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Applying was easy when nothing was holding her back.
Look at that chunk of credit for a baby. A cub, the Felids called them cubs. Lynx-Nineteen was full of them.
They are cute. They have so much love to give.
They—
Jade let her thoughts shift away from the sweet interactions she’d seen around the tiny town between the youngsters and their new human citizens.
In the Pleasure Parks, avoiding pregnancy and babies had been of paramount importance to her—not because you couldn’t work while pregnant. You could. There were men who paid extra for that. There were men who paid extra for the privilege of being “the first” after a woman returned from her mandatory six weeks off.
Jade shuddered, and her hands froze over the keys.
She hadn’t wanted to bring a baby into a world where women were treated like toys. The contracts were pretty gold paint to gloss over the true ugliness of the Pleasure Parks and the disposable nature of their employees, the lack of humanity in the most human of acts. There would have been no one in her life to help raise a child. Women weren’t allowed to bring their children to the adults-only establishment, which Jade actually considered a mercy. There were sick fuckers everywhere.
She shuddered and read the requirements again.
I can tell him I’ll try, and then I can tell him it’s not working out after a few cycles. Divorce must be legal in this galaxy. Isn’t it?
Or... Or, I could have a child. A child of my own, far away from Sapien-Three. I know I’ll never love this guy, this guy so hopeless he has to put out a contract offer to find a wife, but hey, I’m just as desperate.
But the baby... That might be someone to love. Maybe it would love me, too. Maybe the three of us would be some kind of family.
The word sent something that stung like acid down her throat and into the corners of her eyes.
Don’t be stupid.
Jade’s hands fell from the keyboard completely, and she retrieved her comm. She didn’t use it often, but she knew the handles of all the other women who had arrived with her. If there was anyone who could answer questions about Leopardines and trying to reproduce, it would be Cherie, the nurse-slash-health teacher who was married to the local sheriff.
Cherie picked up in the midst of a conversation. “Raylynn, no, sweetheart, I’m saving the cream to make butter for the cakes I need to bake. Hello, Jade!”
“Hi. Bad time?”
“No, no. A good time. Just trying to fend off my baking assistant.”
“We’re gonna make cakes for the other human ladies coming on the ship!” Raylynn, a pretty little Lynxian who was now Cherie’s adopted daughter, piped up.
“Ladies coming on the ship? Right. The human woman who had cubs with a Leonid.”
“And there are several other humans and Felids aboard—even some Canids. You know the mayor will be having a big feast and a dance. I don’t know how many cakes I ought to make, but the way the cubs eat, I think I’ll need at least a dozen.” Cherie laughed.
She laughs about taking care of them, about having to do more work. It must be a wonderful thing to have your brain warped like that.
Or maybe that’s being in love?
Jade shook herself. “Cherie, could I talk to you out of earshot of cubs for a minute?”
“Of course. Raylynn, go tell your brothers they should start on the milking. Uncle Dane will be here soon.”
Jade could hear rustling and Cherie’s voice lowered. “Is it medical?”
“No! Oh, sort of. You and Dane are going to try that reproductive chromosomal booster shot?”
“Well, it is a series of carefully supervised shots. Doc Weaver will have to learn how, but Dr. Marcus, the medical officer on the Comet Stalker, is going to teach him.”
“But you’re going to try it?”
“At least three of us are. Me, Rosemary, and Avis.”
