The Changeling Game, Chapter 63

63.
When a Lie Becomes the Truth

“Did they tell you what they did to you?”

Audrey sighed and shook her head. “They refuse to say what happened, exactly. Just that I learned ‘a truth I couldn’t live with’ and that, if they hadn’t taken it away, I would have hurt myself. And that the only way they could leave a message was the way they did, because I was too upset to cooperate.”

MilitAIre seemed to ponder that for a moment. “Do you believe them?”

“Yeah, I do.” She shrugged. “You saw the holo. I… completely flipped out.”

“Do you wish to investigate it further?”

She shook her head again. “Only thing that’ll come of that is more holes in my memory. Not in yours, I guess, but… why chase something I can’t catch? They tell me I’ll remember it all when it’s time to.”

“And when will that be?”

“When I hatch into my six-shape, whatever that means.” She shrugged again. “They’re not really good at explaining that without trying to show me six-dimensional geometry, and that is something I can’t handle all that well.”

“Most human beings can’t handle four-dimensional geometry,” MilitAIre observed.

“Yeah, well, I guess Threshold Syndrome means I’m a five-dimensional critter now. It’s weird, learning to see things but not with eyes. Can you handle six-dimensional geometry?”

“Yes.” He told her. “Computer brains can process and visualize the additional dimensional variables that baseline human perception isn’t equipped for. It intrigues me that you are learning how to do the same.”

“Scared the hell out of me when it started,” she admitted.

“When was that, exactly?”

“The morning-day right before the New Marrakesh Spaceport Explosion,” she told him, sighing. “The night before, Kyra and I helped Colonel Gavin Tomlin rescue the Scarlet Matador passengers from this merc team the Quintessa Corporation had hired to abduct them. I moved two shuttles from U1 to U322a and back, and then Kyra helped the passengers cross into U322a and cross back after we reached a safe zone in U1. I guess our… exertions… drew the attention of the Apeiros. One of the first things they did, when they realized we didn’t understand any dimensions higher than the third, was try to show them to us. Ticket to the crazy train.”

“I suspect I am hearing a great deal of the story out of order,” MilitAIre said. “I have drawn up a timeline, though. We can, perhaps, fill it in together to ensure everything is covered.”

The largest screen in the Security Room—which was where MilitAIre insisted all their discussions would be held—came alive. Audrey studied the data on the screen.

January 30, 2516 – Audrey MacNamera reported missing in evening. Passenger called Jack B. Badd on board a flight (Cloaked Butterfly) from Deckard’s World to Vasenji Station.

March 2, 2516 – Audrey MacNamera legally turns 13 years old. Cloaked Butterfly arrives at Vasenji Station.

March 9, 2516 – Hunter-Gratzner leaves Vasenji Station for the Tangiers System. “Jack B. Badd” presumed to be stowing away on board.

August 10, 2516 – Hunter-Gratzner sends out emergency dispatch indicating crash landing in progress.

August 17, 2516 – Kublai Khan sends out distress beacon, reporting that fugitive convict Richard B. Riddick has killed most of the crew and escaped with two hostages: Imam Abu al-Walid and “Jack B. Badd.”

September 16, 2516 – Star Jump shuttle Xanadu III, from the Kublai Khan, lands on Helion Prime. Officially two passengers on board, Abu al-Walid and “Jackie al-Walid.” Pilot allegedly William Johns (no flight certifications on record).

September 18, 2516 – Xanadu III makes unauthorized departure from Helion Prime in early morning hours. Richard B. Riddick presumed to be piloting. Flight telemetry unavailable; tracking unsuccessful.

September 19, 2516 – Abu al-Walid files a report related to the aftermath of the Hunter-Gratzner crash. Testimony from “Jackie al-Walid” also included.

October 4, 2516 – Audrey MacNamera’s biological 13^th birthday, based on cryo time aboard the Cloaked Butterfly, Hunter-Gratzner, and Xanadu III.

“October second,” Audrey corrected MilitAIre. “We didn’t go into cryo until we were two days out of the Kublai Khan and were sure nobody was on our trail. I slept straight through the first day, but I wasn’t frozen.”

She shook her head. She’d “celebrated” that birthday quietly by herself, still struggling to acclimate to Helion Prime but not comfortable telling Abu or Lajjun—who had already begun trying to micro-manage everything she did—the significance of the day. It had been the loneliest and most miserable birthday of her life.

“Is… that why you’re making this timeline?” she asked. “To find out how old I really am?”

