Chimera

Eleven

Union Station D.C. looked much the same as always, but Derec never felt at ease with it-not after the assassinations and the subsequent ruin of his company and his hopes. The floor had long since been cleansed of blood and now shone with the high polish of smokey mirrors. People hurried about their business beneath its cavernous arch, announcements echoed over the P.A., and no one seemed to notice how much it had changed.

As Derec walked toward the customs desk, Hofton behind him carrying a large bag and a columnar container, he kept looking around, searching, until he realized what it was he sought.

Robots. There were no robots.

Union Station had once, for a short time, been a kind of free zone where robots worked openly. The Terran Senate had passed special legislation to allow positronics here, as a testing ground to see how Earthers would react, and to show Earthers the nature of robots. Spacers came through Union Station D.C. and no other port on Earth, so it was convenient to provide them with a reception area that offered familiar accommodations. A Resident Intelligence had been installed to supervise the complex operations of the facility and manage all the robots. Derec's company, the Phylaxis Group, had overseen its installation and had been contracted to do the maintenance and troubleshooting for it, but subsequent events took all that away. And more.

He was nervous here: partly because it had been months since he had visited Union Station and his last memory of it held death, and partly because this was the first time since the trials at which the conspirators in the assassinations were found guilty and sentenced he had left the embassy. Though treated primarily as witnesses, Derec's staff had been detained and questioned for several weeks, and at least one person had been arrested on a minor charge tangentially related to Phylaxis and its activities. In the aftermath, it had been made clear to Derec that his presence on Earth may be required indefinitely. He was to make himself available to the court.

His passport had been confiscated.

Later, Ariel had let him know that she had interceded in his arrest. His Auroran citizenship was reinstated and he received a new passport, but his position became tenuous in the course of action taken by ITE to challenge the new document, and an injunction resulted barring him from leaving Earth.

"Legally," Ariel had explained, "this is absurd. It's a gesture. They can't keep you from leaving unless they arrest you. They can't arrest you on Auroran soil. If you do leave, your Auroran passport won't be questioned anywhere else and without criminal charges being filed, there are no grounds for extradition. They're trying to keep you here because they don't know what they want to do with you. You frighten them. We all do."

I have news for you, Ariel, he now thought as he placed his one small bag on the customs desk, they frighten me…

Hofton set his burdens on the desk beside Derec's and extracted a disk from his jacket. He handed it to the attendant.

"I didn't even have a chance to find out anything about the director of the lab," Derec said. "Rotij Polifos. Never heard of him. "

"I had a chance," Hofton said. "And?"

"I think later…?"

Derec looked at the customs attendant, who seemed totally absorbed by their documents. "Sure," he said.

In retrospect, Derec realized that he saw the attendant push the button. She closed out one screen, turned smoothly, and her hand brushed across a depression on the desk to the right of her keypad. A second later, she handed Hofton a disk.

"Derec Avery?"

Derec turned to the voice and found himself confronted by three men in uniform and a fourth in a dark suit. One of the uniforms stood closest.

"Yes?" Derec replied, his pulse picking up.

"Port Authority," the uniform said. "Would you come with us, please?"

"Um…I…"

"Excuse me, officer," Hofton said, stepping forward. "Is there a problem?"

"We have some questions for Mr. Avery."

"You may ask them here. We have a shuttle to catch."

The uniform frowned. "Who are you?"

Hofton extended his ill. The officer slipped the disk into a palm reader, then showed it to the man in the suit.

"We are on Auroran embassy business, " Hofton said. "Unless you have specific issues that you are willing to state publicly, you have no legal grounds to detain us. Our passage is to Kopernik Station and we will be staying at the embassy annex there. I can cite you the relevant part of the diplomatic accommodations code if you like, but I believe you already know it. "

"There's no need to-" the man in the suit said.

"Identify yourself, sir," Hofton said. "Are you also Port Authority? If not, please produce a valid warrant."

"Warrant…?"

"If you wish to detain Mr. Avery, I believe a warrant is required-you may not do so on spec. If there is such a warrant, we are permitted to return to the Auroran embassy here for consultation with our law department. Mr. Avery is currently working under a brief from Ambassador Burgess. You may check that. The brief extends her diplomatic immunity to her agents. You may check that in the code as well. But you may not detain us while you do so unless you have a valid warrant."

