SV fic: "The Biological Progenitor Trap" (2/?)
Okay, so there's still no actual Chloe and/or Lex appearing in this chapter, but after this, I PROMISE there will be actual Lex, Chloe, and possibly Clark. It's taken a while to lay out the back-story, but we're nearly there.
For summary and disclaimers, see the Prologue.
"THE BIOLOGICAL PROGENITOR TRAP"
Chapter 1: "The Other Generation"
". . .If we could take over the training of
The Other Generation,
We know we could improve them quite a lot.
"But they will never let us.
They stay the way they met us,
And so we're simply stuck with what we've got. -- You can't improve them. --
The kids are simply stuck with what they've got. . . ."
[lyrics from "The Other Generation" in Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "Flower Drum Song"]
"Uncle Rokk!"
That squeal of pleasure gave the elderly man (once embarrassingly known as 'Cosmic Boy') just enough warning so that he could brace for impact with the blond guided missile. A guided missile whose inhumanly strong arms were now tightly wrapped around his waist and making it increasingly difficult for him to breathe. "Glad to . . . see you too, . . . Six," he gasped. "But . . . oxygen, . . . remember?"
Rokk sighed in relief as the iron grip was released.
"Right! Sorry!" The boy's apology was accompanied by a wide grin that was almost blinding in its intensity and infectious joy. To date, no one had been able to stay angry with the boy for more than a few microseconds -- not once they'd been exposed to the power of that smile. Some members of the Legion had gone so far as to speculate that the grin might actually qualify as a super power in its own right, but Rokk wasn't convinced of that. Not yet.
Time would tell.
After all, the child might appear to be a normal human lad of about ten years old, but he had in fact only been 'born' ten days ago and had been maturing rapidly ever since. Though the idea for a partly organic offspring had been metaphorically gestating in the mind of Brainiac 5 for over 90 years, once the reformed A.I. finally decided to follow through he seemed unwilling to waste time on an extended human-style childhood for his progeny (or maybe he just didn't want to change more than a day's worth of diapers, Rokk strongly suspected).
For whatever reason, Brainiac 5's tinkering with the organic genome for "Six" had included accelerated growth for his first weeks of life, with physical aging scheduled to nearly stop thereafter. If everything went according to plan, Brainiac Six would appear to be a healthy young man in his twenties for at least the next century, and would continue to age at about one tenth of the normal human rate for the rest of his very long lifespan.
But that was a big "If", in Rokk's mind, especially considering the raw material Brainiac 5 had insisted on using for the human portions of his offspring.
'Why couldn't he just meet a nice main-frame, settle down, and have lots of little programs in the normal way?' Rokk wondered to himself for perhaps the hundredth time since Brainiac 5 had announced to the rest of the Legion his impending fatherhood.
However, none of Rokk's concerns needed to be shared with young Six, at the moment. Time to be in 'kindly old uncle' mode now.
"So, what have you been up to this morning, young man?" Rokk asked in an intentionally pompous tone, and was relieved to see Six roll his eyes in the time-honored fashion of youngsters being asked inane questions by their elders, before answering politely.
"I'm working my way through the 20th century entertainment archives during my recreation time, Uncle."
Rokk raised his eyebrows in mock alarm. "All the entertainment files from that portion of the archives?"
"'Not hardly!'" Six replied in the voice of one quoting some obscure source. "After Dad found out I'd downloaded and memorized the entire contents of the 'film noir' and 'Twilight fan fiction' files during the three minutes it took him to fix my breakfast, he freaked out and started censoring my access.
"Apparently, he felt that Martha and Jonathan Kent wouldn't have exposed their son to those influences at such a tender age, so for the next hour I'm only allowed to watch 20th century films produced by Walt Disney or bearing the names 'Rodgers and Hammerstein' in the opening credits. Dad seems to think the Kents would be okay with that, at least, while he's busy in the lab."
"I'm truly sorry for your suffering," Rokk replied with mock gravity, seeing that the boy himself was expressing only mock outrage over parental interference.
In fact, Six seemed almost too cheerful about his limited entertainment options during his free time -- which, to a seasoned parent and grandparent like himself, suggested that Brainiac 5 might be in for an unpleasant (but probably not life-threatening or world-ending) surprise later on. Since whatever the lad was up to was unlikely to fall under the Legion's jurisdiction, Rokk meanly decided not to warn the new parent. There were some things that all parents -- and especially far-too-smug Kryptonian A.I. parents -- needed to learn the hard way, through painful and embarrassing experience.
