Aeternus - Dolly’s Follies, or The Song of Mouton

Synopsis
Act 1

Alceste, a scientist in Fort St. Germain, a closed genetics facility in "one of Europe's smaller states", invites us to enter this "magic castle" where biologists clone sheep and other creatures. Arcady Baer, Fort's director, and Gene Onegin, a Russian geneticist, introduce us to the wonderful world of cloning.

Mary, a young biologist, demonstrates to Dr. Li, a visiting Chinese scientist, a couple of cloned sheep who can talk and sing in a limited way. Onegin finds out that he and Dr. Li attended the same university, and tells Li about "the Master Gene" that he discovered - "a gene which makes sheep - sheep".

In the next scene, we find out that Dr. Li in fact is a spy whose goal is to steal this "gene of sheep soul" and implant it into the Chinese people. The plot fails, with the spy committing suicide. However, in the ensuing confusion, one of the cloned sheep, a lamb called Mouton, is infected by an experimental virus, carrying "the gene of human soul and senses" - another discovery of the brilliant Onegin.

In six weeks, we see Mouton's metamorphosis to a sheep with total human facilities, reading Shakespeare. Next, Mouton realizes that the human race is the natural oppressor and predator of sheep. Mary, who looks after Mouton, does not object to the allegations. Mouton leaves Fort St. Germain in order to start a revolution of sheep against humans.

Act 2

Onegin's song praises the power of biotechnology. Meanwhile, Mouton became a king of sheep who are in revolt. He contemplates the future of humanized sheep (who are successfully infected with Mouton's virus which carried the "Human Master Gene"). The Sheep Chorus praises Mouton, while the Human Chorus laments absence of meat worldwide.

Alceste, assuming the position of the play's author, now addresses possible directions of the plot development. He introduces us to a singing Virus, which portents future mutations.

In seven years, we are back in Fort St.Germain, amidst the continuing war between sheep and humans. Mouton appears to sign a peace treaty, and Mary accepts his proposal. They partake of cloned alfalfa sprouts - and both suddenly die.

It appears that the virus carried a gene of human soul to all the organisms in the world, and toxic plants start taking over. Arcady and Onegin lament these tragic developments, which may bring a rapid demise of human race. In the final movement, Alceste imagines the Chorus of Toxic Green Grasses, possible future masters of our planet.

Sinopse
Ato 1

Alceste, um cientista em Fort St.Germain, um instituto fechado de estudos genéticos situado em “um dos menores estados da Europa”, nos convida a entrar em seu “castelo mágico” no qual biólogos se dedicam à clonagem de ovelhas e outras criaturas. Arcady Baer, diretor do Fort, e Gene Onegin, um geneticista Russo, nos apresentam ao maravilhoso mundo da clonagem.

Mary, uma jovem bióloga, demonstra ao Dr. Li, um cientista chinês visitante, algumas ovelhas clonadas que cantam e dansam, dentro de alguns limites. Onegin descobre que ele e Dr. Li freqüentram a mesma universidade, e ele conta para Li sobre o “Gene Mestre” descoberto por ele – “ um gene que faz de uma ovelha, uma ovelha”.

Na cena seguinte, descobrimos que Dr. Li é, de fato, um espião que tem como objetivo roubar este “gene da alma de ovelha” para implantá-lo no povo chinês. Seu esquema falha, e o espião comete suicídio. Entretanto, no meio da confusão, uma das ovelhas clonadas, chamada Mouton, acaba sendo infectada por um vírus experimental que traz consigo “o gene da alma humana e dos sentidos” – uma outra descoberta do brilhante Onegin.

Acompanhamos a metamorfose, em seis semanas, do jovem Mouton numa ovelha que possui todas as habilitades humanas, e lê Shakespeare. Em seguida, Mouton se dá conta de que a raça humana é o predador e opressor natural das ovelhas. Mary, que toma conta de Mouton, não nega suas alegações. Mouton então abandona Fort St. Germains para dar partida a uma revolução dos carneiros contra os seres humanos.

