by Melissa Faye
“Don’t laugh!” she said in earnest. I saw the worry lines on her face and stopped. “I never gain weight. I’ve tried - you know, to up my health stats.” She nodded to her TekCast, where most people tracked their height, weight, food, and exercise.
The Health Stats program analyzed personal data over time and gave recommendations for improving one’s health. In fact, if the data dropped below an acceptable level, the person would automatically be registered for a meal plan to improve their health. Healthy people were better for the community, they said. It was a challenge for Grays and Bronzes to pay for the healthiest food, and harder for them to afford the program. The community had scholarship funds that helped pay for them.
“Ok, I’m sorry,” I said. I added “Weight Gain” to the diagnosis program. “Anything else?” Etta shook her head and looked nervously at my TekCast. She told me her height, weight, and medical history (one broken arm when she was eleven) and I added those as well. I tapped a button to see possible diagnoses.
The screen went blank for a moment. Then a box popped up in the pink-tinted rectangle projected above the TekCast: “No diagnoses.”
“That’s weird,” I said, frowning. “I’ve never actually seen that before.” Etta was looking at my face, and was frowning herself now. I had a troubling feeling in the back of my mind, like I was forgetting something very obvious. “It could be a bug in the program. Or it could be nothing.”
“Okay...”
“Don’t worry!” I said. I smiled broadly, which was a little much for me. “One thing though.”
“What?”
“Don’t go to the Med.” Etta’s eyes widened. “Trust me. I want to look into this, and I don’t want you to go through tests you don’t need. The people I work with are obsessed with getting the right diagnosis. They’d keep you there for a week before realizing that some people don’t like bananas.”
Etta smiled in relief. “Ok, I won’t go to them,” she said. “But if the symptoms don’t disappear...”
“Let me check some stuff out. Give me a few days?”
“Ok. I’m putting this in your hands, Yami. Don’t screw up.” Etta smiled sweetly, but her wrinkled forehead gave away her anxiety.
AS WE WALKED BACK TO the commune, I wracked my brain for any hint of the information I knew I was missing. I thought back to illnesses we had cured years ago. It’s not measles. It’s not diabetes. It’s not polio. It’s not hepatitis.
With a groan, I realized who would have the information I needed. Etta eyed me suspiciously when she saw which floor I was getting off on. I walked to the apartment and knocked on the door. I heard him inside, surprisingly glad he was home.
“Yami!” said Ben. He wore his TekCast and insignia. Most people took them off at home. Ben was particularly proud of being Gold. “This is interesting. Why are you here?”
“I need your help.” I saw Ben’s face light up. “I mean, I need to borrow a book.”
Books were a rarity in Young Woods. Most relevant information was available in our TekCasts, particularly for Golds. Still, some books weren’t pre-loaded if they weren’t deemed important enough for citizens. People who had copies of those books treasured and flaunted them. It was seen as a sign of intelligence and wealth to have a bookcase with even a handful of books. I kept a few at my place, but they were all medical texts with detailed information I needed to look at while reading related information on my TekCast. The side-by-side text display was annoying to use, and sometimes analog was better.
Ben backed away from the door and gestured for me to come in. The place was all too familiar to me; I had spent many evenings there over the last year. Ben’s obsession with facts and history meant he valued information and learning over cleaning and cooking. It wouldn’t be a pain except for the arrogance that came with it. Plus, his place was disgusting. There were always a pile of dishes in the sink, half-eaten protein packs on the tables, books strewn around the couch and bed, and dirty clothes on the bedroom floor. I stepped inside, skirting over to avoid a plate laying on the floor right in front of the door.
“What book do you need, babe?” I knew Ben had said it to push my buttons, and it worked. I had been alone with him for five seconds now and I wanted to slap him in the face.
“There was one I saw when I –“ I was about to say when I stayed over with him, but I didn’t want to reference that. “There’s one I saw one time. A history of medicine? A history of science and disease? Something like that.”
“Oh, yes,” said Ben. He expertly hopped around the mess in the room towards a pile of books on a side table. He read through the spines then handed me a particularly thick one. A History of Modern Medicine 2000-Present. “Is this it?”
I took the book in my hands and flipped through the pages. It did spark that memory I was trying to recover while talking with Etta.
“Yes. Can I borrow it?”
“Only if you tell me what you need it for.”
“Rain check? I mean, I’ll tell you, but only once I find what I need.”
Ben nodded, and I left in a hurry. I walked down the stairs to my own place. All the Gold interns lived in this commune until they had saved enough to buy a house in our Gold neighborhood. The rooms here were the nicest out of all the communes. We had more space, our own bathrooms and kitchens, and cleaning and sterilization technology that had only recently become available. I found it embarrassing that everything was so new in the building. I had only seen the Bronze commune once, right after career assignments, and it was nothing like ours. It was darker and flimsier. I hated to think what the Grays were left with.
Without taking my coat off, I sat on the couch and flipped through the book again. I slowed down when I didn’t immediately find what I needed. It was a half hour of mumbling under my breath before I found the right page.
