Richard reflected his and Carol’s concerns. “Will Mind Tap affect our baby? That’s what our own families have been asking us, Dr. Anderfem. None of them have the full set of mods as of yet, and they don’t understand details of Mind Tapping very well. Carol and I do understand, and even we don’t see how we can always shelter a still forming baby from ideas that are too mature for them to grasp. We’re worried about Ryan losing his innocence and missing a real childhood.”
Aldry smiled. “I see you had a boy’s name picked out.” Then she offered some words of reassurance.
“Richard, we aren’t operating totally in the dark concerning mother and fetal mental contact. We’ve had rippers living with us since before you two were born. As you know, Kit and Kobalt were the first ripper cubs we raised, adopted as orphans into two families, and they have both become parents multiple times in the last twenty-three years.”
The ripper siblings were the best known of the cats, and they had lived among humans the longest. They hadn’t even met another ripper until they were nearly grown, being reared by their human “mothers and fathers,” raised with human siblings they considered brothers and sisters. Yet, the two cats had knowledge of wild ripper society that predated their first contact with other cats.
Aldry continued, “We know what Kit has shared with us, of what her unborn cubs can sense from her and what she can sense from them. She also has some faint memories of mental sharing from her own mother, when her mother had been hunted and shot. I know you’ve heard the story of the two people at Hub City she’d attacked and killed in hunger, because she was pregnant and trapped inside their electrified compound. This was long before we formed the partnership we have today. You two were adolescents when we made our first truce with the nearby wild ripper prides.
“The ripper knowledge Kit and Kobalt received all came as their mother lay dying, as she gave birth. It had to have been a traumatic event, but they don’t actually remember that.”
Carol asked, “You mean they filtered it out of their memories?”
A head shake from Aldry. “No, their mother did. She knew she was dying, and wanted them to know something of their heritage, so she gave them powerful images that they retained, but didn’t understood until older. She didn’t share terrifying images. They know a small amount of their father only because mom passed it along. He apparently died months earlier, in a dimly conveyed memory of a hunting incident. It might be why the mother was outside of her family pride and hunting alone. Somehow, she wandered into the Hub City compound when the electrified gate was briefly left open she became trapped, and found she had no wild game to hunt. She gave her cubs all the knowledge she could before dying.”
Richard raised an eyebrow. “You mean they didn’t get any images from good old pop via direct contact? I was thinking that would be something I might try. To let Ryan know me in advance.”
Aldry both shook her head and shrugged. “Aside from that being a risky and bad idea to try, Rich, I’m afraid your mental contact with your baby is going to be zero until after his birth. Kobalt has said he knew nothing of any of his cubs before birth, and little afterwards until they were weaned. Ripper moms and other females have the only permitted mental contact with cubs before weaning in their society, and mental contact isn’t at all what you might expect before birth. We think it’s going to be extremely limited mental contact between you and your unborn baby, Carol. If there is any at all.”
“Why? I saw his little hands on the scan you just performed. He had one pressed against the sac just now.”
“Right,” Aldry agreed. “The placental membrane sac. That protective sheath that encloses your child. It has no superconducting nerves whatsoever. It is a near insulator for a Mind Tap connection with the baby’s hands, or in the case of ripper cubs, from a neck frill contact. We designed our hands to be the primary contact point for the nervous system responsible for our mental connection to our brain, and evolution put that contact area in the neck frill for rippers. However, evolution placed no nerves in the placental sac of any mammal-like species of any world. Please note that there were no nerves in the primitive egg shells that gradually evolved into placental sacs either.” She shrugged again, and continued.
“Of course, the human placenta isn’t identical to that of Koban mammal analogues, but one place where they do match is in the complete lack of nerve connections in the membrane of the sac. Think about it. What evolutionary advantage would there be for the mother to experience the painful tearing of that sac when giving birth?”
“What about through the umbilical cord that connects the baby to me?” Carol sounded rather plaintive.