"I'll just go say hello to your father, then, and let you get back to your enjoyment of the mid-20th century musical," he told Six, with a conspiratorial wink.
-----
Rokk found Brainiac 5 in his home lab -- as expected -- going over the progress reports and latest test results for Six. In fact, the A.I. was so engrossed that he seemed momentarily startled when Rokk asked, "Anything wrong, B-5?"
Brainiac shook his head slightly and looked at Rokk with a rueful expression. "I think I may owe you an apology, of sorts. Parenting a human/Kryptonian A.I. hybrid child with an accelerated learning curve is turning out to be a bit more complicated than I'd expected."
"Not to gloat, but I told you so," Rokk replied, smiling. "Is there anything that has you particularly concerned at the moment? Maybe I can help . . . in a non-scientific capacity."
Brainiac 5 (whom only Rokk dared to address as "B-5", in honor of their shared fondness for an obscure science fiction vid series from the distant past) sighed and admitted, "He wants to know more about his biological parents."
"Not unexpected. What have you told him so far?"
"The truth." Then the A.I. smiled and added, "Selectively edited, of course.
"I told him that I used the genetic material of two of the strongest, most gifted humans I'd met when I first visited earth in the past, and that both of them had enhanced healing abilities. I also told him that his female genetic 'donor' was the closest thing I've ever had to a mother in the human sense, since I'd been nurtured and sheltered in her body and mind before my re-birth as Brainiac 5."
"So, you left out the part where you'd set Lex Luthor up to be a host body for General Zod, or the fact that you tried to use Chloe Sullivan to pretty much destroy the world? And omitted all references to Kryptonite mutations, unstable clones, and unethical experimentation?"
"Well, . . yes," Brainiac admitted. "There are some truths my son shouldn't have to deal with until he's at least two weeks old, wouldn't you agree?"
Rokk wondered how to put his next question delicately, and then decided delicacy was a lost cause. "Are you still convinced that using the original Lex Luthor's DNA was a good choice? And that proper nurture is all that's needed to keep your son from going down the sort of destructive path that Lex walked?"
"Absolutely!" Brainiac insisted. "I remain convinced that Lex could have been a force for good, if he hadn't been constantly undermined and mentally abused by his father and others. My son already possesses all of Lex's physical and mental resilience, and he'll be securely embarked upon the right path before he ever learns how inhumanely some humans can treat their own young."
"Well, for all our sakes, and especially for Six's, I hope you're right," Rokk conceded.
"On a different topic, how are you coming with plans for that new asteroid shield...?"
--------
In another part of Brainiac 5's living quarters, Brainiac Six smiled in genuine amusement as he watched a wall full of monitors, all displaying different entertainments from his father's approved list running at a greatly accelerated speed. Only one monitor was running at normal speed -- the one showing the real-time view of his father's laboratory, complete with full audio feed.
Hacking into his father's internal security system had been one of his first "I'm bored!" projects, accomplished during what was supposed to be his afternoon nap-time when he was just three days old. The ability to eavesdrop on adult conversations anywhere in the Legion living quarters and work spaces had often gotten him through an otherwise intolerably boring break in his lessons (as well as assuring him that he was in fact like other children in the ways that mattered most, since spying on adults was a major theme in juvenile fiction; he'd particularly enjoyed the two seconds it took him to read Harriet the Spy when he was four days old). But today, he'd finally learned something truly interesting and helpful.
Given what his father and uncle had said about his biological progenitors, he now had sufficient information to track them down in the historical archives (the parts his father naively thought he couldn't access without permission) and learn the full story. His A.I. father wasn't stupid, by any means, and could probably compute circles around him any day of the week. But his father always seemed to forget that Six was at least half-human, as well, and with that organic side of his family came a wealth of talent for intuition, invention, and incredible sneakiness, beyond what even the most advanced artificial intelligence in the universe could ever imagine.
If Six's suspicions were supported by the information in the archives, and it turned out that his biological donors had in fact lived less than happy, fulfilling lives, well, what else could a dutiful and grateful descendant do, but lend a hand to set right what once went wrong?
