Robots of Avery Five.

Chapter 14

Koi, the star of Isaac, was shining over the planet the same way it had for seven billion years. From the front porch, Alex observed the smoking volcano as he bit on an oval fruit of yellow and purple colors. It was a flaky texture with a sweet and sour taste.

The past weeks had been the most stressful of his life, and his future was uncertain. He thought of his child growing up in fear of the many difficulties she would have to endure. A half clone would never be successful in any of the Federation planets, society ensured. The reputation of his ancestors and his predecessors would be forever smeared. Perhaps, there was a way to hide his true nature such as paying off doctors and officials of the human registry.

Alex looked down at the bite mark on his fruit. The sweet juice trickled over his hand and without a thought, he licked the area. In Avery Five, Earth, Mars, Io, or any other human settlement, his daughter was going to miss that sensation. The truth is the most stressful weeks of Alex’s life were also the happiest; and to keep it that way, he had to fight.

“If you’re going to Avery, I want to go with you.” Sadie stood beside him.

Alex turned around and threw the seed of the fruit toward the trees as he finished chewing the last bite.

“Don’t say I can’t go because I’m a girl and I’m pregnant. Kimiora’s going,” she continued. “She told me so. She’s staying on the ship. I could do that, too. If it comes down to having to read something in English, I could help with translation.”

“Sadie,” he swallowed, “I will not make you stay here. She’s safest with me.”

He pointed at her belly.

“Oh,” she went quiet.

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Everyone seemed more important than Sadie. The only reason Alex wanted to protect her was because she was a vessel for his baby. It shouldn’t have affected her the way it did, however. She was a clone of his grandmother and everything about their relationship was sick. It was all her fault for thinking about him.

“Before we leave, we should see if she’s okay,” said Alex.

“To see what it looks like?” Sadie hugged her abdomen and sat on the porch step. “I don’t wanna do that.”

“You say you haven’t felt her kicking yet, so we need to make sure—”

“You think you know everything. You think it’s going to be a girl and you think everything’s going to be okay.” She jumped back up and met him eye to eye.

“What’s with the attitude?” He opened his arms.

Since finding out about their biological misfortune, he had been avoiding that conversation. Sometimes wishing she had never told him.

“Have you thought, maybe she is not a she?” She pointed her fingers at her stomach. “Not even a he.”

“That’s ridiculous.” He put his hands on his hips. “What else would she be?”

“An it. It is a half clone and the product of,” she lowered her voice, “incest. It won't be a normal baby and then, I won’t be the only one shunned by her family, sent to Eerie, and sold into slavery.”

Alex pressed his lips together and widened his nostrils. A shadow covered his eyes, and he almost stepped over her toes. Sadie attempted to put distance between them when she backed into a column.

“Listen to me, I am not my grandfather and I am not the one who turned you in at the Federation. As long as my baby lives, she will have a father to take care of her no matter what she looks like. Whether you want to be part of her life or not, that’s your problem. Do you understand?”

As she gave him a slow nod, her mind wandered into his tapered eyes. She wanted to forget about the nightmare that kept them apart and fall into his lips forever. But it was difficult to do that when she was so angry at life.

“Good,” he stepped back. “If that’s clear, then we can go right now.”

“I’ll go change,” she whispered and sauntered into the cabin.

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Like all other buildings, they built the only hospital in Isaac out of wood. Sitting on the third floor lobby, Alexander scratched the wall disconcerted. He could only guess the trees in Isaac were as hard as steel to hold the structure.

“Sadie of Raleigh?” A dark woman in a khaki jumpsuit chanted.

Sadie stood up and Alex leaped off his chair after her. The woman grinned from ear to ear and gave both of them a tight handshake.

“Hi, I’m Annie. I’ll be performing your 4D ultrasound.”

“Oh, do you collect payment right now or at the end?” asked Alex.

“That’ll be right now, thank you,” said Annie.

Alex ran back to his chair and picked up a blue bag off the floor. He handed it to the woman, who opened it and inspected its contents.

“One standard box of saffron, forty-five sheets of cassava, and a yard of silk. Seems right to me.” The woman turned around and walked toward a small metallic window. She pushed it open and slid the back through it.

“This way, please,” she grinned even wider and pointed toward a dark room.

As they entered, the room only had three white walls with rounded corners. To their left, there was a large machine with a blue panel and buttons underneath it. Hanging in zig zag patterns, there were dozens of cameras shaped like flat discs all over the walls.

“You may stand anywhere by the hypotenuse.” The woman showed Sadie.

Alex sat behind the machine with the nurse while Sadie stood in front of the longest wall. The nurse turned on the panel, pressed a few buttons, and the discs skimmed into random patterns. In the center of the triangle, a transparent replica of Sadie’s body appeared. The woman put both hands over the panel. Every part of the scanned body swept out of view, except a large version of Sadie’s uterus.

Then, as its outer layer dissolved, a tiny human being came into view.