"What is the nature of your visit to Kopernik?" the man in the suit asked.

"You have not yet identified yourself," Hofton said. "Mr. Avery is not obligated to answer that."

"Are you a lawyer?"

"No, sir. If I were I would have settled this matter by now. I'm giving you the benefit of a less predatory disposition. "

The man in the suit stepped forward, his face reddening. "That man," he said, jabbing a finger at Derec, "does not leave this planet. "

"I repeat," Hofton said calmly, "do you have a valid warrant?"

Derec watched, stunned, as if time had stopped. Hofton did not flinch, did not smile, did not do anything that might have looked like an actionable gesture. The man in the suit reddened further.

"You have no authority to prevent him, " Hofton said finally. "If you attempt to do so, the Auroran embassy will file a formal complaint. If you do not have that warrant, I can also promise that you will no longer hold the position you currently do. Now, there's an easy solution. Kopernik is technically Earth. A satellite, true, and not on the ground, but if you check you will see that it qualifies as Earth. Mr. Avery is not leaving Earth."

"That's facile," the man in the suit said.

"Yes. But legal."

One of the uniforms was smiling. The man in the suit stepped back.

"I'll be contacting my people on Kopernik," he said. "We'll have this conversation sooner or later."

"You'll have plenty of time then to enjoin Mr. Avery from further travel outsystem," Hofton said. "Now, if you don't mind, we have a shuttle to catch. " Hofton turned to the custom attendant. "Please return my original disk now."

The attendant paled visibly and handed over another disk.

"Thank you," Hofton said and grabbed the container and the bag. "Mr. Avery?"

Shaken, Derec managed to walk toward the debarkation concourse.

Halfway to the shuttle, he glanced at Hofton. "How true was all that?"

"Mostly," Hofton said. "I was guessing that they had no warrant, which is the only reason I could think that might prevent them from detaining us. As for what the Auroran embassy would do if he had insisted-which he could have… well, I rather doubt they'd risk an incident over you. "

"You bluffed," Derec said in amazement.

Hofton nodded. "Successfully, I think." Derec took his briefcase from the Kopernik customs inspector, nodded curtly, and walked forward, into the debarkation lounge. From space, Kopernik Station resembled a child's construction from struts and blocks and spheres, additions over time added to the original dumbbell configuration giving the impression of an abstract modelbuilder's idea of a tree. Symmetry could be sensed but not directly observed.

The interior looked no different from any brightly-lit warren on Earth. The debarkation lounge resembled the foyer of a hostel. Derec had dozed during the last half-hour of the flight and felt slightly muddled. He searched for signs directing him to the Spacer section, which should be nearby. He noticed a pair of women off to his right who seemed to be waiting for someone.

Then he saw a station security officer to the left, also watching for someone. Anxious, he increased his pace.

"Mr. Avery?" a man called from behind him.

A sickly warm sensation erupted within him, spreading out from his stomach.

"Sir," Hofton called.

"Mr. Avery-" the man repeated.

"Derec, wait," a woman said.

Derec hesitated at the familiar voice, almost turned to look, and stumbled a few steps. A passerby caught his arm, steadying him. Derec jerked away. "Sorry," he muttered. "Thank you. "

"Derec, " Hofton said, coming around to block his path.

"Derec," came the familiar-sounding voice again. Female. Where?

One of the two women he had noticed grinned at him. Thick mahogany hair haloed her rounded face. She wore a loose-fitting shift and pants, Auroran-style. Derec stared at her, sure he should know her and unable to name her.

Standing beside her was the second woman-taller, dark-skinned, athletic, dressed in a suit that suggested a uniform. She radiated authority and he wondered what trick or bluff Hofton could do now to get them to the Spacer embassy. He swallowed hard and made himself stay put.

"Sir," Hofton said. "I believe our contact is here."

"Hi, boss, " the familiar woman said.

Derec stared, recognizing her now. "Rana…? Rana Duvan…?"

Her grin widened.

"Mr. Avery?" the dark woman asked quietly, stopping within arm's length.

"Y-yes?"

