Nurture, Cliques and Green Skinned Freaks

Chapter 2

Possible Futures

The security guard notices us huddled under the table and assures us that HAM have gone. Reluctantly I take my face out of Gannon's chest, but clutch at his arm as we come out from under the table.

"They were going to attack Kristin," says Gannon gravely, placing his arm around my shoulders.

"Well you were gallant, hiding her like that, boy," says the security fellow, "are you alright Miss?"

My throat is tight, my head is spinning and my heart pounding. I want Mummy, Daddy and Pearl. But I nod and then push my hair out of my eyes. Oh no, my bottom lip's quivering and I think I'm about to cry. I don't want to cry.

"I'd better phone her mother," says the security man. I sniff and give him the number, aware that hot tears are now trickling down my face.

Pull yourself together, Kristin! "I – I think you should come to tea with us, Gannon so we can say thank you," I manage, my voice even huskier than usual.

"Ah sorry, I've got to be getting back soon," he says, giving my shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Wait, he can't leave me now, he was my rescuer… and his scent is all over me. I have unfortunately smeared my purple lipstick and eyeshadow on his shirt where I pressed my face into him…

"Then lunch tomorrow? We've got a tetra-diamond games console and a swimming pool."

"Really, I don't need a reward, I helped you because it was the right thing," he replies. "And HAM really are awful," he adds, his freckled face thoughtful.

That's admirable, but not the answer I need to hear when I'm trying to stay calm. I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself, although I feel hysteria rising up inside me. I look up so as to meet his eye. He's gorgeous, not to mention athletic… Athletic. "Daddy is a member of Queens Sports Club," I tell him.

Queens is really difficult and expensive to get into, but Daddy could get Gannon in, no trouble. So I look at him expectantly. Please don't say no!

His sky blue eyes light up. "Well what would you know? Of course I'll come."

Yes!

The security guard directs us to the reception area. There are oaken chairs laid out in a circle after an event of some sort and the golden light of the sun lamp overhead glints off Gannon's auburn hair. Baxter sidles up. I freeze. Gannon glares at him. "You had better have a mighty fine explanation for telling the HAM idiots about Kristin," he says, glaring.

"They threatened me, Gannon," he says, his voice softer somehow, more mellow than when he was saying rude things about me. "You must understand that I was never as brave as you."

"Hmm," says Gannon, "what do you think of that, Kristin?"

I remember how Daddy told me that you've got to give people the benefit of the doubt, if there is a doubt. It's something about the justice system rule.

"Innocent until proven guilty," I say, but my rasping voice trembles and I won't meet Baxter's eye.

"There you see, you called her unnatural and now you can see how good she is," says Gannon, "don't let me ever hear you comparing the hybrids to the Reaper again." Baxter slinks off and I hold Gannon's hand, feeling the warmth coming off his body. I don't trust myself to make conversation yet. I might burst into tears if I do. I can feel hot tears prickling the back of my eyes.

I hear the girls outside the reception area, their voices are crystal clear to my hybrid ears.

"You think our green friend is in some sort of trouble, Carly? Really?" says Shirley.

"You heard what the security fellow said," snaps Carly. "And if you hadn't upset her, she wouldn't have cleared off. If she's hurt, I blame you."

"Ooh he's hot!" squeaks Vanessa, as the three of them come into view in the doorway at the far end of the reception. I smile back at them.

"These are my friends," I whisper huskily in Gannon's ear.

Carly runs forward, looking rather pale.

"Hey Carly," I say. Vanessa and Shirley hang back, Vanessa ogling Gannon.

"Kristin, are you alright?" asks Carly, peering at me anxiously, "security say HAM were rampaging through the store after a green girl and that the police were summoned."

"Everything's in order Carly, I was here to see HAM off," said Gannon, smiling his perfect smile at her.

"Gannon's my hero," I say, feeling warm inside.

"I suppose Shirley was rude earlier, muttering so that only you could hear it," says Carly, "she'll want to say sorry, I'm sure."

"Was not," says Shirley, her pale cheeks flushing slightly pink.

"It was no big deal, really," I say quickly. "But we're leaving, girls. Mummy's picking Gannon and I up. Hope you have a good Sunday."

As they leave I hear Vanessa muttering at Shirley from outside the reception, "I don't think a 'monster bride' could find herself a hottie like that, do you? Honestly, you're full of nonsense."

A few moments later, my mum arrives. When she does, she looks really pale and flings her arms around me. I hug her back, taking in her familiar scent. Gosh, it's soo comforting to smell her again.

"Oh my little emerald, what would I have done…" she moans. "Bloody HAM!" she adds with a snarl.

"I love you," I reply, rubbing my cheek against hers to get her scent on me again.

Mum hugs Gannon as well. "Thank you, a thousand times, you're a young hero," she says effusively.

