Inseminoid by Larry Miller Page A

commander. I made the decision. You only made the suggestion, which was your duty.”
    “But if I hadn’t . . .”
    She cut him off. “There are no ifs or buts. We took a risk. I knew what the chances were but you were right. The value to science of a being, adaptable to multiple atmosphere and still alive after God-knows-how-many years, would have been a remarkable achievement. We’re both scientists. When we mix the wrong chemicals we come up with a solution that could blow us to smithereens. We learn by our mistakes. This was a mistake but you know, if we had to try again I would probably make the same decision. How’s the work going?”
    “I think we’ll have something before long. I feel we’re on the verge of breaking this new script.”
    “Good! I’m glad to hear that.”
    Mitch glanced at the radio. “Have you told Central Control about our situation yet?”
    “Can’t,” said Holly. “Space station’s got its sun shield up and it’ll be at least a few days before we can re-establish radio communication with it.”
    “Then we’re staying?”
    Holly nodded and managed a weak smile. “We’re staying. After all we can’t go anywhere for a week at the earliest. We couldn’t get a shuttle down here before then. You’ll see, everything’ll be back to normal and this will just be a bad dream.”
    Mark was in his cabin writing the day’s entry in his diary. A chronicle he intended to use against Holly on their return to Central Control. He wrote that he wouldn’t have left the creature unguarded and that Holly McKay made an error in judgement in deciding to tranquilize the creature; a mistake that cost one able-bodied crewmember her life. Mark was determined to prove Command had made a mistake in promoting Holly over him.
    Dinner that night was respectfully subdued. Karl never showed up and, figuring he was still conducting tests on Sandy, Holly brought his meal to the infirmary. He was studying some graphs when she entered.
    “Thanks a lot. I forgot all about eating.” A well-done steak was set before him. It wasn’t until he bit into it that he realised just how hungry he had become. He’d eaten little breakfast and nothing since.
    “How is she?” Holly asked, motioning to the still-sleeping woman on the bed.
    “Fine,” Karl reported. “I was right about the mild concussion but there’s been no brain damage. No broken bones—only a cracked rib and that, I’m pleased to report, is the extent of it.”
    “Sounds like she got off pretty lucky,” Holly observed. “Better than Dean and Kate.”
    “From the attack, yes,” he agreed. “But the tests turned up something else.”
    Holly waited for the doctor to continue.
    “Look at this,” he said, handing her a computer printout. Holly studied it and shot Karl a quizzical expression.
    “Under the gestation column; tell me what it reads?”
    “Two point one.”
    Karl explained, “That means she’s two months and one day into a pregnancy.”
    “That’s impossible,” Holly insisted with astonishment. “We all took our quarterly contraceptive injections at the same time. I remember Sandy getting hers. Could it be that it didn’t take?”
    “Could be,” Karl said sceptically. He wasn’t totally convinced. “Those things have an effective rate of nearly a hundred per cent.”
    “So it looks like she beat the odds?”
    “I suppose so, although you know there is an antidote if taken within an hour of the injection. It neutralises the hormones entering her system.”
    “Why would Sandy have done that?” asked the commander.
    “I’m not saying she did, but sometimes people like to play dangerously. And then, in some women there’s an overwhelming desire to enter into motherhood. That’s one thing science hasn’t yet been able to totally conquer.”
    Holly shook her head in disagreement. “If Sandy’s pregnant, it can only be through a malfunction of the contraceptive.”
    Karl nodded. “You’re probably right. We’ll see