Twin-Bred

by Karen A. Wyle

  Laura lay back in bed and listened to the rain, trying to rest, but her mind wasn’t ready. She kept replaying parts of Dr. Cadell’s visit. Maybe she’d imagined it, but Dr. Cadell had seemed more uncomfortable than ever as she left. Probably she was regretting having shared a secret with someone she barely knew.

  Laura would have liked to get to know her better — possibly even to become her friend. But she had the feeling it would take quite a lot of effort. Dr. Cadell was not easy to know. She probably had other priorities than befriending someone who was, after all, a test subject. And Laura would have other demands on her energy.

  But she had let herself become too isolated. Laura resolved to make more time, once she was mobile again, for getting to know the other host mothers. And of course, there was one she already knew. Veda had been a friend once. The Project might be their chance to be friends again. And perhaps, now that Veda was no longer immersed in the world of political power and intrigue, Laura could help her find other interests. She shrank from the presumptuous thought, but it was there — perhaps she could be a wholesome influence, and do her old friend some good.

  Chapter 8

  As Laura made her way through the cafeteria line, she looked around for possible lunch companions. She was pleased to see Veda and several other mothers sitting at a large table with some vacant seats. It might be easier to approach Veda with neutral parties present.

  As she carried her tray closer, she began to wonder. The conversation was no idle lunchtime chatter. This might not be the best moment for a casual restoration of contact. On the other hand, maybe something was going on that Dr. Cadell would want to know about.

  She reached the table and hovered for a moment. One of the mothers whom Laura knew slightly was holding forth with some vehemence. She looked up for a moment and gestured toward a chair. As Laura sat down, the woman resumed her tirade.

  “I couldn’t believe it! I just asked for any tips about breastfeeding, and the nurse clams up and calls the doctor in, and the doctor pulls out his tablet and punches up some ‘directive.’ Some scientist who’s probably never even touched a baby has decided that we can’t nurse the human twins, because the Tofa twins can’t nurse from human mothers and treating the twins differently would ‘introduce an unnecessary variable.’ I told the doctor that anyone who thought nursing my baby was ‘unnecessary’ had another think coming.”

  Several of the other mothers nodded vigorously or muttered agreement. Laura was intrigued to see that Veda was one of the most indignant. She would not have picked Veda as likely to nurse a baby. And indeed, Veda’s comments soon showed a different basis for her concern.

  “It’s clear these people have no idea who they’re dealing with.” (Or whom, Laura refrained from interjecting.) “Do they really expect us to let them dictate every aspect of our maternal experience, as if we were some desperate recruits they’d picked up for the sake of a roof over our heads? Don’t they realize that we include people of influence?”

  Tilda, a shy woman whom Laura had seldom heard speak, visibly gathered her courage to interject. “But they are scientists. We’re all here because of science. They must know what they’re doing.”

  Veda snorted. “My dear Tildie, there are scientists and scientists. I myself have a fairly extensive scientific background.” Laura looked sharply at her, startled. This was not information that had come her way. “I assure you that this rule of theirs is meddling and bureaucracy. And I would be delighted to tell them so.”

  Laura cleared her throat. “If you really feel that way, Veda, I think I can make it happen. And you won’t have to bother with some underling,” she added shrewdly. “You can go straight to the top.”

  Mara took Laura’s call with some foreboding. She had not heard from Laura in some time. Despite the potential value of Laura’s information, she had been just as glad. It was easier not to think about her awkward and incomplete revelations at Laura’s bedside.

  With Laura was another host mother whom Mara vaguely remembered as disagreeable and politically connected. The two were enormously and impressively pregnant. Mara suppressed the urge to ask them to sit before their standing precipitated labor.

  “Dr. Cadell?” Laura’s manner was that of someone overcoming an awkwardness of her own. “I believe you’ve met Veda Seeling. She wants to tell you about, um, a situation.”

  Veda took over. “A situation that must be redressed, and promptly too.”

