Amnion (Gap Cycle) - Mutagens

Mutagens

The main threat of the Amnion is their mutagenic technology. Mutagens have the ability to rewrite the DNA of a non-Amnioni so it becomes at least partially Amnion. This ability was first discovered by humans during tests on the material discovered in the Amnion satellite - Donaldson remarks that "Earth science being what it was... the tests eventually included feeding a bit of the substance to a rat." This has a drastic effect on the rat, which now resembles "a mobile clump of seaweed". Dissection reveals a fundamental genetic change - basic life processes remain intact, but protein and DNA structure are radically different. The new mutants can breed with each other (though not with mutated members of other species) and, most disturbingly, display a significantly increased level of intelligence. When the mutagen was tested on a human being, she only survived for a day and a half - autopsies cite the only possible cause of death as fright. Later in the series the trauma of mutation into an Amnioni is mentioned - this is probably what killed her. Before her death she wrote down galactic co-ordinates, which is where the Deep Star found the Solidarity. An anti-mutagen drug is developed by Intertech, but one of the many storylines in the series is the suppression of the drug and all research relating to it by the United Mining Companies Police, and why this was done.