A Babe is Born

Kana needed a minute to catch her breath as she began dry heaving behind her respirator. Nowadays, it felt like every time she ran she either wanted to puke, or was out of breath after only a few seconds. Kana looked down at her swollen stomach and seriously contemplated the life decisions that got her there in the first place.

The dark haired boy with brown-green eyes that was her travel companion and current lover, Adam, stood a few meters ahead of her. This was all his fault. Not really, but Kana was not feeling well, and in the moment needed someone else to blame. Everyone knows that a person can't make a baby on their own, even after a century of no babies being made naturally.

Adam came running back to where Kana stood, hunched over, and gave her one of his characteristic stupid, gorgeous, kind-hearted, genuine smiles that got her here in the first place.

Between fits of retching, Kana spoke harshly to Adam, “How am I supposed to be mad at you when you look at me like that?”

Adam let out a deep laugh as he rubbed his wife’s back, “You’re mad at me now?”

“Yeah it's your fault I’m in this mess.”

Adam laughed again, amused at Kana’s playful anger, “That’s not how I remember it happening.”

Kana sighed, “You freaking pervert. I don’t think I’m gonna make it to the hospital at this rate. I can barely walk a couple of feet before I wind up like this,” Kana gestured to herself.

“Well honey, that would easily be solved if you just let me carry you there.”

Kana was so stubborn sometimes, she knew that herself, but she really didn't think she would be able to stop herself from having her baby right there if she kept walking on her own. With a defeated exhale, Kana reached out her arms to her husband. She saw Adam's face turn from joy to intense worrying. He knew that if she had given in to his demands that the situation must have been more urgent than he thought. He scooped up his wife, and began running down the stinking, slim covered tunnels that led to the Rebellion hospital from the living quarters. The air down there was so thick with pollution that if a person from the Uptop came down there without a respirator they would only last a few minutes without becoming deathly ill.

Within minutes they had arrived, but it was long enough for both Adam and Kana to recall the first time they had met in the capitol three years before.

The tiny cafe was very close to the stadium where Kana had participated in three consecutive olympic games. This year however, she had been given the devastating news that she was too old to continue to represent New Japan in the olympic games. The news had been a hard pill to swallow, but it wasn't entirely unexpected, Kana was already the oldest on the team at the last Olympics.

No, it wasn't a surprise, but as one of the unlucky children that was never placed with an adoptive family, Kana had spent most of her life in the Nazi party's orphan development program. With no real family, the ODP focused on training children to develop skills useful to the party. At the tender age of five each of the orphans was given aptitude tests in all sorts of subjects such as math, science, history, and athletics.

After her unparalleled test scores in physical aptitude, Kana was able to try out for the Olympic development program and receive the highest level of training below being on the actual team. It wasn't until she was scouted by the National Gymnastic Foundation five years later, that Kana had anyone she thought of as family. The team and the coaches had all filled that gap for Kana, but now that was all gone and she was left alone again. Kana, who never shed a tear, began to weep.

Within a couple minutes, she saw a large shadow appeared from behind her before a big palm lightly tapped her shoulder.

She turned and was met with two beautiful hazel colored eyes. He handed her a handkerchief.

“Are you ok, miss? I saw you crying from my table over there. Can I do something to help?” said the young man in a sweet and gentle voice.

Kana suppressed her hostility as she turned to face the man. He was tall, at least 6’2” with dark, thick, wavy hair, and a solid muscular frame. He gave her a breath-taking smile, and all Kana's anger about being interrupted while she was having a moment melted away.

Kana blew her nose then answered, “I'll be ok. I just got some tough news…”

The man's eyes saddened, “I'm sorry to hear that. My name's Adam, I work over at the bookstore a few blocks from here. If you don't have anything else to do maybe it would cheer you up to come and check it out?”

Kana thought carefully before replying. This man was Lowerclass, the two of them could get in trouble if they were seen together by the police or an even more dangerous member of the SS. Kana was essentially homeless now and was feeling pretty hopeless so she thought “Screw it.”

She replied with a simple “Alright.”

Adam jogged over to the counter and pointed at Kana before scanning his wrist to pay. He jogged back. “I paid for your drink. Come on, let's go.”

Kana was surprised by the gesture. This boy was Lowerclass, he couldn't possibly have much money. Why would he waste it on a stranger?

The two hurried to Lavender Books where Adam worked. To Kana's surprise the place was not a bookstore at all. The counter at the back of the building where Adam worked was past some kind of sex dungeon, but Kana was too caught up in her own thoughts to even question it. Everyone knew places like this existed, it was just hard to believe that it was so ordinary looking on the outside.

Behind the counter, Adam was working with a quiet little man sorting through some boxes of junk. Because the music was so loud Adam took out a pen and paper and wrote down A few words, “You don't have a neurolink do you?”.

Kana wrote back, “No, why would I?”

Adam wrote back, “You're that Olympian right? The one that got all those medals in gymnastics last time? I thought maybe you would have one”.

Kana wrote in quick scribbles and Adam could tell she was getting irritated. But instead of backing off, he asked her, “Why were you crying earlier?”

Kana had a forlorn expression on her face, “They kicked me off the team because I'm too old. I have nowhere to go now. I got no housing, no job, and no skills to get one. So basically, I'm fucked.”

Adam looked sad, “Well I can help you find a job at least. I know several people that are hiring but you have to be ok with doing some Lowerclass work. What do you say?”

Kana thought for a sec and replied, “Sure I got nothing to lose anyways.”

That was the beginning of what led to the predicament Kana and Adam were in now, three years later.

At the hospital, the doctor told Kana that her baby would likely be coming anytime soon based on her symptoms and what the doctor could find in an old printed copy of a medical textbook. Kana was freaking out about the prospect of pushing out a fat headed baby, and was starting to hyperventilate. Adam gently rubbed her shoulders as she changed into a hospital gown.

Adam bent over and gave her a soft peck on the forehead, “Everything will be ok. We are in this together.”

“I'm still scared Adam. What if she doesn't like us or she isn't normal even though the doctor said she looked like a normal baby. What if she has so many genetic abnormalities she cannot survive? Or what if I bleed to death?”

Adam stroked his wife's blonde hair, “Whatever happens it will all work itself out in the end.”

About three hours later, the exhausted Kana and stressed out Adam heard their baby cry for the first time. While leafing through a paper text book, the doctor followed the instructions and cut the baby’s umbilical cord. After a quick suction of her nose and mouth as depicted in the book, the doctor laid the baby against Kana’s chest.

Suddenly, it was like the world stopped and the only thing that mattered was the beautiful brown-haired, brown-eyed child that laid close to Kana's heart.

The doctor chimed, “Congratulations. You two have just become the first real parents in over a century. Now we must make sure that this fact remains hidden from all. If the SS caught wind of this they would be here to collect her in an instant.”

It was true, if their baby got into the hands of the Nazi’s it would be experimented on, they would all be executed and tortured. Marriage and physical contact between an Upperclassmen and Lowerclassman was banned with the penalty being death. The reason for this was simple, if hybrids were created, the party could not control the traits that the offspring inherited. In a world where all babies were created in test tubes to fit into the Nazi grand plan, an unpredicted creature like a hybrid was unpredictable and terrifying.

Kana looked at Adam and her baby, “We'll do whatever it takes to keep Shion safe.”

Adam's eyes lit up as his wife used the name he had picked for his child. The three of them sat on the hospital bed together as the start of their new life as a family began.