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Fortunately none of it had. When they came out of the bedroom Estrella, too, was now fully dressed and
the doctor began to talk. What Dr. Kusmeroglu had to say amounted to a lot of information about the
baby's having nearly completed brain growth and why the baby had stopped kicking. (It had no choice.
It had grown so large that there no longer was enough room in the uterus to kick.) "But she's all right?"
Stan demanded after the first five minutes of increasingly obscure medical details.
Cut off in midstream, the doctor blinked at him. "Well, sure she's all right. Barring that she needs more
rest and better food, anyway and, if you can possibly arrange it, Stan, as little aggravation as possible.
Those contractions she's been having "
Stan instantly turned his attention to Estrella. "What contractions?"
She shrugged. "Well, they weren't very strong and I didn't want to worry you."
"But " he began, but the doctor overrode him.
"She was fine, Stan. They were just theBraxton-Hicks contractions that are perfectly normal at this time.
Think of it as the uterus practicing up for when the labor starts, all right?" She glanced at her wrist screen,
moving her lips silently as she checked over her notes and finally said, "I guess that's about it. I'm going to
make some dietary recommendations, but outside of that What?"
Stan was demanding attention. "The baby. When is it going to get born, can you say?"
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The doctor pursed her lips. "Ah. Good question. It's a little tricky to calculate, because I don't know
exactly how long you were Outside," she said, "but probably somewhere around two to four weeks from
now. Maybe six. Stork will keep an eye on things and let us know how they're progressing."
She looked up as the door announced another visitor. "I'll get it," Estrella said, rising with some difficulty
from the deep armchair she had been sitting in. With mixed emotions Stan watched her what was the
word? yes,waddle toward the door. Pregnancy was not just a dangerous event that at some point
involved a lot of misery, it was an event which, every day, was a stiff pain in well, in everything there
was to have a pain in.
The person standing outside was again Klara's shipmind, Hypatia of Alexandria. She acknowledged
Estrella's introduction to Dr. Kusmeroglu civilly enough, but then turned her back on the doctor to
address Stan and Estrella.
"Klara has a suggestion. Everyone you ever met has been calling her, wondering when they can see you.
She thought you might like to do them all at once and get it over with. A little gathering at her home, for
instance."
Stan was suspicious, but Estrella wasn't. "That's a wonderful idea," she said. "Stan? When would you
like to do it?"
"Well," he began, "I'm kind of tired "
She made a face. "Let's not put it off. Hypatia, we could do it right now, if that's all right."
"Well," Hypatia began, and then stood glassy-eyed for a couple of moments, letting the rest of the
sentence hang there, until she finished. "Yes, that would be fine." Then she turned to Dr. Kusmeroglu,
who was looking as though she wanted to say something. "Yes?"
"I've never actually met Dr. Moynlin," the doctor said, sounding wistful. "I don't suppose I guess it
wouldn't be a good idea at this time "
"You are quite right," Hypatia told her. "It wouldn't." Then she dismissed the doctor from her attention.
"I've ordered a car. Shall we go?"
II
This time it was a Heechee car, driver and all, open to the world. As soon as she saw it, Estrella insisted
they go straight across the valley instead of on the usual underground roadways.
Stan had to agree that she'd made a good decision. After their captivity on Arabella, their valley was like
a brief cruise through Heaven. The whitenut trees smelled as sweet as ever, the flying tree snakes were as
hungry, the open air was filled with a cinnamonly tang. "You know," he told Estrella when they were not
much more than halfway across, "this isn't such a bad place."
She didn't answer him directly, just sat up straighter and tried to see something that was going on at the
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entrance to the institute. "What in the world is that?" she asked.
Stan couldn't answer. Their Heechee driver did. "Persons there are recent fellow shipmates of both you,
names of those being Salt and Achiever, plus certain others desirous to make welcoming home for you.
You wish to stop for conversing? No? All right, those two to join you later and anyway are almost at
destination. Are already here," she corrected herself as the little car reached Klara's entry porte.
Klara herself opened the door. Herself. Manually. "Come on in," she said. Stan half expected that she
would say something about that baffling mothers-in-law thing. She didn't. She gave them each a hug.
"We're ready for you," she said fondly. "My dears." They were clearly still getting the
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