Her companion--business partner, captain of the Merry Mate II, and husband--keyed her request into the boards, his stubby fingers sure and quick. From where she sat, Gabby could see the red band staining the readout. "Posted," the man said, the word merely echoing what they both expected. "They're everywhere, Gabby. We'll have to move on."

Gabby opened her throbbing fingers, pressing them over the roundness they guarded. The ship was no place to give birth, not if they wanted a future for their child. She'd known the risks in this search, but they'd all seemed so distant in the beginning, the possibilities so endless. Time had a way of narrowing options. She gazed at her husband, seeing past the shadows of beard and fatigue to his gentle, round-cheeked face, and sighed softly, letting some of her tension out with her breath. "We could try a station--just for a little while."

Jer Pardell winced, then covered the motion with a cough. As though she wouldn't notice. But of course she had. They'd been together too long, were so closely linked as a working team that one was forever finishing the sentences the other had begun. "There's no such thing as a 'little while,' stationside," he said almost harshly, but it was his fear for her. "Stations here would strip off our cargo and then make us pay for air rights--might even impound the ship. You know that, Gabby. They're as hard up as the rest of us, since the Quill." He scowled at the red-stained screen, clearing it with a stab. "Stations don't need more people. You heard Raner, last stopover. Earth's clamped down--put holds on all travel vouchers and transports. Who knows how long that will last? And if you try to stay onstation? Head tax, sterilization for permanent residents, dowries to keep immigrant status ..." he took a deep breath. "We can't live like that. Our child won't live like that. Our baby will be born a citizen, under a sky."

Despite her concern, Gabby's spirits rose a little. A sky. The ship, now home and livelihood, was supposed to have been temporary, merely their passage to a glorious new world. They were the lucky ones, to still have this much freedom when most had none. Jer's doing. He'd seen the way things were moving and kept independent, protecting them from the increasingly desperate hordes clinging to the stations and fading hopes.

If you were planet-born, she reminded herself, as she had so many times in the past months, you already had a home. A citizenship no one could strip away.

Gabby rubbed her thumb in little circles against a protuberance firmer than the rest, smiling to herself as the push became harder and then disappeared with a tremble like a laugh. "What are they like?"

"The dreaded Quill?" Jer leaned back in his slingchair, relaxing himself, perhaps recognizing her familiar preoccupation. "Probably three-meter tall giants with googly eyes and long tentacles."

Gabby raised one eyebrow. "That's not what you said yesterday."