The next day, Doctor Moreau flew to the moon on a shuttle. Looking out the window to see the blue planet with her shining cities covering the continents like a string of glowing pearls. He marveled at the atmosphere covering Earth like a thin, fragile eggshell, shielding her against the darkness of space and its deadly vacuum.
The man with the sunglasses sat next to him. It turned out, Mister Hatsokovy was more than a messenger. Time and again, he interrupted the Doctor's thoughts with unintelligent questions.
"I've heard you refer to your creations as your children. Isn't this rather unprofessional? Especially for a man as accomplished as you."
What an unintelligent question indeed. This man was a failure of the imagination, shambling around in roughly human form.
"Have you ever written a novel, composed a piece of music or made a painting, Mister Hatsokovy?"
The man with the sunglasses shook his head. No surprise for Maximillian. "Creating art is not like factory work," he tried to explain, "You don't just slap something together in order to sell it, hoping it breaks soon, so the customer will come back to buy a replacement. Creating art is pouring pieces of your very soul into your creation. Not so you can sell it, but to allow it to become more than you could have ever imagined. Editing genetic codes is like composing, painting or writing a story. You always need to consider the whole picture. That's why I succeeded where all my colleagues failed."
"But you are an engineer, Doctor, not an artist."
"You are wrong to assume those have to be two different things."
Silence followed. Mister Hatsokovy's mind seemed too deficient in understanding to comprehend any of what Doctor Moreau told him. The next unintelligent question did not surprise Maximillian at all, "But your children aren't actually siblings, right?"
What an amazingly unintelligent question indeed. Clearly, this man had no understanding of how to build a healthy population of any species. Doctor Moreau knew. "Of course not," he scoffed, "They may not look like it at first glance, but my creations are orders of magnitude more genetically diverse than the rest of humanity."
"Of course they are!" Mister Hatsokovy scoffed back.
Maximillian kept silent. He did not brag, simply stated a demonstrable fact. Making his creations more genetically diverse than the rest of humanity was very easy, since all human beings share 99.9% of their DNA. Every other primate species is more genetically diverse.
"Let's go over the Vellamun's mission again, Doctor."
"After launch the ship will slingshot first around the sun, then around Jupiter to gain speed. In ten years it will arrive at the wormhole beyond Pluto." Doctor Moreau sighed.
"Officially, the object which caused the orbital anomalies of Pluto and Sedna is a gas giant."
"That's probably what it used to be."
"Not my problem and the World Government doesn't care either."
Stable Wormholes do not occur naturally. How someone could be this numb to one of, if not the greatest discovery in human history exceeded Maximillian's vivid imagination. Merely looking at the diagram of Nod, the star system beyond the wormhole, filled him with awe.
A binary system, consisting of two individual star systems orbiting each other. The smaller star, Nod-B, was a red dwarf with only 9% as much mass as the sun. Its system would have fit entirely inside the orbit of Mercury with lots of room to spare. Nod-B contained several rocky planets, represented as gray dots on the diagram, as well as the other end of this curious wormhole, represented by a purple dot.
So far, they had only seen the other side through said wormhole. Project Vellamun's chief astronomer, Doctor Lysak, always compared it to trying to get a complete picture of an entire city by looking through a tiny window half a world away. The Tyson space telescope could easily see and measure the two stars on account of them producing their own light, but it had great difficulties with the planets. They knew almost nothing about them. Many were not even confirmed to exist. Even so, they made an amazing discovery in orbit around Nod-A.
"Once on the other side, they will set up a human colony," Maximillian continued.
Nod-A, the larger of the two stars, was very similar to the sun, but only had 85.4% as much mass. It seemed to have at least two gas giants orbiting, represented on the diagram as orange dots. But much closer to the star seemed to have been a rocky planet, about Earth's size, orbiting at almost exactly the same distance as humanity's cradle on the outer edge of Nod-A's habitable zone. It was represented by a green dot, because the Tyson space telescope found traces of Ozone in its atmosphere, a good indicator of plant life.
Furthermore, there might have been another planet orbiting in the inner edge of Nod-A's habitable zone. It was not yet confirmed to exist and thus represented by a green question mark. The prospect of not just finding the first habitable planet outside the solar system, but also a second one in the same star system should have been the greatest news in human history. But the discovery was kept a secret by the North Atlantic Union and now the World Republic for political reasons.
"Exactly, Doctor," Mister Hatsokovy nodded, "No mention of searching the other side for alien technology to build some kind of wonder weapon."
"This plan was doomed to fail anyways. Super weapons are a waste of time," Doctor Moreau agreed before telling the man in black why he had really worked on this project, "And once my children have set up their colony, their children may come back with a greater starship to send their regards and take their distant siblings to the new world."