Ato 2

A canção de Onegin elogia o poder da biotecnologia. Neste meio tempo, Mouton torna-se rei dos carneiros revoltosos. Ele contempla o futuro dos carneiros humanizado ( que foram infectados com sucesso com o vírus de Mouton que trazia o “Gene Humano Mestre”.

Alceste, na posição do autor da peça, agora administra os direcionamentos possíveis do desenvolvimento do enredo. Ele nos apresenta ao Vírus cantor, que anuncia futuras mutações.

Passados sete anos retornamos ao Fort St. Germain, em meio à incessante Guerra entre ovelhas e humanos. Mouton aparece para assinar um tratado de paz e Mary aceita sua proposta. Os dois dividem uma porção de brotos de alfafa clonados – e ambos morrem repentinamente.

Aparentemente o virus levou o gene da alma humana para todos os organismos do mundo e, a partir daí, as plantas tóxicas iniciam um golpe. Arcady e Onegin lamentam os trágicos acontecimentos que podem resultar no rápido desaparecimento da raça humana. No movimento final, Alceste imagina o Coro das Gramas Tóxicas Verdes, que serão os possíveis futuros donos do planeta.

............................................................................................................

Prologue

Alceste

My dear friend – please moor your boat.

My name’s Alceste. Here stops the hustle.

We now enter the magic castle.

They lower the drawbridge, we cross the moat.

Today I am your faithful guide

To everything that’s happening inside.

Fort St. Germain, of times Venetian,

Now has a new and noble mission –

By all the known modern means,

Here we, the scientists, clone genes.

No funding source we are denied

For agricultural improvement,

We’re hidden from that silly movement

Against the products modified.

We clone the sheep, our Dolly’s kin,

Her sons and daughters sans the father;

They all do differ from each other

By genes beneath their wooly skin.

So listen to my simple childish rhyme

About what happened once upon a time.

Arcady

In one of Europe’s smaller states,

Behind the tightly guarded borders,

Behind the high secured gates

We clone genes for all disorders.

We ponder every bit and piece

Which we can our knowledge base on;

We found the gene for golden fleece –

The one that haunted the noble Jason.

And Nature’s crude, unruly mix

We comb and solder, patch and fix.

My name is Baer - Arcady Baer,

And I am known everywhere.

You surely know how I look

From your biology textbook,

Which has my face, both stern and wise,

And talks about my Nobel Prize.

But now from the public life I’m gone;

Fort St. Germain – that’s where I clone

Of all the creatures DNA,

And no bills I have to pay;

I’m give a fantastic lab,

And states compete to pick my tab.

Here’s Gene Onegin, a friend of mine.

He mastered our genetic art;

He knows chromosomes by heart,

Their secret blueprint and design.

I’m so glad that he has joined

My lab at such a crucial point.

Onegin

Don’t be afraid – do draw near:

I’m a genetic engineer.

I have this wonderful devotion

Of which the public has no notion:

You have no clue of know-how,

Yet we did clone a perfect cow,

A perfect lamb, a perfect ewe.

Mary

We undergo a strict review

By a special panel academic;

Due to the recent epidemic,

Our fortress is a solid shield;

No single germ we here do carry.

Please follow me. My name is Mary.

So many things we have to yield

With grants from private foundations

And special funds from the United Nations.

My name is Li: I join the action

From the Academy Chinese

With international inspection.

This fortress of the ages olden

Does truly bring us knowledge golden

On rice, and soy, and meat, and cheese.

Chorus

Can’t you see, by gosh, by golly,

That’s the famous sheep named Dolly;

We were bound to find her here, I knew!

Look what knowledge now allows,

Skip the bulls and clone the cows;

Dolly is a very special ewe!

From the simple tiny cells

We clone everything that sells;

No breeding, just the clones on every farm;

Every farmer buys a kit

Where the genes are spliced and split,

And allegedly can do us no harm.

This is the end of nature as we know it –

To our blueprint we can now grow it;

And each and every insect, beast and grass

Will leave its life as specified by us!

ACT I

Scene 1

Mary

Please pay attention to these sheep behind the fence;

Mouton and Becky, our couple experimental,

These animals are truly instrumental

In understanding every human sense.
In those sheep we clones genes for human vision,

And hearing, and touch, and taste, and smell.

