The White Singularity: A Choose Your Own Adventure

Chapter 23: With or Without Us

You run back to the lab, instinctively knowing how to get back even though Eco only showed you the way once.  You don't even have to ask for Atlan's help.  

When you get to the lab, the three doctors and Eco are all clustered around the two beds containing your wife and child.  There's one difference, though: they're no longer side by side.  There's now three feet of empty space between them, which means only one thing.  

"The separation was successful," you breathe.  

Mira beams.  "Yes. Come, look." 

You hesitantly walk over to her.  She does something to the panel of the second cocoon, and the contraption smoothly turns so it's now vertical.  She presses something else and with a suddenness that startles you, the entire thing becomes transparent.  

You gasp and step nearer.  Floating in a clear, womb-like receptacle is a tiny fetus, only a few inches long.  She moves slowly, as if half-asleep.  One hand rises to her face, and she starts to suck on her thumb.  You feel your eyes burning with unshed tears.

"She's beautiful," you whisper.  "Will she be okay?  Will she survive growing outside the womb?"

The Atlantean scientists glance at each other.  Again, it's Mira who speaks.  "Well, like we told you, the chances that she'll survive in the artificial womb to full-term without further modification is only 30%," she says apologetically.  "There's actually a way to increase those odds, but--"

"Mira," Cal says warningly.

"But what?" you press.  "What's the problem?  Why don't we want to increase those odds? Let's give her every chance to survive!"

Cal tugs Mira back.  "There's a huge complication associated with increasing those odds," he says.  "It might be better if we wait for your wife before you make a decision.  It's something you have to talk about before we proceed."

"In that case..." you turn to your wife's cocoon.  "Will she be waking up any time soon?"

Shein turns to your wife's cocoon.  "We can wake her up right now."  He enters several commands onto the panel, and the lid turns transparent.  As you'd expected, your wife's appearance has changed like yours has.  Her hair has turned silver, and her already beautiful features have become even more streamlined and sculpted.  Her body is now tall and athletic.  Her stomach is even flatter than it was before you found out that she was pregnant. 

You watch with bated breath as the readings of Zell's vital signs speed up, signaling the increase in her metabolism.  After a few minutes, she starts to stir.  

"Open the lid," Eco commands.  Shein complies, and the glass partition slides back.  You lean over your wife and take her hand.  After a minute, her eyes flutter open.  She sees you immediately and smiles.  She holds out a hand to you.  

"Darling.  You woke up before me."  Her other hand automatically goes to her stomach.  She gasps and looks down.  "Where's my baby?"

"Hush, she's here." You hastily pull her up so that she can see the transparent cocoon next to her.  Her brows furrow as she realizes that the tiny fetus floating in the artificial womb is your daughter.  "Why is she there?"

You step back and let the doctors explain.  It only takes them a few minutes, as with her medical background, Zell comprehends the situation even better than you do.

You watch your wife anxiously, afraid that she'll blame you for how things have turned out, and for choosing her well-being over that of your child's, but she's surprisingly calm.  

"You mentioned that there's a way to increase our daughter's odds of survival," she says to Mira, immediately zeroing in on the most important detail.  "What is it?"

"There are actually two ways," Shein interrupts.  "The first is that we let your daughter grow to term where she is.  However, as you know, the fetus while in development is in a watery environment, afloat in amniotic fluid in the womb.  She would have a better chance of survival if we applied the genetic changes that would allow her to live underwater like the marine Atlanteans. We've done this before."  

Zell takes your hand and squeezes tight.  "But if you did that, she wouldn't be able to live with us on the islands.  She'd have to stay here, under the sea."

"Yes," Shein says apologetically.

"There has to be another way."

"There is," Mira volunteers.

Cal sighs, obviously not on board with whatever this suggestion is.  Mira shoots him an uncertain glance before continuing.  "Our artificial womb works well with fetuses who are growing normally, but it doesn't do as well with accelerated growth, which is why the survival rate is only 30%.  The changes are just too fast for even our computers to keep up.  But if we implanted the fetus into a living surrogate womb..."

"But I thought a human wouldn't be able to keep up with the accelerated changes either," you say in confusion.  "I mean, that was the reason we separated the baby from Zell in the first place."

Mira clears her throat.  "I never said that the surrogate womb would belong to that of a human."

You and Zell exchange flabbergasted looks.  "Not...human?"

Shein sighs. "This is why Cal and I aren't on board with this."

"It's an experimental protocol," Mira continues uneasily.  "I'm the project director.  We implanted chimp fetuses with naturally accelerated growth into the womb of whales--who gave their consent, by the way--and modified the immune systems of the 'mothers' so they wouldn't reject the fetuses outright.  I've been able to grow the chimps to term 90% of the time."

"Have you ever tried doing this with a human fetus?" you ask, trying not to fixate on the fact that she got consent from whales. 

"No," Mira answers honestly.  "But as you know, humans and chimps are genetically 98.8% identical.  It shouldn't be too hard to modify the protocol for a human fetus."

"And this way, she can live on land?"

"Yes."

"So she'll be able to stay with us?" Zell clarifies. 

"Yes." 

Your wife turns to you. "You've gotten us this far.  I want you to decide."