She grinned.“You are a scientist, glove up.”
He blinked.“I can?”
“Yes.Absolutely.You are a germophobe at the best of times.Glove up, baby-skin safe wipes.Goggles if you are worried about getting hosed.Make notes on skin, rashes, analyze the output content and frequency.You love your experiments, so make him an experiment.Just don’t tell Arcady.She will figure it out as you go along.”
“How do you know so much about us?”
“I used to work at the Z-Corp commissary so I could have a bland occupation while carrying your little one.It took a lot of concentration just to keep him alive.”
Kritz blinked.“How did you do it?”
“I needed to.Now I know how to keep a child of my own alive and thriving.You will understand this; your child was my experiment.”
His eyes went wide.
“Oh, and I slaughtered a dictator while pregnant.Your little guy has been part of shaping the world he will live in when he learns to walk and talk.If you tell him about the surrogacy, I will give him a scrapbook of all the things he did in utero.”
“You...”
“And in less than a year, he will start talking, and Arcady will be Mama, and you will be Dah, and he will grow teeth and drool, and you can chart every moment of his life, and when he is talking and running, you will know him inside and out, and he won’t be scary anymore.”She grinned.“He will be exhausting, but he is part you and part her, and I was just the canister he grew in.”
Kritz had tears in his eyes.“Thank you for that.”
“With kids, you have to deal with the now and prepare for the future.Once his milestones are gone, they are gone.They won’t come back.Enjoy them.Remember them.Soon you will be talking with friends and comparing how many times their babies peed in their faces.The numbers will astonish you.”She smiled.“But if I hear that you are accelerating that little guy.Horns and tail.I know you can regenerate them, but it is going to suck.”
She grinned brightly.“And I will come back and snap the horns off again until his actual age matches his development.”
He nodded.“Got it.I understand.”
“Do you?I was grown in a lab.You were working with the program when I came into the world.My growth was accelerated between the ages of birth and five so I could be more reasonable with the researchers who were trying to reproduce my mother’s skills.It.Was.Agony.My height and weight increased four hundred percent in a matter of weeks.I remember the feeling of my bones stretching.”
He looked ill.“I didn’t know.”
“I am aware.You were in tech.That is the only reason I offered myself to help.Feel free to look up my records.Diena, clone of Katta, the eternal healer.”
He blinked, and his hand went toward his com.
Zera said softly, “I have the file.You don’t have a measurable activation.”
“Yes.It is very convenient.No government wants me, but I have enough skills to be accepted in hiring binges.That is how I got here.”
He looked at the file Zera sent him and blinked.The decanting day would have made her over forty years old.“This can’t be right.”
“I moisturize.”She blew them a kiss before she returned to her table, and Eskin grinned.
Kritz asked, “Why are you grinning?”
“That’s going to be my eldest daughter.I am very proud.”
Kritz stared.“What?”
“I am dating the eternal healer.She is willing to take me on, and I am eager to let her.”Eskin smiled.
Zera said, “Your daughter will be older than you are.”
“My son isn’t.I am moving toward a family and holding on tight.The moment I saw Alody hauling that bus like it was a bag of groceries, I resigned from the program and got in the air.Aksalla’s academy welcomed me, and when I mentioned who she was, they welcomed her.”He smiled.“My mother is checking in with me daily.She wants to meet her.”
Kritz smiled slightly.“She knows about the age difference?”
