Chapter 4
Chapter four
Atlas
She hates the testing that much? Atlas frowned, processing Anna’s fidgeting.
Not dislike. Fear. Had he ever felt fear from humans?
In the humans he was used to dealing with, they were bold.
There was no framework to handle a human that shrank back, acting submissive and scared.
He reached into his training, pulling out long unused bedside manners.
“Don’t worry, this should be a fun test.” He held up the clipboard he always carried. “I was going to bring you for the ultrasound. The machine is now working.”
“Oh!” Anna put her hand over her belly. “Really?”
“Yes.” He lowered his voice. “It hadn’t been used for many years, but everything was still functional once the wiring was replaced.”
Nora struggled to stand on her injured leg. “That lets us see the baby?”
He kept his focus on Anna. “Yes it does.”
“Oh yes!” Tilly jumped up and squealed. “I want to see!”
Anna bunched up the damp towels and awkwardly pushed on the table to stand. A small damp spot was left on her pants after she finished wiping. “I’m ready. Lead the way?”
Atlas’s eyes snagged on her fingers. His medical processors zoomed in. Jaundice? No. It’s only the fingertips. “Why are your hands so yellow?”
“I spilled some spices on my hand.” Anna quickly balled them in a fist. “I didn’t realize it would stain.”
“Which spice?”
Anna unfolded yellow fingers. “It started with a T.”
“Oh yes.” He blinked. “Turmeric. That would do it. Okay, follow me.”
Atlas walked ahead, entering the medical room first. The room was inadequate to fit all of them, and he had to move some more of his plants to the side. And then even more, as not only Anna came, but Simon, Nora, and Tilly as well. I forgot humans like to be together.
The equipment began warming up while Simon and Nora filed in to sit next to Tilly, who had already pulled a chair up close.
Atlas hummed as he delicately moved his cherry tree, pushing it to the side to wheel the ultrasound machine closer. “This ultrasound was easy to fix. No parts had been repurposed, thankfully.”
Anna watched his steady hands. “How old is the machine?”
“Many years. At least a hundred.” His lips tightened into a clinical smile. “We always hoped to have humans around us again one day. That’s why I think it was left to sit there for so long.”
“Oh. Well, we get to use it now.” Anna put a few strands of hair behind her ears. “Is it going to hurt?”
“Not at all.” He turned back toward Anna and held up a wand. “I need to press this to your stomach and then we can see. Can you lift your shirt a little?”
Anna shrank back, but her hands lifted her shirt anyway, showing her exposed, very pregnant midsection. She mumbled, “I feel like cookies being watched in the oven with all of you here.”
“What?” Atlas’s eyebrows pulled tight in confusion.
“That saying, right?” Anna glanced to the side. “Simon? You know. Like I’m baking something and everyone is gathered around to watch.”
“Bun in the oven.” Simon was trying not to laugh. “That’s what you’re trying to say, Anna.”
Anna squirmed in the chair. “Cookies sound better than a bun.”
“Oh.” Atlas continued frowning. Then it clicked, and he chuckled. “You’re making a joke.”
“Yeah.” Anna’s cheeks heated. “But it’s not a very good one.”
Still smiling, he focused on the monitor. Testing and analyzing were what he was made for, after all. Caring for them satisfied an itch that he sometimes didn’t know he carried. Which is why Sterling is still so hands-on I think. Maybe I’ve been missing something by keeping my distance.
But also, a part of him didn’t like that he enjoyed this.
Enjoyed doing what he was designed and created to do.
The enjoyment felt artificial as much as it was satisfying since it wasn’t always freely chosen.
Regardless, he focused, reaching for a place within himself where math and biology intersected.
With a few adjustments from the wand pressed on Anna’s stomach, ten fingers and ten perfect toes lit up the grayscale screen. He grinned wider. “There we go.”
Even Tilly was quiet, looking at the images on the screen.
“Is that real?” Anna drew a deep breath in. Silence, other than the humming of the machines, surrounded them.
“It’s real.”
“Wow. You’re really good at all of this.”
Praise? That felt unfamiliar. Atlas deflected, adjusting the view. “I’ve had lots of practice.” Then he said wryly, “And what you have in there is not cookies. Or a bun.”
The baby kicked in real time as he held the wand steady. Under thick brown hair, his hazel eyes were glued to the monitor. It’s been many years, but . . . “Do you want to know the sex?”
