by Kathryn Hoff
As he watched, Opal shifted to an awkward half crouch, stood, pivoted in circles—all with head drooped low. Not good.
Kanut and the woman doctor walked up from the camp.
“Aunt Estelle,” Sera called. “Aren’t they incredible? You won’t believe what we just saw!”
Kanut shuffled to a stop. “I was just telling Doc Dupris here that you had to leave, to carry on with your government project and all.”
Sera looked up, alarm in her eyes. “You’re leaving?”
The doctor laid a fond hand on her shoulder. “Trooper Kanut has explained how important your work is, Mr. Cortez. Your arrival with mammoths instead of something more practical . . .” She paused as if biting her tongue. “Well, in any case, thank you for going out of your way to find us, and for sharing your supplies. I’m not sure Annie would have made it through another day without food and shelter. I wish you weren’t going, but . . .”
Luis tore his eyes away from the herd. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not leaving.”
Kanut beamed. “Great! I knew you’d decide to stay.”
Luis’s teeth gritted. “I don’t have a choice. Dr. Dupris, can I assume you’ve delivered babies?”
Her brow furrowed. “I’ve caught a few.”
“Ever deliver a hundred-pound baby? One of the mammoths has gone into labor, and it looks like she’s having a hard time.”
CHAPTER 36
Labor pains
Estelle shivered, and not from the cold, as she followed the taciturn Cortez down the hill. Mammoths. Extinct for thousands of years. From a distance, they were a curiosity, like seeing a giraffe in a zoo. But up close, they were real, and big, and menacing.
At their approach, the mammoths turned sideways, each training on Estelle a huge long-lashed eye. Deep growls seemed to come from their thick bodies rather than their throats.
This is crazy. I wanted a rescue, and I get drafted to play midwife to a beast out of a horror movie. Annie had perked up a little after being fed and wrapped in the down sleeping bag, but her cough was getting worse. We should be getting her to a hospital. Instead, I’m delivering some government-created monstrosity.
A light voice piped up from behind them. “Wait for me!”
“Sera?” Estelle’s stomach did a flip. That girl is going to turn my hair gray for sure.
Sera hustled up to them, darting between mammoths as if she were dodging tourists on Bourbon Street. “I thought you might need your med kit.” She breathlessly handed over the red bag, her eyes wide with awe and mischief.
Cortez muttered Spanish profanities under his breath.
“You shouldn’t watch this,” Estelle said. “Fainting out here would be a very bad idea.”
Sera sniffed. “I didn’t faint, not really. And since then I’ve lived through a plane crash and a volcano eruption without fainting, haven’t I? A mammoth being born is the most exciting thing in my whole life and I want to see everything.” She pulled out her phone and snapped a photo.
“Wait,” Cortez said. “You can’t . . .”
Sera pocketed her phone. “I won’t post anything, I promise—at least until it’s not a secret anymore.”
“Please don’t,” Cortez said. “Now, stay alert and stay close to me. These aren’t pets, you know.” As he led them past hairy bodies, he held on to Sera’s arm as if he feared she would do something foolish. Something else foolish.
“Why aren’t they bigger?” Sera asked. “I thought mammoths were supposed to be huge.”
Cortez answered something about genetic engineering, gestational optimization, and genes from a pygmy mammoth—which sounded to Estelle like an oxymoron.
“They look big enough, thank you very much,” she murmured. The hairy back of each mammoth was taller than her, and those tusks looked as threatening as chainsaws.
One of the beasts recoiled with a sneezing huff.
“Yeah, you don’t smell so good to me either.” Sera sidestepped a plop of partially digested grass as big as her head.
Cortez held up a hand. “Stop. Let them get to know you.”
The hose-like trunks sniffed and blew, touching Estelle and Sera with a creepy delicacy.
Pretend they’re dogs. Big, hairy, friendly dogs coming up for a good sniff.
Estelle didn’t like dogs much, either.
One laid a trunk on her shoulder, a weight that could drive her to her knees.
“None of that, Turq.” Cortez pushed the trunk away.
