Chromosome Six

By Pamela Loveridge

In 2023, five years after undergoing IVF treatment at the Institute for Genetics Research and Development in Russia, a couple discovers that some illegal genetic engineering performed during their treatment has resulted in their daughter being able to levitate. Worried about her future should authorities discover this amazing ‘gift’, the family flees Russia to live in obscurity in Australia.

Seventeen years later, after an identical genetic manipulation at the same institute results in twins being able to levitate, the GRU, Russia’s security agency, becomes aware of the original family’s existence. It sends its top agent to Australia to locate and bring them back. But when the GRU agent arrives in Australia, ASIO is put on full alert to locate him and discover his reason for entering the country.

After contact with ASIO and being informed the GRU has located her, the child who was affected by the original experiment has her own important decisions to make. Will it be safe for her to return to Russia? If she returns, will she be able to uncover the truth of her genetic engineering?

Although 'Chromosome Six' is a novel, it highlights the dangers human society is exposing itself to as we explore the potential outcomes of genetic engineering, particularly via CRISPR technology. This applies not only to changes to human genomes, but to micro-organisms as well. If we’re not vigilant and demand complete transparency and strong ethical guidelines around all such genetic research, we might see future generations inheriting permanent genetic changes that were never intended.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Oct 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781922703170

Pamela Loveridge

Pamela Loveridge is a retired pharmacist who lives in Sydney. She is a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.Her writing history started with the publication of six fairy stories about eight years ago. Some of these were written in 1983-4, when her children were young, but lay hidden away in an exercise book for many years.Pamela self-published her first novel in 2015 “The Neanderthals-A Story of Courage.” In this book she looks at what happened when modern humans first moved into Europe 41,000 years ago, and came across some Neanderthals, peacefully living in France.A year later she has released her second novel "The Spear Thrower" which goes back even further in time, and the story is set in Africa some 80,000 years ago. Her interest in this story is trying to work out what happened to make humans more modern. Apart from evolutionary and cultural changes, she comes to the conclusion that the invention of the throwing spear was a key factor. This invention made man the top predator in Africa, and probably helped man conquer earlier arcahic people in Africa, as well as later, the Neanderthals living outside of Africa.Her third novel, "Robots Rising" was published in 2017 and is set some sixty years in the future. This novel looks at the developments taking place with Artificial Intelligence (AI), and emphasises the potential risks of AI reaching the level of superintelligence. She believes there are important issues for society to plan and think about, especially when AI is applied to robots, which by that later time will probably be stationed throughout the community."Tresoriun Time Travel" is her fourth novel, and this is set about twenty-five years in the future. In this novel she explores a unique form of time travel, Tresoriun time travel, where only certain, rare individuals are able to travel through time, and only in their own lifespan. She hypothesises what might happen when a person reaches their new destination in time- can history rearrange itself?In her fifth novel "Chromosome Six" published in 2021, the author wants to alert readers to be aware of the dangers resulting from genetic experimentation which alters the genome of humans and micro-organisms. Such research can have unpredictable and drastic outcomes, which in certain situations may have lasting consequences for the human race. Society must be vigilant and demand complete transparency as well as strong ethical guidelines regarding all genetic research. Looking at the COVID-19 catastrophe, she observes this seems to be lacking at the moment.Pamela loves writing poetry and wrote her first poem at the age of 8, which was published in the school magazine. She has also enjoyed writing songs, since her teenage years, composing lyrics simultaneously with the melody. Perhaps one day she may seek to publish her favourites. Whenever Pamela writes something, she just sits down and starts writing, and the story, poem or song just seems to flow from her subconscious mind. She says the ideas just pop into her head, usually quite spontaneously.The great loves of her life are her two daughters and four granddaughters who all live in Sydney.

Book preview

1

Jemima (Mimi) Wright

December 2029 – Robertson NSW

I look intently at Sasha Kozlova; she has a very strange expression on her face.

Are you OK?

Not sure, she says.

I’ve just had a really peculiar feeling. I know it sounds crazy, but I feel I’m about to fly.

Her two arms are straight by her sides, and she raises her elbows slightly, then pushes down hard with her hands. I swear I see her feet move upwards from the ground; about a metre I would say.