So how do they fare?

Mary

It’s really hard to tell –

But they improved reaction and decision.

What’s better still – without any stick or carrot

We managed to their vocal centers reach

By cloning to the sheep a gene from parrot.

You do not mean you engineered speech?

Mary

To some extent – and in a limited amount;

But they can talk; and they can sing and count.

(rings the bell. Sheep talk, sing, count)

Mouton and Becky

Bah, bah, black sheep – where have you been?

To Fort St. Germain, to get me a gene.

Children of Dolly,

A gene from a Polly.

Fort St. Germain, Fort St. Germain,

Give us new genes, again and again.

The grass is green, a nice green grass,

Give us a gene, give it to us,

One, two, three, four – give us some more,

Fort St. Germain, Fort St. Germain, etc.

Miraculous! I swear, it is a dream!

Mary

Techniques are not as complicated as they seem.

Fort St. Germain becomes a citadel of action

Which will conduct our race to its perfection.

(orchestra; waltz)

A gene from a spider we’ll weave in a tailor;

A gene from a dolphin we’ll give to a sailor;

A gene from a swallow with a pilot will fly;

And a gene from a mole will be put in a spy.

In all that is living, in all Nature’s creatures

We’ll find and correct undesirable features;

All genes will adorn with their final expression

The Garden of Eden designed to our fashion.

Oh wonderful castle, our Fort St. Germain,

Her the future of mankind in earnest began;

With skills of Onegin and wisdom of Baer

We are taking of humans the ultimate care!

Scene 2

Forgive me, sir, before I utter

An exclamation of surprise –

I hardly can believe my eyes:

We had a common alma mater!

I had no clue whom I will find

At this experimental station;

Please do recall, if you don’t mind,

The ’87 graduation!

Onegin

But surely, old chap, I do remember you:
You were among the protein folks I knew:

You did this work on a coding box

Which helped to crack that bloody pox!

It’s rather thrilling how we meet!

I heard about you from my tutors –

You were among the finest suitors

Of Science, that mistress harsh but sweet.

(laugh)

Onegin

Unlike my namesake operatic,

I never led a life erratic.

From youngest years I knew my mission,

My future occupation, which

I could achieve in my position,

In Moscow born to parents rich.

What counted were not your perfections,

But your familial connections;

You had to do well on a test –

Papa took care of the rest.

I was reluctant, however,

To utilize this common lever –

All by myself I forged my skill,

My golden head and iron will.

All years of my college training

I counted the days remaining

Until I will the cures find

To all the troubles of humankind.

But how could somebody so bright

Completely vanish from the public sight?

Onegin

I found a gene in sheep, which makes them – sheep.

Alas, the road to the Nobel Prize is very steep.

My countrymen despised my talent, skill and poise,

To head their bioscience I was not their choice.

In shambles Russian labs, nobody’s pitching for us,

In sorrow and disgust his funding halted Soros.

That’s how I began my road to St. Germain,

This fortress of the times long gone, ablaze with life again.

(waltz)

Behold my working teams, with courage all alight –

Like knights of old, they plunge into a reckless flight,

Through molecules abreast, through nuclear membranes,

Through twists of DNA, through endless double chains.

Chorus of scientists

Earth is green, and full of life all over,

Every race and species, beast and germ;

Every bird and every leaf of clover

Have their standards and fulfill their norm.

Native genes don’t with each other mingle,

Their identities they keep and save,

Like inscriptions on an ancient shingle,

These instructions Nature did engrave.

Now to us this nature did surrender,

We can make it walk the wanted line,

We can change and alter, splice and bend her,

We can change the life to our design.

Scene 3

Onegin

Behold the jar where genes reside:

Each has its wisdom and surprise.

With hopes high and fears aside,

We do not play genetic dice.

From Nature’s misty primal slumber,

From its ingenious abode,

Each gene, according to its number,

I can uncover and decode.

I know my craft – but I am still

In awe of this tremendous skill.

Arcady

In skin, in flesh, in blood and bones

We graft and grow wondrous clones.

