“Ki.” I hesitated, weighing the idea. A month of shared operational deCom had gone some way to making me part of the team, but Orr at least still saw me as an outsider. With the rest, it depended on mood. Lazlo, usually full of easy camaraderie, was prone to occasional spasms of paranoia in which my unexplained past suddenly made me shadowy and sinister.

I had some affinity with Jadwiga, but a lot of that was probably the close genetic match on the sleeves. And Kiyoka could sometimes be a real bitch in the mornings. I wasn’t really sure how any of them would react to this. “Listen, is there any way we can fire the decoupler?”

“What?” Orr, predictably.

Kiyoka looked unhappy. “I’ve got chemicals that might do it, but—”

“You are not fucking taking her hair.”

I got up from the bed and faced the giant. “And if what’s in there kills her? You’d prefer her long-haired and dead, would you?”

“You shut your fucking m—”

“Orr, he’s got a point.” Jadwiga moved smoothly between us. “If Sylvie’s caught something off the co-op, and her own anti-virals won’t fight it, then that’s what the decoupler’s for, isn’t it?”

Lazlo nodded vigorously. “Might be her only hope, man.”

“She’s been like this before,” said Orr stubbornly. “That thing at Iyamon Canyon last year. She was out for hours, fever through the roof, and she woke up fine.”

I saw the look swoop among them. No. Not fine exactly.

“If I induce the decoupler,” said Kiyoka slowly, “I can’t tell what damage it’ll do her. Whatever’s going on in there, she’s fully engaged with the command software. That’s how come the fever—she should be shutting down the link and she isn’t.”

“Yeah. And there’s a reason for that.” Orr glared around at us. “She’s a nicking fighter, and she’s in there, still fighting. She wanted to blow the coupling, she’d have done it herself.”

“Yeah, and maybe whatever she’s fighting won’t let her.” I turned back to the bed. “Ki, she’s backed up, right? The cortical stack’s nothing to do with the command software?”

“Yeah, it’s security-buffered.”

“And while she’s like this, the stack update is locked out, right?”

“Uh, yeah, but …”

“Then even if decoupling does damage her, we’ve got her in one piece on stack. What update cycle do you guys run?”

Another exchange of glances. Kiyoka frowned. “I don’t know, it’ll be near to standard, I guess. Every couple of minutes, say.”

“Then—”