by Jack L Knapp
Book 1, the Darwin’s World Series
Darwin’s World
An Epic of Survival
By Jack L Knapp
COPYRIGHT
Darwin’s World
Copyright © 2013 by Jack L Knapp
Cover Images from BigStockPhoto.com
Cover Art Copyright 2014 Mia Darien
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Disclaimer: The persons and events depicted in this novel were created by the author’s imagination; no resemblance to actual persons or events is intended.
Product names, brands, and other trademarks referred to within this book are the property of the respective trademark holders. Unless otherwise specified, no association between the author and any trademark holder is expressed or implied. Nor does the use of such trademarks indicate an endorsement of the products, trademarks, or trademark holders unless so stated. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark, registered trademark, or service mark.
For Kevin
Table of Contents
Prologue 6
Chapter 1 14
Chapter 2 19
Chapter 3 24
Chapter 4 26
Chapter 5 31
Chapter 6 36
Chapter 7 41
Chapter 8 46
Chapter 9 52
Chapter 10 57
Chapter 11 64
Chapter 12 69
Chapter 13 72
Chapter 14 78
Chapter 15 82
Chapter 16 88
Chapter 17 93
Chapter 18 98
Chapter 19 103
Chapter 20 108
Chapter 21 113
Chapter 22 118
Chapter 23 123
Chapter 24 127
Chapter 25 132
Chapter 26 138
Chapter 27 143
Chapter 28 148
Chapter 29 153
Chapter 30 159
Chapter 31 164
Chapter 32 169
Chapter 33 175
Chapter 34 180
Epilogue 186
The Trek, an Excerpt: 189
Books by the author: 195
About the Author: 196
Prologue
I waited, as patiently as possible considering the circumstances. They’d brought me here to die. Life no longer interested me. Aged muscles and joints, pains, and memory with more holes than a termite-infested stump had seen to that. My close relatives and friends were dead, most of them long ago.
But something felt different. The pains were gone. How could this be?
This room was different too, not the one the hospital had put me in. The walls here were white, not the pale beige I remembered. Where were the machines, the hanging intravenous drip, the wires connecting the machines to my body? Why had I been moved? Was it too much to ask, to allow an old man to die in peace?
My thoughts wouldn’t focus. I drifted, drowsy, half-awake, confused, but my bladder was insistent. There was an open door and I could make out bathroom fixtures in an adjoining room. Could I make it in time?
Could I even walk? I felt no pain, so maybe...
Thoughts muzzy, driven by the familiar morning urge, I pulled the coverlet aside and got up. I stumbled briefly, then braced my hands against the wall for a moment. After regaining my balance, I straightened and entered the bathroom.
I used the toilet, cleaned myself, and flushed. My muscles were waking up, becoming useful, but even after washing my hands and face, I didn’t feel alert.
How could I be walking?
Paramedics had brought me in on a stretcher, terminal, suffering from a variety of age-related diseases. I knew I was dying, and I remembered feeling relieved that the process was, finally, almost over. I understood, without need for religion, that dead I’d be as I was before I was born, before awareness had come. Living was uncomfortable, the process of dying a bit more so, but being dead, that didn’t bother me at all. I was ready for life to end.
But I felt none of the symptoms that had plagued my last few years. Walking into the bathroom had been easy, no distress, no pain. Except for that brief stumble, my muscles had worked as they had when I was young. Even the ancient, worn cartilage, source of stabbing pains in my back and knees, had felt--resilient.
The bathroom was simple. The walls were also white, but not glaringly so. There was a toilet, a basin with a towel, and a shower enclosure with a larger towel on a rod.
If the change was due to drugs, I decided to take advantage of the respite while I could. I stepped into the shower and slid the glass doors closed. As soon as I did this, warm water sprayed gently over my skin.
A recessed shelf held soap and shampoo, so I washed my hair and bathed. But even this familiar process was different, strange. My hair was short and quite thick, my arms faintly hairy. The hairs were dark, as was the small patch on my upper chest. More strangeness; my hair had been sparse and gray.
Hadn’t it? Had that all been a dream? Or was I dreaming now?
I saw no controls for the shower, but when I slid the door open, the water flow stopped. I toweled myself dry, hung the towel over the shower enclosure, and returned to the room where I’d awakened.
If I was dreaming, it was the best dream I'd had in years.
The bed had been made in my absence. One wall of the room now looked out on a tranquil forest scene. Another change had taken place, one with more significance. A man stood by the wall, watching me. There was now a chair by the bed, so I sat down.