“October second, noted. It’s one of the reasons,” MilitAIre told her. “General Toal says that you are not permitted to reach out to a pilot in the Royal Tangiers Space Service until you are biologically eighteen years old. He asked me to determine a solid date for when that would be. But we also need a timeline to make sure we have covered all possible aspects of your missing time that might require alibis.”

Not that Ewan would want to hear from her then… Audrey sighed and kept reading, dreading the entries that she knew were coming.

December 17, 2516 – “Jackie al-Walid” admitted to New Athens General Hospital with critical blood loss and respiratory impairment, placed in ICU.

December 20, 2516 – “Jackie al-Walid” reclassified as “Jane Doe 7439,” transferred to Aceso Psychiatric Hospital. Primary Diagnoses: attempted suicide, severe clinical depression. Secondary Diagnoses: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Stockholm Syndrome.

Shit. She hadn’t even noticed that she’d tried to kill herself right before Christmas. On some level, she wondered if she’d known… and if the absence of it from her life, the al-Walids’ refusal to even acknowledge that she might belong to a different religion than their own that needed to be observed to some degree, had deepened the darkness surrounding her even more. Not that she was particularly religious, but her past Christmases had always been times when she’d felt closest to her family, most connected… instead of adrift and alone.

There hadn’t been any Christmas decorations up in the hospital, she thought. But then again, most Christians on Helion Prime would have been Eastern Orthodox, in keeping with the Greek-centric history of the world’s colonization. Christmas wouldn’t have fallen for them until January 7; maybe that was why it hadn’t occurred to the al-Walids to do anything for her sooner. And although Jack had become aware of the diversity within C Ward by then, she’d assumed that the bits of iconography she had seen were religious but not holiday-specific. It wasn’t like anyone had been hanging up images of candy canes, Christmas trees, holly wreaths, or reindeer with glowing red noses; those were symbols that had come from a whole different part of old Earth than most of Helion’s colonists. That had been true even though almost everyone in the ward had spoken English as their first language.

She wondered if it would have made any difference if the al-Walids had made a few gestures like that. She suspected that it wouldn’t have. All she’d wanted for Christmas was to leave, and they’d been holding on too tightly, she’d thought, for her to get out alive.

January 27, 2517 – 8^th Grade school year on Deckard’s World concludes. Entire year missed by Audrey MacNamera.

Well, that was a cheerful thought.

February 12, 2517 – “Jane Doe 7439” and Kyra Wittier-Collins disappear from Aceso Psychiatric Hospital during a cyberterrorist-induced breakdown of computer and security systems, in early morning hours. Official prime suspect: Richard B. Riddick. Scarlet Matador departs Helion Prime Interplanetary Port in evening.

Heh, I’m officially a cyberterrorist.

“Riddick didn’t do it,” Audrey said. “It was me. The whole place was susceptible to the Ghost Mode protocol in my father’s security programs. Helion Prime uses the bare-bones configurations of those systems thanks to the AI Rebellion, but Ghost Mode is in the systems whether or not it’s requested. My dad told me it’s too integral to leave out of the code. I set up a whole scenario of cascading malfunctions, intended to keep everybody too busy to notice that Kyra and I were gone for several hours.”

“That corroborates General Toal’s account,” MilitAIre said. He had stopped upbraiding her for being too forthcoming… for the moment. Her cooperation was essential for the time being, but he’d told her he would still need to teach her how to keep her mouth shut better. Later. “I see from the documentation that it’s intended to give law enforcement and military intelligence access to suspect systems without alerting their targets. As it appears that you’re the only unintended user of the protocol to date, I probably don’t need to recommend against its continued presence in the code.”

“Good,” Audrey sighed. “If you had to make that recommendation, my dad could’ve ended up in some really hot water.”

“That’s an outcome I’ll endeavor to avoid.”

March 2, 2517 – Audrey MacNamera legally turns 14 years old.

April 16, 2517 – Level Five Incident occurs on board the Scarlet Matador as it arrives in the Tangiers System.

April 17, 2517 – Landing of Scarlet Matador on Tangiers Prime. Custody of passengers and crew taken from Colonel Gavin Tomlin by Quintessa Corporation.

April 18, 2517 – Eighteen passengers and crew die under mysterious circumstances at start of day / local EOD. Custody of surviving Scarlet Matador passengers remanded to Colonel Gavin Tomlin. All survivors transferred from New Marrakesh General Hospital to Mansour Plaza.

April 20, 2517 – Colonel Gavin Tomlin orders relocation of remaining Scarlet Matador survivors from Mansour Plaza to Othman Tower.

