Harper clutched a hand to her stomach and stared at the black pill in my hand. Then her eyes flicked up to mine.
“I had the option to take medicine like that a long time ago,” she said. “I didn’t take it then and I won’t take it now.”
I was secretly relieved at her decision. In all truth, I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to give it to her. The baby in her belly was the culmination of our love and I hadn’t yet lost hope that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance we could still save it, could still pick up the pieces of our broken relationship.
“What happens now?” Harper said.
“Now I figure out another way of getting you out of here before you give birth.”
“You’d better hurry. I don’t think he’s going to wait much longer. He doesn’t have much self-control, like his father.”
I grinned despite myself.
“Around you, who could blame me?”
Harper wrapped her arms around herself.
“I wish I could hold you right now.”
“I am holding you.”
A blink later and I was right there, inside the room with her. My reflection.
Harper didn’t start or flinch back. She only turned into my reflection. Stronger than usual, but not the same strength as when we were joined together in bed.
She hugged me and I could, on the very fringes of my senses, feel her pressing against me. I lowered my arms and wrapped them around her. I placed a hand to her belly and felt the lump growing there.
“He kicks,” Harper said. “Really strong too. Here. Feel.”
She took my hand and held it where the kick was strongest. Even with my weak senses, I could feel him.
I grinned like a fool. She grinned back at me, smiling and warm and full of love, the kind of love I never thought I would ever see on her face directed at me again.
In her heart was a lot of love but also a great deal of forgiveness.
Harper’s mischievous grin faltered and broke.
My reflection winked out of existence and folded back up inside me.
“What is it?” I said, my voice crinkled with fear.
Harper looked down. Her pants turned wet and a puddle formed beneath her. She looked up at me with terror in her eyes.
“It’s happening,” she said. “Trayem… It’s already too late.”
The scientists shoved me aside. They deactivated the wall and entered the cell.
Harper backed away from them, clutching one hand to her swollen belly, the other bashing at the scientists.
“Get away from me!” she shouted. “Get away!”
“We’re here to help deliver your baby!” the one called Junic said, coming in closer to Harper, who swung a fist that caught the female scientist across the cheek.
I took the initiative and shoved my way through the crowd and entered the space between Harper and the hapless scientists.
Harper looked at me with utter terror. She was scared to death. And who could blame her?
Ever since she came to this place, she’d been imprisoned, forced into prostitution, her method of birth control stolen, and now she was meant to give birth to the child and she had no idea what they intended on doing with it once it was released upon the world.
Even me, the one person she should have been able to trust on this blasted moon, had betrayed her. But I was still the closest thing to a friend she had in this place.
“Harper,” I said softly. “The baby’s coming. He needs to be delivered. You can’t do this alone.”
Or maybe she could. I didn’t know how humans delivered their offspring.
“Not them,” Harper said, jabbing a finger at the scientists and doctors over my shoulder.
“Then who?” I said. “These are the only doctors in the prison. You don’t want one of the inmate doctors, do you?”
Few had many qualifications, save a single convicted doctor who was said to have once been the most distinguished doctor in the galaxy… until he pushed his research beyond what some might call reasonable levels.
“Lily,” Harper said. “I want Lily. She’ll know what to do!”
Harper panted through her nostrils and sucked in as much breath as she could. Already a thick band of sweat wet her brow and plastered her hair to her face.
“Please,” she said.
She wanted the madam that oversaw her imprisonment in this place? For some reason, she was the last person I thought Harper would want overseeing the birth.
I turned my head to one side.
“Get her,” I said.
“I don’t know who this ‘Lily’ is,” Junic said.
“She’s her… handler in the Prize Pool,” I said.
“Her handler?” Junic said, staring at me starkly and folding her arms across her chest. “She’s not qualified.”
I turned on her so fast it made not only her but the entire cadre of doctors hop back in startlement.
“Get her now or I swear to the Creator himself, I’ll beat every last one of you!” I growled into their faces.
Junic gibbered before nodding. Her eyes were wide as she turned to the other doctors and issued orders. She ran for the door that led down to the Prize Pool section herself. Any excuse to escape this madness, I suspected, and as far from me as she could get. She barely cast a single glance over her shoulder as she shoved the door open and left.
The other scientists were a sudden hive of activity. Some rushed through the other exit and came back armed with fresh blankets and towels. Others reached for medical equipment not designed for delivering babies but would have to serve a dual purpose today.
I turned back to Harper. Her face was clenched in pain.
She reached out with her hands.
“We have to get you in the chair,” I said. “Come on.”
I helped her into it and pressed at the controls to ease it backward so she lay flat and stared directly at the high ceiling. I pressed another button which snapped the bottom half of the chair