“Your name is Matt,” the man said. “Do you remember?”
I did. That much hadn't changed.
“How did I get here? The last thing I remember was paramedics wheeling me in, but this doesn't look like any hospital I've ever seen."
“This is phase one of your rehabilitation,” the man said, ignoring my question. “You will be here for some time while we complete your transformation. Don’t expect to understand everything immediately, but you will know more next time we wake you.”
Rehabilitation? How could a dying old man be rehabilitated?
"How did I get here? Why do I feel different?"
“I will explain as much as I can. You will fall asleep shortly, a natural part of the process, so I have only a few minutes.
“I brought you here from the timeline you were born in. In that time, you would have died. Your body had begun to break down and death would have occurred shortly. We stabilized your condition and brought you here so that more advanced medical treatments could begin. I selected you because you appear suitable for my purpose.”
I didn’t understand most of what he'd said, but I wasn’t worried. Had he given me some sort of tranquilizer?
He continued, “You have been given appropriate medical care. I will now complete your transformation. This will take some time, but you will not recall what happens. Some of the procedures are painful. You
will alternate naturally between sleep and wakefulness during the remainder of your transformation. During wakefulness, you will train your body and mind to accept the changes.
“You will have more questions. I can answer some of them, but despite the changes you’ve undergone, you lack the capability to understand all that is happening to you.”
“How long will I be asleep this time?” For some reason, that seemed important to me.
“As long as necessary,” he replied.
I was drowsy, I wanted to ask another question, but he disappeared even as I drifted into sleep.
#
Waking up went faster and this time, there was no residual drowsiness. I now remembered a lot more about my previous life. Growing old, preparing to die, that had been no dream.
I got up and stretched, then bent down and touched my toes. Wonderful! Such a simple thing, so easy now, but I’d lost the ability to do that a long time ago.
The bath worked as I remembered; I showered again, then returned to the bedroom. Clothing lay across the bed now, so I got dressed. The underwear felt silky, yet soft and absorbent. The socks were the sort I remembered, some sort of knitted fabric with a cushioned sole. The boots were soft leather or something resembling it, the shirt and trousers were familiar in cut, although the fabrics were unusual. They were lightweight and had a smooth finish, but the buttons, hook and loop closures, and zippers were familiar.
The man appeared as soon as I finished dressing, standing against the wall as he’d done before.
“This is your second waking period and much of the physical work on your body is complete. There will continue to be mental changes, but physical changes will be so small now as to be undetectable. You must integrate your body’s muscles and nervous system yourself through exercise. The transformation will add strength and coordination as your body and brain adjust to each other.”
“You mentioned that my body was breaking down, that I would die. But I’m not about to die now, am I?
“No. That body was unacceptable for our purposes. We extracted your genetic code and recorded your memories before beginning the transformation. We retained most of those, because they hold the key to your personality. Some that I considered unimportant were excised and others were added. I then regrew your body, using your genetic code but modifying it to delete harmful mutations and correcting defects, before instilling your own memories, augmented by the other memories I implanted. This will prepare you for your new life.”
“You did all this yourself?”
“I controlled the process. Most of the changes are carried out by machines. I am one of several engaged in this activity.
“Your memories are important for our purposes. Changes in brain structure and growth of additional neurons would have left you without coherent memories, so I provided what the machines recorded to your new body as soon as the physical restructuring permitted. You’re physically equivalent now to what you were at age twenty. Mentally, I estimate that you will be approximately equal in cognitive ability to someone in his late thirties once the integration is complete. Your memories will remain those of a man who lived a long time as your culture measured such things.
“The transformation is nearly finished, needing only final integration. When the process is complete, you will be transplanted to a different timeline.
“You may die after being transplanted, but we cannot estimate when that will happen. It may be that you will live much longer than you expected, or you may die during the first day after transplanting. We cannot predict who will live, but those who do will have the curiosity, determination, and will to survive that we seek.
“For our purposes, it does not matter who survives. Remember that you were terminal when we harvested you, so every day that you survive now is a day of life you would not have had.”
“You said about age twenty as far as my physical development is concerned?” I asked.
“Just so,” he responded. “The concept has little meaning. It’s simply where I stopped development during your rehabilitation, at an age nearing the end of physical adolescence. In your time, such changes began at birth and continued until death. Early development made you larger and stronger as your body morphed from baby through toddler, child, and adolescent, before becoming adult. You are physically adult now, but barely so.
