Chapter 10: Neonate

Another week passed, and Liz was approaching her due date. She had experienced some sporadic contractions over the last few days that had been a cause of some concern, but they weren’t regular enough to suggest that she was going into labor. Still, Jamie watched her like a hawk, never wanting to leave her alone for any real length of time.

They were watching a vidcast together one morning on the couch, Liz leaning back against a pillow, having complained of some lower back pain that day. Jamie thought it strange, as the weight of the babies had never caused her any such discomfort before, but he didn’t question it.

“Whoa,” Liz suddenly exclaimed, placing her hands on either side of her swollen stomach. She exhaled through gritted teeth, Jamie shutting off the show with a gesture as he turned to her.

“What is it?” he asked, “another contraction?”

“Y-yeah,” she stammered, seeming to calm down a little. “Man, that one hurt.”

“What does it feel like?” he asked.

“My muscles flex, and my stomach gets all hard, like a basketball. It’s kind of like a cramp,” she explained as she rubbed her belly. “That was a bad one...”

“Think we should call the UAS guys?” Jamie suggested.

“Nah,” she replied, waving her hand to resume their show. “It’s normal to have some contractions, doesn’t mean I’m going into labor.”

They watched for another few minutes, then Liz grunted again, Jamie’s head snapping around. She tried to double over, gripping her stomach, but its size made that impossible. Jamie began to ask her if she was alright, but she shook her head, gesturing for him to be quiet. This cramp lasted a lot longer than the previous one, Liz shutting her eyes tightly, her brow furrowed. When she finally relaxed, she was breathing hard, keeping as still as a statue as though afraid to move.

“Liz?” Jamie asked warily.

“Just ... just a bad one,” she sighed.

“The pamphlet they sent us said that if the contractions come at five-minute intervals, it might mean the time has arrived.”

“Two is a coincidence,” she grumbled, reaching back to reposition her cushion. “Three is a pattern.”

There was a trickling sound, Jamie leaning forward to see that a stream of clear liquid was pouring off the edge of the couch cushion, pooling on the floor.

“Is that a coincidence?” he asked, Liz reaching down to plug her leak as she struggled to her feet.

“Fuck!” she exclaimed. “My water just broke! Jamie, go get a towel. It’s going to ruin the couch!”

“Fuck the couch!” he replied, leaping out of his seat and reaching for the phone that was sitting on the coffee table. “I’m calling the emergency number they gave us.”

“Fuck!” Liz added, reaching out to steady herself on the armrest as another powerful contraction rocked her. She held her belly with her free hand, too far gone to care about the fluid that was soaking her sweatpants now. “Okay, fuck it, your idea is better. Get the UAS guys over here right fucking now, and tell them to bring some horse tranquilizers because I just decided that being conscious is massively overrated.”

“I’m on it,” Jamie said, tapping at the touch screen as Liz sucked in rapid breaths. “Wow, they answered quickly. They must have been on standby. Right, they’re on their way. What ... what do we do now?”

“Towel,” she grunted through gritted teeth.

“Towel,” he repeated, giving her a thumbs-up before racing to the bathroom. He returned with one, and she thrust it between her thighs, trying to stem the flow.

“Sit down,” he insisted, taking her by the arm and guiding her back onto the couch. “Don’t worry about the goddamned cushions, we can buy new ones. Worry about the babies.”

“I thought I was ready for this,” she said, another contraction making her wince. “I thought I could handle it, but I’m ... I’m really scared right now, Jamie.”

He reached over and took her hand, giving it a squeeze.

“You’ve got this,” he replied, putting on a confident facade. In truth, he was just as scared as she was, but he had to be strong for her right now. He had to reassure her. He had to be brave enough for the both of them. “The guys in the white coats are on the way, they’ll know what to do. They’ve been preparing for this for just as long as we have.”

The minutes ticked by, Liz’s grip tightening on his hand until he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore.

“Jamie,” she groaned, gripping her belly. “I don’t know about this. Did they say how long they would be? Maybe we should get a taxi.”

“They said to hang tight,” he replied. “It’ll be okay, the UAS hasn’t let us down so far.”

Almost as if to illustrate his point, the doorbell rang, Jamie leaping to his feet. He hurried over, hitting a button on the control panel, the door sliding open. Standing in the corridor outside was a whole team of people wearing blue coveralls, headed by a man in a doctor’s coat with a neatly-trimmed mustache. Jamie noted the UAS patch on his arm, the same as those that the crew of the Magellan had worn. They had brought a large, wheeled hospital gurney with them, its metal frame visibly reinforced to accommodate Liz’s weight.

