Jocelyn and Nicolette both turned to me.

«Harvey, will you kindly explain to your daughter that while she lives in our house she will do as she's told.»

«Fine. I'll bloody well move out now, then,» Nicolette squealed. «I never wanted to come here anyway.»

Great, caught in the crossfire, as always. I held up my hands. «One at a time, please. What's the problem?»

«Nicolette is refusing to put her stuff away properly.»

«I will!» she wailed. «I just don't see why I have to do it. That's what it's here for.» She flung out an arm to point at the servitor.

I fought against a groan. I should have realized this was coming.

«It'll pack all my clothes away, and it'll keep the room neat the whole time. You don't even need bloody affinity. The habitat will hear any orders and get the chimps to do as you say. They told us that in the orientation lecture.»

«That thing is not coming in my house,» Jocelyn said flatly. She glared at me, waiting for back-up.

«Daddy!»

The headache I wasn't supposed to be having was a hot ache five centimetres behind my eyes. «Jocelyn, this is her room. Why don't we just leave her alone in here?»

The glare turned icy. «I might have known you'd be in favour of having those creatures in the house.» She turned on a heel and pushed past me into the hall.

I let out a long exhausted breath. «Christ.»

«I'm sorry, Daddy,» Nicolette said in a small voice.

«Not your fault, darling.» I went out into the hall. Jocelyn was pulling clothes from an open pod, snatching them out so sharply I thought they might tear. «Look, Jocelyn, you've got to accept that using these servitor creatures is a way of life up here. You knew about the chimps before we came.»

«But they're everywhere ,» she hissed, squeezing her eyes shut. «Everywhere, Harvey. This whole place must be ringing with affinity.»

«There is nothing wrong with affinity, nothing evil. Even the Church agrees with that. It's only splicing the gene into children they object to.»

She turned to face me, clasping a shirt to her chest, her expression suddenly pleading. «Oh, Harvey, can't you see how corrupt this place is? Everything is made so easy, so luxurious. It's insidious. It's a wicked lie. They're making people dependent on affinity, bringing it into everyday life. Soon nobody will be free. They'll give the gene to their children without ever questioning what they're doing. You see if they don't. They'll create a whole generation of the damned.»

I couldn't answer, couldn't tell her. Christ, my own wife, and I was too stricken to say a word.

«Please, Harvey, let's leave. There's another ship due in ten days. We can go back to Earth on it.»

«I can't,» I said quietly. «You know I can't. And it's unfair to ask. In any case, Delph would fire me. I'm nearly fifty, Jocelyn. What the hell would I do? I can't make a career switch at my age.»