"Mrs. Shazi, your emergency contact information is blank. Did you want me to add someone?"
Hanna didn't acknowledge the deep sepia-skinned man behind the mahogany desk. She was too focused on the holographic horse running across his merlot tie.
"Mrs. Shazi?"
Hanna shut her eyes and lifted her chin. When she opened them, she was staring at the man's amber ones behind his thick horned rimmed glasses. "Your tie is distracting."
The man looked down and nodded. "I do apologize. I thought I had turned that off." The man gripped the tie's knot and squeezed it twice. The animated horse leaped from the tie onto the silvery cloth of his suit. The horse jumped over each embroidered paisley design, jumped from the man's shoulder and disappeared. Hanna saw the horse reappear in a picture of a rickety old red barn on a shelf at the bottom of many wall-length shelves behind the man. The horse went into the barn and disappeared as the door shut behind it. Hanna blinked a couple of more times as she stared at the picture of the barn.
"Mrs. Shazi?"
"It is Miss Shazi, Mr. Galanidi." Hanna leveled her green eyes back on Mr. Galanidi. Not a single curly black hair on his closely cropped head was out of place.
"Oh. I meant no disrespect, Ms. Shazi. You were referred to us by Mr. Antoine Shazi. It says here he has been your husband since 2052. So sixteen years now." Mr. Galanidi removed his glasses and placed them on the desk; the lenses went from blue with white text lines to black. Mr. Galanidi leaned back and steepled his fingers. "Maybe we should update your file before we proceed. Tell me more about your family."
"Antoine is my ex-husband, and he is still pissed I kept his last name." Hanna gripped the foam armrest pads of her six-month-old wheelchair and began rubbing each under her hands. She stopped when she realized she was being watched. She cocked her head to the side, eyeing the famous billionaire executive of Nightwick Incorporated. "Isn't patient intake a little beneath your paygrade?"
Mr. Galanidi's face split into a wide smile. "Well, it is my company, but you are right. Patient intake is not a typical job for me. However, I make an exception when there is an exceptional circumstance."
Hanna snorted and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Silhouettes of dolphins and mermaids swam around the crystal chandelier hanging from the high-pitched ceiling. She lowered her eyes back on Mr. Galanidi. He hadn't moved. Hanna met his unwavering gaze. "So, I'm an exceptional circumstance?"
"Why yes you are, Ms. Sha-"
Hanna held up her hand. "Call me Hanna. My ex is still pissed I kept his name, but I am still pissed hearing it."
"Very well, Hanna. Since we are dispensing with formalities, please call me Mataleli."
One side of Hanna's lips crept up into a smirk, and she flipped her straight red hair to the side. "Ok, Mat. Tell me why I'm such an exceptional circumstance?"
Mat didn't move in his chair, his fingers remained steepled, and his smile never faltered. "You are to be the first to receive surgery under Nightwick's Purple Heart program. The surgery will be at no cost to you. We are proud to give back to our servicemen and wom-"
"Ha! Well, Mat, you should have done a little more research on me because I received a dishonorable discharge. I can't get free medical care at the VA, much less be eligible for a Purple Heart program. Since this has all been a mistake, I will show myself out." Hanna released the brakes on her wheels and spun towards the door.
"Hanna." Mat stood and walked around his desk. He knelt next to her side, so she was looking down at him. "I am fully aware of your discharge status. Again, this is my company. Our Purple Heart program is for those that served their country and were injured in the line of duty. There is no stipulation on the type of discharge. There is no mistake." Mat placed a hand over Hanna's.
Hanna's eyes became slits, and she breathed once through her nose. "If you don't remove your hand, you are going to lose it."
Mat pulled his hand back and returned to his desk.
The wheelchair turned back to face Mat, and the brakes were reengaged. "Ok, Mat. Tell me why? Why am I getting this procedure? There are plenty of others more deserving. I know I screwed my military career and never questioned my discharge. Not once. It was deserved. So why am I so special?"
