"That's the baby," maman said, and pointed. "Right there."
"Ugh." It clicked with something she had seen somewhere. Which was probably tape. It was a kind of a baby.
"Oh, yes. Ugh. All babies look that way when they're a week old. It takes them how many weeks to be born?"
"Forty and some," Ari said. She remembered that from down deep too.
"Are they all like this?"
"What's closest to eight weeks, Mary?"
"Four and five are nine," Mary said.
"That's tanks four and five, Ari. Look where they are, and we'll show youwhich one, Mary?"
"Number four, sera. Here we are."
"It's still ugly," Ari said. "Can we see a pretty one?"
"Well, let's just keep hunting."
The next was better. The next was better still. Finally the babies got so big they were too big to see all of. And they moved around. Ari was excited, really excited, because maman said they were going to birth one.
There were a lot of techs when they got around to that. Maman took firm hold of Ari's shoulders and made her stand right in front of her so she would be able to see; and told her where to look, right there, right in that tank.
"Won't it drown?" Ari asked.
"No, no, babies live in liquid, don't they? Now, right now, the inside of the tank is doing just what the inside of a person does when birth happens. It's going to push the baby right out. Like muscles, only this is all pumps. It's really going to bleed, because there's a lot of blood going in and out of the pumps and it's going to break some of the vessels in the bioplasm when it pushes like that."
"Does the baby have a cord and everything?"
"Oh, yes, babies have to have. It's a real one. Everything is real right up to the bioplasm: that's the most complicated thingit can really grow a blood system. Watch out now, see the light blink. That means the techs should get ready. Here it comes. There's its head. That's the direction babies are supposed to face."
"Sploosh!" Ari cried, and clapped her hands when it hit the tank. And stood still as it started swimming and the nasty stuff went through the water. "Ugh."
But the azi techs got it out of there, and got the cord, and it did go on moving. Ari stood up on her toes trying to see as they took it over to the counter, but Mary the azi made them stop to show her the baby making faces. It was a boy baby.
Then they washed it and powdered it and wrapped it up, and Mary held it and rocked it.
"This is GY-7688," maman said. "His name is August. He's going to be one of our security guards when he grows up. But he'll be a baby for a long time yet. When you're twelve, he'll be as old as you are now."
Ari was fascinated. They let her wash her hands and touch the baby. It waved a fist at her and kicked and she laughed out loud, it was so funny.
"Say goodbye," maman said then. "Thank Mary."
"Thank you," Ari said, and meant it. It was fun. She hoped they could come back again.
"Did you like the lab?" maman asked.
"I liked it when the baby was born."
"Ollie was born like that. He was born right in this lab."
She could not imagine Ollie tiny and funny like that. She did not want to think of Ollie like that. She wrinkled her nose and made Ollie all right in her mind again.
Grown up and handsome in his black uniform.
"Sometimes CITs are born out of the tanks," maman said. "If for some reason their mamans can't carry them. The tanks can do that. Do you know the difference between an azi and a CIT, when they're born the same way?"
That was a hard question. There were a lot of differences. Some were rules and some were the way azi were.
"What's that?" she asked maman.
"How old were you when you had tape the first time?"
"I'm six."
"That's right. And you had your first tape the day after your birthday. Didn't scare you, did it?"
"No," she said; and shook her head so her hair flew. Because she liked to do that. Maman was slow with her questions and she got bored in between.
"You know when August will have his first tape?"
"When?"
"Today. Right now. They put him in a cradle and it has a kind of a tape going, so he can hear it."
She was impressed. Jealous, even. August was a threat if he was going to be that smart.
"Why didn't I do that?"
"Because you were going to be a CIT. Because you have to learn a lot of things the old-fashioned way. Because tapes are good, but if you've got a maman or a papa to take care of you, you learn all kinds of things August won't learn until he's older. CITs get a head start in a way. Azi learn a lot about how to be good and how to do their jobs, but they're not very good at figuring out what to do with things they've never met before. CITs are good at taking care of emergencies. CITs can make up what to do. They learn that from their mamans. Tape-learning is good, but it isn't everything. That's why maman tells you to pay attention to what you see and hear. That's why you're supposed to learn from that first, so you know tape isn't as important as your own eyes and ears. If August had a maman to take him home today he'd be a CIT."
"Why can't Mary be his maman?"
"Because Mary has too many kids to take care of. She has five hundred every year. Sometimes more than that. She couldn't do all that work. So the tape has to do it. That's why azi can't have mamans. There just aren't enough to go around."
"I could take August."
"No, you couldn't. Mamans have to be grown up. I'd have to take him home, and he'd have to sleep in your bed and share your toys and have dirty diapers and cry a lot. And you'd have to share maman with him forever and ever. You can't send a baby back just because you get tired of him. Would you like to have him take half your room and maman and Nelly and Ollie have to take care of him all the time? because he'd be the baby then and he'd have to have all maman's time."
"No!" That was not a good idea. She grabbed onto maman's hand and made up her mind no baby was going to sneak in and take half of everything. Sharing with nasty friends was bad enough.
"Come on," maman said, and took her outside, in the sun, and into the garden where the fish were. Ari looked in her pants-pockets, but there was no crumb of bread or anything. Nelly had made her put on clean.
"Have you got fish-food?"
"No," maman said, and patted the rock she sat on. "Come sit by maman, Ari. Tell me what you think about the babies."
Lessons. Ari sighed and left the fish that swam up under the lilies; she squatted down on a smaller rock where she could see maman's face and leaned her elbows on her knees.
"What do you think about them?"
"They're all right."
"You know Ollie was born there."
"Is that baby going to be another Ollie?"
"You know he can't. Why?"
She screwed up her face and thought. "He's GY something and Ollie's AO. He's not even an Alpha."
"That's right. That's exactly right. You're very smart."
She liked to hear that. She fidgeted.
"You know, you were born in that room, Ari."
She heard that again in her head. And was not sure maman was not teasing her. She looked at maman, trying to figure out if it was a game. It didn't look like a game.
"Maman couldn't carry you. Maman's much too old. Maman's been on rejuv for years and years and she can't have babies anymore. But the tanks can. So she told Mary to make a special baby. And maman was there at the tank when it was birthed, and maman picked it up out of the water, and that was you, Ari."
She stared at maman. And tried to put herself in that room and in that tank, and be that baby Mary had picked up. She felt all different. She felt like she was different from herself. She did not know what to do about it.