‘What are they doing?
What’s wrong with him?’ He looked away from the knot of doctors and down at her as he heard the panic worsening in her voice. Just as he was trying to figure out what to say in reply to her, their daughter chose that moment to pull her mother’s hair.
‘Ow!’ Daniel carefully detached the baby’s fingers from his wife’s sweaty black hair. ‘What an ornery little sweetheart.’ Kathleen cooed at the baby who was still trying to reach out for her hair. Daniel had been around babies and children more than his wife and he was quite surprised. Most newborns cried, slept or were nursing. They didn’t start pulling hair like this for weeks usually from his experience with his nephews and nieces who always loved his blond beard when they were old enough to notice it.
The Doctor began to sew Kathleen up while the Specialists continued to work with the second new-born. Before he knew it, Daniel had his daughter taken from him and his wife was being rolled out to the recovery room. The nurse indicated he could follow her to another room where his daughter was going to be put under a warming lamp. She couldn’t give him any answers about his son when he asked, she only smiled and said someone would come and let him know as soon as they were available. It was later that evening after he had taken a break to eat dinner before he heard anything more. By that time, Kathleen was out of recovery and both her and their daughter were installed in a private room with a chair that made into a bed for Daniel. Dr. Piren and three more doctors all came in to the room together. Dr. Piren approached the bed first.
‘And how is the happy Mother doing?’ He smiled as he took her blood pressure and glanced at the IV next to the bed.
‘Groggy but not too sore.
The nurse assured me that any soreness probably wouldn’t be felt until tomorrow.’
‘Has your daughter nursed yet?’
Daniel was holding his sleeping daughter and he glanced up at the doctor.
‘Yes, but there wasn’t much there yet. I think that’s normal, isn’t it?’
‘Absolutely and…’
‘and… How’s our son?’ Daniel interrupted before the Doctor and his wife could be drawn into more conversation.
‘Well, as you may have guessed, there were some problems.’
‘Is he okay?’
‘Yes and no. Yes he is alive and breathing well now. At first there was a breathing problem as you might have heard, but that has resolved itself.’
‘And no.’ Daniel’s voice was slightly flat, waiting for the bad news.
‘Mr and Mrs Mertz, it appears that your son had a seizure and may have some neurological problems.’
‘What kind of neurological problems?’
‘We are guessing at Cerebral Palsy or something similar but we aren’t absolutely sure yet.’
‘He is normal, isn’t he though Doctor?’ His wife’s anxious voice silenced any other questions he might have asked right then as he realized that she wouldn’t need the added stress of answers that he badly wanted.
‘He is normal for himself Mrs Mertz, but if you mean is he normal like your daughter, than the answer is no.’
‘But you can make him normal, can’t you? I mean with all the advances in science and all that.’ Dr. Piren glanced at the other doctors with a look of I told you so. The older doctor nodded his head at him.
‘There is a great deal of potential and we expect we can help him, but we can’t tell you how much. He is sleeping in a special incubator right now and we are running tests so we can understand his needs.’ This was the older Doctor who moved forward and sat on the edge of the bed. ‘I am Dr. Haverson, a Specialist, Mr and Mrs Mertz, a Paediatric Neurologist specializing in new-borns. So far from my examination of your son, he is looking better than I was afraid he would after hearing that he had a mild seizure right after birth. I believe there is a great deal to hope for in his case. We’ll know more after we get more test results. Would Mr Mertz like to come see him?’ Daniel nodded quickly and put the sleeping baby girl down in her bassinet.
‘Unfortunately, you won’t be able to come over and see him until tomorrow Mrs Mertz since bed rest is ordered for you. At that time we’ll bring a wheelchair for you so you can see him also. Right now he is sleeping peacefully.’
Daniel went with them to see his son who looked peaceful and quite normal if smaller than his sister. Over the next few days as the tests came back, he met with the doctors privately and got many of his questions answered. As far as anyone could tell, the Genius Change had nothing to do with the situation his son was in, it just happened sometimes to some babies the Doctors said. So far it looked like his son was not destined to be the Genius his daughter was destined to be. At only a week old, his daughter had already managed to say ‘Momma’ which thrilled Kathleen and helped ease some of Daniel’s worries if only for the moment. Meanwhile, his son was being bottle fed in Paediatric Intensive Care with breast milk Kathleen pumped in between nursing their daughter who they named Lauren. They hadn’t yet agreed on a name for the little boy. It was two weeks before they agreed on Gregory after Kathleen’s father.
A month after Lauren and Gregory were born, two other couples from the S.A.D.E.D. project had their twins. Daniel began to worry when both sets of twins were born with almost identical results as his twins. Gregory now had company in the Paediatric Intensive Care as he struggled to drink from the bottle and jerked his small limbs around.
By the time the fourth and fifth sets of twins were also born with one twin a Genius potential and the second twin showing all the symptoms of Cerebral Palsy, the project was called to a temporary halt and all the participants found themselves, both men and women, isolated in a special facility with their children.