  Mara listened impassively to Veda’s crisp summary of the diktat concerning breastfeeding of human infants. She realized with chagrin that the policy must have been mentioned, without catching her attention, in one of the innumerable reports she had scanned in recent weeks.

  “It’s obvious that the staff here expect us to genuflect at the word ‘science’, rather than to examine their claims.” Veda paused to catch her breath and steadied herself against a nearby desk. “So tell me, Dr. Cadell. Is the Project tasked with studying mother-infant bonding? Or comparing the responses of Tofa and human infants to nutritional formulas? Is there any pertinent question — let alone a question important enough to justify the funding this Project has received, and the political risks my father and the other Council members are taking — is there any such question that would be in any degree scientifically compromised by letting mothers nurse their babies!” She stopped and panted again. Mara caught Laura’s eye in alarm. Laura left Mara’s field of vision and returned with a chair, toward which she gently steered Veda. Veda gave a brisk nod of thanks and returned to the attack.

  “Well, Doctor?”

  Mara frowned in thought. “There could be — nursing is a powerful bonding mechanism. If the host mother bonds in this way with only one twin, there is potential for some attenuation of the twin bond. Creation and preservation of which is crucial to the Project’s mission. And you’re right — that isn’t a scientific objection, but then the Project is more than a scientific research opportunity. As I’m sure your father and his fellows would agree.”

  Veda pursed her lips. “Well, then, at least we’ve agreed on one thing. That this business of ‘unnecessary variables’ can be dispensed with.” She turned to Laura. “You’ve spent some time talking to the other mothers. How many of them would you expect to feel strongly about nursing? That is, to insist on it?”

  “It isn’t something I’ve thought about, or talked to them about. But if you want a wild guess, I’d say maybe a third of them.”

  Veda nodded, vindicated. “I’d bet money it’s less than half, in any event. Which sets up a perfect little science experiment, if anyone wants one. And by the way, I’m not planning to nurse the human twin.” Veda shuddered theatrically at the thought.

  Mara raised both eyebrows. “You’re not? Then why did you put yourself forward this way?”

  Veda gave her the look a professor might direct at an inattentive student. “My dear Dr. Cadell, it is not in my interest to sit idly by while the mothers are intimidated and bullied. We are not a set of experimental rodents. Talk of necessity — we are necessary. We are indispensable. And we will be treated as such.”

  The matter had been tentatively resolved. The mothers would be surveyed. Depending on their numbers, those who felt strongly about nursing their human infants would probably be allowed to do so. Laura and Veda headed to the mothers’ lounge to spread the news.

  Laura looked sideways at Veda. “You were very impressive back there.”

  Veda gave her an arch look and then allowed herself to grin. “I’m sorry to complicate your opinion of me. But don’t worry. You’re still allowed to think of me as shallow.”

  Laura blushed, then laughed. “That might be harder than it used to be. . . . How are you feeling? You seemed a bit uncomfortable.”

  Veda answered by stopping and clutching Laura’s arm. Laura froze. After a moment, Veda straightened up and stretched her back.

  “After we tell the others, I wonder if you’d accompany me to the hospital wing. I rather think that
things are getting started.”

  “You mean —”

  Veda patted Laura’s arm. “Don’t fret, now. But I think the Project is really underway.”

  Chapter 9

  * CONFIDENTIAL *

  CLEARANCE CLASS 3 AND ABOVE

  LEVI Status Report, 11-15-71

  Executive Summary

  Parturition

  The first group of host mothers have undergone scheduled surgical deliveries, with the exception of one delivery precipitated by the onset of labor and completed surgically ahead of schedule. All outcomes were satisfactory. One unexpected complication, involving a human fetus holding one arm of the Tofa fetus, was resolved without injury to either.

  The first set of babies were to be kept under observation in the main compound nursery for at least three weeks. Those delivered later could presumably be released in less time.

