There was a moment of silence before Tisiphone resumed.
"The only way in which I might cure her madness and restore what I had stolen from her was to close the link, yet she had grown too powerful. I would have failed and been destroyed had not a tiny core of her still stood and fought at my side. Between us, we sealed the wound, but our power, our natures, were interwoven in the sealing. In short, I am bound to Alicia now. I cannot leave her, cannot long exist if I separate myself from her."
"Do you mean to say you're mortal now?" Ben Belkassem asked carefully.
"I do not know," Tisiphone said calmly. "With good fortune, I shall not know for many years, for I intend to take very good care of my sister Alicia."
"But ... but doesn't it bother you?"
"An impertinent question, Ferhat Ben Belkassem," Tisiphone observed, and Alicia smiled around the words at the inspector's expression, "and the answer—like so many others, I fear—is that I do not truly know. My sister selves are long since gone. Without Alicia and Megarea, I would be alone once more, and loneliness is not pleasant. I will remain with my friends and face what comes when it comes."
"I see." Ben Belkassem shook his head, then cleared his throat. "Well, that seems like a perfect opening for what brings me here."
He laid his briefcase in his lap, opened it, and sorted through the old-fashioned parchment documents it contained.
"Let me see... . First, your official pardon, Alicia." He extended the document with a flourish. "Sorry it took so long. I understand there were some wrung hands back in Old Earth—especially when you kept the Bengal; I think they figured you could at least give it back. But when the Emperor awards a second Banner of Terra for services rendered, it would be downright tacky to send the recipient to prison for grand theft, however grand it was.
"Second, a legal opinion I think you'll all be glad to have." He looked at the wall speaker. "This one's for you, actually, Megarea. As you know, imperial law has always held that artificial intelligences are not persons in a legal sense because of the demonstrable fact that AIs are not only artificial and unstable but simply don't have a true sense of personality. You, however, are a special case, and the judiciary, at the Emperor's strong urging, has determined that you are, in fact, a person. As such, you cannot be considered property without violation of the constitutional prohibition of slavery."
"Sounds like a mouthful of lawyer's double-talk to me," the speaker said suspiciously. "And anybody who thinks I'm a slave is gonna get a Hauptman coil where he lives!"
"A possibility which, I feel sure, did not escape the judiciary's attention," Ben Belkassem said wryly. "The point, Megarea, is that Fleet is now required to officially renounce all claim of ownership. Not, I suspect, without some sense of relief. You own yourself, dear—and I brought a voter registration form with me if you're interested." He smiled beatifically. "I expect the court hadn't considered that aspect of the matter." "Hey, that's great!" Megarea exclaimed, then paused. "Whoa! Does this mean I have to pay taxes?"
"All the rights—and duties—of citizenship are yours, dear Megarea," he said sweetly, and a disgusted sound came from the speaker.
"And third," Ben Belkassem dived back into his briefcase for a small leather wallet, "and perhaps most importantly, I come bearing an invitation."
"Invitation?" Alicia asked, and he sobered.
"Yes. I know the whole Colonel Watts affair left a bitter taste in your mouth, Alicia, but I hope some of that bitterness has eased now."
He held her eyes and she nodded slowly. Treadwell and Brinkman had already been sentenced to death, and a relentless Ministry of Justice was bringing down an amazing number of multimillionaires and even billionaires, as well. The money that had backed Treadwell in the name of profit was no protection now.
"Good, because in light of what the three of you achieved entirely on your own, I've been empowered to offer you this." He opened the wallet, and Alicia's eyes widened as she saw the archaic, glittering badge. It was an inspector's badge—an O Branch inspectors badge, with her name engraved upon it. "As a free and independent subject of the Emperor," Ben Belkassem went on, "Megarea is entitled to a badge of her own—a sergeant's, in her case—assuming you accept. Under the circumstances, I thought it might be best not to ask for one for Tisiphone."
He held out the badge and Alicia reached for it in shock, then snatched her hand back as if it had burned her.
"You can't be serious!" she blurted. "Me work for O Branch? What about my reserve Cadre commission?"
"I discussed it with Sir Arthur. He sees no difficulty with retaining you on active duty for indefinite assignment to O Branch. We've worked well with the Cadre in the past; there's no reason we shouldn't in the future."
"But—"
"Before you rum me down, let me point out some of the advantages. First, there's the matter of your logistics. Megarea is a free person, and the starship Megarea, as her 'body,' belongs to her, but operating and maintaining an alpha synth is expensive—as much as five million a year even without combat. You'd be hard pressed to show that much profit as a merchant ship, but if you join O Branch, the Ministry will cover your operating costs."
Alicia nodded but had to lower her eyes to hide the laughter in them as she wondered how Ben Belkassem's superiors would react to her bank account on Thaarvhld. Megarea had been conservative in her estimate, and three hundred forty million credits, at twelve percent compound interest, would have covered their costs quite nicely.
"But that's only one reason," Ben Belkassem resumed more seriously, leaning forward in his chair. "You believe in justice, Alicia, and you've proved how much you can accomplish."
She eyed him doubtfully, and he shrugged.
"Think about it. We need you. My God, what the three of you could achieve with O Branch backing! An alpha synth with a mind-reader for a pilot? Alley, my director would paint himself purple and dance naked on the palace lawn at high noon for a combination like that! He's even let me pick your Ministry code name." He grinned again as she raised an eyebrow. "I thought 'Fury' would be fitting."
Alicia sat back in her chair, watching his smiling face, and temptation stirred.
"Megarea?" she asked.
"Count me in, Alley. You know it's only a matter of time before the do-gooder in you gets us back into trouble anyway, and it'd be kind of nice not to have the good guys shooting at us for a change when it does."
Alicia's lips twitched, and she turned to the Fury.
"Tisiphone?" "I cast my vote with Megarea. You are what you are, Little One, as I am. I feel the pull yet. After five thousand years, it is difficult to see evil and know it may go unpunished, yet I have learned to respect this concept of justice. It is far more satisfying than meting out punishment on the whim of some irritated deity!"
Alicia nodded slowly and cocked her head to give Ben Belkassem a long, measuring look.
"I'm tempted—we all are," she said finally, "but there's one little point that bothers me. Once I start working with other people, they're going to figure out I'm talking to someone they can't see. Aren't they likely to think I'm just a teeny bit crazy when I do?"
"Well, of course they are!" Ben Belkassem looked at her in such obvious surprise she blinked. "Surely you didn't think that would be a problem?" Alicia simply stared at him, and he shook his head. "Alley, everyone in O Branch is crazy, or we wouldn't be here."
He grinned and extended the badge once more.
This time she took it.