The Aquatile looked up at Carrie expectantly. “You mean I should perform the injection?"
"Ask her,” Carrie said as Sarbin looked away from her to communicate with the Leviathan on their private channel.
Sarbin said, “Varis accepts your proposal."
"Let's switch around, then. I'll hold the pack against the side of the vein.” My energy's fading, she thought. Either way I've got to finish this quickly.
* * * *
Sarbin managed to ease himself upward while still keeping Carrie's body pressed against him so the bloodstream wouldn't sweep her away. But his short arms still couldn't reach the medpack. “Use your snout,” Carrie said.
"No!"
"Why not?"
"I'm an Aquatile, not some primitive being. I use my hands or nothing."
"Sarbin, please make an exception. We've got to get out of here."
Sarbin cast Carrie a harsh look. “Just don't tell anybody. If another Aquatile found out, they'd call me a—fish."
"I won't tell anyone. Cross my heart."
"Failure to translate."
"Just hit the button!"
Sarbin thrust his snout forward and hit the button. Immediately, a readout told Carrie the pouch was being delivered. It flowed smoothly, easily, though the vein wall and into the Leviathan's womb. The too-small-to-be-seen machines making up the medical tech would join the proteins, carbohydrates, electrolytes, and other substances within the amniotic fluid to strengthen the unborn child's defenses against infection and provide her more endurance as she coped with her mother's seizures.
Carrie twisted around to return the medpack to the strap around Sarbin's belly. “Time to go,” she said. Sarbin did one of his now-familiar flips and let the bloodstream take him. Carrie was right behind him. All around her came another deep rumbling. Not as strong as Varis's seizures, though, she thought. What could it be?
"Great job,” Matt said. “Everything's looking fine . . . uh-oh."
Carrie was just getting the hang of keeping herself in the middle of the vein again. “Don't say that, Matt. I don't want to hear that uh-oh’ shit. What's wrong?"
"It's the baby—she's moving into position for delivery."
"Uh-oh."
Sarbin asked, “Why would that happen?"
Carrie could hear the concern in Matt's voice: “The tech made the baby stronger, and Varis's body is interpreting that as the baby being more mature."
Carrie asked, “So that's the source of those rumblings we heard a little while ago. Varis is ready to deliver?"
"And it's happening fast. But there's a problem."
"This already was a problem."
"Well, it's a worse one now. The baby's facing head-first. Leviathans are normally born tail-first."
"Why's that?” Carrie asked.
"Being delivered head-first when you're an aquatic animal means you can drown before you're completely born. And Leviathan babies don't turn around until late in the pregnancy."
Another rumble, this time accompanied by a strong shift to one side that made Carrie miss a curve in the vein. She slammed her shoulder against its walls. She groaned, then said, “What happens if Varis tries to deliver now?"
"There's no trying’ to it. She's delivering. That was a contraction."
Carrie said, “You've got to get us out."
No response at first from Matt. Then he said, “Uh, Carrie . . . ?"
"No. Don't you start. As short a time as we've worked together, I can tell what you're thinking. You've got some other mission for us, and I can tell you we've had enough."
"You went in there to save the baby. Now it's both Varis and the baby who are at risk."
Carrie and Sarbin continued to barrel down the center (mostly) of the vein. “What are you suggesting? That I get in there and push?"
Another silence stretched larger. Finally it was Carrie that broke it: “No. You can't mean—"
"That vein you're in is about to curve up toward the womb again, in just the right place. Sarbin can cut a path—"
"No. Absolutely not."
"—you get inside—"
"Does no one understand the word no’ on this planet?"
"—and then you help the baby turn around and be ready for delivery."
"You know, a midwife is supposed to work on the outside."
Matt said, “Once you get in there, it's going to take some work to turn that baby. It's fifteen meters long, after all."
"What, we can't just flip her around?"
"Carrie, for a woman you don't seem to have much of an idea how crowded it is inside a womb."
"It's been awhile since I left one."
"Besides, you're a fixer. At least that's what I was told before you got here. Now here's something that needs fixing."
