Free The Child Goddess by Louise Marley Page A

guess.” Jin-Li leaned back in the chair.
    “Ever see the girl? The one ESC brought from Virimund?”
    Phipps’s grin faded. “Yeah.” Her voice grew hard. “That damned doctor kept me running with his lab supply requests, I can tell you. And the poor kid! Fourteen months in space, and he kept her awake the whole damned time.”
    Jin-Li straightened. “Awake?”
    “You got it. Shut up in quarantine the whole voyage, wide awake, with only Doctor fucking Adetti for company. ” She winked at Jin-Li. “Well, and me, once in a while. Through the glass, anyway. I couldn’t stand the thought of this little girl all alone. She didn’t speak much English, but I slipped her a reader and a few disks to pass the time. She figured ’em out right quick, too!” Phipps shook her head, her eyes clouding. “Hope she’s doing all right. I haven’t heard a word about her since we got here.”
    Jin-Li stood up. “She has somebody with her now. It’s a Magdalene priest.”
    “Well, I hope she gets her out of there,” Phipps said. “Rotten business, keeping her locked up in quarantine all those months. She sure didn’t look sick to me.”
    *
    “DR. EDWARDS, THE people at Earth Multiplex assure me the child is being well cared for.”
    Simon leaned back in his chair and frowned at ExtraSolar’s liaison to World Health. He had been asking hard questions, and getting very few answers. He had finally demanded a face-to-face, and Hilda Kronin had come to his office.
    “Why is she being kept under wraps?”
    “I’m told Dr. Adetti is examining her.” Kronin shifted nervously in her seat.
    “Look,” Simon said. He leaned forward, his elbows on his desk. “ESC is going to have to explain why they brought this girl away from her own world. Otherwise, I’m going to recommend official censure, and that’s a very public event.”
    She put up an anxious hand. “No, no. Dr. Edwards, that isn’t necessary. Cole Markham called me this morning from Seattle. He assures me ExtraSolar has satisfied the requirements of the charters. They acquired an extraordinary empowerment provision from the regents, and they brought in a medical anthropologist to sort out the child’s situation.”
    “What does that mean, sort out the situation?”
    Kronin shook her head. “I’m so sorry. Dr. Edwards. I’m not a scientist, so I can’t explain it well. But, you know—” She waved the same hand in an apologetic gesture.
    Simon let his eyes stray to the view of Geneva beyond the window. Lowering gray clouds promised more snow by evening. The bitter weather suited his mood.
    The liaison said hesitantly, “I suppose they mean, you know, understand the child’s background. What happened on Virimund. And why.”
    Simon watched the light change from pale gray to a deeper ash as the layers of cloud shifted over the city. It was almost evening, when he would go home to Anna, and they would spend the long empty hours carefully not talking of anything that mattered. “Why don’t you try to make me understand what happened, Hilda,” he said. He felt his temper rising. It was good, somehow, to feel an emotion that was not sadness. He steepled his fingers, and focused his gaze on them. “Tell me about Virimund.”
    “Well, it was complicated . . .”
    “Of course.”
    “The hydros took a flyer out over the islands and saw movement, what looked like people on a beach. They decided to check it out. Only one island. No one knew, you understand . . .”
    “Virimund was supposed to be uninhabited.”
    “Right, right. And even after weeks, no one had any idea. There were no lights, no radio communication, nothing. It was a complete surprise to our people.”
    “But they saw someone . . .” Simon prompted.
    “They were just curious,” she said defensively. “And after the—the incident—our people have stayed strictly away.”
    “Okay,” Simon said. He flexed his fingers. “Now tell me why the physician assigned to the hydrogen