Oriana is pregnant, a rare occurrence in her Nantucket home. Her child should gestate in an exo-uterus, its genetics carefully monitored and altered by VISHNEW, a seemingly omniscient disembodied system that melds the virtual with the real.
Most in Oriana's community view VISHNEW with a mix of adulation and fear, and with reason. Any deviations from the system's plans are dealt with quickly.
Oriana finds herself accused of stealing her VISHNEW-selected mate's genetic material. Forced to stand trial in the Nantucket Compliance Court for Obstetrical Obedience, she is found guilty of obstetrical obstinacy.
The court gives her a choice. Either she allows VISHNEW to immediately connect to her unborn child, or the fetus will be retrieved and her womb immobilized.
Oriana chooses a third option-flight. Unsure of even where she's going, she hides out in an abandoned Quaker meetinghouse, knowing that outside VISHNEW waits. Her only hope for her baby lies with a childhood friend but comes with a terrible price. To save her child, Oriana may have to lose her forever.
A provocative tale questioning the power society assigns to technology, Waiting in Silence is reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale in its scope and themes.
About the Author: Rosalyn W. Berne is an associate professor of engineering and society at the University of Virginia, where she teaches the courses Science, Technology and Contemporary Issues: Science, Fiction and the Future and Science Fiction and New Reproductive Technologies.
Berne's research into ethics in nanotechnology development earned her the National Science Foundation Award. She has served on the advisory boards of the Journal of Nanotechnology Ethics and the Journal of Nanotechnology Education. Berne regularly delves into the role and function of the moral imagination, personal belief, mythology, and metaphor in the pursuit of technological development.
A guest panelist on NPR's Science Friday show, Berne was featured on National Public Television's Fred Friendly nanotechnology seminars, Power of the Small, in which she discussed the societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology. She lives with her husband in Central Virginia, retreating to their Blue Ridge mountain cabin to write.
