“Luna, you remember when you hurt your knee?” Emily asked. The girl nodded and rubbed the bandages that had been freshly replaced after their bath after they’d returned home.
“It got hurt and bled for a bit, but then it stopped right? And after a few weeks it’ll scab over and get healed again. Right?”
Luna nodded.
“Well, for mommy and the other adults here it happens much much faster. So fast that even the biggest scrapes and bruises heal in only a few seconds.”
Luna’s eyes widened.
“Really? They do?”
“Yes, I’m going to show you,” Emily said and took the small carving knife that she’d made when she’d experimented with wood carving to see if art was for her. It wasn’t really, but she’d given it a good attempt anyway.
“Now, don’t you ever do this yourself. Can you promise me, Luna? This would hurt you a lot,” Emily said sternly.
Luna nodded silently.
Emily took the sharp knife and pressed it into her palm and sliced a long cut across its length.
Luna gasped as she watched the cut visibly shrink away before all that was left behind was the few drops of blood that had left Emily’s body in the meantime.
“Did you see?” Emily asked, “That’s why Peter knew I would be okay yesterday. I could heal fast even if I got in trouble.”
Luna’s eyes widened and her eyes started welling up, “B- B- But does that mean that the animal really hurt you and you healed after?”
Emily hesitated and Luna looked horrified, “No, mommy! Are you okay? Did it hurt?”
Emily hesitated even more before deciding that she didn’t want to lie, “I’m okay, Luna. Yes, it did hurt a lot. But I did it to protect you. So I don’t mind too much.”
Luna looked disturbed, but didn’t say anything else in reply.
“Will I heal fast when I grow up?” Luna eventually asked, “Be strong like you mommy?”
“You’ll be so very strong and brave,” Emily said, “But you won’t heal fast like me or the others.”
“Why not? I want to heal fast,” Luna said with a slight pout, “My knee still hurts a bit.”
“It’s… It’s a story for when you’re older,” Emily said, “But… No, I’ll tell you when you’re older. But it’s not something that happens naturally when you get older.”
“Okay,” Luna said, sounding disappointed, “Can you sleep with me again tonight? What if that creature sneaks in and you’re not here to put him in timeout?”
“Alright,” Emily said, “But he won’t get in. They don’t like to come into houses.”
“Oh. That’s good.”
— — —
“Mom?” Luna asked as they laid together outside on the grasses of the open plains in the darkness. She was ten years old now.
“Why do none of the other kids have parents like I do?” she asked.
“They have parents, the whole group takes care of them,” Emily corrected, “It’s not like they’re all alone.”
“I know. But we’re different. Everyone takes shifts taking care of them all and never just for one kid, but you’re always with me. And I heard Sanje complaining one time about how much work it was… You never complained about taking care of me.”
“It’s a lot of work,” Emily said, “Ignore whatever Sanje said. He was probably just frustrated and didn’t really mean it. You know what mothers and fathers are, right? Can you tell me?”
“They’re… People who directly take care of you, right? Boys are the fathers and girls are the mothers?”
“It’s more than that, although that’s a big part of it,” Emily said, “You remember that big machine that makes the babies, right? I built that. But usually it's one man and woman who work together to make a baby. Before I made the machine.”
“They do what the machine does? Is it like those carvings Clara and the others do? They’re so complex. Is it as hard as that? To make a baby?”
Emily chuckled, “No, Luna. It’s not that hard. But only adults can do it. Or they used to. That’s how it’s always been for a very long time, with that being the only way to make new people. I had to make the machine because us adults can’t make any more kids. It’s a side effect of our powers, our accelerated healing. Now with the machine that can do it, the others don’t feel like the kids are truly theirs. And it makes some of them sad knowing that they can’t ever make their own. That’s why the kids are being raised as a group and they’re acting so annoyed rather than acting as parents as if they’d made the baby themselves.”