Did I just move off the ground? she cries out.

I think you did, but maybe I’m wrong. I mean it’s just not possible.

I didn’t jump up, she says.

For sure, I could tell you didn’t jump. You just sort of lifted up, as though you were defying gravity. I think you stayed up for about ten seconds.

Could my eyes be deceiving me? Are we both crazy? Tell me, Sasha, has anything like this ever happened to you before?

She reflects for a moment. "I remember when I was four or five, a few times I’d have this feeling and imagined I was able to fly. Once I thought I went up about three metres into the air, and I moved round a bit – it seemed so real. But later I thought I must have just dreamed it.

"When I told Papa about it, he said I was probably only remembering a dream. He said that lots of little children imagine they can do magical things, when it’s really only just a dream they’ve had. Though he did make me give a solemn promise never to mention it to anyone.

Mimi, she says rather tentatively. As we’re best friends, I’d like to ask you for a huge favour. Do you mind not telling anyone about this? I have to keep it a secret. Besides, I’m not a hundred per cent sure anything actually happened.

I look up at her, with deeply knowing eyes. Look, we both know something pretty amazing just occurred. But as we’re best friends, I’ll keep your secret.

Sasha gives me her sweetest smile. Thanks, Mimi, you really are the best friend in the whole world.

I raise my eyebrows and put on my most serious face. However, there’s one special request. You have to agree to try again soon. Do you want to try again now? I ask enthusiastically. Second time proves it.

She gives me her special Sasha look, as if to say, Are you kidding me?

Go on, Sasha, give it another try, please.

She presses down hard with her hands again, but nothing happens. I nod at her to encourage her to try a few more times. But nothing further eventuates.

That incident was only a few weeks before we broke up from school for the Christmas holidays. We were busy with Christmas festivities and never discussed the matter again. Then, just after the New Year, Sasha suddenly appears at the front door of my place. She has red eyes and has obviously been crying a lot.

Whatever’s the matter? I ask, showing great concern.

She starts sobbing so I walk out into the garden with her and give her a big hug. She can’t stop crying, and finally in broken words announces the family will be moving again and leaving the area for good.

Where are you going? I ask.

I’m not sure, but I heard my parents mention Adelaide last night when they were talking in their bedroom.

Oh gosh, that’s a long way away. When do you leave?

"It looks like it’ll be as soon as next week. This morning I heard Papa tell Mama he had booked the removalist, and he mentioned the 9th of January. Look, I’m not supposed to tell anyone that we’re leaving; it’s supposed to be a big secret. I snuck out this morning when Mama and Papa were both out.

Mimi, I think this is going to be goodbye. I don’t think I’ll get to see you again before we go.

I feel a huge deluge of tears rushing down my cheeks, and we both hug and cry, fitfully. Finally, I gain enough composure to say: Promise me you’ll write to me when you get to Adelaide. Then I’ll write to you every week once I have your address.

Later I believe that keeping in contact with Sasha might prove to be tricky as Sasha’s is the only family I know that doesn’t have a computer or iPhone. I’ve always thought it was rather odd, but Sasha didn’t seem to mind too much. She always said: You can’t miss what you’ve never had. Mama and Papa are very private people and don’t trust all of these modern technologies.

During the months that followed I watched the letterbox every day, and for years later I’d check the box on my birthday, hoping for a card, or anything. But there was nothing. It was as though Sasha had vanished from the earth. It almost broke my heart to think she’d just forgotten me so easily.

2

Jemima (Mimi) Wright

November 2040 – Eleven years later – Sydney

Now here I am, almost eleven years after Sasha’s mysterious disappearance, just finishing my Pharmacy degree and about to start my honours year of Community Pharmacy. I’ve just watched a video clip on TV of two little girls in Russia, levitating. Oh my God, I say aloud. I realise that this is exactly what I saw Sasha Kozlova do all those years ago. It hits me like a tonne of bricks. I was only ten at the time and couldn’t quite understand what I’d seen.

The news report has said that the event occurred today somewhere in Russia, although Russian authorities have been quick to say the video is a fake. I’m literally glued to the TV, wanting to find out more. Later that evening, a panel of scientists discusses this amazing feat and proclaims it has more than likely resulted from genetic engineering. There’s no other explanation for the levitation.

