Gia

I met Gia when I was thirteen. Thirteen was a rough time for me if I'm being frank. My parents had just divorced and my father had plucked me right out of the small town Illinois life I had been living up until that point. Suddenly I was living in California where everyone was so tech savvy and talented.

I should have fit in, after all I had made so many friends in Illinois because I had those qualities. I mean, one minute in my bedroom and that would be apparent. I had trophies, ribbons and, awards from all of the many science fairs I had won. My father had a scrapbook of all of the newspaper articles on my many achievements.

However, suddenly everyone was good with computers, everyone had those achievements. I felt like I had lost that sense of being special or unique. My father would try to cheer me up over dinner, he assured me that I was still talented.

I guess that's why I kept Gia a secret for as long as I did. I think that before graduation only two people knew about Gia, my best friend Emelia back in Illinois and my father.

"Did you really sleep in the office again last night?" Mark stood behind me and massaged my shoulders.

"You know I did!" I sipped my coffee. "Gia and I were working until 2 and I couldn't see straight anymore so I just slept on my couch."

"Boss, you know I respect your work ethic, but you need real sleep."

I spun around in my chair. "I know, I know." I wobbled as I stood up.

Mark grabbed my arm and steadied me. "Christine."

"I'm fine." I headed for the conference room door. "It's just I really need to get this coding done." I set my coffee down on my desk. "Come look."

Mark walked around my desk to look at my computer screen.

"She can now detect over 4,000 serious medical conditions." "4,000."

"That's very impressive, but you need to be in peak condition in order to code." He smiled. "Gia's very good at running on her own while you get some sleep."

"I know, I know." I shrugged. "It's just we have that big funding meeting coming up and you know we need as much research money as possible."

Mark sighed. "Yeah and it doesn't help that that article was published last week."

I stood up and stretched. "I just don't know why their attacking us." "Gia doesn't alter the eggs in any way." "All she does is sequence their DNA and detect any serious or potentially fatal medical conditions."

"You don't have to convince me." Mark scratched his stubble. "I'm the one researching all of these conditions."

"Gia can only do good." "I wish they'd think about all of the people who have already struggled with infertility and then have to worry that the eggs they produced will have genetic conditions that will make for sick children."

I slipped on my lab coat and latex gloves. I lifted the lid on the temporary storage tank where the eggs that Gia had approved were stored before they were labeled and put in one of the freezers. "Look at this." I held up a test tube. "Six eggs." "Six possible children for somebody who couldn't conceive naturally. "Six children that won't ever have cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, muscle dystrophy, brittle bones, or any other of 4,000 serious medical conditions." I put the tube back in the tank.

"Christine, this is impressive, don't let anyone tell you any different."

Suddenly I was sixteen again and I had successful created a program for Gia to sort fruits by freshness based on the amount of ethanol they were giving off. I had worked long hours on it but was reluctant to enter it in the school's STEM fair. My father had said that exact same sentence to me over dinner. He made stroganoff that night, he used to make it in Illinois to.

I didn't want to enter my program not because I thought my program wasn't any good, but because I thought it wasn't good enough to be recognized. There were kids who also had impressive projects. They could also code, they could also build robotics. Why was my project anything special?

I didn't enter that STEM fair, I wasn't ready to introduce Gia to the world yet.

I stood there on one side of our glass conference room table looking at the men and women in pressed and tailored suits looking at me, judging my every word. I realized I probably should worn a better shirt.

"So this sorting robot, General Intelligence Advancement, it can detect 4,000 medical conditions?"

"Gia?" I nodded. "Yes, in our round six code she can now detect 4,000 conditions."

"Mmmmhhmmm." A man with a navy suit rubbed his chin as he flipped through the files I had prepared for them. "And how fast can it sort these eggs?"

"She can do a batch of six in a second." I tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear nervously.

"Impressive."

"Do you think you're ready to put the robot to work in a real clinical setting?"

"If that opportunity presented itself, I would be honored to be able to use Gia to benefit real families."

"Well congratulations, Miss Crane, we would like to offer you a partnership with a  series of clinics with whom we work with very closely."

It was on that day that my dream came true.  It had been fifteen years in the making but we just scored our first real job and I couldn't be more ecstatic.

"I can't believe it either, Dad." I cried on the phone. "I'm going to be travelling to clinics all throughout the country." "They said I get a new assignment every two years."

"I'm so proud of you sweetie." "Be sure to visit me in California though." He chuckled.

"Don't worry, Dad, I will."