The Grandmother

A "Starting Over" contest story

I have never enjoyed being “debriefed” but I expected this one to be the worst.

I entered the office, and sat in the chair across from my supervisor.

He shuffled papers for a bit, and then said to me “All right. I’ve seen your written report, but I want your verbal statement. So start at the beginning”

“Yes sir,” I replied. “Approximately one month ago we received reports of a series of unusual events in the town of Crossfield, Alberta. The town has - had a population of just over one thousand people until the first event occurred. At about noon, all the men in the town grabbed whatever bag or suitcase they could and left the town. Not only did no women leave, they did not prevent the men from leaving, even when the men took all the children with them.”

“From interviews we conducted, it seems like they all felt some overwhelming fear and a need to get away. So what happened next?” my supervisor asked.

“The next event. All the women, which was everybody left, became pregnant. We found out because one woman managed to leave the town. Which left a problem, as we wanted to send someone in to get a better understanding, but we obviously couldn’t send in a guy, and if we sent in a woman of childbearing age she might become instantly pregnant.”

“So they sent you”

“Well, I am trans. So they thought I might be enough of a girl to not get scared off, while I also don’t have the equipment to get pregnant.”

“Continue.”

“In some ways, it seemed pretty normal. People were working, getting groceries, just ordinary things. But the fact there were only pregnant women there was the surreal part. It took a while for anybody to notice me, but finally a couple of women came over, looked at me, and said, ‘you must be here to see Grandmother’. So I said I was, and they led me to the town square, where an old woman was sitting on a bench in a gazebo. She was knitting something, but after a moment she looked up, and asked me to join her on the bench.”

“Your report described her as ‘like if you asked AI to build the average grandmother’”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought then. But she was willing to talk with me. Although what we did was more an exchange of feelings than a verbal conversation.”

“You do know you were not authorised to negotiate”

“I wasn’t trying to negotiate. I just wanted her to understand what she would face if she didn’t stand down. Just how much damage a frightened humanity could do, even to someone with her abilities. In exchange she shared her story with me. She was the last survivor of the destruction of her people. She had survived because she was on their equivalent to our space station. It had what you would think of as eggs - potential new life, and she took them into herself, and flung the station away from her home.”

“Go on.”

“Well, somehow she made it here, to Earth. But she had a problem. Her body couldn’t handle all the eggs, she needed to find surrogate hosts or they would die, and so would she. She sent a request for help to the townsfolk. For reasons she didn’t understand, the offer scared men so bad they left, taking the kids with them. But the women, many could understand, and volunteered to be surrogates.”

“You sure they were doing it of their own free will?”

“As sure as I can be, under the circumstances.”

“Your report was a little unclear about what happened next.”

“That’s because it was unclear to me. She must have understood my warning, because she took control of the area, and sort of fast forwarded things. So all the women had given birth, and she could take the babies away before anybody could attack. And then she and the babies were gone.”

“We have examined the women, they seem unharmed by the experience. But that leaves us with what happened to you.”

I patted my growing belly, and said “I think she wanted to thank me. For talking instead of fighting. So she left me a gift. I’m all woman now, and pregnant besides.”

“By all rights we should keep you in custody until this baby arrives, to prevent any threat to humanity.”

“But your tests have shown both of us are just normal humans. Locking me or the baby up is a waste of resources. Let us go.”

****

About two weeks later, they decided to let me go. They were kind enough to give me a new identity.

Now, with my baby coming soon, I can truly start over . . .

END.