A corner of her mind still feared that now she’d decided to keep it, even though she wasn’t the superstitious sort, fate or the universe would find a way to play its trick on her.

The machine beeped. Naomi counted down from ten, preparing herself. The cover of the autodoc pulled back. She rose, the slight swell of her stomach already making her move awkwardly.

Naomi loaded the facsimile of herself, then her womb.

Twenty weeks, almost twenty-one. The foetus moved, from time to time. At night, if Naomi was very still, she could sense the shifting.

On the scan, the chest contracted and relaxed, almost like breath. The room filled with Naomi’s slow, sure heartbeat and then beneath: the faster fluttering. The foetus was halfway through gestation. There were ten fingers, ten toes, tipped with soft nails. The whorls of fingerprints had formed. The eyelids were translucent, and the face showed the barest hint of eyebrows and eyelashes. The child would have dark hair, between Naomi’s brown hair and Evan’s black.

Six and a half inches long. Ten whole ounces. The little thing would fit into her hand like a kitten.

Naomi bowed her head in relief.

“Congratulations,” she said to her belly. “You continue to boldly go where no baby has gone before.”

Naomi had the right angle this time—she could see the sex. There was no hidden Y chromosome on board. The foetus would be assigned female at birth. Valerie had guessed correctly.

The door to the med bay opened. Hart’s head poked in, her temples damp with sweat. Her eyes went to the scan and she visibly relaxed.

“Still there,” Naomi said. “Not lost in space.”

“Thanks for that horrible mental image.” Hart took in the angle. “A girl.”

“Yeah, looks like. I didn’t mind either way. But I guess the all-female mission continues.”

“Got any names picked out?”

“Nope. Not a one. Think I’m still afraid of jinxing it. How are you feeling?”

“Better. Not exactly looking forward to voiding the contents of my stomach once we do the proper jump, though.”

Naomi exhaled. “Five days. Then goodbye, solar system.”

“I thought I’d be ecstatic, but I’m all deflated,” Hart said. “I know it’s just the adrenaline comedown. I’ll rest in here, so I can come back kicking at dinner. Don’t want to dampen Jerrie’s moment.”

“Hixon will understand,” Naomi said. “This is strange for all of us.”

“What… what do you think Earth will do?” Hart asked.

Naomi let out a breath. “I don’t know. I think they’ll have to cave, won’t they? If Valerie threatens to interfere with things on the other side.”

Valerie wouldn’t threaten to destroy the warp ring near Cavendish until moments before the jump, when it would be too late for Earth to interfere. They’d have to send through a probe.