“From that point on, you added experience and learning but most physical changes were harmful. Your cells accumulated damage, and some of the changes altered your genetic code. Your muscles weakened, joints became stiff, cartilage ripped, atrophied, and was resorbed. Over time the changes became so overwhelming that life was no longer sustainable.
“I repaired the damage during regrowth. As a part of preparing your body to make you suitable for transplanting, I also removed the tendency of your cells for programmed death. You should know that the changes cannot prevent future mutations. Radiation and chemical influences will be encountered after you leave here. I cannot predict what will happen to you, except to repeat that your current DNA sequence contains no known weaknesses. Another way to state this is to tell you that you are less susceptible to genetic change, but less susceptible does not mean you are immune.
“It is no longer certain when you will die. Disease is unlikely to kill you in the near term, but we cannot be certain that a disease may not evolve in future which will terminate your life. Still, your own body will no longer kill you until an accumulation of damage cancels the work we’ve done.
“You can die from a multitude of other causes. Trauma, blood loss, drowning, a broken neck, those things and more can kill you. A knife or spear that pierces your heart, lungs, or brain will cause death. Given time, your body will heal from lesser injuries, but there’s no certainty that you will have the necessary time.
“Physical changes within your brain caused your later memories to fade, although your earlier memories remained nearly intact. I supplemented those memories with some that are generic, while others are highly specialized. It would not have been possible for you to acquire all the memories you now possess in a single lifetime.”
"Why me?"
"My analysis of your personality, gained initially from records but later by direct examination, persuaded me that you would be a suitable candidate. We have been more selective recently because so many early transplant efforts failed.”
I thought that over. “You say that you intend to ‘transplant’ me? Can you explain why you’re doing this?”
“Certainly. I am from your future, in one sense a descendant of yours, but the term is meaningless since so many generations have passed. You are one of hundreds among my direct ancestors. Do you understand the mathematics of this concept? You had two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents. Generations became longer as people waited to produce children, but even so, more than eighty thousand persons who lived during your time are ancestors of mine. Should I go back a few generations more, I am related to everyone in your world. I gained a suite of genes from the genetic pool, just as all humans do, so in that sense we are all related. Some are more closely related than others, such that recent mutations are more likely to be shared, but since harmful mutations have been excised from the human genetic suite, differences between individuals are less pronounced.
“Our science is more advanced, but despite all we’ve done, humanity is dying. It may be that science has done too much. We have conquered death from what your time called 'natural causes', yet people continue to die. We don’t die from age or disease, but we also no longer reproduce. Earth’s human population is perhaps a tenth of the peak numbers reached in the 21st Century. Numbers declined naturally thereafter and this continues, as it has done for more than three centuries.
"The human population of your time numbered around seven billions, but there are less than one hundred million people alive today and the decline continues. We estimate that humanity will become extinct within a century or two, possibly less.
“We explore
d the solar system in the 22nd Century, but found nothing of more than transient interest. There is nothing on other planets that we need. We transform ordinary matter as needed and we conserve and recycle what we cannot transform. We might have established viable colonies throughout the system, but we lost interest in doing so.
“We never went beyond the boundaries of the home system. Einstein’s limit prevented that at first, and by the time we gained the ability to evade that limit and colonize planets beyond the home system, it no longer seemed important to do so.
“The Earth provides all that we need, but our society has no future other than continuing decline. A few of us refuse to accept that inevitability, extinction. Simply put, we are attempting to change the future for our species. A discovery, made late in the 23rd Century, may prevent it from happening.
"We have the ability to harvest a human specimen such as yourself from our past. Perhaps a thousand of us are engaged in this effort. Each of us accepts the responsibility for harvesting and preparing a subject for transplant. There are similarities in what we do, but also differences. The differences in method may be beneficial, but we cannot yet say.
“We place our transplants into a parallel timeline on an Earth where humans did not survive. We chose this because the Earth of that dimension is physically similar to our present world.
"Life there is hard, and there is danger. Survival will not be easy and the unfit will not survive. I have prepared you to face the dangers and overcome hardships, but whether you do so is up to you. We believe that some of the transplants will succeed, but we accept that some, even among those we are transplanting now, will not. We cannot say which transplant has the qualities necessary for success.
“I have sent more than a thousand specimens to that dimension. Others have sent as many, and some may have sent more. I have not yet begun harvesting the offspring of my transplants but I will do so when I deem them ready. I will then prepare the selected individuals for transplanting here to my own world and time.