"Oh well," says Gannon, his freckled cheeks flushing rosy pink, "really any Briton worth his salt would have done the same…"

We sit together in the back of the aircar and it rises high above street level. I won't stare, but I keep stealing sidelong glances at Gannon, his sweet face palely lit up in the low, ultra-blue light of the car and wishing I could kiss him on his cute nose. I can't of course help drinking in his unique scent...

I don't think I've ever in my life heard a pure human say anything kind about body odour. Is it just my bio-siblings and I who can smell attractiveness? I want to make interesting small talk and impress him, but I'm just too shaken up.

"I'm hoping to be the next soccer-ball captain at Imperial this term," says Gannon, "although Baxter might get it since his dad made a donation to repair the changing rooms."

Great! Soccer-ball is not really my thing, but I can talk about it. And Gannon should definitely be captain and Baxter definitely shouldn't be. But it's mum who speaks up. "You are the one who should be your school's hero, dear, you are every bit the part," she says, smiling at him in the front mirror.

"I – I think so," I manage to rasp, but my voice is still unsteady. Mum looks at me anxiously. Oh don't let me start crying.

"Daddy's coming back as soon as he can Kristin," she says soothingly, "he's cancelled his meeting and he'll work from home tonight." Oh good. I'll sit with him while he works.

Once we've dropped Gannon off at his home and our aircar alights in our front garden, I rush upstairs to Pearl and take her in my arms.

When my maternal drive first kicked in for real, I was young enough to suppose that I might persuade my parents to agree that I could have a baby by pleading and crying. Well I've lived with strong maternal urges for years now and I can still deal with it. Of course it's still too early for me to have a real baby. I suppose they want me to finish my education and then find a husband with a heart of gold who wants a bride with a green face.

But I do know mummy and daddy want what's best for me. So many of my bio-sisters became mothers without getting married or finishing their education and I know some have struggled. Sadly I have bio-brothers who've already made more babies than they could possibly care for. I love mum and dad and want them to be happy with me.

Pearl was made with this special kind of latex that keeps my scent really well. From a distance, she actually does look like a real pink, fat baby. When I pick her up, her programming starts automatically and I've got to care for her for at least one eight hour session. Doctor's orders again. It's to impress on me that being a mum is a lot of responsibility.

"What a day, my little Pearl," I murmur as I rock her. I think of Gannon, "well, it's been a mixed day."

Pearl coos and I feel soothed. I put her bottle to her mouth. My little Pearl must be fed regularly when her programming starts. I would like to be able to sing to her, but with my voice, I'm not sure what I could sing other than maybe "The Three Ravens." So I hum to her instead. Some of Gannon's scent is transferring from me to Pearl. I gently touch Pearl's cheek to mine. When I bring her downstairs mum never questions me. She knows that it's my baby fever flaring up again.

Mum's doing gardening. It's a little hobby of hers. I sit on the bench with Pearl in my arms, to be near mum while she gardens. A three storey fudge and lemon sorbet trifle sits beside me in case I want a snack. There are about a million different scents out here. The garden teems with plant life and small animals. It doesn't matter that the sun has gone down, there's still gardening for mum to do. Some of our plants are very active at night. They are the genetically engineered and hybrid greenery. Sort of like me I suppose.

Mum is tending the argyrons which are maturing well. They'll fertilise soon. Suddenly a round agyron plant pod squirms and its glowing white seeds shoot forth and stream across the garden, then swirl around my head, before floating off, beyond the blue-grey nocturna copse.

Before long, Daddy is back and I hurry to greet him. He puts his arms around me and Pearl. My inhuman sense of smell senses the congenital defect again, creepily comparing him to someone wounded or seriously ill. But as always, I ignore it and am proud to rub my face against his to swap scents. "So glad you could come back quickly," I say, my voice trembling again. Since Daddy successfully developed a new computer chip, he's been away too much for my liking.

"I told them that my daughter's wellbeing comes first," he says and his voice soothes me.

I sit holding Pearl on the sofa in Daddy's study while Daddy works at his computer. I wish I had a superhuman ability to program instead of a superhuman sense of smell. Then I could actually follow in my dad's footsteps. He successfully marketed a special kind of chip that stores data so much more efficiently than stuff like the old petabyte chips did. He can program in all these different programming languages whereas I can get a computer to say "Hello World!" and then trying to do more complicated programs than that makes my brain implode. Daddy's working on something new again. What on Earth do fingers matter when you have a brain like that?

"Mummy told you about the boy who rescued me at Ely's?" I say.

Daddy's face lights up with approval. "A really fine lad, it's clear. It's great that he can come tomorrow."

"I want him to like me," I mumble, flicking a strand of hair away from my face. "He's super-cute and obviously has a heart of gold. He rescued me so he must care about me already. He didn't desert me when HAM appeared."

Daddy's face darkens briefly at the mention of HAM and then he looks thoughtful. "See how being friends works first, before giving any thought to romance," he says, "it sounds like this boy is a real diamond, but really building a relationship takes a long time and one cannot quickly tell if two people belong together - in the sense of man and wife."