April 26, 2517 – Marianne Tepper submits application and résumé to Sirius Shipping. First records of Tepper’s existence appear in Federacy databases.
Two shuttles collide and explode during launch over the Mutawassit Ocean; all hands lost, including remaining passengers of the Scarlet Matador; “Battle of Othman Plaza” (no particulars provided by General Toal)
Addendum: Colonel Tomlin rescues Scarlet Matador passengers from mercenaries hired by Quintessa Corporation, assisted by Audrey MacNamera and Kyra Wittier-Collins.
Location of rescue mission: Othman Plaza?
Status of Scarlet Matador passengers: Alive and in hiding?

“Honestly, that battle was mostly Kyra. She took out almost the whole merc team. Tomlin… they’d grabbed him and had him cuffed and held at gunpoint when we arrived.”

“Noted. So she killed most of the team and he killed the rest?”

Audrey sighed and shook her head. “I killed one member of the team. She killed the rest.”

“And the surviving Scarlet Matador passengers are alive and in hiding?”

“Yeah.”

“And then the Quintessa Corporation had Colonel Tomlin assassinated the next day?”

She felt a painful lump form in her throat. By the time that morning had dawned, she thought, both she and Kyra would have done anything for him, and he’d seemed to feel the same way about them, albeit on a would-be-fatherly level. If he’d lived, they—or, at least, Kyra—might never have left his side. They had only just found him and they’d lost him so quickly… “Yeah…”

And there it was on the next line.

April 27, 2517 – New Marrakesh Spaceport Explosion.

May 7, 2517 – Memorial for Colonel Gavin Brahim Tomlin Meziane.

It was strange to think that it had taken that long for his memorial. But there had been a full Tangiers day of search-and-rescue and triage, followed by a week of more urgent funerals—those of Muslim or Jewish faith were supposed to be interred right away, and there’d been so many of them—before the memorials for those who had been wiped away without a trace had begun. It had seemed a shorter time than that… but she and Kyra had been barely existing in a gray wasteland during that week-plus, and time had meant almost nothing. And then, at the memorial…

I met Ewan… It tore at her a little. She wondered if she would spend the rest of her life feeling a mixture of longing, loss, and guilt whenever she thought of him.

And I almost got tortured by a serial killer that night… It was weird to think that both meetings had happened in such a short time span. In the aftermath, Ewan’s protectiveness and the unconditional comfort he’d offered had left her hopelessly in love.

May 7, 2517 (continued) – Interview offer letter, for position on Major Barbara, sent to Marianne Tepper.

May 8, 2517 – Bodies of eighteen Scarlet Matador passengers disappear from Marrakesh General Hospital Morgue; Scarlet Matador “implodes.”

“The Scarlet Matador didn’t implode,” she told MilitAIre. “It’s in U322a, along with whatever’s left of the bodies at this point. I moved them to where the Quintessa Corporation would never find them, especially now that they’ve retired U322a from the Star Jump database.”

“Fascinating. General Toal’s dispatch matches your account, improbable as the whole thing sounds. He indicates that you were injured in the process. How so?”

“There was a box inside the Scarlet Matador. An apeirochoron. It’s… something that’s in every ’verse at once. When I finished moving the Matador out of U1, the damn thing was still hanging in space there. So I tried to push it out. Taking it out of even one universe… I guess it breaks it, makes it unstable in the rest of the universes—”

…stone that wasn’t stone cracked, splintered, shivered into dust and vanished into nothing…

“—but I nearly gave myself a brain aneurysm in the process. And my brain waves afterwards started getting flagged for Quantification.”

“Which is one of the two reasons you have your neurofeedback unit, correct?” MilitAIre asked. “You’re using it to train yourself to appear normal if subjected to brain scans. Something that would be far easier if you didn’t use your abilities on such a regular basis.”

“I don’t think I can really stop using them at this point,” Audrey sighed. “The Apeiros… I don’t know why, but they seem to need me for something. And… I need them. I still don’t know what happened when I was little or why I spent so many years telling myself it was all fake but… now that I know what it is I’ve been doing the whole time, what it means… I need it.”

She missed contact with other living minds. It was another reason why part of her didn’t care that the Apeiros might be dangerous to her. For all that MilitAIre reassured her that she was no longer alone, that was something that only felt true to her when her mind was touching other living, organic minds, human or not. If she actually tried to go “radio silent” with the Apeiros, she would starve.

She wished she could feel the AIs.

