Vault 69/Meeting/Breeding
"Well," you say, "I guess we really need to talk about the issue with . . . umm . . . breeding. Doctor Romero, would you get us started?"
"Yes, of course," she says, "The problem here is that we have one male and nine hundred ninety-nine females. We have all of our eggs . . . or sperm rather . . . in one basket. It is vital that we start breeding now in hopes of more males in the first batch of children as a safeguard in case the worst were to come to pass. Additionally as all the children will have a single male ancestor, the young Tay here, there is a substantially increased risk of inbreeding depression and genetic defects due to inbreeding in future generations. We need to discuss how we are going to deal with these issue."
"Well," says your mother, "Tay is to young to be siring children."
"Actually Chief Willis," says Doctor Romero, "according to his medical record your son is producing viable sperm. It is early, but not unheard of. It's called precocious puberty."
"I meant morally," replies your mother spitefully.
"By all means," says Doctor Romero, "let's let your morality doom the entire vault."
Your mom looks like she's about to punch Doctor Romero when Chief Runningdeer stands up. "Ladies please! This is neither the time nor place. Besides, we aren't necessarily talking about the boy having sex . . . though I, myself am not opposed to the idea. We're talking about him siring children. The two do not have to coincide.
"Are you suggesting artificial insemination?" asks Doctor Charbonneau.
"Why not?" says Chief Runningdeer.
Doctor Charbonneau clucks her tongue against her palate. "I advise against this. The act of lovemaking is important to the emotional health of the mother. In cases of single parent artificial insemination there can be a void left when a part of the process, sex in this case, is left out. This void often leaves the parent with an unhealthy obsession with their child that can lead to over-protectiveness that borders on abuse. The first step to avoiding this is sexual contact to generate the fetus involved . . . unless we want to try to force homosexuality on everyone in the vault, which would be highly immoral, illegal, and wrong. It is better that the boy become a man a bit early than this, oui?"
"We still haven't addressed the problem of inbreeding," says Doctor Romero, "and for that I actually have an answer." The ladies in the room all perk their ears. "As part of the medical supplies I've inventoried is a batch of F.E.V. This stands for Forced Evolution Virus. This man-made virus has some extraordinary qualities. It just so happens that I had a research project using the F.E.V. earlier in my career. I successfully used the virus to remove all deleterious recessive traits from human subjects."
"Is this true?" asks Doctor Charbonneau.
"Incredible," says Doctor Whitney.
"Amazing," says Chief Runningdeer, "that could solve the problem with the lack of genetic diversity at the ranch too."
"Sorry," says Chief Killian, "for those of us who are not in the medical field, please?"
"My apologies," says Doctor Romero, "deleterious recessive traits are kind of like bad puzzle pieces in our DNA. They are half the code for genetic defects. Now, most of the time these won't match up between a pair of parents when they have a child because both parents have to have the same recessive trait. The more closely related the parents are, the more likely they are to have the same traits, so the greater the chance of these bad traits being expressed. With my treatment, all negative traits are removed, so there is no chance of the child having any genetic defects regardless of the parents. Young Tay here could even have children with Chief Willis and the child would be perfectly fine."
"You dirty slut!" says your mom as she draws her pistol.
"Mom!" you say as the assaultron powers up its eye-beam.
"Desist aggressive action immediately or be terminated," drones the robot.
"I wouldn't have actually shot her," says your mom as she holsters her weapon. "I just wanted to scare her."
"Mission accomplished then," says Doctor Romero. "I was using the example only because you are related, and without the treatment children would be unwise. It was an extreme example that was meant to show that our entire vault would be completely free of genetic faults until natural mutation took over; which happens over the course of thousands of years. We would be safe from inbreeding.
"Unfortunately, the same could not be said for our livestock. The process is unpredictable in lower lifeforms. It was functional with apes and humans, but even monkeys were affected strangely. There could be a way to fix that issue too . . . but I would need to do some tests to confirm it."
"Could we get some idea of where you're going with this?" asks Chief Runningdeer.
"I would," says Doctor Romero, "but I'm afraid Chief Willis might shoot me."
"I won't shoot you," says your mom.
"You promise?" Doctor Romero asks.
"I promise."
"Well then, it might be possible to remove the animal's deleterious recessive traits in vitro with a recipient of the modified F.E.V."
Doctor Charbonneau's, Doctor Whitney's, and Chief Runningdeer's eyes go wide. Doctor Whitney's jaw actually drops; but Chief Runningdeer gets kind of a smirk on her face.
"See I can't shoot you," says your mom. "I don't even know what that means."
"It means," says Chief Runningdeer, "that a woman who was treated with the modified F.E.V. would have to bear the animal in her womb . . . and I presume gestate and give birth to the animal as well?"
"Yes," says Doctor Romero.
"I'm going to shoot her," says your mom. You grab her arm just in case, but you're pretty sure she isn't serious. "Are you completely morally bankrupt? What you are suggesting is abhorrent!"
"It would be on a voluntary basis," says Doctor Romero.
"Look," you say, "emotions are high. Why don't we let this soak in, and come back to it with cooler heads?"
The ladies nod in silent agreement.
"Okay, moving on . . ."
What issue should you tackle next?