Earth Song: Etude to War

by Mark Wandrey

  “Because you are human.” She looked at her mother who smiled back, herself feeling like a true parent for the first time.

  “I guess you are right,” she said and looked even sadder.

  “It ain't that bad!” Aaron complained, then Lilith gave him a little secret smile and he realized she was kidding. Tears turned to laughter. Another family moment.

  Lilith looked down at Minu's still flat stomach and then up at her face with the wonder of a child. “May I touch you?”

  “Of course you can!”

  Lilith gently placed a hand on her mother’s stomach. She knew it would be impossible to feel anything. According to the database, the fetus would be almost invisible to the naked eye for weeks to come. Still, she had the unerring sensation that she could feel her soon to be sibling there, nestled protectively inside her mother. Minu smiled and nodded, putting her own hand protectively over her daughter’s. “I've learned a couple things from the dramas,” she explained. “Can I call you mom?”

  “Oh, my sweet dear,” Minu cried, her eyes glistening.

  “What did I say wrong?” She asked Aaron.

  “Nothing,” he said, his eyes shining. “Do I get to be dad instead of father?”

  “That would be fine.”

  They spent several hours talking about family things. Now that she felt better about her place in that group, Lilith had a hundred questions about the coming event. Could she download Minu's spreadsheet of the fetus development plan and eventual birth timetable? Minu gently explained to her that the process wasn't quite that...controlled. Lilith offered to help her organize the operation. Minu gave up and agreed. “Is it a boy or girl?”

  “We don't know,” Minu told her.

  “Why not? The medical intelligence can—”

  “We don't want to know,” Aaron said, holding up a hand to preclude a crystalline robot suddenly showing up with a syringe.

  “That doesn't seem logical,” she complained. “Why do you not wish to know?”

  Minu smiled and shook her head. “I guess because it doesn't matter to us. We didn't know anything about you. Maybe it's a tradition?”

  “A two child tradition?” Minu and Aaron shrugged in perfect unison. “Very well. I will be surprised, just as you. But it seems a terrible waste of energy to have an easily solved mystery.” Aaron and Minu chuckled and hugged while Lilith scrunched up her brows and tried to understand.

  One last thing to talk about, Minu thought. “Lilith, I understand Jacob asked you to go on a scout mission for him.”

  “That is correct, mom.” She obviously worked to say mom instead of mother, but Minu liked the way it sounded. It made her think that someday soon, she would be momma.

  “Can I ask why you refused?”

  “The world he requested I scout is on the Interdiction list in my database.”

  “I didn't know there was such a list.”

  “I was not fully aware either until I accessed the requested world. The list was overlaid below the navigational data, invisible until the world was accessed.”

  Levels upon levels, Minu thought. “Is there any indication why it is interdicted, as you said?”

  “The list is military in nature. The suggestion would be an enemy stronghold, capital, or heavily defended military installation. I admit I am curious, but as a lone ship, it is not tactically wise to risk going against the interdiction list.”

  “We have no way of knowing if the list is prescient to current situations,” Aaron pointed out.

  “Correct,” Minu agreed, “but I understand her concern and respect it.” Lilith smiled at her and Minu reached out to stroke her hair. Lilith looked a little surprised, then grabbed her hand and pressed it against her cheek in a touching expression. Minu decided she liked this new side of her daughter. “Well, I told the jerk I'd ask.”

  “Jacob tried to get you to change my mind?” Minu nodded, then shrugged. “He is a most odorous character,” she grumbled.

  “Oh, you have no idea,” Aaron added his own grumblings.

  “What world are we talking about?” Minu asked. Lilith closed her eyes for a second and a large holographic display of the galaxy appeared. The heavily populated sector of space where most Concordia planets rested zoomed down to show a few hundred star systems. She added labels for several worlds Minu recognized.

  “Akala territory,” she noted. “Or near it, at least.”

  “That species is not in the People's database, but I am aware of them through the Chosen records. The world is as you define it a junk pile, but a factory world in my records.”

  Minu took out her tablet and accessed the Chosen records. Planet K was the designation. Nothing special. A junk pile of limited utility, not of interest to the Tog or humanity. It appeared to have changed hands a dozen times in as many years. The Akala were always in the mix, but they weren't good at fighting for themselves. Minu knew they'd tried to hire the Rangers on several occasions. Luckily, Jacob knew the risks of getting into a contract with the little hedgehogs. The Rasa had more than a few run-ins with them during their heyday as well.

  “I'll try to explain the situation to Jacob,” she told Lilith. “With any luck he's just trying to avoid working for the Akala anyway. This information might be what he needs.”

  A short time later Minu and Aaron left. Lilith watched their Phoenix shuttle gently back out of the landing bay and push off towards the planet before a section of her brain she was only dimly aware of, easily compensated for the gravitic nudge of the comparatively tiny shuttle.

  A smile was on her face as the craft began its descent. “I'm going to be a sister,' she said, trying out the words. “I wonder what that will be like?” It would be so much easier to completely understand if she knew if it was going to be a male or female. The thought caused some excitement. Maybe that was why they had decided not to determine the sex. Are they purposely adding excitement to the birthing process?