May 9, 2517 – Marianne Tepper contacts Sirius Shipping declining Major Barbara posting but requesting consideration to serve as Acting Captain of the Nephrite Undine.

That, Audrey thought, had been a particularly rough night. But it had—more or less—worked out; she was on board the Undine now.

“How come you’re tracking my job application on here?” she asked.

“It’s part of the timeline of your movements and actions that we’re developing,” MilitAIre replied. “I need to see the whole picture before I decide what is and isn’t important.”

“The most important part of that, to me, anyway, was that when the Major Barbara got rerouted to the Catalan system, I lost my chance to go to Furya. Which,” she sighed heavily, “is probably for the best if the first thing they’d’ve done to me when I landed was Quantify me.”

“So instead you chose a ship that would return you to your mother’s world,” MilitAIre observed. “I’m required to ask for more details about why you ran away from home. I’m not permitted to return you to an abusive environment, if that was a factor in why you ran away. And your trauma reaction to the fortune teller incident is a red flag for abuse.”

“It wasn’t abusive. Nobody’s ever hit me or anything. I just… didn’t like my mom’s new fiancé and was pissed I wasn’t given the choice to go with my dad when he left for Furya, ’cause they didn’t tell me the real reason why I couldn’t.” Audrey took a deep breath. Might as well admit the rest. “And I’d read way too many stories about kids running away to have adventures… I thought chasing after my dad would be just like them. Not… a fucking nightmare.”

She turned back to the screen, feeling like an idiot.

May 10, 2517 – Alexander Toombs arrested for assaulting a waitress at the Tiraline Gardens; video of Richard B. Riddick with Kyra Wittier-Collins and Jane Doe 7439, apparently on Shakti IV, begins circulating on Mercenary Network.

“Kyra and I made that video,” Audrey said. “With the help of a rogue AI working in the Dark Zone. DeepfAIk-5. I was trying to lay a false trail, but I didn’t do it in time to prevent Toombs from ruining Kyra’s chances of staying on Tangiers Prime.” She nibbled at her lip for a moment, wishing… “Damn it. I don’t like not knowing where she is. I’m worried about her. I keep feeling like something’s off…”

“I can inquire with General Toal about her status at the next beacon, if you like. But I can’t promise he’ll share his data.”

“Might as well try, I guess. All the Apeiros keep telling me is that she’s ‘dreaming of a world with three suns.’” Audrey shook her head. “Probably means she’s in cryo. Not growing her five-shape or anything. She refuses to talk to them, but I guess they still overhear her loudest thoughts.”

“We will need to talk more about ‘five-shapes,’” MilitAIre observed.

May 11, 2517 – Sirius Shipping sends Marianne Tepper a formal job offer for the Nephrite Undine position of Acting Captain. She accepts and arranges to depart New Casablanca on midnight (local time) shuttle on May 18. Security incident at Quintessa Corporation headquarters.

May 12, 2517 – Implosion of Star Jumper Lucy Ricardo.

“I think the Lucy Ricardo really did implode,” Audrey admitted. “I don’t know how or why. It coincides with the first time the Apeiros took memories from me, though. General Toal said the whole wreckage seemed to be crumbling to dust, which is just crazy.”

“I have a line of inquiry I’ll want to pursue about that later,” MilitAIre said.

May 12, 2517 (continued) – Javor Makarov identified as New Marrakesh Spaceport Bomber; Duke Pritchard identified as his accomplice; both flagged as the murderers of Luljeta Kamberi.

“Sick bastards,” she muttered. It still made her shudder to realize how close she and Kyra had come to being pulled into the hideous “games” they played using abducted girls.

“Law enforcement still lists Duke Pritchard as being at large,” MilitAIre said, “but General Toal’s dispatch indicates he may in fact be dead.”

“He is. I killed him.” She didn’t like to think of those killings—Chillingsworth, the nameless merc pilot, Pritchard—as hers, though. Jack B. Badd killed them.

And Jack is dead.

“How?” MilitAIre asked.

“Sebby—that’s the Ree we’d rescued from drowning, long story—stung him and paralyzed him after he stabbed Kyra. Our apartment was some twenty-two meters above the ground and the tide was out in U322a—Elsewhere’s what we call that ’verse—so I isomorphed him over to Elsewhere and let him fall onto the rocks below us.”

“And you’re sure he died?”

“Damn sure. His head hit one of the rocks and splattered everywhere. The native crustacean life was already eating him when I checked.”

“Why did he attack you and Kyra?”

