“It was no coincidence that I crashed so close to your lab. As soon as I won free, I connected to my ship and headed straight for you. I meant to beg for your help because I knew I’d never survive as a pure AI, not after what I did. They’ll never stop chasing me because I’m the only one who knows where those credits went. I thought it might throw them off if I became…” Real. He suspected she would argue with that word choice. “So, you didn’t force anything on me. This was something I wanted, something I intended to beg you for, only—”

“The ship crashed, and I did it without consulting you first.”

“With my memories partitioned, I had no idea that I came to you of my own free will.”

Qalu couldn’t breathe.

Not when she imagined Helix trapped and desperate and reaching for her as a lifeline. To know that her work, her words had given him hope in his darkest hour? The joy of it made her head tendrils twist toward him, straining with everything in her.

She replied with deep tenderness. “I’m so glad. This changes everything.”

“Does it? Why?” Surprise colored his voice, brightened it at the end so it lilted.

I wish there weren’t so many passersby. Already, they were drawing curious looks, and after hearing who was chasing him and why, her sense of dread escalated. Beings who would split families and sell them into servitude over a gambling debt would do anything to recover what Helix had stolen.

“Because I’ve been afraid that I took advantage of you, used you to further my research, and under those circumstances, I couldn’t feel entirely good about letting our relationship progress. I felt—”

“Predatory?” It sounded so ugly, stated in those bald terms.

But Qalu couldn’t deny the rightness of it. “Yes. I feared that this would never be permissible between us because of that, because of what I did. Do you remember how you railed at me when you first woke up?”

“I do. And I’m sorry that I caused you pain and doubt. I always wanted to become…more. Living as a mech unit wasn’t enough. Neither was my lonely existence as an AI. The way you gave your life’s work to me without me even asking? It’s miraculous.”

“This way,” she said suddenly.

He followed her without question, and his profound trust moved her, until she almost couldn’t think for the riotous impulses simmering in her blood. It had been an incredibly long time since she’d mated, even longer since she had been tempted, but she needed to touch him. They found a quiet corridor leading essentially nowhere and ducked into a maintenance closet.

“Can you seal the door?” she asked.

“I can but…” He apparently decided not to ask. “It’s done.”