Another voice spoke, this one male but somehow mechanical, as if projected from a speaker: “I think it was a noble experiment. Lighting out into the darkness with no guarantee of success, driven by the urge to explore. Humans have been doing that for as long as they’ve been doing anything – turning a log into a boat and setting out on the ocean, just to see what they could find. A lot of the goldilocks ships are still en route. I heard about one last year that found a planet we’d already colonized via bridge. Imagine finally waking from cryosleep in orbit around a pristine new world, and when you land, it’s already got people on it, because technology leapfrogged you while you were sleeping. Everybody looking at you like some kind of living fossil, and you just have to adapt to the new reality. It’s like that old folktale about the caveman stuck in a glacier who got thawed out and became a lawyer.”

Elena chose that moment to walk in. “I’m a biologist, actually. The law has never interested me much.”

Chapter Three

“The sleeper awakes!” Ashok crowed, though he wasn’t in the room: his comms were just patched into the ship’s public address system, and the computer was projecting his voice through a speaker on what was currently the ceiling.

Callie rose and put on her most professional smile, the one she used when she had to meet with the chief financial officer of the Trans-Neptunian Authority about exceeding her security budget, or to greet a client willing to pay over the going rate to get something valuable across the solar system fast. “Doctor Oh? Welcome to the White Raven. I’m Kalea Machedo, the captain.” She gestured to Stephen. “This is my executive officer, Stephen Baros. He’s also a physician, which is probably why he’s glaring and rushing toward you like that; don’t worry, he’s a harmless giant. The voice on the speaker is our mechanic, Ashok. He’s down in the cargo hold.” Where he was trying to make sense of the strange machinery he’d found attached to the Anjou, but she decided not to mention that part yet.

Stephen growled. “Shall, you were supposed to tell me when Doctor Oh woke up.”

“I forgot,” the computer said cheerfully. As always, hearing his voice gave Callie uncomfortable prickles all through her belly. She’d tried several times to get the computer to alter his voice to something that didn’t trigger quite so many deep and complex associations, but he always resisted, saying he didn’t sound right to himself any other way. The computer could be just as stubborn as his mental model.

Stephen bustled around Doctor Oh, which was a bit like seeing a hippopotamus fuss around a sparrow. “How are you feeling? Headaches? Blurry vision?”