“You’d know that,” Rolf pointed out. “You see the Spouse Assignments at the Ceremony. “I’ve applied for a spouse,” he added, grinning. “I had to fill out about a thousand forms.” Claire didn’t tell them that she had not attended the last two ceremonies. Birthmothers did not leave their quarters during their years of production. Claire had never seen a Vessel until she became one. She had not known, until she had both experienced and observed it, that human females swelled and grew and reproduced. No one had told her what “birth” meant.
