He would even try to create a Tree of Life, and he would build several ruined cities. He would dig canals.
But he would not create green Tharks or red, black, yellow, and white Barsoomians. As Jada-win, he would not have hesitated. As Wolff, he could not.
Aside from his refusal to play God, the scientific and technical problems and the work involved in creating whole peoples and cultures from scratch was staggering. The project would take over a hundred Earth years just to get started.
Did Kickaha realize, for instance, the complexities of the Martian eggs? These were small when laid, of course, probably no bigger than a football at the largest and possibly smaller, since
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Burroughs had not described the size when they were first ejected by the female. These were supposed to be placed in incubators in the light of the sun. After five years, the egg hatched. But in the meantime they had grown to be about two and a half feet long. At least, the green-Martian eggs were, although these could be supposed to be larger than those of the normal-sized human-type Martians.
Where did the eggs get the energy to grow? If the energy derived from the yolk, the embryo would never develop. The egg was a self-contained system; it did not get food for a long period of time from the mother as an embryo did through the umbilical cord. The implication was that the eggs picked up energy by absorbing the sun’s rays. They could do so, theoretically, but the energy gained by this would be very minute, considering the small receptive area of the egg.
Wolff could not, at this moment, imagine what biological mechanisms could bring about this phenomenal rate of growth. There had to be an input of energy from someplace, and since Burroughs did not say what it was, it would be up to Wolff and the giant protein computers in his palace to find out.
“Fortunately,” Wolff said, smiling, “I don’t have to solve that problem, since there aren’t going to be any sentient Martians, green or otherwise. But I might tackle it just to see if it couid be solved.”
There were other matters which required compromises in the effort to make the moon like Mars. The air was as thick as that on the planet, and though Wolff could make it thinner, he didn’t think Kickaha would like to live in it. Presumably, the
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atmospheric density of Barsoom was equivalent to that found about ten thousand feet above Earth’s surface. Moreover, there was the specification of Mars’ two moons, Deimos and Phobos. If two bodies of comparable size were set in orbits similar to the two moonlets, they would burn up in a short time. The atmosphere of the moon extended out to the gravitational warp which existed between the moon and planet. Wolff did, however, orbit two energy configurations which shone as brightly as Deimos and Phobos and circled the moon with the same speed and in the same directions.
Later, after sober reflection, Kickaha realized that Wolff was right. Even if it would have been possible to set biolab creations down here and educate them in cultures based on the hints in Burroughs’ Martian books, it would not have been a good thing to do. You shouldn’t try to play God. Wolff had done that as Jadawin and had caused much misery and suffering.
Or could you do this? After all, Kickaha had thought, the Martians would be given life and they would have as much chance as sentients anywhere else in this world or the next to love, to hope, and so on. It was true that they would suffer and know pain and madness and spiritual agony, but wasn’t it better to be given a chance at life than to be sealed in unrealization forever? Just because somebody thought they would be better off if they didn’t chance suffering? Wouldn’t Wolff himself say that it had been better to have lived, no matter what he had endured and might endure, than never to have existed?
Wolff admitted that this was true. But he said the Kickaha was rationalizing. Kickaha wanted to