Free Alien Nation #3 - Body and Soul by Peter David Page B

planet. George studied her, and although he tried to remain clinical, he was not successful in keeping the wonder from his voice. “Look at the size of her cranium . . . the absence of spots . . . those eyes . . .”
    Willis seemed a bit disconcerted by the intensity of George’s reactions. It was clear that she thought she had worked out some of the baby’s oddities herself. “I thought that might be normal for certain Newcomers.”
    Matt looked to George for confirmation, but George shook his head. “I’ve never seen a Newcomer child like this. Try to get a doctor here.”
    Willis spread her hands in a “What do you want from me?” gesture, but Sikes and Francisco had already walked out of the nursery. The attendant looked back down at her small charge.
    The baby actually seemed to be laughing inwardly.
    Sikes and Francisco walked down the corridor, both of them clearly waiting for the other to say something. Every step they took away from the nursery helped to diminish the incredible impact that the child had had on them.
    “The way that kid was looking at us . . .” Sikes finally ventured, but he realized that he didn’t have the words to continue along that line. Instead he said, “You think her parents abandoned her? I mean . . . let’s face it, George. That kid’s a little spooky, and some people simply might not be able to deal with it.”
    George shook his head firmly. “It’s not that the Tenctonese pregnancy isn’t a conscious choice. Children are always wanted.”
    “Yeah,” said Sikes grudgingly, fully aware of everything involved in producing a Tenctonese child. Kids didn’t come to Newcomers as a result of impetuous grabbings in the back of a car, or perhaps a leaky condom. They were indeed fully planned projects from the get-go.
    And that prompted him to snicker. George looked at him.
    “What?”
    “Well . . . I was just thinking about Albert and May,” said Sikes. “Look, George, if you’re smart, you’ll break it to Susan as gently as you can. Better yet . . . take a getaway for the weekend. Have a real good time. Get some sheets smoking, and after you do, you can drop it on her that that’s going to be it for a while. If you’re really lucky, she’ll be lying there basking in afterglow, and you can get her to agree to just about anything.”
    George looked at Sikes skeptically. “I’m simply going to tell her,” he said.
    Sikes gave a loud sigh. “You can’t save a patient who doesn’t want to live,” he said.
    George smiled patronizingly. “Believe me, Matt. Susan will be overjoyed. Don’t you believe me?”
    “George,” said Sikes, patting his partner on the shoulder, “I believe you as wholeheartedly as you believed I slipped on soap in the shower.”

C H A P T E R    5
    T HE ADVERTISING AGENCY of Fairchild and Associates was located in one of the trendier parts of town. It was a small firm, but it was growing, particularly since they had landed the account of a nationally known chain of ice cream outlets.
    Susan Francisco was bent over a drawing board, working up a layout for a projected series of newspaper ads. She was trying to develop a new and interesting way to work a coupon into the advertisement. She stared at it for a moment, and then began making adjustments when she heard a familiar clacking of high heels. She shared the small office with an extremely flamboyant copywriter named Jessica Partridge. (“My professional name, darling,” she had once said. “Jessica Beerblatt just doesn’t have it, capeesh?” Susan had not been entirely sure just what “it” was, but she gamely took Jessica’s word for it.)
    Jessica didn’t simply enter a room. Usually, she enveloped it. This time was no exception as Jessica swept into the office, dressed in a dazzling array of lavenders and silks that on anyone else would not have worked. But on her . . .
    . . . Well, truthfully, on her it didn’t work either. But Jessica was so powerful a personality that she