"I'm Sipha Palen," she said, extending a hand. "Coren told me to expect you. I apologize for being late."

Tentatively, Derec clasped her hand. The grip was dry and strong. Abruptly, he felt very foolish.

"Ms. Palen, yes. I-" He looked past her at Rana. "Would you excuse me?"

He set his briefcase down at Hofton's feet and embraced Rana. Her arms came around his back and squeezed him.

"I don't-" he began.

"It's good to see-"

"-what are you-?"

"-too long-" she commented.

"-can't believe it, you look-"

Derec's breath escaped in a heavy sigh, simultaneously with Rana 's sharp laugh. He stepped back. Her eyes glistened and she wiped at them impatiently.

"What are you doing here?" Derec asked.

Rana smiled. "I'm your embassy contact."

"Embassy…?"

"Long story," she said. "Later." She nodded in Sipha Palen's direction. "Business."

Palen watched with a bemused gleam in her eyes, hands clasped behind her back.

"Sorry," Derec said. "Rana and I used to work together. It's been a while since we saw each other."

"Of course," Palen said.

"Um…yes, Mr. Lanra said you'd meet us. You're chief of security?"

"Every bit of it, " she said, smiling. "Welcome to Kopernik. "

"Thank you. I believe I'm supposed to oversee an excavation on a positronic brain?" He looked at Rana, who shrugged.

"We haven't let it out of our lockup yet, " Palen said. "Now that you're here, we can get started."

"Rana is more than qualified-"

"Coren and I have agreed to a certain protocol in this case. You are part of it."

"I see. Well, then, let's get started. I understand there's a time limit?"

"There is. I'll take you to the robot directly and we'll all escort it to the Auroran embassy, if that's acceptable to you, Ms. Duvan. "

"I'm not in charge of the embassy," Rana said. She glanced at Hofton. "If it's been cleared with Yart, then…"

"I've already secured the appropriate clearances," Hofton said. "Ambassador Leri is aware that certain unusual circumstances prevail. We have his cooperation."

"Good," Sipha Palen said. "Then…?" She made a gesture for them all to proceed.

Derec retrieved his briefcase and they fell into a group, he and Palen in the lead, Hofton and Rana following. As they passed beneath the arch leading to the main concourse, Derec glanced to the left and saw a tall man in a knee-length ivory coat. His face was almost as pale as his coat, but mottled, as if from scarring. The faintest trails of hair traced across his scalp above a high forehead, and sharp, golden-green eyes shifted slowly, intently. He stood facing the customs aisles, as if waiting for someone, but as they walked by, he turned to watch Derec and his companions. It seemed to Derec, just for a moment, that the man smiled. Too brief to get a firm sense about it, but Derec thought he recognized a sign of familiarity and satisfaction in that expression.

Then Derec was through the archway and out of sight. He had never seen the man before. He knew he did not want to meet him. The reaction was irrational and after several steps he dismissed the entire episode as a leftover of his anxiety.

Must be Palen's man, he thought. It made sense. By the time they reached the embassy branch, Derec had forgotten all about him. Palen's section looked cramped. The doors were narrow and the passageways claustrophobic. The main desk nearly filled the front office, the bulkheads behind it filled with communications equipment that appeared constantly active. As they' entered, two uniformed officers looked up from where they sat behind the long, heavy counter.

"Chief-" one started.

"Not now," Palen said. "Where's Oler?"

"Back in the lockup," the other officer said.

"Chief," the first one said again, "you've got a message here from an Agent Harwol, TBI. He says it's urgent, would you-"

"Later, " Palen cut him off.

Without another word, Palen led the way around the end of the desk and into a corridor. At the other end, they emerged into a wide, low-ceilinged chamber lined with cells. Derec counted three people behind the transparent doors, none of whom bothered to look up as Palen's group filed through. One, though, caught Derec's eye-a Spacer, judging by the clothes.

Adjacent to the cell block was another chamber about the same size, but without the cells; instead, tables, chairs, and a few couches littered the floor. Against one wall stood an autochef and a samovar.

A short woman with no hair sat at one table, bent over a reader, one hand wrapped around a tall cup. She looked up.