Daniel attended the large informational meeting called by the head of the project alone. Kathleen had declined to come since she was busy learning how to care for Gregory who had just been allowed out of intensive care that day and brought to their new home in the isolated complex with an aide. He sat in the back of the room apprehensive about what other information might be forthcoming. He already knew more than his wife had wanted too, more than many of the other couples since his children had been born first. Many of the questions and answers at the beginning were already familiar to Daniel but obviously were not known to the majority of the audience.
Policy had changed soon after the first half dozen children had been born and information must have become harder to come by. He saw a few women beginning to cry quietly. In general the men comforted their wives or became very stony faced. A few began to get red in the face but personnel around the room moved in to try to calm those before any major outbursts occurred. The worried and scared faces reminded him of an earthquake disaster movie he had once seen. He easily spotted the few other parents whose children had been born earlier by their quiet, grim demeanour.
From what Daniel could see, all the men whether they were co-workers of his, or spouses of his co-workers, were present, but he had a feeling that many of the women had been talking to each other and the doctors, because at least half the women were missing from the audience. He knew that some were on bed rest due to complications from a multiple pregnancy, Kathleen had filled him in on how many of the pregnancies were going along with some mild boasting at how easy her pregnancy had been in comparison. That still didn’t cover the numerous women who had chosen not to come. Daniel thought of his wife’s reactions and reluctance to want to know too much about their son yet.
Perhaps it was better for the second child, he hated to call them the damaged ones but that sprang to mind also, if the mother gave herself a chance to fall in love with the lesser child before knowing too much. He hated to think of how some parents might react to their non-genius child. He remembered being told that there was already one baby who hadn’t come home from the Pediatric Intensive Care Nursery, the parents had refused to accept the baby. As time passed, Daniel found himself hoping in a dark way that there wasn’t going to be any new revelations forthcoming a
s all his ideas about the Genius Change were confirmed one after the other. All pregnancies were twins. All twins were born with one genius and one child with neurological problems, most of the time Cerebral Palsy. The genius twins appeared to develop using extra nutrition and possibly some crucial elemental needs in the very early weeks generated by the body’s reaction to a twin pregnancy that were then no longer available to the second foetus.
Like most present, Daniel understood why the Genius Change experiment was necessary for humans to travel beyond their own solar system. As an Engineer and Computer Specialist, he understood the need for a human with a quick enough mind to be able to integrate with the computers the aliens had showed them would be needed to progress to interstellar travel. He also had realized early on that the Genius Change might be permanent in the parents, at the time the administrators had been unclear on this. Now they confirmed that the change appeared to be permanent in all parents who had participated, any other children they might have would probably find themselves in the same position as their first set of twins until they could learn of a cure or correction. Daniel assumed he would then hear that the project was being terminated. He sat up straighter when he was told the project would continue under more controls while a special division was being set up to resolve the obvious drawbacks in the program. He felt his mind go numb. He thought of his son Gregory struggling to hold his head up, working his limbs in his static baby dance. He thought of his son smiling. His son, the drawback. Something deep inside him snapped and he felt a deep rage building up.
The Head Negotiator had just finished defending his team from questions about their interactions with the aliens during negotiations. He finished up explaining how the Ftheerians had appeared open and completely informative until his team recently went back over the negotiation records again. It wasn’t until then that they realized that there were a few definitions they had assigned to the Ftheerian language which didn’t seem to always fit the context within which the Ftheerian had used them.
A linguist was approaching the podium just as Daniel quietly stood up and came up a side aisle where many parents were beginning to mill around the personnel from the project.
‘What do you mean the project is going to continue? Do you expect us to just keep having children like my son while you take your sweet time to find a ‘‘cure’’?’
A few people in lab coats began to move towards Daniel but other parents already standing gathered around him as though he were their spokesman.
‘If you will sit down I am sure that your questions will be adequately addressed as the linguist speaks.’ The Head Negotiator leaned towards the microphone as the linguist hesitated.
‘No, I’m sorry but I have one of those drawbacks at home, I call him my son, and I want answers now. What are you going to do with these twins when they are born with problems? What are you going to do about the parents who may not want to or may not be capable of giving these babies the loving care they deserve?
Who is going to be breeding for your space program now because it sure isn’t going to be me.’
The Head Negotiator stared at Daniel as he realized that he was going to have a harder time facing down this angry father who stayed calm and logical while he demanded answers. Then the linguist spoke softly in the negotiator’s ear and the negotiator motioned him on up to the podium.
‘First off I understand your objections better than most of the administrators here.’
‘How can you? Where are your children?’ Another father beside Daniel cried this out loudly and Daniel put a gentle hand on his shoulder as he recognized a co-worker whose wife had just given birth two days before.
‘Actually they are still in the foetal stage in their mother’s uterus, both of them.’ The crowd below quieted as they took this in.