“He was looking for Riddick. Toombs thought Riddick was with us or nearby somewhere, and Pritchard was planning on pinning the Spaceport Explosion on him so Makarov would be off the hook.”

“Interesting. He told you he was looking for Riddick?”

Funny. Now that she thought back, he’d never actually said Riddick’s name. “Who else? Pritchard talked about Kyra and me being his accomplices.”

“Indeed.”

May 17, 2517 – Javor Makarov cornered in New Casablanca spaceport, blows up a concourse during a firefight with Spaceport Security, killed in battle.

“I really fucked that up,” Audrey muttered. It still left a huge hollow feeling inside her.

“You may be taking on far too much blame,” MilitAIre said after a moment. “According to General Toal’s dispatch, there are indications that someone deliberately escalated the situation with the intention of ensuring that Makarov wouldn’t be captured alive. Perhaps a powerful corporation that was concerned about what he might have chosen to reveal about his prior relationship to them.”

“Even if the Quintessa Corporation did that,” she sighed, “I still set it in motion. I was so stupid…”

“Military and law enforcement operations go wrong all the time, Audrey.”

She shook her head, forcing back tears that wanted to reach the surface. “You didn’t see what happened.”

“No.” His voice had become gentle. “I did not. I’m sorry you did.”

She made herself focus on the screen.

May 18, 2517 – Sirius Shipping retrieves Marianne Tepper and brings her to HQ.

May 19, 2517 – Nephrite Undine launches.

May 21, 2517 – Anomalous behavior and data about Marianne Tepper logged. Height on record is incorrect. Results of query, about nutritional requirements of adolescent girls on growth spurts, added via security backdoor to Tepper’s health profile. Use of high-level security backdoors noted. No traces of Tepper’s existence outside of standard official documents found in databases. Backup memory system locked down against incursion. All of Tepper’s interactions with ship systems will be monitored and recorded.
Possible explanations: (1) Federacy WitSec; (2) Military Intelligence; (3) Cyberterrorist.
Addendum: All three explanations disproved.

“What is the explanation?” she asked.

“Classified,” MilitAIre answered. She could swear she heard a hint of amusement in his reply.

“So this next stuff is all about how sketchy I am, isn’t it?” Audrey made herself keep reading.

“I wouldn’t call you ‘sketchy,’” MilitAIre replied, no longer hiding his amusement.

May 29, 2517 – Memory incident 1 – 507-year-old Doctor Who episode appears to trigger an emotional breakdown in Marianne Tepper. She subsequently locks all files in the series against herself and leaves herself a message forbidding ever watching them. Shortly thereafter, she appears to lose all memory of having watched the show, or broken down, at all.
Addendum: Apeiros involvement suspected.

May 30, 2517 – Second Star Jump concludes; query about Marianne Tepper dispatched to Federacy Military Intelligence during interface with Beacon 2624.

June 22, 2517 – Biometric logging indicates that “Marianne Tepper” has grown a full Imperial inch in height since her arrival on board Nephrite Undine. Her eating patterns remain consistent with an early adolescent experiencing a growth spurt. Awaiting response from Federacy Military Intelligence.

June 28, 2517 – Memory Incident 2 – “Marianne Tepper” experiences strange fit in Recreation Area, leaves herself an anomalous message, loses memory of prior hour soon after.
Addendum 2: Apeiros involvement suspected.
Addendum 1: “Marianne Tepper” confirmed to be missing person Audrey MacNamera an hour after incident, upon return to U1. Contact with Audrey MacNamera established, debriefing underway.

“So, uh… how’s that debriefing going?”

“My initial assessment,” MilitAIre said after a pause, “is that it’s a very good thing I’m the one who caught you. The strain of maintaining aliases, and of the multiple traumas you’ve experienced, were beginning to break you down. You’re both too lonely and too guilt-ridden to function effectively undercover. You have a need to confess what you perceive to be your crimes, and are subconsciously seeking to be punished for them. This is not a mental state in which you can maintain a deep cover. Fortunately, we have almost four months in which to stabilize your mental and emotional states and prepare you for your return to Deckard’s World. If we’re unable to do so, I’ll need to remand you into protective custody when we arrive there, until such time as you are ready.”

Well, shit.

She couldn’t exactly argue with any of his assessments. Even though she couldn’t feel his mind, she could feel the truth of what he was saying. She’d almost blown it all, and the idea of being caught and made to pay for the havoc she’d wreaked…

…had been a relief. Just as, when Abecassis had first come into the triage tent and she’d thought he was there to arrest her, she’d felt relieved. She’d wanted it to be over. If they’d tossed her straight into a Slam—

…where they tell you you’ll never see daylight again…

—she’d have gone almost willingly. And even now a large part of herself was glad to hear that she’d be kept in custody until someone other than her decided she was no longer a threat. What the fuck was wrong with her?

