“He is—it’s our new doctor.”
“More females,” Kennon muttered to himself. He turned to Jordan. “Aren’t there any males in this crew?”
Jordan stared at him with mild surprise. “No, sir—didn’t you know? There are no male Lani.”
“What?”
“Just that,” Jordan said. “Only females. There hasn’t been a male on the island since Old Man Alexander took over. He killed them all.”
“But that’s impossible! How do they reproduce?”
“Ever hear of artificial fertilization?”
“Sure—but that’s a dead end. The offspring are haploids and they’re sterile. The line would die out in a generation.”
“Not the Lani—you can see for yourself. We’ve been using the technique here for better than four centuries, and we’re still doing all right. Over forty generations so far, and from the looks of things we can go on indefinitely.”
“But how is it done?”