"Mark! Get your ass down here! We gotta' go, my water broke!"
Lydia never could understand how her genius husband could be so stupid but god knows she loved him. They had been anxiously awaiting their newborn for the last 8months. They were old fashioned in a new age, no one in their families could understand their choice in this pregnancy; at least hers was supportive. It was extremely rare for couples to get pregnant anymore. At least not in the old fashioned way.
Most children were genetically engineered from conception and grown in a birthing tube, they were pushed to be the best of the best from before they were even born. Everything from their eye color to intelligence quotient was selected on a slider scale.
The Government had to step in a few decades ago and regulate everything because people were getting out of hand with it. They limited the amount of 'upgrade points' each child recieved and everything but hair and eye color required points to alter. It was literally like making a character. Lydia and her Husband Mark didn't really believe it was 'wrong' but that's not what they wanted for their child either.
"Lydia, you're not even due for another 2 weeks. Are you sure you didn't have another accident?"
Mark loved his wife, to the point he discarded his family after being threatened with being disowned. His family was a very big name in the upper echelons. The Gins started out as bootleggers back when America was founded 2400 years ago, and their legacy continued long after America was overthrown in the early 22nd century. Now they had expanded to everything legal and some things not.
They controlled a critical vote in the System Senate and had a few Planet Presidents in the direct family tree. He had been threatened with dissolution from the family tree when he married Lydia, but when they chose to go through with an all natural childbirth they actually did disown him; after they sent assassins after Lydia of course.
Luckily he was very high leveled, dealing with a few assassins was mere childs play to him, even the ones his family could afford to hire. Ok, maybe that was an exaggeration but they had survived hadn't they?
"Don't argue with me damnit! I should know the difference, we're going, NOW!"
***
'Why does it seem like I'm always dying? I mean in the past two days I've died twice right? Well maybe two days. I should quit talking to myself, if I'm going to be a better version of myself I should at least try to be more extroverted'
Everywhere Eisen looked was black with swirls of grey. At least he thought he was looking. He didn't really think he had a body at this moment. Not yet if the system he met previously was to be believed. 'Maybe I'm in Hell' he thought to himself as he floated along. In the distance he could see a massive vortex that looked like a tornado operating in reverse, instead of blowing everything out it was sucking everything in. He wasn't 100% sure but to the best he could guess, he was floating along in the general direction towards the 'vortex' did black hole apply better? It didn't have an accretion disk, did it even qualify as a black hole?
'Oh well, not like I can control myself. Why worry about it. Maybe I'm sleeping still, what should I have for breakfast tomorrow? What are the steps again? Denial, Rage, Bargaining? Eh, I'm getting tired'
***
Lydia was lying in the birthing suite, as tired as she felt she still had time to think that the only word that could apply to the room was 'sterile'. The painting was 'sterile', the bed was 'sterile', the wall paper was 'sterile', the nurse was 'sterile', the doctor with his clean cut hair was 'sterile'. She wasn't sure that she wasn't going to starting throwing things if it got anymore 'sterile'. At least she was prepared to be a little eccentric, it was rare for people to have natural births anymore.
Why go through the pain and hassle when you could just let a system do it for you? Especially when there was absolutely no risk of defect if the system designed your child at the DNA level. No random mutations, no uncontrolled cellular splits. The children weren't even born with useless organs like the gall bladder, and if you were willing to assign the points you could even increase organs to a certain extent. Breathing underwater? 'Sure', 25 points please… it was ridiculous.
She had waited for the doctor for 45 minutes but eventually he showed up for the emergency delivery. Shortly after, she started the live birth process. During the delivery an actual emergency occurred, the umbilical cord got wrapped around the infant's throat and complicated the child's birth. For 7 minutes the child wasn't able to breathe or get oxygen from the cord eventually the heart monitor for the child flat lined, at this point the doctor's face fell and no matter how professional he tried to appear both Lydia and Mark were worried.
Lydia of course was screaming and screaming while Mark was trying to keep her calm so the doctor could do his job to the best of his ability. During the commotion the lights started flickering, the heart monitors both shut off, the light bulbs actually exploded. Showering the room in incandescent filaments and glass dust. In the next instant all forms of electricity in the adjacent rooms where suppressed as if a short wave EMP had blown through the windows.
A few seconds into the darkness, the electronics started flickering as the cry of a newborn was heard. The child everyone had given up hope on had arrived!