“Do you want custody?” Sohelia asked him.
Bruce looked at Juna, who was watching him, her dark eyes intent on his face. He dropped his gaze to the rug. This was going to be hard enough to say without looking at her. “I think the whole thing is a bad idea,” he said quietly. “I don’t think Juna should have the baby.”
“Bruce, I— ” Juna began again, but her lawyer laid a cautionary hand on her arm.
“You’ve brought up some very genuine concerns,” Counselor Gheisar said. “First, the matter of money. You are not being asked to give up any of your child-rights. Juna has agreed to buy the remaining fraction of a child-right that she needs on the open market. Second, as Bernie pointed out, the Survey will very likely pay all legal fees and fines. They should have checked to see if her contraception was still intact, and they’re clearly negligent under current law. They’re responsible for Juna’s becoming pregnant.”
Gheisar stood. “The matter of custody is a good deal more complex. As an unmarried man whose child-rights are not involved, you have very little say in the custody of the child. Juna would be well within her rights to never allow you any access to her child at all. Instead, she has agreed to allow very liberal visitation rights. As far as your other reservations are concerned, Juna has the support of her family, and of her brother’s family. They will help her raise the child. It’s not a marriage, perhaps, but it is a family, and a solid one.”
“Bernie, what do you think?” Bruce asked, appealing to his lawyer for support.
“Basically, Counselor Gheisar is correct. Juna is being extremely generous here. Custody is a long shot. You have some options, but they’re expensive and time-consuming. If you like, we can discuss them later.”
Bruce examined the carpet again. There was no easy way out of this. He raged inwardly at the situation.
“This brings us to the matter of the Tendu,” Counselor Gheisar continued, “Why, exactly, do you object to them?”
“Because Moki is planning on being my daughter’s brother! It isn’t right, it isn’t natural! It can’t be good for the child!” Bruce exploded, venting his frustration.
“Bruce, I don’t understand,” Juna said. “You like Moki. Why don’t you want him around our daughter?”
“I don’t trust the Tendu,” Bruce replied, scowling. Juna and her lawyer were herding him into a very small corral, and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it. Why couldn’t Juna let go of the baby? She already had fame, money, and the Tendu. Wasn’t that enough? Why was she dragging him through this?
“Bruce, I’ve known Moki and Ukatonen for years,” Juna told him. “I’ve trusted them with my life. I wouldn’t go through with this if I thought that the Tendu would harm our daughter.”
“But Juna, they eat their young!” Bruce blurted out. “How can you let them near a baby!”
Juna’s eyes widened in surprise. “Ukatonen and Moki understand the difference between a human baby and a Tendu tadpole. If you don’t believe me, we can call them in and ask them!”
“That’s an excellent idea, Juna,” Counselor Gheisar said. “I can’t think of a better way to deal with this question. Please, go ahead.”
Bruce glared at her lawyer as Juna went to the door and called the Tendu in. The aliens came-in and sat down, deep purple with curiosity.
“Go ahead,” she told Bruce. “Ask them.”
Bruce stared at the floor, embarrassed and angry at being put on the spot like this. He mumbled a curse under his breath.
“What did you say, Bruce?” Moki asked.
“Are you— ” he began, then shook his head. “You called them in here, you ask them,” he said, looking up at Juna.
“Bruce is concerned that you might eat the baby,” Juna said.
Ukatonen’s ears spread wide, and he turned a deep purple in puzzlement. Moki sat up indignantly, a lightning fork of red anger flickering across his chest.
“Why would we do a thing like that?” he demanded. “Why would I eat my own sister?”
Ukatonen touched Moki on the shoulder, and said something in skin speech. Bruce couldn’t follow what he was saying with the rudimentary skin speech he had picked up from them on the ship. Ukatonen stood, drawing himself up proudly. Suddenly the alien seemed like the largest person in the room, even though he didn’t even come up to Brace’s shoulder.
“I am an enkar of the Three Rivers Council,” Ukatonen declared. “I am about to render a formal judgment. As Eerin knows, my life is forfeit if this judgment is wrong. I say that no Tendu will harm Eerin’s daughter.”
He relaxed his formal pose, yet still seemed to dominate the room.
“We promised, when we came here, that we would abide by the Contact Protocols,” Ukatonen continued. “Eating a human child would be a clear violation of those protocols.” Bruce recognized the amusement that flickered across the alien’s chest, and his lips tightened in anger.
The amusement vanished as the alien turned to speak to Bruce. “Eerin’s child is important to both our people. By growing up with Moki and myself, she will learn about the Tendu. When she is grown, Eerin’s daughter will help provide a link between our two peoples. There is too much to gain for us to want to hurt her.”
“Eerin’s daughter this, Eerin’s daughter that,” Bruce complained. “She’s my daughter too. I want her to be a normal, happy little girl, not some half-alien thing I can’t understand! I don’t want her to grow up to be an alien. I don’t want to sacrifice her on the altar of alien diplomacy! She’s just a little girl who isn’t even born yet!”
“Bruce!” his lawyer cautioned. “That’s enough.”
“We don’t want to turn her into a Tendu, Bruce,” Ukatonen told him. “We want her to be a human with a deeper understanding of the Tendu. We will help Eerin raise her, but she will be Eerin’s child, and if Eerin does as good a job with her daughter as she has with Moki, then I think the child will be exceptional.”
Bruce looked down at the carpet once again, unable to find words that would express the dread he felt. They wouldn’t listen, anyway.
Juna’s lawyer began gathering up her notes.
“Perhaps we should all get a good night’s sleep and think things over,” she suggested. “We’ve gotten a good idea of how everyone feels, and that’s an important first step. Now we need to arrive at an agreement that we can all live with. We can work on that tomorrow.
“Bruce, we all realize that you’re hesitant about the child being raised around aliens, but the Tendu seem to care about her, and mean her no harm. Also, you should be aware that Juna is being extremely generous. She’s offering you liberal visitation rights, and carrying the financial burden of bearing and raising this child herself, freeing you to marry as you wish.
“Juna, you understand that Bruce has deep misgivings about the way you wish to raise your child. You need to think about how to reassure him that your daughter will have a normal childhood. Now, go,” Sohelia said, making shooing motions with her hands. “Go and think things over.”
As Bruce left the meeting, he saw Moki glance at him and turn away, his skin clouded with grey.
“Damn,” Bruce muttered under his breath. He had not wanted to hurt the little alien’s feelings. He headed upstairs to his room with a heavy heart. It had been a very long, hard day.
Moki walked out onto the front porch and stood in the darkness for a few moments, his skin a smoky roil of grey and purple. Bruce liked him. Why was he so afraid that he would hurt the baby?
Moki stood on the porch until the cold made him feel sluggish and dull. The cold numbed his body, but did nothing to erase the hurt he felt. With a slow ripple of sadness, he turned and went back into the house and all the troubles it contained.