“But isn’t it the same?” Luna asked, “Why does it matter who made the baby? Even if there’s too many they could all just claim one. It’s like they care about everybody… but only a little bit. Not like how you act with me. But none of them act the same, like how you help me. I dunno, it’s like they’re just not excited about it even if they know it’s something they’re supposed to do. I came out of that machine too. Am I less important than if you’d made me with a father?”
“No, you’re not less important Luna. I don’t think that way at all. But the rest do think that way sometimes,” Emily said, “They’re helping the larger group, and that’s all they want to do unless they make the baby themselves. Or some other reason. I’m not really sure why they are… I don’t know. I wanted to do more for you, but it’s not something I had to do. At least not when you were past a certain age.”
There was silence as the both of them lay there in the darkness bathed in the light of the full moon above. Emily thought about what Luna had said. She should try to pay more attention to the larger group of kids who had been born after Luna. They needed someone who more visibly showed their affection as a role model in their lives. The others were more distant and while they cared of course, none of them were particularly good with kids as a baseline. Emily was already doing her best to care for them when it was her shift to watch over them, but she should put some extra effort to make sure that the children knew that she wasn’t doing it just out of obligation like the others.
“What are your powers?” Luna asked, “How’d you get them? Am I old enough now?”
“Are you?” Emily asked absently, “It’s not a very happy story. But I’ll tell you if you want me to. But think carefully if you want me to tell you or not.”
Luna thought about it.
“I want to know.”
“Alright,” Emily said with a shuddering breath as the horrible memories washed over her and she organized her thoughts.
“Did you know that we’re all originally from another planet entirely?”
“Another planet? Aren’t they all bad to live on? Remember when I pointed out that yellow planet in the sky at night and you said it was full of acid rain?”
“Yes, that’s true for everything in this solar system,” Emily said, “But I’m talking even further than that. We’re from another planet in a completely different solar system. We grew up under a completely different sun and moon than the one we have here.”
“A different sun and moon?” Luna asked thoughtfully and Emily heard her shift to look upward at the moon above.
“You’re named after it, you know,” Emily said, “That was the name of our old moon. Luna. Or one of the names.”
“Huh. I didn’t know that… Why didn’t you tell me? I thought I was named after this moon.”
“This moon can be Luna too. We haven’t named it officially yet.”
“I don’t know… what was it like? The other planet? Did you get your powers there?”
“It was nice, a lot like this one,” Emily said, “But there were a lot of people there. More than you’ve ever seen, covering the whole surface.”
“How many? Hundreds? Thousands?”
“Billions. So many that you could hardly find a single spot on the planet where somebody wasn’t living there.”
“Billions…” Luna said, amazed, “That’s… that’s so many. It must have been so crowded, I see why you’d want to leave.”
Emily chuckled, “I guess it was.”
“Will all of those people come here someday?” Luna asked, “Like you and the other adults did?”
“No,” Emily said, resisting the urge to say some comforting lie. But best to get it out of the way rather than dragging it out, “Something very bad happened and now we’re all that’s left. The old planet, Earth, was destroyed. A creature known as the Shadow appeared and gave us our powers to save us from what happened. Or that’s what I think they were for. But then it went away again as soon as it gave us our powers and didn’t talk to us again.”
Luna didn’t say anything as she processed all of that.
“Is the bad thing going to happen here again?”
“No,” Emily said firmly, “No, of course not. We’re safe here. A place to rebuild. We’ll be just fine.”
“That’s why you can’t have our powers,” Emily added, “Only the Shadow can give them, and it's gone for now.”
“What was your old planet like? Before it was destroyed?”
Emily started telling Luna all about Earth. Culture, technology, all the natural wonders she could remember. Everything she could remember about it as Luna kept asking her questions.
“Now, c’mon, Luna,” Emily said as she noticed Luna’s eyes drifting shut and her speech started to slur.
“It’s time for bed. We can talk more tomorrow.”
“Oookay *Yawn*, Mom,” Luna said and stumbled to her feet. Emily clicked on the flashlight and the two of them returned to the house and Emily put Luna to bed. She closed the door to the bedroom behind her and just stood in the hallway for a moment.
