Free Gifted by Peter David

various announcements, usually because they had accidentally tweeted parts of their anatomy to their mistresses or other such idiocies. The notion of announcing something that could reshape the face of humanity in a room customarily used for such tawdry matters was offensive to her. Almost as offensive as the twenty-year-old woman popping gum while applying makeup to Rao’s face as she waited behind the blue curtains for her cue.
    “Please take that away,” she said to the twenty-year-old, brushing the woman’s arm aside. “I’m not going to get any prettier.”
    “I think you’re very pretty,” said Tildie, standing next to her. Tildie was a far cry from the terrified child of the other night, but her desperate need for Kavita’s support and presence was as palpable as ever. She was clutching Kavita’s hand like a drowning girl. The doctor hoped this idiocy wouldn’t be too overwhelming for the child.
    A thin, slightly twitchy young man named Feist from the publicity department was peering through the curtains. “Doc, you’re about to change the world. You gotta look glam!”
    “I have to look ‘glam’?”
    70 “Yeah! There’s gotta be a hundred reporters out there…”
    Inwardly Kavita cringed. Outwardly she remained calm. “You know what, Mr. Feist? You should look at photographs of Edison, Einstein, Tesla, Hawking. None of them were especially ‘glam,’ yet somehow they managed to accomplish what they did without that particular gift. Or is it because I’m a woman? Do you think that if it were a man telling the world what I’m about to tell them, the lead sentence in the news stories would be, ‘Dr. Rao took the microphone, looking smashing in a blue Brooks Brothers suit with his hair elegantly coiffed’?”
    “Depends on who the reporter is,” said Feist.
    Despite it all, she allowed a small smile at that. “Perhaps.” She glanced down at her young charge, who didn’t seem the least bit concerned about what they were about to face. “Are you all right, Tildie? You’re not scared?”
    “Do I get to sit near you?” That was the only thing that mattered to her. The message was clear. With Kavita at her side, Tildie could face anything, no matter how horrific.
    Kavita Rao had known for a long time that she would never be able to have children. A fertilized egg had a better chance of surviving in the Mojave than it did in her uterus. She had not been bothered when she’d received the news. No one understood better than a geneticist that sometimes people simply drew the biological short straw, and that’s the way it went. Some people could eat a whole pizza and not gain an ounce; others could eat a slice and pick up two pounds that never went away. Some were tall, some short, some fertile, some…not. No use arguing about it or expending any anguish.
    Yet now, with the way Tildie looked at her as if she were the most 71 important person in the world, Kavita felt a tinge of anguish and regret that she would never have a child of her own. That in fact Tildie would likely be the closest she would ever get.
    Might as well make the most of it
.
    “You’re going to be standing right next to me, actually. Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to come out and talk to the people out there a little bit first. And then we’re going to bring you out so the people can meet you…”
    “Are—?” Her voice caught a moment.
    “What is it, honey?”
    Her voice so soft that Kavita had to strain to hear her, Tildie said, “Are they going to be mad at me? Because of what I did?”
    Kavita crouched so she would be eye-to-eye with the child. “No. Because I’m going to explain to them—just as I explained to you—that it wasn’t your fault. At all. No one gets mad at you for something that isn’t your fault. And I’m going to explain to them why it can never happen again. Mad at you? They’re going to be happy for you.”
    “Really?”
    “Really. Oh. I have something for you.” She