D-24 made another computation noise. “But Admiral Klein is widely known to be vastly incompetent. Logic dictates, therefore, that either his deputy or his executive officer would make all of the decisions. Since he has no deputy, that would make you the most powerful man in the fleet, if not directly.”

Rogers thought about that for a second. Maybe the droid was right. If he could convince a helmsman that there were space bugs outside the ship, he could certainly convince the stupidest man he’d ever met to do . . . well, anything. How had he missed that opportunity before? He could have had every water bladder in the ship stocked with Jasker 120 by now.

“Hang on a second,” Rogers said. “What do you mean, Klein is incompetent? He’s the admiral of the whole fleet. He has to be competent at something . . .”

Speaking, Rogers thought. Public speaking. He has charisma. That’s how he got there.

“Oh my god,” Rogers said. “He really is an idiot. I knew it! I knew there had to be some reason why he was asking me for my opinion on battle tactics. He’s been hiding the fact that he has no idea what he’s doing for years.”

Rogers felt betrayed, used, violated. Inadequate. He finally found someone that was a better con man than he was. And that was scary, because he was Rogers’ boss.

“But how did you know that?” Rogers asked. “Nobody else in the Meridan system knows that, apparently, and I barely had my suspicions.”

“I am unable to answer that question,” D-24 said. “It is part of the initial situation report I was given when I was transferred to the Flagship as a prototype. The original author is unknown.”

Rogers frowned. Why in the world would a droid know about Klein, but nobody else on the ship did? Something that should have been obvious to humans was instead known only to droids. Even scarier, what else did this droid know that Rogers didn’t?

Reaching over into the laundry cart, Rogers pulled out the small toolbox that contained some of the necessities that every engineer should have. Lopez had been happy to supply an extra kit, and now Rogers set it next to D-24.

“What are you doing?” the droid asked.

“I’m taking you with me,” Rogers said. “There are plenty of spare parts to get you moving again. I want to know what else is in that brain of yours, and since you just very neatly turned two of my only allies against me, I could use someone on my side.”

“Side?” the droid said. “What sides are there?”

Rogers was silent for a moment as he combed through the parts, trying to find suitable replacements.

“I’m not sure,” Rogers said. “But I’m going to find out.”

Report: A-267FR-02147-E

Serial: A-267FR-02147-E

Distribution: DBS//DSS//DAK//DFR//BB//CLOSED NETWORK A66

Classification: Special Protocol Required

Summary: Human 2552 has come into contact with prototype droid PFC-D-24.

Details: Human 2552, previously in charge of the AIGCS, has recovered the remains of prototype droid PFC-D-24 on the refuse deck of the MPS Flagship. The lack of sensor arrays in this particular section of the ship prevents an understanding of how exactly this relationship was formed. However, the supplies that Human 2552 was gathering prior to the meeting suggest cleaning of space bugs from the targeting computer. We are unable to assess how Human 2552 discovered the presence of these listening devices, nor how he planned on removing them.