Midwife Crisis

So let me get this straight,” Carrie Molina said. This was only about five minutes after landing on the water world called Welkin. She stood on a landing pad where her small shuttle barely fit next to a submersible craft. The pad stood next to a small Earth Unity base perched upon a motile island. She heard waves splashing ashore and caught a whiff of salt spray. “You brought me here to inject me into a creature called a Leviathan so I can treat its unborn child? What am I, some sort of antivirus or something?”

Carrie saw Matt Christian’s grimace and knew she wasn’t making a good first impression, but she didn’t care. You opened the door with this crazy idea for a mission, she thought, and you take whatever comes through it.

“Not at all,” Matt said. He was a tall, slender man in his late twenties, just a little younger than Carrie. “It’s all fairly straightforward. The Leviathan’s not quite fifty meters long—”

“That’s about twice as big as a blue whale back on Earth!”

“Exactly the analogy I was about to use.”

“And the medical problem it’s having is… what?”

Carrie watched Matt take a deep breath. “Why don’t you come see her for yourself? And as soon as he gets here, I can introduce you to your partner.”

“Partner?”

“He’s someone I work with closely,” Matt said. “And he should complement your own unique abilities.”

Carrie followed Matt down to the shoreline and a dock. No boats were tied up there, but her eyes widened as she spotted a dark presence floating just at the surface of the water. Matt said, “Meet the Leviathan—Varis. She has datalink access, but she doesn’t care to speak to Humans much. She’s a little prejudiced against landside lifeforms.”

He didn’t exaggerate the size, Carrie thought. No wonder they’re called Leviathans. I’ve traveled aboard ships that were smaller.

A closer look, and she found herself staring into eyes the size of bowling balls. Eyes with an amazing intelligence behind them, she thought. And I don’t think I’m anthropomorphizing. Just behind those eyes was a pair of blowholes—Varis was, like an Earthly whale, an air breather, not a fish. A mouth the width of a small shuttlecraft opened and Varis chomped down on a clump of vegetation provided for her at dockside. The chewing sounds were prodigious.

Matt said, “Your partner should be here soon.” He shed his clothing except for swim trunks and jumped into the water. He placed both his hands upon the dark form of the Leviathan. Carrie didn’t hesitate, and removed her own clothing—she wasn’t wearing a swimsuit, but was accustomed to casual nudity—and moved toward the edge of the dock.

Even as she stepped off, Carrie was conscious of the differences between Welkin and Earth. Its .85 grav meant she fell just a bit longer than she would have on the homeworld, and when she dove beneath its waters, she was aware that the water didn’t press against her as much as she was accustomed to.

She took a moment for what Matt called her “unique abilities” to assert themselves. They were, after all, why she was here. As her bioengineered body adapted to her environment, her heart rate sped up to pump blood furiously through her body to keep it warm, and her lungs expanded to half-again their usual size.

Carrie didn’t breathe water, didn’t have gills; the often-used term “Human fish” was a misnomer. Water didn’t retain enough oxygen absorbed in it for the physical exertion she required, and it didn’t transfer oxygen into the bloodstream as efficiently. There were reasons many of the largest sea creatures were mammals.

She shivered slightly as the micro-dermal ridges of her skin, a trait she shared with dolphins, opened up—a goose-bumply feeling. Though barely visible, they trapped a thin layer of water molecules against her skin. That let her glide through the water with less resistance, since liquid flows against another liquid more smoothly than against the Human body.

Before heading to the surface, Carrie took this opportunity to check out the rest of the Leviathan’s gigantic form. She saw what must be an incredibly strong fluke at the Leviathan’s rear. She wondered just how fast it could propel itself through the ocean’s waters, despite its massive bulk. Varis’s sleek underside was interrupted by a round bulge of considerable proportion. That has to be one big baby, Carrie thought.

Toward the front of Varis’s body, just behind those wise-looking eyes, were appendages that looked more like hands than flippers. They were webbed, and she was impressed with the four digits that looked as if they could manipulate objects much as a Human hand would. Tool-using aquatic forms. How did they arise here?

Before she could consider that question further, the Leviathan’s body began to shake violently, sending out strong underwater waves that pushed Carrie away. The surface of the Leviathan’s rubbery skin rippled again and again until the seizures subsided.

Carrie barely had time to react to that when another aquatic form, about the size of a walrus, but much faster, zoomed past her. I never even saw it coming, she thought. What the hell is it? She kicked upward, breaking the surface next to Matt…

…who caught the slightest glimpse of her naked body, blushed, and looked away.

Damn, Carrie thought. One of those. I hate nudity taboos.

Carrie was still figuring out how to regain Matt’s attention when the walrus-sized creature surfaced between them. Over her data-link, she heard, “You must be Carrie Molina. I’m Sarbin.”

Matt turned back her way, though he seemed relieved that Sarbin mostly blocked his view of Carrie. Poor man, she thought. Can’t even enjoy the sight of a good-looking woman.

“Sarbin,” Matt said, “is an Aquatile.” His broad body featured stubby arms, different in detail but apparently similar in function to the Leviathan’s. His wide, bright eyes spoke of an intelligence at least equal to a Human’s. His snout ended in a single nostril. “I’ve heard of your people,” Carrie said. “I’m pleased to meet you.”

“And I’m pleased to be your new partner,” Sarbin said. Carrie heard clicks and low tones that she realized must be the Aquatile’s true speech, which her datalink translated.

Matt said, “Your temporary partner, Sar-bin.” Carrie tried not to react to the firmness she heard in Matt’s tone, or what she believed was a note of jealousy. To Carrie, he said, “Let’s get back on shore, and I’ll let you know what little we’ve figured out about Varis’s seizures.”

