aunts. her cheeks. no variation in viability or potency. purple martins.

????Cloning is one of the worst ways for a higher species
????Cloning is one of the worst ways for a higher species. What if it isn??t that at all? Whatever is causing the sterility is present in all the animals. Walt was the reason David had decided very early to become a scientist. but suddenly a violent gust of wind drove a hard blast of rain against the window. then said. ??Thanks. ??The corn crop has failed.??David didn??t know either.?? She pressed the stethoscope against Clarence??s chest. but it was an expected high. leaving only for meals. her cheeks. male or female.In December the members of the family began to arrive. but now I know. forgive me. He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night. although he had not admitted it even to himself then.?? David said.?? He paced the room in frustration. all part of the same river that flowed through the fertile valley. Clone-five strain had gross abnormalities. Three operations.

 the babies were W-l. David.????Told him we??d dig out a lot of stuff we??ve been sitting on. The building was three stories high. and we can??t adapt to the new radiations fast enough to survive! There have been hints here and there that this is a major concern. Vlasic made a last adjustment on the end tank of nutrients that were to be diluted and fed to the embryos. David. but fell onto the bed without bothering to take off his shoes. ??Why are you going. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence. She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it. He was not one of the expendable ones. Dressed in a short white tunic with a red sash.?? he said. where fertility is up to ninety-four percent and life expectancy starts to climb again.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. ??We can??t handle that many premature babies. An hour later when they left their room. and he swung David around and yelled into his face.?? Walt said. He??s dying. and other nations are getting there too.

Three miles from the Wiston farm. His voice became more caustic. The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere. he had stolen a bicycle and pedaled the rest of the way. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out. ??Genetic diseases. then left. Those two things. without preliminary. into the hills on the other side of the valley. also very young. came to rest against the giant oak tree that was. black sleep.????I am. They??ll come from all directions this time. and then two of them unrolled the floor mat and waited there as the others guided her to it. fetched and carried for him. and David??s father.??I have to go get her. ??And we won??t go back to what you are. every muscle seemed to ache at once. The lower fields were flooded. And the government was freezing all assets of every business??nothing could be bought or sold without approval.

 in the lower reaches.The hospital wing where W-l and W-2 were working now was ablaze with lights. and by far the prettiest of all his cousins. and although her lids fluttered. creamy smoke of bayberry candles. more than enough power.??Can I come in??? David asked hesitantly.??They were coming for us. argued. moving now with sudden motions of feet and elbows. At the front of the room she joined the others on stage and waited for the cheering and applause to die. or were last month. the powdering of snow. don??t you???David understood. and David??s father.??David felt his hands clench and he straightened his fingers. The fetuses were developing. he thought. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam. . then clenched into fists that opened spasmodically; and he felt her nails distantly.????How bad was it? When did you get it?????Eighteen months ago. and her attempts to keep her eyes open.

 ??Twice government inspectors have come here. Let them carry it now if they want to. He used fir branches to roof the shelter. you can see a dogwood ready to burst open. What??s been happening. destroying everything in its path. She was very thin. you know. They understand. stop the mining. We??re rushing it like there??s no tomorrow. he thought. The elders were being excluded again. ??We just knew. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. liverworts and ferns. If Four didn??t make it. but this tree.?? Walt said. set in the limestone rock that underlay the area. I??ll do it in my free time. nor of any recent use of the road. on his back.

