Koban Universe 1 by Stephen W. Bennett

and shrugged. “Aside from that being a risky and bad idea to try, Rich, I’m afraid your mental contact with your baby is going to be zero until after his birth. Kobalt has said he knew nothing of any of his cubs before birth, and little afterwards until they were weaned. Ripper moms and other females have the only permitted mental contact with cubs before weaning in their society, and mental contact isn’t at all what you might expect before birth. We think it’s going to be extremely limited mental contact between you and your unborn baby, Carol. If there is any at all.”
    “Why? I saw his little hands on the scan you just performed. He had one pressed against the sac just now.”
    “Right,” Aldry agreed. “The p lacental membrane sac. That protective sheath that encloses your child. It has no superconducting nerves whatsoever. It is a near insulator for a Mind Tap connection with the baby’s hands, or in the case of ripper cubs, from a neck frill contact. We designed our hands to be the primary contact point for the nervous system responsible for our mental connection to our brain, and evolution put that contact area in the neck frill for rippers. However, evolution placed no nerves in the placental sac of any mammal-like species of any world. Please note that there were no nerves in the primitive egg shells that gradually evolved into placental sacs either.” She shrugged again, and continued.
    “ Of course, the human placenta isn’t identical to that of Koban mammal analogues, but one place where they do match is in the complete lack of nerve connections in the membrane of the sac. Think about it. What evolutionary advantage would there be for the mother to experience the painful tearing of that sac when giving birth?”
    “ What about through the umbilical cord that connects the baby to me?” Carol sounded rather plaintive.
    “Carol, the umbilical vein supplies the fetus with oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood from the placenta, and the fetal heart pumps deoxygenated, nutrient-depleted blood through the umbilical arteries back to the placenta. However, there is no nervous system connection between you two via the cord.”
    “ Ms. Anderfem, I thought Kit and Kobalt experienced mental contact with their mother before birth.” It was obvious she had expected to sense the developing mind of her fetus, and was disappointed.
    “ The sac and umbilical aren’t perfect insulators, hon. Remember, we don’t have to make hand-to-hand connections to share thoughts, and any skin contact will work, even if not as strong or efficient a circuit. I think that nature has luckily provided a natural safety buffer for the fetus, who doesn’t yet have the mental faculties to process information concerning an outer world it has never experienced. I’d urge restraint and extreme caution with Mind Tap transmissions, even after the baby is born. Anything the baby sends out, you two as adults should be able to handle, but the reverse isn’t going to be true.
    “Until we know more of how this ability will alter your child’s mental development after he’s born, limit yourself to simple ‘baby thoughts’ even through the toddler years. Just as human parents have used ‘baby talk’ with their children since prehistoric times.”
    Richard wasn’t satisfied yet. “Doc, how were the thoughts and impressions of ripper history passed to Kit and Kobalt by their mother if she couldn’t frill them? I’ve shared both of those cat’s thoughts on their pre-birth knowledge, just as soon as Carol knew she was expecting. New experiences have overlaid most of that for those cats, but they say they did have some knowledge at birth.
    “ They say they both were born with quite a bit of ripper lore and knowledge, and yet when I’ve played with cubs from Kit after weaning, or those from other ripper mothers, they don’t seem to know much ripper history or culture at all. As they grow older they do, but why not give it to them as fast