Lois Bujold: Falling Free

“Oh my goodness. That soon.” Claire paused, watching the wriggling Andy and remembering how the first pregnancy had drained her energy. “I guess I can handle it. But whatever happened to that two-and-a-quarter-year ideal spacing you were talking about?”

Dr. Yei bit her words off carefully. “There is a Project-wide push to increase productivity. In all areas.” Dr. Yei, always straightforward in Claire’s experience, smiled falsely. She glanced at Tony, hovering happily, and pursed her lips.

“I’m glad you’re here, Tony, because I have some good news for you too. Your welding instructor Mr. Graf has rated you tops in his class. So you’ve been picked as gang foreman to go out on the first Cay Project contract GalacTech has landed. You and your co-workers will be shipping out in about a month to a place called Kline Station. It’s on the far end of the wormhole nexus, beyond Earth, and it’s a long ride, so Mr. Graf will be going along to complete your training en route, and double as engineering supervisor.”

Tony surged across the room in excitement. “At last! Real work! But—” he paused, stricken. Claire, one thought ahead of him, felt her face becoming mask-like. “But how’s Claire supposed to start a baby next month if I’m on my way to where?”

“Dr. Minchenko will freeze a couple of sperm samples before you go,” suggested Claire. “Won’t he…?”

“Ah—hm,” said Dr. Yei. “Well, actually, that wasn’t in the plans. Your next baby is scheduled to be fathered by Rudy, in Microsystems Installation.”

“Oh, no!” gasped Claire.

Dr. Yei studied both their faces, and arranged her mouth in a severe frown. “Rudy is a very nice boy. He would be very hurt by that reaction, I’m sure. This can’t be a surprise, Claire, after all our talks.”

“Yes, but—I was hoping, since Tony and I did so well, they’d let us—I was going to ask Dr. Cay!”

“Who is no longer with us,” Dr. Yei sighed. “And so you’ve gone and let yourselves become pair-bonded. I warned you not to do that, didn’t I?”

Claire hung her head. Tony’s face was mask-like, now.

“Claire, Tony, I know this seems hard. But you in be first generations have a special burden. You are first step in a very detailed long-range plan for GalacTech, spanning literally generations. Your actions have a multiplier effect all out of proportion—ak, this isn’t by any means the end of the world or you two. Claire has a long reproductive career scheduled. It’s quite probable you’ll be getting back together again someday. And you, Tony—you’re tops.

GalacTech’s not going to waste you, either. There will be other girls—”

“I don’t want other girls,” said Tony stonily. “Only Claire.”

Dr. Yei paused, went on. “I shouldn’t be telling you this yet, but Sinda in Nutrition is next for you. I’ve always thought she was an extraordinarily pretty girl”

“She has a laugh like a hacksaw.”

Dr. Yei blew out her breath impatiently. “We’ll discuss it later. At length. Right now I have to talk with Claire.” She thrust him firmly out the door and keyed it shut on his frown and muffled objections.

Dr. Yei turned back to Claire and fixed her with a stern gaze. “Claire—did you and Tony continue to have sexual relations after you became pregnant?”

“Dr. Minchenko said it wouldn’t hurt the baby.”

“Dr. Minchenko knew?”

“I don’t know… I just asked him, like, in a general way.” Claire studied her hands guiltily. “Did you expect us to stop?”

“Well, yes!”

“You didn’t tell us to.”

“You didn’t ask. In fact, you were quite careful not to bring up the subject, now that I think back—oh, how could I have been so blind-sided?”

“But downsiders do it all the time,” Claire defended herself.

“How do you know what downsiders do?”

“Silver says Mr. Van Atta—” Claire stopped abruptly.

Dr. Yei’s attention sharpened, knife-like and uncomfortable. “What do you know about Silver and Mr. Van Atta?”

“Well—everything, I guess. I mean, we all wanted to know how downsiders did it.” Claire paused. “Downsiders are strange,” she added.

After a paralyzed moment, Dr. Yei buried her suffused face in her hands and sniggered helplessly. “And so Silver’s been supplying you with detailed information?”

“Well, yes.” Claire regarded the psychologist with wary fascination.

Dr. Yei stifled her chortles, a strange light growing in her eyes, part humor, part irritation. “I suppose—I suppose you’d better pass the word to Tony not to let on. I’m afraid Mr. Van Atta would become a little upset if he realized his personal activities had a second-hand audience.”

“All right,” Claire agreed doubtfully. “But—you always wanted to know all about me and Tony.” “That’s different. We were trying to help you.” “Well, we and Silver are trying to help each other.” “You’re not supposed to help yourselves.” The sting of Dr. Yei’s criticism was blunted by her suppressed smile. “You’re supposed to wait until you’re served.” Yei paused. “Just how many of you are privy to this, ah, Silver-mine of information, anyway? Just you and Tony, I trust?”

“Well, and my dormitory mates. I take Andy over there in my off hours and we all play with him. I used to have my sleep restraints opposite Silver’s until I moved out. She’s my best friend. Silver’s so—so brave, I guess—she’ll try things I’d never dare.” Claire sighed envy.

“Eight girls,” Yei muttered. “Oh, lord Krishna… I trust none of them have been inspired to emulation yet?”

Claire, not wishing to lie, said nothing. She didn’t need to; the psychologist, watching her face, winced. Yei turned indecisively in air. “I’ve got to have a talk with Silver. I should have done it when I first suspected—but I thought the man had the wit not to contaminate the experiment—asleep on my feet. Look, Claire, I want to talk with you more about your new assignment. I’m here to try and make it as easy and pleasant as possible—you know I’ll help, right? I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

Yei peeled Andy off her neck where he was now attempting to taste her earring and handed him back to Claire, and exited the airseal door muttering something about “containing the damage…”

Claire, alone, held her baby close. Her troubled uncertainty turned like a lump of metal under her heart. She had tried so hard to be good…

Leo squinted approvingly against the harsh light and dense shadows of the vacuum as a pair of his space-suited students horsed the locking ring accurately into place on the end of its flex tube. Between the two of them their eight gloved hands made short work of the task.

“Now Pramod, Bobbi, bring up the beam welder and the recorder and put them in their starting position. Julian, you run the optical laser alignment program and lock them on.”

A dozen of the four-armed figures, their names and numbers printed in large clear figures on the front of each helmet and across the backs of their silvery work suits, bobbed about. Their suit jets puffed as they jockeyed for a better view.

“Now, in these high-energy-density partial penetration welds,” Leo lectured into his spacesuits’s audio pick-up, “the electron beam must not be allowed to achieve a penetrating steady-state. This beam can punch through half a meter of steel. Even one spiking event and your, say, nuclear pressure vessel or your propulsion chamber can lose its structural integrity. Now, the pulser that Pramod is checking right now—” Leo made his voice heavy with hint; Pramod jerked, and hastily began punching up the system readout on his machine, “utilizes the natural oscillation of the point of beam impingement within the weld cavity to set up a pulsing schedule that maintains its frequency, eliminating the spiking problem. Always double check its function before you start.” The locking ring was firmly welded to its flex tube and duly examined for flaws by eye, hologram scan, eddy current, the examination and comparison of the simultaneous x-ray emission recording, and the classic kick-and-jerk test. Leo prepared to move his students on to the next task.