while the black stars burn Read Online Free Page B

treatment. Jeffrey was still obliviously coding on the couch.
    “Don’t worry, I’ll clean all the blood off the floor.” Rachel sighed. “So sad. He was a perfect genetic match for you.”
    “I’m sure he was,” Mira replied slowly. This was surely the most mortifying thing that had happened to her all year, but she still found herself oddly touched by Rachel’s efforts. “I...appreciate what you tried to do. But please don’t bring me any more guys.”
    “How can you get pregnant without one? You told me artificial insemination is too expensive, and he would have been free!”
    “Oh, Rachel.”
    Mira paused. The android did have a valid point. She certainly wasn’t going to magically conceive all by herself. If she ever developed a super power, parthenogenesis wasn’t likely to be it.
    “There are some things I can try on my own that will be less...awkward,” Mira finally said. “Hopefully.”
    “All right.” Rachel sounded cheerfully skeptical. “Whatever you think is best. But let me see the men, okay? I want you to have a good baby.”
    “I will.”
    *
    Mira decided to set up a profile on HeckYesDates. Further, she decided she’d be completely honest in her introductory hologram and tell her prospective suitors that not only was she looking someone to father her child, her android would be chaperoning all first meetings.
    The replies didn’t exactly flood her account. And when they gradually trickled in over the course of the next few weeks, she was fairly appalled at her prospective suitors. The first guy was dressed in black tactical gear and ranted about racial purity. The second rambled about playgrounds and was visibly high on drugs. The third could barely string any words together at all and at one point he drooled on himself. Her mood sank lower and lower; surely this terrible dating site was no more than a one-way ticket to Loserville.
    But her hope began to bloom again when she received a reply from a fourth respondent. He was a man in his late 30s, and he seemed witty and intelligent and wasn’t bad looking. Mira showed his hologram to Rachel, who walked all around his image, staring at it as if she were evaluating a used car.
    “Look at his fingers. He’s got webbing.” The android shook her head. “He’s genetically risky.”
    “Oh.” Mira was crestfallen. She’d been so taken with his green eyes and Dr. Seuss quotes that she hadn’t noticed his hands, which he mostly held behind his back during his monologue.
    “I’m going back to the bars,” Rachel announced. “I will do my best to find a sober man.”
    “Fine.” Mira was too tired to argue.
    *
    Three hours later, Rachel came through the front door with a sleeping baby wrapped in a pink blanket. The android was smiling widely, clearly pleased with herself.
    “Oh, you didn’t!” Mira was aghast.
    Rachel’s smile fell from her face. “I—”
    “No. I don’t want to hear it.” The infant wasn’t hers, couldn’t be hers, and to let her think for even just an instant that she could keep this baby...no. It was just cruel. Crueler than any of Jeffrey’s rejections. It was as cruel as a drone strike. “Whatever you did, you’re undoing it, right now.”
    “But—”
    “No, Rachel. Goddamn it, no .” Mira couldn’t even bring herself to look at the infant’s face. She felt tears rise in her eyes, and she forced herself to think of the cold practicalities of the situation. The parents would be frantic; they had to return the baby to her family as soon as possible if she hoped to avoid a kidnapping charge. “You can’t just steal a baby. You can’t. You’re taking her back. Show me where you got her. Right now .”
    Furiously miserable, Mira led the android out into the darkened neighborhood and they got in Jeffrey’s car. Rachel sang a quiet lullaby to the child as they drove four miles south through winding side streets until they reached a cul-de-sac that was filled with fire trucks and emergency