"What are you talking about?" Mari asked.

Sino pointed toward Mari's abdomen. "The problems in there that interfere with a safe pregnancy. Jason, I could guide the local surgeons in fixing this. They understand antisepsis here, right? The only problem is that I can't stay to do it. Talese Groveen has made it clear that as soon as we're done here our ship is heading home."

"You can't stay a little longer?" Jason pleaded.

"I want to stay here long enough to handle this, Jason, but—"

Kira gasped as she saw the opening in the side of the Earth ship vanish. The ship jumped skyward.

Doctor Sino turned to look, startled. Her fingers moved rapidly. "My link is dead. No one's answering me." She paused, her expression worried. "Jason, what was the last thing I said before they took off?"

"You said…you wanted to stay here, but—"

"Oh." Sino exhaled heavily. "I should have realized that TG would seize on any opportunity to maroon me here."

"What happened?" Kira asked, guessing that TG was short for Talese Groveen but otherwise confused.

"What happened is that I said, while being monitored, I want to stay here. By using just that clip, TG can claim I decided to stay along with Jason. Oh, yeah. That's why she told me to repeat whatever Jason said about staying. I didn't, but I gave her what she wanted later."

"Why?" Mari looked dazed as she tried to take in everything the doctor had told her. "Why would she want to leave you?"

"Because," Sino said, pointing at Alain, "I was also out here when your husband tricked TG into admitting that she was to all intents and purposes selling her son. That made me another witness who could have testified against her on Earth. Now all I could do is rat her out using your Feynman Unit, but transmissions like that are not legally admissible evidence."

"I'm sorry," Jason said. "This is my fault."

"And ours," Alain said.

"Not entirely," Sino said, looking around. Her expression, angry at her abandonment by the ship, slowly shifted as she looked at the world around her, settling into a slight smile. "I left TG an opening for her to knife me, and she did. I'm not all torn up about not spending another two months cooped up with her inside that ship, and there isn't anybody left back on Earth that I'm particularly close to. That's why I accepted the mission assignment even though I was going to be gone for twenty years. And there are a lot worse places to be marooned. Hey, you're called Lady Mari, right? And you're in charge of this planet? Since I'm staying, do you think there's any chance I could have a pony? I've always wanted one."