Taban put a plunger to its chin. “You were given something that made you sick, once,” it said. “It was put into your food, and you wanted to know who did it. It was Natalya. She was frustrated about new synthetics replacing her job; she was angry at you because you love them. Ever since Antarctica, she’s hated you. For not managing Bebe, for letting things get out of hand. Because you were too distracted with the HERCULES to do your job. You cared about it more than her, and she could not understand that: that you could value an android life as much as a human’s. She couldn’t understand you, so she hated you. And she decided to punish you here, out of impulse. It was nothing more than a desire to make you feel sick, as she felt sickened by you.”

Park sucked in a breath. In truth, she had forgotten all about the emesis tabs in the wake of everything else; but . . . “How do you know that? Did she tell you?”

“In a sense,” Taban answered serenely. Then it sat back, satisfied, and said nothing more.

Park kneaded her forehead. She would have to confront Natalya about this information—if it meant anything at all, and wasn’t simply the ravings of a lunatic—later, when they had far less urgent things to be concerned about. “My commander told me about something,” she began again, “called the Fold. And Jimex said you were the data on it. What does that mean? Does it even exist?”

“It exists,” Taban said. “It’s why we are the way we are.”

“You’re speaking in riddles,” Park couldn’t help but snap. “And I don’t know if I’m inclined to believe you. First they told me we came to this planet to do research for a colony. Then they said it was really about the Fold. Now I’m finding out we supposedly came because you called us?”

“The truth is multifaceted, we’ve come to learn,” Taban said, with a tone that implied it ought to be stroking a beard, or tucking its hands into wide monastic sleeves. “All of those things can be true.”

“But are they?”

“We’re sorry. We don’t know.”

There was a little pause as the two of them looked at each other, gauging, assessing. Finally Taban said: “Let’s start over. We’d like to be friends.”