CHAPTER SIX
“I understand your fears, and share them to a great extent myself,” said Atmin. “Yet every salvage job includes a share of risk. If here that means we must beware of traps then so we shall—but after spending so much time in search we cannot simply stop.”
“Sunk-cost fallacy,” said Pera. “Bad logic and bad economics. We’ve got some good stuff and we’re still alive. Haul it all back to the hub, fill Yanai’s holds with metal, and leave. Profit is profit, even if you don’t get as much as you wish for.”
Solana had done the math. Her share wouldn’t be enough for major brain modding. She would have to spend another year saving up, or more. Her goal always fluttered just beyond her fingertips.
“I’m willing to stay a little longer,” she said. “We’ve avoided any harm so far.”
“If you jump off an orbital tower you’re perfectly fine until you hit the ground,” said Pera.
“I am a good deal stronger and tougher than the rest of you,” said Utsuro. “Why don’t the three of you pull back to the hub and let me finish searching this section? Atmin can evaluate things I find remotely, and I can complete my DNA scans.”
“I like it. What does our centro think? Yanai?” said Pera.
The ship spoke in their heads via comm. “I can’t judge. If Atmin’s right, the artworks and antiques of the rim section are more valuable per kilo than the industrial salvage of the hub. Continuing the search is sound economics. As to safety, I can print some additional bots to accompany each of you.”
“You’re all letting your greed override your common sense.”
“I must dispute your words,” said Atmin. “For now I think we have a second goal more worthy than the first. This wheel of death did not acquire its grisly load from internecine strife, we all agree. No civil war or faction fight could leave all dead, efficiently and swiftly slain with skill. We do not stand amid a suicide. Instead I state this is a murdered hab. We should record all that we see, and make it known in Juren and beyond. Let justice be our goal, and profit next.”
Pera lashed her tail again. “Oh, you’re good. That’s fourth-level intellect stuff, right there. Justice for the dead—even as we rob their corpses!”
“The people here cared much for craft and art. The Kuiper folk would see all that they made as so much matter to reclaim. What you call robbing I prefer to think of as preserving what they did. It honors them.”
“While we’re at it, why not grind ’em up for phosphorus? It goes for thirty gigs a kilo and we can say we’re honoring their memory by putting it back in circulation. I bet there’s five or ten tons here, at least.”
Atmin gave an angry croak. “I will not hear a mercenary thug condemn the way I get my meat. How many gigs per corpse do you get paid?”
Pera lunged forward and snapped her teeth but Atmin took to the air and circled out of reach above her.
“Please!” said Utsuro, trying to position his metal bulk between the two. “Let’s not quarrel.”
“Attention!” said Yanai. “I am detecting another spacecraft attempting to rendezvous with this hab. It’s a dumb shuttle out of Scapino habitat. Pilot isn’t answering my calls.”
“Scapino?” said Utsuro. “That hab is full of criminals, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know about that,” said Pera. “But I’ve heard of some pretty shady military contractors based there. Mercenary thugs, I guess you’d call them.”
“I fear they may be coming here to loot the hab,” said Atmin. “Scapino lies within the Jovian retro ring, and only from those backward-circling habs could looters match our course without expending energy too great to leave a profit from the trip.”
“I got a message back at last,” said Yanai’s voice inside their heads. “They say they’re freelance rescuers, looking for a survivor bounty. I told them everyone on board is dead but their centro insists on docking and taking a look.”
“Rescuers?” said Pera. “That’s a lot of hot dust. This hab’s been dark for years. I’m with Atmin. They’re coming here for loot.”
“Just like us,” said Utsuro. “Perhaps we can work out some kind of an arrangement. There’s plenty for all.”
“No. We should just take what we’ve got and leave right away,” said Solana. She tried to keep her voice calm but her heart was pounding.
“They are on final approach,” said Yanai. “I estimate no more than forty minutes before the shuttle enters the docking bay.”
Forty minutes, Solana thought, trying to stay calm and rational. Could she get back to Yanai in that time? Sure, but there would be no way to move all their salvage before the newcomers arrived. Abandoning it all would mean more years to save up for her brain mods.
The newcomers might actually be freelancers looking for a rescue bounty as they claimed, or just some desperate scavengers who could be bought off. And if it came to trouble, between Yanai, Utsuro, and Pera there wasn’t much this team couldn’t handle.