"Unlikely," the man with the sunglasses shrugged condescendingly, "But it would be a very convenient solution to the mutant question."
"It'll be your loss."
Eventually, the moon came into sight. The shuttle flew past thousands of craters, over the small lights of a few bases. All those lights faded from sight as they finally arrived at their destination. The space station Pirene, shaped like a giant wheel in a geostationary orbit above the dark side of the moon. The starship Vellamun lay docked at the hub of this wheel.
A giant rocket supporting a big forward module with a golden dome on the ventral and dorsal side each. Docked to the left and right sides of this module were two small space planes, one silver and the other dark blue with a bright white nose. Large parts of this forward module had been designed so they could be fashioned into a planetary base. Right behind this forward module, often compared to IKEA furniture or Lego bricks despite being designed by a Norwegian, lay a rotating ring habitat for the crew.
Behind the habitat lay a circular, rotating storage module, acting as a counterweight. Behind those sat huge wing-like solar arrays, reminiscent of the old ISS. The hind section, taking up much of the ship's length, was wrapped completely in massive hydrogen fuel tanks. A single, powerful fusion engine with a wreath of large heat radiator panels sat at the very back. Telescopes and other sensors had been mounted wherever possible.
Most of the ship was painted bright white with occasional blue and golden parts. A majestic sight, well over 400 meters in length. Tug drones prepared the Vellamun for launch by mounting huge booster rockets to its aft section.
As the shuttle docked on the station's large rotating ring and artificial gravity gripped the passengers, Doctor Moreau felt a sting in his chest. He had been here so many times before, but this time was different. Now he had to say goodbye forever.
"Welcome to Pirene Station," a monotone robotic voice greeted them, "The spaceship Vellamun is ready to start in T-minus twelve hours, forty minutes and twelve seconds. The crew is waiting for you, Doctor Moreau."
Maximillian knew this voice. Tacitus, the first and so far only general A.I. ever created by human hand. He had no idea why his Welsh colleague, Professor Charles Pwyll Kyber, chose to give it such an inhuman voice. The A.I. sounded like a cardboard robot from a 1950s science fiction film.
Doctor Moreau let out a heavy sigh as he loosened his seatbelt, about to take the hardest steps of his entire life. To everyone around he would have looked like merely an old man having difficulties getting up from his seat. But most had no idea.
Mister Hatsokovy followed close behind as Maximillian went through the familiar airlock. Packed boxes standing in corridors with padded white walls greeted them on Pirene station. A few of Doctor Moreau's assistants prepared to leave. Most of them remained strangers, despite having worked with him for many years. The inner machinations of Doctor Moreau's mind were an enigma, even to Maximillian himself.
Quietly he went the way he had walked so many times before. Into a small room with a large tinted window. What he saw on the other side made his heart skip a beat. All sorrow vanished for a single moment of joy.
On the other side of the tinted window, where they could not see him, stood his creations, his children. Three girls of merely sixteen years around a meter and a half with very compact, slender stature, small, narrow shoulders and light bones. Next to them stood one boy of seventeen, standing at 190 centimeters tall and still growing.
"Those are your creations, Doctor? Your crew? They look like some weird missing link between Whites and Asians or like Native Americans with a different complexion. The brown girl looks a little bit like a Pacific Islander or Filipino. But not like they are bi- or even multiracial or anything... just strange."
Doctor Moreau felt the need to smack Mister Hatsokovy for his staggering ignorance. Why would people not accept the fact his children did not fit into their moronic racial classifications? Why even bother forcing those magnificent works of art into such boxes? Did any of those 'normal' humans have eyes shimmering like opals?
The way Mister Hatsokovy dismissively referred to Tapeesa as just 'the brown girl' especially upset Maximillian. While the rest of the crew had pale ivory skin, hers was hazel-colored, combined with dark chestnut hair and bright, big, almond-shaped eyes shimmering in many shades of blue. All on a wide, flat, round face with an upturned nose. Not exactly as mundane a combination as Mister Hatsokovy made it sound. If he knew Tapeesa was fully fluent in English, Irish, German, French, Japanese, Sumerian and Varaki, the language Maximillian had crafted specifically for his creations, the man with the sunglasses might not have been so dismissive.
But Mister Hatsokovy had not listened during the flight to Pirene and there was no indication he would start now. So Maximillian replied instead, "Are you disappointed they don't have horns and hooves?"
"Only a little," the man in black shrugged, "Though I have to wonder, why is it only one male and three females?"