Sarbin said, “I can help you, Carrie. We have to save the baby."
It's all so simple for Sarbin, Carrie thought. A true innocent. “All right. Matt, let me know when we need to stop. Sarbin, what does Varis think about this?"
"She's concerned and afraid. We were supposed to help her child. But we might've made things worse."
"Yeah. I don't blame her.” And I sure won't say out loud that I'm afraid we could screw this up even worse than that. Especially if she has another seizure. Carrie thought back to the last seizure, and how she and Sarbin were rocked around inside the vein, with the lesser disturbance of Varis eating following soon after.
Wait a minute, Carrie thought. “Matt, what do the Leviathans eat when they're out in the ocean?"
"Mostly tiny fish and floating vegetation, much like our own whales. We've been gathering it up and taking it to her—but yes, it's the natural vegetation that Leviathans eat when they banish themselves to the motile islands."
"But is it the same as what they eat in the open ocean?"
"I guess we've assumed so—you want me to check?"
"As quickly as you can, Matt. It could make a big difference."
"I'll do that, but you're just about at the place where you and Sarbin need to enter the womb."
"Matt, I won't even try to ponder the Freud-ian implications there."
Sarbin said, “Failure to translate."
"I don't doubt it."
Matt said, “Sarbin, stop Carrie right there."
Sarbin flipped around and eased his big body up against Carrie's, just as he'd done while they delivered the nanotech. The Aquatile reached into his medpack and grabbed the scalpel beam, which resembled nothing more than a small stunner or disruptor. Carrie asked, “How will you know where to cut?"
Sarbin depressed the trigger on his device and a narrow blue beam illuminated a small spot on the side of the vein. “Matt can detect that,” he said.
Sure enough, Matt immediately said, “A little up, Sarbin. Now to the left. Carrie, are you ready?"
"No. But I guess we're going anyway. Hey, wait a minute—did you check on the vegetation?"
"I did. They're related, but not quite the same."
"What's the difference between them?"
"The type the Leviathans eat in the open ocean has an alkaloid the one around the islands doesn't. But it's harmless. Varis says no one else in her pod's ever gotten sick the way she has."
Carrie said, “Harmless to them, maybe. But what if Varis's body has some sort of reaction to it?"
"That's something we have to look at later, Carrie—Varis and her child need our help now."
Carrie took a deep breath and mustered her remaining strength. “All right, then. Anytime, Sarbin."
The Aquatile twisted around to narrow his aim at the proper spot of the vein while still holding Carrie in place against the bloodstream's never-ending flow. He squeezed the trigger on the scalpel. The vein's flesh parted. So did that of the Leviathan's womb just beyond it. Sarbin executed a deft flip of his body, thrusting Carrie through that rubbery rift.
It was only the cushioning effects of the womb's amniotic fluid that kept Carrie from having the breath knocked out of her as
she landed, hard, against the Leviathan baby's body. A surging stream of Varis's blood began to diffuse within the womb. Sarbin squeezed through the rift and used the scalpel's suture function to close it within seconds. Carrie took a moment to get her bearings. Any movement, she found, was slow and methodical against the thick amniotic fluid.
She stared across the giant baby's back, down its fifteen-meter length. If Varis is the size of a shuttle, Baby's about like a lifepod, Carrie thought.
A familiar distant rumbling drew closer and stronger, and Varis was in the full throes of another seizure. That sent the baby moving, too, whether having a seizure of its own or reacting in fear.
Carrie tried to stay on the baby's back, but she started sliding downward, falling in slow motion within the thick fluid. The fall won't hurt me because stronger lifesuit tech would snap on, she thought, but the baby's movements could pin me against the side of the womb.
Sarbin glided up beneath Carrie, saying, “Grab onto me.” Carrie grabbed the strap around Sarbin's midsection and held on tight as the Aquatile swam through the narrow space between baby Leviathan and womb wall.
Varis's body grew still as Sarbin dropped Carrie off on top of the baby's body again. Carrie kept on hands and knees, both for balance and because she had very little room to move. Matt was right, she thought. It is crowded in here.