Anna nodded, lightning fast. “Yes.”
He moved the wand, confirming. “This baby is a female.”
A moment of shocked silence followed.
Then Nora leapt from her chair and shook Anna’s hand. “A girl. Anna! I mean a boy would be fine, but . . .”
“But this is better. Right.” Anna let out a shaky breath. “More like me than Paul.”
Quiet fell at Paul’s name. Awkward silence lingered in the room. Atlas’s hand hovered over her belly. Ah. The real genetic link. But also dead and gone.
Simon leaned closer to Anna. His voice was gruff, “What Paul wanted doesn’t matter.”
“That’s right; he doesn’t.” Nora echoed.
A touch of Atlas’s long-dormant bedside manner returned to him. “This is your baby, Anna. No one else’s.”
“You’re right.” Anna took a shaky breath. “She sure is my baby girl.”
Tilly leapt up, bouncing on her feet. The pink cast she wore on one leg thumped on the tile floor, and her face was lit up in the fluorescent lights. “Like a sister for me?”
“Not exactly.” Nora turned around to smile at her daughter before squeezing Anna’s hand. “Kind of more like a cousin.”
“No.” Anna smiled at Tilly. “You can be like a sister to her, Tilly.”
Atlas watched the exchange. Sisters. There is no genetic link there at all. Tears were still coming fast down Anna’s face.
“This little girl is gonna have a better life here than we had on Earth," Nora said. "You got a name?”
“No,” Anna said softly. “I don’t want to name her until she’s here.”
She pressed on her belly, right above where Atlas held the wand steady.
“Alright." Nora leaned over and held her hand. "I understand. I did the same thing with Tilly.”
Simon began to pepper Atlas with medical questions. He answered, but his focus stayed on Anna, who was rubbing the bruises from the blood draws up and down her arms. Her eyes were glued to the monitor. The little baby girl kicking on the screen.This must be surreal for her.
“Here.” Atlas stiffly handed Anna a tissue. “For your eyes. When we arrive on Mars we can do more detailed scans, but I’ll get the basic data now.”
Atlas kept the wand steady while starting the data transfer to Sterling. The copies would also be available to the technical scientists studying how humans had changed since they last studied them, but Sterling preferred to focus on the measurements that mattered: Anna and the baby’s health.
Anna rubbed tears on her cheeks. Her breath caught, and she let out a small laugh. “This is crazy to see.”
Tilly came forward until she was right underneath the screen, her cast awkwardly banging into his plants. She pointed to the drawing on the wall, the drawing she had made that Atlas couldn’t bring himself to throw away. “You kept the picture I made!”
“Yes. It was a gift.” Atlas’s eyes softened, watching Tilly try to come closer to the ultrasound screen.
Atlas watched them all a minute. In the past, mothers were happy finding out about their babies.
He had given hundreds, hundreds of ultrasounds.
He remembered them vividly. They were one of the moments where the barrier between man and machine was lowered.
Pain did that, sometimes. And joy. And now, one hundred and fifty years after the war on Earth, with humans so far in the past, he smiled.
“Do you want to find the baby’s heartbeat? ”
Tilly’s eyes lit up. “Yeah!”
Simon’s green eyes scanned the screen intently. “Do we know exactly how far along Anna is?”
Atlas positioned Tilly’s hand on the wand, gliding it over Anna’s belly. At the bottom of the screen, he pointed to the measurements. “Anna is just a little over seven months, like we thought. Hold it right there, Tilly.”
A whooshing noise filled the room. Tilly pointed at the monitor. “There it is!”
The sound was lost a second later as Tilly moved her hand too fast. Atlas had already calculated, though. Heartbeat is steady.
“Ah. Hold on.” He chuckled. “The baby moved.”
After a readjustment, the whooshing noises filled the room again. Tilly grinned, holding steady while everyone was quiet to listen.
The door opened to the med room, making Anna jump. An android with platinum blond hair and a fixed smile walked in. Exaggerated heels clicked on the floor over a standard suit that was modeled to a golden-ratio body. Stella.
Stella walked close to the monitor, her blue eyes scanning the feed. “The ultrasound worked? How wonderful.”
“Yes!” Anna adjusted herself on the table. “We just found out she is a girl.”
