Caim

by T. S. Simons

  'Chosen ones?' I snapped, frustrated. This would take forever, extracting information line by line. Ashton looked at me cautiously but spoke more freely.

  'Ceridwen is one of a small group of children who will ensure the survival of our species. Within sixty years, her descendants, and those of the other children like her, will be able to live outside the domes.'

  'Outside? How? You told us nothing could survive out there,' Di interjected.

  'We are working on re-greening the planet, thanks to the moss Campbell discovered. But we have no way of remaining safe out there ourselves. But these children. They will live. This is a monumental step forward. It will lessen the reliance on the domed communities and ensure we won't overpopulate.'

  'I thought the breeding program was the reason we were all chosen?' Sorcha asked.

  'That program was phase two. Ensuring that all genomes survived and were carefully matched to ensure all genotypes and genetic material was passed on was critical. The third phase, and the most important part, was to modify a genome to be resistant to the protozoa.'

  'Resistant?' Cam asked.

  'Immune, I guess you could say. It took us a lot longer than we expected to find the key to changing the DNA sequence. Finding candidate zero, the woman who possessed the genome that could be modified, took us many more years than we thought. We were starting to worry that we would never find it within the limited populations we have. When we found the candidate… your sister,' he corrected hurriedly, 'we knew we had found what we were looking for. Then, as we perfected the technology, we modified the egg and tested the zygote.'

  Jorja had mentioned genetic engineering once but had never said why. Possibly she didn't know herself. Scanning the room, I saw her standing back with Bridget, listening intently.

  'How many babies did Katrin have?'

  Ashton looked at me blankly. I doubted he had ever known her name. Had ever seen her as a person with a family who loved her.

  'My sister. Her name was Katrin. The original donor from whom Ceridwen, Scarlett and Ruby came?' I enjoyed deliberately provoking him with the use of their names. 'How many children did she have?'

  'I don't know. But quite a few.'

  'Where are they?'

  'Mostly, they didn't survive the testing phase.'

  'Testing?' Cam echoed as the bottom dropped out of my stomach. I knew what he had meant. We all did.

  'You tested on babies?' Sorcha asked incredulously.

  'We had no choice. When we thought we didn't have the right candidate, we thought perhaps one of the next generation would be immune. We were wrong.'

  'Fuck.' I was still reeling from the confirmation that Kat was Ceri's mother in more ways than just donating her genetic material. She had been her birth mother. For months I had hoped that Angus had lied to me, taunting me for rejecting him. That she was their biological donor was clear. I saw Ruby and Scarlett as related but removed. Kat had donated half of their genetic material, albeit changed as it turns out, but Jorja and Bridget had carried, nurtured, and cared for those girls. They were parents to them in every way. But Ceri? How do I give her up now, knowing for sure she was my niece?

  'Who raised Ceridwen?' I queried. 'Jorja and Bridget said they had never seen her before she came here.' I glanced at them for confirmation, and they gave it.

  'That is true. After her birth, she was raised in a special facility with other children from selected partnerships.'

  'You didn't want us to know?' Bridget asked.

  'You may have asked questions if you noticed a child looking very much like your own. Questions we didn't want to answer.'

  'Who is their father?'

  'Angus MacLeod is father to all of them. The three of them are blood siblings.'

  I heard Bridget's sharp intake of breath. Bloody hell. So that was true. Ceri was not only my niece but was related to Louis too. Louis' great grandfather was her grandfather. Was that right? My head started spinning.

  'Why would you want to reproduce that asshole?' Sorcha sneered.

  'All genomes needed to be reproduced, including his. When the first zygote was successful, we thought we needed the same parents. Over time, we worked out that it was the mother only. But that is why the other embryos at that time had the same parentage.'

  'And you used Katrin because I wouldn't?' I asked, feeling sick.

  Ashton looked miserable. 'You and he were a pair. That is why you were originally placed in opposing communities. He told me once that he nearly fainted when he heard your name when you first arrived here. He knew your name, of course. He was part of the original planning team. He knew you were his chosen match, genetically. I gather he was quite taken with you.'

