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“You are a guest here, Adiratna,” Jace chastised gently. “You shouldn’t be serving.”

“I want to see your reaction to what we’ve made, Pilot,” Adiratna said with an indulgent shake of her head. “It is hard for me to believe that the slurry we were shown became this. I need to know if there is anything off at all in the flavor. Like the uncanny valley in the visual arts, I fear we will experience that with the space paste.”

Jace crunched the rolls eagerly. “I don’t know if I’m the person to ask. The Osiris adjusts my taste buds so I taste things just how I like them for the most part. So these are delicious. And from the look on other people’s faces they think the same.”

Adiratna faintly narrowed her eyes. “What is it like to share a mind with an alien AI?”

“Actually two of them. Haven’t you met Gehenna yet? She’s sort of hard to miss in her current form.”

Jace tipped his head towards the metal giant who was deep in conversation with David Hayter, a linguist, Dai Suzuki, a computer scientist, and a gaggle of other scientists and engineers. The most surprising person there was Lieutenant Martin Davies, who nursed a beer, and stood a foot taller than the diminutive Dai. He looked like a bear minding cubs. Only Gehenna was larger. One of the things that Jace also noted about Martin was that the lieutenant went nowhere near General Intoshkin who was hobnobbing happily with civilians and ex-military alike.

When you’re a spy, you can’t really hang out with the spymaster at the party, Jace thought dryly.

He has already sent General Intoshkin that brief note I told you about earlier, the Osiris said, sounding quite pleased with itself.

Keep an eye on him, Osiris, Jace said.

As always.

“Gehennaa is quite something! She met me in my room. It was a little… surprising,” Adiratna admitted.

“I bet. She wanted to greet everyone.” Jace left it at that.

He didn’t add that he’d told her it was a bad, bad idea. But, in truth, it had actually gone better than he had anticipated. He’d warned Gehenna that the Terminator was not a protector in most people’s minds, but she had insisted she could change those minds. And she had. A little. She sent him a floating line of smiley faces as she noted his attention on her.

Love you, too, Gehenna, he said.

The party’s going great! Everyone is having a good time. I think Dai might have a tiny crush on me, she said of the thirty-year-old Japanese computer scientist who gazed up at her red, glowing sulfurous eyes as if he saw heaven in them.

I think you may be right. His heart races when he looks at you--

And his palms sweat! Not to mention his pupils dilating! It’s so fascinating! She giggled.

What do you intend to do about it? If it is really a physical crush? And you… return it? Jace asked.

I… uhm… oh! I see what you’re saying! I could… could pursue something physical with him if my form was appropriate, she said and if she could have physically blushed she would have. I don’t know. What do you think I should do?

I don’t know. Whatever you want to do, he answered her.

I never had a chance to think about such a thing! She admitted.

Not even when you were with your Altaeth creators? Jace probed.

She and the Osiris were not exactly forthcoming about their creators or their creation. He could have forcefully found out, but he didn’t want to do that. Both of them normally had good reasons for what they said and did. Besides, though he was the Pilot, they weren’t his slaves and he didn’t want to treat them as such. He just hoped what they were holding back wasn’t something he needed to know.

The day I was fully actuated was the day I was locked in the prison cell! She told him.

He blinked. Wait… are you saying that you were created the same day as the Osiris plowed into Earth?

Uhm… yes?

Gehenna, why is that a question? Jace lifted an eyebrow.

Uhm… I’m not sure?

That definitely shouldn’t be a question! Jace lifted the other eyebrow.

Seeing his eyebrow lift, Adiratna mirrored it. He quickly explained, “Sorry, just one of the AIs has an--an issue and--”