"We're here to get the tinhead, Oler," Palen said. "Get us a gurney, will you?"

The woman nodded, paused to finish reading something, then walked out. Palen went to a plain door opposite the auto chef. With a passkey, she opened it and stepped inside.

Derec followed Palen into the storage locker. Shelves stacked against the left wall to the ceiling, boxes and canisters piled on the floor to the right. At the far end lay a robot, legs bent up in the small space.

"You stored it here?" Derec asked.

"It hasn't moved since we found it," Palen said. "What would you have me do, put it in a cell where it could be seen? Most of our guests don't stay very long. I thought it best to keep rumor to a minimum."

"I understand, but I thought you'd have it in your forensic pathology lab or something."

"I repeat: I wanted to keep rumor down. I already have the people who were there when we found it assigned exclusively to the crime scene and a communications block around that bay." Palen frowned. "Besides, my people were a little nervous about it."

"I thought you were used to dealing with robots," Derec said. "That's what Lanra implied anyway."

"More used to it than the average Terran, but considering the possibility that this one committed murder, that was more faith than I was willing to ask of my people."

"You don't believe that, do you?"

"No. But it wasn't me I was concerned with. Now, do you want to look at this thing or criticize my methods some more?"

Chastised, Derec stepped past her and knelt down. As he expected, it was a DW-12-a very versatile laborer, basically. In the inadequate light of the closet, it seemed physically in reasonably good condition, but it was hard to tell. He lifted one heavy arm and pulled it straight. Relieved, he set it down-at least it had not locked up.

"It should be easy to move." He stood. "What have you done to it?"

"I had my chief pathologist go over it for physical evidence, but honestly not much beyond that. It was in his lab for about an hour, then we put it in here. I thought it best to just wait for you. "

"Fine. Let's get it to the Spacer embassy, then."

"Mr. Avery." Palen stepped closer to him. In the tight space she seemed to tower over him. It was an effort not to back away. "What are the chances of recovering anything from it?"

"There's no way I can give you an estimate yet. I have to see how badly collapsed it is first."

"But statistically-"

"Any numbers I give you would be meaningless. You'll just have to wait till we can start the excavation." He waited, but she continued to stare at him. He shrugged. "I'm sorry."

"Fine. Then let's get you situated." Yart Leri looked very much an Auroran: slim, face smoothly ageless, large, clear eyes, and a politely attentive demeanor that nonetheless discouraged intimacy.

"Welcome, Mr. Avery," he said, meeting them in the embassy reception area. A robot occupied the desk. "We've arranged quarters for you and Mr. Hofton. I've been instructed to lend every assistance. The resources of the embassy are, within certain limits, at your disposal."

"Thank you. I'd like first off to see your positronics lab."

"Certainly. I'll have Rotij show you around. That's Rotij Polifos. He's our chief roboticist. He'll be assisting you, should you require it."

"With all due respect, " Derec said, "might I be allowed to choose my own lab assistant?"

Leri blinked. "Of course."

"I'd like Rana."

The ambassador almost frowned. "She is not, I believe, fully credited-"

"Nor is she Auroran. I understand that. But we worked together before. I found her most adequate. "

"I see no objection," Leri said.

"In that case, I'd like to see the lab as soon as possible."

"I understood this would be a priority situation. I've had Rotij prep an area just for your use."

"Shall I wait for you?" Palen asked.

"Yes, if you could," Derec said. "This won't take that long. Then I'd like to get the robot here as quickly as possible."

"May I ask," Leri said, "what robot?"

"You haven't been briefed?"

"Not in all the particulars…"

Derec did not know what orders Leri might have had from Sen Setaris. Best to say nothing, he decided, and sort out the protocols later.

"I'll leave it to higher authority, then," he said. "I'm sure Ambassador Setaris will update you as needed. "

"But-"

The lab, sir?" Derec prompted.

Leri frowned. "This way. "

Derec caught a look from Rana. She rolled her eyes as if to say now there's going to be trouble, then nodded for Derec to follow Leri.

The small reception area gave no indication of the volume the embassy occupied. Leri led Derec, Hofton, and Rana down a hallway to an elevator. Four levels down, it opened onto a lab area Derec guessed at about five hundred square meters.

