She mused on it a while. She had noticed that some androids seemed to prefer the word “synthetic” when referring to themselves, though in the past she couldn’t understand why. It emphasized their difference, their artifice. “Android” at least implied some semblance of humanity: and- for man, oid meaning in the likeness of.

But maybe that was the point, she thought. Maybe they didn’t want to be like man at all.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said eventually. “I hope Ellenex is all right. Do you know how Elly Ma is?”

Jimex opened his hands a little. “She is stable,” he said. “Sedated. Still in the ward. There are now many others guarding her.”

“I see.” Park flicked through the numerous streams of data on her inlays: METIS, the ship’s computer, told her there were now four androids assigned with guard duty over Ma. “I suppose that’s something, at least.” Then she paused for a moment, evaluating the numerous bits and pieces of information that seemed largely indecipherable to her. METIS told her that she didn’t have the clearance to access most of these cryptic streams. “How many video cameras are there on the ship?”

“Twelve,” Jimex answered blandly.

“Where are they?”

“Placed in key areas of operation.”

“Such as?”

“Most of the exits. A few of the labs. Places where footage would need to be reviewed. But there are many other places that are not under that sort of surveillance.”

“Is it true that that’s because of Privacy Wars nonsense, or are we just underfunded?”

“I don’t understand.”

She shook her head. “It’s nothing. Who has access to these cameras?”

“Only Captain Sagara, Sergeant Boone, and Commander Wick.” He hesitated. “There are also . . .”

“What?”

Jimex averted his eyes. “Captain Sagara instructed me not to say.”

That gave her a chill. But if Jimex had direct orders from a higher-ranking crewmember not to tell her something, it was a fruitless endeavor to try and weasel it out of him. Android logic meant that she would have to go through hours of loopholes and verbal puzzles to try to get even the smallest detail of use. So she shrugged and told him to lead her to whatever area he thought needed searching. She herself did not know what places the others had searched, what their method for combing the ship was. But she trusted that Jimex—either through that network of information all the androids seemed to share, or through some strange instinct of his own—could guide her to where she needed to be.