But she couldn’t quite shake a sense of things slipping out of control, of nagging worry, of lurking dread.
Solana took a deep breath. “I guess we have to let them come,” she said. “Can you three handle meeting them? I want to stay out of sight.”
“They might not be humans,” said Utsuro.
“I thought your goggles filter out faces,” said Pera. “That’s what you said.”
“Yes, but I can’t keep them on all the time. Like I said, I’ll just stay out of sight if they come down here.”
Atmin gave a startled croak and jumped off the upstairs gallery where he had perched. As he soared down to his travel sphere he called out, “We must to work at once. The goods we tagged and stored outside might tempt a thievish hand. The shop next door has space upstairs: let’s hide our loot at once!”
Pera groaned but got into her suit again, as did Solana. They went outside and the three biggest members of the team formed a relay, passing items into the shop and up the stairs while Atmin’s flying sphere picked up small objects and carried them through an open window. Solana had the first stage, taking items from the garden to the street. Pera carried them next door and into the shop, and Utsuro hauled them upstairs.
As they worked Yanai sent bulletins on the approaching vessel. “It looks like a small intra-Jovian shuttle. Lots of nonstandard modifications. No obvious weapon mounts or targeting sensors. If the crew are biologicals I doubt it can hold more than half a dozen of them. Mechs might double that. The centro’s definitely a human.”
“Yanai? Just out of curiosity, when did the shuttle leave Scapino hab?” Solana asked as she picked up a framed painting, carried it out of the garden to the street, and handed it to Pera.
“Assuming no major vector changes in flight, it must have left Scapino just after I started the burn to put Safdaghar on a Jupiter intercept course.”
“Isn’t that kind of suspicious? How did they know?”
“The sale of Safdaghar’s mass to a Kuiper syndicate was a matter of public record in Deimos, Juren, and elsewhere. Scapino hab was in a good position when I began my burn.”
Solana selected a smoky glass statue of a winged woman from the pile and lifted it with a grunt. “It sounds like they were waiting for us.”
“They may have been keeping an eye on Safdaghar, yes. It would not be hard for a baseline or higher mind to deduce the path I was putting the hab on. Simple physics, really.”
She handed the statue very carefully to Pera. “I guess I was just being antsy.”
“They have matched vectors and rotation with Safdaghar, and are approaching the docking area. Fifteen minutes.”
“I think we’ll need more time to get this stuff out of sight. Can you stall them at the hub a little while?”
“I will try.”
Yanai sent a camera feed to the four of them, showing the intruder as it neared the hub. The shuttle looked tiny next to Yanai, which Solana found reassuring. Even if the people inside wanted to make trouble, the scarab team’s mighty friend was right there, strong enough to move worlds.
The newcomer was obviously patched together from bits of other spacecraft. The command module had the pointed nose and flattened bottom of a spaceplane, but behind that the fuel tank was a simple cylindrical can reinforced by struts. On either side were boxy cargo containers held on by more struts, and the dorsal side had a smaller cargo pod shaped like a flat hexagon. At the rear a pair of fusion motors doubled as power plants, with cooling provided by fan-shaped radiator panels that were just folding up against the sides of the shuttle as Yanai’s eyes watched.
Whoever was piloting that shuttle was very good. It got lined up well aft of Yanai’s giant engine, and then just drifted slowly down the length of the bigger ship and into the docking bay with just a couple of low-power thruster puffs to stay properly aligned.
As it crossed the threshold of the docking section the shuttle’s nose thrusters slowed it to just a meter per second, and then a complete stop. One tiny puff from the dorsal side let it settle belly-down onto the floor of the docking bay, just behind Yanai’s crew section and a short walk to the emergency airlock into Safdaghar.
Nothing happened for about ten minutes, which was enough time for the four at the rim of the hab to finish hiding their treasure. After that sprint of adrenaline-fueled work, all of them except Utsuro needed a rest. They sat in the medical center drinking flavored water and watched the camera feed Yanai sent down.
Then the shuttle’s pointed aerodynamic nose opened up like a flower and a trio of suited figures pushed out through a pressure membrane. Two were humans, one a chimp. All wore different suits with no sign of a unit emblem or a six-armed blue starburst, or an octagon, or anything even hinting at rescue. The chimp went to check out the emergency airlock, but the two humans walked to a point just under Yanai’s observation bubble. The shorter of the two moved with bouncy confidence, the other followed with demure short steps, hands clasped in front.