“Doctor Atherton, at your service,” the man in the coat began in a pronounced British accent. “Where is the patient, please?” Jamie stepped aside to let him pass as he entered the apartment along with a pair of nurses, the two women rushing to Liz’s side when they saw her sitting on the couch. “Don’t worry, Madame,” Atherton continued as he strode over to her. “We’ve been preparing for this day for months. We have a delivery room and a dedicated staff ready to receive you.”

“Is she going to be alright?” Jamie demanded, watching as two more nurses entered the apartment. One of them, a stout man who looked more like a bouncer than a medical professional, began to help Liz to her feet. One nurse removed the towel, another joining her colleague as she helped the hobbling Borealan along.

“She’ll be quite alright, don’t you worry,” Atherton replied. “We mustn’t dawdle, Sir. If you’d like to bring anything with you to the hospital, you have only a few moments to fetch it. Elizabeth!” he yelled, startling Jamie. “Prepare the gurney for the patient, if you’d be so kind!”

“Alright, yeah,” Jamie muttered as he tried to collect his thoughts. “Jackets ... uh, my phone,” he added as he tapped at his pocket. “Got my phone.”

The doctor produced his own phone, holding it up to his ear.

“Keep the engines idling, Sergey,” he said to someone on the other end. “We’ll be on our way shortly.”

Jamie raced around the apartment, throwing Liz’s heavy leather jacket over his shoulder, dipping into the bathroom to grab their toothbrushes.

“Chop chop!” Atherson declared with a clap of his gloved hands, spurring his team on. “Hydrogen may be an abundant element, but that doesn’t mean that fuel is free! Let’s not keep Sergey waiting any longer than we have to.”

Jamie followed the doctor to the door, seeing the group of nurses helping Liz onto the cart. It was quite a struggle, but they managed to get her safely onboard, one of them adjusting the angle of the headrest to prop her up a little more. He was about to ask how the hell they intended to push a load in excess of five-hundred-pounds, but he heard the whir of electric motors, quickly realizing that the gurney was self-propelled. One of the nurses held up a tablet computer, controlling the gurney with a touch interface, the cart starting to roll forward.

They made their way to the nearest elevator shaft, everyone piling inside. The car was just large enough that they could all fit. The doctor keyed in a floor number, and it began to rise, Jamie turning to him in confusion as the floors whipped past beyond the glass.

“Why are we going up?” he asked, leaning a hand on the side of Liz’s gurney. She was breathing hard, her hands on her belly.

“We have a shuttle idling on the nearest landing pad,” Atherson replied. “It’s ready to take the patient straight to the hospital.”

The elevator soon came to a stop, and they rushed out, Jamie hurrying along beside the cart. Liz wasn’t talking much, she was in too much pain, too preoccupied. They proceeded through more corridors, arriving at an exit, the doors opening to rushing wind. The landing pad projected from the side of the high-rise, some half-mile above street level, the winds up here enough to buffet him. There were several such landing pads spread out around the building, used primarily for deliveries and evacuations where riding the elevators would be too slow and inconvenient.

The shuttle was sitting on the pad in front of them, lit from below by the intermittent flashing of the landing lights that encircled it. It wasn’t too different from the shuttle he had ridden on Jarilo, but it was a more modern model, its hull painted hospital white with a UAS logo stenciled along the flank. There was also a stencil on one of the stubby wings that read ‘Medevac’. The main engines beneath the H-shaped tail glowed with a dull, blue light, the vectoring nozzles flexing like muscles.

The troop ramp was already lowered, the team of nurses ferrying Liz aboard on her gurney, Jamie following after them. The interior was painted the same color as the hull, and there were seats for the passengers lining either wall. Unlike the cargo shuttle he had ridden in, this one was packed with hospital equipment. Everywhere he looked, there was an expensive piece of machinery built into the hull. There were ventilators, defibrillators, and there were almost no visible surfaces that didn’t have some kind of mesh pouch or storage compartment for medical supplies.

Liz’s gurney slotted into clamps in the deck that would keep it secured in place, and the nurses began hooking her up to monitoring equipment, sticking probes and diodes to her skin. There was some confusion as they tried to locate a vein through the fur of her forearm, one of them eventually succeeding in sliding a small needle into her, hooking her up to an intravenous drip. It must have contained some kind of sedative because she slowed her rapid panting, leaning back into the padded seat.

Atherson walked up to the door that divided the cockpit from the bay, tapping his hand on the glass.

“Alright, Sergey, take us out.” He turned to Jamie, gesturing to the nearest seat. “I’d advise you to strap in, Sir.”

