Implosion, p.25
Implosion, page 25
“… is quite beyond my understanding, and you have this simply ghastly meeting in five minutes …”
Mary was right. Mary was always right. Always right … That Cabinet meeting. A full Cabinet meeting, was in five minutes …
He poured himself an extra-large Scotch and gulped it down, his fourth since lunch …
He smiled absently at Mary’s taut, set expression, knowing her thoughts. There were many lines in her face now. Many lines … but still she was marvelous, a wonderful woman …
The Cabinet meeting began, the hum of voices died as Bart looked up and down the table, his silver hair gleamed as usual, but one or two noted the unusual disarray. Trained by Farmer, he did not waste time.
“Gentlemen. I have called this emergency meeting,” he paused, looking at the intent faces around him, smiled faintly and bitterly at some private thought, “to consider a report by the Minister of Health and Regeneration. What we can do about it, I have no idea.” He paused again, and repeated, “no idea.” His voice took on new strength. “A long time ago, Farmer said ‘Nature produces nothing useless.’ It was much truer than he knew. Much truer.”
One or two Ministers exchanged quick looks. Bart was odd, very odd.
He ran a hand through his thinning hair. “I could go on, but there is no point. No point at all.” Again he smiled, as if at some personal joke. He looked down the table with sudden directness. “You go on, Peter.”
The Minister of Health and Regeneration stood up, an action which, of itself alarmed the Ministers.
“As you know,” his voice was dry, squeaky with stress, “it was agreed by the best authorities that breeding could begin at fifteen. Experience has shown this to be reasonable. As a result, the first girls produced by the Homes became available last year. We now have the figures for the first quarter’s production.”
He paused and gulped, reading again the figures he knew by heart.
“I have to tell you,” he hesitated to regain control of his voice, “that eight hundred and thirty-seven girls have produced two thousand, three hundred and forty-eight children.” He took off his glasses, tossed them carelessly on the table, and in a voice that was little more than a croak, said, “I can’t go on.”
“All right, Peter.” Bart looked with faint contempt at his successor. With difficulty, he stood up, his hands planted firmly on the table, leaning forward, a twisted smile on his face and utter desolation in his eyes.
“Not long ago,” his enunciation was not clear, and the Chancellor, next to him, caught a strong whiff of whiskey, “I had a report, yes, a report from a bright, up-and-coming young geneticist. He said that the girls born of the Mums might be sterile! Sterile! D’you know what I did?” He looked aggressively around the silent, shocked Cabinet. “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you! I tore the bloody thing up!” He waved one hand, and nearly lost his balance. “There! Just like that! All right! I was wrong, shouldn’t have done it, he was right! Dear old Mother Nature knew he was right! They would be sterile. Why—how—who knows? Who knows …” His voice dropped. Momentarily he lost his train of thought, muttering, “Who knows … well—she did! So there you are—nature produces nothing useless … Farmer’s right, nature’s right … so she arranges all those bits in that DNA chain—and what do we get? Boys—boys—boys!” He made a last effort, his legs were weakening, his whole being was collapsing, “an’ that’s all you will get—boys!”
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Also by D F Jones
Colossus
Colossus (1966)
The Fall of Colossus (1974)
Colossus and the Crab (1977)
Other Novels
Implosion (1967)
Denver is Missing (1971) (aka Don’t Pick the Flowers)
The Floating Zombie (1975)
Earth Has Been Found (1979) (aka Xeno: Science Fiction)
Bound in Time (1981)
for Helen
D F Jones (1917-1981)
Dennis Feltham Jones was a British science fiction author and a naval commander during World War II and lived in Cornwall.
His first novel, Colossus (1966), about a defence super computer which uses its control over nuclear weapons to subjugate humankind, was made into the feature film Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970).
Copyright
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © D F Jones 1967
All rights reserved.
The right of D F Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This edition first published in Great Britain in 2019 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK Company
This eBook first published in 2018 by Gollancz.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 473 22647 0
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
www.orionbooks.co.uk
D. F. Jones, Implosion