  The Phoenix was dipping into the atmosphere as Lilith thought how things were going to change.

  Chapter 18

  March 21st, 534 AE

  War College, University of Plateau, Tranquility, Bellatrix

  Minu returned to work and life returned to normal. Mostly. She handled her duties at the War College, lectured, reviewed her professors’ assignments, and helped Aaron with Groves Industries. But behind the daily grind was the quiet excitement each night as she got home and checked the little robot inside her to verify progress. It dutifully monitored her hormone and blood chemistry, telling her that all those complicated numbers were well within the normal range for an early human pregnancy.

  Pip moved aboard the Kaatan full time, adopting one of the zero gravity labs as his home away from home. From there he worked on his various duties as a Chosen and on the projects Minu assigned. Lilith called to Minu with daily updates. At first Minu insisted that daily updates were not necessary.

  Then she realized her daughter was really calling to find out about the baby. She was completely fascinated with the idea and wanted to know every detail, even though there was nothing to talk about. It was only two weeks later when she completely surprised Minu. “Mom, I would like to be there when you give birth.”

  “What!” Minu choked on the sandwich she'd been eating, making Ariana look in from the adjoining office in concern. She took a sip of water and cleared her throat, gesturing that she was okay.

  “I wish to observe my sibling’s birth.”

  Minu shook her head at the request. It was made so matter-of-factly, as if Lilith were asking for pickles with her lunch. “What suddenly brought you to that decision? You know it will be down here, in the University Medical Center.”

  “I understand that you wish to have the child down there, despite the increased level of care the ship's medical center provides.”

  Minu made a face. It might be better medical care, but she had a less than happy history trusting her reproductive process to the gentle mercies of the Medical Intelligence on the Kaa
tan.

  “I have just decided that this new addition to our...family is important to me. I want to be there from the beginning. Please, may I attend?”

  “Lilith, I'd be honored for you to be there when your brother or sister is born!”

  Two weeks later the medical robot dutifully informed her it was time to consult a physician about her developing baby, so Minu made an appointment.

  “Good afternoon, Chosen,” Dr. Robinson said as he entered the examination room. He'd aged a bit since they'd first met almost seven years ago. He'd taken care of her when the old birth control implant, the one implanted without her knowledge, failed unexpectedly and almost killed her. He was a few years older than Minu and filled out his medical jumpsuit perfectly.

  When she'd met him back then, she hadn't been with Aaron yet, and she remembered thinking how cute he was. His good looks hadn't changed, but her marital status had. He carried a standard tablet computer and was busily making notes in it from a previous appointment. After a moment he accessed his current patient's file then looked up at her.

  “You aren't due for a physical for six months. Are you okay?”

  “Perfectly fine. Better than fine, actually.”

  “Then what can I do for you?”

  “It's probably simpler if you access my implant.”

  “Okay,” he said and picked up a medical scanner before approaching her. Minu obliged by lifting her blouse to expose her stomach so the doctor could press the sensor against her skin. It wasn't exactly necessary for the device to function, but it also increased the accuracy and decreased the need to re-query the implanted robot. In a second the device beeped and he uploaded the data to his tablet.

  Such types of visits were not uncommon in their modern era. After Minu brought back the ancient People's codex of medical data, robotic implants to monitor a person's health became commonplace. Plateau and New Jerusalem were both looking at the feasibility of having every baby implanted at birth.

  When Dr. Robinson had moved from the hospital in Tranquility to the University Hospital, he'd explained to Minu, his longtime patient now, that every day he'd get several visits from patients who'd been prompted by their monitors to see him. “It doesn't really make my job easier,” he explained, “but they are saving lives.”

  He examined the data for a second then looked up at her, his eyebrow climbing up. Minu giggled and felt her cheeks getting hot. “You've been up to some naughtiness,” he chided.

  “Doctor,” she laughed and shook her head, “I'm a married woman.”

  “You just decided at the spur of the moment to conceive? It's pretty much impossible for the implant to fail. Oh, never mind, I see here where you deactivated it. According to the recorded data you were pregnant in twenty-three hours.”

  “We decided it was time.”

  “Well congratulations!” He reviewed the data and uploaded copies to the office’s network before taking up another instrument. “If you could remove your blouse, I'll have my nurse come in and we'll do some checking up.”

  A half hour later, re-dressed, she sat next to him as he laid out the basic prenatal regime he wanted her to follow. “Since this is your first legitimate pregnancy-”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I mean simply that you are going to carry this child to term.”

  “Oh, sorry.” The doctor was one of only a handful of people on the planet that knew both of Lilith's existence, and the fact that she was her and Aaron’s child. He was Lilith's physician of record too. Getting her to even agree to let him examine her had been a battle of epic proportions. “What about taking it easy?”

  “This isn't the old days,” he reminded her. “We know a lot more about human physiology. It is better for you and the baby if you are as active as possible up until seven months. You like to run, keep it up. Pretty soon I want you to be a little more cautious of your midriff in martial arts, but keep to your established fitness routine for now.”

  “That's it?”