Jamie didn’t need to be told twice, remembering how bumpy his last ride in a shuttle had been. He slid into one of the crash couches and fastened the harness tightly, his eyes still fixed on Liz.

“Don’t worry, she’s quite alright,” the doctor replied as he sat down in the seat beside him. “Her vitals are perfectly normal for someone in her position.”

The deck began to rumble beneath his feet, his stomach lurching as the shuttle lifted off. There was a grinding sound as the landing gear retracted, the only sense of motion coming from the tugging of acceleration, as there were no windows to see out of.

It was a tense ride to the hospital, but a quick one, the shuttle soon starting to descend. Jamie felt it bounce as it touched down, and as soon as it had come to a standstill, the team of nurses were spurred into action. The ramp began to lower, and they stripped Liz of all the tangled wires, driving her gurney down onto the landing pad beyond. Jamie followed them, emerging onto another elevated platform, the glass facade of the towering hospital building rising up before him. They rushed through the automatic doors, the backwash of the engines blowing their clothes. As soon as they were inside the building, more nurses were ready to greet them, guiding the party through the sterile corridors.

They arrived at the delivery room, which was more pleasantly furnished than Jamie had anticipated. It seemed that pains had been taken to make it a comfortable environment. It had a faux-wood floor, potted plants, and a holographic landscape of a calm lake that was being projected from the wall directly opposite the bed. There was more monitoring equipment, but it didn’t look like the inside of a spaceship this time.

The nurses eased Liz out of her gurney, transferring her over to a more comfortable – albeit no less sturdy – hospital bed. The painkillers were starting to wear off now that she wasn’t hooked up to the drip anymore, and she called out to him as she lay on the bed, one hand clutching her stomach. He rushed to her side, taking her other hand, her grip making his fingers tingle.

“It’s gonna be okay,” he insisted, trying to reassure her as she gritted her teeth against another contraction.

“You say that,” she chuckled weakly, “but your pores are leaking stress hormones. I feel like you’re the one who needs a sedative right now.”

“Get her vitals on the monitor,” Doctor Atherson demanded, striding across the room. “This is going to be a multiple-birth, and we’re going to need incubators on stand-by.”

One of the nurses approached Jamie, taking him by the arm, guiding him away from the bed. He released Liz’s hand, glancing at the woman in confusion.

“It’s best that you wait outside,” she said, leading him over to the door.

“Wait, why? Shouldn’t I be here for her?”

“She needs to concentrate on the delivery right now,” the nurse replied in a tone that was at once gentle and firm. “We’ll take care of her, don’t worry. She’s going to be fine.”

“Liz!” he exclaimed, but she merely waved a furry hand at him from her bed.

“It’s okay, Jamie,” she huffed. “Let’s do as they say.”

“I-I’ll be right outside,” he insisted, the nurse closing the door on him. He found himself in a small waiting room, a few chairs pushed up against one wall. There was a vending machine for drinks and one for snacks, the place completely deserted. There were no windows for him to see into the delivery room, and he couldn’t hear anything that was happening inside. Maybe that was for the best. Did he really want to hear Liz screaming in pain?

He paced around for a few minutes, then sat down on one of the chairs, leaning his face in his hands. The adrenaline rush was starting to wear off now, leaving him feeling empty and tired. The last time he recalled being this emotionally exhausted was the morning after Liz had left for Borealis...

He was still holding her jacket and their toothbrushes, so he set them on the chair beside him, tapping his feet impatiently. The allure of a sugary drink to keep his energy levels up drew him to one of the vending machines, and he scanned his phone across the reader, a can dropping into the retrieval slot. Jamie popped the cap, taking a long draw as he leaned back against the wall.

Now, it was just a matter of waiting.

Jamie brought up his phone, pacing in front of the door. It had been nearly five hours, and still nothing. He hadn’t been allowed back into the delivery room yet, and nobody had come out to keep him updated on Liz’s condition. He could set off in search of the front desk, but he didn’t want to leave the waiting room, not when he could be called back in at any moment. During his downtime, he had looked up how long deliveries usually take on his phone. It was supposed to last four to eight hours, but if Liz was giving birth to five kittens, would that mean it could take twenty hours? Surely not.

A pang of hunger distracted him, so he perused the available sandwiches in the vending machine, selecting a tuna and mayonnaise sub. He collapsed into one of the seats, chewing dispassionately, watching the door all the while.

Finally, one of the nurses emerged from the room, careful to close the door behind her. He rose from his seat, his sub in hand as she approached him.

“How is she?” he demanded.

“Lizka is recovering well,” she replied with a smile. “She’s exhausted, she needs time to rest, but her vitals are all stable.”

