Echoes Of Honor

retardation. But what resulted here was worse—much worse. It destroyed a portion of the chromosome necessary for early embryonic development.'

'Which means, My Lady?' Sullivan asked intently.

'It means that it produced an embryonic lethal mutation in males, Your Grace,' Allison said simply.

This time the Reverend came bolt upright in his chair, and she nodded to the display still glowing above the coffee table.

'Any male embryo with this mutation cannot be carried to term,' she said. 'Female embryos each have two X chromosomes, however, which gives them the chance for an extra copy of the destroyed gene. And the lyonization process, which inactivates one X chromosome in a female, almost always inactivates the structurally damaged one in cases like this, which means that, unlike males with the same problem, they survive.'

'But in that case—' Sullivan stared into the holo for several seconds, then looked back at Allison. 'If I understand you correctly, My Lady, you’re saying that no male child with this mutation could live?' She nodded. 'In that case, how could our ancestors possibly have survived? If everyone who received the benign mutation also received this one, then how were any living male children born at all?'

'The two mutations are linked in that they were both introduced by the same vector, Your Grace, but that’s the only linkage between them. Everyone got the intended mutation—well, that’s probably an overstatement. Let’s say that everyone who survived got the intentional one, but the unintentional one, fortunately, had incomplete penetrance. That means that thirty percent or so of the males didn’t express the mutation and so survived—but even those who survived could be carriers. To use the Fragile X analogy again, the fragile site from that disease is seen in forty percent of the cells of affected males, but carriers may not show the fragile site at all.'

'I... see,' Sullivan said very slowly.

'There was nothing anyone could have done about it, Your Grace. The original modification was essential if your people were to survive at all. It had to be made, and even assuming that any of the original med team were still alive by the time the harmful side effect began to manifest, and even assuming that they still had the technical capability for genetic level examinations, it was too late to do anything about it,' Allison said quietly, and sat back to wait.

'Sweet Tester,' Sullivan murmured at last, his voice so soft Allison hardly heard him. Then he pushed himself all the way back in his chair and inhaled deeply. He gazed at her for endless seconds, then shook himself.

'I feel certain that you must have felt very confident in your findings before you brought them to my attention, My Lady. May I also assume that your documentation of them will be sufficient to convince other experts of them?'

'Yes, Your Grace,' she said positively. 'For one thing, it explains the two things about your population which have most puzzled the Star Kingdom’s geneticists from the beginning of the Alliance.' Sullivan raised an eyebrow, and she shrugged. 'I’ve already mentioned the incredible rapidity with which your ancestors evolved a ‘natural’ defense against heavy metals. That was number one. But a disparity in male-female birth rates on the scale of Grayson’s, while not all that unusual under distressed conditions, seldom lasts as long as yours has.'

'I see.' He gazed at her meditatively, then drank more tea. 'And is there anything which can be done about this, My Lady?'

'It’s really too early for me to say yes or no to that one, at least with any degree of confidence. I’ve isolated two or three possible approaches, but the site of the problem may well make things difficult, because the mutated gene on the X is near the zinc-finger X protein gene. That’s a key gene in sex determination, and it’s at the Xp22.2—' She paused as his expression began to indicate that he was lost once more.

'It’s at a locus where changes can involve literally dozens of disease states, Your Grace,' she simplified. 'Many of those diseases are lethal, and others can cause disorders of sex determination. We know a lot more about sex differentiation than whoever whipped up your survival modification did, but we still dislike meddling with it, and particularly in this area. There’s a lot of room for small errors to have large consequences, and even if we avoid the more dangerous disease states, the Beowulf Code specifically prohibits genetic manipulation in order to predetermine the sex of a child.' She grimaced. 'There were some very unpleasant—and shameful—episodes relating to that in the first and second centuries Ante Diaspora, and I’m afraid they’ve been repeated from time to time on some of the more backward colony worlds since. Nonetheless, I think I could probably at least ameliorate the situation. But whatever I do, it will take time to perfect the methodology... and probably result in at least some decreased fertility among your planet’s male population.'

'I see,' he said again, and switched his eyes to the holo image above the coffee table once more. 'Have you spoken to the Sword’s health authorities about this yet, My Lady?' he asked.

'Not yet,' Allison admitted. 'I wanted to be certain of my data before I did, and then your visit to Harrington gave me the opportunity to speak to you first. Given the role your Church plays in the day-to-day life of Grayson, I thought it might be wiser to speak to you first.'

'Obviously Father Church will have to address the issue,' Sullivan agreed, 'but we who serve him have learned bitter lessons about meddling in secular affairs. I believe you should draw this to the Sword’s attention as soon as convenient, My Lady. If my offices can be of assistance to you in this, please tell me.'

'I appreciate the offer, Your Grace, but I have the channels to take care of that myself.'

'Good. And if I may offer one bit of advice—or, perhaps, make a request?'

'Certainly you may, Your Grace,' Allison said. Of course, I don’t have to follow the advice if it violates my own professional oaths, she thought, bracing herself for some last-minute swerve towards suppression of her findings.

'This information must be made public, and the sooner the better,' he said firmly, 'yet it would be wiser, I think, to allow the Sword to make the announcement.' She cocked her head at him, and he twitched his shoulders with a small, apologetic smile. 'You remain a woman, a foreigner, and—if you will forgive the term—an ‘infidel.’ We learned from your daughter that those were not necessarily bad things, yet some of our people, especially the more conservative, remain uneasy with the notion of women in positions of authority. Including, alas, myself from time to time. I wrestle with it in prayer, and with the Comforter’s aid, I feel I have made some progress, yet I had hoped that Lady Harrington would—'

He broke off, his expression sad, and Allison felt a brief, terrible stab of hurt deep down inside. 'I had hoped Lady Harrington would live long enough to change our minds,' she completed the thought for him, and felt her eyes sting. Well, she didn’t. But that doesn’t mean other people can’t pick up the torch for her, and I can damned well be one of them! Howard Clinkscales’ request flickered in the back of her mind as the thought flashed past, but she only looked at Sullivan and nodded.

'I know, Your Grace.' Her voice was just a bit husky. Then she inhaled deeply. 'And I understand. I have no problem with allowing Protector Benjamin’s people to make the announcement. Besides, there’s no huge rush about this—your planet has survived for the next best thing to a thousand years with the problem, and I’m nowhere near devising a corrective procedure that I’d feel comfortable recommending, anyway. Better to go through channels and possibly even give the Sword a little while to consider the best way to go public... and what position the Protector should take when it hits the ’faxes.'

'That was very much my own thought,' Sullivan told her. 'Nonetheless, I also believe I’ll personally suggest to the Protector that you should be present—and clearly credited with the discovery—when the announcement is made.'

'You will?' Allison blinked in surprise, and he shrugged.

'My Lady, you did discover it, and you and the clinic your daughter endowed will undoubtedly take the lead in devising any ‘corrective procedure’ which may be found. Besides, if we’re ever to overcome that ‘foreign and female’ problem among our more mulish people,' he smiled and flicked one finger briefly at his own chest, 'then we dare not miss an opportunity such as this.'

'I see.' Allison considered him with fresh thoughtfulness. Reverend Sullivan was not only less comfortable with the changes in his society, on a personal level, than his predecessor had been; he was also aware that he was. His faith and his intellect impelled him to accept and support them, but a part of him longed for the stability and comfortably defined roles of the planet on which he had been raised, and that part resisted his own duty to help demolish those definitions. Which made his last suggestion even more