Scratch that, Gurathin’s asshole expression is due to him being an asshole.

I could lie, I could say oh no, I won’t kill them, I’m a nice SecUnit. I think I was going to say that, or the more believable version of it. Instead what came out was, “If I have to.”

There was a little silence. Pin-Lee had her lips folded in and didn’t say anything. But I recognized her committed expression from my archived video, from the moment in the hopper when the satellite connection dropped, and she voted to keep going to DeltFall. Ratthi’s face was a study in conflicted resolution. Gurathin just said, “You feel you’re qualified to make that call.”

I said, “I’m the security expert. You’re the humans who walk in the wrong place and get attacked by angry fauna. I have extracted living clients from situations that were less than nine percent survivable. I’m more than qualified to make that call.”

Gurathin sat back, slowly. I stood up. “I’m going to wait in the lobby. Contact me when you make your decision.”

Pin-Lee held up a hand. “Wait, we’ve made our decision.” She looked at Ratthi. “Right?”

He set his jaw. “Right. This is GrayCris we’re talking about. They mean to kill Mensah and us, too, if they can.”

Gurathin said, “We’re agreed.”

I was already standing up. I said, “I’m going to the lobby anyway,” and left.

*   *   *

I wasn’t sulking or hiding. The lobby was a better strategic position.

This lobby was on multiple levels and had large square biozones depicting different ecologies, with furniture arranged around them. It looked nice, inviting humans to sit around and discuss proprietary information in the hotel’s choked feed so the hotel could record it and sell it to the highest bidder. I also had inputs monitoring the upper-level plaza entrance and the transit lobby.

I found a place to sit where a biozone showing a storm on a gas giant blocked me from the view of the other seating areas.

On the feed the humans settled some details of what I was designating as Operation Not Actually A Completely Terrible Plan.

I sent Pin-Lee a note saying they should arrange to meet the contact here, as their hotel already had GrayCris crawling all over it and so far this one was clear. Pin-Lee forwarded it to the others and they agreed. They didn’t even have anything to collect from their old room. (They were traveling light, with only a few hygiene items, Pin-Lee’s medication, Gurathin’s specialized tool kit, and Ratthi’s lucky spare interface, all of which Gurathin was carrying in a shoulder bag.)

(I thought how odd it was, that I didn’t have to worry about human stuff anymore. It felt like I’d been carrying/stepping over/climbing around human stuff in human habitations for my entire existence. Probably because I had.)