‘My name is Quentin Ford and my wife and I found out we were pregnant from the Genius Change the day before they called a temporary halt to the program.’ Daniel looked closely at the slight blond man standing on the stage and noticed the lines bracketing his eyes and mouth. He guessed that he had had as little sleep as Daniel himself since his children were born.
‘At this time I just wanted to share with you what we have begun to understand about the Ftheerians through their language. I will be as involved as all of you here in demanding and working towards answers after that.’
He shuffled some papers in his hand and then laid the papers down on the podium without glancing at them again.
‘One piece of information I have to add is the correct interpretation of the full name the Ftheerians had for the Genius Change.
Some phrases in the Ftheerian language didn’t translate easily into human concepts and we made two major mistakes we have now been able to correct. We assumed that the Ftheerians were a race that gambled on space and won. We did not understand that they made a mistake and as a race were not gambling but playing a very harsh lottery. We also assumed they were speaking of their female sex who we had little contact with when it turns out they were referring to a split in their very race itself. The full translation for their viral change is, roughly, the Genius Partner Lottery of the Split Race. From what historical data the aliens left us which we have only recently been able to finish translating, the Ftheerians we met were the winners in the genius gamble. Only the winners get to go to Space. And they can never return home again. They become wanderers who set up colonies they themselves are not allowed to stay in. The losers in their viral gamble have a lower intellectual capacity but do not have the physical restrictions or the neurological damage our children are showing. The question left in my mind is whether we will also achieve the stars only by losing our home planet and our heart along with it.’
The rising volume in the audience at his words nearly drowned out Mr Ford’s final words.
‘I don’t believe anyone other than us parents should be allowed to make that decision.’
He turned to face a side door and Daniel watched as a group of reporters emerged and immediately began to surround the Administrators and the Head Negotiator up on the stage holding vidcameras and microphones.
Charles Ashmore’s Trail by Ambrose Bierce
The family of Christian Ashmore consisted of his wife, his mother, two grown daughters, and a son of sixteen years. They lived in Troy, New York, were well-to-do, respectable persons, and had many friends, some of whom, reading these lines, will doubtless learn for the first time the extraordinary fate of the young man.
From Troy the Ashmores moved in 1871 or 1872 to Richmond, Indiana, and a year or two later to the vicinity of Quincy, Illinois, where Mr Ashmore bought a farm and lived on it.
At some little distance from the farmhouse was a spring with a constant flow of clear, cold water, whence the family derived its supply for domestic use at all seasons.
On the evening of the 9th of November in 1878, at about nine o’clock, young Charles Ashmore left the family circle about the hearth, took a tin bucket and started toward the spring.
As he did not return, the family became uneasy, and going to the door by which he had left the house, his father called without receiving an answer. He then lighted a lantern and with the eldest daughter, Martha, who insisted on accompanying him, went in search.
A light snow had fallen, obliterating the path, but making the young man’s trail conspicuous; each footprint was plainly defined. After going a little more than half-way - perhaps seventy-five yards - the father, who was in advance, halted, and elevating his lantern stood peering intently into the darkness ahead.
‘What is the matter, father?’ the girl asked.
This was the matter: the trail of the young man had abruptly ended, and all beyond was smooth, unbroken snow. The last footprints were as conspicuous as any in the line; the very nail-marks were distinctly visible.
Mr Ashmore looked upward, shading his eyes with his hat held between them and the lantern. The stars were shining; there was not a cloud in the sky; he was denied the explanatio
n which had suggested itself, doubtful as it would have been - a new snowfall with a limit so plainly defined.
Taking a wide circuit round the ultimate tracks, so as to leave them undisturbed for further examination, the man proceeded to the spring, the girl following, weak and terrified. Neither had spoken a word of what both had observed. The spring was covered with ice, hours old.
Returning to the house they noted the appearance of the snow on both sides of the trail its entire length. No tracks led away from it.
The morning light showed nothing more. Smooth, spotless, unbroken, the shallow snow lay everywhere.
Four days later the grief stricken mother herself went to the spring for water. She came back and related that in passing the spot where the footprints had ended she had heard the voice of her son and had been eagerly calling to him, wandering about the place, as she had fancied the voice to be now in one direction, now in another, until she was exhausted with fatigue and emotion.
Questioned as to what the voice had said, she was unable to tell, yet averred that the words were perfectly distinct. In a moment the entire family was at the place, but nothing was heard, and the voice was believed to be a hallucination caused by the mother’s great anxiety and her disordered nerves. But for months afterward, atirregular intervals of a few days, the voice was heard by the several members of thefamily, and by others. All declared it unmistakably the voice of Charles Ashmore; all agreed that it seemed to come from a great distance, faintly, yet with entire distinctness of articulation; yet none could determine its direction, nor repeat its words. The intervals of silence grew longer and longer, the voice fainter and farther, and by midsummer it was heard no more. If anybody knows the fate of Charles Ashmore, it is probably his mother. She is dead.
All Destiny MoON Fiction: A Mix of Old & New Short Stories Page 3