WHEN SHE ARRIVED ON the Nova Fortuna, Cariad went directly to the Fertilization Labs. Predictably, her two techs were hard at work. They had seeded the remaining gestation bags with the newly developing embryos, they told her.
“And they all took again?” Cariad asked.
“One hundred percent success rate,” Cassie replied.
“I knew I could rely on you two.”
The techs beamed in response to her praise.
“From what I can tell,” said Cariad, “the cat got out of the bag that I wasn’t around.”
Florian flushed a little. “Yes. That was my fault.”
Cassie chuckled. “Every time someone came in looking for you, he would tell them a different story. After the fourth or fifth visitor, the stories became more and more outlandish.” She put a hand over her mouth and giggled. “He told one person—was it Anah