Sera stroked the fur on a sinuous trunk. “Turk? They’ve got names?”
“Why shouldn’t they? Turq is short for Turquoise. The one in labor is Opal. She’s over there.”
Opal stood away from the others, her rear legs awkwardly parted. As they approached, another mammoth moved to place herself between the humans and the laboring mother.
“It’s just me, Ruby,” Cortez crooned. “I brought friends.”
As if he’d uttered the secret password, Ruby stepped aside.
“Wait here.” Humming and uttering calming words, Cortez went to the straining mammoth and ran his hands over her belly.
Estelle wasn’t sure what to make of Cortez. The trooper was easy enough to understand: unpretentious but confident, a calm authority overlying his cultural diffidence. But Cortez, while completely at home with the mammoths, seemed as skittish of people as the semiwild animals he shepherded.
“Here, Doctor,” he said. “The birth passage is long and takes a sharp turn around the pelvic bone.”
Estelle was willing to take his word for it. “You’re very good with them. The mammoths, I mean.”
“I’ve been taking care of them since they were born.”
“Oh, good,” Estelle said. “Then you must have attended births before. Because I have to tell you, beyond a few litters of puppies, I’ve never delivered a nonhuman.” Sera sent her a worried glance.
“I’ve observed elephant births several times,” Cortez answered. “Mammoths, only once. Mostly, they’ve had no trouble. But Opal . . . I’m worried. She shouldn’t be struggling like this.” He shook his head. “Maybe I pushed her too hard, all that walking. I should have let her have more time to rest.”
“Sometimes these things happen,” Estelle soothed, as she would to any new father. “No matter how many precautions we take, birth can be dangerous.”
Cortez bit at a fingernail. “Yes, well, this baby might be bigger than Opal can handle.”
Estelle’s tone sharpened. “Why do you say that?”
“Her baby is genetically engineered, like the others. In this case, engineered to be a little bigger.”
Small mother, big baby. That didn’t sound good. “I better take a look.”
Estelle approached cautiously. The nursemaid mammoth growled a warning, but Cortez quieted her with a few words.
Considering the size of the animal, the mammoth mama’s breathing was quick and shallow. Estelle touched Opal’s abdomen. The long, shaggy hair hid a soft fur undercoat. Beneath that, the thick hide covered taut muscles. There was a ripple of movement under her hand, and the mammoth let out a low moan. A contraction. But most animals didn’t strain at births the way humans did—the lack of progress was worrying.
Estelle couldn’t see anything helpful under all that hair. The birth opening seemed to face downward, no hope of knowing whether the mother was dilated.
“You say the birth canal bends at the pelvis? How does the baby usually present? Head first or butt first?”
“Usually the head and front feet come first.” Cortez reached under the mother’s belly. “I can’t tell if the baby’s in the right position.”
This is nuts.
Estelle stepped back. “I’m not sure what you expect me to do. Out here, I’m not equipped to do a C-section on a person, much less a mammoth.”
Sera bit her lip, her eyes pleading.
Cortez looked just as bleak. “You must have some suggestion. What would you do for a human giving birth outside a hospital if lab
or was going slow like this?”
Estelle tried to keep an eye on the grazing herd as well as on the mother. Those tusks—whether by nature or by human design, they had the ideal curve to gore an adversary. “If she were one of my patients, I’d encourage the mother to change position. Sometimes walking helps, but your Opal is already on her feet.” Estelle shrugged. “Sometimes encouraging the mother to lie on her side instead of her back will help the baby move into a better position.”
To her surprise, Cortez brightened. “Great! I’ll try that. Opal, kneel.”
At that unreasonable command, the mammoth groaned just like any birthing human mother would.
“Kneel, Opal. Kneel.”
The great beast squatted, lowering her rear to her knees.
“Good girl,” Cortez said. “Now down. All the way down, down.”
Another groan, and she rolled onto her right side.
The nursemaid mammoth swayed and rumbled. She doesn’t like that a bit.
“It’s all right, Ruby,” Cortez murmured. “This might help. Good girl, Opal.”
