“No father acted as my accomplice,” the woman continued. “I used a robotic device to implant the fertilized egg two days after my acceleration burn, so the child has gestated entirely in a zero-gravity environment.”
I stepped into the warm acceleration jelly and began attaching the unpleasant wires and tubes necessary for an extended burn.
“She’s cold-blooded,” I said aloud.
Huizhu said nothing. That bothered me.
We were told that ship’s cortexes were not true AIs, but if we couldn’t tell the difference, did it matter? After two years of deep deployment, Huizhu had become my only friend and companion, yet times like this reminded me she was just another tool.
I closed the crèche lid then sealed the close-fitting helmet, wincing at the sting when interface posts pricked my shaved scalp. The helmet visor flickered to life with status and information feeds. Two small windows opened, one displaying an interactive diagram of my intercept course and the other showing the young woman still spouting her obviously well-rehearsed declamation.
“I’m willingly breaking the law and prepared to accept my punishment to prove that healthy children can be produced in null gravity.”
She used the word “produced” as if she were discussing industrial output at a corporate board meeting. I had seen the videos and pictures of children gestated in zero gee. They were twisted and tortured innocents. They were the reason laws had been passed.
Then Perez got to the part that bothered me most.
“Mom and Dad? If you’re watching, I’m sorry.” She paused, emotion showing in her face for the first time. “I know you won’t understand this and will be disappointed in me, but you’re going to have a grandson. He’ll just have to spend his entire life in microgravity.”
Not only was she creating a deformed person, but even intended to saddle her parents with the child’s care while she rotted in prison. My older sister had requested a child permit six years ago and was still waiting. Population on Jīnshān was strictly controlled for obvious reasons, but this woman had deliberately jumped the queue.
As the gel finished filling my acceleration crèche, I instructed Huizhu to fire the main thrusters. Even with the cushioning, I drifted almost back to the rear wall before the gel compressed enough to stop me.
Perez assumed pursuit would come from Jīnshān, where even the fastest ships like mine couldn’t reach her in less than six months, but I was part of a picket line and I was ahead of her. Officially an asteroid defense, in reality existed for situations just like this. I would intercept her ship in sixty-one days.
She would see me coming, probably during my deceleration burn, but if she ran she’d be under gee forces and could never claim that the baby developed in a full zero-gravity environment. I still had plenty of time to carry out my assignment and prevent her from giving birth.
INTERCEPT: 52 DAYS, 12 HOURS, 4 MINUTES
“Play it again with sound, Huizhu.”
Her second video flickered on my visor, then started again.
“I’ve read the messages sent my way and I assure you I’m not a monster, nor am I trying to produce one. My child might have slightly longer arms, legs, and fingers than one born on Earth, but hasn’t humanity finally learned to accept and embrace physical differences? The important thing is that he’ll be just as human as your children.”
Pleading in her voice. She didn’t want them to hate her son. Perhaps this was more than a political statement after all?
“There is no genetic manipulation, only cellular adjustments that started immediately and will continue through his entire life, but every human in space relies on machines to stay alive and healthy. We build space stations, spaceships, and protective suits. My body is filled with nanomachines that repair radiation damage, prevent optical degeneration, and address dozens of other health issues associated with null gravity. My child will simply have all of these from the beginning.”
I switched off the sound again and embraced the quiet inside my nested mechanical aids of mask, crèche, and ship. Her words held a grain of truth. Not only did we need machines to survive in space, but aside from those who lived inside Jīnshān’s centrifugal gravity, none of us would ever walk the surface of Earth again without mechanical help. Still, she was having a child, not conducting a science experiment.
INTERCEPT: 47 DAYS, 2 HOURS, 51 MINUTES
After only fourteen days, an intrepid astronomer spotted my drive plume, calculated a trajectory, and made the information public. He’d even been able to identify my ship type by characterizing the exhaust spectrum and determined it was human-rated. The entire solar system knew I was on an intercept course with Perez’s ship.
“Have we received new orders yet?” I asked Huizhu.
“No new communications from base, sir.”
“They can’t expect me to kill her now—the public will be watching. The Russians will use it as an excuse to embargo the station. Nearly half of the station investors are Americans, but the United States government will still call it an atrocity.”
Or was Jīnshān beyond having to play the game of international politics and public opinion? The station was an economic powerhouse and a true mountain of gold for the investors. Housing humanity’s fourth-largest economy, it had a firm grip on cislunar space and control of all off-planet commerce. Every asteroid mined, ship built, or powersat switched on paid Jīnshān well for the privilege.
“Do you think carrying out your orders will be an atrocity?” Huizhu said.
“Why do you ask that?”
“I don’t understand how killing Veronica Perez and her child puts Jīnshān Corporation in a morally superior position.”
“I suppose it would save the child a lifetime of pain and suffering. It would also be an example to others who might be willing to commit the same crime.”
“It makes no logical sense,” Huizhu said. “Children born with physical or mental disabilities on Earth are not euthanized. Legal punishment for breaking the zero-gee child law is imprisonment, not death. Some people will agree with a decision to terminate Veronica Perez and her child, but many others will not. Why risk turning public and government opinions against Jīnshān Station when taking no action would cost them nothing?”
“I don’t know,” I said. She was right. My employers obviously had reasons for taking such a risk, but I didn’t see them. Huizhu had voiced serious questions that had not even occurred to me. A chill made my skin prickle in the warm jelly.
When the message finally came, it merely reaffirmed my original orders, but my employers were being quite cautious. Even though sent via encrypted laser communications, the instructions themselves would also be opaque to anyone who caught and decrypted them. Intercept Perez. Use Plan 47. Innocuous as that message might look to outsiders, their intent was perfectly clear to me.
As an asteroid defense picket ship, my hold contained many things capable of redirecting big rocks, like surface-mountable pusher rockets and hyper-velocity missiles, but Plan 47 required I use a device that had only one purpose: to cripple spacecraft by shutting down their critical systems. The FL239 interdiction device utilized a small nuclear detonation to pump a directed EMP generator. Even military-hardened electronics couldn’t survive the pulse within optimum range. Technically the device was developed to enable apprehension and boarding of criminal vehicles, but since the pulse was powerful enough to fry spacesuit electronics as well as the ship’s life support, it was a death sentence for anyone aboard.