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If it could happen, it was reasonable to assume that it had happened, given the fact that the impurities of the water had been in Talyra’s bloodstream throughout her first week of pregnancy.
    He drew deep breaths; then, with effort, continued, IF SUCH A CHILD IS STILLBORN, CAN THIS CAUSE THE DEATH OF THE MOTHER?
    NOT DIRECTLY. IN RARE CASES TERATOGENIC DAMAGE MIGHT LEAD TO COMPLICATIONS IN DELIVERY. CAN YOU SUPPLY SPECIFIC DATA?
    WHAT SORT OF DATA?
    GENETIC DATA THAT WOULD PERMIT THE PROBABILITY TO BE CALCULATED .
    No, thought Noren in dismay. He could not supply that. But the Founders could have—otherwise the computer wouldn’t be programmed to ask for it.
    He knew nothing about biology, but he was well-trained in higher mathematics; the calculation of probabilities was something he understood. HOW MANY INPUT VARIABLES ARE INVOLVED? he ventured.
    THE ENTIRE GENOTYPE OF BOTH PARENTS MAY BE RELEVANT. THE PROGRAM CAN DETERMINE SIGNIFICANT VARIABLES FROM THAT, PLUS CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SUBSTANCE IN QUESTION AND ITS TIME OF CONSUMPTION. THERE MAY BE OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES ALSO.
    Genotype? He did not know the word; fortunately computer programs were patient with stupid questions. DEFINE GENOTYPE , he commanded.
    GENOTYPE IS THE GENETIC MAKEUP OF AN INDIVIDUAL ORGANISM, THE SPECIFIC SET OF GENES IN ITS CELLS.
    HOW LARGE IS THE SET IN HUMANS? Noren inquired, thinking that perhaps some doctor would help him list his own genes in a form suitable for input. Incredibly, he found himself staring at a six-digit figure.
    THAT IS THE NUMBER OF GENES THAT MAY VARY? he asked in disbelief.
    IT IS THE NUMBER WITH WHICH THE PROGRAM DEALS. THE SET IS LARGER, BUT SOME GENES ARE REDUNDANT OR OF UNKNOWN FUNCTION.
    No wonder the Scholars hadn’t devoted time to studying the field, thought Noren. Genetics must be as complicated as nuclear physics. And surely even a knowledgeable person couldn’t key in that many separate bits of data; it would tie up a console for weeks.
    WHAT IS THE INPUT FORMAT FOR GENOTYPE? he queried.
    THE ANALYSIS CAN BE MADE DIRECTLY FROM A BLOOD SAMPLE THROUGH THE USE OF AUXILIARY INPUT EQUIPMENT.
    Did such equipment still exist? It must; the Founders had been careful to write the program in a way compatible with the facilities preserved for their descendants. So his own genotype could evidently be analyzed. For Talyra’s, it was too late. If he had known before her body was sent to the converters… Perhaps it was best that he had not, that he could obtain no real estimate of the odds, for they would not be zero, and they might prove conclusively that having a child under other circumstances wouldn’t have been fatal.
    Yet he could not just drop the matter. It happens , Beris had said. Occasionally it happens with a girl who seems healthy . Generations of women had accepted that, when all along the computers had been able to calculate probabilities in specific cases! Why had the Founders made no mention of this in the High Law, which explicitly mandated use of all other existing life-support technologies?
    Because, he saw, it would not fit the High Law’s purpose. The original population of the colony had been dangerously small, so small that maximum increase had been deemed desirable even though it would hasten the depletion of resources. Thus for survival’s sake the High Law encouraged childbearing; it forbade all contraception, not only the drugs that couldn’t be manufactured with available resources. There was no longer need for such a prohibition—any decent couple would be outraged at the mere thought of the things Scholars knew about from the old records. He himself had been more shocked by them than by the literal meaning behind the phrases referring to disposition of bodies. But this hadn’t been true in the Founders’ time. The Founders had grown up in a society where overpopulation was a serious problem; they had considered it natural and even admirable to limit births. They’d assumed