted. The third says no one can be forced to work without compensation, but it doesn’t say that the compensation has to be to your liking. And so on. Only the sixth is absolute.’
The giant gem next to Donal raised an astonishingly long arm topped by an astonishingly shaped hand. Aryel picked him out.
‘Mikal.’
‘Thank you, Dr Trench,’ he said politely. ‘Why then are we all under the impression that it was the Declaration that freed us from service to the gemtechs?’
‘Because it did, by reaffirming the negative rights that underpin our legal system – the right not to be locked up, not to have your property taken away, not to be denied a job – unless it is legal to do so. It’s the law which then says under what circumstances those things can be done. And because the legal status of gems had never been defined, setting out those principles was a way of telling governments to stop assuming the same rules didn’t apply to you. It allowed them – obligated them – to stand up to the gemtechs. And that was what got you away.’
Mikal blinked. ‘So you’re saying it’s still possible for laws to be created that would exclude us from having the same rights as normal humans.’
‘Yes.’
Surprisingly the room stayed quiet. The gems were hanging on every word. Eli noted Sally Trieve’s furrowed brow, the sea of white-lipped faces under jewel-coloured hair and the clasped hands of the priest, Tobias, as he bowed his head.
Rob had obviously decided that having got this far into it he needed to be thorough.
‘All the Declaration does is confirm the default position. Some clever lawyers in Tokyo came up with it as a sort of emergency escape route to break the global power of the gemtechs, a way of quickly extending some degree of legal protection to gems. But it was just a stopgap until they could figure out what the new laws for the new people ought to be.’
‘So,’ said Aryel, ‘once gems are formally defined as an artificial subspecies, new laws will be created. Just for us.’
‘That’s the expectation, yes.’
‘And the purpose of the Conference is to confirm us as a subspecies, and to set out this legal structure.’
‘Yes.’
Distressed muttering from the floor. Rob held up his hands. ‘Please, folks, don’t assume that the only possibilities are bad ones. Anyone here ever try to register to vote? No? Why not? Because the Declaration doesn’t state that everyone shall be allowed to participate in a representative democracy. That’s a positive right, and there are at least a few politicians who would like at least some of you to have it.’
Mikal didn’t bother to raise his hand. ‘The opportunity for advantage is the advantage of opportunity.’
Rob blinked back at him, parsing the aphorism. ‘Quite.’
Aryel was checking her tablet.
‘A point of clarification,’ she said. ‘Franko, Aster, Horace and a few others want to know why the sixth principle is different.’
‘Because it’s new. It wasn’t until the Syndrome hit that they really discovered how to do the things that the Sixth protects against. So the lawyers didn’t have to come up with language to accommodate exceptions because there wasn’t an existing body of law to dance around.’
Aryel stepped forward, standing still at the front of the stage until she had their full attention.
‘And now we come to the main point,’ she said quietly. ‘The importance of this moment for all gems – not just here in the Squats or in London, but all over this country, this continent and this planet. In less than two days, around two hundred people are going to arrive in this city, and they’re going to decide our future for us. They’re going to decide whether we’re too different to be allowed to live the same kind of lives that they do. They’re going to decide whether our equality is worth the money it will cost. They’re going to decide not only whether we should have the same rights as them, but whether all gems should have the same rights as each other. They are going to listen to what we have to say about it, but they are also going to listen to the gemtechs. They’re going to tell themselves that they won’t be swayed by what’s happening on the streets and streams, but they are going to find it very difficult to remain detached.
‘They’re going to need to navigate through these issues, and they will want to feel that they have an objective, independent, factual basis for the decisions that they make – not least so they’ll have some cover if things go wrong.
‘Which doesn’t put the person they’ve entrusted to provide them with that evidence in a particularly comfortable position. Whatever his conclusions, I think he deserves a fair bit of credit for being prepared to come here and talk to us at all. Dr Walker.’
It was a good introduction, he had to admit. None of the usual effusiveness about background and qualifications; she hadn’t even said what he was meant to be basing his findings on. She had set out the political context and added a note of sympathy, but was once again leaving it up to him to explain himself and make the right impression.
