The Love Of A Mother

Mariko and the infant HLM

The lovely Japanese woman sits at the table in the biology lab in the Pentagon, the bleeping and whirring of the various machines in the lab providing a sort of background music to focus her in writing the reports she’s working on. She sighs as she gets to the file on the perfect soldier project. They’d been working on it for about three years now, and out of all the embryos they put together, only one has lasted to the gestation period of eight months. She looks over to the round tank where the infant floats in the position for birth, umbilical cord¹ attached not to a placenta, but to a machine simulating one. The baby girl is extremely small, but almost perfectly formed.

It’s a shame she isn’t going to be naturally born to someone. She’s a beautiful baby. It’s too bad she probably won’t make it…

With another sigh, she looks back to the papers she works on. The top reads, “Status report on Project Ares number 309”.

“309” That’s no name to give a child.

She looks back to the little girl, curled into a ball and perfect little thumb stuck in her mouth. She smiles softly.

Eloise Lee. There’s the name I’d give her…

The woman blinks when the machine monitoring fetal hormonal levels starts beeping. Her eyes widen when she reads the levels of ACTH and cortisone² increasing. She goes to the phone and calls the scientists’ pagers, sending the numerical message “309911”, before going back to the machines monitoring the progress of the baby.

Great Kami-sama…please let this baby be born safely.

Her two superiors, doctors Sweeper and Mauder, burst in. The man and woman crowd behind her.

“She’s initiating birth already?” Dr. Sweeper asks, his deep voice showing his disbelief, brown eyes narrowing behind his glasses.

Dr. Mauder looks at the readouts of the machines. “This is fascinating,” the portly woman comments, her usually pale cheeks pink with excitement. “These levels are exactly the same as a natural birth. Miss Lee, trigger the release.”

“Yes, Dr. Mauder,” the petite young woman says, hurrying over to the controls to gently and slowly unleash the fluids and the baby, trying to keep her hands as steady as she can. The machine is built to attempt simulating the female reproductive tract as exactly as possible out of clear plastics.

“Easy does it, Mariko,” Sweeper says, his chocolate skin glistening with sweat, showing his own apprehension and excitement.

“Yes, sir,” she says, concentrating on the baby’s reading.

That’s it, little one…keep that heart rate going…

Within a few long moments, the tiny infant drops into the waiting gloved hands of the male doctor. Mariko sets up the scale as the other woman clamps off and cuts the umbilical cord.

Why isn’t she crying…?

When she glances over, she sees Sweeper holding the twitching infant in his large hands. Mauder suctions her mouth and nose.

“Come on,” the man grumbles his encouragement.

The baby coughs a little before letting out a small, weak cry, the twitching in her limbs tapering off. Mariko can see the small chest moving as the infant breaths. Her skin is a bluish color, but is swiftly getting pinker. She starts shivering with cold as the gentle lab assistant comes over with a blanket.

“She’s so small,” the young woman comments softly as she wraps the trembling baby with the blanket.

“Yes, she is,” the man responds sadly. “Once we get her weighed and measured, we have to do the only humane thing…”

Mariko looks at her superior in shock, almond eyes wide.

No…she doesn’t deserve to die just because she’s so small…and not in that vat of acid…

“What?” she whispers.

“Miss Lee,” Mauder speaks up, “look at her. Do you seriously think that baby will survive even through the night?”

Mariko looks down at the warm bundle cuddled in her arms. Ice blue eyes are opened to no more than slits, tiny hands curled to the small chest, sweet face wrinkled as if she knows the danger she’s in.

Poor kid…

“You’re both right,” she sighs softly, an idea occurring to her. “Can I take her home so she can at least die in relative comfort? I mean, she’s made it this far, and you know I can keep this secret.”

The doctors look at each other briefly before the older woman nods to the younger man. He rests a hand on Mariko’s shoulder.

“My dear, since we know you can’t have children of your own and of your exemplimentary record, we’ll let you do this.” He smiles slightly, both his and Mauder’s eyes telling her those aren’t the only reasons behind their decision.

“Thank you,” she says, smiling at them as she measures and weighs the baby. “17 inches long, 5 pounds 1 ounce.”

You are tiny, aren’t you, Ellie?

Mauder fills out the forms that release 309 into Mariko’s custody, which were conveniently in the desk, putting in false information, without meaning to, of course. She is dyslexic after all, and the situation was extremely stressful. She does this while Sweeper fills out forms on 309’s weight, length, birth and death times. Mariko finishes with preparing 309 for the trip home.

The next day, the Department of Defense loses two of its finest scientists and a promising young lab assistant when they quit. All three of them cite emotional trauma and extreme stress as their reasons.

Three days later, Mariko is tucking the tiny baby in her car seat, getting ready to start the trip to upstate New York. She’s been so happy since getting the infant, making sure of course to get all the necessary papers citing her “adoption” from a family over-seas and her new citizenship in the States. Eloise is actually a very strong child, although tiny and quiet. She gazes into the infant’s wide blue eyes.

“Are you ready to go to New York, Ellie-chan?”

The child gives her a big smile, her eyes sparkling cheerfully out of her cherub-like face.

“There’s my girl,” the Japanese woman says with a smile as she leans forward to kiss the soft forehead. She smiles again when the little one yawns and falls asleep, looking for all the world like any normal baby.

Just to look at her, anyone would think she’s perfectly human and not created in a lab. I hope it stays this way…

Mariko gets in the driver’s seat after making sure the unique and precious child is secure in the car seat. She starts the car and starts down the road.

My life is now complete. Ellie will    have the best life I can provide for her and all my love.

She smiles as she drives into a whole new world opened up before her.

¹umbilical cord- cord containing umbilical vein and artery that ordinarily connects the baby to the mother while in the womb. Nutrients and oxygen travel from the mother to the child and waste products travel from the baby through this structure. 

²ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) and cortisone- ACTH is a hormone secreted from the fetal (baby while in the womb) hypothalamus that, in turn, causes cortisone to be secreted from the fetal adrenal glands. This promotes prostaglandin (which induce the hormone oxytosin from the mother’s pituitary gland) production in the placenta. Both oxytosin and prostaglandin promote uterine contraction. To put it in a nutshell, the fetal production of ACTH and cortisone basically induces labor in a natural birth.

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