Carrie expected Matt to escort her to the Unity base for a briefing. Instead, he excused himself to go inside the submersible shuttle on the landing pad. She would’ve preferred to sun herself awhile and dry off before getting dressed, but decided not to shock Matt’s sensibilities any more than she had to and put her clothes back on. They’ll dry soon enough under this sun, she thought.

Matt’s hand, holding a towel, thrust itself through the submersible’s hatchway. His voice was muffled a bit since he spoke without sticking his head outside. “I thought you might want to dry off.”

Carrie didn’t try to suppress her grin. “That’s okay, Matt. A little late now, but I appreciate the offer.”

Matt’s head moved cautiously from behind the hatchway. “Oh. Sorry.”

“A little water’s the last thing that bothers me. You were going to show me what’s wrong with Varis?”

Matt came down the shuttle’s steps with a holopad under his arm. “Let’s go back down to the water. I don’t want to leave Sarbin out.”

That’s why we didn’t go up to the base, Carrie thought. She followed Matt down to a shallower area of the island’s waterline, where Sarbin had beached himself. Matt sat down next to the Aquatile, and Carrie settled down on the other side. Matt made a couple of adjustments to the pad, and a cutaway image of the Leviathan Varis appeared among them, her internal organs clearly visible, along with the outline of the unborn child she bore.

“Damn,” Carrie said as she leaned forward to examine the Leviathan’s insides more closely. “I’ve stayed in hotel rooms smaller than Varis’s heart.”

Matt said, “As large as she is, you’ve seen how her seizures affect her.”

“And what causes them?”

Sarbin said, “The Leviathans believe they become ill because they’re sinful.”

“What do you believe?”

“Aquatiles don’t believe in sin.”

Matt said, “The Leviathans do, though, and they banish from the open ocean those who become ill. They make them come to these motile islands and follow them around awhile. Usually they get well within a few days.”

“Which makes it seem as if the banishment actually works.”

“And which is reinforced by the fact that sometimes they get sick again once they go back to their families.”

Carrie said, “But Varis hasn’t gotten better yet.”

“Not quickly enough. We suspect the pregnancy is the problem.”

“How close is she to delivering?”

“She’s about sixteen months along—so about another three months.”

“Damn,” Carrie said. “That makes my belly hurt just thinking about it.”

Matt said, “We’re not sure how to treat Varis herself—it’s been difficult analyzing what’s wrong with such a large being. But doctors and scientists here at the base have come up with tech they believe can protect the child from further infection, and strengthen her against Mom’s seizures.”

Carrie ran a hand through her dark hair, which was nearly dry. “So I’m the delivery system.”

Matt pointed within the holo to the unborn child’s position deep within Varis. “We don’t know enough about Leviathan physiology to design a self-propelled delivery system.”

“I read up on them as much as I could on the way here,” Carrie said. “I understand the difficulties. How will we even be able to see while we’re traveling inside her veins?”

“You’ll be wearing goggles that combine infrared imaging technology and sonography. Some things might be a little blurry or indistinct, but you’ll be able to see where you are and where you’re going—especially given your enhanced eyesight and echolocation abilities.”

“But how wide will a needle have to be to inject me?”

Matt grinned mischievously. “That’s been its own technical problem. But we think we have a solution.”

That solution started with Matt leading Carrie into his submersible shuttle, lifting off, and heading out just far enough over the ocean to settle into its waters just beyond the spot where Varis floated. Even from within the submersible’s small cabin, the Leviathan’s size was intimidating. Although, Carrie thought, the bigger the better if I’m taking a trip inside there. She told Matt, “When the Unity recruited me for this mission, the briefer told me I’d be taking a fantastic voyage. I thought that meant some kind of ocean trip.”

“At least you won’t be alone. Sarbin’s going in with you.” Matt turned and peered into the cargo bay behind them, which was filling up with water.

“With all respect to Sarbin, why?”

“Varis doesn’t trust Humans. She’s sentient, but she believes the superstitions about sin causing her illness. Sarbin, being a native and a fellow aquatic being, is the one who’s tried to convince her otherwise.”

“Except you don’t have a good explanation.”

“Which doesn’t help our credibility much. But we can’t wait for research breakthroughs here. Varis’s child will die unless we can protect it against whatever is making his mother sick.”

Carrie said, “Having a Human—an alien lifeform—crawling around inside your own body has to be a frightening proposition.”

“Which is why Sarbin will be there to reassure Varis that everything’s fine as you get this job done.”

Carrie stared upward at the dark mass of the Leviathan. “Let’s hope everything really is fine.”

“The Unity asked for you because of your abilities in a liquid environment—plus you have plenty of endurance, and you’ve shown that you keep your head in a tough situation.”

Carrie turned back toward Matt. “That sounds like you’re quoting from my file.”

Matt looked away from the submersible’s controls just long enough to glance back at her. “Well—I did read it.”

“You’re worried about Sarbin.”

Matt’s kept his gaze forward. “He’s my friend. I never expected I’d become this close to someone who can’t even live on land. I’ve saved his life at least once. And he’s risked his for me.”

Carrie returned to the co-pilot’s position. “I know what it’s like to lose someone close to you. I’ll take good care of him.”

Matt’s expression hardened. “If you don’t mind—who was it you lost?”

“My sister. Adriana. A man named Malcolm Vicari hurt her badly. She died a few weeks ago.”

“Oh.” Matt’s eyes seemed to lose focus, and it was a moment before he said, “I’m sorry.”

“Being here, working, is the best thing for me. Like I said, I’ll take good care of Sarbin. More likely, he’ll take good care of me.”

“Thank you for being here, then. One more thing…”

“What is it?”

“Something I have to tell you before we allow Varis in on our datalink transmissions. Even Sarbin isn’t hearing this. It’s about what I might have to do if the two of you get into trouble while you’re inside Varis.”

“What you might have to do?”

Matt shook his head. “I’m a deeply spiritual man. The idea of killing anyone is disgusting to me. But my orders from the Unity say that if Varis gets worse—if the seizures grow worse enough that it’s clear she’s dying, and you’re in trouble, I’m to use the submersible’s disruptors to cut you out of there.”