In bunches tight, in lustrous clusters

Here lie the genes, both deaf and mute;

They bring mutations and disasters,

Those culprits old of bad repute.

Their little code turns the tides,

It runs adventure bold and reckless –

This double chain, this precious necklace,

This sequence of nucleotides.

Mary

To harness genes as with a noose,

Two perfect molecules we choose,

Two markers binding to embrace

The target human DNAs.

Our marker first, from backyard thickets –

A gene for sound, used by crickets;

It binds to other genes until

All DNA will chirp and trill.

Our second marker to apply –

A gene for light from a firefly.

Within a chromosomal maze,

It sets a known gene ablaze.

These are the ways the real scientist gropes

With his or her machines and microscopes,

We go ahead and we come back,

And every step we double-check,

As does a climber on the mountain slopes.

Onegin

Our peaks to climb are slippery and steep.

Here is my gene from sheep that make them – sheep;

But something did attract my sight –

In human cells the firefly’s light;

These markers here were never seen,

Lease, Dr Baer, take a look.

Arcady

Onegin – throw away your book.

By Jove – you found the human Master Gene!

Onegin

Can’t be!

Arcady

My friend – it surely can.

This is a gene from men that makes us men!

I never thought that we will reach

This lofty peak, these heights prophetic –

But here it is, this Holy Grail genetic,

For all our genes the Master Switch!

This tiny speck, this little clone

Above all others stands alone!

Onegin

How do you know this is right?

Arcady

By cricket-chirp and firefly-light,

Two independent marker probes.

I feel as if our coats white

Turned suddenly to be magician’s robes.

Mary

This gene of human soul and mind

Will help us change the humankind.

All three

Fort St. Germain, Fort St. Germain,

Were genes are cloned by their masters,

We’ll cure disorders and disasters,

We’ll forge a better race of men!

Arcady

Onegin – let’s continue later,

Please put those genes in your refrigerator;

We now have to celebrate

This day divine, this knowledge great!

Let’s go deep to cellars mine

And drink a bottle of ancient wine.

Scene 4

The stupid sheep behind the wall

Will not bother me at all.

For this moment I have labored twenty years.

Right before their silly eyes

I abandon my disguise,

And the real essence of my character appears.

No guessing who am I –

I ‘m a Chinese proverbial spy –

But despite all your disgust and your contempt,

Right before, with a villain’s mean,

I will steal Onegin’s gene,

Let me stop and justify my bold attempt!

The government of my big land

Desires to keep its upper hand,

And for this upper hand to keep,

We need the master gene from sheep.

Applying the new scientific means,

To our men and women all

We will deliver and install

This gene among their human genes.

It will be spliced without a seam

With our technology impressive,

And yield all kings’ and sultans’ dream,

The crowd always dull and passive.

We need this gene, we want this tool

To sheepify genetic pool!

To think of it, the life of men

Is torture now and again,

Would not philosophers of old

Pay for this gene in pure gold?

To bridle your passions, curb your thought,

And this design a model nation –

Oh what a future will be brought

By such a crucial operation!

(opens the refrigerator. Chirp of a cricket)

One, two, three, four – that’s more than I have planned.

So that’s how struggle of classes is to end –

The whole humankind will be a single class,

With feelings of a sheep, and wishes of a grass.

(touches the bell)

Mouton (wakes up)

Grass – grass – green grass. Give it to us.

Fort St. Germain, Fort St. Germain,

Give us new genes, new genes again –

Shut up, you stupid sheep!

(sound of broken glass, struggle, sirens)

Voice

This is the security – put your hands up – your plot is discovered -

This is the security – (sirens)

I lost. Oh well. To save my face and pride,

Come here, my faithful drop of cyanide.

(sirens)

Scene 5

Arcady

This tragic end we told about

Does show very plainly why

There never was a single spy

To carry our secrets out.

Our St. Germain, our ancient fort,

Is monitored from every angle,

This every plot we can untangle

And trigger a security alert.

Alceste

Five days did pass since we have spoken.

Although the spy is now gone,

Behind the fence that holds Mouton

Some vials have been found broken.

