Page 54 of Milk
“This is a bad idea,” She said sharply
“We have him under control.”
“Wethinkwe have him under control,” Susan said. “The formula-”
“The formula made him big, but no man is bigger than ten thousand volts straight to the neck,” I assured her.
I was projecting hopeful confidence. In truth, this sounded like the most delicious punishment for a rapist; he’d be surrounded by hot, naked women, and be unable to touch them. If he tried, we would zap them from here. He’d live on the ranch and work there, serving the women he once terrorized. Such a fitting punishment was worth a little bit of risk. If the electroshock proved insufficient, I still had my gun.
“I don’t understand,” Dr. Yan said.
“What don’t you understand?” I asked. “The punishment?”
“No. I mean, I don’t, but I don’t care about that.”
“Then?”
“The formula. Why is there a male formula? Why is there a ‘bull’?”
“It’s not a male formula, per se,” I replied, “And as you can see, it’s not perfected.”
“Even if it was, what would it achieve? Men cannot produce milk. Even if they could, it wouldn’t be more effective than doing the same with women,” she pressed.
“Susan, want to get this one?” I asked. “Dr. Yan is your pupil, after all.”
Susan turned on the chair, but she wouldn’t waste a chance to talk about science.
“The people who developed the first formula just wanted to get milk out of women. Obviously, they had no ethical concerns with what happened to them. The formula produced a lot of unstable mutations. These mutations affected primary and secondary sexual characteristics the most, as well as growth and sex hormones,” Susan explained. “It also caused what we call ‘morphological plasticity.’”
“Yes, I’m aware,” Dr. Yan said, folding her arms, “You covered all this during my introduction here. The use of spliced DNA, inducing spontaneous stem-cell generation, is great, if inherently unstable.”
“Not inherently. The version we use on our cows now is Mark 5. The first developed version out of beta, Mark 1, caused horrible and painful mutations, but produced the desired result: milk,” Susan continued. “But it was unstable. Cancerous growths and uncontrolled mutations were regular. The people who made it didn’t care what else changed as long as they got what they wanted.”
“Right…”
“Mark 2 was developed, what we call the ‘old formula.’ The Mark 1 subjects died within six months to a year after the first injection. Because some candidates died during the mutation process-”
“It was hard to replace those compatible with the formula when they died?” Dr. Yan filled in.
“Exactly. Mark 2 solved the mortality problem by curing the more egregious mutations and the cancer problem.” Susan crossed her arms.
“But it still caused some mutations?”
“Lots of them,” Susan agreed, “just less lethal. I wanted funds to work on Mark 3 to remove that nasty side effect. It would allow us not just to sustain, but scale production. My former boss lacked vision.”
“And a heart,” I added.
She nodded. Dr. Yan placed a finger on her chin in thought for a moment. “So, the Mark 3 formula began after the ‘takeover?’”
“Well, I was working on it in secret when I could, but it began in earnest after that point.”
“Mark 4 and 5?”
“Incremental, though significant, versions to improve milk quality, reduce rejection, and minimize side effects.”
“It gave the girls dignity,” I said. “They can work, get paid, and go free when this is over with a nice nest-egg and a draconian NDA.”
“Back to the bull. Was he injected with Mark 1 or Mark 2?”