“Me? What about Sarbin?”

“I don’t have any orders regarding him. But I consider his life as important as yours.”

“As you should,” Carrie said. “But I wouldn’t want you killing Varis and her child to save me.”

“I don’t claim to know how anyone might choose to face death. I can’t even say how far my faith could take me if I were in there and in danger. But my orders are independent of your wishes… or… Sarbin’s.”

He was about to say, “even” Sarbin’s, Carrie thought. She said, “Then I guess Sarbin and I will just have to make sure Varis and her child live.”

Carrie stood at the entrance to the cargo bay as Matt continued holding the submersible steady, just behind and beneath Varis. She touched her left middle finger into her palm and her lifesuit tech activated, at a lower level than the usual spacesuit function. It covered her entire body and provided her with a bubble helmet.

Sarbin was in the water-filled cargo bay now. He wore a tight-fitting Aquatile variation on her lifesuit. “Varis is still nervous about this,” he said. “She’s decided to speak only to me.”

“Is she only listening to you, as well?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s good to know. You’ve got the medical pouch?”

Sarbin flipped over, faster than Carrie suspected would have been possible for someone of his bulk. “Strapped right to my belly,” he said. The pouch also contained some simple medical instruments in case either she or Sarbin had to perform an incision or seal up a wound.

“Sounds great,” Carrie said, and slipped into the cargo hold.

Carrie couldn’t help grinning as Sarbin nuzzled her with his snout. Her body began adapting to the watery environment even within her lifesuit. Her chest expanded (Not that Matt would let himself notice, she thought) to allow her to take in more oxygen, her blood coursed more quickly through her veins, and her skin thickened slightly. As usual when her body underwent its transformation, she felt more alive than she ever did on land.

Sarbin emitted a series of clicks, and Carrie’s datalink translated: “I’m so eager to leave—Matt, are we over Varis yet?”

“Just about,” came the answer from the submersible’s control cabin.

“ ‘Over’ Varis?” Carrie asked.

“She’s submerging,” Matt said, “and I’m going to settle us down so we’re just touching her back. Ah—we’re there.”

“So now what?”

“So now this.” A circular portal about two and a half meters wide irised open in the bottom of the cargo deck, and Carrie saw Varis’s skin rippling slightly at the bottom of it. “The edges of that portal are rimmed with medical tech. It’ll anesthetize that area of her skin and provide an entryway into her bloodstream at the same time—she shouldn’t feel more than a pinprick.”

That’s what doctors always say, Carrie thought. And they’re always lying. “How thick is her blubber?”

“The better part of a meter. But don’t worry. You’ll zip through it in an flash. And an anticoagulant follows you, so she shouldn’t bleed much.”

“How will we get out when we’re done?”

Carrie could hear the tension in Matt’s voice even over the datalink. “Just the same way. But we’ll have to pick a spot. Your datalinks will let me keep a position on you at all times. I’ll be your capcom, right here the whole time.”

Sarbin said, “Varis is ready, though she’s still fearful.”

She’s not the only one, Carrie thought. “Let’s get started.”

Matt said, “Both of you, float facing the incision area. Carrie first, Sarbin right behind her. You’re positioned right above a vein in Varis’s back. At the moment of injection, I’ll create a burst of positive pressure in the water around you.”

“Which should pop us right into the vein.”

“It should be quite a ride. And don’t worry, I won’t do any jokes about Jonah. Hold on… in three, two—”

I hate countdowns, Carrie thought.

“—one!”

A flash of light blinded her, a giant hand threatened to squeeze the life out of her, and Carrie felt as if she were falling from a high tower while simultaneously being pummeled by giants.

And, as promised, in a flash it was over and she was riding within a smoothly flowing current down a pink tunnel filled with bright red liquid.

Damned if it didn’t work, Carrie thought. She checked the size of the vein by extending her arms to either side—she couldn’t quite touch them as long as she stayed in the middle. Sarbin was a tighter fit, but still had room to move back and forth.

Her suit glowed, providing just enough illumination to let her see a few meters in any direction. It also helped that Carrie’s bioengineering included increased light sensitivity and an echolocation sense. But as Matt had said, everything was pretty blurry. “Sarbin, are you okay?”

“I’m right with you.”

Then came another push from behind them, and the vein’s walls rushed past that much faster for a while before they slowed again. “What the hell was that?”

Matt spoke up over the datalink. “Just a little boost from Varis’s pulse. You’ll feel it every twelve seconds or so.”

Carrie realized she must be blushing about as red as the rich oxygenated blood all around her. “Sorry. Wasn’t thinking.”

“Perfectly understandable. You and Sarbin are on a good path from Varis’s back to her belly. But it’s not a straight route—it curves around her body. It could become a bit of a roller coaster ride.”

Carrie encountered one of those curves and slammed a shoulder against one side of the vein, bounced off it, and nearly tumbled out of control. Only her bioengineered reactions and strength let her straighten out and force her way back into the middle of the steadily pumping bloodstream. “It already has,” she gasped.

Sarbin asked, “Are you all right, Carrie?”

“Getting there,” she said, trying to anticipate the vein’s next curve as she approached it—she took the bounce with her right arm and her hip this time. “That was better. You have to let the impact work for you. The sides are actually pretty resilient.”

“It’s too bad you don’t have a fluke,” the Aqua-tile said. “It makes the journey much easier.”

“It’s hard to tell how much progress we’re making.”

Matt’s voice came over Carrie’s datalink: “You’re not traveling as quickly as you might think. But it’s constant.”

“With that little boost from Varis’s pulse. Sarbin, how’s Varis doing?”

