She shook her head, “I wasn’t expecting it. I had a contraceptive shot to keep me from getting pregnant. It got undone on Tiangi without my knowing it.”
“I see,” Ukatonen said. “You were fertile when I met you. So it must have been Ilto or Anito who did it.”
“What am I going to do, Ukatonen? I can’t have a baby!”
“Why not?” he said.
“I’m all alone! There’s no one to help!”
“I don’t understand. How can you be alone? There’s your family, and you have us as well.”
“Ukatonen, a baby needs almost constant supervision for years. We’ll be traveling all the time. A baby would get in the way. And then there’s Moki. A bami doesn’t have to share its sitik with anyone. How is he going to feel about a baby?”
“He’s fascinated by your family, Juna. He sees how much you love Toivo. I think he’d like to have a sibling of his own that he could love like that.”
Juna shook her head. “It’s so complicated. There will be trouble when it gets out.”
Ukatonen turned purple in puzzlement. “I don’t understand. Why is this?”
“Ukatonen, I’m pregnant with an unlicensed child. Among our people, it is not allowed. I told you a little bit about Population Control, didn’t I?”
“Yes, I remember. The number of children that your people can have is limited. The rest seemed rather confusing.”
“Well, you’re supposed to get formal permission to have a child. You fill out an application, and Pop Con checks that you have enough child-rights, and then they send you to a doctor to turn off your contraception. Then you start trying to get pregnant. In my case, one of the Tendu undid my contraception. I got pregnant by accident. That never happens among my people. People will think that I did this on purpose.” She shook her head. “It’s going to be a mess.”
“I could undo the pregnancy,” Ukatonen offered.
“No,” Juna said. “I mean, I don’t know whether or not to keep the baby. I want to. I want to very much, but it will be so difficult.” She rubbed her face with her hands and got up to unharness the horse.
“You should be resting,” he told her.
“As soon as I’m finished with this.”
“Sit down. Let me do it.”
“But— ”
“You can tell me what to do. I need to learn.”
Dusty eyed Ukatonen curiously, ears forward, nostrils spread wide.
“What do I do first?”
“First you need to introduce yourself to the horse,” Juna told him. She got up, and took Dusty’s head. “I’ll need to help,” she insisted. “There’s a can of treats just under the seat. Open it up and hand me a couple.”
Juna told him how to unharness the horse and rub him down. Dusty sniffed Ukatonen over anxiously at first, but he settled down quickly under the enkar’s kind, firm handling.
“He likes you.”
Ukatonen shrugged. “I’ve dealt with animals for a long time,” he said.
When Dusty was unharnessed, they led him out to the paddock, and watched as the horse ambled over to an open mesh bag of hay hanging from the fence and started to eat.
“Oh, Ukatonen. What am I going to do?” Juna said as she watched Dusty eat. She felt overwhelmed.
“For now, rest, eat,” Ukatonen said. “You must take care of yourself and the young one.”
Juna shook her head. “There’s so much to worry about.” Just then Danan drove up with a truckload of supplies, and Juna remembered that she was supposed to collect Analin at the terminal. “Oh my god! Analin! I forgot to pick her up.”
“It’s all right,” Ukatonen told her. “Danan and I will go and get her. You should rest,” he said. “If you wish, I’ll help you fall asleep,” he said? holding out his arms. “You’ll think better after a good nap.”
Eerin looked at him. For once Ukatonen could see the strain on her face. “Thank you, en. I appreciate it.”
Moki was out in the barn with Danan, helping clean and oil Herman’s bridle when Ukatonen came in to talk to him.
“Your sitik has just found out that she is pregnant,” Ukatonen said in skin speech.
Moki’s ears lifted. “You mean she didn’t know about the baby?” he asked, pink with surprise. “How could that be!” He had been puzzled by his sitik’s failure to speak about the baby, but now he understood why she had said nothing.
“You know how body-blind humans are,” Ukatonen reminded him. “And without her allu, she cannot sense what her body is doing anymore. Besides, she’s had a lot on her mind, these last few weeks.”
“I wish she had her allu again,” Moki said wistfully. “Our linking isn’t as close as it was on Tiangi.”
Ukatonen brushed his shoulder in sympathy. “I wish I could make it easier for you.”
Moki shrugged. “She’s my sitik. Without her, I wouldn’t be alive now. Besides, there are compensations. We are here, seeing things that no Tendu has ever seen. And I will be the first Tendu to have a sister. That will be interesting.”
“I’m glad you’re pleased about the baby. But Eerin’s very frightened and confused. She may decide not to keep the child. You must help her understand how you feel.”
Moki looked solemn. “I will do what I can, en.”
“You must reassure Eerin,” Ukatonen told him. “It would be good if she kept the baby. We would learn a great deal about humans from watching one grow up. And we can help teach it about the Tendu.”
“I should go to Eerin now,” Moki said.
“In a while,” Ukatonen said. “She’s asleep now. But she forgot to pick up Analin, so you and Danan should go and meet her at the shuttle station.”
Moki nodded. “Danan?” he said, speaking in human sound speech. “Something’s come up, and Juna couldn’t pick up Analin. Can we go out to the shuttle station and get her in the truck?”
“Sure,” Danan said. “Isoisi isn’t going to need it for another couple of hours. Is Juna-Tati all right, Ukatonen? I saw you help her up to her room and she looked kind of upset.”
“She just needs to rest for a bit,” the enkar said. “You’d better hurry. Analin’s shuttle will be here in twenty minutes.”
“Okay, let me grab the keys and we’ll be on our way!” Danan said.
Juna awoke to find Moki perched like a gargoyle on the footboard of the bed, watching her.
“Hello, bai,” she said.
“Hello, siti,” Moki replied. “Are you feeling better?”
Juna sat up in bed. “Yes, I am.”
“Ukatonen told me that you just found out about the baby. I’m looking forward to helping you raise it. I’ve never had a sister before.”
“Moki it’s not that easy— ” Juna began and then stopped as his words sank in. “It’s a girl?” she asked.
Moki nodded. “Yes. A sister.” He left his precarious perch and came and sat on the edge of the bed. “You will not be alone, siti. Ukatonen and I will help you.”
Juna shook her head and laid a hand on her belly. “This is an unlicensed child. There will be trouble. It will tie us down, and make it harder for me to show you what my people are like.”
“Siti, every day we are here we learn more about what your people are like. Besides, watching the baby will teach us how humans learn to be humans.”
He was right, Juna realized, but building diplomatic bridges was crucial for the Tendu right now. “Yes, bai, you’re absolutely right, but as an enkar, Ukatonen needs to meet the humans who run things. I can’t help him do that with a baby under my arm.”
“Don’t important people like babies?” Moki asked.
“I suppose they do, but babies are a distraction during diplomatic functions.”
“What about your family?” Moki asked. “Won’t they help?”
ilIsi and Anetta are getting old, bai. They will not be alive for many more years. And Toivo has a family of his own. It isn’t fair for me to ask them to help with the baby.”