  'Who wouldn't be?' Cam's voice beside me made me flush with embarrassment. 'She is hot.'

  'Quite. Well, all three children are resistant to the Vienna Virus. There were five, of course, but now only three remain. There is something about you and your sister. You have the only profile we tested that could be manipulated.'

  'What do you mean, the only profile? How many did you test?'

  Ashton looked at me directly, making me uncomfortable, although I refused to let him see how much he affected me. 'Do you want me to answer that?'

  Cam cut in. 'No, she doesn't. It achieves nothing. Move on.'

  'Let's just say that you are unique. You have the only genome that we could manipulate so that the offspring were resistant.'

  'You tested on… babies?'

  'Embryos.'

  I looked away. I couldn't bear to think of all of those children being tested on. Infected with the protozoa.

  'And what about me? My eggs?'

  Ashton sighed. 'When you destroyed the lab on Auckland Island, you destroyed the other embryos before they could be implanted. Your sister…'

  'Say her name!' I barked, and he blinked.

  'Katrin…' he whispered.

  'Tell me what you did.'

  'Her body started shutting down. We couldn't put her through the cycle of hormone treatment and harvesting very often. By the end, we could only collect two or three at a time, and only once every six months. But from all the specimens we tested, she was the only one that we could change successfully.'

  'So you used me instead?'

  'You walked into Clava. We were desperate. We spent the months after you destroyed the facility trying to find another candidate. All over the world, we looked. Tested every sample we had, but none of them were successful. We needed to continue the program. You need to understand, at some point we will outgrow these communities. We need to find a way to survive. In all the testing, all the experiments, it was only your genetic material that was resistant. Yours and your sisters. You will be the mother of the future human race.'

  'So why did you keep me, Carl?' Illy asked softly.

  Ashton looked at her, and I saw what she did. He cared for her.

  'I wanted to let you go, but you would have alerted others to Ms Jorgensen's location. We couldn't do that. We needed her. She was critical to the success of everything we have worked so hard to achieve. Then we learned you were pregnant. We thought it was best to monitor you both. It was only nutritional supplements you were given.'

  'Monitor?' Illy was incredulous, Alasdair asleep in her arms. 'You kept me captive for no reason? Didn't even tell me I was pregnant? Do you know the stress that caused me? Wondering what damage you had inflicted on my child? Dale would have attacked me next, you know that, right? He didn't care I was pregnant. So forgive me if I don't thank you.'

  He looked out through the window to the hills beyond, his shoulder slumped.

  'If you needed me so much, why did you let me go?'

  After a period of uncomfortable silence, I said, 'That's okay… I don't need to know. I need to ask one thing, though. You said I would be the mother of the human race. How many eggs did you harvest from me?'

  'Thirty.'

  'What happened to them?' />
  He turned back to look at me. 'They were all adapted, fertilised, tested and implanted in surrogates.'

  'I have thirty more children?' I croaked.

  'Only twenty-four survived the modification process. But they aren't yours.'

  'How can you say that?' Anger consumed me and erupted. 'They are my children as much as those I raise are. What will you do with them?'

  Cam's arm pressed on my arm, forcing me to control my outburst.

  Ashton paused, checking for danger before proceeding.

  'That is why I asked to come here. After what happened with Ceridwen, we recognise that children need to be nurtured, raised in a family.'

  I nodded in agreement.

  'I came to ask if you would take them.'

  My mouth dropped.

  Ashton rushed to press his case. 'We need them to survive, but also to thrive. We need them to grow up socially adjusted and part of a community. We need these girls to partner up and have more children, to whom they will pass on their immunity. Over time, they will form the basis of a new civilisation.'

  'Twenty-four?' I still couldn't quite comprehend what he was telling me.

