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The human twitched, but his eyes stayed closed. Carefully, the Ceph removed the long, thin syringe from the human’s exposed brain. He moved very slowly, as to not cause any unintended damage to the fragile organ. If he messed up now, all the work of the past years would be ruined.
Finally, the metal left the tissue without any audible sound. With a sigh of relief, Pekok put aside the needle and started to re-attach the piece of skull he had previously removed to have better access to Felix’ brain. Not many procedures left now, he was almost done. Only slight changes were left now.
Over the years, he had put his loyal human servant through a number of sophisticated gene therapies. Originally, his goal had been to prolong the life of his subject, but over time he realized all the possibilities that opened up in front of him.
Humans couldn’t edit their genetic information at will. In fact, they had spent centuries trying to develop methods with which they hoped to cure diseases but ended up banning everything. Why? When Pekok had asked Felix this, the only answer had been fear. Humans were afraid of actively changing their own genes and instead rather relied on the quirks of evolution. It would have been funny, had it not been so sad.
Humanity had knowingly thrown away the only tool that could have made them truly superior over the Cephs because they were afraid of the consequences. Afraid of people creating what they deemed a “superhuman”. As if that was something bad! As if a superior human being wasn’t the thing to strive for!
No wonder they held so much hatred for the Ceph royals and the Ceph population in general. Evolution had voluntarily provided to Cephs what humans had rejected. Pekok wondered if they knew how badly they had ruined their own future. He doubted it. Not even most of the royal Cephs had had the ability to think further than just a few hundred years, and that had ultimately been their death sentence. He himself? He was constantly thinking several thousand years into the future.
If he would still be alive by then was a question that had occurred to him more than once, but he didn’t think it was that relevant. If he died of natural circumstances before reaching his goal, it wouldn’t be his fault. But he certainly wouldn’t be the one responsible for his own demise, because he had failed to acknowledge all potential outcomes.
After a few more stitches, Felix’ head was fixed again. His blond hair was sticky with blood, as he had refused to let Pekok shave it. The attachment to some dead cells seemed weird to Pekok, but he had accepted it. It meant slightly more work for him, but it was necessary to keep his human’s emotional health in mind. And if he needed his hair at chin-length to be happy, so be it.
Felix would need to stay anesthetized for a few more days before Pekok could wake him up again. The mixture he had injected into several parts of his brain needed to do its work as undisturbed by movement as possible.
Pekok had used a method originally developed by humans, which they had used for gene therapy before it had been banned. A so-called lentivirus carrying the DNA of interest served as a delivery system for the edits he intended to make. It was especially useful for him, as this virus could infect all kinds of cells and wasn’t restricted to either cells that didn’t divide anymore or cells that were still dividing.
Especially in the human brain, both could be found, although most didn’t divide anymore. Still, to make lasting changes, he needed to reach them all.
As a result of his experiment, Felix should become less human and adapt more Ceph-like characteristics. Heightened intelligence and certain thought patterns usually not found in humans were only two of the things Pekok hoped for. A hybrid, that’s what he wanted to create. A perfect being. Maybe even more perfect than himself.
Pekok didn’t delude himself with the belief that he was perfect. He knew he was better than most Cephs, and he certainly ranked above all humans, but there was always room for improvement. Those who failed to recognize this were destined to fail.
”Who knows”, Pekok whispered to Felix. ”Maybe one day, you’ll be the father of a new species. Like Adam in several of your human religions. He was created by someone else too.” The thought delighted him, as it put him in the position of God. Why not? He was creating something special. The future.
Deep in thought, he moved to a different room. Painting materials were scattered all over the floor. He had recently picked up art as a way to give his mind a different form to express itself. To his surprise, he had begun to really enjoy it. And according to Felix, he was really good at it.
He looked at his latest creation, a burnt planet, breaking apart from the inside. He had painted it to deal with the silly guilt he occasionally felt. Just twenty years had passed since he had ordered the death of every other Ceph royal. He didn’t regret it, as he still knew that it had been necessary. But a tiny voice inside of him seemed to want him to feel bad about it.
It was annoying.
He picked up the painting and carefully placed it on the floor, leaning against the wall. Then he picked up a paintbrush. A new idea appeared in front of his eyes, inspired by his thoughts about God and creation.
”A Ceph, the creator of a new, improved human race”, he mumbled. ”Now, that’s a religion beings of the future should follow.”
References:
The Lentivirus – An Introduction
Generation of Neurons in the Adult Brain
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