Just closing the chapter with some nuggets of exposition. Readers here on the website can ask me if they’re curious about the tech they see, but I have to make it all plain to anyone reading the story by itself.
↓ Transcript
Roger: So...artificial adrenals, huh?
Jacob: Yes.
Roger: What else? Did they muck around with your genes?
Jacob: No.
Girii: You're not sure.
Jacob: I'm sure.
Girii: You're not.
Jacob: Stop. That. Genocide Men augmentations are all based on lifespan enhancing technology. Our entire endocrine system is replaced with artificial glands, to keep hormone levels stable. Some of those glands come with a bonus. The skeleton is laced with carbon nanofilaments, to make our bones unbreakable. That's a bonus by itself. And we get telomere extension therapy to prevent cancer. I have the telomeres of a twenty-year old.
Girii: ...and the angst of a teenager.
Roger: Yeah, but...
Jacob: Yes.
Roger: What else? Did they muck around with your genes?
Jacob: No.
Girii: You're not sure.
Jacob: I'm sure.
Girii: You're not.
Jacob: Stop. That. Genocide Men augmentations are all based on lifespan enhancing technology. Our entire endocrine system is replaced with artificial glands, to keep hormone levels stable. Some of those glands come with a bonus. The skeleton is laced with carbon nanofilaments, to make our bones unbreakable. That's a bonus by itself. And we get telomere extension therapy to prevent cancer. I have the telomeres of a twenty-year old.
Girii: ...and the angst of a teenager.
Roger: Yeah, but...
So, is that what ultimately came of the telomere business? Not necessarily a “fountain of eternal youth” but the probability of defeating cancer?
Well, Jacob is simplifying things a bit. He’s not a biologist, he’s just a soldier with a lot of scientific training.
As I understand it (although I’m not a biologist either), cancer is a natural part of aging, and the shortening of telomeres with time is the root cause of both. Fixing them fixes a lot of the issues that come with old age.
Of course there are other symptoms of aging that have nothing to do with telomeres — clogged arteries and stiffening joints and so on. So fixing the telomeres is not a fountain of youth. But it’s a good step toward one.