“Carol, the umbilical vein supplies the fetus with oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood from the placenta, and the fetal heart pumps deoxygenated, nutrient-depleted blood through the umbilical arteries back to the placenta. However, there is no nervous system connection between you two via the cord.”
“Ms. Anderfem, I thought Kit and Kobalt experienced mental contact with their mother before birth.” It was obvious she had expected to sense the developing mind of her fetus, and was disappointed.
“The sac and umbilical aren’t perfect insulators, hon. Remember, we don’t have to make hand-to-hand connections to share thoughts, and any skin contact will work, even if not as strong or efficient a circuit. I think that nature has luckily provided a natural safety buffer for the fetus, who doesn’t yet have the mental faculties to process information concerning an outer world it has never experienced. I’d urge restraint and extreme caution with Mind Tap transmissions, even after the baby is born. Anything the baby sends out, you two as adults should be able to handle, but the reverse isn’t going to be true.
“Until we know more of how this ability will alter your child’s mental development after he’s born, limit yourself to simple ‘baby thoughts’ even through the toddler years. Just as human parents have used ‘baby talk’ with their children since prehistoric times.”
Richard wasn’t satisfied yet. “Doc, how were the thoughts and impressions of ripper history passed to Kit and Kobalt by their mother if she couldn’t frill them? I’ve shared both of those cat’s thoughts on their pre-birth knowledge, just as soon as Carol knew she was expecting. New experiences have overlaid most of that for those cats, but they say they did have some knowledge at birth.
“They say they both were born with quite a bit of ripper lore and knowledge, and yet when I’ve played with cubs from Kit after weaning, or those from other ripper mothers, they don’t seem to know much ripper history or culture at all. As they grow older they do, but why not give it to them as fast as they can absorb? Kit and Kobalt managed OK, and thanks to our mods, we have a much larger mental storage capacity than a ripper.”
“Not a reasonable comparison.” Aldry rebutted. “Their mother was dying. She had only moments to give them information that might help them to survive, if they could. She probably did the equivalent of mental screaming to reach them. There was no other choice, and the humans that shot her were approaching her babies, as she gave birth with her last dying breaths. If they didn’t kill the cubs, as she hoped they wouldn’t, they would need the mental images she gave them when they were old enough to put the mature ripper images in context. The emotions they grasped right away. Kit says she and Kobalt felt and always remembered her love for them.”
She looked at the young couple earnestly. “Showing that you love your unborn fetus and the newborn infant is one thing, and those purely emotional images are surely helpful and healthy. Nevertheless, do you want to risk passing a kaleidoscopic lifetime of images to your child before, or just after birth? With no experience or context for any of them? As Kit and Kobalt’s mother had to do for them, in a final act of desperation?” She answered her own rhetorical question with a shake of her head.
“You have both been on raids against the Krall. You’ve felt fear, seen fighting, experienced terror, deaths, and considerable violence and gore. Those are extreme images and
you’d never inflict them on your baby. However, even benign images for you might not be suitable for an infant. They have no knowledge of the wider world. How do you know what will frighten them, distort their perceptions of other people and life in general? What their boogeyman will be?
“We humans have tens of thousands of years of experience rearing our children, and we have always exposed them to the world incrementally. Were you allowed to watch the more graphic Tri-Vid news broadcasts, the violent entertainment dramas, or sexually explicit programs when small? With Mind Tap, that experience would feel far more real and frightening than when seen on Tri-Vid, which only enters their awareness through eyes and ears, not via direct mind-to-mind contact. Don’t be too quick to abandon tried and true methods simply because you can.”
They nodded, and listened. Like most young parents, Aldry knew they’d make mistakes, learn from them, and strive to correct them. At least a full Kobani could directly experience the unshielded mind of their child. A parent would know exactly what bothered them or frightened and confused them.