Luna had seemed to take it all in pretty well. Emily wasn’t sure if she really was that unaffected, or if it was all just an act.
Or maybe she just didn’t care. To her it must be like a distant story, like a fairytale. She’d never known anything but Gaia.
Their new home.
— — —
“Bye, Mom! See you in a few weeks.”
“Stay safe, Luna. Make sure to listen to Peter on your trip.”
“I will. I’m so excited to go on a real hunting trip with the others,” Luna admitted.
Emily checked her over one last time before waving goodbye as Luna climbed into the plane and the five members of the hunting party including Luna and Peter took off and flew away.
There was a faint sense of worry in the back of Emily’s mind, but Luna was nearly sixteen now. Emily couldn’t hover over her so much anymore.
— — —
“How’s it going?” Clara asked casually as she leaned on the table and inspected the screen on the bulky machine that Emily was tapping and working with.
“Pretty good,” Emily replied absently, “It’s been a struggle, but I’m almost there I think. We’ve got some good variety on the latest round of samples and the first crop is nearly ready for the larger test fields I think. Genetically modified for increased yield, hardiness so they’ll survive harsh weather, ease of planting compared to the wild strain… I think that this year’s round might be it. We’ll be ready to get some real farming done.”
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“That’s good,” Clara said, “Actually… Once that’s done, I have to tell you something. There’s going to be a big meeting after the hunting trip and feast after. With just the ten of us, not any of the kids. If the crops are almost ready then we should be discussing next steps.”
“Next steps?” Emily asked in confusion, “What do you mean?”
“Well, we have the plans for your machine,” Clara said, “The atomic printer can make them as long as it has the right materials. Doesn’t make sense for us to raise all the kids ourselves for another round. The older ones are getting old enough by now that they might be able to start living on their own soon.”
“Old enough?” Emily said, offended, “Luna’s only sixteen! And the rest are even younger. That’s ridiculous!”
Clara held her hands up defensively, “Hey, I’m not saying right now. But in a few years. When they’re ready.”
Emily stared at the woman for a moment.
“I don’t understand any of you,” Emily said suddenly, “We’ve resurrected humanity! We have children to take care of, people to nurture. But all of you view it as some sort of chore. I mean you all enjoy being fun aunts and uncles, but the actual work is just a burden for all of you apparently. Even Peter goes out on his exploration trips all the time. All of you are forced to make a schedule and argue when you’re forced to stay with the kids for longer than planned. How can any of your other hobbies possibly be as important as this?”
Clara shrugged, “I don’t know what to say. I’m glad you’re so dedicated. But it is a lot of work. We’re all happy that humanity isn’t doomed of course. More than happy, overjoyed really. But I guess after so long we’ve just… gotten in the habit of doing our own thing. People are creatures of habit and all that… And none of us were ready for families, even before. I wonder if that’s part of how the Shadow selected us somehow. None of us had anyone steady that we were dating when the bombs dropped. Less to tie us to the past maybe… Even you. You even told me you hadn’t even considered it before Luna was born. Being a mother.”
“No,” Emily said slowly, “I guess I didn’t. But I tried, and found that I wanted it. Despite the hard work. So why didn’t any of you?”
Clara looked awkward and shrugged again, “I don’t know. I guess it just turned out that way.”
The woman stood and cleared her throat, “Well, ah. Point is. Meeting after the big hunt and we’ll discuss what to do when the time comes. Make sure to stay after the feast so you’ll be there.”
“Alright, Clara. Thanks for the warning.”
“Good luck on modifying those crops. I’m sure they’ll have improved massively from last growing season.”
— — —
“Look mom! I shot the one we’re eating tonight!” Luna said excitedly and pointed to the almost bison looking animal that was being lugged out of the belly of the cargo plane by Peter and Sanje.
“Wow! Some sort of herbivore?” Emily said, “It’s huge! Tell me about it, how’d it go?”
