How babies are raised in the new era

As we continued onward, Irina suddenly began dragging me towards a lab.

"Where are we going?"

"I wanna show ya something key to human evolution Selena failed to mention," Irina said with a grin on her face.

I followed her in and soon found myself in a large warehouse-sized room filled with giant pods of liquid. There were actually a few people here, but notably most were in plain clothes with barely anyone in a lab coat or work uniform in sight.

Irina then gestured me towards a pod before asking me what I thought they were for.

"Humans?"

"Wow, you really got good intuition. Yes, this is where humans are made, or in more hip terms, where we make babies."

"Heh?"

"You know humans have evolved much, yeah, well this is one of the main reasons. All you gotta do is have two people, any two people, come up and put their hands on the panel. That allows the machine to get their DNA and use it to make a baby. Classic reproduction is also still a thing, but it takes a week unlike this which is instant. As such, many opt for reproducing this way, but I'd say classical reproduction is still far from an obscurity."

My jaw hung down as I struggled to process that, specifically THAT one line Irina had mentioned. "Uh, could you elaborate more on what you mean by ANY two people?"

"Just like it sounds. Could be me and a random guy, me and Selena, me and you-"

"No, no. Do you really mean ANY two people?"

"Uh, yeah?"

It seemed like she wouldn't get it unless I spelled it out. "So... blood relatives?"

"Yup-"

"I'm outta here."

"Huh!? You don't want to make a baby!?"

"Um, why would I?"

"Because it's easy. We just put our hands on the panel and boom, instant baby."

"And will you be the one raising it?"

"Oh no need to worry about that. Humans now only need to watch their young for about a month before they can cut them loose to live on their own."

"Wait, WHAT!? You just let a baby live on it's own after a month!? Isn't that abandonment!?"

"Nope, humans grow and mature much faster. In a month, a human can walk, talk, and do basic things. It still takes about 15 years or so for them to hit puberty, but they can live fine on their own."

"So you're saying they don't have families?"

"I guess not like in the old days. Humans are now much like other animals where once their young reach a certain age, they leave the nest so to speak and live on their own. I guess that happened in your era but here it happens after just a month instead of like... 18 to 25 years."

My heart was beginning to sink even more. Never could I have imagined humans would evolve to the point where they'd forgo family life. But maybe I'm overthinking. Yet that was quickly proven wrong as when I asked Irina how common it was for parent and child to live together after the one month, she said it was close to zero. The notable exception seemed to be people from past eras that had been revived in this era.

"So family life is a thing of the past... Sorry, but I want to leave this place."

...

As Hana turned to leave, I began to frown. I had a feeling she'd be upset by this, but since miss vixen forgot to go into detail on how humans are born and raised in this era, I felt it was best to get it over with soon. I guess I'm glad she didn't pile everything on Hana at once, as that might have made her just want to crawl under her rock and wallow in sorrow for the rest of her days. Even now, I was hesitant to show her this, but I felt that it was better to get this out of the way sooner than later.

Though I honestly didn't quite get why she got so flustered when I explained that any two people could make a baby. Well, I need to talk to her anyway.

I walked outside and found her sitting on a bench, staring at her phone. "Need more time to sit?"

"GAh!? Oh, it's just you. To be honest, I think this is the first time I've truly been depressed about something, and unlike with my phone, I don't think there's any way to fix it."

"What if I told ya how many babies I've made?"

"How many?"

"Guess."

"More than Genghis Kahn?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "For the first time, you've answered a question wrong. The real number of babies I've made... is none. In other words, I'm a virgin."

Hana stared at me skeptically, but it was the truth; I hadn't created a single baby either through the lab or through natural conception. And my reason for doing so was a mix of reasons. But to add further context, I needed to tell Hana more about myself.

"The truth is, I'm different from the others. It may be a bit difficult to notice since you've only met a small group of folks since being revived, but I'm quite different from everyone here, and a large part of it stems from my birth."

"What do you mean?"

"I was born naturally, but the catch is that while my mother was from this era, my father was from 2037, or at least that's the year he went into amberstasis."

Hana went quiet and gave me her full undivided attention.

"As such, I was raised in a traditional family setting for about 18 or so years. And in that time, my father would always take me around in order to show me all the things that wowed him when he first toured this era, yet I didn't get it. I didn't get why he was so excited when he showed it all to me, especially the things he said were reminiscent of things he experienced growing up. After all, it was just normal, right? Yet, I kept feeling this nagging sense of wanting to experience the motions he was displaying. They weren't fake or enhanced, they were genuine, yet I could never replicate them. In fact, I think I made things worse."

"What do you mean?"

"Long before you were revived, I dragged Selena on a world tour. When I showed her everything my father had showed me, all she'd do is politely smile. I could understand why, after all, I was just showing her normal things, just with a more excited tone. In fact, that was the only thing she praised, saying I should get a degree in tourism like her. I still can't believe she has one with how she is."

...

As Irina went on and on about herself, I finally began to see who she really was.

"So that's why you've been so insistent on taking me around. You've seen my bio I assume, so you probably have an idea on why I want to go to my homeland, but just because I want to go there, doesn't mean we need to get there asap. I mean, I've always been one to take the scenic route, so lets continue to do so."

...

Seeing Hana smile and extend her hand, filled me with warmth and relief. "I was afraid the evolution of human reproduction and growth would depress ya, so to hear you say that... relieves me."

"Your backstory helped."

"You know, you're really the first person I've told it to."

"I don't believe it."

"It's true, though folks like Selena know all about me thanks to my bio. I'm glad it resonated with you."

Hana simply smiled and it was back on the trail for us.