had attended several hundred Lani births and had developed a
certain callousness about them--was suddenly frightened and helpless
as he pushed the call button. He could feel the cold sweat form on his
forehead. He had started this. It was his fault if anything went wrong.
He wished that it was someone else rather than Copper who was going
through this trial. He was nervous, unsure, and guilty. In a word, he
felt like a man whose mate was giving birth to their first child.

* * *

"It's a boy," Dr. Brainard said. He smiled down at Kennon's haggard
face.

"How is Copper?" Kennon asked.

"Fine--she's healthy as a horse."

Kennon winced at the cliche It was so ancient that it had lost all
meaning. Most Betans didn't know what a horse was, let alone whether
it was healthy or not. From what Kennon could remember of veterinary
history, the horse wasn't too healthy an animal. It was rather delicate,
in fact.

"How is the child?" Kennon asked. It took a little courage to ask this
question. The baby could be anything from normal to a monstrosity.

"Perfectly normal," Brainard said. "A true Betan type even down to the
vestigial tail. We amputated that, of course."

"Thank Ochsner!" Kennon breathed. "I was afraid."

"Of course you were," Brainard said. "Do you want to see them now? When
I left, Copper was asking for you."

Kennon sighed. Leaving, he realized, wasn't going to be as easy as he
had thought.

"We'll have to keep them here for a couple of months," Brainard said.
"We must take exhaustive tests if we expect the court to reverse its
prior decision."

"I expected that," Kennon said. He shrugged, "It's probably best," he
said. "Now show me where Copper is."

"She's back in the same room. You don't need a guide."

Kennon didn't. In fact, he behaved quite admirably.

CHAPTER XX

Longliners, Kennon reflected, didn't make Beta a port of call, and the
Shortliner connections with other worlds were 'infrequent. Beta had done
a good job separating from the rest of the Brotherhood. Too good. The
spaceline schedules showed only one departure in the next month, a
Shortliner for Earth, and from Earth the road to Kardon was long and
tortuous, involving a series of short jumps from world to world and a
final medium-range hop from Halsey to Kardon. If everything went right
and he made every connection he would be in Kardon four months after he
left Beta. Kennon sighed as he left Travelers Aid. Morality was a heavy