  The Tofa nurses had attempted to provide some advance instruction in the care of newborn Tofa, but the usual communication difficulties had limited the information they could convey. Now they were holding nearly nonstop demonstrations on how to hold, feed, comfort, clean.

  To the relief of their human caregivers, the Tofa infants did sleep. Most of their sleep behavior was unremarkable, but at intervals they would lie unresponsive with their eyes open and all six limbs moving lazily about. This motion did not seem to disturb the human twins; if bumped or brushed by an errant arm or leg, they would stir or murmur, and then fall back to sleep. They were similarly untroubled by the Tofa babies' sleep noises, a sort of ultrasonic snoring that could drive the more sensitive of the human adults out of the room.

  The neurologists took their measurements and found nothing in either of the Tofa sleep stages approximating REM sleep. Their educated guess was that the Tofa did not dream.

  Chief Nurse Harriet Gaho was the first to notice that the Tofa babies smelled different when they were sleeping. She summoned Mara to experience the difference for herself. First, she handed Mara an alert and squirming specimen. "Go ahead. Here — hold him between the upper and lower arms, like so. Put your nose up to his belly and take a good sniff." Mara obeyed, and narrowly escaped a punch from one of the flailing fists.

  Harriet retrieved the baby and handed him off to a junior nurse. "Now come over here." She beckoned Mara toward to a crib where another Tofa baby lay fast asleep, back to back with his human sister. Harriet raised the basket of the crib up high enough that Mara could lean in and smell the Tofa up close. They retreated on tiptoe.

  "I think I see what you mean. The first infant smelled rather like toast. The sleeping one is more like — it's a familiar smell, but I can't think what it is."

  "It's something like the smell of vinegar, but not quite — naturally. I guess you don't do a lot of cooking."

  Mara laughed. "That's an understatement. Anyway, I'll take your word for it."

  "Maybe they smell different depending on what they're doing, or what physical state they're in. Could be useful for diagnostic purposes." Harriet made a note on her tablet, then looked back at Mara. "So, Dr. Cadell. Here they are. What do you make of them?"

  Mara looked around at the sets of twins, some sleeping, some awake and signaling for one or another kind of attention; at the human and Tofa nurses bustling about. She found it difficult to speak: she was grinning too broadly.

  * CONFIDENTIAL *

  CLEARANCE CLASS 3 AND ABOVE

  LEVI Status Report, 12-1-71

  Executive Summary

  Housing for Subjects

  Where feasible, the infants are to be housed in dormitories, with frequent visits from the host mothers. This will allow uninterrupted access and greater environmental control. Those host mothers who have been accorded separate dwellings and who prefer to keep the infants in those accommodations are, for now, being allowed to do so. These situations will be periodically reexamined. . .

  Nikki glared at her father. “You can’t make me stay here! My contract only held me until they were born! And it’s horrid here. The exercise equipment is primitive. I need my personal trainer. There’s only one masseur, and he’s a clumsy, impertinent brute. And my friends won’t believe my cover story much longer, and I’ll be left out of everything. I’m coming home!”

  Councilman Simpson glared back. He had been doing it longer, and was better at it. “Home, you say? If you mean the family residence, I decide who’s welcome there, and if you leave here against my wishes, that will not include you.”

  Nikki put her head down and bawled. After a few moments, she took a quick peek up to gauge her effect, and found it disappointing. She sniffed loudly several times and sat up again. “Oh, Daddy, it’s just so hard! I miss everyone so much! I don’t have any friends here! I don’t have anybody!”

  “I suppose the children don’t enter into your calculations?”

  He was a fine one, she fumed, to talk about calculating. “You know I don’t know anything about babies. And that nanny they gave me was so annoying! And I couldn’t get any sleep with all the noise! But now that they’re in the dormitory, I hardly see them, and I have nothing to do, and I’m bored.”

  “Can’t you volunteer at something, at the compound? Where you can keep an eye on things?”

  Nikki rolled her eyes. “If you’d really been planning ahead, you would have had me taught something technical, something they’d need at that place. They don’t want me underfoot, any more than I want to be there.”

