The Blood Of Birth

Human beings have never needed much of a reason to dislike each other.  We form into groups based on similarities.  We have a natural distrust of those who are different.  I knew that the weakest part of my plan was having naturals and clones living side by side as equals, hurling through deep space in a mushroom shaped tin can, for seventy years. 

 

Particularly since we had recently murdered the 142 men and women on the Raptor, then threatened the Apollo crew with the same fate if they didn’t take us along.

 

I had become proficient at killing.  Now I am learning how to get along with my former enemies.  Most of them are trying to do the same.  I have come to respect Admiral Pullers.  He is a man of his word and he runs the ship quite well considering the difficult situation we have put him in. 

 

The dozen of us pregnant ladies have become close.  The differences between the three clones and nine naturals faded as our bellies began to bulge.  We are all in the same boat.  Leisl and Jerrela in particular, already mothers, have taken me and the other clones under their wing.  

 

It gives me hope to know that our children will be born in a place where no one wears a collar or has a number tattooed on their forehead.  There will be no more clones after my generation is gone.  All children will be naturals.  We will strive to move those words from our vocabulary to our history books.  On the Apollo, to survive, we must all be humans, equal to each other.

 

Not all of the naturals are as accepting as my new friends.  There are arguments and accusations.  Fights break out.  Some of the naturals refuse to make eye contact with clones.  Some are openly hostile.  The brig stays busy.  A few weeks after launch, the collar symbols began showing up on walls and doors.  We had brought graffiti to the space between the stars.

 

The hair stood on the back of my neck the first time I saw it.  Just a crude drawing, but the meaning was obvious.  As well as the letters written underneath.  CFC.  Collars for clones.  We had heard that whispered before.  We still had enemies, and they were beginning to organize.

 

Admiral Pullers did what he could.  He promised swift justice, and delivered it when appropriate.  He led by example.  He spoke constantly of the need for cooperation.  He threatened to turn on the security cameras for the entire ship, including private quarters.  The graffiti stopped after an “artist” was caught in the act and spent a month in solitary confinement.  But you cannot change what is in people’s hearts with threats of punishment.  And every person on the ship is essential.  We will not make it to Eridani if we lock up everyone who does not like us. 

 

We heard rumors of a group that called themselves CFC.  Pullers had his agents infiltrate and began monitoring their activities.  

 

It is difficult for me to focus on this.  I am seven months pregnant.  Years of weightlessness took a toll on my body.  The doctor is worried about my blood pressure and is threatening to put me on bedrest for the remainder of the pregnancy.

 

For the first time in my life I have become dependent on someone else.  I have been in love with Michael since I met him.  Now, I needed him.   

 

I realize how far off of my game I am when I have a confrontation with Lieutenant Cooley, one of the CFC leaders.  In line at the cafeteria he says, “If you get any fatter, you won’t fit into your collar.”  Before the pregnancy, he would have received a knee to the testicles and more once he was on the ground.  Instead, all I could come up with was, “I’m going to report you to the Admiral, enjoy your stay in solitary.”  The tears streaming down my cheeks did not help.  The hormones of pregnancy are undeniable.  Cooley laughed as he walked away.

 

I’ve never seen Michael lose his temper like that before.  I talked him out of a confrontation with the lieutenant.  Within an hour, Cooley had his chance to explain himself to Admiral Pullers, then began serving his time in the brig.  Justice is swift on the Apollo.

 

Pullers banned the CFC.  Anyone caught at a meeting would be demoted and serve time.  Further confrontations would not be tolerated.  That was the end of the CFC, but not the end of the problem.  There was no way he could have known.  The Admiral had triggered the law of unintended consequences. 

 

Ensign Archer had advocated violence against clones at the first CFC meeting.  Cooley told him to shut up, be patient, and do nothing beyond what he was told.  With Cooley locked up, and the CFC disbanded, Archer took the cause into his own hands.

 

When he came at me in the passageway, he had a hammer in one hand and a knife in the other.  The hammer moved faster than I did.  I heard him say “There will be no clone babies on this ship.”  Then the world went black.

 

I woke up with my wrists strapped to a hospital bed.  My brain was foggy, yet I had a sense of euphoria.  Eventually it occurred to me that I was sedated.  Then, a terrible sense of dread.  I realized I was not pregnant.  My baby was gone.  I let out a loud, involuntary wail.

 

A nurse ran into the room to calm me down.  “Saffron, it’s okay, everything is okay.  Your baby is fine.  You have a daughter.  Eve is in the nursery.  We will bring her to you.  She was born a little premature, but she is fine.  You’re the one everybody is worried about.”

