"Yes! Trevor shouted​. "I made it all the way through a mission without nearly getting killed!"

     "I don't know," Niki said. "There were a couple of times back there when..." 

     "You know what I mean, where I didn't need immediate medical attention after the mission." 

     "Get those anti-gravs off," Niki said.

     "But they're as good as..."
​     "They're from Domitika. I don't trust anything from Domitika. Get 'em off."

     Abby and her family greeted them as the disembarked. Shawnacy flew the still comatose Noel out of the van and into a corner. She huddled there with him, refusing to look at anyone else.

     The others, Trevor, Niki, Estelle, Brock, all quivered like dogs emerging from a lake.

     "Welcome back to Earth, Adam Forwarder," Abby said. 

     "Thank you." He looked exactly as he had before Tindriss the Coal Maiden beat him to atoms. 

     "Can I get a look at your daughter?" Abby asked. "Would you mind?" 

     As a matter of fact, Adam did kind of mind. So far as he was concerned, from the moment he first laid eyes on her, his mission was to protect Galatea until she grew to adulthood. That meant taking his eyes off her as little as possible, or at least until she could walk on her own.

     He felt very protective of her.

     Still, this was Abby. 

​     "Sure," Adam replied. "Take a look."

     "She's beautiful," Abby said. "Look at those eyes. She's going to be a heartbreaker. You think I could hold her for a second? It's been so long since I've held a baby in my arms."

     "Uh, sure, I guess that would be okay," Adam replied.

     She fussed a little in Abby's arms.

     "She needs to be with her daddy," Adam said.

     "Maybe she's wet. They always are. You'll see."

     "I doubt..."

     "Let me make a quick check." Abby slid her hand under the pink blanket. "She is. Janet, do you think you could make us a diaper? Something on the smaller side?"

     The diaper that popped out of the replicator still looked a little big. Abby rested Galatea on her back on a counter. She prepared the new diaper to go on the second she pulled the old one off, and it was wet, too. She pitched it in the nearest disposal. Then,

     "Oh!" Abby exclaimed, startled.

     "What?" Adam aked. "What's wrong with her?"

     "She's fine!   She's...It's not..."

     "What?"

     She pointed between the newborn infant's legs.

     "She ain't a she," Abby said.

END OF CHAPTER TEN

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