Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 608
trying to terraform Ventus, they invented new ways of thought
that worked better than the ones we’d given them. They
stopped thinking like us. Which is why they won’t talk to us!"
She beamed in triumph as she slammed a glass of
champagne down in front of him.
"Well." He picked up the glass and regarded it. "They
talked to Turcaret, though."
"So he claimed."
"Well." He rallied. "But they could talk to him; I found
out how."
She raised an eyebrow. "Do tell?"
Ooh, there she went again--the smug academic amused at
the antics of the soldier of fortune. Axel smiled brittley at her
and took a swig of champagne without tasting it. He put the
glass down, and said, "Turcaret’s DNA is significantly
different from the Ventus standard."
"Really?" she indulged.
"Well, first off, he has some sort of extra neural wiring in
his auditory/visual lobes in pretty much the same places as
Armiger put his into Jordan. It’s a kind of biological radio.
Secondly, in all other respects he’s an archaic--his DNA
matches the Human Genome Project norm established in
2013."
"Meaning?"
"You and I don’t match that norm. Nobody does
nowadays--not even Jordan. We all have DNA that matches
the 2219 norm or later--with all the dangerous recessive traits
removed. Ancient diseases like..." he groped for an example.
"Well, I don’t know what they were, but they were awful, and
they were still there in the archaic norm. The point is, Turcaret
matches that norm, while according to your institute’s random
studies of modern Ventusians, everybody else matches the