"Well . . . it had something to do with her loyalty, or something."

Something something something. A clear sign of uncontrolled rumor, Marta thought. She prodded a bit.

"Well, but-she is a hero, isn't she? I mean, she brought her ship back and saved Xavier . . ."

"Yes, but why? That's what they're asking now. People I know who knew her in the Academy say she wasn't that talented then. She wasn't even command track. How could she get that good without anyone knowing, unless she had help? And not wanting to rescue Sera Meager-"

"I'm sure she does," said Suiza's defender, getting red in the face. "But nobody listens-"

"Just because you have a bad case of hero worship, you can't ignore the facts. Sera Meager is a Chairholder; we exist to protect Chairholders, and-"

"What class was she in?" Marta said, before that turned ugly.

That led to an explanation she did not want about the way the Academy named its classes, on a rotation having nothing to do with the standard calendar. "So anyway," that informant finished up, when Marta felt her eyes about to glaze over, "she's in Vaillant class, six years ago." Marta converted that quickly to standard dates, but reminded herself that she'd probably have to ask for classmates by the Fleet's peculiar reckoning. But her informant went on, clearly in earnest to be complete. "Her classmates will be jigs-that's lieutenant, junior grade, sera-and lieutenants.

Everyone who doesn't mess up badly is promoted from ensign to jig at the same time, but there's a selection board for lieutenant, with a 12-month range. Lieutenant Suiza was promoted in the first selection; some of her classmates will be promoted in the next few days."

So, to find Esmay's classmates, she could confine herself to lieutenants, for the most part. And some of them promoted behind her might have reason to wish her ill. Casually, without apparent intent, Marta began trolling through the assortment of lieutenants. Most were, she found, either classmates or within one year of Esmay Suiza's class. Some had hardly noticed her at the Academy; others claimed to have known her well. And a few had more immediate information to share.

"I just can't believe it," said the redhaired lieutenant with the mustache. Vericour, his name was. "I mean-Esmay! Yes, she got angry, and yes, she said things she shouldn't have-but she'd been working twice as hard as anyone else. They should have cut her some slack. You'd have thought she murdered the girl."

"You're a friend of hers?"

"Yes . . . at least, we were together at Training Command; we studied together sometimes.

Brilliant tactician-and a nice person, too. I don't think she ever said half of what people say-"

"Perhaps not," Marta said.

"But Admiral Hornan says I should stay away from her-she's poison. And Casea Ferradi claims she was saying all sorts of things in the Academy . . . but why they listen to Casea, I can't figure out."

"Casea?"

"Classmate of ours. She's from a colonial world too-one of the Crescent Worlds group, can't remember which. Tell you the truth, before I met her, I had heard the women there are . . . well .

. . shy. Casea was an education in that respect."

"Oh?" Marta gave him a grandmotherly smile, and he blushed.

"Well . . . junior year . . . I mean I'd heard about her, and she . . . she said she liked me. I suppose she did, as long as it lasted."

"She likes men . . ." Marta said, trailing it out.

"She likes sex," Vericour said. "Sorry, sera, but it's the truth. She went through our class like-like-"

"Fire through wheat?" suggested Marta. "And now she's always with that Ensign Serrano, isn't she?"

"Poor kid won't know what hit him," Vericour said, nodding. "I'd heard she was after bigger game, working her way up-but maybe she thinks the Serrano name's better than rank alone. And right now, when they're under a cloud, what with Lord Thornbuckle being so angry with them, she probably thinks she has a better chance."

"She is attractive," Marta said. "And I suppose she's efficient in her work?"

"I suppose," Vericour said, without any enthusiasm. "I was never on the same ship."

"I wonder if Ensign Serrano is actually taken with her."

"It wouldn't matter," Vericour said gloomily. "She has her ways, has Casea."

A few days downside, working through the civilian databases and ansible, gave her even more insight into the Suiza controversy. She had identified five classmates, including the sleek blonde Ferradi, who were actively spreading, if not inventing, wicked-Suiza stories. All five were at least one promotion group behind Suiza. If that wasn't the green-eyed monster, she didn't know what was. Suiza's former co-workers and commanding officers, on the other hand, seemed incredulous that anyone would believe such stories. One and all, they insisted that if she had had an argument with Brun Meager, and if she had been insulting, then Brun must have deserved it.

Marta wasn't sure about that-couldn't be, until she met Esmay Suiza in person-but she was willing to swear that whatever the nature of the original offense, malice and envy and spite had blown it out of all proportion.