Mat began ticking off points on his fingers. "One. You were injured while you served. Two. Your DNA is compatible with the procedure. Three. You have always wanted children."
Hanna was silent. Her hands gripped her armrests until the black fabric covering the foam tore. "What did you say?"
"You have always wanted children. The shrapnel that pierced your lower spine became lodged in your uterus, rendering you barren."
Hanna released her white-knuckled grip and extended three fingers to Mat. "One. You're an asshole." Hanna lowered her index finger. "Two. The shrapnel didn't cause me to be barren. An infection spread from my uterus to my ovaries because the shrapnel was not taken out in time, which forced a full hysterectomy." Hanna lowered her ring finger. "Three. Eat shit and die. Asshole." Hanna let her middle finger hang in the air for a moment before reaching for her wheel brakes. "We are done here."
"What if I said you can have children?" Mat leaned back in his chair again, tilted his head to the side and waited.
Hanna pulled her hands back from her brakes, sat back heavy against her backrest and crossed her arms. "Alright, I'll listen if you can answer one question honestly."
Mat leaned forward and clasped his hands, resting them on the desk. He nodded once. "Agreed."
"You seem to know a lot about me. Earlier, when you asked if Antoine was my husband, did you already know the answer?"
"Yes." Mat didn't hesitate and remained a stoic statue.
Hanna pursed her lips and nodded her head in time with her angry pulse. "Why did you act as if it was unknown?"
Mat shrugged his shoulders. "When it was discovered your DNA was a compatibility match for the LAMP, I gained access to your medical, mental and personnel records from the fifteen years of your military service. I knew you were divorced because it was in your personnel file. I know you were a decorated soldier. I know the reason you received a dishonorable discharge. It was because you assaulted your commanding officer due to a bad call he made in the field, which resulted in your hysterectomy."
Blood rushed to Hanna's face, and she clenched her teeth. "Bad call? Do you want to know what his bad call was? We were on a supply run. Our convoy was half a day out from our destination. The commanding officer was a snot-nosed lieutenant that was angry he was on a supply mission and not in active combat. We passed a couple of women in the doorway of a mud hut just off the road. The lieutenant ordered the convoy to stop and for me to get out to question the women on any enemy movements in the region. He picked me because I was the only woman on the convoy. Neither of the women spoke English, and when I turned to head back to my vehicle, mortars started popping off. I went down and heard the bastard order the vehicles to leave me behind because I was dead." Hanna slammed her fists down on her hand rests. "He just left!"
Mat remained calm as ever and didn't move. He sat patiently, waiting for her to continue.
Hanna shut her eyes, took a few deep breaths and folded her hands across her lap. She opened her eyes to barely slits and began breathing through her nose. "If it weren't for those women pulling me into that hut, treating my wounds and hiding me...I would have died. It took three days before I was rescued. By that time, the damage was done. That same lieutenant visited me in the hospital right as my ex-husband told me, on a hologram call, that he blamed me for being barren and wanted a divorce. As soon as the lieutenant was close enough to me, I ripped off my colostomy bag and threw it at him. I then hit him repeatedly with my IV pole. The lieutenant filed assault charges, and that was that. But I would assault him again in a heartbeat. So, when you hacked my files, did you learn all that information too?"
"Hacked is such an ugly term. I paid top dollar for access to your files." Mat leaned forward and continued to stare into Hanna's slitted eyes. "All your story tells me is you are a survivor. A strong woman with fierce determination. There is no denying you were done wrong." Mat leaned back in his chair and assumed the steepled finger pose. "I have listened to your tragic story, and I answered your question. Now, will you answer one question for me?"
The redness in Hanna's face had doubled in intensity, but she slowly nodded her head once.
"What would you give for the chance to be able to have children?"
Hanna opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out. She inspected her hands still folded in her lap for a while. A couple of blinks and a sigh later, she lifted tear-streaked cheeks. "I would give anything for the chance to have a baby."
