- his too. How far thataway -

Not very! It'd be a few blocks if this were a city.

Hurriedly baby-wards.

There is a baby.

She's lying between a couple of rocks set into a hillside, all alone and naked and wailing occasionally. Looks about three months old.

No belly button.

- the fuck.

Hair color?

Wispy. Navy blue? Dark purple? ...Black?

Shasali makes a whimpering noise.

Poor baby. He picks up the baby and half-unbuttons his shirt so he can tuck the baby in - "you don't happen to be able to feed her do you -"

"No sir."

" - probably they leave them out if they're not permitted, I can't imagine what else - but -"

"She doesn't have a navel."

Nod. Rocking slowly back and forth.

The baby paws vaguely at him and stops crying.

Tiny tiny helpless baby dying alone in the woods. He clings. 

"We don't have diapers or food -"

"If you're worried about being peed on -"

He clings to the baby. "It'd be all right - she's so tiny - but it'd be silly to ask you not to touch her if she's going to need to decontaminate anyway."

"...you can't possibly do a full decontamination on babies every time they poop in the bath or between diapers."

"We're on a different planet, I have no idea what they consider adequate - at home you'd just wipe them off right away, but at home no one abandons babies to die of exposure."

"If they were really worried about pollution they wouldn't have left her. - especially on a slope."

"Well, maybe they don't care at all or maybe someone's supposed to be right by to find her."

"This place is deserted. It doesn't even look like people hike in it."

"Maybe they're smuggling babies out. Tapa had a problem once with the person who was supposed to kill them doing that. Or someone important's baby, if there's a war on."

"Naked on a hill."

"Do you have an idea?"

"No. - sir."

"Well. We're not going to be able to keep her alive very long if we can't find civilization."