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She was standing in Senna’Nir’s doorway, gaping at the technological wreckage within

“Don’t look It’s not so bad if you don’t look,” Senna said, trying to keep his hands fro Don’t ever tell anyone You mustn’t tell anyone But it was time, and she was his captain, and she was his Qetsi—surely if anyone was ever to break this promise, it would be him and it would be now Qetsi had broken rules all her life She would understand And she wou

ld understand because his secret was going to save them

Cables and disassembled parts covered both cha orbs,pipettes, code cores, all ripped out of the dozens of unconnected VIs Anax and Borbala had dredged up out of the corners of the Keelah Si’yah A cairn of deconstructed cryo fish tanks were piled up on top of his dining table, the guts ripped out of every one of them A heap of hollowed-out early childhood education VIs was stacked up on his bed, eviscerated celebrity si VIs filled up the sink And toward the center of the bedroom was Senna’s old elcor co off of the kroganin its silicon tentacles the cold, dull disk that was the body of Liat’Nir, inasmuch as she had one Yet she was not entirely Liat’Nir any her, increasing her capacity, her speed, everything he could before… before the end He needed her to be able to do nostic tools were as blind to the wor else Senna could not do it No human could He needed her to have access to more than the millions of responses of her descendants, noher coht be

“I have so to like it, but we are very, very far from home, and if you do not decide to punish me, there is no one ill Neorld, new rules, that’s what you’ve always said to me We have come so far for new rules”

“I don’t knohat you’re talking about, Senna Of course I’ to punish you We’ve lost so many already… so many” She looked at him intently—he could see the shadows of her eyelashes beneath her faceplate glass “You knoas the hanar, don’t you? Not all of theious ones The cult With their Day of Extinguishht Theyto annihilate us We are a sacrifice That baby girl in Yorrik’s lab She’s a sacrifice Senna, what am I supposed to do with a crime that enormous? Convene a tribunal, as ould on the Flotilla? Try them? Or push them out an airlock? I am not ready to be that kind of captain I just wanted to be the kind that flew”

“There can’t be that many of them left Perhaps justice will take care of itself,” Senna said He relow of Ysses’s tentacles as it surveyed the dead If only they’d known “In ato press a button, and if I’ve done it all right, we’ll have our ship back I think that’s worth trading a bit of sin for, don’t you?”

She squeezed his arive your sins if you forgive mine,” she said softly “Now, just tellorb”

Senna’Nir took a deep breath and activated the conglo her hand-rolled cigarette, lounging on her rocking chair

“Qetsi’Olarandmother, Liat’Nir”

The captain froze Her shoulders went tense and stiff Her knees locked Senna wished, and not for the first time, that he could see her face

“Is that what I think it is?”

“It depends on what you think it is”

“An ancestor VI”

“Hello, Grand He had never shared this with anyone It wassuit environments