Luis shrugged. “She sounded fine, almost happy. It’s like she’s a new person.”

“Reborn in space,” Nithya said. “Did you see that dakini appear in the Hindu pantheon, too, related to Kali? They are the embodiment of female power and sensuality. It fits Welga, I think.”

“It does,” Luis said. He smiled. “I wonder if she knows about that. An atheist named after a goddess. She wouldn’t like it.”

Nithya removed the clothes from the cleaning machine. Luis moved to the sofa to join Zeli. He might not have to gig anymore, if she could earn enough from funding other projects. Maybe he could spend more time on the rocketry work that he loved. Maybe one day they’d have enough coin to visit Eko-Yi.

She has asked Sita to find the highest-rated tutorials on the basics of project funding. It scared her, starting on a new career path at this stage of life, but less than it would have a few weeks earlier. Acts of courage came easier with practice.

WELGA

13. Today, we recognize the atrocious nature of human slavery, and yet we refuse to acknowledge what we do to intelligent animals and machines. Unless we change, the future will judge us as harshly as we do the past.

—The Machinehood Manifesto, March 20, 2095

Olafson pulled Welga aside during the temporary chaos of the White House audience dispersing. The president, Ao Tara, and other officials had retired to a secure office. The monk had exchanged a brief glance of acknowledgment with Welga before they parted, and Welga felt a pang. Ao Tara was responsible for terrible things, but she had turned a corner, and Welga suspected she wouldn’t last long on Earth.

Everyone had calmed down after they convinced themselves that she and Khandro Ekoyi weren’t going to blow themselves up or attack anyone—not that Khandro was in any shape to do so. They kept her sister dakini under medical arrest and set a monitor swarm on Welga. As an official ambassador, she had a degree of diplomatic immunity, and the people who’d worked with her vouched for her. She had permission to gather Connor and her things from San Francisco, but she had to return to DC within two days to catch the rocket to Eko-Yi. They would launch exactly two months after the initial Machinehood attack.

“You’re going to live up there from now on?” Olafson said as they walked across the White House lawn.

Welga nodded. Sweat trickled down her chest and stuck her hair to her neck. The day’s heat lay like a suffocating blanket over the city.

“I don’t have a choice. I left before they completed my mods, so I have a shorter fuse than the other dakini, but even when that’s complete, I can’t stay here too long.”

Public swarms followed them like flies after honey.