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has been genetically modified so that it won't reject the fetus. So the question is, what kind would you
prefer? In most of the world it's usually water buffalo. They're a good size, and they're cheap and
plentiful. I prefer to use cows, myself."
Estrella was looking at the woman in horror. "My baby? Inside ananimal?"
"Of course inside an animal," the doctor said impatiently. "What else would you do? You don't want to
go through parturition yourself, do you? All that pain and mess? Not to mention nine months of trying to
get comfortable with a belly that keeps getting bigger and bigger every day? Nobody does now,
except Oh, wait." She paused and gave Estrella a more appraising look. "Listen, you're not one of
those religious fanatics, are you?"
Estrella tried to answer but couldn't. She settled for just shaking her head.
The doctor sighed and stood up. "Look," she said kindly, "I know this is a big step for you. Talk it over,
the two of you. If you've got something against using bovids, there are other mammalian choices. One or
two species of bear are good, and sometimes we can time the pregnancy to coincide with their
hibernation so there's not even the slight risk of accident you get when your surrogate is left out to feed
and so on. That bear procedure, or the water buffalo, is done mostly in Hindu areas, because, you know,
they've got that cow thing. I've even heard of people using one of the marine mammals, now and then,
though I can't imagine why. Not on Mars, of course; even now we don't have that kind of bodies of
water, so I don't have any personal experience. Anyway, I think it would be pretty troublesome to try to
bring an orca here. Excuse me." She turned away, raising her hand apologetically. To the air she said,
"Time?" She listened for a moment, then grimaced. "I really have to get going, and anyway I guess you've
got the picture. Call me if you have any questions and, of course, when you've made up your mind
about the surrogate."
And she was gone. Stan and Estrella looked at each other. Stan said, "What do you think, would you
want to do something like that?"
"Over my dead body," Estrella said firmly. "Let's get something to eat. If we're going to keep that baby
inside me where it belongs, we'd better feed it."
II
Stork was a wonderful toy. Surprisingly, more for Stan than for Estrella; she was interested in seeing it
four or five times a day but not much more, while Stan would sit, studying the tiny molecule, for an hour
or two at a time, until Estrella got tired of doing odds and ends without him and informed him she wasn't
getting enough exercise for the baby's good. So they went for more of those long walks in the
countryside, enjoying the fragrance of growing things, pleased by the beauty of the tall trees with their
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frizzy crown of branches. On this day, the little animals that pretended to be plants were flowering, yellow
and blue and red, and the ruse was working for them. Clouds of tiny flying things hovered around them,
not evidently discouraged by the fact that so many of them were being eaten. There were fish in the pond,
too, nasty snakelike things with bright orange eyes. If Estrella had had some thought of a quick swim she
gave that up as soon as she saw them writhing around, just below the surface.
But the day had a pleasant surprise. When they got back to their apartment they found a stack of
hexagonal boxes, great and small, just inside the door. What they contained was the personal
possessions they had had in their Five, left behind on Door and finally returned to them by some
considerate Heechee. The smallest of the boxes held half a dozen of Stan's old sheet-music selections,
and that was all they needed to get their instruments out of the wall cupboard and begin to play. It was a
nice way to end a day.
And, the next morning, a nice way to begin one, too. It was Estrella's flute, played as she was sitting on
the side of their bed, that woke Stan up, and he only took a moment to use the waste disposer before he
joined her in a couple of choruses of "Stardust" and "The Jelly Roll Rag." Then Stan remembered that he
hadn't used the drencher that morning, and he invited Estrella to join him, and one thing led to another
and they found themselves right back in bed again. After that Stan didn't think he had gone back to sleep
again, but the next thing he knew he heard that soft, deep-down low-frequency rumble that meant there
was something in the food dispenser. "Estrella?" he called.
It took a moment for her to show herself, coming in off the balcony and still brushing her hair. "What?"
she asked.
"Did you order lunch?"
She frowned. "Well, I did say, out loud, that I was getting hungry."
Which led Stan to observe that, as a matter of fact, so was he. "Let's see what we've got," he said.
When they had punctured the bubble-covers, what they'd got was a total surprise to both. The smell of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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