A strong hand shoved the man back. Three men in the gray uniforms of SureFire Security swaggered in. One child raced to the man shouting ''Pa-pa, Pa-pa.'' The man scooped him up and tried to shush him. The other child scampered for the other woman, screaming. The third toddler joined in with lusty lungs. The baskets with babies began tentatively to add to the racket. The old woman confronted the grays, hands waving under her robe like a child playing ghost under a sheet. Her voice came high and loud and fast in a flowing language Kris did not follow.
WELL, I CAN, said Nelly, AND SHE'S CALLING THOSE COPS THINGS THAT WOULD MAKE A CAMEL BLUSH BUT NOT USING ONE WORD OF PROFANITY.
''Would you shut her up,'' the man with the chevrons of a Corporal demanded of the white-gowned man.
He started talking, only adding more noise. As the uproar crescendoed to new levels, the two gray-suited men behind the Corporal flinched away.
''Ig, pat down that hen,'' the Corporal ordered, putting himself between the local man and the woman he wanted searched.
''You cannot do that,'' the man shouted.
The Corporal made to push the fellow back, but the child in his arms snapped at his hand. He yanked it out of range of the toddler's teeth.
The local man shouted something to his mother-in-law, then continued arguing with the Corporal. ''I know my rights. You infidels cannot touch our women with your lustful hands. You must call for a woman! You must. I will sue you! My son's brother-in-law is a member of the bar. I will sue!''
The old woman, meanwhile, was slapping at Ig's hands as he halfheartedly tried to follow orders.
The Corporal finally brought everything to a halt by screaming, ''All right. Stop the search. I'll call for a woman.''
The men in gray retreated to the doorway. The local man and his mother-in-law were joined by his wife as the three of them soothed the toddlers. The other woman calmed the babies. Tina and Kris worked their rug.
Five minutes later, a large, heavyset woman in security gray and sporting Sergeant stripes pushed her way through the men. ''You got a problem, Corporal?''
''Yes, ma'am. These women insist on being searched by a woman.''
''Don't ma'am me, Corporal. I work for a living. I look like Princess Longknife to you?''
''It was your beauty that dazzled him,'' came from behind the Corporal.
The Sarge elbowed the Corporal aside none to gently and reached for the tiny grandmother. She pulled up the robe a few inches, revealing small and withered feet. ''We're looking for a guy, close to six feet tall. This old biddy look big, Corporal?''
''No, Sarge.''
''Fine. You checked the man?''
''Already did, downstairs. He owns the place, and he's too fat and short to be our guy,'' he said with a nasty smile.
The local man glowered at him through heavy black eyebrows.
The Sergeant reached for the next woman. ''Now this one just might be our kid all hunched over.'' She yanked the robe up to show a toddler nursing contentedly at the woman's breast.
The Corporal tried to peel the local man off the Sergeant. The tiny grandmother got a good wack at the Corporal's knee, leaving the security man hopping on one foot and the other two guards still trying to free the Sergeant. The kids naturally helped the situation by screaming like they'd never been fed.
When things finally resolved themselves, the local man and his mother-in-law were under guard on one side of the room with two kids clinging to them. His wife was back to making soothing noises to the child under her robe, and the Sergeant gave the other mother, now changing a child's smelly diaper, a search that didn't extend past a pat on the back.
''You two,'' she said pointing at Tina and Kris and waving them away from the rest. ''Over there, now.''
Kris gave Tina a hand up. The woman stood, massaged her back with a groan, and then waddled, one hand beneath her stomach, the other on her back, to where the Sergeant pointed. Kris did her best to imitate the expectant mother. It did go easier on her back if she supported the can with a hand under it. It was impossible to tell in the dim light, but it sure looked like the Sergeant blanched. ''Put your backs to that wall,'' she ordered.
Tina did, and if anything, got her belly farther out. Kris slouched against the wall, getting as short as she could.
''Lift up your skirts. Let me see your feet.''
Tina did, using the hand beneath her belly. Again, Kris did likewise.
Visibly unhappy that nothing was solved by that, the Sarge reached for Tina. The pregnant woman seemed to half fall, half stumble into the big security woman, then screamed and fell sideways onto several bales of thread. Her robe came up, showing bare legs to everyone… and to Kris that she was not wearing anything under the robe.
''The baby, he comes!'' was drowned out as every grownup started shouting, every child screamed, and the guards, not sure what to do, backed toward the door. Kris let out a scream and went to her knees between Tina's, waving wildly and pointing.
The Sergeant bolted for the door. ''Nobody here but a bunch of crazy bitches that don't know enough not to be barefoot and pregnant.''
''You gonna help her have her baby?'' the Corporal asked as the Sarge went by him.
''What kind of a woman do you take me for?'' she snapped.
The children cried; Tina let out a few intermittent shouts to hurry them on their way. In less time than most routed armies needed to cover the ground, the guards were gone.
''What do you think you are doing?'' the tiny grandmother asked Tina as the old woman pulled the younger's robe properly around her legs.
''Practicing,'' Tina said, and let out another shout.
''That is not the way Milda taught you to breathe. And if you do, you will hurt a lot more than I did with any of mine.''
''But they do not know it,'' Tina said with an imp's voice.
The little woman swatted her granddaughter through her robe, then turned to Kris. ''Allah has smiled on us this time. How much longer must we trust in His mercy?''
''We will try to remove her as soon as we can,'' her son-in-law said, coming to her side.
''I need to be where I am going by six or seven,'' Kris said.
''No doubt you must primp for a party,'' the old woman added dryly.
''Yes, I have been ordered to be at a party tonight.''
That sparked low words among the women, but the grandmother only shook her head within her robes. ''What kind of a party is it when you must be ordered to it?''
''Only the usual type that I go to.''
''Girls, do not envy this one. She has found toil where any of you would find joy.''
A young man hurried up the stairs. Without a pause he rushed to where Tina lay. Kris did not follow the language they spoke, but she could tell the fear and endearments that filled their words. Done, the man rose and turned to Kris without hesitation as to which robe hid her.
''A cab will call for you in five minutes. It is expecting a sick man who is going to the dentist. Here.''
The man began stripping out of his vest and gown. Kris started to pull the robe over her head, but the grandmother stopped her. ''Wait until my grandson is gone.''
''But, Grandmother, she is an infidel. She has no modesty.''
''But I have modesty, and I will not have my granddaughter's husband lusting after some infidel djinn.'' Down to slacks and white T-shirt that passed for modest male attire on six hundred planets, the man shrugged and vanished back down the stairs.
Kris pulled the robe over her head, yanked down the girdle, and began working her way back into the transparent bodysuit.
''Why would a respectable woman wear such a thing?'' the grandmother sniffed.
''Because it will stop a four-millimeter bullet at five paces,'' Kris said without looking up.