“They haven’t been assimilated into the Democracy yet,” replied Schussler. “Anyway, I crashed, and they found me, but by the time they separated me from all the twisted metal there wasn’t much left to work with.” The voice stopped for a moment and was considerably shakier when it resumed. “They kept me alive, God knows how, for five months, until I came out of my coma, and then they offered me my choice: they could let me die, quickly and painlessly, or they could offer me life as a cyborg.” Schussler sighed. “I was younger then, and there were many things I still wanted to see, so I chose the latter.”

“But why as a spaceship?” asked Cain.

“Kalkos Two is a shipbuilding world. They used what they had.”

“What about prosthetics?” persisted Cain. “I’ve got an artificial eye that took a day to hook up, and it sees better than the one I lost.”

“They weren’t human,” explained Schussler.

“They could have contacted a human world.”

“There wasn’t enough left to work with.” He paused. “Would you like to see the real me, the human remnant that’s the driving force of this ship?”

Cain shrugged. “Why not?”

“Walk over to the computer terminal nearest the viewscreen.”

“This one?”

“That’s it.”

“The keys don’t make any sense.”

“They’re in the Graal’s language. Touch the third from the left, top row.”

Cain did as he was told, and Schussler rattled off the directions for hitting seven more keys.

Suddenly an interior wall panel slid back, revealing a small black box, no more than twelve inches on a side, with literally hundreds of wires and tubes connected to it.

“Jesus!” muttered Cain. “That’s all that’s left of you?”

“Now do you see why they didn’t bother with prosthetics?” asked Schussler bitterly as the panel slid shut. “Still, they didn’t do too badly, all things considered. When I try to wiggle my fingers, I alter the gyroscopes. When I feel hunger, it is assuaged by fuel for my synthetic body. When I want to speak, I activate a complex system of microscopic vibrational coils which ultimately results in what you are hearing. I am not in control of the ship; I am the ship. I monitor all my functions, navigate myself, communicate with other ships, even aim and fire weapons when the need arises. In fact, I don’t yet know the full extent of my powers, since the Graal computers aren’t based on binary language or any other system known to the race of Man, and I’m still learning new things about myself every day.”

“It sounds like an interesting existence,” said Cain without much enthusiasm.

“It is a terrible existence,” said Schussler,

“Well, it’s better than being dead.”