Read Bastion Science Fiction Magazine - Issue 4, July 2014 for Free Online Page B

issues? Psychological? Emotional?”
    “Not really, no. All aquatic children progress differently than a typical infant, their memory is more acute, and they’re also physically more robust and less helpless than your conventional baby, so they’re more independent at a much earlier age. I can’t tell you what kind of adults they’ll turn into, if that’s what you’re asking, but I can’t really tell you that of any child, now can I?” The stout woman in her white chassis gave him a scolding look.
    “Are they harder to love?” Ojore asked, looking very guilty. He began gnawing on the cuticle of his thumb. “What I mean is, do all those differences, and their life out in the ocean, does it impede the parent-infant bond?”
    Dr. Nakamura’s demeanor softened. She sat on the armrest next to Ojore and wrapped a reassuring arm around him. “That’s a very common question—one I asked myself many times during the pregnancy—and the answer is an emphatic ‘no’. The bonding process is no easier or harder with these children then with any other. I remember the first time my little Kin looked up at me and said, ‘I love you.’ His big eyes were so content and full of love. I began to cry. He was about a month old.”
    Ignacio coughed inelegantly and said, “We need to talk about this.”
    The doctor rose, her face impassive—No, not impassive. Patient. “Please do. I’m going to send some reading material directly to your implants with more information.” Ignacio thought he detected a slight emphasis on the word “implants” as if she were trying to remind them that they were infinitesimally modified themselves and were being silly with their reservations about parenting a 200 pound half-fish baby. “Please stay as long as you like and discuss this.”
    She gave them a warm smile, a professional bow, and left. The info packet instantly landed in his brain. He looked at Ojore for some direction, but his husband only stared at his hands, either deep in thought or already reading the brochure. “So what do you think?” Ignacio asked after long minutes.
    “I don’t know. You seem pretty against it.”
    “No, I don’t know either. I think I was just arguing with her because she was so enthused about it. I just want our baby to have a normal, happy life, you know?”
    “Me too, but this may be the new normal. You heard the doctor; everyone is having beluga babies now. These will be our kid’s peers. If we choose to have an ordinary child—if we’re even able to—will they fit in? Will they have friends? Would they even be able to compete for a decent job with these aquatic geniuses?”
    Ojore’s eyes went vacant for an instant and Ignacio knew he was processing the material. He didn’t bother reading his. “Anything interesting?”
    “Oh, it’s all interesting if you look at it from a purely scientific perspective, I just don’t know if I want this for us . When people upgrade themselves it’s always a choice, I’ve never heard of a baby already being born augmented. Especially this level of modification! It seems wrong.”
    “Apparently it happens all the time now.”
    “I do want a baby.”
    “Me too.” Ignacio took Ojore’s hands and kissed them. “We don’t have to decide right now. Let’s go home and think about it.”
     
    #
     
    They waded out into the large icy pool with Dr. Nakamura. The ocean shimmered with its bizarre green hue, teeming with extraterrestrial phytoplankton like a great grassy plain in spring. Only its languid undulation revealed the landscape to be a fluid. Designer mangroves encircled and softened the hard edge of their seagoing super-structure; their branches were bent and twisted by gravity into natural bonsais, their roots tangled in the coagulated brine. Ignacio took a deep breath and the breeze stung his nostrils and esophagus like fragrant acid. The sky burned in cyan.
    He stifled the urge to strip off the motorized cage that aided his movements and