The germs did grow on fodder fresh,

The viral progeny did follow,

So all Mouton did was to swallow,

And virus did invade his flesh.

That’s how the delivery is done

For every engineered clone.

Onegin

Not only gene from sheep did steal

The spy with his intentions ill.

We found that this imposing coward,

Quite unbeknownst to himself,

Did take from fridge’s upper shelf

The latest gene that I discovered;

And virus with the human clone

Was also swallowed by Mouton.

Alceste

So we are now five days later

Since sheep consumed infected grass.

Day number six (when the Creator

Made, by His own image, us –

And after this retired to rest,

Because He thought He did His best).

This secret code, the one we call

Onegin’s gene for human soul –

Into a virus finely crafted,

Is now in sheep transformed and grafted.

Mouton

Fort St. Germain, Fort St. Germain,

I am a lamb – I’m not a man.

The sheep are dumb – bah, bah, black sheep.

But how come I cannot sleep?

I sing this tune – the choice is done.

I know the words – I speak their tongue.

We eat green grass - we eat green grass.

No mind or soul resides in us.

For how long I knew this song?

What fills my mind? Who did my choice?

For how long I had this voice?

Fort St. Germain, Fort St. Germain,

How do I learn to be a man?

Scene 6

Alceste

And now, without any more delays,

Let’s jump ahead and count sixty days

Since virus, neatly cloned in a germ,

Our little lamb did enter and transform.

Onegin

Here cricket chirps – and firefly is blinking –

And our Mouton is now reasoning and thinking.

Mary

The transformation was miraculous. Not once

We saw him give us back a sheepish glance –

His eyes were full of living human thought,

As if he were a human child upbrought!

Onegin

From outside a perfect sheep he looks –

But in a month he started reading books!

Mouton

Sweet Mary, listen: here I find

Some lines about the human mind.

This book tells that the mind has always a limit,

That oftentimes it is too lazy, shy and timid –

But mine does only grow and expand.

Please do explain – I do not understand.

What is the case? What is the trick?

Mary

Mouton – you are just growing too quick.

Mouton

I read Shakespeare – this play about the youth and maiden

Who loved and died. And then, that other play

Where the magician, Prospero, does say

“We are such stuff that dreams are made on”.

Please do explain what this expression means;

You told me we are made of genes.

Mary

The difference is not as drastic as it seems –

Our genes write their poems on our dreams.

Alceste

And of these dreams I beg you not to wake,

When we come back after a little break.

Intermission

ACT 2

Scene 1

Onegin (guitar)

From Nature’s wonderful toolcase

So many instruments we cherish,

Enzyme of Life – survive or perish –

Is DNA polymerase.

Of life and death it holds the junction,

It forces genes to multiply.

I can so easily apply

And modify this noble function.

I can remodel and replace

Our genes in little tubes of plastic,

My glue – ligase, enzyme fantastic;

My scissors – endonuclease.

This terminology aside,

What we can do is just mind-boggling.

The life on Earth is always struggling,

We kind of got an easy ride.

So lead us through the stormy ocean

Of hateful space and wasteful time,

Telomerase, my magic potion,

A god-like powerful enzyme!

The strings of my guitar will play,

The grass is green, and will be greener;

So much is open to the winner,

So much to learn from DNA!

Scene 2

Mouton

I read your Darwin, Orwell, Swift and Freud.

They all have evidence in ample amounts –

The humans are the only species that counts.

How can, how will I fill this gaping void?

All that I read, I understood and hated:

We are a species that was domesticated.

There’s no way to hide it or pretend –

King David’s flocks did on the skewer end!

A lamb, your symbol for the innocence of life,

In real world will die under a knife –

You skin those lambs unborn for man to dress his wife!!

Mary

Mouton, believe me – Nature’s way

Is cruel enough – what can I say?

Our species’ compassion ends

Where nature piles up its demands.

Although limit it we could,

Meat still remains our daily food,

We cannot live without a steak –

That’s how we proteins intake.

Mouton

Sweet Mary – I found a solution;

It’s not as hopeless as it looks;

You talked about evolution:

I know, I read in those books –

I will become a leader of a revolution!

