Raiza stood, dazed for the third time in her life. Her mind simply stopped functioning, she could feel a haziness come over for a few moments. It always passed. She knew this happened to everyone. First the haziness, soon she would be asked to leave her job. Not long after that she would be sent to a home, unless Eli allowed her to stay. She was sure he would care for her. Rarely did children want to care for their parents as the decay got harder to manage. But Eli was not like most children. He was good and kind. Eventually she would be bedridden and would slowly die. Her mind gone, her accomplishments forgotten. 

Raiza Lennox had done many good things in her life. At least she once thought that. She was a scientist. A very good scientist. She had shown an aptitude for science at a very young age and excelled in the field. That almost forgave her losses. Each lost pregnancy she was terrified would be the end, perhaps were she any other woman, not one of the main genetic biologists in Sector zero she would have been repurposed after the first or second death. But that was not why she had prayed for a child. She yearned for something in her life that she lacked. She had hoped and prayed to the stars for Eli when he finally came. She loved her son fiercer than her mother had loved her, she had given him every single thing he could ever need. 

Eli was special, she knew that from the moment he was born. He cried far more than other babies did. He saw everything differently. He was different. Different was not safe though, different could get him in trouble. She had tried her best with him, and now she was seeing her life slowly begin to dim. Had he been her first born, instead of her fifth, she would have had more years with him. She would have gotten to love him longer. 

She could hear him whimpering and groaning in his sleep. Another dream. He had told her about his dreams before. They terrified her to think that her son had to experience such horrors in his sleep. She used to hold him tightly to her when he was a small child until he stopped crying from fear. It hurt her that her son was in so much pain, but pain is what came with just how odd he was. She would never understand the way his brain worked, hers while brilliant would never see and feel what his did. 

Raiza stood from her spot at the table and walked towards her sons bedroom, opening the door slowly and stepping in. Eli was tossing and turning, sweat drenching his grey shirt. She sat at the edge of his bed and put her hand to his shoulder. “Eli… you’re okay.” She soothed. “It’s just a dream love. You’re okay.” 

Finally the boy woke, gasping for air that struggled to push through his lungs. Her poor boy. He looked around the room, his eyes shifting this way and that taking in his space. Finally he flopped back down to his pillow and threw an arm over his face. “I’m okay.” 

“Was it the same dream as always?” Raiza asked. 

Eli sighed and nodded. “It’s always the same.” 

She felt bad that her son had to feel things so deeply. She couldn’t help the guilt that swelled up inside her. She looked away and stood. “Come eat when you’re ready. You have school again today. 

She cut thin slices of Squiel to fry with herbs and grains. Their life was good in center of the world. Raiza had only seen the other sectors on research missions to the other laboratories, but she knew the further away from the center a person got, the harder life was. The bordering sectors lived the worst lives. She had known friends that had been shipped off to different sectors as their aptitude’s came back. She had been lucky she was such a skilled scientist. Her life would have been very different were she anywhere else. 

She heard the shuffling of socked feet and the scooting of a chair. Eli sat still and waited for his meal as she fried off the meat for them to share. It had been ten days since insemination. They would know soon if he had a successful conception. 

Raiza shook her head, she knew it would be successful. How could it not. Failure to conceive was almost a complete thing of the past at this point. It had become so rare that she had forgotten just how scary it could be. She was sure Eli was scared, she could almost feel it in all of his emotions. 

“How many days left?” He asked as she served him a plate. 

Raiza smiled and shrugged her shoulders, forcing herself to be calm for her son. “It could be anytime now through the next four or five days. We’ll be checking.”

Eli nodded and gave her a small forced smile. The one he had been doing since he was a child to placate her. She wasn’t unaware at just how much her son did things for her benefit. He didn’t want her worrying about him. But she did almost constantly. 

She pulled on her boots, the ones she had bought the month prior, just in case and buttoned her cloak tight around her as Eli did the same. 

“I’ll be home late tonight.” She said pulling her sons hood over his black curls. 

“I’ll save dinner for you.” Eli said. “I love you.” he turned and opened their door to the bridge. 

“I love you.” She whispered, watching her son walk out onto the huge floating orb, protecting them from the chill of the air. “My boy.” 

It had been too many hours. She worked late this time of year. It was tedious work, insemination. She used to be so interested in the genetic makeup of humans, not anymore. Now she just wished she knew less of what made a person. She hated seeing how afraid the children were, she remembered that fear well. They tried, of course, to make the entire procedure as comfortable for them as possible. Everything was clean and sterile and as quick and painless as it could be. 

“Raiza,” a technician knocked on her door. “I’m leaving for the night. There’s two more tests to process.” 

Raiza sighed and stood. “Have a good night Dariux.” 

The young man smiled and nodded. He couldn’t be more than eighteen, still going through his own yearly conceptions while working the insemination hall. It had to be exhausting. Raiza stepped into the small laboratory off the female wing. The female were brought back at day ten for a blood test. Usually that showed whether or not the pregnancy was successful or not. 

She had two vials of blood to spin. She looked into the tests, one positive to enter into the file. She opened the document and clicked through to prove a positive test. The next came back negative. That was disappointing. They would have to be brought in the next month for a second round. 

Raiza opened the file and clicked through the girls information, briefly, scanning the negative pregnancy before clicking to the last page. Both parties would be contacted. 

Male: Eli Lennox 

Raiza felt her breath come in short. He didn’t pass the insemination. What could it mean that he didn’t pass both. Rarely were the children infertile anymore. He wouldn’t be given another chance. He would be repurposed within twenty four hours. 

Raiza could feel her stomach churn. She knew what repurpose actually meant. They had no use for children who could not expand the population. Her son would be killed. Raiza could throw out the test, but another would be done within days. She couldn’t put false information, it would come out too quickly that the girl wasn’t pregnant. There was still plenty of blood in the vial. She was very skilled at only using a much blood as necessary. She put the cap back on, sealing it and erased the data she had entered. 

Raiza stood and signed herself out, locking the room and leaving quickly towards the bridge and her home. She made it home and raced towards her private pad. Sending private messages across sectors was illegal, but what choice did she have. 

She took a single moment to breathe before gathering what they would need.