Mat slapped his desk with both hands. "That's the right damn answer!"
Hanna, eyes wide from his sudden outburst, asked, "Are you saying it's possible to fix my legs and, what, regrow my womb?"
Mat's smile grew wider. "Yes." He stood from his desk, turned and picked up a frame from a middle shelf. Staring at the frame with his back still to Hanna, he asked, "Do you like horses, Hanna?"
Hanna opened her mouth to answer, but Mat did not give her a chance and said, "My daughter loved horses. She loved all animals, but especially horses."
Hanna didn't try to speak this time. She waited as Mat continued to face the wall with head hung.
Mat returned to his chair and placed the frame on the desk in front of Hanna. The frame depicted a small girl dressed in a princess costume in a hoverchair peering through a wooden fence on a horse ranch. The hoverchair had pink cloth fairy wings attached to its backrest that swayed in time with the chair as it floated above the ground. The horses moved behind the fence as the little blond child watched and then looked back with brown eyes and smiling wide at the camera. A repeating holographic loop of a moment captured in time.
Hanna watched the little girl and smiled. "She's adorable. How old is she now?"
Mat stayed silent for a whole minute, lost in the moving image of his daughter on his desk. With a sigh, he forced his gaze back to Hanna. "She has been gone for many years now."
Hanna's smile faded. "I am sorry for your loss."
"She was born without legs, a congenital amputee." Mat gave Hanna a half-smile. "Her mother died shortly after due to complications from the cesarean she had to have. My daughter grew up without a mother. Despite that and her disability, she never let it slow her down. She was so full of life and wonder. She said she wanted to become either a fairy princess or a horse when she grew up. When I asked her why she said she wanted to fly like a bird or run like the wind. She was the reason I invested my family's money into building this company. She was the first patient and our first failure. That was thirty years ago."
"Are you saying she died during the same procedure you are asking me to do?"
"No. Not the same procedure. We didn't have the level of technology we have now. We haven't lost a patient since her. I am sharing this with you, but you need to understand how serious I am about helping you. When I lost her...I vowed I would make it up to her someday, somehow. The spinal reconstruction procedure has been completed a thousand times, but the new womb procedure has never been tried. You would be the first."
Hanna shifted her gaze back to her lap. "I see. So, I'm the guinea pig or, I guess, the lab rat since guinea pigs are extinct."
"You are still eligible for the LAMP. One additional test is needed to see if you are eligible for the GENIE."
Hanna's eyebrows shot to the top of her head. "Are you saying if I rub your lamp, you will grant my wish? Because if that's the case, you better call your security before I rip your lamp off and rub it between your butt cheeks when I shove it up your ass."
Mat's eyebrows shot up to his receding hairline. "No. What? No..." Mat pinched the bridge of his nose. "The LAMP stands for Ligation And Mechanosynthetic Procedure. It is the procedure that will allow you to run like the wind. GENIE stands for Genetically Engineered Nanite Infused Embryo. It is how you will grow a baby inside you."
"You aren't selling this well. Genetic engineering and nanites? So it won't be natural. Last I checked, engineering humans was still illegal."
"Correct, it is still illegal. I own an island where there are no such regulations. You must accept the terms of moving to the island to have the procedure."
Hanna cocked her head to the side and arched an eyebrow. "So there's the catch. I have to agree to move to some fantasy island. For how long and what happens if I decide island life isn't for me?"
Mat spread his hands. "You have to understand the risks we are taking even performing this type of procedure. You would have to stay indefinitely, but the island is not some desolate, forgotten landmass. You would be living the rest of your life in a five-star all-inclusive hotel. It's a magical place."
"Tahiti?" Hanna maintained her arched eyebrow and added a slight grin.
Mat arched his eyebrow. "No, not Tahiti. Why did you even ask that?"
Hanna's grin disappeared, and she rolled her eyes. "Just...Just never mind. It was a bad joke."