Luna chattered at Emily happily as the girl told all her stories from the hunting trip for the last few weeks. They had landed the plane in one place and hunted for a few days before taking off and moving on to a new place.
After finishing her story, Luna looked around and noticed that Sanje and Peter had disappeared.
“Oh!” Luna said, “Sorry, mom. Peter said he’d show me how to process the animal and extract the meat. It’s… It looked really gross,” Luna said with a scrunched nose, “But I still want to see how it’s done at least,” she finished.
“Okay, I think they carried it over that way,” Emily said and pointed off to where the two men had gone, “Just make sure to stay clean. Since they can’t get sick they aren’t always as careful as they should be with germs.”
“I know, mom. See you for dinner, okay bye!”
Luna ran off to catch up to the other hunters and join in as they started to prepare the feast for tonight.
Emily pursed her lips as she watched Luna open a door and run inside the complex that was their home. She was still thinking over what Clara had said to her earlier. Tonight was when the others would discuss what their plans were.
Based on what Clara had said, there were already plans they had prepared. It would just be a debate on which was best. Or more accurately a debate among the others. None of the others but Peter respected her opinion. Even Clara was a little dismissive of Emily’s thoughts even if she liked Emily on a personal level. Or that was Emily’s interpretation at least. Maybe she was reading into things too much. But she didn’t think she’d get much of a vote in what happened unless she was extremely vocal about whatever her stance was.
She shook her head. She’d worry about that after the meal. This was Luna’s big day to celebrate her first successful hunt. Best to focus on that first.
— — —
The plates at the center of the table were piled high with carved pieces of sizzling and dripping cuts of meat. A few wild vegetables and fruits were scattered across the large table.
Peter sat at one end of the table while Luna sat on the other. All of the younger kids were gathered around Luna and looking at her with worshipful eyes as she narrated her stories of the hunt.
Emily smiled slightly as she looked around the room and took another bite of her food. Ten adults, and over fifty of the children ranging from fourteen to four years old. All were altered clones of the original ten of them. Emily had refined her machine and increased the genetic variation more and more as time went on. The oldest children were much closer in look to their cell donors, but the younger the children had much more genetic variation as Emily had refined and improved her genetic variation algorithm.
Now that Luna was getting older she was looking more and more similar to Emily as the days passed. Still not exactly the same, but enough that no one would ever say they were anything more distant than sisters back on Earth. Especially with the apparently small age gap with Emily at an apparent twenty five while Luna was sixteen.
But the other children were much more varied. And while they retained some basic features from their original donor, it was only subtle cues. The genetic variation algorithm was so advanced by now that the kids were all distinct and hardly looked like any of their donors at all by this point besides those few remnants.
Emily could understand how much work taking care of so many kids could be, especially with fifty of them. But the older ones took some of the load taking care of the younger ones sometimes. So it wasn’t as much work as it really should be. Emily hadn’t expected any of the others to bond with any of the children like she had with Luna, but she’d expected them to not act so… resentful of taking care of the big group. Or that’s how it seemed to Emily at least.
Emily did her shifts along with the others with the kids. When the others came late or made excuses on why they had to extend her shift, she didn’t usually mind. It was all very chaotic of course, but Emily enjoyed it. And she couldn’t get physically tired anymore so she could entertain the hordes of little hellions as long as she liked without collapsing from exhaustion afterwards like she’d have if she was a normal woman.
She shook her head. She had to just enjoy the meal, she’d save all of that worrying until the meeting with the others later.
Emily felt a tug on the hem of her shirt and looked down. It took her a second to place the face of the dark skinned four year old boy staring up at her. One of the ones who had Sanje as their cell donor.
“Alem? Did someone get your chair?”
Alem shook his head. Emily stood up and pushed her plate away as she stepped away from the table.
“Just wait here, I’ll get it for you,” she promised the boy. She walked out of the room and went into the closet with the booster seat for the boy. It was carved of wood by Clara and lined with fabric so it would be soft. Fabric that was heavily stained and had to be changed out often, but it still was comfortable enough to get the job done.
