As Rebecca maintained her elaborate karate stance, the miner's daughter doubled her fists and advanced like a tomboy street fighter. When Gwen got close, Rebecca lashed out with another fancy kick, but Gwen took a quick step back, parried the kick after its force was gone, and then stepped in to punch the doctor straight in the face.
Rebecca recoiled in pain, putting her hands up to protect herself, to little effect. As the flight mechanic advanced, pummeling Rebecca with her fists, the doctor, with her veneer of karate training gone, could only offer feeble, disorganized resistance.
She still had her sharp tongue, though. "So, you don't mind killing people with your bare hands... instead of little staged accidents?" she taunted, but the answering blow from Gwen told her that words would be of little use.
Rebecca tried to retreat across the cabin, interposing chairs and other objects, but it was futile. Again Gwen hit her, and again. Then she stumbled against the ERV control panel. Help, I need help! Where's the alarm button? There! She hit the alarm, then another blow sent her stumbling across the cabin.
Again the fists came toward her. All Rebecca's technique was gone, but she still had a fierce will to live. Knowing only that she had to stop those fists, she launched herself at Gwen like a brawler and grappled the other woman's hands—but in seconds, Gwen wrestled her to the floor.
The flight mechanic's face was wild. "I've had all I'm gonna take from you!"
Rebecca struggled, but could not get loose. "You stupid animal! How can you just kill us all? Why are you doing this?"
Then she saw it on the floor next to her—the crowbar. Somehow, she wrenched a hand free and grabbed the tool, giving Gwen a solid whack on the side of her shoulder. Her opponent winced, but countered, slamming Rebecca's arm down so hard that she lost her grip. The crowbar skittered away across the floor, clanging down the hatch, and taking with it Rebecca's last hope.
"That does it!" Gwen shouted. Her eyes crazed with rage, the mechanic reached down for her knife.
Pinned to the deck, Rebecca watched with horror as Gwen ripped the weapon from her boot, then swung it down toward Rebecca's chest with lethal intent. At the last instant, Rebecca summoned adrenaline strength and caught Gwen's arm. She struggled, using both hands to hold off the blade.
Gwen was forced to use one hand to hold Rebecca down, while she strained to push the knife with the other. In the low Martian gravity she had to poise herself in a kind of push-up position in order to shift her full weight forward to keep Rebecca's shoulders pinned to the deck with her left hand while trying to force down the knife with her right. But even with only one hand, the tough flight mechanic was much stronger than the doctor. The knife relentlessly moved toward Rebecca's chest.
There were only inches left to go. Rebecca screamed. "Gwen, stop! Stop! Help! Help!"
Rebecca struggled desperately, but it was hopeless. The point touched her Marsuit, pressing into the fabric. In seconds, it would all be over. But still, the doctor wouldn't give up. She writhed this way and that, kicking wildly, to little effect. As her last gasp, she finally got her knee up, and using all the force she had, hit Gwen in the lower abdomen. She couldn't strike hard, but the effect was dramatic.
Suddenly, Gwen recoiled, looking gray and sick. She dropped the knife and scrambled backward, clutching her belly protectively, eyes wide with disbelief and fear. Her eyes rolled, and her mouth opened. Gwen paid no attention to the knife as Rebecca grabbed for it. Instead, she stumbled over to the other end of the ERV cabin and started to vomit uncontrollably. Then she sank to the deck and cradled her abdomen, eyes wide, protecting her... womb?
Rebecca stared at Gwen with shock and the dawning of understanding. The flight mechanic had been keeping to herself a great deal, had often looked drained, perhaps ill. Gwen heaved again, but no vomit came out.
Through a haze of adrenaline, the doctor's clinical training kicked in. "You have morning sickness! You're pregnant."
Gwen coughed. "That's right, bitch."
"Who? When?"
"Luke." Gwen coughed again. "That bastard. In the rover."
Just then Colonel Townsend charged into the ERV upper-deck cabin, finally responding to the alarm and the shouts through the intercom. He surveyed the two disheveled women and the wreckage strewing the cabin. "What's going on here?"
Rebecca brushed back her brunette hair with one hand in a vain effort to appear presentable. "I heard Gwen slip out of the Hab in the middle of the night. I thought she was planning sabotage, so I followed her. When I got here, she attacked me."
The colonel turned to the mechanic, his expression pale and stony. "Major, what's your explanation?"
Rebecca preempted Gwen's explanation. "Colonel, she's pregnant."
"She's what?"
"Pregnant," Rebecca repeated flatly. Gwen looked away, not denying the fact. "It explains a lot lately."
Luke and McGee arrived in the cabin, hastily suited after the alarm. Townsend regarded the new arrivals sardonically. "Welcome aboard, gentlemen. I've just been informed that my flight engineer is pregnant. Would the lucky father please be good enough to reveal his identity?"
Gwen huddled against the metal wall as Luke sheepishly held up his hand. McGee seemed astonished.
Townsend stared the geologist in the face. "I hope you're proud of yourself." His sarcasm was searing. "Was it fun?"
Rebecca interrupted the dressing-down. "Colonel, this is a very serious situation."
Townsend turned to face her. "You think I don't know that?" he said excitedly. "As if we don't have enough problems around here, now we have crew members brawling in the middle of the night, or banging each other—and a baby on the way, to boot."
Rebecca forced herself to be calm and authoritative. "You don't understand. A child born on Mars can never return to Earth. The difference in gravity would almost surely cause developmental differences in bone thickness, blood volume, heart rate, immune functioning."
Gwen took alarm. "The hell you say."
Rebecca's voice was clinical. "This fetus has to be aborted at once."
"Aborted!" Gwen made a halfhearted effort to launch herself at Rebecca, but was blocked by McGee. "Baby killer! I'll never let you do that to my child, you liberal trash, you godless murderer!"
Townsend slammed his fist down on the control panel. "Cut it out!" Somehow, Gwen recovered enough composure to silence herself.
The colonel waited a few seconds for order. "I just found out from JSC that there's a spare computer card for the ERV right here on Mars, in the second ERV that was landed down in the Valles Marineris. Its CPU circuits check out green. Apparently, Holloway didn't bother to wreck it. We've got only one chance to get it before the dust storms return. We need to leave as soon as possible."
A mission into the Valles Marineris! The shaken and confused crew waited expectantly for Townsend's orders.
"I'm going. I'll take Professor McGee, since his personnel profile shows mountaineering experience. We'll be back within five days and settle this matter then, when you've all cooled off." He swept his gaze from Rebecca to Gwen, huddled on the floor, to the geologist standing stunned near the stairway to the lower deck. "I must say that I'm disappointed in all of you. All of you. In the meantime, Major Llewellyn will sleep here in the ERV, and reside here except for duty watches. Dr. Sherman will stay in the Beagle. Luke, I want you to make sure that these two stay far away from each other."
"Yes, sir," Luke replied.
"All right, then, let's break up and get some sleep. The professor and I have a long hard trip ahead of us, starting at 0600 tomorrow morning."