Alternate Concept
"The Stakes are Raised"
Rachel
tried to ignore the cramping in her midsection and kept working her way through
the report. It was about time for her period; the cramps were a little worse
than usual, but nothing a few extra-strength Motrin couldn't handle. She opened
her desk drawer and shook a few small white pills from the large bottle
contained therein. Usually, she reserved her ibuprofen supply for Max-related
headaches, but the cramps were really starting to bother her.
She rubbed her left hand across her stomach, hoping the
drugs would kick in soon. A stronger cramp made her wince, forgetting about the
report. It's never been this bad before, she thought. She stood and felt
a slow trickle down her right leg. Damn. This is what emergency supplies are
for. She pulled a small cosmetic bag from the same drawer as the Motrin and
headed for the lavatory. A cramp that felt like someone had reached inside and
twisted her organs into a poodle brought her to her knees. Then she saw the
blood, bright red, thin, and running much faster than a menstrual flow. Oh
god…
Rachel
got back to her office, walking slowly, cramps hitting her every third step,
each one worse than the last. She activated the comm panel on her desk.
"This is Rachel Leeds. I need a medic, in my office…hurry!" She
gasped the last word before collapsing, bringing her knees up to her chest,
unmindful of the blood soaking the carpet.
A
sensation of being lifted. Something firm beneath her back. Corridors rushing
by. "She keeps losing blood."
"Here comes another one, sir." Groaning,
twisting agony.
"Take her to ultrasound." Lifting again, her
skirt, pantyhose being cut away. Rustling; a paper sheet draped over her lower
body. Something cold and thick smeared on her; the technician's glove coming
away glistening with blood. A strange sensation, cold, invasive.
"Sir, you'd better take a look at this."
"Oh my God…"
Blessed darkness.
Rachel
struggled awake from a dream of glowing green energy to find herself in a
hospital bed, monitors on her chest under the blue-and-white gown. An IV was
hooked to her left arm, slowly dripping fluids into her bloodstream. She turned
her head; even that took effort, like she was suspended in oatmeal.
"You're awake," a man in a long lab coat
observed. "I'm Doctor Simms, Ms. Leeds. Do you feel up to answering a few
questions?"
Rachel opened her mouth; a hoarse, "Yes."
"Ms. Leeds, were you aware that you were
pregnant?"
Pregnant? She just started at the doctor, mouth
open. "No," she finally whispered.
"What you experienced in your office was a fairly
violent, nearly successful miscarriage. We managed to save the embryo this
time."
This time? Rachel's groggy mind whispered.
"However, Ms. Leeds, I have to ask you this, and
please, be honest. Do you know the father of your child?"
Rachel nodded, the motion seeming to drain her of
energy. "Yes…. Josh…Max."
Doctor Simms nodded. "We're aware of Mr. McGrath's…enhancements.
It appears your…liaison with him passed along more than just a child. Upon
performing the ultrasound earlier, we discovered that the embryo contains the
same nanotechnology as the father."
Same…the max probes?
"Your body sensed the nanotechs and identified
them as foreign bodies. It tried to treat them as such; hence the cramping and
bleeding you experienced earlier. We managed to stop the miscarriage with
medications generally used for that purpose. Your IV contains medications
commonly used with transplant patients to keep their bodies from rejecting the
new organs.
"However, Ms. Leeds, there was yet another
complication. As you're well aware, the nanotechs require transphasik energy to
survive. It appears that when they passed into you, they had a small store of
energy. Under normal circumstances, it may have lasted longer than this.
However, a growing embryo requires a great deal of energy. That's why the mother
usually has an increased appetite. Only in this case, the ingestion of food is
only one thing the embryo needs.
"It also needs infusions of transphasik
energy."
The glowing green energy in my dream…it wasn't a
dream.
"We managed to use the transphasik generator to
infuse the embryo this time, but nearly lost you in the process. You may notice
you feel weaker, sluggish."
No kidding.
"While as an emergency measure, it was sufficient,
I'm afraid with the rate the nanoteks will be draining their reserves, there is
no way we can continually lower you into the generator. Growing is a draining
process, Ms. Leeds. I'm afraid we must either find a way to infuse your embryo
with transphasik energy, or we must terminate the pregnancy."
Rachel's free hand moved as quickly as she could to
cover her belly. "Find…a way," she groaned.
The doctor nodded. "I had a feeling that would be
your answer. Dr. Martinez is already working on a possible solution."
Leave it to Berto. "Thank you."
