Doctoral candidate Anika Wessels deftly defended her thesis, '''Labial and Dental Fricatives in the North Kohorikie Sprachbund''' in a somewhat tired-looking lecture hall in the Linguistics Department of the Royal University. Her seven-month-old son Andries Magnus Wessels was successfully kept quiet and entertained, not by his father, the adventuring transportation heir Dr. Karl Magnus Camberline, but by the baby's half sister, 29 years his senior, Ignatia Camberline.

Gwen Camberline, Ignatia's older full-sister, looked across her father, his lover's empty seat, and the bookish flying squirrel seated next to Ignatia, to scrutinize Ignatia's interaction with the baby carefully.

It was a troubling development. Ignatia was avowedly not the marrying type. She'd never hated children, but neither had she expressed any interest in them, before or after Anika had come to Simha City with Karl Magnus to have their baby on Simhalan soil. That was itself troubling - was father thinking that the baby might grow up to be something other than the bastard son of a linguistics professor, something for which an iron-clad Simhalan citizenship claim might be important?

Gwen saw the baby trade smiles with Iggy as Anika went on about the vocal apparatus of echidnas and bandicoots. She had heard that people could contract a sudden desire for children of their own from this sort of exposure. That could spell trouble. Ignatia was hardly carefully guarding a reputation for chastity. She was known to have male lovers. She was careful, but if she '''wanted''' a baby, it was only a matter of time.

Karl Magnus was mercurial. He was in many ways the opposite of his methodical eldest daughter, and was vulnerable to making snap decisions. He'd never disinherit Gwen and Ignatia, but he might decide that control of the Camberline Airplane Company should pass to this little half-meerkat on Iggie's knee, and maybe leave Anika in charge until his majority. Karl was obviously quite in love with the almost-doctor Wessels, and she was younger than Gwen. She could remain a power behind the throne for years, whatever influence Gwen might manage to secure with her new half-brother.

The prospect of Iggie giving her parents a grandchild was even more threatening. Iggy didn't have Gwen's business sense, but she was involved in the family business and had always been a rival, running around and making a spectacle of herself since childhood. What kind of messed up child would Gwen's sister even raise? It would be the ruin of the company if her parents decided to leave Ignatia in control.

No, there was a problem here. For the good of the Company and the Family, Gwen needed an heir. Gwen knew that this was a problem that could be solved. The most usual means of securing an heir apparent were quickly written off, but - ah, Iggie's squirrel friend - she was some kind of private detective. Maybe her firm could help with the logistics.

And who knows. Gwen didn't dislike children either. She even supposed it might be satisfying to mentor a young protege and see them grow into a capable and worthy heir for the Company.  

As the professors finished their questions about Anika's thesis, and congratulated the newly minted Dr. Wessels, Gwen resolved to engage the RIS to locate a well-qualified child for her to adopt.