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Equinoctial
PARAMETER KNEW SHE WAS being followed. They had been behind her for days,
always
far enough behind that they couldn't get a permanent fix on her, but never so
far that she could lose them. She was in danger, but now was not the time to
worry about it.
Now was one of the big moments in her life. She proposed to savor it to the
full
and refused to be distracted by the hunters. She was giving birth to
quintuplets.
Uni, Duo, Tri, Quad... Hopelessly trite. Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy—no, there
were seven of those. Army, Navy, Marine, Airforce, Coastguard? That was a
pentagon, for an interesting pun. But who wanted to be called Coastguard?
What
was a Coastguard, anyway?
She put the naming ordeal out of her mind. It wasn't important; they would
pick
their own names when the time came. She just thought it might be nice with
five
to have something to tag them with, if only for bookkeeping purposes.
"They just got another sighting," she thought, but it wasn't her own thought.
It
was the voice of Equinox. Equinox was Parameter's companion, her environment,
her space suit, her alter ego; her Symb. She looked in the direction she had
come from.
She looked back on the most spectacular scene in the solar system. She was
230,000 kilometers from the center of Saturn, according to the figures
floating
in the upper left corner of her field of vision. To one side of her was the
yellow bulk of the giant planet, and all around her was a golden line that
bisected the universe. She was inside the second and brightest of the Rings.
But Saturn and the Rings was not all she saw. About ten degrees away from
Saturn
and in the plane of the Rings was a hazy thing like the bell of a trumpet. It
was transparent. The wide end of the bell was facing her. Within this shape
were
four lines of red that were sharp and well-defined far away but became fuzzy
as
they neared her. These were the hunters. All around her, but concentrated in
the
plane of the Rings, were slowly moving lines of all colors, each with an
arrow
at one end, each shifting perspective in a dazzling 3-D ballet.
None of it—the lines, the bells, the "hunters," even Saturn itself—none of it
was any more real than the image in a picture tube. Some of it was even less
real than that. The shifting lines, for instance, were vector representations
of
the large chunks of rock and ice within radar range of Equinox.
The bell was closer than it had been for days. That was bad news, because the
space-time event it represented was the approach of the hunters and their
possible locations projected from the time of the last fix. The fuzzy part
was
almost touching her. That meant they could be very close indeed, though it
wasn't too likely. They were probably back in the stem where the projection
looked almost solid, and almost certainly within the four lines that were
their
most probable location. But it was still too close.
"Since they know where we are, let's get a fix on them," Parameter decided,
and
 as she thought it the bell disappeared, to be replaced by four red points
that
grew tails even as she watched.
"Too close. Way too close." Now they had two fixes on her: one of their own,
and
the one she had given them by bouncing a signal off them. From this, their
Symbs
could plot a course; therefore, it was time to alter it.
She couldn't afford to change course in the usual way, by bouncing off a
rock.
The hunters were close enough that they would detect the change in the rock's
velocity and get a better idea of where she was. It was time for thrusters,
though she could ill afford the wasted mass.
"Which way?" she asked.
"I suggest you move out of the plane. They won't expect that yet. They don't
know you're in labor."
"That's pretty dangerous. There's nothing to hide in out there."
Equinox considered it. "If they get any closer, you'll have to do something
at
least that drastic, with less chance of success. But I only advise."
"Sure. All right, do it, my green pasture."
The world around her jerked, and all the colored lines started moving down
around her, bending as their relative velocity changed. There was a gentle
pressure at the small of her back.
"Keep an eye on them. I'm going back to the business of giving birth. How are
they doing, by the way?"
"No sweat. One of the girls is in the tube right now—you can feel her—"
"You can tell me that three times..."
"—and she's a little puzzled by the pressure. But she's taking it well. She
tells you not to worry, she'll be all right."
"Can I talk to her yet?"
"Not for another few hours. Be patient."
"Right. It shouldn't be long now."
And that was very true. She felt the wave of sensation as her uterus
contracted
again. She looked down at herself, absently expecting to see the first head
coming out. But she could no longer see that far; her belly stuck out.