I will release from their bondage ewes and rams,

I’ll stop forever this deranged slaughter!

You will forget your juicy mutton quarter,

You will forget your smoked ribs and hams,

Your bloody steak, your scalloped beef medallion,

Your spicy sausage Cajun and Italian!

From now on your skin will touch synthetic fleece,

And soy forever will replace your feta cheese!

Forget about me – and let me go.

Mary

When will I see you?

Mouton

I don’t know,

And nobody can tell,

I bid you farewell, sweet Mary.

Mary

Fare thee well.

Mouton and Becky

Please forgive us, Mama Dolly,

How could we be so blind?

Our goal is true and holy –

To release our own kind.

We will be the first pathfinders,

That’s the answer; here’s the rub:

World without grills and grinders,

World without the shish kebab.

(cricket chirps)

Scene 3

Chorus of sheep

From the meadows, from the highlands,

From the barren pasture land,

Break the fence and break the silence –

Sheep are voicing their demands.

One of us became so clever –

All of us with him will rise,

Other sheep will change forever

Our good chief, Mouton the Wise.

(cricket chirps)

Mouton

Over the mountains the moon is rising.

Hоw can I close my eyes – how can I sleep?

I find myself to be a king of sheep –

A role amazing and surprising.

So fitting that a Dolly’s clone

Sits on a non-existing throne.

This gene for human mind and senses

Invaded my four-legged flocks,

This gene a new mentality unlocks,

And sheep revolt and break their fences.

Destroyed is every human farm and ranch,

And sheep continue to mutate and change.

They talk about joining force

With bulls and cows, our distant cousins.

I did their parliament endorse,

They now parties form by dozens.

They just repeat again the silly human story –

Their New Lambist now fights a Sheepist Tory;

And Wooly Liberals upset the Flocks Agrarian

(Not even talking of a Hornless Libertarian).

They freedom got – but can they really escape

And learn, and not repeat the human follies?

So closely humans they do ape –

Like new, but hardly better, Dollies.

Do I feel like them? Do I really belong?

I can’t forget my little childish song -

Fort St. Germain, Fort St. Germain,

Give us new genes, new genes again.

Unlike my flocks, no power I desire

But I will have to rule my burgeoning empire.

Today I signing a decree

To render each and every livestock free.

Ducks and chicken, bulls and cows,

Goat and horse of every kind:

This decree for you allows

A degree of human mind.

Human genes to you are given

To enhance and to enliven

Your welfare and livelihood,

Use them wisely, for your good.

Let future, wiser generations

Judge our motives and mutations –

With my good people I will stay,

And so far we rule the day!

Chorus of sheep

A little virus brought by magic

A human gene in us did splice,

That our life was always tragic,
We only now realize.

The tales of future, words prophetic,

Our good Mouton, recite to us,

So lead us forth, our kind genetic,

Do lead us to the greener grass.

Scene 4

Chorus of people

Of all the natural disasters

This one appears to be so bad,

We ceased to be our livestock’s masters,

No meat is now to be had.

No hamburgers from Maine to Texas,

It’s such an awful disgrace,

It does so much perplex and vex us,

It harms and weakens human race.

No chicken fryers of Kentucky,

No smoked ribs, no juicy chop.

The livestock got so bold and plucky

That every butcher closed his shop.

With a strictly vegetarian diet

Our cells and genes we cannot cheat,

Our brains go flat, our mind goes quiet,

Our species does require meat.

From England to the coast Pacific

No liver chopped, no ham, no steak –

Somewhere with our research scientific

We made an awful mistake.

Alceste

Thus did Mouton become a leader.

Where should we go now, my reader,

My viewer, listener, spectator?

Should he become a vile dictator?

Should humans make another toy

To smash the rebels and destroy

Their freedom, as of older days

We did to our own race?

Or maybe should the humans clear

The stage for sheep, and disappear

To join the fossil creatures’ chorus

With trilobite and brontosaurus?

Anti-utopias abound

In modern literature and art;

Let’s see which now, on my part,

The best solution I have found.

I’m scrolling down my papyrus

(Or, rather, my computer screen) –

Let’s see what normally cannot be seen:

I give you now a singing Virus.

