Cyteen: The Betrayal by C. J. Cherryh Page A

Warrick promises you my head on a platter. He promises you he can swing votes in Science. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You can have him. I’ll transfer him and his whole damned staff. If you want to put him over a top-secret facility, go right ahead. If he wants to make speeches and write papers against my policies, fine.” She set the cup down. “Do we have a deal, admiral? We can get out of this damned city days early, if that’s the case. You support me in a request to let us leave sealed ballots on the Hope bill, and if you can guarantee they’ll be unanimous, none of us will have to show up here to call a question. Deal?”
    “I think we can go with that.”
    She smiled. “Excellent. If you want Warrick’s wing at Fargone, that’ll have to be written up. I’ll trust your staff for that. Mine’s busy. But it’ll wait on the establishment of a secure facility. And I do trust you know how to lay your hands on Warrick to get his signature on the request.”
    Gorodin swallowed his coffee in some haste and set his cup down. “Thank you, Dr. Emory. I’m sure this will work to everyone’s good.” He rose and offered his hand.
    Ariane rose and reciprocated a strong handshake. And smiled at him all the way to the door.
    The azi Catlin closed it then, her face as blank as any soldier at attention.
    Florian picked up the cups, trying not to look at her either.
    They knew when to be afraid.
     
    Verbal Text from:
    PATTERNS OF GROWTH
    A Tapestudy in Genetics: # I
    “A Reseune Calendar: 2396”
    Reseune Educational Publications: 8970-8768-1 approved for 80+
    BATCH AL-5766: FOUR UNITS:
    The technician begins a routine procedure at Reseune, the transfer of genetic material already replicated. Ten units of AL-5766 remain unused in the genebank, standard operating procedure for commercial and experimental materials.
    AL-5766 is female, Alpha class. Alpha, the highest intelligence in the A-Z non-citizen classifications, ranges upward from 150 on the Rezner scale, to a current known high of 215. AL-5766 is 190, which verges on genius. Alphas are generated only rarely except for specific executive assignments, experimental studies or colonial operations in which there is minimum population density and considerable latitude for independent judgment. Alphas without early socialization are prone to personality disorders: the best successes in non-social Alphas have been achieved with positive feedback in early training and an accelerated early Tapestudy consisting of world awareness, reading, and mathematics skills, with minimal intervention except for reward. The most reliably successful Alphas are those given to human parentage from the moment of birth: in such cases the behavioral and social statistics follow the same profile as citizen-born individuals of equal Rezner values. It should always be remembered that an azi geneset’s traits and to some extent, classification, are determined by the tape designed specifically for that geneset; and that the primary failing with Alphas seems to be in tape design.
    AL-5766 has shown developmental patterns in human parentage situations which are within acceptable ranges, but which indicate a propensity toward aggression. Within azi communities the AL-5766 statistics are wholly unacceptable, involving violent behaviors, moodiness, and abnormal and irrational anxieties. AL-5766 disorders once manifested find no amelioration through tape, and only rarely find relief through interventive counseling, although some salvage has been effected on two occasions by transfer to military situations where hardship and physical challenge is extreme.
    Neither case, however, has utilized the high potential of the AL-5766s in mathematics, and not even experimental use has been made of the AL-5766 geneset since 2353. Now, however, Reseune believes it has a tape-fix for the problem, of interest since AL-5767 proved out as Beta-class, lacking the traits which made 5766 both brilliant and