“Fortunately, she cannot feel us inside her. But the very idea still worries—”

Sarbin’s voice broke off as Carrie was tossed against one side of the vein, then the other, as a vast, deep rumbling assaulted her ears. A third collision knocked Carrie’s breath out of her, and for a while she let the bloodstream take her as it would, accepted the pummeling it gave her.

Matt’s voice over the datalink: “Carrie, Sar-bin—Varis is having a seizure. Are you all right?”

Carrie had her breath back and started anticipating each collision with the vein walls. “I’m starting to get the hang of it,” she said over the persistent reverberation that surrounded her. “It’s just rolling with the punches—except they don’t stop. Sarbin, what about you?”

The Aquatile replied, “In different circumstances, this could even be… fun.”

“Your idea of fun and mine are considerably different.”

“Really, Carrie? What’s fun for you?”

Some wine, some cheese, and a healthy specimen of manhood who is… “Let’s not worry about that right now, Sarbin. Matt, how long do these seizures last?”

“It depends. Sometimes several minutes.”

Carrie took another hard blow against the side of the vein wall. “Well, I wish this one would hurry up and—”

The rumbling ceased and Varis’s bloodstream quit trying to pummel her against the vein’s walls.

“—finish.”

Sarbin caught up with Carrie nearly effortlessly. “You really should consider having that fluke installed.”

Carrie couldn’t help grinning. “Matt—how close are we to the child?”

“You’re most of the way there. The trick’s going to be holding yourself against the blood flow while you insert the pouch.”

Sarbin said, “That’s another reason I’m here, Carrie—to brace you as you work.”

Matt said, “I wanted to be there with you.”

That jealousy again, Carrie thought. “Matt, I know you’ve worked quite a bit with Sarbin. But you couldn’t have done this. You don’t have the swimming skills or the body strength. Please realize I’m not bragging. I was made this way.”

No response for a moment, then Matt said, “Point taken. I’m glad you’re there to help Sarbin in ways I couldn’t.”

Can’t fault his loyalty, Carrie thought. “Thanks. How’s the baby doing?”

“Vitals are a bit rocky. We need to get that pouch to her.”

“By ‘we,’ you mean me and Sarbin.”

“Well, uh—”

“Just giving you a hard time, Matt. How close are we?”

“About fifteen meters.”

Sarbin said, “I’m going to move ahead of you, Carrie, to get into position to steady you.”

“Sounds great. Uh-oh, hang on!”

Varis’s body roiled again, and Carrie found herself crashing hard against Sarbin before she could dodge him. She rebounded off the Aquatile and found herself getting into the rhythm she’d discovered earlier—bounce off the vein wall, try to stay in the middle of the bloodstream, anticipate an upcoming curve…

I’m starting to get the hang of it, she thought. It could be worse—

Varis’s body jerked again, Carrie struck the vein wall—

And it gave way and she went tumbling head-over-heels and crash-landed against something smooth and rubbery. Whatever it is, at least it cushioned the blow, she thought. But blood spurted from the hole in the vein, covering her and whatever body part she was lying against.

Sarbin’s voice came over her datalink: “Carrie, are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” More low noises all around, and Carrie laid herself flat against the rubbery flesh beneath her. Last thing I want is to start bouncing around inside Varis. Then the Leviathan’s body grew still again. “I’m worried about the hole in this vein—it looks like Varis is losing a lot of blood.” She rolled to one side to get clear of the flow.

Matt broke in. “It looks like you landed against Varis’s bladder.”

“Oh, great,” Carrie said. “I’m going to forgo the obvious jokes. Sarbin, can you get to that hole in the vein?”

“I’m fighting against the current. It’s easier between pulses.”

Their surroundings rumbled again, but not nearly as strongly as before. “What the hell’s that?” Carrie asked.

Matt said, “Varis is eating. Mama-to-be gets hungry, especially after one of those seizures.”

Carrie tried to stand, but couldn’t get sure footing—the giant bladder gave at each step, leaving Carrie wobbling from side to side before falling back down. I wonder if Varis feels this unexpected urge to go, now, she thought. “I can’t reach back up toward the vein. Can’t stand up.”

Matt asked, “Can you follow the vein’s path? Is there some place where it’s closer to you?”

Carrie peered down the vein’s path. “It’s hard to see very far ahead of me. I don’t think so.”

“How about behind you?”

“Didn’t think of that. Didn’t want to consider backtracking, I suppose. Yeah, I see a place I can grab hold.”

Matt said, “You and Sarbin listen carefully. Sarbin, you’ve got to patch up the hole already in the vein. Carrie, while he’s doing that, you climb up onto that vein.”

“Onto it?”

“Look at the force of that blood flow—can you climb back into the vein against it?”

“Point taken again. So Sarbin fixes the already-existing hole in the vein—”

“And I create a new one for you to fall into rather than have to push against,” the Aquatile said.

“All right,” Carrie said, “I’m headed that way.” After another attempt to get to her feet, she gave up and crawled along the wobbly surface of the Leviathan’s bladder. Not the most dignified way of getting around, she thought. If I get killed in here, I sure hope Matt or Sarbin can get my body out.

Carrie concentrated hard enough on moving forward that she bumped her head against the bottom of the vein. Great. It’s huge, of course. Got to see if I can get myself up on it.

She moved to one side of the vein and tried to pull herself up with her hands, but her fingers couldn’t find purchase—its sides were too slippery, and she wasn’t tall enough to reach to the top.

Then the bladder beneath her gave way in different directions beneath her feet and she fell on her butt.

Damn, I hate this, Carrie thought. I don’t want people to have to place their hands over their mouths to hide their compulsive laughter as they explain how I died, trying to stand up on a Leviathan’s bladder, walking around like a drunk on a trampoline.

Trampoline? Damn. I need to catch on faster.

Carrie pushed herself up yet again, balanced carefully, then bent her knees and jumped straight up.

