She listens and wipes tears out of her eyes.

There is no way he is going to attempt talking again.

Eventually her commander comes out with a couple gurneys. Peka murmurs, "Excuse me."

"Name? To pay that bill for you?"

"Peka Atan."

He goes back to the ship.

He curls up and cries for eight hours and sings for twenty more and then asks Maitimo what arrangements have been made for spending money and then goes off to pay a child credit. 

Peka's lease is with a shady little business in the red district which buys up child credits for marked up midyear resale every time a batch of them are made available to reds in the spring. They are happy to be paid off, although they remind him not to touch anything.

"Are there any other people behind on their payments -"

"Nobody else has a lease out on a credit right now."

"Thank you. Do you happen to know where she lives -"

He can point out the house. It's nicer than most of the neighbors', there's almost a coziness to the disrepair and shoddy materials.

He's not supposed to knock. He knocks.

Someone who is probably Peka's mother opens the door. ".........sir?"

"Hello. I encountered Peka in the city the other day and she mentioned being worried that with the war ending it'd be hard to pay for her child. It's paid now."

"- oh - I - oh - of course he wouldn't have given you a receipt but did he email her -"

"I don't know, I stopped by because it occurred to me that he might forget to, under the circumstances, and collect twice."

Nod. "- she's home visiting the baby do you want to tell her yourself -"

Peka can be heard singing a simple tune upstairs.

" - I don't know if she'd want that -"

"I can tell her for you if you prefer sir."

"I'd say 'ask her' only that only works if -" sigh. "I'd love to see the baby and tell her in person."

"I'll go get her right away, sir."

She goes and gets Peka, who comes down with a baby. The baby is bald - actually, it looks like they've been shaving her head, not that she just doesn't have any in the manner of babies.

He has very determinedly committed himself to not acting either horrified or pitying at the locals. He will freak out about that later. "Hi, Peka. Did you recently get an email or do I need to go back and scowl at the little credit shop -"

"- haven't been checking -" She has a pager thing, a few models out of date. "- yes, he - thank you -"

"AaaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaa," shrieks the baby.

Quenya lullaby?

"Wa," says the baby of the lullaby.

Peka smiles.