My mother Laila-Istvan was sixty-seven when I was born, from genetic material she’d set aside when she came of reproductive age. In ageless stasis, it kept fresh; my gene-father was nearly two generations younger, young enough to have been her grandson.
She didn’t come to rest, to the rearing of a child, until late in life. Her traveling-companions didn’t include my gene-father, but our notion of kin is somewhat more expansive and elastic than some places planet-side, Karis for example. Now we don’t do clan-marriages like them; we form pairs or groups of traveling-companions, and the more dangerous the trade the larger the circle if there’s a child in the picture. Sometimes a mother or father makes a gamete-gift to a traveling-circle; those of us old spacers who daren’t risk it but still want a child are happy for such generosity.
We don’t own our children but owe them.
***
The narrator is Taryn the Outlander. From character interviews for the Ship’s Heart universe.
Weekend Writing Warriors offers a selection of eight-sentence excerpts from many different writers. For the full selection, see here.
E. P. Beaumont 
Whew! I jumped right into the middle of a totally different culture. Nice 8.
Terrific world building, as ever!
Very interesting! Great eight!
An interesting arrangement for reproduction.
For a few paragraphs of mostly worldbuilding, this was a great piece. Enough detail, enough hints of how expansive the universe is… a bit of curiosity on how this child/person’s youth is.
Lovely last line! I enjoyed the description of the way this culture handles “families” – the worldbuilding is always so fascinating and thorough, yet never boring in your stories. Great snippet!