The shorter figure waved up at Yanai, and a second later a video feed cut in which Yanai relayed to the rim. It showed a cheerful female human face with iridescent purple skin and shiny gold eyes. She looked like she was ready to go to a party. “Good morning!” she said via comm. “I’m Jaka. Anybody on board?”
“My name is Yanai. Currently my crew are inside the hab.”
“Pleased to meet you, Yanai.” Jaka looked down Yanai’s length with evident admiration. “You’re a big one, that’s for sure. Moved this whole hab by yourself?”
“I did. My crew are just making a final inspection of the structure.”
“Good for them. We’re going to be looking around as well. How many are there? Your crew, that is.”
“Enough to do their jobs,” said Yanai. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
A kilometer away Solana let out the breath she had been holding as she listened.
“Leaving anytime soon?” asked Jaka, still cheerful.
“I plan to undock a hundred hours before periapsis. What are your plans and purpose here?”
“Just looking around, like I said. I can’t wait to meet your crew. Where are they in the hab?”
“Various locations. Sometimes it is difficult to track them all.”
“You’re a tight-lipped one, aren’t you? Why the secrecy?”
“The quality of the information you give me determines the quality of my responses.”
Jaka laughed. “Okay, then. My friends and I are here to see what we can steal. Honest enough for you?”
“Yes. Having adjusted the hab’s orbit, that is our purpose as well. I wish to avoid conflict. There is enough material of value in Safdaghar for both groups.”
“Oh, of course, of course. No point in wasting time fighting when there’s plenty of loot for everyone. Great to hear we’re on the same vector. Simplifies everything. Now: what can you tell me about the hab? No point in duplicating all of your team’s work, is there?”
“I am sending you an updated schematic of the habitat, with damaged and depressurized areas marked. None of the hab’s main power and control systems are working. Just a few emergency devices.”
“Thank you. Very helpful. I think we’re going to get along just fine.”
Meanwhile, down at the rim of Safdaghar Pera added her own commentary. “I don’t like this. Not at all. They knew we’d be here and they came anyway. The easiest way to get good loot is to let someone else do all the work of finding it and then take it from them.”
“As Yanai said, there is plenty for all,” said Utsuro. “Even a thief would not wish to fight if there is no need.”
“Tell them we’ve searched this part already. Make them go somewhere else,” said Solana.
“I didn’t want to tell them where you are,” said Yanai. “But if you think they will agree to divide up the interior I will suggest it.”
“It sounds like the most reasonable course,” said Utsuro.
“Pull back to the hub and let them spend their time dodging booby traps,” said Pera.
“I feel no need for company beyond us gathered here. If these intruders are content to stay as far away from us as can be done, I will not make complaint. We all concur, let it be so,” said Atmin.
The four of them peeled off their suits and ate dinner as they watched the feed from Yanai’s eyes. For variety Solana tried one of Pera’s multi-meat sausages and some of Atmin’s hominy. She had to drown the sausage in hot sauce to cover up the faint putrescine flavor, but it made a welcome change from her regular fare.
Instead of everyone having a little inset window in their vision, or flipping back and forth between their own eyes and Yanai’s, Atmin set his travel sphere to project an image of what was going on at the hub. That way they could eat and watch as the newcomers unloaded their gear from the shuttle and carried it into the hab.
There were six of them up at the hub: the stylish-looking woman who called herself Jaka, her companion who seemed to be another female human, the chimp, a large male human, an absolutely average-sized male human, and a little eight-legged mech.
It took two trips for the six of them to move all their gear through the emergency lock into Safdaghar. Their gear was an eclectic mix, just like the suits they wore.
“What’s in those cases they’re carrying?” asked Pera.
“Tools, I expect. We certainly brought some with us,” said Utsuro.
“Might be tools. Might be weapons,” said Pera.
“Yanai, I wish to know: can you detect the slightest hint of motion on their ship, now that the new arrivals have all passed into the hab?” asked Atmin.
After about a minute Yanai answered. “Hull vibration shows only mechanical systems and thermal noise. There could be mechs or bots aboard in dormant mode, but definitely no bios.”
