The Expanding Universe Anthology Volume 2 by Craig Martelle

Author:Craig Martelle [Martelle, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781547142972
Published: 2017-06-14T18:30:00+00:00

***

The boy’s attachment to one of his parents—to the extent of refusing a stranger’s offer of help—struck Ethan forcefully. He couldn’t guess how that kind of attachment felt. It didn’t seem so long ago that he’d been the kid’s age, but he’d had no mother or father.

Ethan’s earliest memories were of playing with other kids at his nursery. The nursery workers had been kind. He even remembered a few of them hugging and kissing him, their eyes teary, when it was time for him to go to kindergarten. But he hadn’t developed the bonds with them that families were supposed to have. None of the caregivers had been like a mother or father to him, as far as he’d understood the role. The only person he’d had that kind of relationship with had been Dr. Crowley.

He learned about families at school, and how the Manual instructed that, as Arrival drew nearer, Gens were to be encouraged to reproduce naturally and revert to the nuclear family patterns of human societies on Earth. The transition had to happen. The technology for artificial reproduction was wearing out, and it would be decades before they would be able to manufacture replacement parts.

Like the other Gen his age and all the babies decanted throughout the flight of the Nova Fortuna, Ethan’s conception had taken place in vitro. The DNA codes of Gen ova and sperm and stored, frozen donations from Earth were carefully selected and matched to ensure maximum diversity. With a Gen population of just two thousand, inbreeding had to be avoided as much as possible. Even more dangerous was uncontrolled reproduction during the Nova Fortuna’s voyage. The ship’s enclosed habitat could not sustain a population growth greater than ten percent, or roughly the number of preserved founders they were bringing with them.

The lost boy had to have been one of the first naturally conceived. The Manual stated that the move away from artificial reproduction and toward creating families should start seven years before Arrival. Gens of reproductive age had to begin to get used to the new way of living before encountering the other stresses of colonization. Dr. Crowley had told Ethan of another reason behind the Manual’s directive: the founders’ thinking had been that Gens’ new lives would be so much harder than living aboard the Nova Fortuna that they might need something to live for.

Ethan and Lauren had talked about conceiving a child, but she’d shuddered while lying in his arms and said the idea of something growing inside her was weird. Maybe she would feel different later, she’d said.

***

A shape approached, long and low and moving fast. One of the creatures. Ethan swerved and ran away from it. For something as large as a man laid out and at least twice as wide, the thing moved quickly. He looked over his shoulder, but the life form was veering in another direction. It seemed to have given up the pursuit, presumably in favor of slower prey. Ethan’s stomach dropped as he remembered the boy.

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