Star Harbor Nights

While on the subject, we'll add another vocabulary word to the list: "Grant." 

These three terms refer to various genetic traits possessed by a small fraction of humanity. Each is named after the scientist who first discovered its existence.

The Darkwell trait is the most common, thought to carried by approximately one human being in ten thousand. Its overall effect is to increase the adaptive potential of the human brain. The popular stereotype is that it makes people smarter, turns them into "super geniuses." How true this is depends on how one chooses to define intelligence, though in the simplest terms all the Darkwell trait does is make a brain "different" in some way. Exactly what way varies from individual to individual, subject to a myriad of different factors in environment and upbringing.

The natural telekinetic who can bend spoons and rattle teacups is Darkwell positive, as is the person who can understand any word in any language they read or hear once. The evidence is less conclusive in the area of magic, as scientists are largely loathe to examine the subject of magic and sorcerors rarely concern themselves with genetics, but it has been suggested that a Darkwell-enhanced mind may be a prerequisite for understanding and manipulating the subtler forces of the universe, as well.

Generally, the direction and extent of the gift is fixed by the time an individual leaves childhood, though most Darkwell adults retain a bit more flexibility in thinking and learning new things compared to the average human.

The gene for Darkwell is carried on the X chromosome. Thus, a girl may inherit the Darkwell from either parent, but a boy child can only get it from his mother's side. Unlike most traits inherited in this fashion, the Darkwell is not recessive in females, meaning it is expressed normally even if it's only present in one of their two X chromosomes. It does gain a stronger expression when inherited from both parents.

Such "double Darkwells" are often characterized by mental abilities that far outstrip those of their unenhanced peers, almost always accompanied by a level of mental instability or even outright insanity. If you've been following our story from the beginning, you will already be familiar with three such individuals. The most functionally normal of them converses with inanimate objects.

Clearly, there is a price to be paid for such greatness.

The Calder gene is much less common, though its exact frequency is hard to determine. Its function is believed to be related to that of the Darkwell, though it affects the body rather than the mind, and often in a rather more spectacular way.

When superhuman activity began to rise in the first half of the 20th century, a pattern emerged. Some hapless individual would be exposed to radiation, or bitten by a venomous creature, or treated with untested chemical concoctions, or otherwise be placed into a position that should have invariably been fatal. Instead of dying, though, the person would inexplicably gain incredible powers... but any attempt to reproduce these miraculous results ended rather more predictably.

Because each of these events were viewed as separate and unrelated incidents, it was not until the 1970s that anybody advanced a serious theory as to why this should be so. Scientist-turned-hero Scott Calder, himself the recipient of amazing speed powers from a disastrous lab accident, began collecting genetic samples from other individuals who had gained their powers after being "mutated" by various events.

Though his research was initially derided as junk science, he discovered a genetic link shared by everybody he tested and postulated that it was this factor which had allowed them all to survive their various "origin events." By some unknown mechanism, this mysterious gene was able to react to otherwise lethal trauma, transforming the body in the process.

It was over a decade later before the presence of the "Calder factor" was confirmed in an unenhanced human, who then gained powers in a controlled laboratory test, vindicating Dr. Calder once and for all. This also had the effect of making the super-soldier programs run by the various governments of the world a lot more efficient, in that they now knew what to look for in test subjects... though the high failure rate of the pre-Calder programs has resulted in a lingering cloud over the subject that has yet to fully dissipate.

While none of these traits is fully understood by anybody on earth, the Grant gene's function and purpose is more mysterious than the other two combined. Indeed, it is not a single genetic structure, but rather a name given to a type of anomaly. Grant recipients (the name, though coincidental, is strangely appropriate) are those rare individuals who are born different... what the world calls "mutants", though the natural process known as mutation can't begin to explain a person born with four functional arms or the ability to shoot lasers from the palms of their hands.

Grant genes show up in the altered genotype of a person whose Calder genes are activated by trauma, allowing their offspring to share in their powers... but most of the "Grant mutants" are born to seemingly normal parents. If the parents are tested, a dormant version of the Grant genes will be found, but no one has yet determined the trigger which activates the process.

"No one" meaning "no human scientist," of course.

The vast majority of humanity accepts it as a matter of course that the purpose and result of all three of these genetic traits is simple evolution, that it's simply another case of "life finding a way"... never minding the fact that life, by and large, does not find a way when threatened, but rather simply dies. The vast majority of species that have ever walked upon the earth, or swam in its oceans, or dug in its soil, are now extinct. Most of them didn't even make a ripple in the fossil record before they went. Evolution is a process of trial and error, with errors far outnumbering successes.

 Why should humanity be any different?

That's a question I cannot answer at this time.

None of these genetic traits are mutually exclusive with each other, though individuals with more than one are of course exponentially less common... though the results of such pairings are often remarkable to behold.

An individual may possess the power to generate and project electricity from Grant or Calder genes, but where in the human mind is the capacity to reach out and shape that energy as easily as one would bend wires with one's hand? What brain center would be responsible for that? A Darkwell-assisted brain is key here... it is the difference between being an "energy blaster" and an "energy manipulator."

Calder-positive individuals gain Grant genes when their powers activate... but this merely transcribes the somatic mutation, recording it for posterity, as it were. It does not alter the affected individual any further. A Calder-positive individual who is born with active Grant genes, on the other hand, possesses a potentially lethal combination. In such circumstances, the activation of the Calder gene has powerful and unpredictable effects... perhaps because the Calder gene only "understands" baseline human genetics. For such individuals, a near-death experience can trigger dangerous and extreme levels of mutation, transforming a relatively ordinary superpowered human into a maddened beast or unstable being of pure energy.

 Many simply die, in unique and spectacular ways.

The added presence of the Darkwell trait can stabilize this transformation, by allowing the subject's brain to react to the alterations in the body, and vice-versa... but it goes without saying that a three-way combination of Darkwell, Calder, and Grant is an incredibly rare and unlikely scenario. An individual so blessed who successfully comes out of a Calder transformation would likely be numbered among the most powerful superhumans on the planet.

As previously mentioned, however, such a scenario is extremely improbable. As our story is principally concerned with the more plausible elements of mundane, day-to-day life, it's likely never to come up.