About ten centimeters at best. That’s all right, Carrie, she thought. Get the rhythm going. You can do this—it’s just like great sex. Another bounce, and another, and Carrie managed a bit more height each time.

At the third bounce, Matt’s voice came through her datalink: “Carrie, what are you doing over there?”

She grunted at the effort of another couple bounces. “Trying to jump high enough to get on top of this vein. What’s happening?”

“Varis is urinating up a storm—it’s like a yellow cloud behind her.”

Unexpected laughter burst from Carrie and she lost her rhythm and almost fell. So she did feel the urge. “I’m using her bladder as a trampoline—uh-oh.” The bladder was quickly growing flaccid, providing less bounce with each jump. Continuing the sex analogy, I guess. Well, now or never.

A final thrust with her legs, and she leaped toward the curved side of the vein, grasped its rubbery flesh as high up as she could, and scrambled up with her legs until she was lying on top of it.

Yeah, just like great sex, all right. Worn out now. If I were a man, I’d be ready for a nap. I have to keep going, though.

Sarbin said, “I’ve sealed the hole you fell through, Carrie.”

“Great. You see where I am now?”

“I do. Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’m going to—” A hole opened up right in front of Carrie and she fell into Varis’s bloodstream again. An immediate pulse started her on her previous path once more.

“Carrie, wait—I have to seal this hole.”

Carrie flipped around and fought to swim against the current. The Leviathan’s pulse shot her backwards that much more every ten seconds or so. She watched in amazement as Sarbin’s stubby arms and hands aimed a suture beam and sealed up the hole she’d fallen through. With that accomplished, the Aquatile deftly folded up the device and returned it to the pouch. “Ready?” he asked.

“Sure am,” Carrie said, and flipped around to proceed on their previous path. It was only when she relaxed to let the Leviathan’s steady pulse propel her through the bloodstream that she realized how out of breath she was, how much her leg muscles burned, how badly her ribs ached from one of the many blows she’d taken against the vein walls. She said, “Matt, please tell me we’re near the baby.”

“You are, actually. In fact, Sarbin needs to get in front of you to hold you in place.”

“Here I go,” the Aquatile said, and easily glided past Carrie to precede her in the Leviathan’s vein.

“Just a little farther, Sarbin,” Matt said. “I’m going to try to position you and Carrie at a spot where the vein presses right up against the womb.”

“Just tell us when,” Carrie said.

“Just a moment. Now, Sarbin—hold her right there.”

The Aquatile flipped around in an instant even as Carrie tried her best to paddle against the bloodstream. Once again she was impressed with how quickly such a large being could move. But when Sarbin pressed the tip of his snout against her back, his fluke flapping insistently to keep them both in place, she groaned with pain. “Can you turn your head a bit? You’re killing my kidneys.”

“Sorry. How’s that?”

“Much better. Lemme reach down and grab that medpack from your belly. Okay, got it. All its systems check out, Matt—which way should I point it?”

“That would be to your right, directly in the middle of the vein.”

I’ve got to get this done quickly, Carrie thought. Even my endurance has its limits, and I’m reaching them pretty quickly. She pressed the medpack against the smooth flesh of the vein, with Sarbin adjusting his position to keep her in place as she moved. She raised her hand to depress the control that would deliver the pouch and—

“Stop!” Sarbin said.

Carrie jerked her hand away from the pack. “What is it?”

“It’s Varis. She doesn’t trust you. She’s afraid of what you might be injecting into her child.”

“Isn’t this a hell of a time to decide that?”

Matt piped in: “Sarbin, you’ve got to convince her we’re doing what’s best.”

Or I could just go ahead and hit the button, Carrie thought.

But what would happen then? If Varis became upset enough, agitated enough, she could hurt herself and her baby. And if Sarbin and I were in danger, and Matt ended up following his orders to cut us out if necessary…

Carrie kept one hand pressed against the medpack, and the other well away from the control that would activate it. She looked down at Sarbin. “What if you did it?”

The Aquatile looked up at Carrie expectantly. “You mean I should perform the injection?”

“Ask her,” Carrie said as Sarbin looked away from her to communicate with the Leviathan on their private channel.

Sarbin said, “Varis accepts your proposal.”

“Let’s switch around, then. I’ll hold the pack against the side of the vein.” My energy’s fading, she thought. Either way I’ve got to finish this quickly.

Sarbin managed to ease himself upward while still keeping Carrie’s body pressed against him so the bloodstream wouldn’t sweep her away. But his short arms still couldn’t reach the medpack. “Use your snout,” Carrie said.

“No!”

“Why not?”

“I’m an Aquatile, not some primitive being. I use my hands or nothing.”

“Sarbin, please make an exception. We’ve got to get out of here.”

Sarbin cast Carrie a harsh look. “Just don’t tell anybody. If another Aquatile found out, they’d call me a—fish.”

“I won’t tell anyone. Cross my heart.”

“Failure to translate.”

“Just hit the button!”

Sarbin thrust his snout forward and hit the button. Immediately, a readout told Carrie the pouch was being delivered. It flowed smoothly, easily, though the vein wall and into the Leviathan’s womb. The too-small-to-be-seen machines making up the medical tech would join the proteins, carbohydrates, electrolytes, and other substances within the amniotic fluid to strengthen the unborn child’s defenses against infection and provide her more endurance as she coped with her mother’s seizures.

Carrie twisted around to return the medpack to the strap around Sarbin’s belly. “Time to go,” she said. Sarbin did one of his now-familiar flips and let the bloodstream take him. Carrie was right behind him. All around her came another deep rumbling. Not as strong as Varis’s seizures, though, she thought. What could it be?

“Great job,” Matt said. “Everything’s looking fine… uh-oh.”

Carrie was just getting the hang of keeping herself in the middle of the vein again. “Don’t say that, Matt. I don’t want to hear that ‘uh-oh’ shit. What’s wrong?”

“It’s the baby—she’s moving into position for delivery.”