"Ok. Well, jokes aside, do you want to see if you are a match for the GENIE program or do you want to only agree to the LAMP?" Mat clasps his hands on the desk.
"So, if I say no to the" Hanna made air quotes, "GENIE program, I can still get my legs fixed?"
Mat nodded once. "That is correct. One is not dependent on the other."
Hanna let out a long breath and closed her eyes. "Then yes. Yes to both procedures and yes to agreeing to live on the island."
Mat slapped the desk with both hands again. "Hot damn! That's the spirit!"
Hanna smiled. "So, what is this other test?"
Mat waved his hand beside his head. "It is nothing. It is not even invasive." Mat reached into a drawer, pulled out a large touchpad, and set it on the desk. "Just rub your hand across this pad."
Hanna twisted her mouth and squinted her eyes at the pad. "That's it?"
"That is it."
Hanna reached her hand out until it hovered over the edge of the black pad. With a small sigh, she laid the weight of her hand down and pulled it across until a green light appeared and an accompanying beep sounded from the touchpad.
Mat smiled and removed the device from the desk. "That green light means you are about to start your new life."
Hanna blinked. Then blinked again. Her head began to nod, and she made one more long blink. "I am suddenly very slee-"
"Sleepy. Yes." Mat got up from behind his desk, walked to Hanna's wheelchair and unlocked her brakes. "Let's get you somewhere more comfortable."
Hanna didn't respond.
* * *
Muffled sounds made their way through the dark. There were several beeping sounds and some clacking noises. Hanna's head felt heavy and pounding as if horses were stampeding in her brain. She thought some of the clackings in the dark sounded like horse hooves, at least. She tried opening her eyes, but it was as if they were glued shut. She tried to raise a hand and found she couldn't feel her hand, arm, or anything below the neck. She only felt the throbbing pain in her skull.
One of the muffled sounds became clearer. It was a voice. It was Mat's voice. "Why is she waking up?"
Another muffled voice reached Hanna through the darkness. It sounded like a woman's voice. "Sir, we knew this was a possibility when we removed the nerve block." The voice came from behind her but was much farther away than Mat's voice.
"Well, reactivate the block!" Mat's voice echoed off the walls, and Hanna felt like he had screamed directly into her ear.
"Sir, we can't unless we do a cesarean; the block is preventing her contractions."
Cesarean! Hanna struggled with the word. She forced an eye to open to a slit, only to slam it shut as the harsh light felt like a dagger. Hanna tried to open her mouth to speak, but only a soft moan escaped.
"No, this needs to be a natural birth." Mat sounded inches from Hanna's ear.
A new muffled voice came from the far side of the room, a man's deep voice. "Sir, you know the risks. This is the last embryo with these genetics, and this type of birth has never been attempted. If there are compli-"
"Make sure there aren't any! I promised her I would make it up to her. She needs a mother!"
"Then, sir, she needs to remain calm. As her body starts to regain feeling."
Hanna could feel hot breath on her ear. "Hanna, please. You need to relax. The surgery was a success, and you are safe."
Hanna tried to form words again but only managed to slur, "Ces-"
"Sorry, I did not understand that." Mat's breath had moved to her chin, and Hanna felt skin brush her lips.
Hanna felt the sensation of her left shoulder pressed on cloth on a hard surface. She dared to crack an eye again. The light didn't cause her to shut back down, but it still hurt, just not as bad. Everything was a blur, and she tried to speak again. "Cesss...sar-"
"Ah." Mat's lip brushed her ear. "You must have heard. No. We will not be doing a cesarean. This birth must be natural. Congratulations, you are about to become a mother to a little girl. My little girl."
Hanna felt as if she had a shot of adrenaline pumped straight into her heart. Hanna closed her one open eye and then opened both. She managed a couple of blinks. Her vision began to come into focus. She could see a person in surgical scrubs leaning in front of her. The person leaned over into her view, and she could see Mat's grinning face. She managed a single word. "Hhhow?"