“You see?” The bird perched on Pera’s head. “They leave their shuttle with no guard, right next to mighty Yanai’s hull. A twitch of gripping arm or cutting laser flash would wreck it, stranding them aboard dead Safdaghar. They dare not cause us harm.”
The feeling of relief that came over Solana was physical, as if she had stepped into a sauna. She could feel muscles relax that she hadn’t even realized were tense. Yes, they were safe. Everything was going to be okay. Yanai would see to that.
“It would be nice to invite them over for a visit,” said Utsuro. “Perhaps offer to exchange some meal templates.”
“I would prefer, I think, a neutral site. I do not wish to let them spy upon our lair and study it too well,” said Atmin.
“How about the stadium?” said Pera. “That’s a fun place.”
Yanai had one bot inside the hub, positioned on a support cable with a good view of the whole interior. From its eyes the crew followed Jaka’s team as they spread out through that part of the habitat. The newcomers almost duplicated their own movements from a week earlier. The four humans kept their feet stuck to the floor, and did a very efficient room-by-room search. The chimp and the little spider mech climbed around the innermost parts.
After about an hour the spider mech made its way to the cable where Yanai’s bot was positioned, and climbed to a point just a meter away. The mech maneuvered its smooth safety-green back to face the bot’s eye and displayed a text message. “I can tell this bot is active. Enjoying the show? Blink lamp if you’re watching.”
Evidently Yanai blinked the bot’s lamp, because the mech displayed another message. “It’s rude to spy on people,” it said, followed by a paragraph of the filthiest insults Solana had ever seen. Then the feed from the bot cut out.
“That mech appears to have disabled my bot,” said Yanai.
“I think that was very rude,” said Utsuro.
Solana retreated to her room and got herself ready for sleep. She rubbed herself all over with cleaning goo, then touched the little empty jar to her bare stomach and pressed the recall button. The goo flowed over her, avoiding surfaces like her eyes and lips which she had left uncoated, carrying along a gray sludge of oil, dead skin, dried sweat, and plain old dirt. Everything wound up back in the jar, where the cleaning goo began digesting the sludge for fuel. A tiny residue of molecules the goo couldn’t use accumulated in a compartment at the bottom of the jar, but enough room remained for several days more before Solana would have to empty it.
She woke four hours later when Pera contacted everyone via comm. “I see lights over by the elevator plaza. They’ve followed us down here. I say we go tell them to get the hell out.”
Solana pulled on her suit in frantic haste. “Yes! Make them go away. We were here first.”
“I think a polite reminder would be best,” said Utsuro. “There’s no need to pick a fight.”
Solana emerged into the central space of the medical center, where the other three were already gathered.
“They’ve already picked a fight by coming here,” said Pera.
“I refuse to join any violence,” said Utsuro. “Neither Atmin nor Solana have the strength or training to fight these new arrivals. You would face them alone.”
“You mean that?” asked Pera. “Seriously?”
“If we are attacked I will do all I can to defend the three of you. But I will not make threats to someone who has done nothing to harm us.”
“Yanai? You can wreck their shuttle. Tell them to clear out.”
“I don’t want to make a threat I’m not willing to carry out. I don’t want to strand anyone here, no matter how rude and pushy they may be. And I certainly don’t want to take them on board myself. I’m sorry, Pera. I don’t like it, but I’m afraid we can’t stop them from going where they please.”
“This is how you get things like the Kendraraj genocide. Nobody wants to be unpleasant.”
“You go too far,” said Atmin. “To link a crime like Kendraraj to this affair is ludicrous. Though pushy these new rivals show no sign of murderous intent.”
“Yet.”
“I’m leaving,” said Solana.
“You can’t go up the spoke these newcomers are using,” said Utsuro. “And we don’t know if the others are safe.”
“Not back to Yanai. I just don’t want to be around if strangers come. Too many faces.”
“My dear Solana, have no fear. Your goggles do protect both eyes and mind. No need to flee.”
“Just until they go away. It’s safer. I can spend a few more hours in my suit.”
She didn’t wait to argue the point. If Pera could see the lights of the newcomers, then they had probably spotted the illuminated medical center. Solana went dark, making her suit zero-reflective, going without lights, relying entirely on passive light amplification and infrared for vision. In case she had to wait past mealtime she brought along some peanut dumplings. Her suit had a little pressure membrane over the mouth so she could pass food inside if necessary.