At least until the smart, rapid learning little demons learned they could block their thoughts, and tell mental lies with false images. Then, when they were inevitably caught at this activity, the modern equivalent of washing their mouth out with soap, or standing them in the corner would apply.
Probably, the most severe punishment imaginable to a child would be ruthlessly administered. The dreaded long lecture, delivered in a manner where tuning the parent out would not be possible. A Mind Tap could be sheer adolescent torture in that case.
Please, mom and dad. Stop. I won’t do it again. I promise!” The parents would know a kid meant that, when they thought and said those words.
“Uh…, Doc,” Rich started tentatively, “you said Kit and Kobalt’s mom probably reached her children’s minds by mental shouting while under duress.” Would Carol or I be likely to inadvertently do this when under some form of intense…, uh… feelings?” His face reddened.
Aldry didn’t need to touch his hand for a quick Mind Tap to figure this one out. “You mean sex?” She smiled at his discomfort, and then chuckled at Carol’s shocked realization of the subject he’d just brought up.
“Well, yea... Last night we…, uh, you know.”
Aldry pretended to look shocked. “My goodness, your neighbors in the nearby apartments heard you two? Didn’t you display any restraint or discretion?”
Carol slugged her husband’s arm. “You made it sound like we did something in public!”
She looked at Aldry, red faced. “It was passionate, but very private. We’d never disturb our neighbors.”
Aldry grinned. “I assumed as much. I was making a point.
“The normal tact you would use to guard your privacy is exactly the sort of mental privacy you maintain when using Mind Taps with friends, family, and of course with nosey strangers. You don’t accidentally reveal your personal and intimate thoughts to them because you wouldn’t want to do so.
“Parents have made quiet love with children in the next room, or even the same room, for as long as there have been people. You won’t warp a fragile little mind with your adult thoughts, because you wouldn’t want to do that. It won’t get past the mental privacy all of us with Mind Tap ability maintain continuously. Before birth, it won’t easily get past the placental sac to the fetus anyway.”
She grinned wickedly. “I shook hands with you both when I arrived and sensed nothing. I had no idea you were such animals.”
****
Four years later, Ryan Seeker, the human ripper, as he thought of himself, was playing in his fully enclosed compound in the backyard of his mom and dad’s settlement home. He had played all morning with Kam, the young male ripper his parents had recently adopted, only a year after they moved out of the more congested Prime City dome. They thought Ryan would bond better with Kam in a more natural setting than an enclosed dome. As if that was even in doubt. Of course, he and Kam had instantly bonded.
At age nine months, Kam had been weaned for three months, and he liked his surrogate temporary mom, but he knew she was not to be his permanent family. He was the sole survivor of his litter, and was told his wild mother had died in a rhinolo stampede when he was four months old. Aunt Beverly was nice to him, but she wouldn’t let the little orphan get out and run in the woods and plains. She had made it clear that he soon would have a permanent mother and father. An actual human family pride to join.
Playing outside was something Kam knew wild rippers a little older than himself were allowed to do. Aunt Beverly was only protecting him she said. There were bad things outside that he wasn’t ready to face. Nonsense, he was a ripper! He could face any threat.
Ryan had been begging his own mom and dad to adopt a ripper cub since he’d turned two, over a year and a half ago. One of his other kindergarten friends had a cub in her family now, and she was younger than he was! He was ready to take care of a cub!
The only outside playtime he had at home was often spent alone, at their isolated gazelle ranch. He stayed cooped up in the “baby” box that ran the seventy five foot width of their house, extending thirty feet back. Anytime his mom or dad didn’t have the time to play with him, he was placed there to watch them work on the gazelle ranch. The enclosure was made of transparent and extremely tough flexible plastic, with side vent holes too small for him to pass through. That way his mom or dad could work outside in the feedlot or near the barn and still see him. The clear plastic curved up and twenty feet overhead, to attach to the back of the house, under the edge of the second floor roof.
