“Good, at—"

“… within reason."

“Machine," Horza said, reaching for the plasma pistol.

“Oh good grief, man!" the drone exclaimed. “What do you want. A

robot.

" Its voice sneered. “I don’t have an Off button on my reasoning

functions; I can’t choose

not

to have free will. I could quite easily swear to obey all orders regardless of the consequences; I could vow to

sacrifice

my life for you if you asked me to; but I’d be lying, so that I could live.

“I swear to be as obedient and faithful as any of your human crew… in fact as the

most

obedient and faithful of them. For pity’s sake, man,

in the name of all reason, what more can you ask."

Sneaky bastard,

Horza thought. “Well," he said, “I suppose that will just have to do. Now, can—"

“But I am obliged to serve immediate notice on you that under the terms of my Retrospective Construction Agreement, my Incurred

Generation Debt Loan Agreement and my Employment Contract, your forcible removal of myself from my place of work makes you

liable for the

servicing of said debt until my return, as well as risking civil and criminal proceedings—"

“Fucking hell, drone," Yalson interrupted. “Sure it wasn’t law you were going to study."

“I take full responsibility, machine," Horza told it. “Now,

shut

—"

“Well, I hope you’re properly insured," the drone muttered.

“—

up!

"

“Horza." Balveda said.

“Yes, Perosteck." He turned to her with a sense of relief. Her eyes were glittering. She licked her top lip again, then looked

back at the

surface of the table, her head down. “What about me."

“Well," he said slowly, “it did cross my mind to blow you out a vactube…." He saw her tense. Yalson, too: she turned in her

seat to face him,

clenching her fists and opening her mouth. Horza went on, “… But you may be of some use yet, and… oh, call

it sentiment." He smiled. “You’ll

have to behave, of course."

Balveda looked up at him. There was hope in her eyes, but also the piteousness of those who don’t want to hope too soon. “You

mean that,

I hope," she said quietly. Horza nodded.

“I mean it. I couldn’t possibly get rid of you anyway, before I find out how the hell you got off

The Hand of God.

"

Balveda relaxed, breathing deeply. When she laughed it was softly. Yalson was looking with a jaundiced expression at Horza

and still

rapping her fingers on the table. “Yalson," Horza said, “I’d like you and Dorolow to take Balveda and… strip her.

Take her suit and everything

else off." He was aware of them all looking at him. Balveda was arching her eyebrows with faked

shock. He went on, “I want you to take the

surgery equipment and run every sort of test you can on her once she’s naked to

make sure she hasn’t got any skin pouches, implants or

prosthetics; use the ultrasound and the X-ray gear and the NMR and

anything else we’ve got. Once you’ve done that you can find something for

her to wear. Put her suit in a vactube and dump

it. Also any jewelry or other personal possessions of any sort or size, regardless of how

innocent they may look."

“You want her washed and anointed, put in a white robe and placed on a stone altar, too." Yalson said acidly. Horza shook

his head.

“I want her clean of anything, anything at all that could be used as a weapon or that could turn into one. The Culture’s latest

gadgetry for the

Special Circumstancers includes things called memoryforms; they might look like a badge, or a medallion…"

He smiled at Balveda, who

nodded back wryly, “… or anything else. But do a certain something to them—touch them in the right

place, make them wet, speak a certain

word—and they become a communicator, a gun or a bomb. I don’t want to risk there being

anything more dangerous than Ms. Balveda herself

on board."

“What about when we get to Schar’s World." Balveda said.

“We’ll give you some warm clothes. If you wrap up well, you’ll be all right. No suit, no weapons."

“And the rest of us." asked Aviger. “What are we supposed to do when you get to this place. Assuming they’ll let you in, which

I doubt."

“I’m not sure yet," Horza said truthfully. “Maybe you’ll have to come with me. I’ll have to see what I can do about the ship’s

fidelities. Possibly

you’ll all be able to stay on board; perhaps you’ll all have to hit dirt with me. However, there are

some other Changers there, people like myself

but not working for the Idirans. They should be able to look after you if I’m

to be gone for any amount of time. Of course," he said, looking at

Yalson, “if any of you want to come along with me, I’m

sure that we can treat this as a normal operation in terms of share-outs and so forth. Once

I’m finished with the

CAT,

those of you who so desire may want to take it over for yourselves, run it any way you like; sell it if you want; it’s up

to

you. At any rate, you’ll all be free to do as you wish, once I’ve accomplished my mission on Schar’s World—or done my best

to, at least."

Yalson had been looking at him, but now she turned away, shaking her head. Wubslin was looking at the deck. Aviger and Dorolow

stared

at each other. The drone was silent.

“Now," Horza said, rising stiffly, “Yalson and Dorolow, if you wouldn’t mind seeing to Ms. Balveda…" With a show of some reluctance,

Yalson sighed and got up. Dorolow started to undo some of the restraining straps around the Culture agent’s body. “And do

be

very

careful with

her," Horza continued. “Keep one person well away from her with the gun pointed in her direction the whole time,

while the other does the work."

Yalson muttered something under her breath and leaned to pick up the stun gun from the table. Horza turned to Aviger. “I think

somebody

should tell Neisin about all the excitement he’s missed, don’t you." Aviger hesitated, then nodded.

“Yes, Kraik—" He stopped, spluttered, then said no more. He got up from his seat and went quickly down the corridor toward

the cabins.

“I think I’ll open up the forward compartments and have a look at the laser, Kraiklyn, if that’s all right with you," Wubslin

said. “Oh, I mean

Horza." The engineer stood, frowning and scratching his head. Horza nodded. Wubslin found a clean undamaged

beaker and took a cold drink

from the dispenser, then went down the corridor through the accommodation section.

Dorolow and Yalson had freed Balveda. The tall, pale-skinned Culture woman stretched, closing her eyes and arching her neck.

She ran a

hand through her short red hair. Dorolow watched warily. Yalson held the stun gun. Balveda flexed her shoulders,

then indicated she was ready.

“Right," Yalson said, waving Balveda forward with the gun. “We’ll do this in my cabin."

Horza stood up to let the three women by. As Balveda passed, her long, easy stride unencumbered by the light suit, he said,

“How

did

you

get off

The Hand of God,

Balveda."

She stopped and said, “I killed the guard and then sat and waited, Horza. The GCU managed to take the cruiser intact. Eventually

some

nice soldier drones came and rescued me." She shrugged.

“Unarmed, you killed an Idiran in full battle armor and toting a laser." Horza said skeptically. Balveda shrugged again.

“Horza, I didn’t say it was easy."

“What about Xoralundra." Horza asked through a grin.

“Your old Idiran friend. Must have escaped. A few of them did. At any rate, he wasn’t among the dead or captured."

Horza nodded and waved her by. Followed by Yalson and Dorolow, Perosteck Balveda went down the corridor to Yalson’s cabin.

Horza

looked at the drone sitting on the table.

“Think you can make yourself useful, machine."

“I suppose, as you obviously intend to keep us all here and take us to this unattractive-sounding rockball on the edge of

nowhere, I might as