Emily lifted it and returned to the room and carefully set it down on top of the long bench running down the table. She lifted Alem and placed him in his chair.
She looked around and met the eyes of an Asian looking eight year old girl standing nearby talking with a few of the others.
“Aika?” Emily called out, “Can you help Alem with his food? Cut it up into little bites and give it to him?”
Aika looked around and looked like she wanted to hide, but her friends mercilessly stepped aside so Emily had a full view of her and thwarted her attempts to hide. Aika trudged forward as it became clear that there was no escape.
“Do I have to, momma Emily?” Aika complained, “He’s so fussy!”
“Well, somebody has to feed him,” Emily said sternly, “You should have helped him when you saw him wandering around, not wait for me to force you to do it.”
“Yes, momma Emily,” Aika said dejectedly before taking out the knife and fork and cutting the food into little bites for Alem to eat. Satisfied, Emily turned back to her meal and kept eating and let out a small sigh of relief. Alem was fussy when he ate. Emily would make it up to Aika later, maybe make her a glow up wristband with a floral pattern? With little electric lights inside? Aika might like something like that, she’d always enjoyed it when they went out to the flower meadows in the past…
The meal continued, and Aika returned to her friends after Alem was done eating and was lifted from the high chair and put back down on the floor where he ran back into the milling crowd of kids running around and talking loudly.
Luna was still enjoying being the center of attention and the interest didn’t fade as new kids wandered in and the original ones left, forcing her to retell the same stories all the way back from the beginning again as new kids that hadn’t heard the story arrived.
“Clara, can you take me to the potty?” One of the five year old girls asked the woman sitting a few seats down.
“Go ask one of the older kids to take you,” Clara said as she kept eating, “Uhhh…”
“Anna. I, Anna,” the five year old girl said, “No one wants to take me. Please?”
“I’m having my food now, Anna. Can’t you just hold it in for a few more minutes?”
“No, I have to go now.”
Clara looked annoyed and frowned at the girl and Emily saw the little girl’s lip trembling as she prepared to cry as Clara looked down at her.
Emily sighed. She stood up from her chair and left her half eaten meal behind and took a few steps over, causing the girl and Clara to turn to her. Clara looked relieved as Emily approached.
“C’mon, Anna. Let’s take you. Wasn’t Fumiko supposed to be looking after you?” Emily said.
“She’s listening to Luna, momma Emily,” Anna said as she grabbed Emily’s hand and they walked out of the hall. Emily nodded to Clara who mouthed ‘thank you’ back before turning back to her meal to keep eating.
“Well, did you go ask her?” Emily asked as they walked out of the room and moved towards the bathroom, “It’s only a few minutes for her to take you.”
“She told me to go away ‘cause she was busy,” Anna said, pouting as they walked into the room together. Emily started helping Anna with the button of her pants. Anna wasn’t coordinated enough to undo them herself easily and it frustrated her if she didn’t have help with it.
“Well don’t worry, I’ll talk to her,” Emily said as she pulled Anna’s pants down for her, “She promised to take care of you for dinner. Did she at least help you with your food?”
“Yes…” Anna admitted after a short silence and she sat on the toilet and started doing her business.
“Well, there’s that at least,” Emily said, “She must have just really liked the story. Would you like to hear it? I’m sure Luna wouldn’t mind saying it one more time for you.”
“Okay…” Anna mumbled, looking like she was feeling a little better as Emily helped her put her pants back on, flush, and scrub Anna’s hands clean at the sink.
They returned with Anna walking besides Emily. They approached the crowd over by Luna who was still happily telling the crowd all about her adventures.
“Oh, hey mom,” Luna said as she noticed Emily approaching, “What’s up?”
