Part 30 (1/2)
”Number ten's a week down.”
”Ari, can you count ten tanks down? That's nearly to the wall.”
Ari looked. And counted. She nodded.
”All right,” maman said. ”Mary, let's have a look. -Ari, Mary here is going to show you the baby inside number ten, right here on the screen.”
”Can't we look inside?”
”The light would bother the baby,” maman said. ”They're like birthday presents. You can't open them till it's the baby's birthday. All right?”
That was funny. Ari laughed and plumped herself down on the seat. And what came on the screen was a red little something.
”That's the baby,” maman said, and pointed. ”Right there.”
”Ugh.” It clicked with something she had seen somewhere. Which was probably tape. It was a kind of a baby.
”Oh, yes. Ugh. All babies look that way when they're a week old. It takes them how many weeks to be born?”
”Forty and some,” Ari said. She remembered that from down deep too.
”Are they all like this?”
”What's closest to eight weeks, Mary?”
”Four and five are nine,” Mary said.
”That's tanks four and five, Ari. Look where they are, and we'll show you-which one, Mary?”
”Number four, sera. Here we are.”
”It's still ugly,” Ari said. ”Can we see a pretty one?”
”Well, let's just keep hunting.”
The next was better. The next was better still. Finally the babies got so big they were too big to see all of. And they moved around. Ari was excited, really excited, because maman said they were going to birth one.
There were a lot of techs when they got around to that. Maman took firm hold of Ari's shoulders and made her stand right in front of her so she would be able to see; and told her where to look, right there, right in that tank.
”Won't it drown?” Ari asked.
”No, no, babies live in liquid, don't they? Now, right now, the inside of the tank is doing just what the inside of a person does when birth happens. It's going to push the baby right out. Like muscles, only this is all pumps. It's really going to bleed, because there's a lot of blood going in and out of the pumps and it's going to break some of the vessels in the bioplasm when it pushes like that.”
”Does the baby have a cord and everything?”
”Oh, yes, babies have to have. It's a real one. Everything is real right up to the bioplasm: that's the most complicated thing-it can really grow a blood system. Watch out now, see the light blink. That means the techs should get ready. Here it comes. There's its head. That's the direction babies are supposed to face.”
”Sploos.h.!.+” Ari cried, and clapped her hands when it hit the tank. And stood still as it started swimming and the nasty stuff went through the water. ”Ugh.”
But the azi techs got it out of there, and got the cord, and it did go on moving. Ari stood up on her toes trying to see as they took it over to the counter, but Mary the azi made them stop to show her the baby making faces. It was a boy baby.
Then they washed it and powdered it and wrapped it up, and Mary held it and rocked it.
”This is GY-7688,” maman said. ”His name is August. He's going to be one of our security guards when he grows up. But he'll be a baby for a long time yet. When you're twelve, he'll be as old as you are now.”
Ari was fascinated. They let her wash her hands and touch the baby. It waved a fist at her and kicked and she laughed out loud, it was so funny.
”Say goodbye,” maman said then. ”Thank Mary.”
”Thank you,” Ari said, and meant it. It was fun. She hoped they could come back again.
”Did you like the lab?” maman asked.
”I liked it when the baby was born.”
”Ollie was born like that. He was born right in this lab.”
She could not imagine Ollie tiny and funny like that. She did not want to think of Ollie like that. She wrinkled her nose and made Ollie all right in her mind again.
Grown up and handsome in his black uniform.
”Sometimes CITs are born out of the tanks,” maman said. ”If for some reason their mamans can't carry them. The tanks can do that. Do you know the difference between an azi and a CIT, when they're born the same way?”
That was a hard question. There were a lot of differences. Some were rules and some were the way azi were.
”What's that?” she asked maman.
”How old were you when you had tape the first time?”
”I'm six.”
”That's right. And you had your first tape the day after your birthday. Didn't scare you, did it?”
”No,” she said; and shook her head so her hair flew. Because she liked to do that. Maman was slow with her questions and she got bored in between.
”You know when August will have his first tape?”
”When?”
”Today. Right now. They put him in a cradle and it has a kind of a tape going, so he can hear it.”
She was impressed. Jealous, even. August was a threat if he was going to be that smart.
”Why didn't I do that?”
”Because you were going to be a CIT. Because you have to learn a lot of things the old-fas.h.i.+oned way. Because tapes are good, but if you've got a maman or a papa to take care of you, you learn all kinds of things August won't learn until he's older. CITs get a head start in a way. Azi learn a lot about how to be good and how to do their jobs, but they're not very good at figuring out what to do with things they've never met before. CITs are good at taking care of emergencies. CITs can make up what to do. They learn that from their mamans. Tape-learning is good, but it isn't everything. That's why maman tells you to pay attention to what you see and hear. That's why you're supposed to learn from that first, so you know tape isn't as important as your own eyes and ears. If August had a maman to take him home today he'd be a CIT.”
”Why can't Mary be his maman?”
”Because Mary has too many kids to take care of. She has five hundred every year. Sometimes more than that. She couldn't do all that work. So the tape has to do it. That's why azi can't have mamans. There just aren't enough to go around.”