The advertisements on the screen were ceaseless. As she had done so many times, she questioned her decision to have a Natural. Mona loved the thought of conceiving with her partiner, carrying a child to term and giving birth, and bringing a new life into the world.

But the ads were well designed for people like her, women who were considering having a child of their own to love. "Remove the risk: perfect almost every time!*" Then there was a picture of a modern day Apollo, perfectly muscled wearing only a thin tee and sports shorts with intelligent eyes, and a beaming, wide smile with sparkling teeth that said "I love you mom!" That was bad enough.

Then they showed several Naturals in rapid succession: Severe skin conditions, hair in abnormal places, major limb deformities, missing fingers, deformed heads, showed in slow motion with magnification on the anomalies of each child. "Your child? Why take the chance? Quantum can help you deliver the perfect child. Message or call at 555-555-5555 for a free consultation."

The familiar fear spread in an ice flow through her body. "How many times have I had this discussion with myself? A Natural or nothing," Mona said under her breath as she marched up to the monolithic birth center.

Jaysun was fine either way, she knew. If the baby was a Natural and had serious issues, he knew Mona would be a nurturing mom. He could go about his business of making trainloads of money as a marketeer and help with the child where and when he could, if it fit into his glue-tight schedule.

But if they purchased birthrights to a Quantum Kid, Jaysun could train him to be an athlete or maybe a scientist. They certainly could afford any chip that was available on the market today. And it would be their child, with abilities taken from, yet far beyond, the genetic structure of their own bodies. Genetic manipulation could be a wonderful thing.

It was said that the Natural failure rate was close to 40%, but those failures usually ended up as house-bound but loved burdens to their parents. Still, Mona vacillated.

But the 2.5 % failure rate of QKs couldn't be ignored either, like Steven Holdrum, who became a ground-breaking epidemiologist and used his knowledge to create diseases for which there was at the time no cure, diseases that made Ebola seem like the common cold. It took another QK to create an antidote to save the world.

*2.5% failure rate due to parental genetic deficiencies.