Mat held his hand in front of her face and began ticking off fingers. "Well, first, you were brought to the island. Welcome to the island of Minyoti, by the way. Second, the LAMP was successful. Congratulations, you can walk again. Third, you were placed in a coma after impregnating you with the GENIE until that wonderful baby reached full term. Do not worry. You have been under the best medical care for these last eleven months."
"Wh...whyyy?" Hanna thought this had to be a nightmare, or maybe, she was hallucinating.
Mat bent down to look Hanna in the eyes and pointed at her. "Let us just say the old mare just ain't what she used to be." A wide-toothed smile stretched across his face. "You met all the genetic requirements for the GENIE to be viable. But, I couldn't take the chance you would eat or drink the wrong thing and endanger my daughter's health. So you were put down for a while. Don't worry. You were also selected because you wanted to be a mother. My daughter deserves a mother that is a survivor. Someone willing to do anything to have a child."
Hanna felt her fingers twitch as she tried to clench her fists. "Yy...your daughter. Nnn...not mine."
An electronic shrill came from somewhere in the room, followed by four of those strange clacking noises, and the unknown woman spoke, "Her heart rate is spiking. She needs to calm down."
Hanna was able to turn her head to the right. A large blue fabric hung from the ceiling, stretching across the room and covering her midsection. She was lying on her left side next to an IV pole with fluids running into her arm. A strap bound her right arm to her body while another stretched across her waist. Both straps secured her to the operating table.
The clacking noises sped up to a frantic pace behind the curtain, and the unknown man said, "Sir, she needs to calm down. The baby's heart rate is rising too. It might be in distress."
Mat bent in front of Hanna's face again. "Hanna, you have to relax. You are putting the baby in danger."
"You mean your daughter." There was no longer any stuttering. Hanna's words came out clear.
"Ninety-five percent my daughter, but five percent you. You were selected not only because you were willing and viable, but you have the recessive genes necessary to ensure my daughter's genes would be dominant. For example, you have red hair and green eyes. Both are recessive to blonde hair and brown eyes. There are others, but you get the idea. However, despite science coming so far, five percent of your DNA will be part of her makeup. Still, I will live with ninety-five percent of my daughter. This is the last of her usable DNA. It has to work, and you will be her mother."
Hanna opened her mouth to respond, but only a scream came out. Her breathing became erratic, and pain ripped through her body. Her hands balled into tight fists. "Something...Something doesn't feel right."
The man's voice behind the curtain said, "The contractions are getting more severe. She is completely dilated."
Mat ran behind the curtain. "Is it time? Is she here?"
"Almost. I can see the top of the head." The woman's voice called out.
Hanna had lost all sense of her surroundings until the contraction let up. She realized the strap holding her arm had snapped in two. She wiped her face with her hand and placed her hand back on her side. The pain was coming in waves, and then it was all there was again. Hanna screamed again and began taking deep short breaths. Once the pain subsided enough to think, she gritted her teeth and shut her eyes in anticipation of the next wave, but it didn't come. "Something's wrong. Something doesn't feel right. Something is wrong!"
Mat peeked his face from behind the curtain and sported a smile from ear to ear. "You did it. You did it, Hanna."
More of the clacking sounds came from the other side of the room, and the unknown man's voice said, "Uh, Sir. You need to see this."
Mat turned his head, and the smile disappeared. He hit a surgical tray, and metal tools crashed to the ground. "Not possible! That...is...not...possible!" Mat turned back to Hanna, his eyes in dangerous slits. "You did this. Somehow this is your fault."
Hanna, still breathing hard, said between breaths, "What is my fault? I am strapped to a table and haven't been awake for eleven months, if you haven't noticed. But, I will gladly take the blame since it is something that has made you this upset."
Mat lowered his voice, picked up a scalpel and took three steps toward Hanna until he was an arm's length away. "It is not my daughter. The child has red hair, green eyes and is a boy. It is not possible. I checked your DNA myself. It is not possible."
