Raymond swam gently across the pool so as not to make too much background noise, otherwise the Teacher would scold him, repeat himself, or raise the volume of his voice. “Crimson rain, OX, it’s hard to believe people would be willing to drop everything and leave their homes behind with no realistic hope of ever finding a better place.”

“Those were desperate times,” OX said. “The ships were slow and huge—colonies themselves, in effect, with every supply needed to support all passengers and their descendants for centuries. We compies were placed onboard to provide stability and long-term memories during such extended voyages. Thus, it was vitally important that we learned how to teach.”

“Like baby-sitters that never went away,” Raymond said. He playfully splashed OX, but the compy was not the least bit ruffled.

“We were a stabilizing influence. Over such a long voyage, no one expected that the passengers would preserve all the details of human civilization, that they would remember Earth culture and laws and morals. Compies helped guide the children, and then their children, and then their children. The information had to be preserved, the dream kept alive. When the generation ships finally arrived at a suitable planet, we did not want their passengers to be feral primitives.”

“Then the Ildirans found our generation ships,” Raymond said, knowing the rest of the story. “They took everyone to a new planet just as fast as you please, and then they brought you back to Earth as a liaison compy to help establish relations with the Hansa. Now you’re a living historical artifact, a grand old compy.”

“Why, thank you, Peter. It is gratifying to encounter such respect.” OX took the towel he had held for Raymond and wiped the droplets of splashed water from his metal skin. “Or was I meant to interpret that as a joke?”

Raymond went to the stone steps of the pool and waited, still submerged in the warm water. “Oh, I meant it, OX. I respect someone as smart as you are, with all your information and experience. I would never joke about it.”

When he’d been younger, back before the dramatic change in his life, Raymond had always studied hard. Since he’d also been busy trying to hold his family together, struggling to earn enough money to keep his mother and brothers afloat, his grades were never particularly good. He couldn’t follow the academic rules and complete all the work that schools demanded of him, but that had never stopped him from concentrating on important subjects. He realized early on that mathematics and simple bookkeeping were keys to moving up in the world, to breaking away from the ghetto where his family was stranded.