Nanovirus

The nanovirus is an engineered virus sent to Kern’s World to alter the development of its life. It was intended to uplift monkeys until they could communicate with the human observer left in orbit. The Flask carried its viral cargo to the planet separately from the Barrel carrying the monkeys. When the Flask arrived, the monkeys had been lost, but the virus remained on the world.

Design and purpose

Human biotechnologists designed the virus for a primate host. Avrana Kern oversaw the project, but the text does not name its individual designers. The virus was meant to interact with the host genome and copy itself within the host’s cells. Infected animals would produce offspring with useful mutations, including larger brains and bodies, more flexible behaviour and faster learning. It could detect infection in others of the same species, encouraging selective breeding among affected hosts. It was intended to stop assisting once a host reached a level of sophistication set by its creators.

The virus did not remain limited to monkeys. Arthropods were not considered in the original plan. It caused growth in many species, but increased intelligence did not follow in every case. The spiders descended from Portia labiata gained greater size and cognitive ability. The virus also affected ants and Paussid beetles, though the results differed between species. Ant colonies developed more flexible collective behaviour without gaining individual minds.

How it spreads

The virus reproduces within its hosts and passes to their offspring. In Portia’s first chapter, she and her mate both carry it, and their young inherit it. Later, the virus’s variations pass between generations as more successful hosts reproduce. The infected arthropods’ varied traits mean the virus itself also changes over time.

The spiders developed a way to transmit learned knowledge through reproduction. The virus can copy some acquired behaviour into genetic material in sperm and eggs. Offspring inherit fragments of knowledge, skills and memories, although some arrive incomplete or without context. The spiders also pass learned information between adults by distilling it into a fluid that another spider can drink. The virus then incorporates that information into the recipient’s mind, sometimes replacing other memories or skills.

The spider society’s shared infection also affects how individuals respond to one another. It encourages kinship and social bonds, including between males and females who have inherited the virus. Its effects are strongest within the same species, and the spiders remain predators of other infected arthropods.

The plague and cure

The spiders eventually identify the virus within their bodies as the Messenger Within. During a plague in Great Nest, Portia and other scientists study spiderlings that survived the disease and find an inherited genetic difference associated with their resistance. They combine that material with the nanovirus to make a serum. The treatment stops the plague, though its success comes only after many deaths.

Much later, the spiders adapt the virus for humans. Their version is a reduced fragment designed to alter specific parts of mammalian neurology, not to reproduce the original virus’s evolutionary effects. They make it transmissible and inheritable. It prompts infected humans and spiders to recognize a sense of kinship across species. The first human group to meet the spiders shows no revulsion or panic, and the novel ends with the two peoples beginning to live together.

Unanswered questions

• The individual human biotechnologists who designed the original virus are not identified.
• The book does not describe the virus’s visible appearance.