  “Yep. You've got better abdominal muscles than most men I know.” She smiled and shook her head. “Start those Kegel exercises and we'll get you on those neonatal supplements and monitor your implant. Other than that, congratulations mom!”

  “I'm already a mom.”

  “True, but you get all the fun of growing this one.”

  “And the pain of delivering it.”

  “I won't lie to you, it doesn't feel good. But women are designed to give birth. If you weren't, we wouldn't be here. We have medications that can take away pretty much all the pain.”

  “No,” she said quickly, then didn't know why and couldn't explain it. Luckily for her, she had a doctor who didn't need it explained.

  “I don't deliver a lot of babies. I started as a trauma doc, after all. But you'd be surprised how many women have the same opinion of the drugs as you do. And before you ask, they don't know why either.”

  * * *

  She was walking from the University Hospital to her office after the appointment when her communicator chirped for attention. She plucked it from her belt and answered. “Dean Groves.”

  “Chosen Groves, this is Director Porter with the Plateau Historical Society.”

  “I recognize your voice, Director. What can I do for you?”

  “We have the results back from the genetic tests.”

  Minu was not prepared to hear from the man. Besides it being more than a month since the fateful visit to her island when they found Mindy Harper's grave empty, she'd gotten pregnant and helped make the discovery of the planet moving machine on Romulus. “What do you know?”

  “I think it best if you come in, if you have time?”

  Minu nearly told him where he could file his thoughts, then considered it better not to. Maybe I am becoming more diplomatic in my old age, she decided. “Sure.”

  It would take longer to walk to the garage to get her car and fly to the Tranquility offices of the Historical Society than hail a cab, so she hung up and used the taxi function on her communicator. A hundred meters away was a pickup zone. By the time she trotted there a yellow painted aerocar cab was circling in for a landing. Minu hopped in and told the older woman driver where she wanted to go. “No problem,” she said and the cab leaped into the air.

  Minu had driven an aerocar for years, and she admired the cabbie’s skill with the vehicles. Watching how they did combat with each other and a thousand other vehicles both slow and fast in the skies above Tranquility every day, it was hard to believe that the gravitic powered craft had only been commonplace for a decade. She operated the vehicle with the same skill as most people who plied her trade, flying if they'd been born behind the controls. In only five minutes the cab was descending onto the rooftop landing pad of a ten story office tower on the opposite side of the city.

  “Thanks,” Minu called after she'd handed the woman her fare plus a generous tip.

  “Thank you!” she called after Minu and was back into the air as the door was still closing.

  Minu took a second to look out across the bustling city. It wasn't nearly as busy as any of the metropolises of major worlds in the Concordia core worlds. They didn't even rate a single small Portal Spire, buildings that as their name implied, soared thousands of meters into the sky holding many Portals for offworld travelers. Those spires were usually studded with landing platforms for the flurry of flying transports that would come and go carrying cargo and passengers.

  Off in the distance, a pair of new hotels stood out from the skyline. They were nothing compared to the smallest Portal Spire she'd seen before, but both had multiple landing decks at different stories. “We're growing up,” she said to the light afternoon breeze as she pulled the hat down tighter. The Julast sun was blazing hot. Merciless. She began to consider again if the world moving machine could be safely operated.

  Down inside the skyscraper and away from the relentless sun, she slipped the hat’s band onto a little clip she kept on her belt for just that purpose as the elevator
descended. A few steps and she was at the offices of the Plateau Historical Society.

  Despite the reputation imparted to them by her father, the office spoke of the same simple conservative academia she could find in any of a dozen offices in her own university. The outer waiting room was decorated with dozens of pictures going from old Earth digital prints taken by the original colonists on to chemical emulsions on paper during the less technological eras and onto holographic projections no more than a few years old. “Can I help you?”

  “Yeah,” she said and turned away from the pictures. The receptionist was a woman approximately Minu's age who waited with a patient smile on her face. “Please tell Director Porter than Minu Groves is here to see him.”

  “Chosen Minu Groves?” Her expression had changed from patient to excited. Minu nodded. “I'll let him know right away.”

  Minu thanked her and turned back to the images. She was familiar with some of them from her own education and experience. It wasn't long before she came upon an old digital image. It was framed around a camp with a hundred men, women and children. They all looked dirty and tired, but they also looked hopeful.

  She knew the picture well. It was probably the most famous one in Plateau. It was taken less than a week after the colonists arrived on Bellatrix, and Earth died. There was Mindy Harper, front and center, hand in hand with her husband Billy Harper. His arm was in a cast, and no-one ever knew why. They’d spent most of their time just staying alive in those early days. Even Mindy wouldn't start keeping her diary current for months to come.

  The entire wall was dedicated to the colonists and the time that followed. As she waited, Minu moved through her ancestor’s lifetime and into the dark ages, and onward to modern times. Then to her chagrin she was looking at a modern image of herself standing at an award ceremony. She was losing her third star and receiving an honorary award from the planetary ruling council for bringing back the medical codex. She looked just like she felt that day; uncomfortable with all the attention.

  “There's room for one or two more pictures of you,” the deep manly voice of Director Porter spoke from behind her.