"You can thank the awkward social graces typical of engineers," Maximillian sighed, "Mathematically, the fastest, most efficient way to set up a sizable human population is to send as many pregnant women and frozen embryos, ready for implantation, into space as possible. Likewise, women, on average, consume less food, water and oxygen than men on account of being smaller on average. But you would be completely ignoring human social interactions. Every healthy society requires the presence of both sexes. It took a long time until I managed to convince my superiors and by then our budget was cut."
"Why did they cut your budget?"
"Good question! I have seven Nobel Prizes, but no idea what goes through my employer's heads."
The man in black just nodded, "So you recycled your failed super soldier prototype?"
Doctor Moreau clenched his fists as he heard this. "Originally, the Vellamun's crew was supposed to consist of six people," he explained with a well trained fake calm, "I wanted three males and three females. But when our budget was cut and the crew limited to four, the girls had already been born and I couldn't separate them."
Maximillian did not mention how he had foreseen those budget cuts. Those seven Nobel prizes once allowed him to listen in on backdoor politics. Doctor Moreau never created human war machines, he made a sentinel for his daughters.
Broad shoulders, a square face with strong jaws, a flat, straight nose and pronounced brows. His extremely robust appearance made it obvious, Setanto had been created with different requirements in mind than Tapeesa, Sheranee and Valentina. With his impressive stature, blond hair and round, shimmering, heterochromatic eyes, one sapphire and one emerald, some people had likened him to a Greek god. A comparison Doctor Moreau did not like very much. He was familiar with Greek mythology.
Mister Hatsokovy shrugged. He seemed a bit disappointed to hear such a mundane explanation. Doctor Moreau had seen this behavior too many times. Everyone expected something spectacular from his creations. Even the self proclaimed 'Mutant Rights Groups', so called 'mutants' conspicuously absent from their ranks, treated his children like circus animals.
Only a few people saw Maximillian's creations as genuinely human. One of them was in the room with his children. An old woman, Doctor Aine Ui Lorcain or, who had recently become Aine Moreau. It took both of them seventy years, but now they had finally gotten married.
Aine served as the psychologist of project Vellamun and the crew's wonderful surrogate mother. While Maximillian had to travel back and forth from Earth to the Moon, she spent all her time here with his creations, raising them to be the best human beings they could possibly be. Thanks to her, these children had grown to be worthy to represent humanity among the stars.
"I'll leave you alone for now," Mister Hatsokovy informed the Doctor, "You have twelve hours."
As the man with the sunglasses left to get a coffee, Doctor Moreau walked through the door.
"Doctor Moreau!" all of Maximillian's creations exclaimed in excited unison.
The girls immediately ran to the Doctor and hugged him. He pulled them all together in a tight embrace. Setanto held the crew's fluffy pets, named Funi and Vini. Apuas, Red Pandas domesticated by Doctor Moreau through genetic engineering, which essentially turned them into cats running on dog software. The fuzz balls stretched out their front paws like puppies jumping up to greet their owner, making Setanto worried they might fall down.
"Is it true what they say? Are we launching?" Sheranee inquired with equal amounts of fear and excitement. Doctor Moreau had created her to command this mission, hence why she stood a couple centimeters above Tapeesa and Valentina. She had big, bright, almond-shaped emerald eyes shimmering in many shades of green and a wide, flat diamond-shaped face with a small, flat nose and fiery red hair
"Yes, you'll launch in twelve hours. Until then, I would like to spend some time with you." a tear left Maximillian's eye as he spoke those terrible words.
Valentina, supposed to be the Vellamun's Doctor, looked at him worried with her big, bright, round, deep purple eyes, shimmering in shades of violet and light red. With her golden blonde hair, wide, flat, heart-shaped face with a small, upturned nose, some people had likened her to an angel.
She always watched the old man's posture. Even now when he went to give Setanto a hug, rub Funi's and Vini's bellies and last but not least kiss his wife Aine. Sheranee, Setanto, Tapeesa and even Valentina all mock gagged at the latter.
As the old couple embraced each other, Aine whispered, "Don't worry Max, the kids will be fine out there."
Sheranee, Tapeesa, Valentina and Setanto had all been trained for this mission from the age of six. They had been commissioned, because with the enormous distances of space, no astronaut could ever hope to return. Sending out people who had families back on Earth had been deemed unethical as a result.
Unethical!
They forgot about the family which had formed here on Pirene.
Unethical!
Doctor Moreau had heard this word misused countless times, yet it was rarely spoken when something was truly wrong. Hopefully his creations, those magnificent works of art, would be better than their feral lookalikes who would deride them as mutants.
As they all went off to the living quarters to spend some time together before the start, Sheranee took Doctor Moreau's hand and remained standing in the visitor's room. Maximillian knew what this meant.
