"I am not speaking of monsters, Lazarus. A true change in sex."

"Mmm- You remind me of a tale I had almost forgotten. Not sure it's true. About a man, oh, must have been around 2000 A.D. Couldn't be much later because things went to pieces not long after. Supposed to have had his brain moved into a female body. Killed him, of course. Alien tissue rejection."

"Lazarus, this would not involve that hazard; it would be done with your own clone."

"Not bloody likely. Keep talking."

"Lazarus, this has been tested on animals other than H. sapiens. It works best in changing a male to a female. A single cell is selected for cloning. Before cloning is started, the Y chromosome is removed and an X chromosome from a second cell of the same zygote is supplied, thus creating a female cell of the same genetic pattern as the zygote save that the X chromosome is replicated while the Y chromosome is eliminated. The modified cell is then cloned. The result is a true female clone-zygote derived from a male original."

"There must be a catch," Lazarus said, frowning.

"There may be, Lazarus. Certain it is that the basic technique works. There are several created females in the building you are in-dogs, cats, one sow, others-and most of them have littered successfully...except when, for example, a derived bitch is bred with the male dog who supplied the cell for cloning. That can produce lethals and mostrosities from the high probability of reinforcing bad recessives-"

"I should think it would!"

"Yes. But normal outbreeding does not, as indicated by seventy-three generations of hamsters descended from one created female. The method has not been adapted to fauna native to Secundus because of their radically different genetic structure."

"Never mind Secundus animals-how about men?"

"Lazarus, I have been able to search the literature only on items released by the Rejuvenation Clinic. The published literature hints at problems in the last stage-activating the female clone-zygote with the memories and experiences-the 'personality' if you prefer that term-of the parent main. When to terminate the parent male-or whether to terminate it at all-suggests several problems. But I am unable to say what research has been suppressed."

Lazarus turned to me. "Do you permit that, Ira? Suppression of research?"

"I don't interfere, Lazarus. But I didn't know this research was going on. Let's find out." I turned to the Administrator for Rejuvenation, shifted to Galacta, and explained what we had been discussing and asked what progress had been made with humans.

I turned back with my ears burning. As soon as I mentioned humans in this connection, she had interrupted me abruptly-as if I had said something offensive-and stated that such experimentation was proscribed.

I translated her answer. Lazarus nodded. "I read the kid's face; I could see the answer was No. Well, Minerva, that seems to be that I am not about to attempt chromosome surgery on myself-somebody swiped my jackknife."

"Perhaps that is not quite the end," Minerva replied. "Ira, did you notice that Ishtar said only that such research was 'proscribed'? She did not say that it had not taken place. I have just made a most thorough semantic analysis of the published literature for truth-and-falsity implications. I conclude that the probability approaches certainty that much pertinent research on humans has taken place even though it may no longer be going on. Do you wish to order it released, sir? I am certain that I can freeze their computer quickly enough to prevent erasure, assuming that an erasure program guards it."

"Let's not do anything drastic," drawled Lazarus. "There may be good reason for a 'hold' on this stuff. I'm forced to assume that these johnnies know more about it than I do. Besides, I'm not sure I want to be a guinea pig. Let's put it on the back of the fire, Minerva. Ira, I'm not sure I would be me without my Y chromosome. To say nothing of those jolly hints of how you transfer the personality and at what point to kill off the male. Me, that is."

"Lazarus-"

"Yes, Minerva?"

"The published literature makes one option both certain and safe. This method can be used to create your twin sister-identical rather than fraternal, save for sex. A host mother is indicated, with no forcing to maturity, since the brain would be allowed to develop normally. Would this meet your standards of newness and interest? To watch yourself grow up as a woman? 'Lazuli Long,' you might name her-your female other self."

"Uh-" Lazarus stopped.

I said dryly, "Grandfather, I think I've won our second bet. Something new. Something interesting."

"Now slow up! You can't do it, you don't know how. Nor do I. And the Director of this madhouse appears to have moral scruples about it-"

"We don't know that. Mere inference."

"Not so 'mere.' And I may have moral scruples. 'Twouldn't interest me unless I stuck around and watched her grow up which might send me crazy either through trying to make her grow up just like me-what a fate for any girl!-or by trying to keep her from growing up as ornery as I am when that would be her nature. Nor would I be justified either way; she would be a separate human being, not my slave. Besides that, I would be her sole parent-no mother. I've had one crack at trying to raise a daughter alone-it's not fair to the girl."

"You're inventing objections, Lazarus. I'll give long odds that Ishtar would gladly be both host mother and foster mother. Especially if you promised Ishtar a son of her own. Shall I ask her?'

"You keep your biscuit trap shut, Son! Minerva, place that on - 'pending'-I won't be hurried into a major decision about another person. Especially one who isn't, quite. Ira, remind me to tell you about the twins who were no relation to each other. But twins."

"Preposterous. You're changing the subject."

"So I am. Minerva, what else do you have, girl?"

"Lazarus, I have one program which involves low hazard and a probability approaching certainty of supplying one-or more-experiences completely new to you."

"I'm listening."

"Suspended animation-"

"What's new about that? We had that when I was a kid, hardly two hundred years old. Used it in the 'New Frontiers.' Didn't attract me then, doesn't now."

"-as a means of time travel. If you stipulate that in X number of years, something truly new will develop-a certainty based on history-then your only problem is to select whatever span of years will, in your opinion, produce the degree of novelty you seek. One hundred years, one thousand, ten thousand, whatever you say. The rest involves nothing but minor design details."

"Not so 'minor' if I'm going to be asleep and unable to protect myself."

"But you need not go into hibernation until you are satisfied with my design, Lazarus. A hundred years is obviously no problem. A thousand years is not much problem. For ten thousand years I would design an artificial planetoid equipped with fail-safes to insure that you would be revived automatically in case of emergency."

"That would take quite some designing, girl."

"I feel confident of my capacity to do it, Lazarus, but you are free to criticize and reject any part of it. However, there is no point in my submitting preliminary designs until you give me the controlling parameter, namely the time span, which in your opinion will produce something new to you. Or do you wish my advice on that?"

"Uh, hold your horses, dear. Let's assume that you've got me in liquid helium and in free fall and thoroughly protected against ionizing radiation-"

"No problem, Lazarus."

"So I stipulated, dear; Fm not underrating you. But suppose some tiny little fail-safe fails null instead and I go on snoozing through the centuries-and millennia-without end. Not dead. But not revived, either."