Lying on her side, the mammoth looked exhausted. Her side heaved with every pant.
Cortez bit a lip. “She can’t stay down for long. Lying down compresses the heart and lungs.”
In med school, Estelle had held a human heart in her hand. She couldn’t even imagine what a mammoth heart must be like, the muscles and size needed to power such a big animal.
On her side, Opal let out a long groan. Silence followed, no intake of breath.
Estelle tensed, fearing that the end had come for both mother and infant.
Sera gripped her arm. “Can’t we do something?” Estelle just shook her head.
There was a mammoth-sized gasp. Opal raised her head and squealed. Scrabbling her legs, she rocked once, twice, then rolled back onto her feet like a circus elephant who’d just finished her trick.
Nursemaid mammoth immediately went to her with comforting pats of the trunk and sniffs at her nether regions.
“You did it!” Cortez cried. “Thank you, Doctor.”
“Did what?”
“The baby’s coming, can’t you see?”
Now that he pointed it out, she did see. Below the mammoth’s tail protruded a barrel-sized bulge.
“Omigod,” Sera breathed. “Is that normal?”
“Completely. The baby’s passed the pelvis. Now we just wait.”
Opal seemed unable to stay still. She rocked and shuffled her feet: three paces forward, three paces back, then turning and retracing her steps. Nursemaid stayed close to her side, touching her head, mouth, and flanks with the tip of her trunk.
Opal shuffled backward and forward, kicked and stooped, stamped and turned.
Something white showed for a moment from the bulge under Opal’s tail.
Sera paled but snapped another picture.
“That’s the birth sac,” Cortez said. “The baby will come soon. Good girl, Opal. Just a little longer. Your baby’s almost here.”
Opal screeched. The white birth sac dropped again, and hung there, half in and half out. Opal groaned, spreading her back legs in a half crouch.
Estelle ached to do something, anything, that would help her.
Sera called encouragement. “You can do it, girl! Just one more big push!”
The birth sac fell with a splash and splat. A man-sized bundle lay on the trampled ground.
Immediately, Opal straightened and turned, touching the bundle with her trunk. Estelle was so relieved, she almost groaned herself.
Sera took a step forward, but Estelle held her back. “Wait. Never get between the mother and baby.”
Cortez was still crooning. “Come on, Opal. Check out your calf. Help her, Ruby. Show her what to do.”
The nursemaid mammoth moved in, reaching her trunk to the caul-covered baby. She nudged it with her foot.
The bundle didn’t move.
“What’s wrong?” Sera asked. “Shouldn’t it be crying or something?”
Nursemaid pulled back her foot and kicked the infant, hard.
CHAPTER 37
Godmothers
“What the hell?” Estelle was ready to jump down and defend the helpless calf.
Cortez held up a hand. “It’s all right. Elephants do that to help their babies get on their feet.”
Part of the infant’s pale covering slid off, exposing its coat of wet brown hair and the white soles of its little feet.
The nursemaid mammoth kicked it again, rolling it into a legs-down position.
It flopped over in the long grass and lay still.
Estelle clenched her fists. “Breathe, little one. Breathe.” She felt as anxious as waiting for a human child to make that first cry.
Sera echoed in a whisper, “Come on, baby. Breathe.”
No movement.
“Something’s wrong,” Sera said.
Cortez held back. “Wait.”
The mother tentatively prodded with her trunk, sniffing and caressing the product of months of pregnancy. She nudged it harder, rolling it out of its caul.
The baby’s furred side was still. Its closed eyes didn’t flutter. Its thin trunk lay lifeless on the ground.
Estelle couldn’t stand it. “It’s taking too long.” She dashed forward to kneel beside the calf, Sera right behind her.
“Rub the baby,” Estelle ordered. “Help expel any fluid in the air passage.” She shoved at the baby’s side in a rough, hard massage.
The mammoth mother and auntie growled protests. Cortez rushed to put himself in front of them, protecting the human helpers. “Hurry. I can’t hold them back for long.”
“Come on, baby,” Sera said. “Don’t give up.”