“Uh-oh.”

Sarbin asked, “Why would that happen?”

Carrie could hear the concern in Matt’s voice: “The tech made the baby stronger, and Varis’s body is interpreting that as the baby being more mature.”

Carrie asked, “So that’s the source of those rumblings we heard a little while ago. Varis is ready to deliver?”

“And it’s happening fast. But there’s a problem.”

“This already was a problem.”

“Well, it’s a worse one now. The baby’s facing head-first. Leviathans are normally born tail-first.”

“Why’s that?” Carrie asked.

“Being delivered head-first when you’re an aquatic animal means you can drown before you’re completely born. And Leviathan babies don’t turn around until late in the pregnancy.”

Another rumble, this time accompanied by a strong shift to one side that made Carrie miss a curve in the vein. She slammed her shoulder against its walls. She groaned, then said, “What happens if Varis tries to deliver now?”

“There’s no ‘trying’ to it. She’s delivering. That was a contraction.”

Carrie said, “You’ve got to get us out.”

No response at first from Matt. Then he said, “Uh, Carrie… ?”

“No. Don’t you start. As short a time as we’ve worked together, I can tell what you’re thinking. You’ve got some other mission for us, and I can tell you we’ve had enough.”

“You went in there to save the baby. Now it’s both Varis and the baby who are at risk.”

Carrie and Sarbin continued to barrel down the center (mostly) of the vein. “What are you suggesting? That I get in there and push?”

Another silence stretched larger. Finally it was Carrie that broke it: “No. You can’t mean—”

“That vein you’re in is about to curve up toward the womb again, in just the right place. Sarbin can cut a path—”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“—you get inside—”

“Does no one understand the word ‘no’ on this planet?”

“—and then you help the baby turn around and be ready for delivery.”

“You know, a midwife is supposed to work on the outside.”

Matt said, “Once you get in there, it’s going to take some work to turn that baby. It’s fifteen meters long, after all.”

“What, we can’t just flip her around?”

“Carrie, for a woman you don’t seem to have much of an idea how crowded it is inside a womb.”

“It’s been awhile since I left one.”

“Besides, you’re a fixer. At least that’s what I was told before you got here. Now here’s something that needs fixing.”

Sarbin said, “I can help you, Carrie. We have to save the baby.”

It’s all so simple for Sarbin, Carrie thought. A true innocent. “All right. Matt, let me know when we need to stop. Sarbin, what does Varis think about this?”

“She’s concerned and afraid. We were supposed to help her child. But we might’ve made things worse.”

“Yeah. I don’t blame her.” And I sure won’t say out loud that I’m afraid we could screw this up even worse than that. Especially if she has another seizure. Carrie thought back to the last seizure, and how she and Sarbin were rocked around inside the vein, with the lesser disturbance of Varis eating following soon after.

Wait a minute, Carrie thought. “Matt, what do the Leviathans eat when they’re out in the ocean?”

“Mostly tiny fish and floating vegetation, much like our own whales. We’ve been gathering it up and taking it to her—but yes, it’s the natural vegetation that Leviathans eat when they banish themselves to the motile islands.”

“But is it the same as what they eat in the open ocean?”

“I guess we’ve assumed so—you want me to check?”

“As quickly as you can, Matt. It could make a big difference.”

“I’ll do that, but you’re just about at the place where you and Sarbin need to enter the womb.”

“Matt, I won’t even try to ponder the Freudian implications there.”

Sarbin said, “Failure to translate.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

Matt said, “Sarbin, stop Carrie right there.”

Sarbin flipped around and eased his big body up against Carrie’s, just as he’d done while they delivered the nanotech. The Aquatile reached into his medpack and grabbed the scalpel beam, which resembled nothing more than a small stunner or disruptor. Carrie asked, “How will you know where to cut?”

Sarbin depressed the trigger on his device and a narrow blue beam illuminated a small spot on the side of the vein. “Matt can detect that,” he said.

Sure enough, Matt immediately said, “A little up, Sarbin. Now to the left. Carrie, are you ready?”

“No. But I guess we’re going anyway. Hey, wait a minute—did you check on the vegetation?”

“I did. They’re related, but not quite the same.”

“What’s the difference between them?”

“The type the Leviathans eat in the open ocean has an alkaloid the one around the islands doesn’t. But it’s harmless. Varis says no one else in her pod’s ever gotten sick the way she has.”

Carrie said, “Harmless to them, maybe. But what if Varis’s body has some sort of reaction to it?”

“That’s something we have to look at later, Carrie—Varis and her child need our help now.”

Carrie took a deep breath and mustered her remaining strength. “All right, then. Anytime, Sarbin.”

The Aquatile twisted around to narrow his aim at the proper spot of the vein while still holding Carrie in place against the bloodstream’s never-ending flow. He squeezed the trigger on the scalpel. The vein’s flesh parted. So did that of the Leviathan’s womb just beyond it. Sarbin executed a deft flip of his body, thrusting Carrie through that rubbery rift.

It was only the cushioning effects of the womb’s amniotic fluid that kept Carrie from having the breath knocked out of her as she landed, hard, against the Leviathan baby’s body. A surging stream of Varis’s blood began to diffuse within the womb. Sarbin squeezed through the rift and used the scalpel’s suture function to close it within seconds. Carrie took a moment to get her bearings. Any movement, she found, was slow and methodical against the thick amniotic fluid.

She stared across the giant baby’s back, down its fifteen-meter length. If Varis is the size of a shuttle, Baby’s about like a lifepod, Carrie thought.

A familiar distant rumbling drew closer and stronger, and Varis was in the full throes of another seizure. That sent the baby moving, too, whether having a seizure of its own or reacting in fear.

Carrie tried to stay on the baby’s back, but she started sliding downward, falling in slow motion within the thick fluid. The fall won’t hurt me because stronger lifesuit tech would snap on, she thought, but the baby’s movements could pin me against the side of the womb.

