"I can't believe this, this can't be true, it's a ..."
" What's wrong with my daughter, nurse? Let me see her!", Miranda asked tiredly with a hint of panic in her voice.
"There is nothing wrong with your baby Ms. Fuentes, but she is not ... 'it' is not ... a daughter. I can hardly believe my eyes but I believe you just gave birth to a healthy boy."
The nurse took a short moment to cut the umbilical cord, then after shortly lifting the baby, so that Miranda could clearly see its unmistakably male genitals, she handed the baby to Miranda.
Miranda's emotions were in turmoil. The warm feelings of holding her baby, her new born son, for the first time; feelings Miranda tried desperately to hang on to, started to slowly but steadily be pushed away by feelings of despair and confusion.
How was this possible? What would this mean for her future and that of her baby? What would this mean for the man she loved, loved in secret?
However, this happened, this could only end badly for the three of them. Or could it?
"I can see this has come as as much as s shock to you as it has to me Ms. Fuentes, congratulations on this ... miracle.I think this baby will be a blessing to you, and to this world. A new spark of hope.
Can I say that I feel privileged for having been part of this surely historic event?"
'Blessing, my foot', Miranda thought, whatever happened after this, Miranda was sure it would tear apart her life.
They would separate her from her baby, lock her up as an old school breeder. They would find and capture Juan, the love of her life. She would never see him again for sure.
"Nurse Oriana, please, don't report this, please... you don't know what the cost for me, for my son and for my life will be if you report this, please?"
Nurse Oriana looked at Miranda with confusion.
"Not report this? This is the first boy born on the planet in almost two decades miss, your baby and you, you are a new hope for the world, why would you want to keep this a secret?"
"Because of me!", a heavy male voice spoke as out of nothing, as Juan stepped from after the thick curtain he had been hiding behind all the time throughout Miranda's childbirth.
The nurse clearly was startled by the sudden appearance of a man. Like most women her age, the nurse had most likely never seen a man before except from on television.
"You have been harboring a gen-two? Things are starting to make sense to me now. I think you must be a female gen two yourself Ms. Fuentes. I can understand your reaction now Ms. Fuentes, but look at where you are living, where all of us are living here in this slum!
All three of you would live as queens, ....", the nurse glanced at Juan for a short moment, "queens and kings, ma'am, I am sure of it"
"Lonely kings and queens", Miranda spoke softly with a trembling voice.
"You would tear our family apart Ms Oriana," Juan spoke while taking two quick and large steps towards the nurse, stopping where his face was just 20 centimeters from hers, then with a cold and hard voice he spoke: "I can't allow that to happen!"
A shock went through Miranda as she heard the tone in Juna's voice, saw the look in his eyes. What was Juan doing? What was he planning to do? Was he going to hurt Oriana to protect their secret?
"Juan, no!, don't do anything foolish Juan," Miranda spoke softly but with an air of authority that instantly made the scary look that Miranda had just seen in Juan's eyes turn back to the caring and loving eyes she knew. "I am sure we can work out some arrangement to buy your silence on this, can't we nurse Oriana?"
Now the look in Juan's eyes changed once more. It was a look of disappointment and betrayal. She had just broken Juan's heart, but she might have saved nurse Oriana's life as well. He was going to hurt her, kill her, maybe. All just to protect their family. Juan knew as well as she did they had nothing to offer nurse Oriana except for ...
Nurse Oriana looked at Miranda in confusion. While Juan instantly understood Miranda's meaning, Oriana did not. Then Oriana looked at Juan standing this close to her. A muscular man with a strong jaw, an attractive man, Oriana was sure, even though the had never before met any other men to form any kind of reference, and then his smell. This man smelled like ...
At that moment Oriana understood the arrangement Miranda insinuated, she understood the look in Juan's eyes now. Miranda was offering her the sexual services of her partner in exchange for her silence.
Miranda saw by the look in nurse Oriana's eyes that she, like Juan, had understood the offer Miranda was willing to make in order to keep her family together. She also noticed from the involuntary body language of the young nurse, that she was physically getting aroused by the prospect of such an arangement as well.
Juan looked at her with puppy eyes. There was still a hint of felt betrayal in his eyes, but also of understanding now. Miranda felt guilty. She was whoring out her life partner, the father of her new born son to keep their secrets, their life, and most of all, their family safe.
Juan's eyes told Miranda he understood this was the only way. Nurse Miranda knew and understood everything, all their secrets, even the secret Miranda didn't before know that she had. The secret that her mother had kept from her all of her life.
Miranda's mom had been a gen-one, and Miranda never knew it.
When her mom was just a kid, under-tested global mandatory vaccinations were used in a successful attempt to end a devastating global pandemic. All young and adolescent girls who were vaccinated developed a hidden auto immune response to male fetuses, leading to a long-unexplained pandemic of miscarriages many years after the vaccinations. No one connected the dots back then. Small numbers of girls, the gen-one girls, had escaped vaccinations and because of that still had the capacity to conceive boys. Gen-ones were thought to be our salvation, IVF, triplets that were removed from the womb in only three months. Twelve babies a year for their whole reproductive life. Gen-one were made breeders, and that would be her faith if she was identified as a female gen-two. Male gen-two's, like Juan had become sperm producers, their sperm frozen to last generations in order to keep the human race alive. Locked up in their golden cages, a live her Juan had managed to escape from.
A female gen-three? Could she really be a female gen-three? Her mom had passed the test, she had miscarriaged the male IVF fetus, twice.
The scientists then hadn't realized that antibodies went from mother to daughter in the womb. Gen-2's were all boys because of that, lots of them, but now without gen-2 woman to carry their male offspring, gen-two's were just sperm producers filling the sperm freezers till when the last one of them would die, there would be no more men on the planet. There would no gen-three boys born, ever. Not until now that was. Not until her and her renegade gen-two lover Juan came together and created this beautiful baby.
The realization of all this hit her hard. It was as if the weight of the world was put on her shoulder, and that of her new family.
'A new spark of hope' was what nurse Oriana had said.
Was she? Were they? It was too much weight to put on her shoulders right now. All Miranda wanted right now was to be a family, maybe just for a few months.
Saving the human race could wait a few months.
If you enjoyed this short story, have a look at the other ones in the Nutridiluvian series or get a (currently free) copy of my novel Ragnarok Conspiracy.
Please note that this story is not in any way meant as an antivax message. It's fiction and is meant for entertainment only.
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