 

She untied my wrists and another nurse brought Eve to me.  My baby was perfect!  But tiny.  Born two months premature, she should still be in my belly another four weeks.  I had been in a coma for a month. 

 

I had a raging headache and was seeing double.  When I tried to speak unintelligible sounds came out.  I could barely move my arms or legs.  But I was ecstatic.  I am a mother!  When Michael walked into the room, it was the first time I saw him cry.

 

At first he refused to tell me the story.  He was worried it would upset me.  Which made me angry and got me upset.  He began slowly.  As he spoke I realized why he didn’t want me to know.

 

The hammer blow fractured my skull and cheek and knocked me unconscious.  Fortunately, I screamed just before the impact.  That saved my life, and Eve’s.  When Commander Dvorsky got to the bottom of the ladder, he saw Archer kneeling over me, blood from my head on the floor, mixing with my amniotic fluid.  Archer had cut me open from sternum to pelvis with the knife.  He had his hands on Eve and was pulling her out of my belly when Dvorsky’s knee hit him in the face.

 

Jarek Dvorsky’s wife is Leisl, my friend and mentor.  He had watched his wife give birth twice before and was looking forward to meeting his third child.  What he saw in the passageway sent him into a rage.  He beat the man severely.  Archer died three days later.

 

Two of Dvorsky’s men picked me up, and a third picked up Eve, still connected to me by the umbilical cord.  They got us to the hospital.  Eve was fine.  She was already pink and breathing by the time they cut the cord.

 

I was a mess.  In the first operation, a surgeon carefully removed the shattered pieces of my skull.  That type of injury causes the brain to swell, so the wound is left open, protected by a thick bandage.  Later, after the swelling subsides, a plastic implant will replace the missing bone.  At the same time, another surgeon repaired the damage to my belly.  To minimize swelling, they kept me in a coma.  The next day, they reassembled the shattered pieces of my cheekbone. 

 

While I was in surgery, the ship was on the verge of civil war.  The clones had congregated in the cafeteria, and they wanted blood.  They wanted Michael to demand that Pullers turn over the names of all of the CFC members.  He was attempting to quiet them down when the Admiral showed up.  He asked to speak to Michael in private. 

 

They talked for a few minutes, then Michael addressed his team.  “I know all of you are upset over what happened to Saffron.  She is my wife and the mother of my child, you know how I feel.  I’m going to ask you to do something very difficult.  I’m asking you to go back to your quarters and close your door.  Stay inside for the next six hours.  I’m asking you to trust me.  Admiral Pullers has a plan and he can deal with this in a way we cannot.”

 

“Please, do this for me, for Saffron, and for Eve.”  Angry words rumbled through the crowd, but they did as he requested.  Michael went to everyone’s quarters and explained what was happening on the rest of the ship.

 

Pullers turned off all of the video cameras, and sent a squadron of trusted warriors on what he had described to Michael as a “non-standard” mission.  Over the next few hours, the triage staff at the hospital had their hands full as former CFC members began showing up on stretchers, bruised and bleeding.

 

When Michael got to this part, I laughed through the pain.  Pullers was capable of being as ruthless as I was.  And he wasn’t afraid to break the rules. 

 

Over the next few weeks, the clones sensed a shift in the emotion of the ship.  The animosity and tension were fading.  The naturals were horrified over what Archer had done.  I had been the most hated clone on the ship.  Now I was the victim of an almost unthinkable crime, in a coma, with a hole in my head.  And, I was the mother of Eve, the first human born in interstellar space.

 

For any natural whose heart and mind wasn’t changed by all this, there was the specter of further beatings.  That was enough to convince any remaining hard cases to keep their mouth shut and mind their own business.  As I began to get my strength back, and started making my way around the ship again, I felt the difference.  We had taken a step toward unity.

 

I realized I was in no condition to be a mother.  My recovery was going slowly.  I spent many difficult hours in speech and physical therapy.  It was three months before I could talk well enough to be understood.  Six months to walk without crutches.  Fortunately I had plenty of help.  Leisl, Jerrela and others pitched in with Eve.  Admiral Pullers, never married and without children, dotes on Eve like a grandfather.  And as always, Michael was there for me.

 

I thought about how far I and the other clones have come.  A few years ago, we were slaves.  I murdered my owner, and others, in cold blood.  A few months ago, we were at war.  We were ruthless killers.  Now, I change diapers and sing lullabies.  I was quite surprised, the day Eve took her first step, when it hit me.  I knew what I wanted more than anything.  I wanted more children.