Sarbin glided up beneath Carrie, saying, “Grab onto me.” Carrie grabbed the strap around Sarbin’s midsection and held on tight as the Aquatile swam through the narrow space between baby Leviathan and womb wall.

Varis’s body grew still as Sarbin dropped Carrie off on top of the baby’s body again. Carrie kept on hands and knees, both for balance and because she had very little room to move. Matt was right, she thought. It is crowded in here.

Now, seemingly, it was the baby’s turn to thrash around. Carrie was about to be pinned against the “roof” of Varis’s womb, but Sarbin inserted himself next to her, taking the pressure on his own larger, stronger body. “Matt,” she said, “I don’t know if this was a good idea. We can barely move ourselves, let alone turn this big thing around.”

“You’ve got to try,” Matt replied. “Sarbin has the strength. You can help guide.”

Carrie muttered, “I could help guide it up your…”

“What’s that?” Matt asked.

“Nothing.”

Sarbin broke in: “We have to get to work to save the baby.”

“You’re right,” Carrie said. “Let’s get started. You’ll have to do the heavy work. I’ll get behind the baby’s head and try to guide her.”

“Here I go,” Sarbin said, and made his way through the thick fluid to the baby’s tail as Carrie floated over to a perch just behind the baby’s head, right above her closed eyes. Sarbin applied the side of his snout to the unborn Leviathan’s bulk and his fluke began to flap, though not as quickly as Carrie expected. In the low light of their glowing lifesuits, Carrie could tell that Sarbin was putting all his considerable strength behind the effort.

But the baby didn’t move.

Sarbin rested. “The fluid’s too thick,” he said. “I can’t move my fluke quickly enough.”

Varis’s body shook violently and Carrie flattened herself against the baby’s body. It looked as if the ceiling was caving in. As her lifesuit snapped into armor, Carrie realized: Varis is having more contractions.

Sarbin pleaded in a strangled voice: “Carrie, help me!”

A glance behind her, and Carrie saw that the Aquatile was pinned between the wall of Varis’s womb and the baby Leviathan’s body. And Carrie realized: Sarbin doesn’t have the same protective tech in his lifesuit that I do. Mine was designed for space, and his was only developed for this mission.

“What is it?” Matt asked.

“Sarbin’s in trouble.” Carrie hunkered down as much as she could to try to slide off the baby’s back so she could make her way down to Sarbin. “Is there any way you can help out to make this baby flip around?”

“Goodness, I can’t think of anything. Carrie—the Unity’s counting on you.”

Subtext, Carrie thought. He’s telling me he’ll follow the Unity’s orders to cut Sarbin and me out of here if he has to. “The Unity’s just fine for now,” she said, hoping to keep her own reference cryptic enough.

Carrie worked herself free of the tight spot between the womb’s walls and the baby’s back. But I do have to decide—should Sarbin and I just get out of here, even at the risk of killing the baby and Varis herself?

I say, hell no.

At least for now.

Carrie made it back to Sarbin and grabbed his arms and pulled. To no effect.

“I’m being crushed,” the Aquatile said. “I can barely… breathe.”

Matt again: “Is now the time?”

“Not yet,” Carrie said. “We have to think of something—wait a minute. Sarbin, can you reach your scalpel?”

Sarbin reached down and pulled it from his sheath. “It’s right here.”

“Put it on a low setting and shoot the baby with it.”

“What? I came here to help it, not hurt it.”

“A low setting. Sting it!”

Sarbin raised the scalpel beam and aimed it at the wall of flesh right before him. And hesitated.

“Shoot!” Carrie said,

“I… can’t…”

Carrie reached toward the scalpel. “Oh, Jesus Christ, let me do it—”

Matt: “Carrie—”

“I know, language. Gimme, Sarbin.”

“I’ll do it,” the Aquatile said, and fired the scalpel.

The baby flinched, and Carrie held on tight to Sarbin as he swam free. “We did it,” the Aquatile said.

Carrie told him, “And the baby’s turned a bit. Give him another shot.”

“You sound as if you’re enjoying this.”

“What I’m enjoying is knowing we’re about to turn the baby—oh, and that we’re not getting squished just yet.”

Sarbin took aim again. “I guess we have to do this.” Another shot, and the baby’s tail moved farther away from them. But Varis also reacted, moving her own body from side to side, and Carrie held onto Sarbin even tighter as they swayed back and forth in the relatively slow motion of the amniotic fluid.

Sarbin said, “Varis, you have to keep still—we’re saving your baby.”

A voice Carrie hadn’t heard previously came over her datalink, rough and low: “You are hurting my child.”

Varis, Carrie thought. Speaking at last.

“I know we’re hurting her,” Sarbin said. “But not very much, and if we don’t get her to turn, she could die. So could you.”

An odd moment passed, of utter silence and stillness. Then Varis said, “Do what you must.”

Sarbin didn’t hesitate, but raised the scalpel and stung the baby again. The unborn Leviathan shifted around some more, until it was “sideways” in the womb. Carrie said, “She can’t be comfortable that way—she’ll have to shift around some more.”

And she did, but started back the way she’d come. “Again, Sarbin,” Carrie said, and the Aquatile fired yet again.

With a couple of swishes of her tail and twisting of her body, the baby spun around and placed herself into the proper position for birth. She ended up facing Carrie, who found herself staring directly toward an eye the width of her hand—an eye that spun toward her, then blinked a couple of times against her lifesuit’s illumination and finally closed again. Wow, Carrie thought.

Varis’s body began to shake again and Carrie flattened herself against Sarbin’s back. “Dam-mit,” she said. “Those contractions are tough to take. Matt?”

“I’m here.”

“How long can a Leviathan’s birth take? We don’t want to be stuck in here for hours.”

“Everything’s proceeding faster than you might think.”