Josh
stretched as he left his history class. "Man, I swear those tests are
getting harder. Half the stuff on there he never covered in class!" he
complained to Pete.
"Yes, he did. You were just either asleep or on a
mission," Pete told him. "C'mon, it wasn't that bad."
"Easy for you to say." Josh flipped his cell
phone open to check his messages.
"Anything interesting?" Pete asked as Josh
stared, open-mouthed, at the message list.
"Pete, buddy, how long was that test?"
"About an hour, hour and a half. Why?"
Josh turned the cell phone around so Pete could see the
still-scrolling message list. "Because in sixty to ninety minutes, my
father's left me one hundred and twenty messages."
Pete whistled. "Must be important. Go save the
world; I'll catch you for a pizza when you get back."
Josh dialed his father's number at N-Tek. "Dad?
What's going on? What's with all the messages?"
"Get your butt down here pronto," Jeff
growled. "We've got something of an emergency on our hands."
"What? Dread? Psycho?"
"This is an internal matter. Just get down here,
asap." The line went dead.
Josh stared at the dead phone, snapped it shut, and
took off running towards the parking lot.
"Dad?
Dad, what's wrong? Why was Berto giving me a really strange look when I came
in?" Josh panted. He'd run up the several flights of stairs to Jeff's
office, not even bothering to turn on his disguise function. "What's the
emergency?"
"Rachel's currently in medbay, recovering from an
emergency procedure done this afternoon."
"Rachel...emergency procedure…Dad, what
happened?" Josh demanded.
"It turns out," Jeff began, teeth set,
"that Rachel is about three weeks' pregnant. While in her office, she
started to suffer a violent miscarriage. If she hadn't reached her comm panel in
time, she might have died."
"Rachel…." Josh paled, sinking into the
closest chair. "Is she okay? Can I see her?"
"Not yet. There's more. It also turns out, that
the reason her miscarriage was so violent, was because the baby…has max
probes," Jeff growled, turning to his son. "Do you have any
explanation, other than the obvious, as to how she came to be carrying a
probe-enhanced child?"
"No." Josh raised his head to meet his
father's glare.
"Josh, I raised you better than this. I raised you
to be careful!"
"Dad! Dad, it's over. There's nothing we can do
about it now. Is Rachel okay?"
"She's fine. For now. Doctor Simms told me that
the baby's probes were nearly drained; they had to use the generator to recharge
it. She's going to be shaky for a few days, but once she steadies out, she
should be okay. But, if she decides to continue with the pregnancy, they need to
find a way to administer the transphasik energy to just the baby."
"That's…." The full impact of what Jeff
said sank in. "If she decides…?"
"Doctor Simms informed me that Rachel had two
choices: terminate the pregnancy now, or…"
"I have to go." Josh was out of the room
before Jeff finished.
Rachel
heard the door open and forced her eyelids up. "Josh?" she managed.
Josh stood in the doorway, afraid to come in further.
Rachel looked so…different. His impressions of her had always been of
strength, competence, self-sufficiency and ability. But now…the hospital bed
seemed to dwarf her, the IV trailing from her arm looking like a thin, pale
snake coming from a fragile arm. Monitor wires protruded from the neck of her
hospital gown. The skin that showed was pale, translucent. She looked…breakable.
"Hey, Rache," he said, trying not to look at
the IV. "Dad called me. I would have been here sooner, but my phone was on
mute; I had a history test…"
"It's fine," she reassured him. "We're
fine, now."
"Rache…. Rachel, I'm so sorry." He sank
into the empty chair by her bedside. "This is my fault…"
A soft laugh surprised him. He looked up to see her
eyes sparkling. "I seem to remember that I was the one doing the seducing.
If you're passing around blame, I deserve my fair share. I didn't take this
possibility into account." She grimaced. "Either possibility,
actually."
"But, you could have died today, because of
my probes."
"But I didn't. And neither did our child."
"Dad says you'll need treatments to keep the
baby's probes healthy."
She managed a nod. It was getting easier by the moment.
"Berto's working on modifying a linear accelerator. It shouldn't be too
hard."
Josh swallowed. "Dad also said…he said the
doctor gave you the option of terminating the pregnancy."
"He did." Rachel moved her hand the inches
she needed to cover Josh's. "It was never an option for me. This may be
hard, but I'm willing to take the risks, the chances, whatever it takes to
deliver a healthy child. Our healthy child."
"Rache…." Josh turned his hand over,
catching Rachel's fingers between his. "Are you sure about this?"
She squeezed his fingers. "I'm sure. We're going
to be fine, Josh. All three of us."
