SFS2 - Science Fiction Short Stories: 10 Science Fiction Short Stories (6 page)

This story is based on a pre-approved patent, soon we may see some advertisements related to this patent..

Place: FuturZ Kids Clinic

Time: Near future

Stephen looked at the visitor's area and confirmed that no one was watching him.

“I'm not convinced, Mary. Can we reconsider?” he asked his wife.

She looked at him silently.

“Test tube babies were used in the last century for couples were incapable of giving birth. Now though... this is a business. They're taking advantage of everyone. What I'm saying is-”

“I know what you're saying. You've already said it hundreds of times,” she replied. “I know we're both capable of having a child on our own. But you know why we have to get some other person's DNA to give birth to a baby. I've also told you that a hundred times. It's because-”

“Excuse me,” said the receptionist. “Our kid design consultant is ready for you.”

Mary smiled at the woman and she pulled Stephen into the room. A forty year old woman sat in an executive chair. An assistant stood nearby with a tablet for note taking. Mary and Stephen sat across from the well-dressed woman.

“My name is Jennifer and I'll be your kid's design consultant,” she said looking at Mary. “I checked your records and I see that you're able to give birth to a custom child. So let's design your dream kid!”

Jennifer touched corner of the glass table and it began to display images. Only now did Stephen and Mary realize that it was a large computer display that was between them and the design consultant. The screen asked:

“What gender do you prefer?”

“Male,” replied Mary.

Jennifer touched the male option and now it showed various appearance based options. Based on Mary's suggestions, Jennifer chose skin complexion, hair type, eye color and many more traits. Finally when she believed she had designed Mary's dream baby, she showed him to her in various angles as it was rendered in 3D. Mary touched emotions options to see him crying, smiling and laughing.

“Is this the design you'd like?” asked Jennifer.

Mary had some more critiques and asked if he'd have freckles. She wasn't a big fan of freckles.

“I can show you how he'll look when he's 5, 10 and 25 or any age in between.”

“Really?” asked Mary. Her face brightened as they touched the kid's age. He grew from a child to a boy and from a boy to a man.

“This is, of course, provided that he gets adequate nutrition and exercise. His weight could vary, but this is set up for an average look at him during these ages.”

“I think this is great. But perhaps we could go more similar to the actor Tom Cruise?”

Jennifer selected the appearance option again and changed the appearance. After about half an hour of customization, Mary was delighted with the kid's appearance.

“Alright, so let's customize his behavior and his attitude. I'm sure you don't want him to be angry or mean, so let's cross those out!”

“My son should become a tennis player. He should like painting as a hobby as well.”

“Both great choices,” replied Jennifer. “Is there any special characteristic that you want him to inherit from your husband?”

She looked at her husband and thought for a while before she said, “No.”

After they completed the behavior and attitude section, Jennifer once again confirmed the kid's settings and then they started to discuss price. After that, she told them about the warranty and gave them the terms and conditions agreement. The terms and condition agreement was over one-hundred pages. Stephen was surprised by the length.

“Don't worry, Stephen,” said Jennifer. “This is customary procedure for all kid design clinical labs. It is a favor to you really. It even includes 24 months warranty.”

Stephen browsed the document quickly and asked, “What does warranty mean for a kid?”

“Nowadays it's a common thing for test tube babies in medical procedures. Basically the warranty means that in case of a miscarriage or if there is some kind of accident with our process that we will help you to conceive again without an additional fee. Most only cover until the birth, but our warranty is extended as it covers after the birth until the age of two.”

“Well what-”

“When do we start the process?” asked Mary.

“It takes about a week to process the paper work. After that we will implant the child into your body. It's perfectly safe. Afterwards, we will regularly monitor your health and tell you about the growth of the baby.”

“That sounds great. Can I get a print out of what my baby will look like and his features?”

“Why not? But not a print out. We have something better.” Jennifer touched the print button on the glass display and informed them that it'd be just a few minutes. After they had returned to the waiting room and fifteen minutes had passed, the receptionist brought out the doll which looked exactly like her baby would. Mary took it and hugged it with a big grin. Her eyes shone with excitement and forgot her surroundings, pretending that she was holding her actual baby.

AFTER NINE MONTHS

Stephen waited outside the delivery room. He couldn't bear to see his wife in pain and she understood. As he stood there
, praying his words were interrupted by a baby's cry. He smiled and thought about his wife. The doctor came out and said to him, “both are going to be fine.”

When Stephen saw the child it looked exactly like the 3D printed baby toy.

Soon they knew the meaning of parenting. Days ran faster. Today was the baby's first birthday. The kid didn't even care about his birthday. He simply lay on the bed playing with an iPad, drawing something.

“He's not playing the tennis game on the iPad, all he does is draw,” said Mary.

Stephen laughed and thought to himself that the child was only one year old. She was too worried about the tennis game. The doorbell rang and broke him out of his thoughts.

A man and lady smiled and showed their ID cards to Stephen. They introduced themselves as being from
Futurz Kids clinic. Stephen recognized the woman as he had met her previously.

“Welcome,” said Stephen. “We expect Jennifer will be here also. But the birthday party doesn't start until later tonight. You've shown up a bit early.”

“This morning,” began the lady, “Jennifer noticed the birthday invitation and wanted to give the best gift she could so she checked on your baby's statistics. The problem though is that she found an issue and she asked us to come here to you.”

