" "Oh, come on, Rowan." "Oh, come on, Rowan." Rowan had a tendency to get verbose, a tendency Ember sometimes found frustrating. But she smiled. "What's it like to have children?" Ember stopped. The question brought all of her thought processes to a screeching halt. The question was so completely unexpected that she actually had to 'reset' before speaking. "Well, that's hard to say. What part?" "All of it." "Well," she began again. "Since we're talking about me, it starts with sex, of course. Then there's morning sickness, pregnancy, labor... What do you want to discuss?" "I mean, emotionally. Is it worth it?" Ember smiled and remembered when Ken had asked her that question. Of course, she could remember when she had asked her mother the same thing. "I think it is." "Ember... I think I want to have children." "What?" "No, really." "You're only eleven years old, Rowan. It's a little early to go organic." "I... I don't think I want to be organic. I think I'd like to go positerminal." Ember glanced around her office for a moment, then said "Rowan... Positerminals are a waste of time. Eventually you go back into the machine or you go full, and in the meantime we've got this waste of flesh and time." "Ember, please. I could go to another lab and have it done. But I'd really rather have it kept in the family. |