Page 6

Inka and Emil were sitting with the babies. Mera and Pal were relaxing on the grass. Tobais and I were discussing where Maurick was, as he hadn’t arrived that morning.

Kait and Pari were wrestling, egged on by the girls and the children.

Then, there was a thunder of hooves, and Maurick appeared riding wildly. He reined the horse in and jumped off.

I glanced up, concerned, as Maurick’s behaviour was uncharacteristically erratic, given his usual methodical nature. I was even more surprised when Maurick came running up with a big grin.

“Jacques! We need to talk!” Maurick cried in excitement.

I laughed and threw an arm around his shoulder.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes, you’re not going to guess what I’ve done!”

“Oh, ho!” Kait joined the conversation. “What young lady got you in trouble?”

“You arenotgoing to believe me.” Maurick grinned, his strange actions having finally caught the attention of the others.

They all crowded round, asking what Maurick had achieved, all of a similar mind to Kait.

Maurick’s next action was one of the most shocking experiences of my entire existence. He threw back his head and chuckled. That’s all, Maurick simply… laughed. Nothing too drastic, I hear you say. But you forget I’d known this man all my life andneverhad Iseenhim do this.

Laughter was so out of character. I wondered if he’d been drinking, but there was no alcohol smell. Maurick’s obvious excitement was catching.

“What’ve you discovered?” Kait asked. “How we see? We know that already.”

“Maybe our DNA is degrading, and we’re going to turn into mushy piles of jelly!” Pari countered.

“You are so disgusting,” Emil chided, punching Pari’s arm.

“Of course Pari is,” Maurick replied through laughter. “How about discovering the genetics that determine how many children we have?”

Suddenly, Maurick’s eyes were very intense.

“Oh?” Pal said, and I guessed Pal was thinking the same.

“You’re serious,” I muttered, grabbing Maurick.

“Isn’t it marvellous!” That wasn’t a question; that was a statement.

“Genetic tampering,” Inka whispered.

“You shouldn’t even be mentioning that,” Emil added.

Genetic engineering was banned in our society. During our last war, horrible things had been done, and monsters had been created. Following the war’s end, all biological material was completely destroyed, leading to a ban on conducting experiments. The penalty was death. You would not be allowed to explain yourself. Quite simply, you would be killed.

“Does The Core know?” Tobais asked.

“Naturally, we’ve been investigating this for years. Everyone, not just me. The risk is worth it. We’re going to the council. Weassume they’ll allow us to go ahead. The promise of children istoosignificant to restrict the testing.”

I must explain here what Maurick meant.

Kaltons couldn’t have babies when we wanted. Women were only fertile twice in their life. In their entire lifetime, that was the only two chances they got to create a child. The problem was nobody knew when a woman would experience the Phase, as we called it. A female might have her first at the tender age of ten and the second at eleven.

Or she might have the first at ten and the next at four hundred and twenty. Clearly, her age was unsuitable on both occasions, too young or too old. Sadly, it was a virtual potluck. Inka and I were lucky the first Phase happened at the age of twenty-two. As were Emil and Pari.

Unfortunately, some couples would never birth children, and many waited for a woman’s Phase that would never come. It was a cruel and nasty fact of life. Due to the genetic taboo, the idea Maurick announced had never crossed our minds.