Derec took a few tentative steps forward, surveying the equipment neatly arrayed across the room. He recognized most of it, but a few pieces looked unfamiliar.

"We finished a complete overhaul six months ago," Rana offered.

Derec whistled appreciatively, Terran fashion, then saw Leri's puzzled look. "I'm very impressed, sir. It doesn't look like you want for anything. "

"This is a working lab, Mr. Avery," Leri said with a mixture of pride and contempt. "Kopernik hosts a large population of robots in the Spacer sections. We service the positronics of all the incoming and outgoing Spacer ships."

"Including the Solarian?"

"The Solarians do not possess such a lab. They contract us to do their service and repair work."

A small cluster of people huddled together in a far corner, talking among themselves. Derec counted five and wondered which among them was head of the lab.

"Rotij," Leri called.

One of the group looked toward them, raised a hand, then excused himself from the discussion. He approached with long strides; he was typically tall, with a Spacer's indeterminate age.

"Yes?" he said, stopping before them.

"Rotij Polifos," Leri intoned, "this is Derec Avery and his aide, Hofton…" Leri blinked at Hofton uncertainly.

"That's correct," Hofton said. "Hofton, from the groundside mission. The people I spoke to you about, from Ambassador Burgess's office…?"

"Yes, of course," Rotij said. He seemed distracted and mildly put out. "Honored, Mr. Avery. I know your work."

"Thank you."

"Rotij," Leri continued, "is chief roboticist and director of this positronics lab." He looked between them for a few moments, then nodded, satisfied. "According to my instructions, you 're to be accorded every service of the facility. Should you require anything else, please feel free to see me."

"Thank you, Ambassador," Derec said. "You're very kind."

"If I may, I'll leave you to Director Polifos-"

"I need a minute, Yart," Polifos said.

Leri blinked. "I'm sure we can get together later and-"

"Now. If you please."

"Mr. Avery requires immediate attention. Afterward, of course." With that, Leri spun around and returned to the elevator.

Polifos glared after Leri for several seconds, then laughed caustically. "Busy man." He turned toward Derec with a sigh. "Well. How can I help you? Ambassador Burgess's instructions were vague except on the point that you're to have the run of the place. I'm afraid I'll have to ask that you leave us some area to do our regular work-"

"I need a single station," Derec said. "For one robot, full range diagnostic ensemble, and a large memory cache for an RI direct link. "

The Director's face lost expression. "Well…I don't see a problem…did you say an RI direct link?"

"Yes," Hofton said. "And it's quite heavy." Polifos wanted very much to watch while Derec set up the link to Thales, but his attention was divided by the work he had been supervising when Derec and Hofton first arrived. He was both relieved and disappointed when Derec made it clear that he wanted to work with Rana.

The instant Polifos returned to the huddle on the other side of the lab, Rana began reconfiguring a commlink station for Thales' requirements.

"I assume nothing's changed," she said, fingers moving deftly over the board.

"Thales' configurations? No, only location and peripheral memory cache. Here are the numbers." He scribbled out the address and the current parameters.

Rana frowned. "How did you get all of it into that small of a buffer? Thales must feel absolutely claustrophobic."

"Daily complaints. I didn't have much choice. The move into the embassy was rather hasty. I'm lucky it wasn't confiscated."

"I was going to say, I'm surprised you still have him."

"'Him'? That's very Spacer of you."

"I'm working on it. " She flashed him a smile. "I never expected to see you again. "

"Ever?"

"Well, not this soon, anyway. " She glanced over her shoulder, across the lab. "I'll see about having this area shielded. Then you can tell me what the hell is going on."

Derec followed her gaze. Hofton had left with Palen to fetch the robot. For the moment it was only Rana and himself and a couple of technicians on the far side of the room, intent on their own work.

"Is there a problem?" Derec asked quietly.

"Nothing overt. Rotij can be a pain sometimes." She shook her head.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Qualifying for Auroran citizenship."

"Seriously?"

"Perfectly. This is what I salvaged. Frankly, it's more than I ever expected. The TBI was really upset with us, you know. I have a chance to go to Aurora and maybe study at the Calvin Institute. It would have helped if…" Rana shrugged.

