Centaurus Changling

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

  “Another thing: After a woman has her first child like that, she also builds up a very slight immunity to the hormone reaction. For a woman's second child, or third, or more, it is sufficient to transplant a fertilized ovum of six or seven days ... provided that there is a rhu'ad within immediate call, to stabilize the chemistry in case anything goes wrong. One or more of my families always has a woman who is pregnant, so I must be continuously available."

  “Isn't that terribly hard on you?” Beth asked.

  “Physically, no. We've done what they do with prize cattle all over the Empire—hyperovulation. At certain days in each cycle, rhu'ads are given particular hormone and vitamin substances, so that we release not one ovum, but somewhere between four and twelve. Usually they can be transferred about a week later, and the operation is almost painless—"

  “Then all the children in your four—families, are yours, and your husband's?"

  “Why, no! Children belong to the woman who bears them and gives birth to them—and to the man who loves that woman, and mates with her!” Cassiana laughed. “Oh, I suppose all societies adapt their morals to their needs. To me, it's a little—nasty, for a man to have just one wife, and live with her all year. And aren't you terribly lonely, with no other women in your house?"

  It was Beth's turn to blush. Then she asked, “But you said those were normal children. Cassy—Cassy is a rhu'ad—"

  “Oh, yes. I couldn't do with you what I'd have done with a Centaurian. You had no resistance at all, and you were already pregnant. Women do become pregnant sometimes, in the ordinary way, on Megaera—we are strict about contraceptive laws, but nothing is entirely reliable—and when they do, they die, unless a rhu'ad will take for them the risk I took for you. I had done it once before, for Clotine, but the baby I had died—well, during those three days while you were shut up alone, I went to the kail’ rhu'ad, and put myself under a damper—and became pregnant. By myself."

  A thousand tiny hints were suddenly falling into place in Beth's mind. “Then you did graft—"

  Cassiana nodded. “That's right. When we went together to the kail’ rhu'ad, the dampers put us into phase—so the cellular wave lengths wouldn't vary enough to throw the babies into shock—and just exchanged the babies."

  Beth had been expecting this; but even so, Cassiana's casual tone was a shock. “You really—"

  “Yes. My little boy is—by heredity alone—your child and the Legate's. But he is mine. He lived because I—being rhu'ad—could carry him in safety, and manage to stabilize his reactions to the hormone allergy with the atmosphere. There was no question of Cassy's safety: a rhu'ad baby, even a rhu'ad embryo, is perfectly adaptable, even to the alien environment of a Terran body. The first few days were so crucial because you and I both developed allergies to the grafted alien tissue; our bodies were fighting the introduction of a foreign kind of substance. But once we mother hosts began to develop a tolerance, I could stabilize myself, and my little boy, and you—and when you were taken from me too soon, I could send another rhu'ad to complete the stabilization. There was no need to worry about Cassy; she simply adapted to the poisonous condition which would have killed a normal child."

  She picked up Cassy and rocked her almost wistfully. “You have a most unusual little daughter, Bet'. A perfect little parasite."

  Beth looked down at Cassiana's little boy. Yes, she could trace in his face a faint likeness to the lines of Matt's, and yet—hers? No. Cassy was hers, borne in her body—she wanted to cry again.

  Cassiana leaned over and put an arm around her. “Bet',” she said quietly, “I have just come from the Legation HQ, where—with full permission of the Council of Rhu'ad—I have laid before them a complete, scientific account of the affair. I have also been allowed to assure the Terran authorities that when Terran colonists come here to build the Space Station, their women will be safe. We have suggested that colonists be limited to families who have already had children, but we will give assurance that an accidental pregnancy need not be disastrous. In return I received assurance, forwarded from Galactic Center, that Megaera will receive full dominion status as an independent planetary government associated with the Empire. And we are being opened to colonization."

  “Oh, how wonderful!” Beth cried impulsively. Then doubt crept into her voice. “But so many of your people hate us—"

  The rhu'ad smiled. “Wait until your women come. Unattached men, on Megaera, could only make trouble. Men have so many different basic drives! An Empire man from Terra is nothing like a Centaurian from Megaera, and a Darkovan from Thendara is different from either—take ten men from ten different planets, and you have ten different basic drives—so different that they can only lead to war and ruin. But women—all through the Galaxy, Terran, Darkovan, Samarran, Centaurian, Rigelian—women are all alike, or at least they have a common basic area. A baby is the passport to the one big sorority of the universe. And admission is free to every woman in the Galaxy. We'll get along."

  Beth asked numbly, “And you were convinced enough of that to risk your life for a Terran who—hated you? I'm ashamed, Cassiana."

  “It wasn't entirely for you,” Cassiana admitted. “You and your husband were Megaera's first and last chance to avoid being a backwater of the Galaxy. I planned this from the minute I first saw you. I—I wasn't your friend, either, at first."

  “You—you couldn't have known I'd get pregnant—"

  Cassiana looked shamed and embarrassed. “Bet'. I—I planned it, just as it happened. I'm a telepath. It was my mental command that made you stop taking your anti shots."

  Beth felt a sudden surge of anger so great that she could not look at Cassiana. She had been manipulated like a puppet—

  She felt the rhu'ad's thin hand on her wrist. “No. Only a fortuitous accident in the way of destiny. Bet', look at them—” Her free hand touched the two babies, who had fallen asleep, cuddled like two little animals. “They are sister and brother, in more than one way. And perhaps you will have other children. You belong to us, now Bet'."

  “My husband—"

  “Men will adapt to anything, if their women accept it,” Cassiana told her. “And your daughter is a rhu'ad—who will grow up in a Terran home. There will be others like her. In her turn she will help the daughters of Terran families who come here, until science finds a new way and each woman can bear her own children again—or until Centaurians take their place, moving out into the Galaxy with the rest—"

  And Beth knew in her heart that Cassiana was right.

  * * *

  Visit www.mzbworks.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.