Virus

Behold the cell where genes reside,

And me inside, a lowly virus,

Genetically modified.

They have their own, ancient pride:

We did not ask them to admire us,

But welcome and admit they did –

Of us no system can get rid.

Besides ourselves, no one can tell

Of a thing as lovely as a cell.

Oh structure marvelous and bright,

So vulnerable to my advances,

There protein unfolds and dances,

It fires the nerve, and traps the light.

The cell is such an open gate,

It’s so much fun to penetrate.

Along the fibrous muscle lanes,

Inside the air-filled rooms of lung,

Down the flow of blood, through thick membranes,

To tissues deep and cells unsung –

My playful kin forever roams

In wholesome bulks of chromosomes.

To plants, and beasts, and creatures all

We bring the gene of human soul.

So count your sheep, and make your calls,

And do not ask for whom bell tolls.

Your fate is sealed; we are the wax.

Be calm; sit back; enjoy; relax.

(cricket chirps)

Scene 5

Alceste

We meet again. Now seven years passed.

The humans and the sheep are in a war.

There is a treaty to be signed at last.

Arcady

Do you recall how we have dined before

This nightmare started? I am thrilled

Just think about a leg of mutton grilled

With drops of fat like beads of amber –

But its taste I no more remember.

They used to eat those lambs since fall of Troy!

We now only have a substitute of soy!

Onegin

Well – soy is good. And for the giant rice

Fort St. Germain just got its Nobel Prize.

Arcady

My stomach cannot keep pretending,

And barely works this mind of mine –

But a good think is that the war is ending,

We wait for their ambassador to sign

The treaty – here we should not tarry,

They’re asking you to represent us, Mary.

If we will sign this treaty rather quick –

Then maybe our future does not look so bleak.

We badly need the milk for kids –

The cows and sheep have their needs –

Of grass we could supply the seeds –

Along the borders that divide our nations

We could establish trading stations –

Onegin

That’s him below! Mouton, our fateful clone

Mary

I beg you all, withdraw. Please leave us alone.

Mouton

Sweet Mary? –

Mary Yes.

Mouton

It’s you – and you have grown pale.

I see you, and I can’t believe.

Mary

Mouton, do you regret the day when you resolved to leave?

Mouton

To leave this gentle jail?

No, Mary, no.

I did the right thing that I chose to go.

So now I am back at last –

I hear your gentle voice again,

For me the seven years that passed –

They are like forty years for a man.

I’m so deadly, ultimately tired,

But still I’m ready to defend

Our lofty cause that I always admired,

And what is now our, conquered land.

Our lambs now graze in Scottish highlands,

Our calves now eat Mongolian grass,

We have the both New Zealand’s islands,

And Kazakhstan belongs to us.

Mary

Do you remember Buenos Aires?

Mouton

The riots of two-thousand-and-five?

That’s when I wished that I’d have lost my life –

So bad did go the mutant virus.

Those crazy bulls stampeded all around

And stomped the humans into bloody ground…

The evil brings new evil in its turn,

So humans poisoned our drinking water,

All Argentinean pastures they did burn –

We have to stop this mindless slaughter!

Enough of evil things have been already done;

Lest we commit more hideous disgraces,

Let’s talk of peace between our sentient races.

Our lands – New Zealand, Scotland, Kazakhstan –

Do offer peace, and peaceful resolution.

Let’s be the partners in a common evolution.

Mary

My dear Mouton – I feel and think the same,

I know that nobody is to blame.

About this gene of human soul

There still is so much to be known –

Could it evolve new features on its own

In birds, and trees, and creatures all?

Could it develop in the germs

And then from there dictate its terms?

It may already wait for us

In rustling stems of a common grass –

Let’s talk of peace. The word is spoken.

Here, please accept this simple token,

Let’s break our fast and our doubts-

We wish each other no harm.

Mouton

Green grass?

Mary

These are alfalfa sprouts

From St.Germain’s remaining farm.

Mouton

They are tasty. And I do remember

Green grass I here used to eat.

Mary

That’s what we feed on – no more meat.

