He returned to the lounge, feeling vaguely unsettled. He had forgotten the presence of the ancient Planner. “Madame, will you graciously permit — ” “Come here, lad!” she said sharply. “I want to see you in the light.” He came forward and stood before her, feeling somewhat as he always had as a child when the development center therapists checked over his growth and physical development. Damnation, he thought, she looks at me as if I were a horse and she a buyer.
She stood up suddenly and grasped her stick. “You’ll do,” she stated, as if the knowledge somehow annoyed her. She extracted a fresh cigar from somewhere about her person, turned to Phyllis, and said, “Goodbye, child. And thank you.” Whereupon she started for the door.
Felix had to hurry to catch up with her and let her out. Felix returned to Phyllis, and said savagely, “A man that’ud do that ‘ud be challenged.” “Why, Felix!”
“I detest,” he stated, “these damned emphatic old women. I have never seen why politeness should be the obligation of the young and rudeness the privilege of age.”
“Why, Felix, she’s not like that at all. I think she’s a dear.”
“She doesn’t act like it.”
“Oh, she doesn’t mean anything by that. I think she’s just always in a hurry.”
“Why should she be?”
“Wouldn’t you be-at her age?”
He hadn’t thought of it from that point of view. “Maybe you’re right. Sands of time, and so forth. What did the two of you talk about?”
“Oh-lots of things. When I expected the baby and what we were going to name him and what plans we had for him and things.”
“I’ll bet she did most of the talking.” “No, I did. Occasionally she put in a question.”
“Do you know, Phyllis,” he said soberly, “one of the things I like least about the whole business of you and me and him is the quivering interest that outsiders take in it. No more privacy than a guppy in an aquarium.”
“I know what you mean, but I didn’t feel that way with her. We talked women talk. It was nice.”
“Hrummph!”
“Anyway, she didn’t talk much about Theobald. I told her we intended to have a little sister for Theobald presently. She was very much interested. She wanted to know when, and what plans we had for her, and what we intended to name her. I hadn’t thought about that. What do you think would be a nice name, Felix?”
“Egg knows-seems to me that’s rushing matters a little. I hope you told her that it would be a long, long tune.”
“I did, but she seemed a little disappointed. But I want to be myself for a while, after Theobald comes. How do you like the name ‘Justina’?”
“Seems all right,” he answered. “What about it?”
“She suggested it.”
“She did? Whose baby does she think it’s going to be?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
” — and beat him when he sneezes”‘
“Now, Felix, don’t get yourself excited.”
“But dammit, Claude, she’s been in there a long time!”
“Not very long. First babies are often a little slow arriving.”
“But-Claude, you biologist johnnies should have worked out something better than this. Women shouldn’t have to go through with this.”
“Such as?”
“How should I know? Ectogenesis, maybe.”
“We could practice ectogenesis,” Mordan answered imperturbably, “if we wished. It has been done. But it would be a mistake.”
“Egg’s sake-why?”
“Contra-survival in nature. The race would be dependent on complex mechanical assistance to reproduce. The time might come when it wasn’t available. Survivor types are types that survive in difficult times as well as easy times. An ectogenetic race couldn’t cope with really hard, primitive conditions. But ectogenesis isn’t new-it’s been in use for millions of years.”
“No, I suppose it-Huh? How long did you say?”
“Millions of years. What is egg-laying but ectogenesis? It’s not efficient; it risks the infant zygotes too hazardously. The great auk and the dodo might still be alive today, if they had not been ectogenetic. No, Felix, we mammals have a better method.”
“That’s all right for you to say,” Felix replied glumly. “It’s not your wife that’s concerned.”