He stepped forward.
<
br /> ‘Good evening, everyone. My name’s Eli Walker, and I’m a genetic anthropologist. That means I try to identify connections between human genetypes and behaviour. About a year ago, when the Declaration was issued and you all found yourselves entering the neutral zone Bal spoke about, the European Federation asked me to undertake an analysis of what distinguishes gems from norms. I’m not concerned with genetic modification as such. What I look at are the ways people interact and relate to each other – comparing the range of gem behaviour with the range of norm behaviour. The outcome is a report which I’m going to be presenting to the Conference.’
‘What’s it say?’ The shout came from Donal, to a smattering of tense laughter.
Eli shrugged and spread his hands. ‘I can’t actually tell you that, because I’m obliged to reveal the findings to them first. What I can tell you is it focuses on differences that are solely due to genetype. A big part of the work has been correcting for the fact that most gems have – up to now – had a different upbringing and education to most norms, and obviously that has an impact. In other words, the question I’ve been asked to answer is not just whether gem behaviour varies, but what variations are purely down to the engineering. And whether it falls outside the normal range.’
There was confused muttering from the crowd. A few tentative hands were raised. Aryel glanced at her tablet, then up at him. ‘Can you summarise? What exactly is it that you’re trying to work out?’
‘It comes down to three things, I think.’ He held up a hand, hooking his fingers up as he went through them. ‘One – what do we mean by normal? Two – what differences are solely due to having an engineered genetype? and Three – what do we know? Is there enough information about gems to even answer these questions?’
Gaela’s hand shot up.
‘The answer to number three’s going to be yes, isn’t it? I mean we know you’ve got all the gemtech records, and they were always testing and compiling data.’
‘That is an excellent point.’ Eli wondered if it was another setup with Aryel. ‘The answer is that the gemtechs, not having wanted us to get their records in the first place, now take the position that there’s more than enough there to show a clear distinction between gems and norms. What they tend to overlook is how much of that is due to circumstances—’
‘The circumstances being them keeping us as slaves?’ This came, with no small amount of sarcasm, from a gillung man sitting in the front of their contingent. There was a murmur of loud and angry agreement.
‘They would no doubt object to that label,’ Eli replied drily. ‘But essentially, yes. They assigned every gem to a category, based on how marketable your engineered abilities were, and whether you were capable of functioning well enough to exercise those abilities. Then they ran the scores through a matrix to come up with a commercial value. It’s a classification system that ignores the impact of upbringing and quality of life. They think their approach is practical and sensible. I think it’s appalling and perverse. If it makes you feel any better, I am not exactly popular in gemtech circles.’
A smattering of applause began. It built until the whole hall was clapping. A couple of people were on their feet. It was not what he’d expected. Eli looked round at Rob, who was grinning hugely, and over to Aryel. She was studying her tablet, a small smile playing over her lips. She glanced up and met his eyes. She nodded briefly, her face back to serious. He returned his attention to the room and raised his hands.
‘Please, folks, don’t relax just yet. Remember that I still have to provide an objective analysis, whether the results are to my liking or not, and there are two issues which I am frankly still struggling to resolve. The first is that not all gems are the same in terms of intelligence, empathy, social ability. Take this meeting, for example. Everyone who’s here will have those qualities, but we all know that many gems don’t. Aryel was involved in an incident earlier today with someone who I suspect would be an example of that. The expectation is that gems will continue to be categorised on this basis, if nothing else.
‘The second issue is that we still don’t know the full impact of all this engineering, physically, mentally or emotionally. And a concern has been raised that some gems may carry a latent psychopathy, something they may not even know they have, that could have devastating consequences.’
Aryel stepped forward. The sea of faces looked back at them, puzzled and worried. He heard What does that mean? muttered back and forth, like a chorus sung in the round.
‘This,’ she said quietly, ‘is what we really need to talk about.’
*
Something had changed. It wasn’t the pain, pulsing through kicked kidneys, stamped hands and cracked ribs. It wasn’t the way he kept flickering in and out of consciousness, or the taste of blood in his mouth, or the sound of a faint, animal moaning. Something else was different. Maybe he should look. George tried opening his eyes, and found it was harder than anything else he’d ever attempted. Above him he heard voices, and cringed.