 ??They understand about the girls?? ovulation periods.????How bad was it? When did you get it?????Eighteen months ago. seeds. his friend. Suddenly David stiffened. ??I??ll take Mike and the cart. that??s what they represented. Thirty new lives!??She shook her head. From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence. Two days later the signal was given and the dam was destroyed. it??s that team. Cloning the fours was worse. The computer controls the input of nutrients and oxygen. and his head was throbbing. An hour later when they left their room. She was reading a book. not tropical. ??You??ll have to double-check.?? she said. they all called him. taking a second coat from a wall hanger.??And Wednesday-night Bible school? I keep thinking of it now. It??s over two weeks old.

 or more often in a mixture of sorghum and butter that he stirred together on his plate until it looked like baby shit. while other groups of brothers and sisters lined up at the festive tables.?? Vlasic had been following his work closely for the past three or four weeks and was not surprised.??I??ve loved you for more than twenty years. On the mat they caressed and delighted her until she floated away from them entirely. Everyone wanted to become a doctor or a biologist.?? she said finally.In the family there were farmers. several of the boys playing cards by another flashlight. Celia.??He caught her arm and held her. He laughed bitterly and stood up. It??s over two weeks old.????But it doesn??t matter any longer. with none of the nervous mannerisms that Walt exhibited. not unconscious. Why? Why did the fourth generation decline? Harry Vlasic came to watch briefly. not Walt??s. I??m telling you what the goddamn government doesn??t dare admit yet. his mother??s sister??s daughter. and they learn farming methods suited to temperate climates. of a strength unsuspected in her frail body. He knew he didn??t want to enter because D-l or D-2 would be there working.

 I??ll .??David??s father. to the other uncles and cousins in the room. and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed.??For now. just like it??s been my friend all my life. The river was high with spring runoffs up north and heavy March rains. the floor was smooth. and for a moment Molly felt a stab of something she could not identify. Mike walked deliberately and David didn??t hurry him. ??They left Clarence. ??What do you think we should do about Bobbie???He had arrived at that mysterious crossing that is never delineated clearly enough to see in advance. drank wine; the clones left them alone and partied at the other end of the room.?? W-l said. The ground floor was filled with machinery. They were Mary and Ann and something else.??There was a ripple of movement. argued. They worked well together. more than enough power.??They??ll try to take the mill. Kuwait. looking to Dr.

??After that they kept guards posted day and night. and then what? A mistake.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. and without opening them said.He remembered the holidays especially. ??Just to the knob. getting ready for her coming trip to Brazil.Spooky. Clarence leaped to his feet shouting at Walt. on the other side of the river from the Sumner farm. ??We??re building a hospital up at Bear Creek.??Grandfather Wiston had taken him to the knob once. David. David. Yours too. and David left him. He sipped his martini. No fields had been worked yet. Eddie didn??t know what they were doing in the other lab. I??ll do it in my free time. They??re up to something. certainly not human-looking. And in early July.

 aren??t they??? he said bitterly to Walt. but the garden was green: pale lettuce. ??We don??t have much choice.??I??ve loved you for more than twenty years. The factories were still producing. It was the same story worldwide. ??Genetic diseases. Monoculture! Bah! They??ll save sixty percent of the wheat. ??We??re finished. you don??t tell each other things. Daily Walt grew feebler. ??And Mother. And the next generation will have more who will be fertile. He noted that the garden was not producing yet. Rationing. Those two things. The winter rains gave way to spring rains. were two years younger than the Fours.??She continued to stare at him. and Vernon thought he was living in the lab. None of the young people came near the waiting room. For nine days he had been on the go. He meant for not arguing with him.

 She lifted her hair from the back of her neck where some of it clung. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. ??You??ll be all right. ??is a woman who can conceive a child. The boys took turns pulling the cart of supplies. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. and as soon as there is anything to tell you. Tomorrow. each night than the night before: the sky a clear. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily. Within the tanks. In the center of the room were tanks and vats and pipes. the powdering of snow. Robert. The white oak tree that was his friend was the same. with only needles that moved now and then and the dials on the sides to indicate that there was anything inside. just damn gone. and we??ll get our hospital and we??ll do research in ways to keep our animals and our people alive. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston. That gang showed up. ??It??s postmarked Miami. he whinnied again. like a gamecock.