  'Well, there are twenty-four now, most not yet born, others only a few days old, and there are your sister's three, all of whom are already here. So twenty-seven children we know will be resistant. While we would have liked more, that is enough to kick-start a new species of human, genetically resilient to the protozoa. Between these children and the moss you discovered Campbell, we have accomplished what we set out to do.'

  'Twenty-seven?' I croaked. 'What about our children?'

  'No. Not them,' Ashton warned. 'Only the zygotes that were genetically modified to reject the protozoa are immune. Those you conceived naturally were not.'

  'How would you know?' Sorcha asked suddenly.

  'We have refined the processing. It is a simple blood test now.'

  We all noted the word "now," but no one chose to bite.

  'So you are telling me that with a blood test, you can tell if those children are safe to go out there?'

  'I am.'

  'And all of these children… passed?'

  'They did. These girls can all drink or be exposed to infected water, and it doesn't affect them.'

  'They are all female?' Sorcha fired at him. 'Why?'

  'We gave that a lot of thought. Once they were out there in the world, we couldn't stop people from pairing up. There is always the risk that two siblings would inadvertently pair, if not in this generation, in the next one. The modification is on the X chromosome, and as you know, the female carries two X. It made the initial modification easier and would ensure it would be passed on to every offspring. So we only created female embryos.'

  The world began to spin, and I dropped my head, willing myself not to faint. Cam's concerned face swam before my eyes as darkness moved inwards from the edges of my vision. The woozy feeling took hold as I saw him shoo people away. I heard Sorcha's crisp voice ordering everyone to leave as I struggled to focus on Cam's cerulean blue eyes as he ordered me to look at him.

  'Twenty-four,' I croaked. 'I have twenty-four more children? Daughters?'

  I felt Cam's arms scoop me up and carry me out the door as I tried to wrap my mind around all of those new babies. All mine. Who was the father? I couldn't possibly care for that many babies. But how did I leave them with scientists to raise, knowing what they had done to Ceri?

  Cam laid me gently on the bed in the corner of the vet shed and ordered the children away. I was tired, he told them. I needed to rest. Grumbling, they disappeared out of the shed, the sounds of their voices reverberating around the walls.

  'Are you okay?' he asked as he lay beside me.

  Fighting the drowsiness, I tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace.

  'I am. But holy fucking hell. They stole thirty children from me.'

  Cam watched, not saying anything.

  'And Illy? She was only kept captive because I was. Collateral damage. How can she ever forgive me?

  Cam exhaled sharply.

  'I need to hear it. The rest of it. Arrange it, please.'

  Cam sighed, recognising the futility in arguing, and left the room.

  When we reconvened the following morning, Ashton was more open with the facts, recognising that no one planned to harm him. He had told us the worst of it. Now I just needed the detail.

  Clava and Auckland each had twenty-five surrogates designed to assist any couple, selected or a love match, who couldn't have children of their own. I thought of Magali and Nasir, now with two young children of their own. She had contemplated using a surrogate but eventually conceived naturally.

  'So you used the Clava surrogates?'

  'We did. We wanted to keep them together, keep a close eye on them. Especially after you escaped, we needed to protect them at all costs. We were lucky that we had all available surrogates at the time. We don't use them much anymore. Most people have at least one child, often more. Fewer babies are being born now that we are nearly fifteen years into our new lives. Each desired partnership also only had one child.'

  'Don't the surrogates want to keep the babies?' Sorcha asked.

  Ashton didn't respond.

  Remembering the cross-hatched scars across Katrin's belly, I asked, 'They aren't exactly consensual surrogates, are they? As in, they aren't conscious?'

  Sorcha's mouth dropped, and Ashton nodded.

  'So the women held in the facility on Auckland. The one we destroyed. They were all surrogates?'

  Another nod.

  'Ceridwen said that she lived in a facility with eleven other children. Were the surrogates their mothers?'

  'They were.'

  'You said that of the thirty eggs you took from me, only twenty-four survived?'

  'That is correct.'