‘Look, he’s wakin’ up. Can you hear us? ‘S okay, don’t move.’
These voices were new. He forced his eyes open, squinting against the rain, and discovered another difference: it was no longer falling on his face. Someone was leaning over him.
‘What happened? Can you tell us what happened?’
‘Don’t even know what he is.’ That was a different voice, more distant, less concerned. He had a sense of being surrounded, although he could see only the man who crouched next to him, shielding him from the rain.
‘He looks fine, don’t he?’
George did not think he could look fine. He was finding it hard to breathe. He heard someone whisper, ‘Help. Please help me.’ It sounded like him.
‘What happened, mate? Who did this?’
He coughed, turned his head painfully to the side to spit out blood and a piece of tooth.
‘Gems,’ he mumbled. ‘Please. Help.’
The man started and leaned closer, grabbing his battered face. It hurt.
‘What did you say? Did you say gems did this?’
He nodded, whispered ‘gems’ and ‘help me’ again, but the man seemed to have lost interest. He sprang to his feet.
‘D’you hear that? I told you. God led us here for a reason. He’s one of us. They did this to him! Look at him!’
‘Right you are then, Mac.’
Mac had moved out of his line of sight, and through the rain falling again on his face George could see the shadowy outline of the speaker. He was pulling a glove off with his teeth so he could manipulate the tablet clipped inside his coat.
‘I’ll use a ghost code to get him some help. We can’t stay here.’ His manner was businesslike, matter-of-fact. ‘We’ve got work to do.’
*
A train pulled into the Underground station which George had failed to reach, and a slender gem with luminescent lemon-yellow hair got off. He looked around nervously as he made his way up to street level, hoping to see someone else heading for the Squats. There were few other passengers, none of whom were gems. He supposed that everyone who could would have stayed at home and gone to the meeting. He was sorry to have missed it, would have liked to leave work early, but there was a lot to do and, with so few opportunities around, the job had to come first.
He pulled a hat on, pushing as much of his hair up under it as he could, and hunkered into his coat. He didn’t like having to walk alone with everything that was going on, but waiting around the station in the hope that someone else might turn up wasn’t a good plan either. He’d stick to the main road and walk fast. It wasn’t that late, plus the weather was terrible. He wasn’t likely to run into trouble.
*
The conversation went on and on. Eli was astounded. There was none of the furious rejection or weeping fear he had anticipated. Aryel had explained, succinctly but accurately, what the Bel’Natur report contained and what it might signify. They had quickly understood the implications, and the position in which Eli ha
d been placed.
‘You, sir,’ observed Mikal, ‘are over a barrel.’
The questions they raised were probing, the comments insightful. They were seriously examining the possibility that what Zavcka Klist had suggested might be true.
‘We don’t know everything that’s been engineered into – or out of – us either,’ explained a gillung woman. ‘It’s a question we live with every day. Generally the worry is for our own health, and whether it’s okay to try and have children. This just,’ she spread webbed hands apart, ‘expands the fear.’
Sally and Masoud were asked their opinions. ‘You deal with norms who hurt people, right?’ Aryel read the question off her tablet. ‘What makes them do it?’
Someone asked Tobias what the church’s view was of someone who hadn’t done anything wrong but one day might. ‘That,’ he replied, ‘could describe any one of us.’
The questioner was not satisfied. ‘But what if it’s someone who’s more likely than most?’
‘We believe everyone should have the right to prove they can live a good life, and will be judged on their actions at the end of it. A person with the additional burden we’re talking about needs to be vigilant, and so do their friends. I believe that their best course is to be aware of the danger, and get the help they need to overcome it.’
Sally Trieve was nodding. Masoud looked less sanguine. Eli interjected.
‘What if they can’t?’ he asked. ‘The two issues I mentioned are related. What if the people this flaw occurs in are the very ones who are least able to guard against it?’
Hands went up all over the room. Aryel started picking them out. If George had remained, Eli thought, he might have needed the entire power pack after all.
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