The scientists mention that genetic engineering on humans is currently being performed in many countries, but Russia – following on from a Chinese experiment in 2018 – definitely has a record going back to 2018, if not earlier. Most of the early work was concerned with modifying or eliminating certain diseases. But it’s thought that this quickly changed when some countries secretly pursued other avenues. The panel raises the possibility that there may even be others already out there, who have undergone a similar program as the two girls – apparently identical twins – caught on the video.

Could Sasha be such a person, I wonder? Suddenly, all the mystery and secrecy surrounding Sasha is starting to make sense. Her parents were foreign, and totally private, and although Sasha would never say where they came from, I always believed it was from Russia. Could Sasha have been one of those early, experimental children, and perhaps when her parents discovered what had happened to her, the family had fled the country and gone into hiding? Australia was a good place to go as it certainly is a long way from Russia. That might help to explain why her family moved around so often; Sasha had said they usually moved every few years.

I can remember asking her why they moved so often and she said she didn’t really know, but it probably had something to do with her father’s work. I was never quite sure what her father did for a living. To me the family seemed quite poor, as they rented a fairly modest house out in a small rural town in New South Wales, but they did own a beautiful piano. Sasha’s mum gave piano lessons to the locals and played at the local school, even taking choir there. She also played the violin and gave both violin and piano lessons to Sasha.

Suddenly I have a new explanation for why I’ve never heard from Sasha. Whilst I admit to an overactive imagination, I could see a distinct possibility that the poor girl was forced to live a secret existence, maybe so the scientists in Russia wouldn’t find her. I then have a horrible thought – what would happen to her and her family if they did find them? Perhaps they’ve already found her, and that’s another reason why I’ve never heard from her in all these years.

It’s at this very moment that I decide I’ll spend the few weeks after my uni exams trying to track her down, and to discover what happened to her and her family. I think I now have a reasonable explanation why her family never owned a computer or iPhone. It’s because they were trackable, especially risky when dealing with a country such as Russia with a reputation for sophisticated IT technology and cyber expertise.

I have a feeling that finding Sasha Kozlova is going to be quite a challenge. I start with Google and Facebook, and other common social media sites, but of course I have zero success there. I even take a day off to make a special trip to my little primary school in Robertson, to ask if they have any record of a forwarding address. There’s no luck there with a new batch of teachers now, and besides, the record archive doesn’t provide that information. I need to find a lead in Adelaide and work from there.

I decide that after my final exams I’ll research the name of every high school in Adelaide, and phone each school to see if they have a record of Sasha Kozlova having been enrolled as a pupil. If I have no luck with that, I’ll need to widen the search to include high schools in regional and rural South Australia. I have trouble sleeping that night but come up with a terrific ruse: that I’m a representative of a law firm in Sydney with a mission to find Sasha Kozlova. The story line will go that Sasha has come into a very large inheritance from her grandmother who had lived in Russia, and that I need to locate Sasha urgently, otherwise all the money will revert to state coffers.

I’m feeling impatient for my exams to finish so I can get on with finding Sasha. Luckily, I have a window of just under three weeks after my exams finish and before the school term ends. When the time arrives to make the phone calls, I find that people are marvellously cooperative, as no one really wants to see a young person lose a large fortune, especially when it’s about to go back to the greedy Russian government, which everyone believes is full of corruption.

However, life is not meant to be easy, as a former prime minister of Australia once said, many years ago. There’s no success with my enquiries. But you can’t keep a good woman down, so just to be really thorough, I also decide to check out all private schools. I reckon this has a very slim chance of success, as I always felt Sasha’s family seemed quite poor. If the private schools also come back as a blank, I don’t feel I have the stamina to check out every school in Australia.

Just when I’ve given up all hope, a couple of days after I’d finished checking the last of my South Australian schools, a woman from the Walford Anglican School for Girls phones me back. Hello, Jemima, I’ve been thinking about your situation and there was one pupil I would like to mention to you. We had a girl named Sasha Pushkina who won the scholarship for the last two years of senior school, and who was also granted a scholarship to be a boarder for those two years. She was extremely bright and was dux of the school.