The nature of the original offense still eluded her. Unless Suiza had snapped under the pressure of work-which didn't seem likely given her history-Brun had precipitated the fight. How? Given Brun's past history, the most likely cause was that she'd come between Suiza and a lover, but gossip didn't credit Suiza with any lovers. Indeed, gossip went the other direction. Block of ice, cold fish, frozen clod. Barin Serrano was supposed to have liked her, when he was on Koskiusko, but that could be mere hero worship, and Vericour had said Suiza was cool to him at Copper Mountain.

What could Brun have done? Marta was careful not to ask this question of the youngsters. Most of them, it was clear, thought that being the victim of piracy turned Brun into a shining martyr figure, untainted by any human error other than getting caught. Marta knew better. Brun was, by observation and Raffaele's report, intelligent, quick-witted, brave, and full of mischief as a basket of kittens. If she had wanted some reaction from Suiza she did not get, she might well have put all her inventive genius to work making trouble. That still led back to interference with a man Suiza wanted-but the problem was that Suiza supposedly had no preferences. Unless it was Barin, but for that she had no evidence.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

The pains started at night. Brun woke up, to find herself knotted around her hardened belly. It eased, but she knew at once it was not a cramp from supper. It was . . . what she most feared. She lay back, stretching a little. She was just dozing off when another pain curled her forward again.

She had no watch, no clock. She had no way to tell how the pains quickened. She had to use the toilet suddenly. Levering herself out of bed, she went into the corridor. Down the length of it, she saw the glint from the door-guard's eyes watching her. Damn him. She struggled toward the toilets, but another pain caught her, doubling her up against the wall. Through a haze of pain, she saw the guard stand up, move toward her. The pain eased; she leaned on the wall but went on.

Into the toilet room . . . at least they had toilets, she thought muzzily. She was hardly a meter from it when fluid gushed down her legs, hot and shocking.

"You!" It was the warden; the guard must have wakened her. "Come on!" The woman grabbed her arm, pulled. Yelled at the others to wake up. Brun doubled up again; the woman tugged at her arm. But it hurt too much; she was too weak. She sagged to her knees, gasping. It was unfair that she couldn't scream, unfair that this pain could not be met as it should be, with the protest it deserved.

Now the other women were around her, tugging and pushing, but she huddled there on her knees, unwilling to rise. Why should she? Suddenly the warden stuck something under her nose, an acrid smell that made her throw her head up to escape it. With a grin of triumph, the woman yanked on her arms again. With the others' help, she got Brun up, and together they half-dragged, half- carried her down the corridor and into the birthing room. By then the pain had eased, and Brun clambered onto the birth-bed herself. She might as well.

To her surprise, the rest of the birthing went faster than the one she had watched. Weren't first births supposed to be slower? She couldn't remember; she couldn't think. One pain after another flowed down her body, pushing, pushing . . . the other women wiped her face with damp cloths, stroked her arms. The warden alone scolded her, telling her to breathe or push, waiting with a folded towel for the baby that was-surely-just about to come.

And then it did-with a last wrenching pain, she felt the pressure ease suddenly; a thin cry rose from nowhere. The women all gasped together; the warden scowled.

"Too little. You have puny babies."

But then another pain struck, and Brun curled into it.

"Ah-" The warden handed off the first baby to one of the other women. "Two babies! Good!"

The second was born crying lustily. The warden put them on Brun's chest. "Give suck," she said.

Brun had no idea how, until the warden turned the babies and pressed Brun's nipples into the little mouths. "Help her," she ordered one of the other women. She herself washed Brun, while the others cleaned the room.

By afternoon, Brun was back in her own room, lying exhausted on her bed, with a baby on either side. She felt nothing for them. They were no more her babies than . . . than any stranger's baby.

Less. They had been forced on her; strangers had made use of her body to produce them.

Two babies. Brun slid into darkness on that thought.

"No breeding for half a year," the warden told her the next day. "You feed your babies; you help with work here one month, then you go to the nursery. Nursery for five months-maybe with twins, six months. Then to breeding house."

Half a year . . . she had half a year to get strong, to escape, to find a way to contact someone who would let her father know where she was.

But in the days after the birth, Brun began to despair again. How could she help Hazel if she couldn't find her? How could she find her when she couldn't ask questions? She lay motionless unless the warden prodded her to get up . . . she fed the babies only when ordered, ate only when ordered. Feeding the babies hurt; she had not imagined that babies would suck harder than her lovers had. But she was too weak, too miserable, to do more than hiss in pain each time someone put them to her breasts. She didn't notice when someone took the babies away, bringing them to her only for nursing. Someone had to put them to her breasts; someone had to clean them-and her-when they soiled her.

Then one day a cooler wind blew through the doors and windows, carrying with it a scent of harvest fields. And something-something familiar. Brun shifted in her chair; the babies shifted. One of them lost its hold on her nipple, and whimpered. Without noticing, she moved it back.