  'Are twenty-seven immune children enough?' I asked softly, making Cam look at me, his mouth open in astonishment. 'I mean, if thousands of people survived, and that original population has now more than doubled, are twenty-seven girls enough?'

  'It is. We would have liked more, but those chosen ones will partner up and hopefully have at least two children per couple. So fifty or so in the next generation. The domes are likely to last for hundreds of years if they aren't breached, so we are safe until the resistant gene can be passed on. Too many children born now, from the same mother, may cause in-breeding within a few generations.'

  'I don't want to think about how many children you sacrificed in the name of science,' Sorcha spat.

  Ashton shrugged uncomfortably.

  'What do you want to do?' I whispered, despite knowing we were alone. With no insulation, it was freezing in the shed, and it was a bitterly cold winter. Recognising we couldn't keep them here for months in the inhospitable weather, we had billeted the children out to each of our neighbours to sleep, but they came back for breakfast. Despite the cold, I loved it. Snuggled under the weight of several doonas and blankets and sharing the cocoon with a warm-blooded man. Cam lay in the dark beside me, but I knew from his shallow breathing that he wasn't asleep.

  'Oh honey, don't ask me that. They are yours. I want you to care for them. But twenty-four? How on earth do we look after, feed, and educate twenty-four more children? The four we have drive me to the brink of insanity most days.'

  I smiled in the darkness. Louis was a compliant child, but our three were challenging. Not to mention Ceri, and her fate was as yet undetermined. How could we introduce so many more? But they were special. Children who would ensure the survival of humanity once we could build outside. Would survive even if the domes were breached.

  'Do you want Clava to raise them?' he asked softly.

  'No… I… maybe… oh, I don't know.'

  'My darling, I would never give up any child of yours. But there are so many!'

  'They aren't yours,' I probed gently.

  'I know that. But does it matter? Louis isn't your
s, and I see how much you love him. You risked your life and a lot more to save him. Parenting is more about choosing to love a child. It isn't about whether or not you are related. Many people raise children not their own. Conversely, many people who are blood kin detest each other. So no, that doesn't bother me.'

  'I know. But so many! And all roughly the same age. Bloody hell. Imagine a birthday party!'

  'If they were born via surrogate, they weren't all born on the same day.'

  'That is true. But close enough.'

  Cam rolled me into him, and I snuggled against his chest, inhaling his masculine scent.

  'Not that I wouldn't have twenty-four of your babies,' I murmured. 'I would just space them out a little.'

  'Well, one thing is for certain, you have done your bit for humankind.'

  'I have, haven't I? Oh, how I wish they were yours,' I whispered in his ear. 'I would take them all in a heartbeat if they were yours.'

  Sensing I was about to go down the rabbit hole, Cam's mouth found mine in the darkness, putting an end to that conversation. Pressing his lips to mine, crushing. As his mouth became more demanding, more urgent, I melted into him, my limbs softening as his hands touched me. I forgot everything as our souls collided, pushing further into each other until we clung to each other, panting and sweating.

  The golden glow of morning radiated through the single window. Rolling over, my arm struck the empty pillow beside me.

  'Mmmm,' I groaned, not wanting to be alone this morning but equally not wanting to leave my warm cocoon to track down my missing husband. Dozing in the dim light, I lapsed in and out of sleep until the metal door closing jolted me awake, and the enticing aroma of coffee aroused me from my stupor.

  'I'm sorry, darling,' he breathed in my ear as he slipped into bed beside me. 'I didn't mean to wake you.'

  'Where were you?' I oozed. 'I woke, and you were gone.'

  'Just a quick errand. But I brought you coffee.'

  Struggling to force myself up, I let Cam fluff the pillows behind me so I could sit upright in bed, pushing my bedraggled mass of hair out of my face. A wooden tray Luca had made from a fallen birch tree spread across my legs. I stared at it for a moment, remembering the Christmas he had presented it to me. So many times he had teased me about my inability to function first thing in the morning.