“Well, I was . . . I mean, I discussed this with the Natali and, we, that is, Oakes, wanted me to ask if you would return groundside to have your baby?”

“Violate our rules of WorShip?” Waela looked at Usija.

“You do not have to go groundside,” Usija said. “We merely agreed that he could ask.”

Waela returned her attention to Murdoch. “Why groundside? What did you hope to do there?”

“We have stockpiled a large supply of burst,” Murdoch said. “It’s my belief you will need every ounce of it you can get.”

“Why?”

“Your baby is growing at an accelerated rate. The physical requirements for the cellular growth are . . . very large.”

“But what about the sick children?” She turned toward Andrit. “What have they told you?”

He lifted his head, glared at her. “That you’re responsible! That they’ve seen this before groundside.”

“Do you want me to go groundside?”

They could see him battling with his WorShip conditioning. He swallowed hard, then: “I just want it to go away, whatever’s making my son sick.”

“How do they explain my responsibility for this?”

“They say it’s a . . . psychic drain, often observed but never explained. Perhaps Ship . . .” He was incapable of repeating outright blasphemy.

They chose a poor tool to attack me, Waela thought.

The pattern of the plot was clear now: Andrit was to demonstrate potential violence in shipside opposition to her. She would be forced to go groundside “for your own good, my dear.” They wanted her down there badly.

Why? How am I dangerous to them?

“Hali, have you ever heard of this phenomenon?”

“No, but I would agree that the evidence points at you or your baby. You don’t need burst, though.”

“Why?” Murdoch demanded.

“Ship is feeding her from the shiptits.”

Murdoch glared at her, then: “How long have you Natali known that this baby was growing too rapidly?”

“How do you know it?” Usija countered.

“It’s part of this phenomenon—rapid growth, abnormal demand for energy.”

“We’ve known since our first examinations of her,” Hali said.

“You kept it under wraps and proceeded with caution,” Murdoch said. “Precisely what we did groundside.”

“Why would you want to feed me on burst?” Waela asked.

“If the fetus gets enough energy from burst, the psychic drain does not take place.”

“You’re lying,” Waela said.

“What!”

“You’re as transparent as a piece of plaz,” Waela said. “Burst cannot be better than elixir.”

Usija cleared her throat. “Tell us, Murdoch, about your experience with this phenomenon.”

“We were doing some DNA work with kelp samples. We found this . . . this survival characteristic. The organism absorbs energy from the nearest available source.”

“The mother’s the nearest available source,” Hali said.

“The mother’s the host and immune. The organism takes from other organisms around it which are, ahhh, similar to the hungry one.”

“I’m not aging,” Hali said. “And I’m around her more than anyone.”