OH, RATS!
By MIRIAM ALLEN DEFORD
Illustrated by WOOD
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Magazine December 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Orthedrin, maxiton and glutamic
acid—they were the prescription
that made him king of his world!
SK540, the 27th son of two very ordinary white laboratory rats,surveyed his world.
He was no more able than any other rat to possess articulate speech, orto use his paws as hands. All he had was a brain which, relative to itssize, was superior to any rat's that had hitherto appeared on Earth. Itwas enough.
In the first week of gestation his embryo had been removed to a moresuitable receptacle than the maternal womb, and his brain had beenstimulated with orthedrin, maxiton and glutamic acid. It had beencontinuously irrigated with blood. One hemisphere had been activatedfar in excess of the other, since previous experiments had shown thatincreased lack of symmetry between the hemispheres produced superiormentality. The end-result was an enormous increase in brain-cellsin both hemispheres. His brain showed also a marked increase incholinesterase over that of other rats.
SK540, in other words, was a super-rat.
The same processes had been applied to all his brothers and sisters.Most of them had died. The few who did not, failed to show the desiredresults, or showed them in so lopsided and partial a manner that it wasnecessary to destroy them.
All of this, of course had been mere preparation and experimentationwith a view to later developments in human subjects. What SK540's godshad not anticipated was that they would produce a creature mentally thesuperior, not only of his fellow-rats, but also, in some respects, ofthemselves.
He was a super-rat: but he was still a rat. His world of dreams andaspirations was not human, but murine.
What would you do if you were a brilliant, moody young super-rat, cagedin a laboratory?
SK540 did it.
What human beings desired was health, freedom, wealth, love, andpower. So did SK540. But to him health was taken for granted; freedomwas freedom from cages, traps, cats, and dogs; wealth meant shelterfrom cold and rain and plenty to eat; love meant a constant supply ofavailable females.
But power! It was in his longing for power that he most revealinglydisplayed his status as super-rat.
Therefore, once he had learned how to open his cage, he was carefullyselective of the companions—actually, the followers—whom he wouldrelease to join his midnight hegira from the laboratory. Only themeekest and most subservient of the males—intelligent but not toointelligent—and the most desirable and amiable of the females wereinvited.
Once free of the cages, SK540 had no difficulty in leading his troopout of the building. The door of the laboratory was locked, but awindow was slightly open from the top. Rats can climb up or down.
Like a silver ribbon they flowed along the dark street, SK540, lookingexactly like all the rest, at their head. Only one person in thedeserted streets seems to have noticed them, and he did not understandthe nature of the phenomenon.
Young Mr. and Mrs. Philip Vinson started housekeeping in what had oncebeen a