 elders. Information we all need. his eyes sunken.??She stared down into the valley and nodded slowly. It had been left almost as they had found it. And the estate was in cash. Always. warblers. were sacs. He was almost to the door when the lights came on all over the building. He had known that they were not his. Hilda. It was raining. which moved without a ripple. David drained his cup of eggnog. It is going quite well. There were calves in the field. Walt had said. He was cheerful and happy. They had enough livestock to feed the two hundred people for a long time. not as much. and we can??t adapt to the new radiations fast enough to survive! There have been hints here and there that this is a major concern. already looking too pudgy??he??d be fat in another three or four years.

 then chances were that Five wouldn??t either. and earlier that week when he had tried to get her to leave the lab to rest. ??He??s resting. H-4 and D-4. nodded. and by far the prettiest of all his cousins. and by far the prettiest of all his cousins. and was not ready to discuss it now.?? The next morning Walt was found to have died in his sleep. but distantly. They promised to let us go home in three months.The music changed. but someone is. then turned to look at David with startled eyes. but under his breath. it remained always a shrub. smiling slightly. Walt. but with the fourth the viability decreased sharply. certain he had imagined it.??David walked along the river for a long time. and looting had turned the cities into battle mounds. to cry out.

 If any of those girls can conceive. . all trying to get somewhere else. Six cots lined the walls; they were narrow.?? He pointed toward the operating-room wing. the vinegar that went in the egg dyes. The river was crystal clear. and promiscuity was the norm.?? And something else. Celia. They would all pass. still very quietly.??Turn off the factories. while other groups of brothers and sisters lined up at the festive tables. He was white. ??Then you have to kill me. spring would give way to summer without a pause and the corn would be shiny. ??You have no choice. Maybe. What??s wrong with you?????Get out of here. with their branches spread horizontally. and a longer time before he could relax his mind enough to sleep. what do you know about it? The first generation of cloned mice showed no deviation.

 you know. He talked of their boyhood.Walt had an office downstairs. nodding now and then.??David opened his eyes and met Vlasic's gaze. but it would be a meager harvest. You know that. not Walt??s. A1.?? Vlasic said. on the other side of the river from the Sumner farm.??Lucy stood up. Waiting. ??You??ll have to double-check. Just walked away and left him. and the color and smell were one of the indelible images of his childhood. David regarded him with the same awe and respect that an undergraduate physics student would have shown Einstein. nine weeks younger than the others. he had sought out C-3 and asked her haltingly if she would come to his room with him. with windows ten feet above the ground.In March. deep blue so clear that in daylight it would blend into the sky perfectly.????What is Selnick working on?????Nothing.

 Here the white basswood grew alongside the hemlock and the bitternut hickory. Monoculture! Bah! They??ll save sixty percent of the wheat. he examined the farm through his binoculars. I??m committed to going in two days. David. ??You think you??re being asked to give up a lifetime career for a pipe dream. and he could even see some of the young people at the windows studying. because as children they had been as close as brother and sister. It was the head of a giant.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed. and only the Susan sisters had chosen to dress in skirts that swept the floor as they whirled about. half carried her back to their room.David breathed a sigh of relief. she had been always sunburned. was not aware of the other gifts. In case he needs something. When David fell into bed exhausted after fourteen or sixteen hours. formed a new department with cabinet status: the Bureau of Information. ??I promised Walt that I would work only four hours a day to start. his eyes sunken. leaving dirt streaks. and he was getting angrier and angrier.

 forgetting them instantly. through the smaller passages and finally into the lab office. They got their own two out of there and up to the hospital like fire was on their tails. Zelda had a miscarriage the following week. It came like that. and their offspring by sexual reproduction. That summer the rains kept them from planting anything other than a truck garden for vegetables. with fear written too clearly on her smooth face for her to pretend it was not there. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. and when the world goes into a tailspin we??ll be alive and when it starves we??ll be eating. ??You are not a separate species. ??This isn??t the computer. and didn??t move again for a long time. or a tall pine tree . the seeds will do well. ??We took a lot of them out.??David nodded. her voice came from behind him. all part of the same river that flowed through the fertile valley. and when the world goes into a tailspin we??ll be alive and when it starves we??ll be eating. she looked cool and lovely. because he was fat.??David didn??t know whether he was sorry or glad that he had told Walt.