I think my heart skips a beat. It’s a different surname, but it makes sense to me, if Sasha’s family is still in hiding. I earnestly say: Why that’s the surname of her deceased grandmother, so I do believe it’s likely to be her. Could you email me her home address and any other information you may have, and I’ll chase up things from there?

I can do better than that, Jemima. I know she’s won a scholarship to live at Ormond College at the University of Melbourne. I believe she enrolled in Biomedical Sciences but I was told by someone that she later changed to Genetics. She should just about be halfway through completing a master’s by now.

I admit I’m willing to clutch at any straw, but this is my only lead and actually looks really promising. When I think about it, there’s no doubt that Sasha was a very bright child. She had picked up Italian at the end of fourth grade and whizzed ahead of the rest of us in no time. Likewise, she always found maths easy.

Bingo, this sounds perfect. By now all the universities in Australia have finished exams, and students have gone on holidays. A pity I hadn’t known about this before the university year finished as I would have taken a flying visit down there. Still, I’ll follow up with the University of Melbourne and if I can’t get a current address then I’ll be waiting outside the Genetics Department on day one when her uni goes back next year.

I thank the Walford lady profusely. I feel pretty confident that I’ve located Sasha – interesting about the name change. I wonder if it may have even occurred before, and maybe Sasha Kozlova alias Sasha Pushkina is really Sasha someone else.

3

Dr Andrei Polanski

November 2040 – Moscow

Dr Polanski is the chief psychologist at the Institute for Genetics Research and Development, about fifty kilometres out of Moscow, where he works exclusively in the Genetic Offspring Wing. He’s in charge of the psychological welfare of the children in the genetic modification program. He’s been working there for close to five years. He works a five-day week, from Monday to Friday, and sleeps over at the facility on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Another psychologist fills in on weekends and comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, sleeping over those two nights as well as on the weekend. Thus, there’s always a psychologist on call 24/7.

The sleepovers provide Dr Polanski with the opportunity to call into the library after hours and catch up on some private reading. He also likes to visit the main cafeteria one or two nights a week, just for a change of scenery. The cafeteria is usually fairly quiet when he pops in for supper at about 10.00pm, after all the children are in bed. About ten weeks ago, Dr Polanski met a young PhD scientist in the main cafeteria one Monday evening. Her name is Marta Voronova, and she works in the Genetic Science Wing Sundays to Thursdays, and sleeps over in the staff quarters on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings.

When Dr Polanski first meets Marta there’s an instant and obvious sexual attraction between them. After several weeks of meeting in the cafeteria on Monday evenings, they make the pretence of wanting to look up something in the library and head in there. No one else is present so they start kissing passionately. Things heat up quickly and Dr Polanski suggests they move into the storeroom, where no one will be able to barge in on them. He has observed where the librarian keeps a hidden key card to the storeroom.

The storeroom is not conducive to lovemaking – too squashed and too many boxes – so he suggests they try locating to the museum where he remembers there’s a comfortable day chair under the window. With bated breath he turns the door handle and to their surprise they find that the door to this room can be unlocked from the storeroom without a key. This provides them with easy access and absolute privacy. The sex on that first occasion proves to be amazing, far better than anything he’s getting back at home, which seems to have become very quiet in the past couple of months. He’s so enchanted with Marta that they start meeting up regularly each Monday night.

A few weeks ago, they both decide to meet in the museum early on a Thursday morning for extra cuddles. It’s a big risk they’re both taking by having a clandestine relationship, as discovery might mean instant dismissal for both, certainly something that would be a major blow to Dr Polanski’s career. Still the primeval, sexual urge can often prove irresistible, and extra risks can make the situation even more exciting. Dr Polanski is enjoying Marta so much that he even finds himself considering divorcing his wife. Then a week ago, his wife drops the proverbial bombshell. She’s twelve weeks pregnant.

Dr Polanski can see that any idea of divorcing her is now impossible, pure fantasy in fact. But what is he to do about his affair with Marta? Should he tell her about his wife’s pregnancy? Should he end the affair? After an agonising weekend he decides that when they meet up on the Monday night, he’ll tell her about his wife’s pregnancy. That way it will be her decision what happens with the affair.