“What issue? What's wrong with my child?” asked Mary.

“She didn't say exactly, but she did say that it was urgent and she wanted us here with you when you spoke to her,” said the man.

Stephen dialed Jennifer's cell phone. She asked them to go with the man and the woman from the clinic back to the clinic and she'd explain there. The baby began to cry and the lady from the clinic began to soothe him.

When they were at the clinic, Jennifer greeted them and brought them into her office.

“I'm sorry. Just today we found that the baby was not designed per your requirement.”

“The appearance is exactly the same. How can that be?” asked Mary

“Is there a health issue?” asked Stephen. “Why is this urgent?”

“No. There's no health issues. It's a behavior and attitude issue only,” replied Jennifer. “It's not what you wanted.”

“Yes, perhaps I can see that. He only draws. He isn't playing the tennis game I got for him on the iPad. Is it possible to change this behavior?”

“It's not possible. The behavior is hard coded into his DNA.”

“We've paid you too much! You weren't careful. I want to change my baby's behavior. He needs to play tennis!”

Stephen calmed his wife down and turned to Jennifer.

“We're alright with how our kid turned out. The appearance is the same expected and that's more than we can ask for. We're going to go now. We don't need your service any longer.”

He walked over to the lady he had left their baby with for the meeting but their baby was nowhere to be found.

“Where is our baby? We have to go”

“Sorry Stephen,” replied Jennifer. “We can't give the baby back to you. Per our terms and conditions if anything is wrong in the baby's specification we have to help you again to get the right specifications. It's not optional.”

“What the hell are you talking about? This isn't a mobile phone or an electronic gadget that you can just replace with a warranty. We need our baby. We love him. We've lived with him and can't live without him. We don't care about the behavior specification. Either gives us our child or we will call the police and have you crooks arrested.”

“Please calm down, sir,” replied Jennifer. “Let me explain first. The terms and conditions are binding. The police and the law could not help you in this. As per our terms, we have to give you a baby per your specifications. I already informed you that any issue in the first twenty four months was covered as per our warranty. We have to give you a replacement. But before the replacement, we have to collect the wrongfully delivered item. It's on the 79
th
page.”

Mary suddenly started to cry. Stephen tried to calm her down. He called their lawyer on the phone and explained the situation and told him to arrive here urgently.

Once the lawyer arrived at the clinic, he took Stephen aside and said, “Listen, the police and the court cannot help us. I've seen these kinds of cases and maybe we might get a damage settlement, but we can't get the baby that way.”

Mary joined in the conversation and said loudly, “We don't need the money. We need our baby. I'll pay whatever it takes to get that baby back.”

The lawyer was silent for a while. “Okay. You both wait in the visitor's area. I will try to talk with a senior representative for the company. Maybe they know what happened exactly and we can get a settlement outside of any court proceedings. That's our best bet.”

The lawyer went in and talked to Jennifer and asked to meet the person who had originally ordered the baby's characteristics. Because although the baby looked like Mary and Stephen's order, the behavior and attitude had come from another person's order. Jennifer said that she couldn't share the other party's confidential information.

“While designing babies, you're using behavior from your characteristic library, right?” asked the lawyer. “So what is the problem? If both parties are ready to agree, then the problem is solved, right? Otherwise just give us the baby back. It's not a problem. Why are you so adamant about this?”

“No, this baby was built using special characteristic specifications which was provided to us from sample DNA. That's why we cannot give the baby back. It will create problems in the future. This baby must be claimed as the son of the other customer.”

The lawyer thought for a second. “Listen, I understand your point but if the other customer agrees, we can do paperwork to solve the future problem. The root cause of the problem is yours but you're not taking any steps to solve it. At least talk to the other customer on behalf of us.”

“Give me a few minutes. I will talk to them and get back to you,” replied Jennifer.

She left the room and the lawyer called Stephen and Mary in to the room. He told them, “I will definitely get the baby. If she says the customer will not give the baby I can find their contact information and I'll meet them and explain the situation. They can always make another.”

“We need the baby now though. It's time to feed him. I want to see him,” she said as tears filled her eyes. Stephen also looked distraught.

“Have patience. I will get your baby back for you permanently.”

The woman assistant came into the room and told them, “The customer wants to talk to one of you over the phone now.”All of them stood up, but the lawyer told them, “you're too emotional. I will talk to them and bring you back the news.”

After the lawyer had left the room, Mary turned towards Stephen. “I don't think we will get the baby. We need to ask for him temporarily and escape. We can leave the city. We don't need anything other than our son.”

Stephen wiped away a tear that was rolling down his cheek. “Law and order are against us. We cannot run. Our lawyer will get our child back for us. I promise.”

When the lawyer entered the room again he was alone. His face was dull. Upon seeing his face, Mary understood completely.

“Th
ey're not ready to give the baby. Let me talk to them. I will explain the pain of a mother. They must be moved by that. They will be parents or are going to be parents right? They will understand.” She started to get up and leave the room.

“Hold on, Mary. Listen. They aren't the parents. The problem isn't even that they're not ready to give up the baby. It's just that once you know the truth, you won't want him.”

“That's not true! Whatever the reason is, it makes no difference! Is it a serious health issue? That's no problem. We have insurance. I need my baby.”

The lawyer motioned to Stephen and asked him to follow him into the hallway and to talk about the fee for the visit to the clinic. Afterwards, Stephen came back into the room and spoke to Mary.