Her hand went to her throat and touched the tiny locket.
"These lockets were given to us so we'd have a choice between suffering or quick painless death.... We still have a choice."
He touched the locket at his own throat and was very still for a long moment. "So we threaten to kill ourselves, before their eyes. What would it do to them?"
He was still for a long time. "Sometimes, Mary, I think I don't know you at all." A pause. "And so now you and I are back where we started. Which'll it be, space or Earth?"
"Michael." Her voice trembled. "I—I don't know how to say this."
He waited, frowning, watching her intently.
"I'm—going to have a child."
His face went blank.
Then he stepped forward and took her by the shoulders. He saw the softness there in her face; saw her eyes bright as though the sun were shining in them; saw a flush in her cheeks, as though she had been running. And suddenly his throat was full.
"No," he said thickly. "I can't believe it."