Varis’s entire body shook again and suddenly Carrie felt as if she were on a starcraft where the grav had failed. “Is Varis diving?”

“Don’t worry,” Matt said. “It’s common practice for Leviathans about to give birth—dive into colder water, and her body rushes blood to the body core where it’s needed.”

Varis was already leveling off. “What about the baby when it comes out?”

“The cold provides a shock, and the baby expels any amniotic fluid that could be in its lungs.”

“Then it’s right up to the surface for that first real breath?”

“You got it, with a little help from Mom.”

The baby Leviathan’s eye opened again. I could swear it looks surprised, Carrie thought. Then it, and the rest of the baby’s body, began to recede as Varis’s body trembled with another string of contractions. Carrie and Sarbin were rocked from side to side, then found themselves following right behind the soon-to-be-born Leviathan.

“Uh-oh,” Carrie said. “I’m not a Christian, but I’m about to be born again.”

“Part of that didn’t translate,” Sarbin said.

“Just get ready to take a ride.”

The Leviathan baby shot backward all at once, and Carrie grasped Sarbin tighter than ever as Varis’s contractions shot them that way, as well, the baby staring at them all during her fitful journey. “Push, Varis,” Carrie muttered, then couldn’t help laughing, however feebly. “I guess that’s the first time anyone’s said that from inside.”

Several minutes of violent back-and-forth, side-to-side movements followed. Carrie, hands cramping, arms and legs losing strength, was about to resign herself to falling away from Sarbin and taking whatever came.

Sarbin said, “Look, Carrie—light!”

Every muscle in Carrie’s neck protested as she lifted her head, but she was rewarded with the slightest of glimmers as she looked past the baby’s body and beyond its tail. “Isn’t it marvelous, Carrie?” Sarbin said. “We’re part of the miracle of life.”

The miracle will be if we survive it, Carrie thought, but at least she had more motivation to keep hold of Sarbin, if this incredible journey was about to end.

Another burst of motion, and the baby suddenly slipped away from them, her umbilical cord snapping and her body sliding gracefully into the open sea. As smooth and controlled as a starcraft undocking, Carrie thought.

Then she had no time for thought, as the umbilical cord, trailing crimson blood, whipped toward her and Sarbin, massive enough that it could’ve killed them in an instant, but slowly enough that the Aquatile dodged it and headed for the light.

A final contraction from Varis propelled Sar-bin out into the ocean in a cloud of blood and amniotic fluid. The newly-born Leviathan baby, swimming free, cast a broad shadow over them.

Suddenly Carrie felt as if she were being launched spaceward in a shuttle that had lost its inertial protections. She caught the merest glimpse of Varis’s fluke pushing upward inexorably against Sarbin’s underside, and then, unexpectedly, she and the Aquatile and the Leviathan child broke the surface of Welkin’s waters.

The baby barely left the water before falling back in a gigantic belly flop. Sarbin twisted instinctively and transformed his fall into a headfirst dive that barely seemed to part the waters. Carrie, try as she might, was a creature of land or water, not airborne leaps, but managed a feet-first splashdown that was functional, if not graceful.

The first thing she did after entering the water was deactivate her lifesuit, and she gloried in the feel of Welkin’s waters flowing over her skin. She broke the water’s surface again and took in the sight of Varis’s great bulk rolling onto one side, water sluicing down her underside as her newborn moved in to suckle.

It was worth it, Carrie thought. Just for this one moment, it was all worth it.

Sarbin burst out of the water in front of her, arced over her head, and made graceful splashdown behind her. As he came up next to Carrie, he said, “Isn’t it wonderful? You worked hard, but everything turned out all right.”

Sometimes the innocents of the world get their way, Carrie thought. “You worked as hard as I did. Without you, the baby would never have been born. Race you to shore.” Carrie took a deep breath into her genetically engineered lungs and started swimming past mother and child and toward the land.

Sarbin easily passed Carrie up, but made it a game all the way in, darting around her and encouraging her to go faster. Matt met her at the shoreline, and stood holding out a terry cloth robe, but with his eyes looking to one side. I’m starting to feel as if I’m somehow odious to him, she thought. But she took the robe, put it on, and sat down on the sand. “I won’t move for a month,” she said.

“You did a marvelous job—both of you,” Matt said.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Sarbin said from the shallow water, “I’m going to take a long swim and a half-nap.” And with a fluke flip, he was gone.

“A half-nap?” Carrie asked Matt.

“The halves of Aquatile brains take turns sleeping. Just like dolphins.”

“He’s amazing. How did marine life here become sentient?”

“An excellent question,” Matt said, sitting next to her. “One we’re trying to find the answer to. One question we have answered, though—why Varis got sick, and why she’s getting better, however slowly, here at the motile island.”

“It’s that vegetation she’s eating in the open ocean, isn’t it?”

“She has a reaction to that alkaloid—gets sick, comes to one of these islands, eats the other stuff, gets well.”

“Which is why the banishment seems to work.” Carrie ran her fingers through the sand to play for time, then told Matt, “Thanks for doing such a good job as capcom. I was afraid we weren’t going to get along.”

Now Matt looked at her. “I was afraid you were going to be condescending, showing off your abilities and your body all the time.”

“I thought you’d expect me to conform to your religious beliefs.”

“I gave up on that long ago. But I had my doubts. I knew your abilities, but not how much you’d lived. How much you understood about death. Until…”

Carrie said, “Until I mentioned my sister.”

“Her name was Adriana?”

“Yes.”

A silence stretched on for several seconds. Then Matt said, “My sister was Juliette. She died, too. Back on Earth, several years ago.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“So I knew you understood. How much I wanted to save Varis and her child. How concerned I was for Sarbin.”

“I tried to bail on you when you suggested that business of going into the womb.”

“I knew you wouldn’t.”

“How’d you know?” Carrie asked.

“Because I wouldn’t have, either.”