"If Ariel had retained some cachet?"

"To put it mildly."

"We're working on recovering some. That's part of what this is all about. "

Rana finished configuring the board. She pulled a cable from the case containing Derec's link and connected it to the console. She pressed a contact and waited. After a few seconds, she entered more commands.

"You're very good," Derec said.

"I should be. You trained me."

"I think you were a better student than I was a teacher."

Rana initiated a long encryption sequence, then turned to another, smaller board. She watched it briefly, touched one button, and sighed.

"All right," she announced, clapping her hands dramatically. "Unless someone is trying very, very hard, we're secure from eavesdropping. "

"Do you think anyone would?"

Rana gave him a wry look. "Our Ambassador Yart Leri is a jealous little god and is not at all happy at being kept ignorant about your mission. He wouldn't do it out of malice, just vanity."

"What about Rotij Polifos? He seemed unhappy about all this."

"This? Maybe. But one of our interns was arrested yesterday and he's naturally upset about it. I don't consider Rotij the jealous type. Not that way."

"I saw a Spacer in Palen's lockup. What was the charge?"

"Disorderly conduct. It doesn't mean anything, it's just an excuse for Palen to haul someone in for questioning. What her questions might be, who knows? Just have to wait for Masid to be released and find out."

"Polifos. Is he good?"

"Competent. Secretive. I don't know a lot about him-he never talks about himself."

"Anyone else I should be concerned with?" Derec asked.

"No one comes immediately to mind, but this is Kopernik. I doubt your presence is even known on the rest of the station, but I don't like taking chances." She glanced at her encryption, then sat down. "So. What is this all about?"

"We're doing a favor for Rega Looms."

He waited while Rana digested this. A smile worked at her face. "You are joking."

"No. Not in the least. Of course, that's not all of it. I don't know what it's about on Ariel's end, but Looms' problem apparently dovetails with a project Setaris gave to Ariel. Hofton will be returning with what looks like a standard DW-12 that witnessed a murder. It's collapsed, we need to see if we can recover anything. "

"I haven't heard about any murders. Not recently, anyway."

"Baleys. Fifty of them, looks like. You haven't heard anything because Palen is working on the same favor and keeping it silent as long as she can."

"How long has it been so far?"

"Two, two and a half days. I'm guessing."

"And how exactly does Rega Looms fit into this?"

"His daughter was one of the victims. "

Rana stared at him blankly. Then: "I see."

Derec coughed softly. "So, tell me about this Auroran citizenship."

Rana shrugged. "A gamble. When the dust settled last year, I applied for emigration. ITE refused, based on essential skills, but I couldn't get an employment stamp, either. So I went to Ariel and asked if she could help. A few referrals later, it looked possible that I could get Auroran citizenship due to the fact that I'm an undesirable. "

Derec started. "What?"

"I'm a positronic specialist." She grinned wryly. "Absurd, isn't it? But just the fact that I worked in a field that was for all intents and purposes outlawed on Earth put me in a special category of almost-but-not-quite foreign spy. I have the entire law in my apartment and I occasionally read through it for a laugh. Anyway, we started the data flowing. I've gotten this far, a transfer to Kopernik. The longer I work here, in this lab, the less desirable I become to Terran authorities." She smiled. "When the Aurorans here found out I was a positronics tech, they didn't know whether to believe me or throw me out. When they learned how I'd become one, they wanted to hand me off to someone else. Anyone else. Ariel got dragged back in. Her suggestion was to hire me as a contract worker and go from there. I've had to start the application process over three times now. I can't blame them for being cautious. But it's in the works now. My application has been forwarded to Aurora. All I have to do now is to continue proving that I know what I'm doing." She bobbed her eyebrows. "So that's where I stand. Waiting. Like I said, six months ago we upgraded the whole lab. I did most of the conceptual work with Rotij-who's very good, by the way. Rotij has added his name to my list of sponsors. "

"I'm glad. It would be interesting to watch you at the Calvin. "

"I might shake them up a little?"

"Just might. "

Rana smiled. "What about you?"

Derec shrugged elaborately. "Like you-waiting. Only difference is, I don't have any clear path. Ariel got my Auroran citizenship renewed, but there's some…complication… with the Terran authorities. I'm stuck in the embassy unless I want to be barred from Earth forever."