The sudden burst of laughter from Hanna made Mat take a step back. She looked up at him and smiled. "You're right. It is my fault." Hanna grabbed the IV pole, swung it and made contact with Mat's head. Mat stumbled to the side but recovered quickly. He kept his distance from Hanna, swinging the pole around frantically. Hanna stopped trying to hit him and smiled again. "So, Mat, despite all your research into me, you missed one important thing."
Mat took a step towards the curtain. "Impossible. I had all your military records, all your medical files from the past fifteen years."
"Yes, but you didn't go back far enough. You see, Mat, I was a twin." Hanna rested the IV pole next to the bed and began pulling at the strap across her waist.
"There is no record of that in your files." Mat took another step towards the curtain.
A baby began to cry from the other side of the curtain, and Hanna started working the strap's buckle loose as she watched Mat. "There wouldn't be because I absorbed my twin in the womb. Have you ever heard of a chimera, Mat? It means I was born with two sets of DNA."
Mat's mouth dropped open as the realization dawned on him. "If...if that is true, your second set of DNA could have disrupted the embryo's growth." Mat brought the scalpel up into Hanna's view. "Well, I will kill you for this, but first, I will kill your abomination."
Hanna freed herself from the waist strap just as Mat disappeared behind the curtain. "Don't you touch my child, you bastard!" Hanna was frantically trying to lift herself. She felt what she thought was her legs trying to move, but they weren't responding.
The curtain ruffled, and the unknown woman shouted, "You will not hurt this child." Two quick heavy clacking noises came from behind the curtain, and then Mat flew backward across the room. As he soared by, he ripped the curtain, hitting the far wall and slid down into a bloody heap. The curtain fell onto Hanna's waist.
Hanna turned her head to see the back of a horse. The horse's body ended at the neck, and where the head should have been was a woman's body dressed in surgical scrubs. Hanna screamed.
The half-woman half-horse clomped her way to Hanna's side. "Please, don't be afraid. We won't hurt you."
Hanna moved her head between the woman's blue eyes and the spotted white and brown body that ended in a thick tail. "What...what are you?"
The unknown man padded around the corner into view. His face was wrapped in a mask, but his midsection ended at the beginning of another horse's brown body. "You mean, what are we?" The man motioned his hand towards the end of the table and removed the curtain. Hanna screamed again at the sight of a black horse body laying on a table with her waist attached where the horse's head should have been. She began sucking air in hard breaths, and her vision darkened.
The woman grabbed an oxygen mask and placed it on Hanna's mouth. "Just breathe. It's going to be alright."
Hanna took some deep breaths, and the darkness slowly left her sight. She nodded her head at the woman. "What...what is this? What the hell did that psycho do to me?"
"He did the same thing to all of us." The woman removed the oxygen mask and turned back to Hanna. "The surgery fixed your legs by turning you into a centaur. One thousand of us have received the LAMP and we're stranded on this island. You make one thousand and one. But, you are the first to have a baby."
Hanna tried to move again but could only lift her waist. "It feels strange and isn't responding."
The man smiled down at Hanna. "It will take some time for you to learn how to use your new body. But, you will learn, and you will be able to walk again."
The woman placed a hand on Hanna's arm. "Do you want to meet your new son?"
Hanna's eyes filled with tears. "Is...is he normal?"
The man stepped to the back of the room, his hooves making clacking noises as he stepped. He wheeled a table covered in a clear plastic dome close to the bedside. "See for yourself."
Hanna leaned over to see a boy with bright red hair wrapped in blankets. The boy was lying on his side, and the blankets covered a pony's body. Hanna smiled. "Can I hold him?"
The woman opened the plastic dome. "Of course. You are the mother to the first naturally born centaur." The woman picked the boy up and laid him into Hanna's waiting arms. "Do you know what you're going to name him?"
Hanna stroked the hair of the boy pressed against her skin. Her smile never wavered, and she couldn't take her eyes off him. "His name is Aladdin."
~ The End ~