Mouton

Until this May, since last September

In Scottish highland I did hide (coughs),

They put a price on my think hide,

Like if it were the golden fleece,

You know, the Nobel Prize of Peace

To catch Mouton alive or dead

And bring as a trophy my horns and head – (coughs)

Oh Mary – I would like to know –

Would you – in case you knew – give me away?

Mary

How could you – seven years ago

I freed you on this very day – (coughs)

Mouton

Why got you paler still? What is the reason?

You hardly breathe! Alfalfa - poison? treason?

Somebody’s vicious hate?

But no, we both ate - (coughs)

Mary

Alfalfa – toxins – let me see your face -

Mouton

No, Mary, no, do not die -

Mary

It is too late –

Mouton – to save you I did try –

But we are children of another race – (dies)

Mouton

No, Mary, look – her eyes of a Venetian glass -

Fort St. Germain –

Green grass –

(dies)

(cricket chirps)

Scene 6

Alceste

Through the back doors they were carried,

By the tower they were buried,

Twenty days it did us take

To stop the toxic outbreak.

In another twenty days

Toxins hit another place.

Onegin

Here alfalfa, there potatoes
Got the gene for human soul.

All these species now hate us,

Daily taking a deadly toll.

Arcady

Thus evolved in every species

Human features most vicious,

Every trait so vile and base –

Every sin of the human race.

Onegin

Creatures turned their deadly toys on –

Everyone evolving poison,

Traits for vengeance, spite and hate

Were so fast to dominate.

Alceste

There’s a reason to be hated:

Grilled or fried or marinated,

Those species make our food,

Their revenge will be no good –

Them for centuries we ate –

No surprise they harbor hate.

Arcady

The lab was good – but not the way we ran it.

Of our plagues we are the only source.

Will Earth become a lonely, dismal planet?

Will we become extinct like dinosaurs? (cricket chirps)

Onegin (guitar)

We satisfied our mental cravings,

In white lab coats flock of ravens,

Our urge to tinker, meddle, and hack –

This god-like power did inspire us,

So we did forge this fateful virus,

And now the genes are coming back.

Here, in this fortress old and grim,

We engineered a crazy dream,

A virus with a human soul!

Thus Nature’s rules we did despise

In our urge to cut and splice –

And now we face the Judgment call.

Arcady

Other creatures don’t require us

In the basic trophic chain,

We designed the mutant virus,

Our soul for them to gain.

Yet this soul was not so pure,

Yet this soul was not so kind,

Humankind has no cure

From the genes of human mind.

Alceste

The humans now might not survive for very long –

They won’t be able to hold the dam.

That’s how the world will end – not with a bang but with a song

About Mary and her little lamb.

Mary’s voice (waltz from Act 1)

A gene from a spider we’ll weave in a tailor;

A gene from a dolphin we’ll give to a sailor;

A gene from a swallow with a pilot will fly;

And a gene from a mole will be put in a spy.

Alceste

So be it might – yet I see outcomes various,

My mind is full of different scenarios.

I give you one of them – just to conclude our class.

Here is a chorus of the future, toxic grass.

(cricket chirps)

Chorus of grass

Earth is green, and will be even greener

By our Nature’s everlasting grace.

Evolution chose the final winner

In the ancient, tough and bloody race.

Other creatures have to disappear,

Laws of Nature nobody can breach.

Rule of Nature is profoundly clear:

Single species fits a single niche.

All the orders, families and classes

That on us did feed, are now gone:

Earth belongs to us, the thinking grasses,

Free at last, and grazed by no one.

No need for blood and nerve and bone –

Only sunlight makes you truly whole –

We employ Onegin’s final clone –

Master gene for human mind and soul.

Chlorophyll creates the life eternal –

Only Earth and Sun and us between –

Full of colors glistening and vernal,

Earth will now be forever green.

(cricket chirps)

The End

Autor

Victor Fet
Department of Biological Sciences
Marshall University
Huntington, WV 25755-2510 USA
ph. (304) 696-3116, fax (304) 696-3243
http://www.science.marshall.edu/fet/euscorpius/Fet.htm