Sapphire's Place - The Genesis Factor by Bob Arnold

I read recently that NASA launched a satellite to collect particles from the Sun and return them to earth for study. The satellite is scheduled to bring its cargo back in 2004. The satellite is supposed to be snagged in mid-air with a helicopter as it drifts back to earth via parachute. It will then be taken to a biologically protected facility. Although it is unlikely that the satellite will return anything hazardous I wonder what would happen if…

The Genesis Factor

By Bob Arnold

To say that the changes in our world brought on by the accidental release of the Genesis Factor were great would be an understatement at best. They shook our world to its very core with the sweeping implications of a permanent biological change to the entire human race.

It all started in August 2001 when the existing United States space agency launched their Genesis satellite. Its purpose was to collect solar particles over a 2 year period and return them to Earth in 2004. I must admit that it performed its task exactly as designed. I wonder now if the engineers had known what the returning cargo would contain and the changes it would make to humanity if they would have even build it. The launch was broadcast from a live on-board TV camera to the eager eyes of the launch team on the ground. The launch itself and the resulting live video was spectacular.

In 2004 after completing the mission it returned to a successful parachute drop and pickup via helicopter. The satellite was taken to a specially built biologically secure area for examination. Every precaution possible at the time was taken to ensure that contamination to the samples could not happen and that contamination of our Earth would not result. They never counted on an alien virus so strange that only today in the year 2008 are we beginning to understand what happened.

As we understand today, the virus would not have survived a direct passage through our atmosphere since it would have burned up on re-entry from the heat generated on an object entering the atmosphere at high speed. The satellite however had collected some of the space virus on its solar particle collectors. They were protected from the heat of re-entry by the satellite’s heat shielding. Scientists now suspect that the Earth may have been bombarded by the virus for hundreds of thousands of years. We were always protected from infection by the sterilizing effects of our thick atmosphere heating up anything that enters it from space. It doesn’t take more than a 500 degrees of heat to destroy the virus either.

Sadly, science at the time could only detect what looked to be a light powder substance on the collecting screens. Extensive testing indicated no life present and some unusual chemical combinations that deserved further study. We know today that the virus was unlike anything else scientists had ever seen. We still are not certain how exactly it escaped containment but it did. The results changed humanity forever.

The first effects were felt around the area hosting the containment facility. By the time the cause of the disease was determined it was already too late to stop it. The virus became airborne and began multiplying from infected hosts at an incredible rate. Scientists of the time figured that within 2 weeks the entire planet would be infected with no way to stop it.

It infected only humans. Any other living thing on the planet was totally immune to the effects of virus but it could infect other living things as a repository to breed again. The disease in humans started as cold-like symptoms. The major changes started with the person’s hair falling out completely. Every hair anywhere on the body just dropped off. Next the person’s genitalia reduced in size until it disappeared. All that was left were two openings, one for liquid waste, one for solid waste. The skin turned a light green in color as facial features re-arranged. The nose disappeared leaving only the mouth and eyes on the face. The eyes grew at least three times larger then a normal human’s and gained the ability to see in almost total darkness. The ears disappeared, being replaced with only a small collapsible opening on each side of the head. The skin, as it changed color, grew tough and almost rubber like in consistency while remaining very supple. The fingers on each hand combined to leave only two actual fingers and the thumb on each hand. Arms and legs both reduced in bulk until only thin limbs remained. Anyone looking at one of the modified humans would have instantly thought of the old stereotype of the “little green man from mars” except that the resulting being had absolutely no sexual organs or apparent characteristics at all.

Within the 2 week period every man, woman and child on the planet was changed into the modified form. The lone exception was that pregnant woman remained normal until after childbirth. The child was delivered in the new form and the mother reverted to the new form a few weeks after the birth. Then someone discovered that the form had an additional power. One could, by focusing the mind, cause the body to revert to the old male or female form you had before the infection. More important was the fact that anyone could now select EITHER the male or female form of a “normal” human or remain in the new form at will. It should be noted here that children before the age of puberty were locked into the new form until puberty came and activated their changing abilities. While they no longer had external genitals, an internal gland in the new form was now responsible for the maturation process of the new body.

With all of the changes going on national governments were thrown into absolute chaos at trying to regulate the new population’s abilities. Further investigation into the abilities of the new form showed that the new body could manufacture its own nourishment if exposed to light and a very few basic chemicals that could be absorbed through the skin from the air or ground. It was also learned the new body form had remarkable abilities to resist the crushing depths of the lowest point in any of Earth’s oceans or the total vacuum of space. The virus had passed along its own ability to survive even in the harshest of environments.

Added to that were the disappearance of quite a few of the major and minor religions. They simply could not adapt to the concepts involved in the ability of the population to be either or neither sex any time they wished. The laws in many places against or in support of “single sex” marriages became meaningless as did any differentiation in gender. When you could be either gender or no gender at all as needed why was there a need for rules? For that matter, in the new body form there was no need even for clothes. There was just nothing to hide any more or any reason to wear clothes in the new form since the body required none.

There were no mass deaths or riots because of the change. In fact once the population got used to the change and adapted life to accommodate it the Earth returned to as normal a routine as was possible. Everyone seems to be happy and life has resumed although not exactly as before because of the changes. Most are for the better I think since all of the fighting and bickering has stopped.

Even the entertainment industry felt the effects of the transformation. One of the countries leading porn stars found a new career as a professional wrestler when not filming adult movies. Several all boy music groups soon had hits as all girl groups. Even the evening news was not immune. One network decreed that all news personnel had to appear in the new form on the air.

Even medical science took a hit. The virus, while changing humanity forever, wiped out almost all other forms of illness. In the new form, lifespan was estimated to be over 200 years. The longer you stayed in the form, the longer you lived. Most people took to only doing what was needed in their previous forms and spent most of their time in the new form.

My time is short and I must conclude this tale. I have been in Earth orbit for over two years now aboard the first and only space craft to visit Mars. The crew was all human since we left shortly before the Genesis satellite was retrieved. The duration of the mission kept us away from the Earth while all of this happened. We stayed in touch with the Earth while all of the changes and problems were going on.

As I said, I’ve been aboard the ship for two years now, at least one of those alone. The others elected to return to Earth a year ago and go through the change to rejoin their families. I stayed behind to tend to the ship since it has the last remaining storehouse of pure true human gene samples aboard. I, William Carpenter, am in effect the last true human remaining anywhere on or above Earth. That and the gene pool aboard the ship may be the only chance the Earth has if they want to attempt to reverse the virus damage. The problem is that supplies are running out. I have less than 24 hours of life support left. Any new supplies of oxygen or food would be contaminated and not only change me but destroy the genetic samples. I have 3 choices.

1) Do nothing and die.

2) Use one of the stasis tubes to go into hibernation in the hopes that someone on earth will be able to find an antidote to the virus so it won’t infect me or the gene pool samples.

3) Use the last escape pod to return to Earth and undergo the change like everyone else sealing the fate of the human race to remain as the virus has changed it.

If you’re reading this then someone has come to explore what’s left of the ship, possibly in a few years or a hundred years or more. I know what my choice will be and in about 2 hours I’ll go through with it. What would yours be?