“Even better!” Stella’s smile widened. “She should be more like you then.”
A beat of silence followed. Anna ducked her head.
Atlas quickly said, “This baby is her own person.”
“Yeah.” Anna forced a smile. “Atlas is right.”
“Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.” Stella turned to the monitor where the report was being transmitted. “I see this is already sending! The researchers asked for a few more blood draws as well.”
“More blood?” Anna’s voice squeaked out. “Didn’t you get enough already?”
Atlas felt a tightening around his eyes. Stella really didn’t know when to quit. “Sterling already indicated we have everything needed.”
“Yes, but. . .” Stella turned back to the monitor. “There’s more than him looking. You’ll help, right Anna?”
“. . . Of course.”
Quickly, Atlas lifted the wand, gently tugging it out of Tilly’s hands. The monitor in the room went blank. “Good job. Let’s give Anna and the baby a rest.”
“But most important, is she healthy?” Stella asked.
Atlas didn’t look at her, instead giving Anna a towel to wipe the gel on her stomach. “Very.”
The gel came off easily. Anna hurriedly pulled her shirt back down.
“And guess what?” Tilly jumped over to Stella, too close. “I’ll get to be the sister!”
"Oh." Stella took a step back and patted Tilly on the shoulder. “I’m not sure that’s how genetics work . . .”
“Sister in spirit she means.” Nora pulled Tilly back to the chairs. “Don’t crowd, Tilly.”
Anna’s voice wavered. “Stella? Did you have many babies born on Mars?”
“We did.” Heels clicked as Stella edged closer to Atlas.
“When we brought our first humans to Mars, the ones that deserved to come, many became pregnant and had children. That’s how we still have some there now.
But it’s been quite some time.” Then, with a head tilt, she added, “But this is different. See, back then we selected all the traits from genetic matches. It’s going to be a very big deal to have a new baby around that hasn’t been through that testing and selection process. Everything will be a surprise.”
Atlas glanced over to Anna. A surprise. Her baby was the first unplanned pregnancy on Mars.
Stella edged toward Atlas even further. “Isn’t that right, Atlas?”
“Yes, it is,” he answered softly. Then, under the guise of readjusting his plants, he stepped away. Stella was too close and too overbearing. Already he was on edge, remembering Zero’s mentions of their plans earlier. And now Stella was here, almost leering over Anna.
Back on Earth, before they left, Stella had been the one to welcome them on board. She’d even helped with the arrangements for Nora and the others. Now she made small talk, with a fake, practiced smile on her lips. A viper.
He pulled his eyes back to Anna, lingering on the hope on her face. Sweet and kind. Utterly defenseless. So afraid it made something in him ache.
What had changed? Why was Stella now not trusting them at all? Was her friendliness from before all faked?
The plants he moved earlier were pulled back into place, his hands fussing over the light placements above them. I’ll fix it later. He then unplugged the ultrasound monitor and rewound the cord.
Nora shifted on her seat to prop up her injured leg. “Atlas? Thank you. You’ve been so helpful. Not just with this, but fixing Tilly’s limp, and my leg.”
Atlas started to pull the ultrasound machine back against the wall. “I’m happy to help. To be honest, it feels nice to use my medical knowledge again.”
“Thank you for fixing that machine.” Anna smiled up at him. “It means a lot to me.”
Her smile tugged at him. “It’s no problem. Congratulations, Anna.”
The group of them stood up to exit. He held out his hand to help Anna down.
“Oh, Anna!” Stella pointed at her fingers. “What is wrong with your hands?”
Anna pulled her hand back, cradling it in her other. “I spilled some turmeric. I didn’t know it would stain.”
“Ah.” Stella led them out. “Well, you really have been experimenting a ton with baking.”
“I have. It’s been so nice to do something normal for me.”
“I bet. Well, let’s get ready to rest. It’s about time to sleep.”
Soon the room was empty. Atlas stared into space himself, sinking lower on his chair. He rubbed a hand on his face. Spice and cookies. And a bun in the oven.
That was the oddest ultrasound he ever gave.
Not because of the pregnancy, that was straightforward, but because he was doing it for humans unlike any he knew before.
He finished transmitting the ultrasound findings to Sterling.
And more data on these new humans. But as he clicked on the final packet to send, he had a moment’s pause.
There was no clear consensus on how that data should be used.