“And, the babies?”

“All five kittens were delivered without incident,” she said, Jamie exhaling a sigh of relief. “I think they’re ready to meet their dad.”

“I can come in now?” he asked.

“Yes, but it’s best that Liz remains calm. She’s fragile right now.”

Jamie nodded, trying to calm himself.

“Better leave that here,” the nurse added, gesturing to his sandwich.

“Right, right,” he muttered as he set it down beside the toothbrushes.

The door slid open, and they stepped inside, Jamie trying to slow his racing heart as he saw Liz lying there on the bed. The first thing that jumped out at him was that her swollen belly had deflated like a balloon. The massive bump was no longer visible beneath the sheets that covered her. Her dusky skin was shining, drenched with sweat. She looked like she had just run a marathon. There was no blood, no mess. The staff must have already cleaned everything up. She was still hooked up to the machines, various wires trailing from her arms to computer monitors that were mounted nearby, the headrest of her bed propping her up.

Liz’s ears swiveled in his direction, her head soon following. She beamed at him, as happy as he had ever seen her, even if she looked about ready to pass out. There was no need to ask her if she was okay, he could see it in her face. He approached the bed hesitantly, and Liz reached down, pulling back the sheets. Her clothes had been removed in favor of a hospital gown, and nestled in her bosom was a mass of multicolored fur. It took Jamie a moment to realize what he was looking at, his eyes widening as one of the little mounds moved. A tiny head rose from the pile, its eyes tightly shut, its ears flat against its tangle of hair. It opened its mouth, letting out a faint mewl, more like the cry of a kitten than a human baby. It was the size of a human infant, maybe a little larger, but it looked so small and frail compared to Liz’s massive frame. It could have sat comfortably in the palm of her hand. The resemblance to a tiger cub was uncanny, its fur a shade of rusty orange. There were more, two with fur in slightly different shades of blonde, one with brown fur, and another with a slightly redder tone.

“It worked,” Liz said, a blend of giddiness and exhaustion making her voice waver.

“You did it,” he gasped, unable to take his eyes off them.

“We did it,” she added with a weary chuckle. “Two girls and three boys, just like they told us. They’re strong, Jamie. You should feel them wriggling around.”

“Can I hold one?” he asked, his question more directed at the nurses than Liz. Doctor Atherson was standing nearby, his eyes fixed on a tablet computer.

“Sterilize your hands and forearms first,” he replied without glancing up from his work. “Their immune systems are still developing, they’ll be vulnerable for the next few days.”

The nurse guided him over to a nearby sink, and he rolled up his sleeves, washing his skin vigorously. His heart raced as he made his way back to Liz’s side, his exhausted partner giving him a warm smile as she reached into the mass of fur.

She plucked the orange one from the pile, cradling it in a single hand, Jamie reaching out to take it from her. He held it like he would a human baby, supporting its proportionally large head in his palm, its stubby little limbs flexing. The fur was so soft, and it was dry, suggesting the babies had been wiped down since the delivery. If adult Borealans resembled cats, then the coat of fur on the kittens furthered that comparison even more.

“That one’s a boy,” Liz said, grinning as she watched him gaze at the infant.

“Why are his eyes closed?” Jamie asked. “Is he alright?”

“His eyes will stay closed for a few days,” Liz replied. “It’s normal for Borealans.”

Jamie felt a swell of unexpected emotion as the tiny creature wriggled in his grasp. He had made this, he and Liz. This was his child.

He reached down, letting the kitten grab his finger, feeling the little pads through its fur. It didn’t have any claws yet, its hands were like stubby little mittens. Jamie laughed as he felt the baby wrap its tail around his wrist like a spider monkey, opening its mouth to let out another weak mewl.

“Don’t keep him away from the others for too long,” a nearby nurse advised. “They have to be kept warm.”

Jamie returned the baby to the pile that was nestled in Liz’s bosom, then took her hand, the two sharing a tender moment as they watched their offspring wriggle around. The babies clung to one another, and to their mother, little limbs and tails grasping for purchase. Still blind, they seemed to favor their sense of touch, their tiny hands delving into each other’s fur.

“We’ll want to keep you in the hospital for observation for at least a day or two,” Atherson said. “If there are no complications, and the infants remain healthy, you can be discharged. We’ll also want to have you bring them back in for periodic checkups so that we can keep tabs on their development and ensure that there’s no latent genetic instability from the splicing process.”

“We’ve spoken with some experts at the UAS about Borealan childcare,” one of the nurses began. “But we think that the best thing to do in this case is let Lizka take the lead. She knows more about the subject than we do.”