Book One: The Thing Was, Chapter 13-Chapter 14 Summary

Hisako is pregnant with Zenji's child, and she has genetic testing done to check for abnormalities resulting from radiation her mother was exposed to at Hiroshima. The tests are normal, and the baby is a girl. The tests do not show that the girl will be covered with a fine fur. She will be born on Santa Rosalia and named Akiko.

Akiko will look different than her mother but will be very similar, while Mandarax looks the same as Gokubi but is very different inside. Both operate as translators with a microphone and display screen to translate spoken language, but Mandarax translates a thousand languages and performs other functions, including providing relevant quotations, diagnosing diseases, and providing trivia. People a million years in the future do not have the brains or...