“Oh, Anna just wanted to hear your story herself,” Emily said, “She was feeling a little left out. Alright everyone. Make room, make room. She’s not big enough, so she gets to go near the front…”
All the other kids reluctantly shifted on the long bench on the table and made a spot for Anna to sit close to Luna. Emily picked up Anna and placed her in the spot, and the little girl turned to Luna.
“Luna went hunting?” Anna asked, “Did you get attacked by any clawed monsters? Like the one that momma Emily fought?”
Emily paused for a moment at that before moving on. She supposed the attack by that creature was the kind of thing that would make a big impression on Luna…
“Fumiko,” Emily said as she spotted the fourteen year old girl and tapped her on the shoulder.
“Emily!” Fumiko said as she turned around, “I can hardly hear the story from here… Now I’ve missed part of it.”
“You were supposed to help Anna in the bathroom. You promised that you would.”
Fumiko suddenly looked guilty and looked at the floor.
“I thought she could do it herself… It’s just a few buttons,” she muttered.
“You’re getting extra chores.”
“But Emily!”
“No, no buts. Extra chores for you. And apologize to Anna. You hurt her feelings when you told her to go away.”
Fumiko hesitated before looking back up, “Sorry, Emily. I didn’t mean it.”
“I know. But you’re still getting extra chores.”
Fumiko’s face scrunched up angrily for a moment before she looked away and didn’t say anything else.
“Listen close,” Emily whispered to the angry girl conspiratorially, “I think Luna’s reaching the best part soon.”
Fumiko startled as she seemed to realize that she’d stopped trying to listen to Luna through the hubbub of the loud room.
Without saying anything Fumiko tilted her head to the side and started straining her ears to listen in again. And her reddish cheeks and an angry expression faded away as she seemed to promptly forget about Emily’s punishment once she was distracted again.
Emily sat back at her seat and kept eating to finish her meal. As things were wrapping up and everyone started stacking their dirty plates to be cleaned later, there was a scuffle in the crowd of children.
Emily looked over and saw two of the eight year old boys shoving each other and both looking angry. Emily glanced around and saw that the other nine Immortals were all clustered on the other side of the room over by Peter and in deep discussion over something and ignoring the children running around underfoot everywhere.
Emily waded in as it became clear that everyone else around the two boys were just spectating without doing anything.
“Hey, hey!” Emily said as she approached, “No hitting, both of you! Minh, John. What are you doing?”
The two boys stopped their scuffle and separated as Emily frowned down at the two of them.
“Nothing,” Minh said quickly. John glanced at him and looked like he was about to say something before changing his mind at the last minute.
“Nothing, Emily,” John said, “Sorry. We won’t fight.”
“You better not,” Emily said while giving the both of them suspicious looks, “Well if you’re not doing anything else then come help me. Time for bed, make sure none of the little ones sneak off to explore again.”
“Yes, Emily,” both boys chorused, relieved that Emily hadn’t dug any deeper into their fight.
It took another twenty minutes, but eventually by conscripting the older kids everybody was walking back to their rooms. The kids had their own wing of the building. There were three or four kids to a room in the long hallway.
Only Luna was different and had her own room over in Emily’s section of the complex. A remnant of the time back before this separate section for the kids had been built once things had started growing more crowded in the other rooms.
It took another hour to get everyone settled and tucked into bed and all the lights off. The feast today was very exciting and most of the kids were too excited to go to bed on time like they normally did.
Emily had to read no less than seven full bedtime stories tonight. Most of the time the kids would fall asleep before she finished, so she could only read a few pages before slipping out the door and helping settle the next child in for sleep.
Emily walked out of the children’s wing of the complex and started walking back to the dining room. She passed Luna on her way.
“Night, mom,” Luna said, “Staying up?”
“Yep. Night, Luna. Sweet dreams.”
“Night.”
Luna kept walking and turned the corner with her footsteps receding into the distance.
Emily refocused on the dreaded conversation ahead. She had no idea on what plan the others might have already secretly decided on. But she’d try to keep an open mind. Clara had made some decent points even if Emily had instinctively rejected them in the moment.