“Your parents sound kind of awesome,” Pendt said. “I think it makes sense that you’d be nervous about being a parent with that act to follow. All I have to do to surpass my mother is have a kid that calls me ‘mother’ instead of ‘sir.’”
“What happens if you can’t operate the station?” Fisher asked.
“Then I’ll have Dr. Morunt reverse the stasis,” Pendt said. “Once he walks me through it, I should be able to do it myself, actually. I only need his help because I want to be sure everything is as safe as possible for everyone who needs this foetus to be viable.”
“I wonder if your mother had been a gene-mage, if she’d have been able to stop the twins from being born together,” Ned mused. “Obviously, I am pro-twin, but I can understand how it might be a drain on resources on a spaceship.”
“Everything is a drain on resources on a ship,” Pendt said. “I’ll make an appointment with Morunt for as soon as he’s available.”
* * *
• • •
Dr. Morunt was not entirely pleased with the idea but was mollified somewhat by Pendt’s assurance that she had been fine as the “held-over” embryo. Pendt didn’t ask any personal questions, but she had a feeling that the idea that his sister had helped her mother might have made him feel better about the procedure too. Or, at least it might if they were going to talk about it. Which they were not. Once they worked out the logistics, it took only a few moments.
Dr. Morunt placed his hands on Pendt’s stomach, and Pendt followed him through her pattern as he worked, learning what he was doing as he did it. The embryo was still microscopic, only split a few times, and it was easy to contain.
Later, Pendt thought as they sealed it into the uterine wall, leaving it enough nutrients to sustain itself but not to develop. Later I will be back, and you will grow.
“Thank you, Doctor,” Pendt said as Morunt withdrew his hands.
“I want the station to be safe as much as anyone else does,” he said. “And you are a bit young to be starting a family, for all we desperately need Ned to do exactly that. He’ll be leaving, I suppose? That boy was always restless, but since his parents were taken, it’s even worse.”
“The station will be safe,” Pendt said. “I have promised to make sure of it. As for Ned, well, we both got something out of this arrangement, and both of us are convinced we got the better end of the deal.”
“Come back whenever you like,” Morunt said. “Working with you is like nothing I’ve ever done before. It feels like we could move the stars.”
“I think the stars are best left where they are,” Pendt said, a shudder running down her spine. “But I do want to learn the medical aspects of being a gene-mage, even though I think I like plants better.”
“I’m happy to help,” Morunt said.
Pendt left the office feeling lighter than she had felt since the morning after her wedding. She had no problem fulfilling her end of the bargain, and she would do it no matter what it took, but she was learning to factor herself into her calculations, and if she could make this easier on herself, she would. If it worked out, the station would be fine, and she would be able to give birth at a time of her choosing. Choosing was new for her, and she relished it. Getting one back at her family, who would have taken all her bodily choices away from her, was just a bonus.
She waved at a few shopkeepers as she crossed the colonnade. There were so many faces here, but she was starting to recognize them, and they definitely recognized her. The Brannick citizens didn’t seek her out yet, not the way they did Ned when he walked the corridors, but that would come soon enough. She hoped. This was her home now, like the Harland had been. She had served the Harland because she had no choice. Brannick Station would have her, but they would have her because that was exactly what she wanted.
16.
TWO MORE WEEKS WENT by, and Pendt was healthy. She had been on Brannick Station for a month, and the changes in her body were amazing, even without taking the foetus into account. Her hair and nails were stronger, shinier. She walked around the whole station every day and it didn’t cause terrible muscle cramps or leave her winded. She couldn’t see the points of her bones sticking out of her skin anymore. She was softer. Rounder. Fuller. And every inch of her was better off.
She spent her days working in hydroponics, tending to the wide variety of plants there. Just that section of the station was as big as the whole Harland, and she loved every inch of it and all the greenery within. Even two weeks into her tenure there, the changes in the crops were marked. Everything was healthier, growing stronger. She caught rot before it spread and knew just by looking at a tree if the fruit was ripe. She had never been more pleased with her work.
Ned no longer invited her to his bed. After an entire lifetime of sleeping alone, she missed his reliable warmth, but she wasn’t about to push him. He organized his belongings, deciding what he was going to take with him when he left, and sent coded messages to his contacts in the rebellion, waiting to hear his assignment.
Fisher showed her around operations. Ned could have done it just as easily, but the whole point was to learn how to make it work without him, so he stayed away. Pendt learned how each part of the station worked, how they functioned as a whole, and where the weak points were. She learned how to read schedules, and what to do in myriad possibilities of emergency on the loading docks.
The embryonic stasis held. Dr. Morunt gave an official medical report that the foetus had stopped growing even though it was still alive. Pendt could tell that for herself, just as she could tell exactly how to reverse the procedure if she had to, but it was nice to have a doctor to rely on again, and this Dr. Morunt was even more considerate of her than the Harland one had been. All that remained was to see if the foetus could, while in stasis, still operate the station.
The first time Pendt tried to activate the Well, she passed out. Ned stepped in and sent the ship on its way, and no one thought anything was wrong, but Pendt was disappointed.
“We knew it might not work,” Ned said later, in an effort to make them both feel better.
“No, it did work,” Pendt said. “Or, at least, it was going to. It’s a different kind of magic than I usually do. I never thought about it, but your magic works differently than mine does. I went much too far into the station’s operating system. I just need to practice.”
Miraculously, the Well was scheduled for routine maintenance checks starting the next day. Everyone on the station was notified that it would be flickering on and off all day, and not to worry about it. Pendt fainted three more times and ate the equivalent of five days’ protein ration, but eventually she had it down. She could turn on the Well on command.
“The æther’s already there,” she said. “I don’t have to gather it together and look at it the way I usually would. I just have to input the key.”