Nothing that Parameter saw was real; all was illusion. Her head was
completely
enclosed in the thick, opaque substance of Equinox, and all the sensory data
she
received was through the direct connection from Equinox's senses into her own
brain. Much of this information was edited and embellished in ways that made
it
easier for Parameter to interpret.
So it was that when she looked down at herself she saw not the dark-green
surface of Equinox, but her own brown skin. She had asked for that illusion
long
ago, when it had become a matter of some importance to her to believe she
still
had her own body. The illusion was flawless. She could see the fingerprints
on
her hand, the mole on her knee, the color of her nipples, the sentimental
scar
on her forearm, all illuminated by the soft diffusion of light from the
Rings.
But if she tried to touch herself, her hand would be stopped while still a
good
distance from what she saw as the surface of her body. Equinox was invisible
to
 her, but she was certainly there.
She watched as the contraction caused her stomach to writhe and flow like
putty.
This was more like it. She remembered her other deliveries, before she
married
Equinox. One had been "natural" and it hadn't worked all that well. She
didn't
regret it, but it had been painful, not something she would want to repeat.
The
other had been under anesthetic, and no fun at all. She might as well not
have
bothered; there had been no pain, no pleasure, no sensation. It was like
reading
about it in the newspaper. But this one, her third birth, was different. It
was
intense, so intense she had difficulty concentrating on eluding the hunters.
But
there was no pain. All she felt was a series of waves of pleasure-pain that
didn't hurt, and could be related to no other sensation humans had ever
experienced.
One of the lines ahead seemed to point almost directly at her. It was a thick
red line, meaning it was seventy percent ice and about a million kilograms in
mass. The vector was short. It was moving slowly enough that rendezvous would
be
easy.
She took the opportunity and altered course slightly with the sure instinct
she
had developed. The line swung, foreshortened even more, then flashed brighter
and began to pulse. This was the collision warning from Equinox's plotting
sector.
When the rock was close enough to see as an object rather than a simulated
projection, she rotated until her legs pointed at it. She soaked up the shock
of
the landing, then began to scuttle over the surface in a manner quite
astonishing, and with a speed not to be believed. She moved with the
coordinated
complexity of a spider, all four limbs grasping at the rock and ice.
To an observer, she was a comical sight. She looked like a barbell with arms
and
legs and a bulge at the top that just might be a head. There were no creases
or
sharp lines anywhere on the outer surface of Equinox; all was gentle curves,
absolutely featureless except for short claws on the hands and feet. At the
ends
of her legs were grasping appendages more like oversized hands than feet. And
her legs bent the wrong way. Her knees were hinged to bend away from each
other.
But she swarmed over the rock with effortless ease, not even hampered by her
pregnancy, though the labor "pains" were getting intense.
When she was where she wanted to be, she pushed off with both hands and peds,
rising rapidly. She was now on a course about ninety degrees away from her
pursuers. She hoped they would not be expecting this. Now she had to rely on
the
screening effect of the billions of tiny rocks and ice crystals around her.
For
the next few hours she would be vulnerable if they beamed in her direction,
but
she didn't think it likely they would. Their Symbs would be plotting a course
for her almost opposite to the one she was actually taking. If she had
continued
 that way they would certainly have caught her later when she was burdened
with
five infants. Now was the time for audacity.
Having done that, she put the matter out of her mind again, and none too
soon.
The first baby had arrived.
The head was just emerging as she pushed off the rock. She savored the
delicious
agony as the head forced its way through her body, struggling to reach the
air.
It would never reach it. There was no air out here, just another womb that
Equinox had prepared, a womb the baby would live in for the rest of its life.
No
first breath for Parameter's children; no breath at all.
The babies were not full-term. Each had been growing only seven months and
would
not be able to survive without extensive care. But Equinox was the world's
best
incubator. She had counseled, and Parameter had agreed, that it would be best
to
birth them while they were still small and get them out where Equinox could
keep
a closer eye on them.
