Anthem's Fall Read Online Free PDF

animal Vatruvian cell means a biological animal cell must have been used as a template.”
    Professor Vatruvia said nothing. He stared at the computer screen in silent wonder.
    “What animal was used? What type of cell was copied?” Kristen found herself angry as she was forced to jar him from his thoughts.
    “A mouse,” he said.
    Kristen dragged her chair closer to the desk. She scrutinized the microscopic images for a long moment. The Vatruvian cells on the monitor were not entirely unlike the slides shown in any given high school biology class. Yet at the same time they were so very different, so crucially different.
    “Professor.”
    “Yes?”
    “You honestly don’t see a distinction between using our technology to replicate unicellular organisms, and using it to replicate mammalian cells?”
    He looked at her disapprovingly. “Not in the slightest. Kristen, you and I both know you saw this coming. Please don’t pretend you’re surprised. It was your work on the genetic structuring that acted as the foundation for this progress.”
    Professor Vatruvia was right. They both knew it.
    “Of course I thought this was a possibility, maybe even an inevitability. But I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it.” Kristen looked down at his desk in thought. She had to choose her words delicately. “It’s just that, well, doesn’t the Vatruvian cell seem like an inherently dangerous technology?”
    “What do you possibly mean?” Professor Vatruvia looked suddenly startled.
    “Maybe not dangerous per se, but . . .” Kristen took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes with the knuckles of her fingers. She could not tell if he was dissembling ignorance or genuinely naive to her fears. “Look. It’s just you and me in here. I’m going to speak freely, okay?”
    “By all means.”
    “We are creating something we really know nothing about.”
    “Know nothing about? We know everything about Vatruvian cell technology, you and I, and what we haven’t already figured out, we will soon learn. Look at the screen. Progress!” He paused, taking effort to compose himself. “Let’s move one step at a time here, Kristen. I think you are getting much too far ahead of yourself, ahead of our research.”
    Kristen cast him a severe look. “Am I?”
    “Yes. You are.” Professor Vatruvia said. Kristen thought he was attempting to perceive her thoughts. After a protracted silence he reached out and turned his monitor back to face him. “How do you think the other members of the team will react?”
    “I can’t say for certain. I would hope they feel like they’ve been left out of the loop, which is pretty much how I’m feeling at the moment.”
    Professor Vatruvia nodded. Kristen could see he was disappointed by her reaction to the cellular replication, perhaps even unnerved by her objections. He leaned back in his chair and looked at the monitor in contemplative thought.
    “You’re right, I suppose . . . one step at a time,” Kristen said in an attempt to soothe his alarm, though she felt the complete opposite. “I have to get back to my transcribing. I’ll see you at the meeting.”
    Kristen stood and walked to the doorway. At the threshold she paused but could not think of anything to say. There were far too many questions to ask just one.
    “You’re a very clever young woman, Kristen.” Professor Vatruvia rotated his chair away from her and looked out of the window at the passing cars and people on the street below. “I’ll give you that. Don’t think I’m not aware of what you’re thinking.”
    Kristen held her ground. “If you know what I’m thinking, then I’ll ask it. Can the Vatruvian cell differentiate? Can it create complex systems?”
    A wave of exasperation passed across his expression, as though he was beginning to see her as a nuisance. “Now you are getting ahead of yourself, Kristen. I think you better get back to your transcribing and rethink this knee-jerk reaction to our