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