Now, seemingly, it was the baby's turn to thrash around. Carrie was about to be pinned against the “roof” of Varis's womb, but Sarbin inserted himself next to her, taking the pressure on his own larger, stronger body. “Matt,” she said, “I don't know if this was a good idea. We can barely move ourselves, let alone turn this big thing around."
"You've got to try,” Matt replied. “Sarbin has the strength. You can help guide."
Carrie muttered, “I could help guide it up your..."
"What's that?” Matt asked.
"Nothing."
Sarbin broke in: “We have to get to work to save the baby."
"You're right,” Carrie said. “Let's get started. You'll have to do the heavy work. I'll get behind the baby's head and try to guide her."
"Here I go,” Sarbin said, and made his way through the thick fluid to the baby's tail as Carrie floated over to a perch just behind the baby's head, right above her closed eyes. Sarbin applied the side of his snout to the unborn Leviathan's bulk and his fluke began to flap, though not as quickly as Carrie expected. In the low light of their glowing lifesuits, Carrie could tell that Sarbin was putting all his considerable strength behind the effort.
But the baby didn't move.
Sarbin rested. “The fluid's too thick,” he said. “I can't move my fluke quickly enough."
Varis's body shook violently and Carrie flattened herself against the baby's body. It looked as if the ceiling was caving in. As her lifesuit snapped into armor, Carrie realized: Varis is having more contractions.
Sarbin pleaded in a strangled voice: “Carrie, help me!"
A glance behind her, and Carrie saw that the Aquatile was pinned between the wall of Varis's womb and the baby Leviathan's body. And Carrie realized: Sarbin doesn't have the same protective tech in his lifesuit that I do. Mine was designed for space, and his was only developed for this mission.
"What is it?” Matt asked.
"Sarbin's in trouble.” Carrie hunkered down as much as she could to try to slide off the baby's back so she could make her way down to Sarbin. “Is there any way you can help out to make this baby flip around?"
"Goodness, I can't think of anything. Carrie—the Unity's counting on you."
Subtext, Carrie thought. He's telling me he'll follow the Unity's orders to cut Sarbin and me out of here if he has to. “The Unity's just fine for now,” she said, hoping to keep her own reference cryptic enough.
Carrie worked herself free of the tight spot between the womb's walls and the baby's back. But I do have to decide—should Sarbin and I just get out of here, even at the risk of killing the baby and Varis herself?
I say, hell no.
At least for now.
Carrie made it back to Sarbin and grabbed his arms and pulled. To no effect.
"I'm being crushed,” the Aquatile said. “I can barely . . . breathe."
Matt again: “Is now the time?"
"Not yet,” Carrie said. “We have to think of something—wait a minute. Sarbin, can you reach your scalpel?"
Sarbin reached down and pulled it from his sheath. “It's right here."
"Put it on a low setting and shoot the baby with it."
"What? I came here to help it, not hurt it."
"A low setting. Sting it!"
Sarbin raised the scalpel beam and aimed it at the wall of flesh right before him. And hesitated.
"Shoot!” Carrie said,
"I . . . can't..."
Carrie reached toward the scalpel. “Oh, Jesus Christ, let me do it—"
Matt: “Carrie—"
"I know, language. Gimme, Sarbin."
"I'll do it,” the Aquatile said, and fired the scalpel.
The baby flinched, and Carrie held on tight to Sarbin as he swam free. “We did it,” the Aquatile said.
Carrie told him, “And the baby's turned a bit. Give him another shot."
"You sound as if you're enjoying this."
"What I'm enjoying is knowing we're about to turn the baby—oh, and that we're not getting squished just yet."
Sarbin took aim again. “I guess we have to do this.” Another shot, and the baby's tail moved farther away from them. But Varis also reacted, moving her own body from side to side, and Carrie held onto Sarbin even tighter as they swayed back and forth in the relatively slow motion of the amniotic fluid.
Sarbin said, “Varis, you have to keep still—we're saving your baby."