  “Nikki, you will just have to figure out some way to get the job done! I am not having you come home with nothing to show for all this. Now stop pouting and come look at what I brought you.”

  Time for a tactical retreat. Nikki sighed prettily, wiped her eyes and watched him pull the package out of his briefcase. “Oh, Daddy! It’s beautiful!” As if she had anywhere to wear it. Which she would. Nikki had her allies. Including Mrs. Councilman. She’d get home sooner than he thought.

  Tilda looked at her twins, cuddled close together in the crib. Mat-set had all four arms wrapped around Suzie. They seemed to cuddle any chance they got. Maybe they were glad to be free of separate amniotic sacs.

  She looked down at Mat-set and remembered the rumors of Tofa with five arms instead of four. She had even seen pictures, but who knew whether they were authentic. Certainly none of the Tofa Twin-Bred babies had been born with extra limbs.

  Tilda glanced over at the big dormitory clock and then back down at the babies. She gasped and staggered a step back. Mat-set was still holding Suzie with four arms. So how was he scratching his head with another one?

  Tilda looked around wildly for a chair, found one blessedly nearby, and sank down on it. She pinched herself. Nothing changed. Well, who said you couldn’t pinch yourself in a dream and keep on dreaming?

  She got up and walked, a bit unsteadily, to the intercom and buzzed for a nurse. Then she went back to the crib. Of course. Four arms, only four, and what was she going to do now?

  She decided to be brave and sensible. If she had really seen it, the staff had to know. And if she hadn’t, and she didn’t wake up, then she was ill, and she should get the help she needed.

  The chief nurse tucked Tilda in and watched her drift off to sleep, sedative patch in place. Then she went back to her station and called up the monitor footage on Tilda’s twins.

  Well, well.

  * CONFIDENTIAL *

  CLEARANCE CLASS 3 AND ABOVE

  LEVI Status Report, 12-15-71

  Executive Summary

  Anatomical Developments

  Observation of the Tofa infants has shed some light on the longstanding question of whether the number of Tofa upper appendages is variable among the Tofa population. The thickest of the four armlike appendages is apparently capable of dividing when an additional upper appendage is desired. . . .

  Councilman Kimball bookmarked the spot in his agent's report and opened his mail program. He owed an apology to the young man who had claimed his poor showing against a Tofa undesirable was due to th
e sudden appearance of an extra appendage. Apparently the man had been neither dishonest nor drunk.

  After discharging that obligation, Kimball made a note to seek further details as to the divided arms' placement, reach, and muscular potential. His people needed adequate information to prepare them for future confrontations. After all, forewarned — he laughed out loud at the thought — was forearmed.

  Chapter 10

  In their first months as mothers, Laura and Veda had found several favorite spots in which to sit and chat with the babies in tow. Today, they sat side by side on a bench in the smaller garden, soaking up the sunshine. Both their sets of twins were amusing themselves in the asymmetrical strollers the Project engineers had devised. Judy and La-ren were exploring each other’s fingers. Jimmy and Peer-tek were taking turns making funny noises. Every once in a while, one of the noises would make Judy and La-ren look up, before they returned their attention to each other.

  Veda looked from Laura to Judy and back again. “She does take after you. There’s the hair color, of course — how nice, that she has hair already! — but also something about her eyes.” She sighed quietly.

  Laura plucked a tree-seed out of Judy’s hair. “I worry sometimes that I might pay her more attention because she’s mine biologically, as well as being the human baby. I try to spend time with just La-ren as much as possible. Not that either of them is exactly vying for my company, if it means getting out of the other one’s sight!”

  “That’s very tactful of you, dear. But I do sometimes wish I’d made the decision you did.” Veda looked at Jimmy, who caught her glance, made a raspberry at her and then laughed. She turned back to Laura. “Well, I don't suppose I mean it, because that would be wishing Jimmy out of existence. He’s really rather sweet.”