“And maybe I’ll tell you, later. But for now, if you don’t fuck off, right this second, I’m going to stab you myself. And none of these security guys are going to put a bolt into me, I guarantee you that.”

Marce looked like he was going to say something else, then shook his head and walked off.

“Your people skills are admirable,” Pinton said to Kiva.

“Fuck you, too,” Kiva said.

Pinton smiled at that and pointed at Chat, secured and ready for transport. “He’s right, you know. This one’s not going to talk. They’re trained to resist aggressive questioning.”

“ ‘Aggressive questioning’?”

“That’s the euphemism we used for torture in the imperial service, ma’am.”

“Just fucking call it torture, then.”

“My point is he’s been trained to deal with whatever humans can do to him.”

“We can do better than humans,” Kiva said.

* * *

“He’s coming to,” Pinton said, some time later.

“Turn on the speaker,” Kiva said. Pinton pressed the button to open a channel. “Good morning, fuckface,” she said, to Chat.

Chat looked at his surroundings. “Where am I?” he asked.

“You’re in a service airlock, in an EVA suit,” Kiva said. “Well, most of one, anyway. You might have noticed you’re missing a helmet.”

“I noticed,” Chat said.

“Good. So, this is the deal. You tell us everything we ask you questions about, and don’t give us any shit about it, and I don’t purge you out the airlock without that fucking helmet.”

Chat looked exasperated, confused, and tired. “Look, I don’t even know what’s going o—”

Kiva pressed the “Emergency Purge” command. The airlock door burst open and Chat was sucked out into space.

“Well, that was quick,” Pinton said.

“I told you I don’t fuck around,” Kiva replied. She pressed the “Emergency Retrieve” button. The winch that held the cord attached to the EVA suit slammed into overdrive, reeling the suit back in, triple-time. “Anyway. So how long can a human live in hard vacuum?”

“Maybe a minute, if he didn’t hold his breath.”

“He was talking,” Kiva said. “He didn’t have time to hold his breath.”

Less than a minute later Chat was back inside the airlock, which was fully pressurized with an oxygen-rich mixture. A minute after that Chat was awake, coughing and vomiting. He looked up at the airlock camera with hemorrhaged eyeballs. Pinton opened the communication circuit again.

“So, here’s the deal,” Kiva repeated. “You tell us everything we ask you questions about, and you don’t give us any shit about it, and I don’t purge you out of the airlock without that fucking helmet. I’m not going to repeat myself again. You fuck with me and you die. Got it?”

Chat croaked and nodded.

“Can you talk yet?”

Chat held up a gloved finger as if to say Give me a second.