The buildings around the medical center were all mixed-use, with shops or services on the ground floors and living space upstairs. All had rooftop gardens.
Across the street and a little way to spinward was the tallest building in the neighborhood: four stories high, with a taverna on the ground floor, a dance studio on the second, and apartments above them. The fourth floor was smaller than the others, a whimsical domed penthouse surrounded by what had once been a lush garden of uba vines trailing down the sides of the building. It offered good concealment and a wide field of view.
Solana took up a position at the corner of the garden, hidden by vines, and watched down the street in the direction of the elevator plaza. After just a few minutes she saw movement. Four humans and a chimp were coming up the central avenue.
They moved oddly. First one human and the chimp dashed forward about forty meters, then stopped and crouched behind planters or in doorways. After a moment the other three sprinted past them, leapfrogging to positions about twenty meters in front of the first pair. And then the original two moved again, past the second group to a new spot twenty meters beyond them. The entire team advanced about sixty meters a minute that way.
Solana was no soldier, but she had seen people move that way before, when the Salibi invaded Kuma. These newcomers weren’t puttering about like her group, snooping and searching. Nor were they just walking openly. They moved like attackers.
“Be ready for trouble,” she said to the others via comm. “They’ll be here in two or three minutes, and they don’t look friendly.”
For a moment she wished for a laser or a gun, but then dismissed the thought as silly. She wouldn’t know what to do with one if she had it. An armed drone would be far more useful than she could ever be.
Still, she thought, this rooftop garden seemed like a perfect place to put a sniper or a scout. She could easily see those figures darting from hiding place to hiding place down below, and they hadn’t noticed her at all. If she did know how to use a weapon they would be in tremendous danger. Why hadn’t they thought of that?
“Please don’t be an idiot,” said a voice behind her. Solana whirled to see the little spider mech standing about two meters away. Its surface was zero-reflective black like her own suit, save for a glowing green icon of two eyes and a line below. “I don’t see any weapons but you might have something sneaky like a crossbow or a spring gun, and that might put a hole in one of those squishy morons. Put your hands out to the sides and move away from where you’re sitting.”
Solana started to comply and then realized the mech wasn’t holding a weapon, either. So she ran as hard as she could for the opposite edge of the roof and made her gloves and shoes sticky as she swung over the parapet. The climb down was ten meters and she jumped the last three. After that she ran, zigzagging through alleys and yards, trying to get as far away as possible. With her suit dark and her goggles to see without lights, she would be hard to spot in the dark emptiness.
She took refuge in what had been a bathhouse a block away, where people had once gathered to drink subfreezing infused alcohol and poach themselves in scented steam. The place had evidently been empty at the time of the attack, and self-cleaning surfaces kept the interior utterly immaculate as the hab died around it.
“Atmin? What’s going on?”
His response was to send her the live feed from the eyes in his travel sphere. Atmin was inside the medical center, looking out and down from one of the front windows, where a clear space had been wiped in the beads of water frosting all of them on the inside. The four human intruders and the chimp stood in the little front garden, facing the airlock entrance, where Utsuro stood barring the way. Pera was nowhere in sight.
Jaka, the purple-skinned woman with golden eyes, stood slightly in front of the others, wearing a transparent bubble helmet and a clingy skinsuit like something one would wear to a party in vacuum, with a more utilitarian vest of many pockets over it. She had a pair of sleek minimissile pods stuck to her upper arms. Solana knew they could be loaded with harmless stun rounds, webs, strobes—or deadly explosives.
The others were also armed. The largest human wore a suit with armor-gel layers over vital spots and a face-obscuring helmet, and carried an unmistakable needle rifle. A smaller human in a crude-looking old-fashioned suit wore a backpack with a laser emitter sticking up over one shoulder. The chimp had minimissile pods on his forearms. The slender woman stood behind Jaka, in an identical party-time skinsuit and bubble helmet. She had a plasma breacher in her hands, but she carried it as if she had just found it on the ground and was looking for whomever it belonged to. All of them except the leader and the laser bearer had large backpacks on.
Solana could see that the humans were watching Utsuro, the chimp was glancing around to the sides as if worried about a trap, but the slender woman only watched Jaka.