It showed a picture of one woman over the course of nine months. As the pictures progressed, her stomach grew until it looked like she had swallowed a watermelon. “Pregnancy Over the Nine Month Gestation Period of a Human Embryo” it said. I flipped to the previous page, where a table outlined the symptoms a woman went through over the course of her pregnancy.
It was exactly what I had been thinking of in the park but couldn’t remember. First trimester: food aversions. Morning sickness. Second trimester: Weight gain.
The diagnosis tool wouldn’t have been programmed to diagnose pregnancy. After all, no one had gotten pregnant since the twenty-second century. And if what Alexis said was true, no one was even working to find a solution to the fertility crisis anymore. Yet somehow, Etta was pregnant. I lay back on the couch and closed my eyes. What would it mean for someone in the community to be pregnant? What would it mean if the government wasn’t trying to help women get pregnant anymore? How would Etta and Breck be safe when they had accomplished something the government no longer wanted?
I looked at my hands. They were shaking. I couldn’t keep this to myself; I had to tell Etta right away. In person. I took a few deep breaths as I put the book into a bag, slipped the TekCast over my insignia, and walked up to Etta’s place. I knocked and opened the unlocked door, walking right inside.
“Yami!” Breck said, greeting me with a hug. “I haven’t seen you since...I’m sorry about that. I was pushing too hard.”
“No problem,” I said. I brushed past Breck and found Etta in the living room changing out of her sneakers.
“Yami?”
“Etta, I figured out what’s happening,” I said. “Breck, you need to hear this too.”
I heard footsteps in the other room. Ben popped his head out of the kitchen and smiled wickedly when he saw me. “Twice in an hour, Yami!” I pushed ahead. I had, after all, promised to let him know why I had borrowed the book. He came and sat on the floor by the coffee table where I had set down his book.
I pulled it open to the page I had dog-eared – an unacceptable action according to stuck-up book collectors. Etta, Breck, and Ben stared at the pictures of the pregnant woma
n over time. They looked at me quizzically.
“Etta, you’re pregnant.”
Chapter Five
Breck and Etta had more questions for me than I could answer. We spent a full two hours poring over the book while they pestered me for more information that I didn’t have. We flicked on our TekCasts to see what available history texts said about pregnancy.
“The last time a pregnancy was carried to full term –“ Ben paused and looked at me for help.
“It means the baby is born and healthy.”
“Ok, the last time a pregnancy was carried to full term was 2107. That was the last one recorded, at least. After that, there were a lot of miscarriages –“ He looked at me again.
“I think that means...pregnancy but no baby.” We were getting into territory I was less familiar with. Breck and Etta were cycling through texts on their TekCasts as well, though they were doing it quietly with flushed faces.
“After 2107 there were a lot of miscarriages and stillborn-“ Ben looked at me and I shook my head.
“So after 2107, there were no more successful pregnancies. The average age grew higher and everyone was panicking.” Ben read a few sentences to himself. “Ok, that aligns with what we learned in history class...Here’s the part the Chancellor talks about. In 2110, a global crisis was declared and the countries got together to brainstorm solutions. That’s when the Canadians shared their cloning technology and everyone decided we would use cloning to replace breeding.”
“That’s what we talk about at the lab,” Etta said quietly. She had barely spoken since I told her she was pregnant. “That this is a temporary fix. That we won’t always need cloning. People celebrate it – when we’re out of jobs in the lab, it means the crisis is solved.”
“Does this mean the crisis is solved?” Breck asked, looking back and forth between us. His normally perfect blond hair was out of place from hours of scraping his scalp and running his hands through his hair. I could hear desperation in his voice.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “It’s one person. And we don’t know what they’ll do when they find out.”
“What?” Etta said, still talking at a barely audible whisper. She was leaning back on the couch, avoiding looking at the book and holding her TekCast off to her side. Instead she was mostly listening, wide-eyed, and occasionally interrupted with questions. “What would they do? This is a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Well, what if they want to study you?” Breck said. “What if they put you in a room and study you and...the baby...and you can’t work anymore? This is exactly the thing people in the F-Lab would want to jump on immediately.”
“And the Med. And it’s not just Etta, Breck. You’re both in danger.”
“But that would be unsafe for the baby,” Ben said. “They’d never do anything to hurt the first child born in hundreds of years!”
I had never told anyone what Alexis said to me on the last day I saw her. Breck worked at the F-Lab, and I was certain he didn’t know. The government was no longer searching for a way to make people fertile again. And now someone was.
“I need to tell you something,” I said, eyeing Breck carefully. “Something...someone...told me.”
I looked at Breck and Etta. I was standing over them while they sat on the couch. Ben was holding the book in his hands, rereading what I had found. Etta was curled up in the corner of a cushion with Breck leaning on her. They were looking to me for guidance.
“Breck, have you ever heard anything strange about the F-Lab?” I asked.
“Something strange? Like what? I mean, obviously we haven’t had any breakthroughs...”
“No, it’s not that. It’s the opposite.”
“What are you saying, Yami?” Etta asked.
I sighed. As soon as I told them, they were in as much danger as Alexis was. All I wanted was to keep my eyes down and keep the people around me safe. Now I couldn’t.
