Ratthi groaned under his breath.

On the feed, ART was explaining the same thing to Arada. She said to Leonide, “Would you be willing to come aboard and speak about it in person?”

(I had a camera view of the lower part of the control deck where the drone was now sterilizing the area where Targets One and Three had died. It started working faster.)

Leonide snorted. “Your University’s confidentiality agreement would hardly cover me.”

Arada gave her a good “it was worth a shot” smile, like she had any clue what Leonide meant. Then Leonide said, “But I’d allow you to come aboard my transport for a conference.”

Thiago took a sharp breath. Ratthi’s expression went extremely skeptical. Amena made a derisive noise. Overse said, “Fuck no.”

On our private connection, ART said, Should I cut the contact?

No, I told it, she won’t do it. We already had a way to get intel off the transport. We could send drones along with the supplies—

Then Arada said, “I can do that. If you’ll send me the list of supplies you need, I’ll get my team working on that, and we can arrange the transfer of supplies and your crew person and the meeting at the same time.”

What? The other humans all looked at me, appalled. I was also appalled.

Leonide kept her expression neutral. “Agreed, though I’d like to speak to my crew member first.”

Arada said, “Agreed. Give me a moment to arrange that.”

ART put the contact on hold and said, Clear. And then it did one of my what-the-hell-have-the-humans-done-now sighs.

Obviously, there was a big human argument.

In order to head off the inevitable “I told you so,” I said to ART, I should have told you to cut the contact.

ART said to me, Yes, you should have.

To the others, it said, They’ve sent the list of components. Since we’re now committed to this … course of action, I’ve ordered a drone to pull the material out of storage. And I’m producing standard crew clothing for Arada.

By that point the argument had ended and Arada was still going to the supply transport, though all the humans had elevated heart rates indicating varying degrees of anger and exasperation.

Thiago’s expression was grim. “If we’re going to do this, we need to get Eletra ready to speak to Leonide. Maybe before that, she can tell us something about her. Amena, will you help?”

Amena tried not to look startled. “Huh? Oh sure, Uncle.”

They headed down the corridor. Arada turned to Overse and said, “I know you’re upset but this will save us a lot of time.”

Overse said through gritted teeth, “Rescuing you—or trying to recover your body—will not save us time.”

Ratthi pressed his hands over his eyes and dragged them down his face in a way that did not look comfortable. He said, “We need a plan. What are you going to say?”

In the corridor, Amena was saying, “I didn’t think you’d want my help. I mean, you all think I’m impulsive.”