Word: Delitescent

delitescent

[ del-i-tes-uhnt ]

adjective

1. concealed; hidden; latent.

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         “So, how’s the monitoring going?” 

“Terrible. The locals are just horrible. Just the worst.” 

“Oh, I’m sure they aren’t that bad.” 

“Well, let’s see. First, they named their planet after dirt. So yeah.” 

“Dirt?” 

“They call it Earth. It’s a ridiculous name.” 

“Okay, yeah, that is kind of weird. But other than their lack of naming skills, how are they?” 

“They’re literally poisoning their own planet. Most of their countries are run by dictators, oligarchs or warlords. The countries that aren’t ruled by one of those three are on their way to becoming ruled by one of those three. The population of the richer nations don’t care about those from poorer nations, or even their fellow countrymen. The world is capable of nuclear weapons, and from the looks of things, they’re going to be used within a few local years. I’d say we just wipe them out and let the planet replace them, but those damn peacemaker laws won’t even let us do that.” 

“So... they’re going to try and kill themselves?” 

“No intentionally. But between the nuclear arms and climate altering chemicals, they’re heading down that path. Oh no. Why are you making that look? I hate that look. That look always leads to you saying something I won’t like.” 

“Well...” 

“Just say it.” 

“I was going through their biological data, and I found a hidden Latency.” 

“You. Found. What?” 

“A hidden Latency.” 

“But we scanned them. They don’t have any powers, even dormant ones. How can they have a Latency?” 

“It’s...hidden. Very deeply. So deeply that they consider that part of their genome ‘junk.’ It falls off as they age, so it’s no wonder they haven’t unlocked it yet.’ 

“And you’re absolutely sure? You didn’t make a mistake in your tests?” 

“Oh, I’m absolutely sure. I wish I could tell what their hidden power is, but you know how it is with Latencies.” 

“What I know is that now if they end up wiping each other out, we need to intervene. And I really don’t want to do that.” 

“Oh, it won’t be so bad. We just have to save enough for stable genetic diversity. Say, ten thousand or so.” 

“That’s still ten thousand more than I want to save. Can’t you just, I don’t know, ‘lose’ the data? Maybe in the radiation belt around the planet?” 

“You know that won’t work. My data is backed up in a dozen different places. And if a bit of stellar radiation was enough to cause that kind of problem, we wouldn’t have made it to another planet.” 

“Damn it. So, we’re really going to have to save these idiotic apes?” 

“Only if they’re going to undergo an extinction event. And we’ll choose from the more intelligent and empathetic members of their population. Avoid all those dictators and oligarchs.” 

“Okay, fine. I still say we pretend you didn’t find that damn Latency and call for a full system quarantine. It’ll be easier than dealing with those idiots.” 

“If only it was that easy.”   

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Yeah, junk DNA is a thing. I don't know much about it beyond that though. It'd be cool if we could unlock super powers hidden in it though. Who know? Maybe someday.