"I thought you were cleared of any charges?"

"Not quite that simple. This is Earth, after all. I suppose it would make everything easier if I just packed up and left."

"Would that be so bad?"

"I don't know. Yes…no…maybe. It's…I like Earth. For all its maddening irrationality, there's so much here. They have history. Thousands of years of history. There's something intoxicating about it." Derec felt clumsy, as if groping to make sense. "It's the first place I really came to know after I recovered from amnemonic plague. I might as well have been born here."

"I forgot about that. Sorry."

"Don't be." Derec disliked talking about his past-lack of past, really. The one thing he shared with Ariel that would never change: both of them were recovered amnesiacs, victims of Burundi's Fever. The damage the disease caused left them permanently incapable of recovering memories from before its onset.

But they had rebuilt their lives. Derec had used Earth as a focus, a home base, a place from which to find…what he needed to find.

"Ariel doesn't share your appreciation," Rana said. "She told you that?"

"We had a couple of long talks. She needed a sympathetic ear, I think, that would go away later."

"Well. I don't know, though. She's here. She requested an Earth posting. "

"Hm. By the way, not to change the subject but…what about Bogard?"

Derec sighed. "Bogard. Most of Bogard is in a crate stashed in a lockup in the embassy. Thales keeps teasing at his matrix. Of course, without sufficient memory, there's only so much Thales can do."

"We've got the memory here."

"Believe me, the thought did cross my mind. And Thales'. If possible…"

Rana smiled conspiratorially. "I don't see a problem. We'll do what we can."

He gestured at the encryption sequence. "How big is this?"

"I'm using a five-digit key."

"Five. Isn't that a little excessive?"

"All these years on Earth and you're still not paranoid enough. Actually, I'm encrypting against positronic intrusion. I'm letting Thales choose the key. That way you or I can't give it away."

"And Thales won't. Impressive."

"Thank you." She regarded him thoughtfully. "And thanks for wanting to work with me again. I hope I can help."

"Believe me, it helped just seeing you."

Rana looked startled, then laughed nervously. "I missed you."

Derec felt a warm rush of blood flow through his scalp and face. Surprised, he looked away.

A tone sounded, and Rana looked over at the comm console. "Ah. We have security." She tapped in a command. "Thales?"

"I am online, Rana. How are you?" Half an hour later, the robot arrived, encased in a dull gray canister, rolled on a gurney between Palen and Hofton. Its entry attracted attention from the huddle of technicians, who watched it all the way across the lab until it disappeared behind the blind Rana had erected.

Derec waited for Palen to open the case. The lid peeled back with a soft snik. It was much as he had seen in the storage closet: An older model DW-12-or perhaps even, now that the light was better, a DW-10 with modifications-stretched out like a corpse in a coffin. Derec pressed two fingers against the place where its ear would be. A small panel on the chest slid away to reveal a screen. Derec touched the screen, setting it aglow. A string of alphanumerics scrolled rapidly over it, stopped, then disappeared, leaving behind a flashing red dot.

"It didn't hurt to try, " he said. "Thales, the self-diagnostic is junk. We'll have to do this from first principles."

"I am prepared, Derec," Thales replied.

Palen frowned at the link perched on the console.

"Resident Intelligence, " Derec explained as he began connecting cables to various jacks in the robot's head and torso. He had to wipe accrued grime off a couple of them. "A disembodied positronic brain configured to act as a primary systems processor."

"Uh-huh," Palen said. "Like the one that went crazy in Union Station last year?"

Derec hesitated. "Basically. Only this one is mine and no one has tampered with it but me. So you needn't worry about it hallucinating. " He finished the connections. "Run synchronous pattern test, Thales. Test link. "

"Working, Derec." A moment later: "The link is fine. We can proceed."

"Is there anything left in there?"

It took nearly two minutes for Thales to answer.

"Damage is considerable, Derec, but I detect a few orderly sectors. Memory nodes have not been corrupted."

Derec exchanged grins with Rana.

"What does that mean?" Palen asked.

"It means," Derec said, "that we have a good chance of salvaging something for you. "