I was already down the passage to the work space, past the bio labs to the supply storage. There was a slot for an onboard hauler bot, but since the cargo space had been converted to labs, the bot had been offloaded. It was more roomy than the supply locker on Ship, and at least I could sit on the deck and lean against the wall, even if I couldn’t stretch my legs out. I didn’t actually need to stretch, but it was nice. It was also completely dark, but with a lively feed in my head, that wasn’t a problem.

Miki asked, Are you okay, Consultant Rin?

I checked again to make sure our connection was secure, that the humans couldn’t hear it and none of the augmented humans could pick up an echo. It was, because I had control of Miki’s feed, but I’d probably keep checking every time it talked to me because that was just the kind of cycle I was having. I’m fine. You can call me Rin. It was slightly less annoying than “Consultant Rin.” It hadn’t been annoying when Tapan, Rami, and Maro had called me Consultant, but … I don’t know, everything was annoying right now and I had no idea why.

Okay, Rin! Miki said. We’re friends, and friends call each other by name.

Maybe I did know why.

I watched through Miki’s eyes as it helped the expedition bring the last few pieces of their equipment and testing supplies down. They loaded it all through the airlock and stowed it away. I listened to them talk on the feed, and they seemed excited to be finally on their way. There were four researchers and two shuttle crew, all long-term employees of GoodNightLander Independent who had worked together before, who had been waiting impatiently here for their security detail to show up. Don Abene grabbed Miki’s arms at one point and smiled into its camera. I was glad I hadn’t made any attempt to control Miki’s movements, because my recoil was so immediate and instinctive I whacked my head against the wall of my storage space.

(Nobody grabs SecUnits. I hadn’t realized this was a perk until now.)

I’m still not good at telling human ages just by looking. Don Abene’s warm brown skin was lined at the corners of her mouth and eyes, and her long dark hair had strands of white in it, but for all I knew it was a cosmetic choice. She laughed and her dark eyes crinkled. “We’re finally going, Miki!”

“Hurray!” Miki said, and from inside its feed, I could see it was sincere.