Excerpt: Legends

The shriek of a baby pierced the air, blocking out the noises of the cooing Medroid and of Ami’s tears, for just a moment. It was two months later and Ami was in labor. A Medroid was helping them, and Red was certified as a doctor, so it was alright, but still; any amount of things could go wrong with labor. And at home labor was even worse, at least to Red. Ami cried out as the contractions took up again.
“Push. Push!” The medroid encouraged, holding two of its four synthetic arms ready to pull out the baby when it was time.
“I’m…. trying!” Ami gasped, pushing again. “So tired.” She breathed.
“It’s okay Ami. You can do it. Almost done.” Red said soothingly from his place next to her at the side of the bed. Ami gave one last, enormous effort as the contraction came again.
“A girl!” The medroid exclaimed, suddenly holding something squalling and wailing, wrapping it, or her, in a towel.
“What?” Ami asked weakly. “It’s over?”
Red rushed down to the medroid and held his hands out for the child. It paid no attention to him and continued to wipe the baby off, finally, after what seemed an eternity, wrapping her in a blanket and handing her to Red. His first glimpse of the baby was sweet. She was red; very red. But oh, was she beautiful! Red carefully carried her down to the bed and placed her into her mother’s arms.
Ami gasped in delight. “She’s… oh, she’s beautiful.” She sank back into the comfort of her pillows. “All that seems worth it now. For this…” She sighed, stroking the baby’s face.
The medroid had followed Red to the bedside and was clucking in disapproval. “She needs to have retinal and fingerprint scans taken.”
Ami reluctantly gave her daughter up and the droid quickly and efficiently took the retinal and fingerprint scans, at last handing her gently over to her mother again. Ami glanced at the medroid meaningfully, and Red subtly reached behind it and pressed the deactivator button. It slumped over, lifeless.
“Now I can have her all to myself.” Ami said softly, pleased. “And you can have her too, of course.” She amended.
The scans had seemed to irritate the baby, and she was squirming and fussing, and had been since the medroid had given her back to Ami. But for the moment she was only patted and the parents just hoped she’d settle down.
“Do you think that she looks like an Elra?” asked Ami happily of the girl name that they’d chosen.
Red looked down at the baby and pretended to think, and then his face cleared. “Definitely. Elra.” He leaned in to kiss his wife.
The newly christened Elra continued to fuss and suddenly and abruptly sneezed.
“Wow!” Red said in surprise, breaking free of the kiss. “Some sneeze for someone who’s not even an hour old.”
Ami laughed and then looked down at Elra, and her laugh suddenly broke off:
The baby cuddled to her chest looked nothing like the baby that had been cuddled to her chest a moment ago.