Earth Mother (Short Story‪)‬

This is a short story reprinted from Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2014 and Echoes of the Mind's Eye: 13 Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2020 by Victor D. López.

A mysterious visitor from another world wakes a young, ambitious woman in the middle of the night to deliver an intriguing offer after nearly frightening her to death. He explains that his race is dying as women in his distant world are no longer able to carry embryos of their species to term. If she is willing to serve as a surrogate mother for an embryo for an accelerated gestation period of a few weeks, he promises to return to take away the child and to bestow upon her the gift of telepathy for the remainder of her life in exchange for her service. As an added bonus, the embryo will provide a boost to her immune system that will make her virtually impervious to all disease for the rest of her life. If she accepts, will her dreams finally be realized, or will she live to regret her choice?