Free Aliena by Piers Anthony

side of the issue. “I will take your word, Aliena. If you tell me the starfish mean us no harm, I will accept it.”
    “We mean you no harm,” she said immediately.
    “Then that is that.” He was simply unable to believe that she would deceive him in any such manner.
    They reached the base of the descent. They were now in the full-gravity rim of the wheel, standing before a lighted panel. “I am here,” Aliena said simply. “With my husband, caretaker, and guardian. I am now called Aliena.”
    “Acknowledgment, all,” a speaker said as a light played briefly over them. “Enter, Aliena.” A panel slid aside to reveal a person-sized chamber.
    Aliena stepped nervously into it. Brom knew this was not from any fear of the machine, but of what its examination might reveal. The panel closed behind her.
    “That is the Machine that supervised Dr. Ching,” Martha said. “It informed him of the necessary connections.”
    In a moment the panel slid aside again, and Aliena stepped out. “You are in health,” the Machine said. “You are with child. Female, early in gestation. That must end.”
    And there it was: the negative verdict. Brom was amazed that the Machine was even able to tell the gender of a fetus that must have formed only days before.
    “No,” Aliena said firmly. “She will grow and be birthed in the normal human manner.”
    “It is necessary. That condition is hazardous to the balance of your body that protects your brain.”
    Aliena pursed her lips and whistled a note. Then she sang another note. There was something imperative about the sounds.
    “Copulate distantly,” Sam murmured with a straight face.
    “I am overruled,” the Machine said. “I record my objection for the home world authority.” It was clearly a threat.
    “Now we go home,” Aliena said, and led the way back up the slope to the shuttle. It seemed their business here was done.
    They returned to the shuttle, and immediately (it seemed, thanks to the stasis field) were back on Earth. They exited and rejoined Dr. Ching and his assistant.
    “The machine objected,” Aliena told them. “I overruled it.”
    “Your word is law,” Ching agreed, though he did not seem enthusiastic. “We will meet again in a month.”
    “True,” she said.
    “They treat you as if you are a queen,” Brom said as they returned to the waiting train.
    “She is queen of queens,” Sam said. “Everything hinges on her.”
    Aliena was silent. They entered the train, and it got in motion.
    Brom realized that Aliena had not spoken to him directly since the issue with the alien machine. “Are you all right?” he asked her, concerned.
    “I am well.” But her coolness was manifest. Brom was out of sorts.
    “Brom, couples can fight, over even trivial things,” Martha said. “It is very painful because of the intensity of their feelings; they are super-sensitive to each other. But it is normal, and they usually make up soon.”
    “Did we fight?” Brom asked, baffled. Aliena sat beside him, ignoring the dialogue.
    “Oh, yes,” Martha said. “You doubted her. You hurt her feelings.”
    “But I told her I accepted her word.”
    “That is not enough. You should not have required her to give it. You are so focused on her being alien that you forget she is a woman.”
    Evidently so. “How do I make it up?”
    “Apologize. Profusely.”
    Brom glanced at Sam. “Utter abject capitulation,” Sam said.
    Brom turned to Aliena. “I am sorry I was insensitive. I just wasn’t thinking. I would never hurt you deliberately by word or deed, and I know you feel the same about me. I blundered. I was so wrong.” He felt unmanly tears welling. “Aliena, I beg your forgiveness. Please, please.”
    Now she looked at him. “It is not just that. It is that I fear I have done the wrong thing in saving the baby. The Machine Doctor has reason.”
    “But that’s proof of your commitment! You would not bear a human baby if you knew it was doomed by alien malice.”