Shadow Of The Past Trilogy ∞ THE DISPLACED

93 ∞ truths and transformation

As they digested that information, Danny pictured the photograph of her chromosomes squirming like worms on the back of a lab coat. But he wasn't sure of where to locate the genomes.

"That must have significantly increased the average life expectancy of your population, right?" Bogdanov commented.

"Over several generations, aye... Significantly."

"By how much?"

Mickmi met Danny's gaze, her brow slightly furrowed. "By some... two hundred years."

Two hundred? Did that mean she would live to be over two hundred years old? Danny wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Fascinating," Kruger said. "So that would make your life expectancy upwards of three hundred years. Do you know what specific changes in the genome are responsible for this increase?"

"Aye. You are aware of cellular degeneration. The most important was a minor change to an enzyme. This allowed the telomeres protecting the protein ends of our genomes to double their reproductive limit of cells to over... 5000 times. So now we can, theoretically, live over twice as long as the previous average."

Kruger nodded several times in thought, then asked, "And are all your contemporaries as advanced as you, as you've displayed in the lab?"

She lowered her eyes, a faint color rising on her cheeks. "Not exactly. There was... a selection process. The genomes of those more evolved were collected... You see, ages ago, after our Earth suffered the Great Desolation, the Civilization Rebuilders agreed that maintaining division of the Land into nations was counterproductive. From thence, it took not long before we ended the old system of electing top leaders. It was considered inefficient and inadequate for our recovery needs. We needed exceptionally capable leaders. That is why it was decided to create leaders, not to leave it to random chance."

"Oh?"

"For many generations, the leaders of our world were not elected but grown, specially trained and prepared for their future roles. We instituted a centralized government system, with the best selected candidate at the top, and called her, or him, Queen or King. Unlike queens and kings of old, ours were selected based on competence, not blood lineage."

After a few moments of progressing along the tunnel in silence, Bogdanov turned sideways on his seat. "Tell me, Miroshka, how's that different from our old tradition of having kings? After all, they were supposed to be somehow superior to the plebeians."

"They were supposed to, but they were not. In primordial times, oftentimes the first queens and kings were elected from the best. But as time passed, most adopted the tradition of putting their firstborn on the throne, causing the succession to be based on birth. That is not a practical or reliable way to obtain a queen or king fit to lead.

"On our Earth, the selection process is conducted by a carefully selected team of scientists, each with an impeccable background—not only in their specialties but also by their social interactions. Only the highest moral and ethical standards qualify a person for that team, no matter how great their achievements in their respective scientific arena. That ensures the process for creating the best leaders remains uncorrupted over time.

"The process consists of several selection stages—starting with identifying embryos with genome promising a favorable chance of developing the qualities desired. That is easy because, after two millennia, the genome library contains records of our entire population, so they are able to identify the most promising from millions of possibilities."

"Wait," Kruger interjected, "you mean the child of any couple could potentially be selected to be the future leader of your planet?"

Mickmi nodded. "Exactly. Any, meeting the criterion. But not just from our planet, because our colonies also recognize this leadership. Now the next part of the selection process requires the children to be groomed for their future roles. They receive intensive training since their fourth year."