It's what Walt Disney would have wanted him to do, he was sure, and since his own father had recommended the works of Walt Disney as a good influence . . . Well, it was clearly Meant to Be. What else was a genetically engineered, only partly organic super genius with too much time on his hands supposed to do, if not improve the lives of his poor, benighted elders?
tbc
----------------------
For summary and disclaimers, see the Prologue.
"THE BIOLOGICAL PROGENITOR TRAP"
Chapter 1: "The Other Generation"
". . .If we could take over the training of
The Other Generation,
We know we could improve them quite a lot.
"But they will never let us.
They stay the way they met us,
And so we're simply stuck with what we've got. -- You can't improve them. --
The kids are simply stuck with what they've got. . . ."
[lyrics from "The Other Generation" in Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "Flower Drum Song"]
"Uncle Rokk!"
That squeal of pleasure gave the elderly man (once embarrassingly known as 'Cosmic Boy') just enough warning so that he could brace for impact with the blond guided missile. A guided missile whose inhumanly strong arms were now tightly wrapped around his waist and making it increasingly difficult for him to breathe. "Glad to . . . see you too, . . . Six," he gasped. "But . . . oxygen, . . . remember?"
Rokk sighed in relief as the iron grip was released.
"Right! Sorry!" The boy's apology was accompanied by a wide grin that was almost blinding in its intensity and infectious joy. To date, no one had been able to stay angry with the boy for more than a few microseconds -- not once they'd been exposed to the power of that smile. Some members of the Legion had gone so far as to speculate that the grin might actually qualify as a super power in its own right, but Rokk wasn't convinced of that. Not yet.
Time would tell.
After all, the child might appear to be a normal human lad of about ten years old, but he had in fact only been 'born' ten days ago and had been maturing rapidly ever since. Though the idea for a partly organic offspring had been metaphorically gestating in the mind of Brainiac 5 for over 90 years, once the reformed A.I. finally decided to follow through he seemed unwilling to waste time on an extended human-style childhood for his progeny (or maybe he just didn't want to change more than a day's worth of diapers, Rokk strongly suspected).
For whatever reason, Brainiac 5's tinkering with the organic genome for "Six" had included accelerated growth for his first weeks of life, with physical aging scheduled to nearly stop thereafter. If everything went according to plan, Brainiac Six would appear to be a healthy young man in his twenties for at least the next century, and would continue to age at about one tenth of the normal human rate for the rest of his very long lifespan.
But that was a big "If", in Rokk's mind, especially considering the raw material Brainiac 5 had insisted on using for the human portions of his offspring.
'Why couldn't he just meet a nice main-frame, settle down, and have lots of little programs in the normal way?' Rokk wondered to himself for perhaps the hundredth time since Brainiac 5 had announced to the rest of the Legion his impending fatherhood.
However, none of Rokk's concerns needed to be shared with young Six, at the moment. Time to be in 'kindly old uncle' mode now.
"So, what have you been up to this morning, young man?" Rokk asked in an intentionally pompous tone, and was relieved to see Six roll his eyes in the time-honored fashion of youngsters being asked inane questions by their elders, before answering politely.
"I'm working my way through the 20th century entertainment archives during my recreation time, Uncle."
Rokk raised his eyebrows in mock alarm. "All the entertainment files from that portion of the archives?"
"'Not hardly!'" Six replied in the voice of one quoting some obscure source. "After Dad found out I'd downloaded and memorized the entire contents of the 'film noir' and 'Twilight fan fiction' files during the three minutes it took him to fix my breakfast, he freaked out and started censoring my access.
"Apparently, he felt that Martha and Jonathan Kent wouldn't have exposed their son to those influences at such a tender age, so for the next hour I'm only allowed to watch 20th century films produced by Walt Disney or bearing the names 'Rodgers and Hammerstein' in the opening credits. Dad seems to think the Kents would be okay with that, at least, while he's busy in the lab."
"I'm truly sorry for your suffering," Rokk replied with mock gravity, seeing that the boy himself was expressing only mock outrage over parental interference.
In fact, Six seemed almost too cheerful about his limited entertainment options during his free time -- which, to a seasoned parent and grandparent like himself, suggested that Brainiac 5 might be in for an unpleasant (but probably not life-threatening or world-ending) surprise later on. Since whatever the lad was up to was unlikely to fall under the Legion's jurisdiction, Rokk meanly decided not to warn the new parent. There were some things that all parents -- and especially far-too-smug Kryptonian A.I. parents -- needed to learn the hard way, through painful and embarrassing experience.