“You can come sit with your baby daddy now.” The nurse spoke in a high pitch as both parents dropped their jaw at the rotating bundle.

Sadie dropped on the chair and glanced at Alex to see if he was having the same reaction.

“This is strange,” said the nurse.

“How?” Sadie left her state of admiration. “I counted two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes.”

“Well, yes, but according to the scan, you are in the early stages, so he’s not supposed to develop this well. He’s supposed to have something like a tail and his face wouldn’t look so human.”

“You heard that? It’s a 'he.'” Sadie placed her hand on Alex’s arm.

“Yeah, and I can see it, too,” said Alex, smiling at the scan. 

He rotated his forearm and held her hand. Sadie’s heart beat faster, knowing that her whole little family gathered in one room. Whatever kind of family that was. It was a possibility she hadn’t explored, and it excited her. She had never loved before because no feeling compared to this one.

“I made that.” That thought kept replaying in Alex’s mind. He had been born in a golden crib and he promised himself he would do the same for those little hands and feet.

Since he could remember, his dream was to be like his father. Hammond of Singapore was always the commander. When his employees ran into trouble, he was there; when somebody needed help, he was the first one they called. And when Alex’s mother was incarcerated for owning a Bible, somehow he made the charges go away. That’s why, the moment Alex found out about Sadie’s pregnancy, he knew that was the man he wanted to become—a father.

Neither parent could hide their teeth from immense happiness, but creases appeared on the nurse’s forehead. She kept rotating the model in front of her and pressing buttons.

“Is something wrong?” asked Sadie.

“Ms. Raleigh.” The nurse shook her head. “I don’t know how your baby’s still alive. I don’t know how you are even pregnant.”

Neither Alex nor Sadie knew who had crushed the other one’s hand the hardest.

“It was appalling to hear that a clone woman could get pregnant. I thought the other nurses were pulling a prank until I saw you. So, when I turned on the ultrasound machine, I didn’t find your blood lead level of one-hundred and fifty so alarming.”

“Yes, I’m a clone. All clones have high levels of lead in our blood.”

“Ms. Raleigh, Mr. Singapore, your son’s lead level is forty. The average human should have zero to five only.”

“But is he okay? Is he feeding well?” asked Alex.

“He seems to be doing well.” She turned back around and zoomed into the baby’s spine, which showed a long black silhouette. “But there’s something else.”

“Is that supposed to look like that?”

Both parents stood up and looked closer.

“No. Normal bones are made of calcium and collagen. His bones are made out of lead and, and, and something else.”

Alex let all the air out of his lungs and rotated his head in slow motion back to the nurse.

“And you’re saying,” he swallowed, “you’re saying he’s okay.”

The nurse nodded and shrugged at the same time while Sadie held on to the ultrasound machine.

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When Alex and Sadie walked out of the hospital, they were still holding hands. Their shoulders were down and they lost their eyes into the distance. The image of their baby was stuck in their minds.

The clone girl blinked twice. The Earthian took a deep breath at the building’s gigantic red and orange garden. They stood in silence as a young couple held their toddler’s hands through large double doors.

They saw them walk between the hip length flowers of the garden, then Alex turned to Sadie and smiled. “I’m gonna be a father.”

She clung to his elbow and rested her temple on his shoulder. “Is the mother position still up for grabs?”

He lowered his head, wanting to kiss her shining, full lips for saying that. Instead, he contained himself and pecked her silver hairline. “That position’s never been vacant.”

She turned her head up and gave him a half smile.

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Red Beard kicked a door open and pushed Danielle Crowe into a room. A rectangular table laid at its center. The hunter’s cheekbone crashed onto the stone floor, making half of her face turn purple. She screamed until the big man behind her hauled her hair up and pushed her shoulders down onto a chair.

As she panted, her eyes searched for objects she could grab to hit him. In the almost empty room, there were rolls of paper on the table.

“Why am I here?” The nerves on the left side of her face pulsated in pain.

Another door opened and Kimiora pushed Yagoda’s hovering chair inside. The girl pulled the oxygen mask off and the old man patted her hand and smiled.

“Ms. Crowe.” Yagoda coughed. “We know that your people will attempt to rescue you and your two associates. We want you to contact the aircraft and tell them to abort the mission.”

“No.” Danielle’s response came without hesitation. Her chin almost merged with her neck as she avoided sniggering. It offended her they thought her stupid enough to do anything they asked.

“If we continue to refuse to listen to each other; if we will let more blood run down the streets, how will we ever reach common ground?” The old man’s eyelids drooped as he crossed his hands over his heart. “We both have the same goals in mind.”

She squinted and lifted her chin. She contemplated his hand movements and slight facial twitches. The wrinkles around his mouth and eyes made anyone respect him. The dark spots on his hands turned him wise.

“My father told me not to trust you, and he was right.”

A quick knock prompted everyone to turn their heads in the same direction. Red Beard tensed his shoulders while Kimiora plodded toward the source of the sound. She pulled the door from the frame to where only her eye could be seen.

“Alex,” she whispered.