“So, you’re just born this size?”
“I clarify. We have no more children. The youngest are now fully grown and a part of society.”
“Ah, well, your females should be ready to breed then,” she said as she brought a bite of her salad to her mouth.
“We have no female.”
This gave her pause, and she stared at him. “You have no females?”
“No longer, no.”
“Did they die in the war?” Her words were just above a whisper.
“No. They were gone before we settled here. When we were manufactured, our makers did not make females. They felt it was unnecessary at the time.”
“How do you reproduce?”
“We do not.”
She waved her hand. “This is it, then? There are no more of you?”
“All of our people that had ever been born are now fully grown.”
She covered her mouth, and her eyes started to get glassy. “I am so sorry.”
“Why?”
“Because of the war. We’re killing your people.”
“Why do you think we fight so hard not to die?”
They both ate a few more bites in silence, though he found it to be companionable. Her presence was soothing to him in an unexpected way. The Craving was still there, of course, because it did not just vanish. However, it was on a different frequency than he’d known before.
Just being in her presence seemed to both stimulate it, but also calm it.
A very strange sensation.
He realized as he had another bite that she had never clarified how her position worked.
“You said you were a governess for the girls,” he said. “Yet, you also said that Terran families take care of their offspring.”
“You said that, actually.”
He nodded. “I did. You never did elaborate on what that was, exactly in the structure of a Terran family.”
She smiled. “A governess is a paid support staff for the family, to handle the raising and educating of the children. Sometimes, they reside on the Terran family’s property, and sometimes, they have their own residences off-site and come in and leave.”
“It is a job, then.”
“It is.”
“Why would Terrans not raise their children themselves?”
“It depends on who the family is. In my situation, for example, the girls were the Imperial Princesses of the Terran Empire. Their father—their only living relative—was not available to focus constant, consistent attention on them due to his being Emperor. So I came in and took over those duties that a mother would have for her daughters.”
“He needed help. And you were the help.”
“Yes, that is a very good way of looking at it.” She tossed her salad around in her bowl. “I was the help.”