“…And I’m sure we all want to start things off on the right foot,” said Jaka as the image appeared in Solana’s vision. “You know me already, I’m Jaka—Jaka Layala. And these are my people: Ulan, Anton, Adelmar, and Tanaca. Freelance rescue and salvage entrepreneurs. We’re not just a crew, we’re more like a family.” She pointed at them as she spoke. Ulan was the big man in the armored suit. Anton was the smaller one in the old-fashioned outfit. Adelmar was the chimp, and Tanaca was the silent woman standing two paces behind Jaka.
“Ask her about the mech,” Solana said to Atmin on comm.
After a moment’s delay while Atmin forwarded the suggestion to Utsuro, the big cyborg spoke. “Isn’t there another member of your crew? Yanai saw a mech while you were unloading your shuttle.”
“Oh, that one. Yes, I’d forgotten all about it. The mech goes by Daslakh. New guy on the team. It’s not very social. Never mind, what about your little group? Who are you?”
“My name is Utsuro. My companions are Pera and Atmin. Pera is the dino, Atmin is the bird. I believe you have already met Yanai at the hub.”
Jaka smiled and waved a finger in mock admonishment. “Now you’re the one being forgetful. Not a good way to win my trust. There’s another person around here somewhere, hiding out in the dark. Who is it?”
“I neglected to mention another member of our crew, a human who does not wish to meet anyone. She suffers from a severe phobia.”
“Phobia? You mean she’s afraid to meet us? Some habs do that to criminals—make them scared of whatever they did wrong. Is your missing woman a dangerous person? Is she armed? I need to keep my people safe, you understand. Can’t have some sociopathic murderer hiding out in the dark.”
“You have nothing to fear,” said Utsuro. “If your group needs a place to camp, I suggest—”
“Camp? You want us to sleep outside, in all the mold and dust, with dead people everywhere? While you’re all warm and comfortable in there with lights and power? Maybe you can live out here but my people need to be able to take off their suits once in a while, maybe have a hot meal. We’d be very much obliged if you let us join you in this building.”
“I’m sorry,” said Utsuro, “that’s out of the question. There simply isn’t room.”
Jaka spread her arms. “No room? This place is huge! You could fit dozens of people inside—unless you’re hiding something.”
“Remember you are here only because Yanai chose to allow your shuttle to dock. She can change her mind if you cause difficulties.”
“Wait, wait, wait. We’re down here right now. Our shuttle is up at the hub with your boss. She can’t get at us. All she can do is mess with our shuttle. Without the shuttle we’ll be stuck here, and eventually die. Are you telling me you’re willing to kill us rather than let us camp in this building? Seriously? Is your ship listening?”
Utsuro stood motionless, his face display still showing a diagonal red bar. But on the comm channel he sounded very upset. “What shall I say? She’s right—Yanai can’t destroy their shuttle and maroon them here. That would be murder.”
“Invert it,” said Pera. “Ask her if she’s willing to risk that just to come inside.”
“Do we even have the right to keep them out?” Utsuro continued. “We don’t own this hab any more than they do.”
“We were here first.”
“Solana, let us know what your opinion is,” said Atmin. “I know that Pera does incline to keep them out, but what of you? I think I know what you will say but I would hear it in your voice.”
“I don’t want to keep my goggles on all the time. Ask them to leave.”
“I thought as much. My own thought is to let them in, and thereby let this Jaka see we have no treasure hoard. The work of searching here is hard, and all of us agree the scenery is grim. I say we let them come, for I expect they will not stay.”
“That’s two and two,” said Pera. “Yanai, break the tie.”
“I must protect my crew—which means I think you have to let them in. I can wreck their shuttle, or knock it off into space. But then you’re trapped in a hab with armed beings who have nothing to lose. And in a fight, there’s no way to predict who might get hurt. Cooperate until you can get up to the hub.”
“Very well,” said Utsuro to Jaka. “Your people may come into the medical center. You may use the downstairs area. We will remain upstairs. Please use the decontamination wipes in the airlock.” Via comm he added to the rest of the scarabs, “If they try anything I will protect you.”
“I’ll stay where I am,” said Solana. The bathhouse was comfortable enough, there were no dead bodies, and she could live on peanut dumplings for a day or two.
“Why so scared? You’ve got your goggles, right?” asked Pera.
“The face filters mean I’m not compelled to obey anyone who looks human,” she said. “But…there’s always a faint urge. I was made to be a slave and the ones who made me did a very good job. I’ll just stay away.”
“They won’t stay long. I’ll make sure of that.”