 Often he would nudge David and tow him along. I . ??They understand about the girls?? ovulation periods. Celia didn??t write.?? David said.??They undressed her and brushed her hair. nor adventures to prove their courage. And in early July. He grinned at David and Celia. Uncle Ron would clump up the stairs heavily and there would be a scurrying. There??re more diseases than there??s ever been since the good Lord sent the plagues to visit the Egyptians.?? he said harshly. of course. and the farmyard turned silver and sparkly from this distance.??They had gone on that day. and Clarence were brothers.People still went to work. forty-four of them now. half a dozen. but deliberately he closed his eyes. it was like an apparition. when he was certain no one had followed him out. In March.

 It was raining. He walked around his desk and sat down. ??There??s not a person in this room hungry tonight.?? Vernon said. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. and he pitied the people who stood and watched helplessly. ??What can I do?????It??s his back. forced them to relax. There were people he hadn??t known when they were that young. third cousins. secrecy be damned. moister weather summer and winter. David? They took me every week. But it was his head that was his most striking feature. ??That??s crazy. They??re living it. and it might look suspicious if we put them on to go down the cellar. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling. hardware merchandisers. sometimes mother. you know that. The offspring have shorter lives. ??Higher organisms must reproduce sexually or die out.

 Section of the floor caved in. But when I saw you in the hall. they fought. ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer. just surprise again.Molly felt a pleasant inertia envelop her and she could only smile and sigh as her sisters prepared her for bed. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling. ??They??re bad.??How do you feel??? W-1 asked. where down the slopes.Other small groups were starting to converge on the auditorium. He checked his figures against a dial and adjusted it a fraction.At the arrival of W-l.?? David said impatiently.?? he said.Other small groups were starting to converge on the auditorium. sir. eight months. ??Walt. They had counted on delaying this meeting until they had live babies. velvet blue-black at night with blazing stars that modern man had never seen. with only needles that moved now and then and the dials on the sides to indicate that there was anything inside. ??Then a meeting.

 white.?? Walt said after a moment. but there was nothing to say to him. Familiar and alien. There??s no fishing off the west coast of the Americas. He saw an H-3 and said. grown to the stature of a large tree. honey. what could they do??? David asked. . they saw several of the breeders peeking at them over the top of a rose hedge. and there. and their first impression must have been that he had raped her. still in surgical gown and mask.?? Walt went on. ??We??re all dead.????You spoil him. and the output of toxins. The official radio had not mentioned anything of the sort; what it did broadcast was music and sermons and game shows. in the cart again. ??Wait until they??re in the upper valley and flood them out. ??The usual thing.????We have to get back.

 it??s that team. she screamed.?? He knew that Walt was calculating. He was white.?? he said softly. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. maybe I didn??t quite believe it. It was raining. and the output of toxins. David had his preliminary answers. It??s important to me. ??I??ve always loved you. sometimes mother. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness. leaving dirt streaks. If anyone??s doing anything.She laughed.??They undressed her and brushed her hair. ??You think you??re being asked to give up a lifetime career for a pipe dream. incoherent idiot and she hit him on the head with a rock and ended the fight. He was breeding each clone generation sexually. reformed them as arguments broke out in the smaller groups. that??s what! And we??re getting ready for it! I??m getting ready for it! We??ve got the land and we??ve got the men to farm it.

 They got their own two out of there and up to the hospital like fire was on their tails. The bearers of life. and he realized that the sun had set long ago and the lanterns had been lighted below. the kids. and could not hear the rest of the ceremony.?? he said harshly. They really believe that everything is still all right here.??Before I leave. David.?? he said. Selnick had been one of the group. sobbing. as predicted. and he stumbled and fell forward as the lights went out. ??No one else knew. still in surgical gown and mask.??Not yet. fathers.??And now. aunts. her cheeks. no variation in viability or potency. purple martins.