Prologue
When the Adamous Corporation first introduced the concept of “Genomic Guardians” to the general public, Sarah and I were one of the first couples in line to sign up for clinical trials. Though, looking back, I suppose it didn’t matter where we were in line. Adamous had already communicated that for their first human trial they would hold a globe wide lottery to narrow the pool down to 1000 couples and then from there they would narrow the pool down further based upon their needs and the genetic makeup of each candidate.
The need for “great genes”, as they put it, was paramount to the success of the initial trial. It was so important in fact that they had each couple sign a contract that in-part acknowledged we may be paired with someone other than our spouse or life partner if we were chosen to participate. Sarah and I tried not to let that idea phase us though - we had heard from our neighbor whose brother worked for Adamous that the possibility of separation was slim and that they would most likely keep couples together for convenience sake. Besides, we had decided together that the benefits of the program truly outweighed whatever potential costs that could arise.
We had already previously lost our only two children. Lindy was 12 when she was killed in the Middletown school shuttle bombings of 2142, and Paul died as an infant from a heart defect. Sarah didn’t want to try for a third just to lose it again. Then when the entire world seemed to be scraping the bottom of the barrel of despair - Adamous came out with that famous first commercial. What was the slogan again? “The science to protect your children from God’s will.” It was so fittingly defiant for the time. Everyone applauded the idea that we were finally going to take a stand against our “God” who had so obviously forsaken us, and of course why shouldn’t it be science that would turn out be our real savior.
With famine, disease, endless terrorism, and all manner of unholy crap continually beating the human race down… it was time to evolve. It was time to stop looking toward the sky for rescue, and instead buckle down and work toward a solution that we could actually control. The entirety of humanity felt in control again as we all hung on Adamous Corporation’s every word. “You will bring life into the world just like you always have”, they said. “Only, with that birth you will also bring another being into existence. A protector of sorts built off of the genetic map of your individual child.” Now, without understanding the scientific intricacies of the entire process — most people initially interpreted this to mean that every child would have a twin of some kind. It was something entirely different…