Parameter moved her strangely articulated legs, bringing the hand-like peds
up
to the baby. She pressed slowly and felt the peds sink in as Equinox absorbed
the outer covering. Then she felt the head with her own nerve endings. She
ran
her long fingers over the wet ball. There was another contraction and the
baby
was out. She was holding it in her peds. She couldn't see much of it, and
suddenly she wanted to.
"This is one of the girls, right?"
"Yes. And so are two, three, and five. Navy, Marine, and Coastguard, if you
want
to get more personal."
"Those were just tags," she laughed. "I didn't even like them."
"Until you think of something else, they'll do."
"They won't want them."
"Perhaps not. Anyway, I'm thinking of shifting the boy around to fifth
position.
There's a little tangling of the cords."
"Whatever you want. I'd like to see her. 'Army,' I mean."
"Do you want a picture, or should I move her?"
"Move her." She knew it was only a semantic quibble as to whether she would
actually "see" her child. The projection Equinox could provide would look
just
as real, hanging in space. But she wanted the picture to coincide with the
feel
she was getting of the baby against her skin.
By undulating the inner surface of her body, Equinox was able to move the
infant
around the curve of Parameter's belly until she was visible. She was wet, but
there was no blood; Equinox had already absorbed it all.
"I want to touch her with my hands," Parameter thought.
"Go ahead. But don't forget there's another coming in a few minutes."
"Hold it up. I want to enjoy this one first."
She put her hands on the invisible surface of Equinox and they sank in until
she
was holding the child. It stirred and opened its mouth, but no sound came.
 There
seemed to be no trauma involved for the brand-new human being; she moved her
arms and legs slowly but seemed content to lie still for the most part.
Compared
to most human children, she hadn't really been born at all. Parameter tried
to
interest her in a nipple, but she didn't want it. She was the prettiest thing
Parameter had ever seen.
"Let's get the next one out," she said. "This is so extravagant I still can't
believe it. Five!"
She drifted into a wonderful haze as the others arrived, each as pretty as
the
last. Soon she was covered with tiny bodies, each still tied to an umbilicus.
The cords would be left in place until Equinox had finished her childbirth
and
had five semiautonomous baby Symbs to receive the children. Until then, the
children were still a part of her. It was a feeling Parameter loved; she
would
never be closer to her children.
"Can you hear them yet?" Equinox asked.
"No, not yet."
"You'll have to wait a while longer for mind contact. I'm tuning out. Are you
all right? I shouldn't be longer than about two hours."
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. In fact, I've never been happier." She
stopped verbalizing and let a wave of intense love flood over her; love for
her
invisible mate. It was answered by such an outpouring of affection that
Parameter was in tears. "I love you, earthmother," she said.
"And you, sunshine."
"I hope it'll be as good for you as it was for me."
"I wish I could share it with you. But back to business. I really think we've
shaken the hunters. There's been no signal from them for an hour, and their
projected path is well away from us. I think we'll be safe, at least for a
few
hours."
"I hope so. But don't worry about me. I'll get along while you're away. I'm
not
scared of the dark."
"I know. It won't be for long. See you later."
Parameter felt her mate slipping away. For a moment she was afraid, but not
of
the dark. She was afraid of the loneliness. Equinox would be unavailable to
her
for the time it took to give birth to her children, and that meant she would
be
cut off from the outside. That didn't matter, but the absence of Equinox from
Parameter's mind was a little frightening. It recalled an unpleasant incident
in
her past.
But as the lights faded she realized she was not alone. Cut off from sight,
sound, smell, and taste by the shutdown of Equinox's interpretative
faculties,
she still had touch, and that was enough.
She floated in total darkness and felt the sharp tingle as a mouth found a
nipple and began to suck. Imperceptibly, she drifted into sleep.
She awoke to a vague feeling of discomfort. It was small and nagging, and
impossible to ignore. She felt in her mind for Equinox, and couldn't find
her.
So she was still in the process of giving birth.
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