“The F-Lab is...fake.” Breck furrowed his brow but didn’t say anything. Etta’s eyes were wide; she couldn’t take them off me. “The government has given up on solving the crisis. They’re focused on continuing with cloning from now on. I – I don’t know what they’d do if they found out someone has actually gotten pregnant.”
“How do you know this, Yami?” Breck asked. I suspected he knew the answer.
“My mentor, Alexis. She told me before she disappeared. She said her friends knew already. No – wait.” I looked at Breck. “She said people in her group knew.”
“Do you think she meant the Underground?” he asked.
“I suppose,” I said. “She said she told some of them, and told me in case something happened to them. She said people would be upset if this gets out.”
“That’s not possible,” Ben said, looking up from the book finally. “The government hasn’t given up on anything. They would have told us.”
“Would they?” asked Etta, still shrinking down into the couch.
“Of course!” Ben exclaimed. “I work closely with the Chancellor and council. They don’t keep secrets like this. Your mentor was lying to you, Yami.”
I rubbed my eyes with my hand. “I can’t prove anything, but I know it’s true.”
“Yami, what should we do?” Etta asked. “If it’s true?”
I didn’t want to be a part of this. It was going to be just like Alexis. Etta and Breck would disappear next. Then again, if I did nothing, I would be partially to blame, wouldn’t I? What would it take to protect people I cared so much about?
“You need to stay away from the Med. Don’t tell anyone about this. We need more time to figure this out.” Etta and Breck nodded. Ben was grumbling under his breath. His nostrils flared. “This is dangerous information to have. You can’t tell anyone.”
“I have to tell them,” Breck said. He leaned forward with his chin resting on his hand.
“You don’t have to tell anyone!” I said, raising my voice. I was sick of Breck trying to take a stand. Why couldn’t he trust me and keep himself and Etta safe?
“I think I do, though,” said Breck. “I have to tell the Underground. I don’t know why they don’t know. Or maybe they do know, and they aren’t saying anything. But if this is a matter of keeping ourselves out of trouble, we need help. Yami, I can trust them.”
“This is insane!” Etta cried out from her little ball on the edge of the couch. “I’m pregnant. I can go to see a doctor, and someone will help me have a baby. I’m sorry, Yami, but I don’t think you know enough to see me through this. I don’t think anyone will hurt us.”
“No, Etta,” Breck said softly. “Yami’s right. They could run experiments on you. They could have orders to avoid breeding at all costs. Who knows? We need more help.”
I tried to picture what would happen if more people knew. If Breck told the Underground, too many people would be involved. They would tell others. Word would get out. Etta could disappear in a matter of days.
Breck must have been reading my mind. He seemed to be regaining his composure. “I know, Yami,” he said. “There’s risk in telling more people. But we need more help. And we might need resources. What do you need to get through a pregnancy?” He leaned over and put his arm around Etta. “Do you know, Yami? Does any doctor know?”
“Ben!” said Etta. “You can find out more. You have access to the Records Room.”
Ben shook his head. “No way!” He stood up as if to leave. “I’m not helping you keep this a secret. Our community leaders should know!”
Breck stood up, standing several inches taller than Ben. “Ben, come on. We need your help. This is Etta.”
Ben looked Breck in the eye for a moment, then turned away. “I will look around the Records Room. But I’m not going to keep this secret forever. The Chancellor should know. He’ll be able to take appropriate action.” I snickered at the thought. He would take action, alright. But I wouldn’t use the word appropriate. Still - Ben was a constant thorn in my side, always around when I didn’t want to see him, a
lways telling me things I didn’t care about. But he could find things that the rest of us could not.
“Breck, how do you know you can trust these friends of yours?”
“I know them, Yami...”
“Not good enough.” I rubbed my temples. Why wouldn’t they listen to me? Why couldn’t they do things my way? It still felt like this was all fantasy to them. Breck might think he knows these people, I thought, but he can’t know them well enough trust them this much. He doesn’t know what he was talking about.
“I get it, Yami. Come with me then. Meet them. See if you trust them. Then we can discuss telling them about the baby. But I’m telling them about the F-Lab. This is the kind of information they want to share with the public. People need to know what’s really going on.”
“Fine. But I don’t think I’ll be able to tell these people, Breck. My only goal right now is to keep you guys safe, and if I think there’s any chance that those people can’t be trusted...”
“Then just come with me and tell me what you think.” I felt relieved that Breck was letting me have things my way, even though I suspected he still didn’t agree.
I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving Breck and Etta alone that night, so after Ben stormed off, I slept on their couch. It felt foolish – would someone come barreling in to take them away, and if so, was I going to fight them off? I lay on their couch like a watchdog, ready to attack if anyone came in, but well aware that there was nothing I could do about any of this.
ALL THROUGH WORK THE next day, I felt my breath catching. My anxiety tried to press outwards, and I did my best to keep it together. Charlie kept staring while we worked side-by-side in the lab. I repeatedly pulled my hair more tightly into a ponytail on top of my head. I had gotten up early to brush it out a bit with the hopes that it would calm itself down. Maybe my nerves would do the same.
“You look less stable than usual,” he said. His face was bright, but his forehead creased with worry. I was surprised to find myself grateful for his concern.