A voice Carrie hadn't heard previously came over her datalink, rough and low: “You are hurting my child."
Varis, Carrie thought. Speaking at last.
"I know we're hurting her,” Sarbin said. “But not very much, and if we don't get her to turn, she could die. So could you."
An odd moment passed, of utter silence and stillness. Then Varis said, “Do what you must."
Sarbin didn't hesitate, but raised the scalpel and stung the baby again. The unborn Levia-than shifted around some more, until it was “sideways” in the womb. Carrie said, “She can't be comfortable that way—she'll have to shift around some more."
And she did, but started back the way she'd come. “Again, Sarbin,” Carrie said, and the Aquatile fired yet again.
With a couple of swishes of her tail and twisting of her body, the baby spun around and placed herself into the proper position for birth. She ended up facing Carrie, who found herself staring directly toward an eye the width of her hand—an eye that spun toward her, then blinked a couple of times against her lifesuit's illumination and finally closed again. Wow, Carrie thought.
Varis's body began to shake again and Carrie flattened herself against Sarbin's back. “Dam-mit,” she said. “Those contractions are tough to take. Matt?"
"I'm here."
"How long can a Leviathan's birth take? We don't want to be stuck in here for hours."
"Everything's proceeding faster than you might think."
Varis's entire body shook again and suddenly Carrie felt as if she were on a starcraft where the grav had failed. “Is Varis diving?"
"Don't worry,” Matt said. “It's common practice for Leviathans about to give birth—dive into colder water, and her body rushes blood to the body core where it's needed."
Varis was already leveling off. “What about the baby when it comes out?"
"The cold provides a shock, and the baby expels any amniotic fluid that could be in its lungs."
"Then it's right up to the surface for that first real breath?"
"You got it, with a little help from Mom."
The baby Leviathan's eye opened again. I could swear it looks surprised, Carrie thought. Then it, and the rest of the baby's body, began to re
cede as Varis's body trembled with another string of contractions. Carrie and Sarbin were rocked from side to side, then found themselves following right behind the soon-to-be-born Leviathan.
"Uh-oh,” Carrie said. “I'm not a Christian, but I'm about to be born again."
"Part of that didn't translate,” Sarbin said.
"Just get ready to take a ride."
The Leviathan baby shot backward all at once, and Carrie grasped Sarbin tighter than ever as Varis's contractions shot them that way, as well, the baby staring at them all during her fitful journey. “Push, Varis,” Carrie muttered, then couldn't help laughing, however feebly. “I guess that's the first time anyone's said that from inside."
Several minutes of violent back-and-forth, side-to-side movements followed. Carrie, hands cramping, arms and legs losing strength, was about to resign herself to falling away from Sarbin and taking whatever came.
Sarbin said, “Look, Carrie—light!"
Every muscle in Carrie's neck protested as she lifted her head, but she was rewarded with the slightest of glimmers as she looked past the baby's body and beyond its tail. “Isn't it marvelous, Carrie?” Sarbin said. “We're part of the miracle of life."
The miracle will be if we survive it, Carrie thought, but at least she had more motivation to keep hold of Sarbin, if this incredible journey was about to end.
Another burst of motion, and the baby suddenly slipped away from them, her umbilical cord snapping and her body sliding gracefully into the open sea. As smooth and controlled as a starcraft undocking, Carrie thought.
Then she had no time for thought, as the umbilical cord, trailing crimson blood, whipped toward her and Sarbin, massive enough that it could've killed them in an instant, but slowly enough that the Aquatile dodged it and headed for the light.
A final contraction from Varis propelled Sar-bin out into the ocean in a cloud of blood and amniotic fluid. The newly-born Leviathan baby, swimming free, cast a broad shadow over them.
Suddenly Carrie felt as if she were being launched spaceward in a shuttle that had lost its inertial protections. She caught the merest glimpse of Varis's fluke pushing upward inexorably against Sarbin's underside, and then, unexpectedly, she and the Aquatile and the Leviathan child broke the surface of Welkin's waters.
Analog SFF, October 2010 Page 11