However, that evening the sex is absolutely mind-blowing and they spend over an hour and a half in the museum where the lovemaking seems to go on forever, and he comes three times. After such ecstasy, he feels there’s no way he can risk changing the relationship and perhaps losing her, so he says nothing about the pregnancy.

On the Thursday of the incident, he’s up early checking all the children are getting ready for breakfast. The twins, who are nearly five years of age, had seemed a bit hyperactive the night before, so he wants to check in on them first. He opens the door of their bedroom and peeps in, and sure enough they are chuckling away in bed.

What’s going on with you two?

Annika is grinning from ear to ear. Doktor, we have a big, big secret.

I’m very interested in secrets. Please tell me. It sounds exciting. You know we always share our secrets.

Annika jumps up on her bed, looking very animated. We can fly, she says.

Would you like us to show you, Doctor? says Anastasia enthusiastically, jumping up on her bed too.

Where does this fantasy come from, wonders Dr Polanski? It’s certainly original and has them really hyped up.

Look, I need to pop out for a short time, and you both need to get dressed and have breakfast. How about straight after breakfast you go outside into the garden and practise your flying, and I’ll come out and have a look before you start your lessons.

This seems to make the twins happy, and Dr Polanski grabs a quick breakfast in the cafeteria, before heading down to the library where he makes his way into the museum. Whilst in there, he gets a text message from Marta saying her train is running late and has made an unexpected stop. She’ll text him when it arrives at the station. About twenty minutes later, he realises he has to leave so he texts Marta back to tell her. It’s then that he happens to look out of the museum window.

In the distance he can make out the twins in the backyard at the climbing apparatus. They are starting to climb to the level-one, platform which is about ten feet off the ground. There does not appear to be any adult supervising this activity. He’s absolutely furious with this slack supervision, as there’s always meant to be an adult supervising them when they’re outside. He climbs up on the day chair to get a better view and starts to video the scene on his phone, so he can show it to the medical director when he returns to the wing. When the twins reach the platform, they stop and look over the edge.

Suddenly Dr Polanski has a terrible premonition they’re about to jump, probably believing they can fly and so won’t fall to the ground. He’s sure the fall from that height would more than likely cause some serious damage with possibly broken bones if not worse. Should something bad happen to them, he’ll be held responsible as he was the one to tell them to go outside and practise their flying. His career will be finished. He’s gripped by fear.

His heart is absolutely pounding in his chest as he watches them become very animated. Then their bodies seem to surge with energy as they force their arms down by their sides and their bodies lift up into the air. They seem to rise effortlessly about another ten feet into the air and stay there for what must be about thirty seconds but seems like an eternity to him. Then they gracefully descend onto the platform, before climbing back down the climbing apparatus, and running away laughing their heads off.

Dr Polanski can’t believe what he’s just seen, and so he sits down on the day chair and plays the video over several times. No, his eyes are not playing tricks on him – it really did happen. His mind seems to be in a fog. He’s not sure he’s thinking clearly. What did this mean for human society? What did it mean for these two little children who had been genetically engineered to do something no human being had ever done before? What lay ahead for them and all the other genetically engineered children that would follow?

He thinks of his pregnant wife and their child that is yet to be born. He realises he would not want to see his own child become an experiment, genetically engineered to be some sort of human freak. Because that’s what the twins have become now: entities belonging to a freak show, or even worse, entities to be hidden away from society, undergoing further secret experimentation and examination. This is wrong! This is all terribly wrong. People in the cafeteria would have witnessed the event, and so the twins’ lives are already ruined forever.

Overcome with emotion, and without another thought, he releases the video to the internet. He has a premium subscription to the social media site ‘Say Hello’. It’s a global site and he knows it will go viral before Russian authorities manage to shut it down. But he desperately wants the world to know that bad things are happening to innocent children. Society needs to know and be held accountable.

By the time he leaves the library, alarms in the facility are ringing. That means there’s a code-one breach and external doors are automatically closing, barring any entrance to or exit from the facility. People are streaming out of the cafeteria, looking confused and unsure of what they should be doing. He makes his way towards the west wing security doors.

