DURING ONE OF HIS MANY chats with Dr. Crowley, she had explained to Ethan the importance of the diversity of the colony’s gene pool and why the Gens couldn’t replenish their numbers naturally over the course of the long voyage.
“I imagine it must be hard for you to accept,” the doctor had said.
“What?” Ethan had asked. “The fact that we couldn’t have our own children?”
“Yes,” replied Dr Crowley. “It’s one of the many sacrifices the project founders forced upon you. Perhaps the largest one. The impetus to reproduce is instinctive after all. We denied Gens the right to fulfill their natural desires.”
“I never thought about it like that,” Ethan said. “After the prohibition on natural reproduction was lifted and contraceptive-free water became available for people who wanted to conceive, L