The warm, wet fur tangled under Estelle’s fingers, but the chest didn’t move. She pushed harder, a human-to-mammoth CPR. “Breathe, damn it. Breathe.”
The mother squealed angrily, poking her trunk past Cortez.
“Leave it,” he said. “Move away now!”
A squeak, and the calf wriggled like a fish.
“It’s alive!” Sera crowed, thrusting her phone forward.
Cortez grabbed Sera’s arm, pulling her to her feet and away from the calf. Estelle backed off, too—none too soon. With great, indignant huffs, the mother and auntie swooped in to sniff at the baby.
The calf rolled onto its belly, head up, legs splayed. Eyes opened wide. Baa, it bleated like a sheep.
Estelle let out a long breath. “Thank you, Lord.”
Cortez pulled the women farther back as other mammoth aunties rushed to see. They stretched out their trunks, crowding so close that Estelle couldn’t see the baby.
The calf bleated. The mother rumbled ominously, standing over the calf, swinging her tusks to warn the aunties away. They got the message and backed off.
Estelle grinned at Sera. “Your mom did the same. Snarled at her own mother when Gran tried to handle you the day you were born.”
Cortez gave Estelle a grin—the first true smile she’d seen on him since he’d arrived. “Congratulations,” he said. “You’re godmothers.”
Estelle grinned back. “Just doing my job.”
“Thank you both. That was very brave. A little, um, impetuous, putting yourself between a mother and calf like that, but very brave.”
Idiotic, he means. And he was right. But jumping in to save a patient was what Estelle was trained to do.
Sera hugged herself ecstatically. “He’s so cute. I love him!”
“Her,” Cortez said. “Her name is Jade.”
Jade’s hair was long and stringy. She panted, her eye rolling toward them far enough to show the whites. When she turned her head, her ridiculously flimsy trunk flopped uselessly.
Sera nodded. “Jade, that’s nice. Will she be all right now?”
“We’ll know better when she gets to her feet and starts to nurse.” Gazing off to the north, Cortez sighed. “I guess I’m not taking them anywhere for a while.”
“I’m sorry we upset
your plans,” Estelle said, “taking you out of your way and all.”
He waved it away. “Consider the favor repaid in full. You helped Jade survive.”
Estelle smiled. “I guess every baby mammoth is precious.”
Cortez nodded. “Jade is special. She’s designed to become the next matriarch. The first generation of mammoths were genetically engineered to be small and docile so we could manage them. Jade’s the first female created to be larger and more aggressive, the way the original woolly mammoths were. In a few years she’ll lead the herd, and she’ll choose the biggest and strongest mates to breed mammoths more like her wild ancestors.”
Entranced, Sera couldn’t take her eyes from the infant. “I think she’s wonderful. Can I pet her?”
“Better stay away. The mother’s likely to be protective.”
The baby—Jade—got her front feet under her, though her hind feet still splayed on the ground. She raised her head and gazed wide-eyed at her surroundings.
Opal nudged the calf until she got to her feet. Twice, Jade wobbled and went down, crying like a lamb, but she struggled up again and nosed her mother’s belly till she found a teat. Her little trunk was comically useless. Eventually it would become a powerhouse of muscle, but at the moment, it was just something in the way when she tried to nurse.
Ignoring his own advice, Cortez worked his way over to where the infant was nuzzling for milk. The mother mammoth welcomed him with a gentle caress of her trunk, making no objection as he ran his hands over the calf.
When he returned to Estelle’s side, he said, “She seems fine. A hundred pounds, more or less. No structural abnormalities. Taller than average—she might be wobbly for a day or two.”
“She’s still wet,” Sera said. “Will she be warm enough?”
“It’ll dry in an hour. Right now she just has the fuzzy undercoat. Until the guard hairs grow out, that’ll keep her warm like a baby bird’s down.”
One of the mammoths at the edge of the group squealed.
Cortez raised his head, coming to alert. “Oh, hell.”
The mammoths around them stirred restlessly, rumbling to one another like a chorus of earth-bound thunderclouds.