4

Kapitan Igor Petrovich

Russia’s military intelligence service is commonly known by the Russian acronym GRU, which represents the Main Intelligence Directorate. Its published aims are the supply of military intelligence to the Russian president and government. Additional aims include ensuring Russia’s military, economic and technological security.

The GRU has a long-running program to run ‘illegal’ spies – those who work without diplomatic cover and who live under an assumed identity for years until orders are sent from Moscow. It’s also a major Russian cyber player. The GRU answers directly to the Chief of the General Staff and the Russian Defence Minister. It’s known as an aggressive and well-funded organisation with direct support of and access to the Russian president. The GRU also has a considerable special forces unit containing the elite of the Russian military.

Kapitan Igor Petrovich graduated from the elite Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, some twenty years previously. He was selected to join the GRU where he was rapidly promoted to the second highest position, as assistant to Sergei Mazurov, who has a direct line to the Russian president. In this position, Kapitan Petrovich is also the person in charge of all secret operations both internally and outside the country. He has a nickname in the GRU as ‘the razor’, because of his almost surgical ability to analyse any situation and dissect out the most salient facts.

As soon as the photos of the twins levitating appears by video on the media, Sergei Mazurov assigns the task of investigating the incident to Kapitan Petrovich, telling him to take control of the situation, and get to the bottom of the matter. Within an hour Kapitan Petrovich has taken a helicopter with his special aide Kapitan Podgorny to the Institute for Genetics Research and Development, where they are met by the institute director and the medical director, and given a brief tour of the facility. Neither kapitan likes what they see. For starters, the security of the compound is obviously lax and insufficient, and Kapitan Petrovich immediately orders another thirty military personnel to come across.

Even before both kapitans arrive, a drone has been spotted flying around the perimeter and a guard has shot it down, completely destroying it. Kapitan Petrovich explains to the institute director that at this stage it’s not known who has taken the offending video, and it could easily have been taken by a drone, perhaps even the very drone recently destroyed. Kapitan Petrovich gets his aide to phone the GRU and requests both drone and video experts to collect and examine whatever is left of the drone, and to determine which country the drone may have come from. Meanwhile, it’s vital to establish whether the video has been captured by a drone or has been taken from someone inside or positioned outside the facility.

Kapitan Petrovich realises there’s going to be huge international interest in this matter, so he’s sure more drones will appear, and perhaps even some coming from unfriendly countries. It’s a perfect opportunity to bring in some of the new, top-secret drone catchers that have been recently developed in Russia. He discusses the matter with Kapitan Podgorny before he orders the GRU to organise two drone catchers to be made available straight away, with twenty-four-hour supervision from top technologists. Both men are very enthusiastic about the drone catchers and have been waiting for just the right opportunity to try them out.

The drone catchers are an exciting military invention. They can be launched from anywhere by a portable device and can fly at speeds comparable to a missile. Once they lock onto a target drone, instead of destroying it they closely pursue, coming alongside to release a magnetised metallic net on an extendable arm. This net simply captures the drone, drawing it back to the side of the catcher. Each drone catcher has the ability to separately track and then attach up to three drones, one on each side and one that can piggyback on top of the catcher. Each drone catcher carries sensitive sensors and software that can determine whether the drone carries a weapon, and if so, the drone catcher has a weapon capability to release and destroy the drone.

It’s considered important to be able to capture a drone rather than simply destroy it, because it’s important to work out the maker of the drone and whether or not it has come from a foreign power. Also, it’s possible to reverse-track the software and obtain the exact location from where the drone has been launched. This technology would prove to be quite useful, especially in helping to unearth a nest of spies or terrorists.

Kapitan Podgorny is aware of the detailed history of the development of the drone catchers. He explains to Kapitan Petrovich that the interesting fact about the drone catcher is that it had actually been designed in early 2023, and was left undiscovered in a draft plan for over fifteen years. Apparently, the designer, a brilliant young Russian engineer working in one of Russia’s largest military factories, had died in a terrible family boating accident before others had become aware of this work. Once rediscovered, the design only required superficial changes with the new catchers now operating with a three-drone capacity instead of the original design, which had a two-drone capacity.

Kapitan Petrovich comments that this engineer’s death was a great