Aptat sighed. “When I was floating in Earth’s orbit, biding my time as I lured Ben out of hiding, I watched a lot of television – uh, the human term for entertainment feeds. Most of the programs were squarely in the Housewives franchise. It’s this show where very shiny homestead caretakers become intoxicated and yell about each other into a camera and proceed to do surprisingly little caretaking of their various estates. I found it highly addictive, but did manage to pull myself away in order to vary my programming intake. I took a liking to their children’s stories – primarily because the parents always seem to die. Anyway, one of these was a tender tale called Pinocchio. A childless old man named Geppetto builds a puppet out of wood and the boy comes to life. Geppetto is every bit the boy’s father even though the boy was not realized as part of a biological process.”

“I wasn’t meaning to suggest otherwise,” said Naecia, actually feeling a bit bad. “What happened?”

“I killed Geppetto.”

Naecia froze.

“‘Mother’ was her word, not mine. Unlike Pinocchio, I wasn’t created for my companionship. My purpose was... different.”

Naecia put her head down and went back to work on the seals, dragging over a second voidsuit, then flicked her eyes up again.

Aptat nodded tightly and continued, “I was an implement.”

Naecia crinkled her brow.

“A tool, simple as that. Something to be used by another to achieve an end.” They sniffed. “Oh, these suits stink.” They threw one aside and picked up another. “Anyhow. Mother was a dealer. A schemer. I was built to be her unquestioning accomplice. Sometimes I might be a decoy. Other times even her double. Her backup. Her leverage. I was whatever the situation called for. She arranged bigtime deals and I was the one that made sure they went down how she wanted. She might lull the other side into a false sense of security because she was only one person. When they dropped their guard, I would appear and flip the situation. We were unstoppable – especially with the suits. Never saying a word, just doing what the suit allowed me to do. She got rich that way. Bought this ship. Would have been richer too, had she lived longer.”

“Where did your armor come from?”

“Stolen. Only pair ever made.”

“She have one too?”

“Had one.”

“Sounds like you guys had a good thing going,” said Naecia. “For criminals.”

“Oh, she did for sure. Me, not so much. While she searched for the next scheme, I lived inside my vault.”

“In the cabinet?” said Naecia, gesturing to the deck above. “Where the suit goes?”

“Mmm-hmm. I waited inside the vault until she was ready for the next deal. Only then was I ever spoken to. To receive my instructions.”

“Wait,” said Naecia, pushing one suit aside and dragging over the next. “How long did she keep you in the vault?”