Claire tossed the infant back one more time to his father—mind-boggling, to think of that blond boy as a father of anything—and followed herself to brake to a halt hand-to-hand against Tony, who proffered an automatic helping grasp for that purpose. That they continued to hold hands was clearly more than a courteous anchoring.

“Claire, this is Mr. Graf,” Tony did not so much introduce as display him, like a prize. “He’s going to be my advanced welding techniques teacher. Mr. Graf, this is Claire, and this is our son Andy.” Andy had clambered headward on his father, and was wrapping one hand in Tony’s blond hair and another around one ear, blinking owlishly at Leo. Tony gently rescued the ear and re-directed the clutch to the fabric of his red T-shirt. “Claire was picked to be the very first natural mother of us,” Tony went on proudly. “Me and four other girls,” Claire corrected modestly.

“Claire used to be in Welding and Joining too, but she can’t do Outside work any more,” Tony explained. “She’s been in Housekeeping, Nutrition Technology, and Hydroponics since Andy was born.”

“Dr. Yei said I was a very important experiment, to see which sorts of productivity were least compromised by my taking care of Andy at the same time,” explained Claire. “I sort of miss going Outside—it was exciting—but I like this, too. More variety.”

GalacTech re-invents Women’s Work? thought Leo bemusedly. Are we about to put an R&D group to work on the applications of fire, too? But oh, you are certainly an experiment… His thought was unreflected in his bland, closed face. “Happy to meet you, Claire,” he said gravely.

Claire nudged Tony, and nodded toward her blonde co-worker, who had drifted over to join the group.