Well Daddy's right as always. It might be a girl's dream to have a freckle-faced knight in shining armour, but I mustn't set myself up for a huge disappointment. I've got to be realistic.

"Well I would settle for being friends." I remember how my clothes shopping went. "I would like to have more friends."

Daddy points at the screen which has a lot of DNA pictures on it. "This new development facilitates mapping the entire human genome along with all possible variations," he tells me, "I won't have any presumptuous doctor saying that I know nothing about my own daughter. With the help of Genome mapping I can learn more to help you. I won't just guess in the manner of a General Practitioner."

I smile. Daddy was really cross that time a general doctor told him that he knew nothing about what I was. He said quite cutting things in return about how a general practitioner has no specialist knowledge. Daddy was always interested in DNA mapping. To begin with it was about the painful subject of his hands and the condition he inherited from his own father… but now he wants to learn more about genetics because of me. He made a chip with enough memory to store lots of different humanoid genomes.

"The doctors actually don't have a clue how long I'll live," I say chuckling, "they keep saying totally different things. Is my lifespan three times or ten times longer than a pure human's lifespan? Big difference."

"Exactly," says dad, "and they also don't really know how to help when your maternal urges make you unhappy. But we can find a way."

Comfort washes over me at these words. I'm feeling much better now. I put Pearl's bottle to her mouth. I've learned to be careful who exactly I tell things to and it's a relief I can tell Daddy whatever's on my mind.

"I want to have an amazing little person to look after, but I feel there is a physical part as well," I say as I rock Pearl, "like my body's telling me to create a life so that I can feel it growing inside me. So I get these dreams that are really vivid, that I'm actually giving birth. That I've grown a baby inside me and then actually get to hold him or her. I know I talk about this a lot, but the idea of making life is really beautiful."

I pause to think about it. If Pearl was a real baby, I know she'd have a powerful scent of her own. I sniff Pearl deeply. She only has the scents I put on her. It really does make a difference. I remember once, when I held my little bio-nephew, Jakob, in my arms and when I looked down at his little green face, his scent filled me and it was like my heart swelled and it hurt me to have to put him down. His mother is Nixie, who used to go to school with me. She accidentally became pregnant by one of my bio-brothers. Contraception doesn't work very well when our kind is involved. She was actually upset about it and said some hard things about us breeders, but she has still let me help and baby-sit sometimes.

"I know," dad says, stroking my hair, "it's really sweet to hear you talk about it."

I look at dad, making my funny face, the one we both know well. "Wouldn't you like a whole army of grandchildren under this roof?"

He laughs. "In good time," he says, stroking my hair again.

He works at the computer for a while as Pearl sleeps in my arms. I think he's writing one of those complex programs that are really a lot of small programs all put together. After some time, his face lights up and he points at the screen again.

"There, this program demonstrates all eventualities stemming from altered human genomes."

"Like everything that could possibly happen with genetically engineered DNA?" I say.

"Yes, it's comparable to the algorithm that makes hypotheses about the timeline," Daddy replies. "And different outcomes of historical events are so complex and diverse that the outcomes take a lot of computing. The main variables in the 20th century were if the totalitarians had ever succeeded in persuading others to adopt their bleak and brutal world views. Take for example the would be Russian Revolutionaries and their spurious rhetoric: 'all people are equal except for us – we should live in a palace and have the power of life and death over you all.' And in that era, there was also the potential for the eugenics movement to take on a life of its own and become a political force in its own right."

I shiver. "The whole eugenics movement was already creepy enough, without ever becoming a government," I say. "I think maybe it disturbs me more, because Genutec had ideas that were just as creepy. Please don't think about it?" I don't know how to say it, but Daddy really shouldn't think about the stupid eugenics movement. Because they and those like them would call him inferior because of his hands and that just makes me angry.

Daddy strokes my hair again. "I cannot complain fiercely about Genutec. If it weren't for them, you would never have become my daughter."

"I love you," I say, all warm and glowy inside. Some things should always be said. I rub my cheek against his to swap scents again. Sod my sense of smell, telling me he smells wrong. Sod the old eugenics movement. Daddy is perfect.

Later, when Daddy finishes work, he looks thoughtful. "I have contacted a promising young geneticist, one who helped defeat the Extremely Superior Hominid, although the news preferred to focus the cameras on young Emily. I believe he may have made important findings. His name is Leo."

"Ah, I suppose he was friends with Emily then," I say. It would be great if this Leo knows how to help a hybrid girl with maternal urges. But right now Gannon's visit fills my horizon. I can't wait till tomorrow. I'm filled with nervous excitement.

Author's Note: In this timeline there was no first world war, so the Soviets were never able to establish their dictatorship and the Nazis never came to exist at all, so cannot be referred to explicitly. But I think that possible parallel universes could be guessed at with the help of the right computer program.

The Extremely Superior Hominid can now be nicknamed "The Reaper," since the hybrids were code named "the breeders."