Written in 365 Parts: 99: His Mother

“You’re his mother?”

“Yes.”

“If we are talking about the same person they look roughly your age. I gather then that you have a significantly extended life?”

“Of course. As you have already discovered, I am quite wealthy. The medical procedures to keep me looking young, regenerating and yet live a healthy life are expensive but well within my portfolio.”

“And Marsh is your child? What, did you donate an egg?”

“Not quite. Do we have to cover the mechanics of what occurred?”

“You’re damned straight we do. I want to know pretty much every detail. Most of me doesn’t want to believe you.So we will see what you have to say. If there is an elaborate lie that you are trying to spin?”

“There is not. Marsh, the name they are using, is my child. I am their mother. It is a complicated situation. But I gave birth to them.”

“Sure. Well what about the fact that they think they were born over a millenia ago? How do you explain that? Then there is the people trying to kill anyone connected to them. Then there is the fact that a wealthy socialite is slumming it below city levels looking for people who could get her killed. All of that needs more explanation. You seem to have some answers. So go for it. Tell me what is going on. Tell me what you know.”

“Please tell me, are they alive?”

“Marsh?”

“Yes. Can I see them?”

“Explanations.”

“This is hardly fair.”

“I would like explanations.”

“Very well. I will tell you what I know. They were born over a millenia ago. Though not in this current organic form.”

“So, a clone?”

“Not exactly. They had organic material from his original parents. Their gametes are stored in some very secure facility. They used them to recreate as closely as possible a natural reproductive phenomena of the original Marsh. Their is genetic manipulation of the chromosomes and DNA, there has to be. There must be a pattern of the original Marsh’s physiology somewhere, and that is matched. Then the zygote is implanted into a host parent for natural birth. They like the process to be as natural as possible”

“Why?”

“It increases the chances of the process being as close to authentic to the original. Tanks do not a human make. There are slight, but detectable, differences between a fetus raised in a tank and one raised in the womb. That’s what they told me.”

“So you were a surrogate?”

“Yes. I am a close enough biological replication of the original mother. Enough for the purposes of the experiment.”

“Why did you agree to that?”

“I wasn’t always wealthy. This wealth is a product of being that surrogate.”

“And what is the experiment intended to produce? Why do they need a close resemblance, to the manner of gestation, of Marsh?”