Short Stories From Out There

If You Could

"Of course not, silly woman! We are almost there! No need to burn it all when it will soon be ours! The few holdouts in the northern states won't last much longer. Hard to rebel when you have to stay on the move, with no supplies and swarms of drones hunting you night and day!"

"What will we do once they are dead?" she asked.

"Then we find the next enemy, and we crush them too!" he shouted as he sat straight up and saluted his elaborate and carefully animated portrait on the far wall.

Bobbi giggled and stood up on her side of the bed, doing the full-standing salute.

"Then lead us, Great Leader! Lead us to your Right World!"

He pulled her back down with no small amount of force and moved to ravage her, much like he was the continent. An insistent beeping began at the wooden desk under the curtained window to one side of the room.

"Yes?!" Eric yelled impatiently.

"Sir, you wanted us to inform you the second we established the China Net."

"Oh, wow! That was fast, Miles! Great work!"

"Thank you, sir. The drones have settled into China's nuclear armaments and await our signal. I thought you might like to push the button yourself?"

"Why, of course! Good man. Activate my desk button."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, what a glorious day, eh, Bobbi?" Eric turned and looked at her, the sunlight through the desk window glowing on her skin.

"Yes, indeed! China has been such an annoyance lately."

"Well, as of now, they aren't."

And with that, he got up, walked over to his desk, pulled out a shelf in the ornate hutch, and pushed a large red button. He smiled, then closed the shelf.

"There we go. Problem solved. In a few seconds, China will be a collection of large craters. Heh. Strike that! OUR collection of large craters."

"Congratulations, sir! Goodnight!" came the voice over the intercom. The lights dimmed again, and with a flick of his wrist, a storm was suddenly raging outside the window.

Instead of going back to playing, they sat on the edge of the bed, holding each other. Despite their best efforts, these moments put them in a thoughtful mood. They found themselves quiet, contemplating destiny.

---

"There you have it. A few samples of where most of the simulations went. We've run the DNA we got from the fetus sample, and with approximately a billion iterations, taking into account the factors we can predict and estimating ones we can't, we've reached your son's possible futures."

"Is it that bad?" Gladys wiped the tears from her eyes. Jack looked up, broken and spent.

"There is an eighty percent chance that he'll commit suicide by age thirty. There's a sixty-three percent chance he'll lack the self-control to resist legal trouble. There's a fifty-one percent chance that if presented with an opportunity to murder or rape, he'll commit said acts. There's a forty-two percent chance he'll lead some kind of cult or similarly dangerous group. As far as that last scenario, there's a twenty-two percent chance he'll rise as some form of dictator and cause an immense amount of suffering and destruction. We strongly recommend you volunteer to end the pregnancy."

Gladys stared at her stomach.

"That means there's a seventy-eight percent chance he won't be another Hitler. It seems he would be more likely to harm himself than others. If we are very, very careful, it could work out." She looked up pleadingly.

"Yes, of course. These are simulations and scenarios. With proper control and healthy experiences, your son might become someone quite amazing. But, if there are any signs of aggression or manipulation above any of the very low thresholds we would have to set, the state would assume custody, and to be perfectly honest, he'd probably end up in one of the stricter work facilities."

"I don't care. I think we can do it. Hon?" she turned to Jack, who sat staring at the floor. "Can we do it? We have to try. It's our baby."

"Yeah. I'd like to try. I know we can do it. We'll listen to all the advice and make it work." He looked up, sat straighter, and moved to the edge of his chair. "Yeah, yeah! We can do this. He's our boy! He'll be fine! We'll make him fine!"

The technician took a deep breath, let it out, and took on a pleasant demeanor.

"We're running a discount now on the full suite of our Wonderful People processes. We can make a new zygote for you from various samples from you both. This child would be just as much yours as the one you are carrying, except very little left to chance. It would not only be you but the best of you. A wonderful child anyone could love and, more importantly, love anyone."

"NO!" Gladys shouted. "No! No, no, no! I want him. He's flawed, yes, but he'll be fine! No!"

"I'm sorry. We recommended you volunteer to terminate, but since you've chosen not to, we are obligated, only because the numbers are so high, to follow the orders of the onsite government representative in these cases. We will need to force termination."

"No! You can't!" Gladys shouted. She grabbed the door handle, pulling it open, before letting it go. "Ow!"

"There, it is done. We are sorry it had to be this way, but the greater good has to come first. In time, you'll understand."

Jack swung at the technician, but the technician casually reached up and caught Jack's fist. Jack tried to pull free but could not. He was held fast while the technician barely seemed to exert himself.

"Are you a freaking artificial?" Jack shouted, wincing.

"No. I'm enhanced. I used my employee discount and got a full DNA retrofit. I'm the best I can be." The technician released Jack's hand. "Since neither of you are of any threat to me, I'll overlook your very understandable emotional outburst. Please wait here until the procedure is complete. The fetus will completely reabsorb into your body in about fifteen minutes. I'll take a quick break and will return then. Oh, and please behave. The discount still stands, and I think you should take advantage of it."

At that, the technician got up and left the room. Gladys sat back down by Jack, leaning into his arms.

"They killed our baby," she whispered.

"I know," he whispered back.

They sat in silence and sobbed until the technician returned. They took the discount.