It was a stupid box! For babies! He was almost four, and he felt insulted, treated as if he was still a helpless infant. Their nearest neighbor’s house was a half mile away, and that single mom, “Aunt” Gretchen was always home alone (her husband had died fighting the Krall he had learned), but she had an empty-headed eighteen-month-old daughter that Ryan wasn’t allowed to Mind Tap. They knew he’d share more thoughts than her mother would want Ingrid to know about yet.
Ryan’s dad was often off planet, also involved with something to do with the fight against the Krall, doing it on different worlds. Both of his parents blocked their thoughts about what happened there. Before he was born, his mother had also fought the Krall. It was unfair. He wouldn’t cry or be frightened, not as he’d been of unknown things when he was small.
His dad came home every month or two for a couple of weeks, and then he left again. Ryan complained that there was nobody his age to play with when he was away from school on weekends. Two weeks ago, before his dad left again, he said he had a surprise coming for Ryan. The flash hints Ryan could catch came only when his mom and dad would be holding hands and smiling. He suspected they were sharing mind pictures and thoughts that they were keeping from him. He was no dummy. He would sneak up on them from behind the furniture, and suddenly reach out to touch their joined hands. He sometimes caught a glimpse of what thoughts they were sharing, and it wasn’t always boring stuff about other people, or things for the ranch or house.
A week ago, he had briefly detected some of their hidden thoughts were about him, and was about something that would make him very happy. Only they had already exchanged the images of what it was, and he missed it before they shielded their thoughts and switched the topic to something else.
When he pestered them, they shared something with him that wasn’t much of a surprise. His dad touched his hand and Mind Tapped him the supposedly great news, “I’ve instructed Sam to raise your computer access level next week, and if you stay out of arguments at school, I’ll raise it every two months.”
Ryan was naturally interested in the expanded computer interface he would be able to get from Sam, the house Artificial Intelligence, but that was only an incremental boost in what he was allowed to learn from it already, and not full access. That was nothing new.
The real secret surprise turned out to be the family addition. Two days ago, Kam came to live with them. To join th
eir family “pride” as the ripper thought of them. Now that was truly a terrific surprise. It also gave him some new mental pictures and secrets to “trade” with his school friends. His dad had shipped out again yesterday, which Ryan had decided meant he had left on a spaceship not a large cityship, like the one he’d seen on the computer network about a water world colony.
He had told Ryan, “Help look after Kam for mom, and teach him the house rules. He isn’t allowed to hunt our gazelles. I’ll take you both out to watch a ripper hunt on the savanna when I get home. In another year you both can go on a hunting trip with me.”
Ryan couldn’t wait to go hunting. Literally, he could not wait! He securely blocked those thoughts.
The new source of ripper Mind Taps had given him some glitzy images to share at school, because Kam knew about different things than did most kids, and he didn’t filter or block out anything from Ryan.
“Brother,” offered Kam on his second day in his new home, “I can share some images that could be like those you asked if I have seen.” In milliseconds of mental contact, a kaleidoscope of thoughts and pictures were transferred.
Ryan looked puzzled, but touched the cat’s neck frill and told him, “Those are funny images for sure, and I don't know what the people were doing. Anyway, I think I can trade them at school for something we both would like to know. Thanks.”
There were secret things that his school friend Sanjay bragged that he knew about, which he wouldn’t share with anyone until they had something truly snarkley to give him in trade. Now Ryan had new currency.
At school, where all of his full Kobani friends were a couple of months younger than he was, he was better than any of them were at finding out things that their teachers or parents routinely hid from them. Hidden because they were too young to know, was the preposterous claim made by the adults.
He offered to share everything new that he learned with the others, unless they had absolutely nothing to trade in return. His new images had a price. As normally the richest source of shock value information for his classmates, he was the one that decided what was most valuable to trade. He personally wanted to know things about hunting. About how to hunt the sorts of animals outside the fenced homestead compounds, about the herd animals that lived on the savannas or browsed in the small groves of trees that dotted the area.
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