"It will do you good," Chao Lin returned. Merrihew, in a sudden surge
of fury and frustration, exploded, "Damn it, Lin, you're making it all
worse. He'll die when we go into overdrive, you know as well as I do!"
Helen sat up, clutching Robin protectively. "Are you proposing to drown
him like a kitten?"
"Helen, I'm not proposing anything. I'm stating a fact."
"But it's not a fact. He won't die in overdrive because he won't be
aboard when we go into overdrive!"
Merrihew looked at Lin helplessly, but his face softened. "Shall
we--put him to sleep and bury him here?"
The woman's face turned white. "No!" she cried in passionate protest,
and Lin bent to disengage her frantic grip. "Helen, you'll hurt him.
Put him down. There."
Merrihew looked down at her, troubled, and said, "We can't just abandon
him to die slowly, Helen--"
"Who says I'm going to abandon him?"
Merrihew asked slowly, "Are you planning to desert?" He added, after a
minute, "There's a chance he'll survive. After all, his very birth was
against all medical precedent. Maybe--"
"Captain--" Helen sounded desperate. "Even drugged, no child under
ten has ever endured the shift into hyperspace drive. A newborn would
die in seconds." She clasped Robin to her again, and said, "It's the
only way--you have Lin for a doctor, Reynolds can handle my collateral
duties. This planet is uninhabited, the climate is mild, we couldn't
possibly starve." Her face, so gentle, was suddenly like rock. "Enter
my death in the log, if you want to."