Challenge #01111-C014: To be Good Parents

Speaking of created peoples - whether biology or technology-based - and whether they can be trusted/will rebel/will have morals/all the standard concerns:

"If we do our jobs right, our children are better people than we are." -- RecklessPrudence

The station officials had cleared out a medbay for the anxious parents. A standard Medik and a Wave of the Future Medtech stood by. Patient and implacable.

It was one thing to be first-time parents. It was an entirely different level of anxiety to be the first parents of your entire species. Rael found himself shivering as he approached the otherwise innocuous stasis box with the Wave of the Future logo prominently on it.

That box contained an unaltered, un-accelerated, untrained, infant Faiize. The first one released from the vast bank of Wave of the Future's economic hostages. Kept apart from real time by technology. Essentially frozen and waiting for its new keepers.

Shayde - currently adhered to the observation window in a mixture of excitement and anxiety - had suggested that Rael and his unexpected partially upset co-parent, Kint, name the child Mull. And subsequently dropped what she thought was a pun[1].

There were names coming from all angles. Including the one that the production computer had slammed into the paperwork. Gyurh. As if any sensible parent would agree to such a horrendous collection of letters as a name.

Rael watched in mute horror as Kint, the assigned primary parental, revised the name on the paperwork to read Mul. It was only afterwards that he could pull Kint aside to murmur, "Are you sure about that? It's a human joke..."

"It's still a good name," whispered Kint. "It means, 'careful consideration of all variables'. I looked it up."

Rael wasn't sure of anything. Kint had been made to withstand even more than Ayg, the first and perfect test specimen. Proof of concept and metaphorical poster child for the species. Rael was a proof of tolerances. Not the best his makers could do, and deliberately so.

And this thing held significant portions of both his and Kint's DNA. Essentially, and for all intents and purposes, their child.

Shayde, of course, opined that it wasn't fair. She thought getting a baby should involve some pleasingly organic way of making it. But Wave of the Future had yet to release those details. At least she was wholly willing to be a co-nurturer.

Rael put one hand on a release latch. Kint had his hand on the other.

Their free hands met.

"It's going to be all right," Kint soothed. "We can't do much worse than our makers."

"A very low bar to pass," Rael muttered. "Let's get this over with."

There should have been tears. Screaming. Some Herculean effort. Some... striving... but the locks were easy to un-latch and the infant within merely shuddered as a sign of life.

I don't even know how to hold hir... All the interface designs that meant an ease of all physical interaction had not been taught to this infant. Ze could not even comprehend the most basic of commands.

Kint let his hand liquefy and brushed his substance against Mul's surface. They did not join, but Mul rippled and cooed. And emerged from the box in a cup of Kint's own flesh.

Rael had to use a soft warming pouch, handed over by a medic. "You will not know our pain," he promised. "We will raise you in love. Gently. And let you learn and grow at your own speed."

If the baby showed any sign of understanding, it was too subtle to see. Besides, his eyes were misting up.

There were tears, after all. Happy tears.

[1] Because nobody had heard of Mull of Kint's Ire.

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