"I'll just go say hello to your father, then, and let you get back to your enjoyment of the mid-20th century musical," he told Six, with a conspiratorial wink.
-----
Rokk found Brainiac 5 in his home lab -- as expected -- going over the progress reports and latest test results for Six. In fact, the A.I. was so engrossed that he seemed momentarily startled when Rokk asked, "Anything wrong, B-5?"
Brainiac shook his head slightly and looked at Rokk with a rueful expression. "I think I may owe you an apology, of sorts. Parenting a human/Kryptonian A.I. hybrid child with an accelerated learning curve is turning out to be a bit more complicated than I'd expected."
"Not to gloat, but I told you so," Rokk replied, smiling. "Is there anything that has you particularly concerned at the moment? Maybe I can help . . . in a non-scientific capacity."
Brainiac 5 (whom only Rokk dared to address as "B-5", in honor of their shared fondness for an obscure science fiction vid series from the distant past) sighed and admitted, "He wants to know more about his biological parents."
"Not unexpected. What have you told him so far?"
"The truth." Then the A.I. smiled and added, "Selectively edited, of course.
"I told him that I used the genetic material of two of the strongest, most gifted humans I'd met when I first visited earth in the past, and that both of them had enhanced healing abilities. I also told him that his female genetic 'donor' was the closest thing I've ever had to a mother in the human sense, since I'd been nurtured and sheltered in her body and mind before my re-birth as Brainiac 5."
"So, you left out the part where you'd set Lex Luthor up to be a host body for General Zod, or the fact that you tried to use Chloe Sullivan to pretty much destroy the world? And omitted all references to Kryptonite mutations, unstable clones, and unethical experimentation?"
"Well, . . yes," Brainiac admitted. "There are some truths my son shouldn't have to deal with until he's at least two weeks old, wouldn't you agree?"
Rokk wondered how to put his next question delicately, and then decided delicacy was a lost cause. "Are you still convinced that using the original Lex Luthor's DNA was a good choice? And that proper nurture is all that's needed to keep your son from going down the sort of destructive path that Lex walked?"
"Absolutely!" Brainiac insisted. "I remain convinced that Lex could have been a force for good, if he hadn't been constantly undermined and mentally abused by his father and others. My son already possesses all of Lex's physical and mental resilience, and he'll be securely embarked upon the right path before he ever learns how inhumanely some humans can treat their own young."
"Well, for all our sakes, and especially for Six's, I hope you're right," Rokk conceded.
"On a different topic, how are you coming with plans for that new asteroid shield...?"
--------
In another part of Brainiac 5's living quarters, Brainiac Six smiled in genuine amusement as he watched a wall full of monitors, all displaying different entertainments from his father's approved list running at a greatly accelerated speed. Only one monitor was running at normal speed -- the one showing the real-time view of his father's laboratory, complete with full audio feed.
Hacking into his father's internal security system had been one of his first "I'm bored!" projects, accomplished during what was supposed to be his afternoon nap-time when he was just three days old. The ability to eavesdrop on adult conversations anywhere in the Legion living quarters and work spaces had often gotten him through an otherwise intolerably boring break in his lessons (as well as assuring him that he was in fact like other children in the ways that mattered most, since spying on adults was a major theme in juvenile fiction; he'd particularly enjoyed the two seconds it took him to read Harriet the Spy when he was four days old). But today, he'd finally learned something truly interesting and helpful.
Given what his father and uncle had said about his biological progenitors, he now had sufficient information to track them down in the historical archives (the parts his father naively thought he couldn't access without permission) and learn the full story. His A.I. father wasn't stupid, by any means, and could probably compute circles around him any day of the week. But his father always seemed to forget that Six was at least half-human, as well, and with that organic side of his family came a wealth of talent for intuition, invention, and incredible sneakiness, beyond what even the most advanced artificial intelligence in the universe could ever imagine.
If Six's suspicions were supported by the information in the archives, and it turned out that his biological donors had in fact lived less than happy, fulfilling lives, well, what else could a dutiful and grateful descendant do, but lend a hand to set right what once went wrong?
It's what Walt Disney would have wanted him to do, he was sure, and since his own father had recommended the works of Walt Disney as a good influence . . . Well, it was clearly Meant to Be. What else was a genetically engineered, only partly organic super genius with too much time on his hands supposed to do, if not improve the lives of his poor, benighted elders?
tbc
----------------------