Seed of Stars by Dan Morgan, John Kippax

Kepler III."
    "Thank you, sir," she said, and was gone.
    He filled in the triplicate form, then rose from his desk and walked through the medic section to the office where De Witt and Huygens were drafting the arrangements for the detailed medical examination of a random sample of a thousand Keplerian colonists.
    "Piet, I'm afraid I've got to load an extra job onto you. It's not urgent, but you ought to fit it in, say, within the next seventy-two hours."
    Huygens looked up, smiling. "Sure, what is it?"
    "Girl growing a baby," Maseba said, "and there's only one answer to that. I've ordered a compulsory abortion, copy of the order to the commander. Name's Mizuno, M. E. Nice kid. You fix it All right?"

    "All right so I blew a gasket," Bruce said. "What did you expect me to do—sit there and listen to that Machiavellian bastard airing his pet theories and getting in sly digs at the Corps without doing a damned thing about it?"
    "Maybe that would have been better," Helen Lindstrom said, carefully. She and Bruce were in the commander's cabin, both smoking cigars and sipping tomato juice. She knew this man so well, better than most She realized that when he had said, back on Earth, that their former association was over, he meant it He could turn feeling on and off like a faucet because he was Tom Bruce. For her, it was not so easy. The fire was still there, a quiescent volcano, well-covered and under control
    His green eyes scanned her. "Stop talking like a woman, and say what you mean."
    "I don't have to spell it out, do I? Magnus is big stuff to tangle with; an adverse report from him wouldn't do your record any good. Why not cooperate?"
    "Cooperate? Who isn't cooperating? Hell get all the assistance he needs on the Kepler III operation, I'll see to that But while we're on board Venturer Twelve he's got to understand that I'm in charge."
    She suppressed a sigh of exasperation, looking down deliberately, studying the rim of her glass. She realized that she had gone far enough, perhaps too far . . . Bruce didn't want to talk about it any more, and that was that. He was a stubborn man, and if he got the idea that she was trying to shield him, or to influence him in any way—or, worse still, if he should begin to think that she was taking advantage of their past association ...
    'That girl Mizuno—you've seen Maseba's report?" he asked.
    She nodded. "Sad business, poor kid."
    He stared at her incredulously. "Sad?"
    "You realize that she wants to have the child?"
    He snorted. "For God's sake, Helen! What do you think we're running here, a bloody Noah's Ark? The sooner that little matter's cleared up the better, but the thing that really bugs me is the possibility that there may be others."
    "We can only hope that this is an isolated case." Helen said.
    "It'd better be," Bruce said sternly. "But in the meantime, IH have a word with the girl. An accident is one thing, but to let it go on for four months without reporting the matter!"
    "No woman gives up a child easily, Tom."
    "No? Then I'll have more than a word," he said. "If there are other cases, the best way to make sure we catch them early is to make an example of this silly litde Mizuno bitch."
    "Pour encourager les autres?" murmured Helen.
    He eyed her sharply. "All right—what would you suggest? Should I recommend her for a good-conduct medal, maybe?"
    Her hand trembled as she put down her half-empty glass and rose to her feet. She stared down at him. "No of course not. The silly little bitch got herself pregnant, so just whip it out and stuff it into the incinerator. Then for an encore, you could call her up on a charge while she's still bleeding and give her something charitable like two weeks' cells, or do we still have floggings in the Corps?"
    She strode out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Tom Bruce remained seated in silence for a whole minute, then grinding out his cigar butt in the ashtray he swore.
    "And what the hell was all that about?" he demanded of