"He really is amazingly useful. He can…do things to machines…make them move. Make a computer run just by touching it. Tasa Ad used him as a kind of super—systems digger and we were able to expand our…activities from just contraband running.
"Eric and I got along. At least, I liked him better than I liked Tasa Ad and a lot better than I liked Kessa even though that didn't take much. I taught him a real language, showed him how to take care of himself on the ship, told him about things outside. Played big brother a little, you understand? We became friends, almost without me noticing it'd happened. I'm not…I wasn't used to having friends.
"Then we got a new job, a weird one. Aguy named D'Shane wanted us to steal an artificial intelligence called Dorias out of a planetary network. The money was…really good, so Tasa Ad took it on. We used Eric for most of the work, of course. He found the thing and got it loaded into the isolation box we'd built for it and we took off to hand it over to our client.
"We were two days in flight and Eric came into my cabin. He looked sick, shattered. He said 'Perivar, is it true that the people we transport are being taken without permission?'
"I hadn't stopped to think about it until then, but I realized Eric had no idea what was really going on. Tasa Ad kept him on a short tether when it came to network information, and I'd never spelled out anything to him. He was a volunteer and his people either have no concept of…involuntary servitude, or, it's so different from what we did that it never occurred to him that we were kidnapping and selling unwilling bodies. I mean, yes, when Tasa Ad and Kessa got them to the ship, they were drugged out and in capsules, but that was exactly how we got him on board.
"And I'd never told him about me.
"So I said something particularly insightful, like 'And?' And he looked at me like he didn't know whether to be sorry for me or kill me on the spot. After a long time he said 'Perivar, I don't think you understand what you're doing. Dorias does not want to go to D'Shane.'
" 'Dorias is a machine,' I said. 'It does what it's told.'
"He said 'Dorias is a…I don't know the word he used, but the translator turned it into 'Well-Made Soul,' and he said 'I won't hand him across to D'Shane without his consent.' He walked out and I stayed stuck to the spot, cursing myself for an idiot.
"Then, I heard Tasa Ad yelling. I ran toward the sound. He…they…Eric…I mean…Eric, Tasa Ad, and Dorias's box were on the bridge. Eric was at the comm board. I read his fingers. He was opening up a channel to somewhere, probably to a station, or maybe back to where we'd come from. I saw the cable on Dorias's box and I knew Eric was getting ready to hardwire the AI into the open channel so it could get itself free.
"Tasa Ad was, of course, yelling at him to stop, and when he paused for breath, Eric simply said 'No.' And Tasa Ad reared up and said 'You'll do what you're told, you damned barbarian, or you're dead!' "
"That got him. Eric whirled around and yelled, 'Try me, Skyman, just try me!'
"Kessa came in at that point. Shoved her way past me, just as Tasa Ad lunged for Eric. She was armed. A dart gun. The cartridge was red. Serious poison.
"Tasa Ad grabbed Eric's arm…and…collapsed. Kessa screamed something and raised the gun. I screamed something else and shoved her sideways and she pointed the gun at me and fired. Caught me in the arm. And I collapsed. And Eric grabbed her and she collapsed and Eric collapsed with her and there we all were on the deck together. The thing was, Eric and I were alive. Tasa Ad and Kessa, weren't."
Perivar looked up. Kiv had shrunk in on himself as far as he could go. Not a single eye showed. His arms were nearly invisible and the length of his torso rested on the floor.
"What did you do?" Kiv asked, without even opening his eyes.
"We scavenged the datastore for enough trace information to build a couple of line ghosts and steal the runner's side ship, the U-Kenai. Then the three of us ran for it. Dorias took off on his own. Eric and I wandered around for a couple of years, stealing for people like D'Shane…once, when we got desperate, we even stole people for D'Shane. He'd blackmailed us into it. It was after that we both decided this was no way to live." He paused. "I should have at least lost my arm from Kessa's dart, but I didn't. Eric took care of that, too." A giggle escaped him. "Took him awhile, that's for sure. Said lucky for me he'd already had practice on Skymen, so he got it eventually. He really is amazingly useful."
Kiv extended his arms and legs so slowly it was almost painful to watch. One eyelid at a time peeled reluctantly open.
"Perivar." Kiv leaned across and even through the gel Perivar could smell the spicy scent that surrounded the Shessel when he got upset. "I cannot live with you like this."
"What?" Sheer disbelief ran through him.
Kiv drew his head back and up until he towered over Perivar as far as the room would allow. "My siblings and I were the last of a line of slaves in the peninsula of Si-Tuk. After the Union treaties, I came out here so that there was no chance they'd be able to claim my children if things shredded. This is important. I swore they would never, ever be exposed to the flesh trade. I belong to my children, Perivar. I cannot ignore their welfare. Your past is your own, and I will try not to care about it, but your present is very much my concern.
"End this, Perivar, or I am severing our partnership and closing our business down."
"Kiv," Perivar thought about turning away but couldn't seem to manage the movement. "Nothing like this is going to happen again."
"You don't know that! How can you know that!" Kiv's whistle rose so high that Perivar flinched. "You ran for this Tasa Ad, you ran for yourself, and now you're running for Eric Born! Who next, Perivar?"
Perivar ducked his head. "Would you mind if I shut the door for a while?"
"No." Without another word, Kiv doubled back along his own length and flowed back to his children.
Keeping his eyes on the walls, Perivar slid the membrane housing closed. It clanged sharply against the threshold before the catch snapped shut.
Perivar stalked to the other side of the room. It didn't help any that he knew Kiv was right. He raised his hands to run them through his hair and let them fall to his side again. He circled the room aimlessly, trying to think and then trying not to think, until his sight began to fade again. Finally, he threw himself into his chair and clamped his eyes shut. He stayed that way for a long time.
Brain's signal sounded overhead. "Zur-Iyal ki Maliad has opened a channel and labeled the contact urgent."
Perivar groaned. "Send her through, Brain." He keyed the watch command in just as the view screen cleared. At the other end of the line, Iyal's face looked unnaturally white.
"Perivar. Where did you get this sample from?"
Now what kind of question…Then Perivar remembered they hadn't used Iyal to go over Eric's blood. "Is there something wrong?"
"Wrong, no. I just want to know where you got your hands on a construct."
"A what?"
"A construct. A genetically engineered life-form. I've only seen DNA this abbreviated in theoretical texts. What did this come from? It must be kept in a damn jar!"
"It," Perivar bit the word off, "is a woman, Iyal. Walking, breathing, and in need of a bath, actually."
Iyal leaned forward. "You trying to get rid of her?"
"Iyal…"
"Don't look like that. I'm not talking about for dissection. Damn-o, Perivar, she, whatever she is, is a work of art! If we could incorporate half of what's gone into her…"
Perivar shook his head, trying to clear enough room to think in a straight line. "Iyal, I've been to where she comes from. It's a degenerated culture. They're real good at breeding sheep, but engineering a person…"