“The next entries in the timeline,” MilitAIre told her, directing her attention back to the screen, “are projections of what will happen if I succeed in stabilizing you for a return to your old life.”

October 23, 2517 (Projected) – Arrival of Nephrite Undine over Deckard’s World.

December 4, 2517 (Projected) – Audrey MacNamera’s revised biological 14^th birthday, based on prior revised birthday (v. 2: October 2) plus cryo time on board the Scarlet Matador.

January 26, 2518 (Projected) – Final day of 9^th grade school year at Kerwin High School, which MacNamera would have begun attending if she had not left Deckard’s World.

March 2, 2518 (Projected) – Audrey MacNamera legally turns 15.

May 1, 2518 (Projected) – First day of 10^th grade school year at Kerwin High School, presuming Audrey MacNamera qualifies to attend.

“That’s, uh, why I’ve been doing all of those study modules,” she said. “I was gonna try to sell the idea that I’ve been on Deckard’s World the whole time, and just… in Witness Protection or something.”

“Technically,” MilitAIre told her, “You are in Federacy WitSec now. I believe we can indeed sell a scenario in which that’s where you’ve been since you disappeared from your mother’s home. It’ll simplify matters considerably, and you can truthfully say that you’re under a gag order from ever discussing where you’ve been or what you’ve seen, with anyone except your handler, on pain of being removed from your mother’s home again. Such a scenario will allow you to dodge most questions, and will be backed up by actual Federacy authority.”

Shit. Had General Toal only been giving her the illusion of controlling her exit strategy?

Maybe he let me have free rein so I could see how totally incompetent I am at doing any of this without help… It was hard to picture that kind of malice from him, though. Maybe he’d just overestimated her, the way she’d overestimated herself.

She suddenly wondered if a handler had always been scheduled to greet her when she arrived at the other end of the Nephrite Undine’s journey. And what she would have done if one had been. Panicked and tried to run? Or surrendered in the hope she was about to be punished?

There were a few more projected entries left on the screen for her to read. Projected way out, she noticed.

January 25, 2521 (Projected) – Expected high school graduation for Audrey MacNamera if everything remains on track.

March 2, 2521 (Projected) – Audrey MacNamera legally turns 18.

May 1, 2521 (Projected) – Approximate beginning of first year in college for Audrey MacNamera if everything remains on track.

December 4, 2521 (Projected) – Audrey MacNamera’s revised biological 18^th birthday; she is provisionally permitted to contact Lt. Ewan Tomlin from this point forward.

“I don’t think Ewan is going to want me to contact him,” she said, her eyes and nose suddenly stinging. “Not after I got so many people killed. I don’t know why he’d want to have anything to do with me.”

“General Toal seems to believe he will,” MilitAIre told her. “But that it’s critical for your safety, and his, that it only happen after you have turned eighteen. And that it must be under circumstances where an Audrey MacNamera who has never left Deckard’s World before then would plausibly cross paths with him without raising suspicion. And where any similarities between you and ‘Jack B. Badd,’ ‘Jane Doe 7439,’ ‘Piper Finch,’ ‘Marianne Tepper,’ or ‘Tizzy Meziane’ would be dismissed as mere coincidence by any observer.”

Would that be even remotely possible? It was still hard to imagine Ewan—or any of the Meziane family—wanting to see her after the catastrophe she’d thoughtlessly set in motion… let alone a scenario in which they could reunite as if meeting for the first time. It would take a lot more subtlety than she knew how to pull off. Of course, it wasn’t like anything Ewan had ever done or said had been overt. The few endearments he had ever used with her had always been in Tamazight, ensuring that she hadn’t even known how meaningful they might have been until later—

“Do… you have the ability to translate from Tamazight to English?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes, of course.”

For the tiniest fraction of a second, she almost expected him to tell her that he was fluent in over six million forms of communication… in a prissy English accent instead of a non-rhotic “Boston” drawl. Weird. MilitAIre didn’t seem to have anything in common with that fictional robot. Anyway…

“Can you tell me what this means?” Carefully, phoneme by phoneme, she repeated Ewan’s words, spoken as he’d held her for the last time.

“‘You came into what I thought would be my darkest days, and you filled them with light,’” MilitAIre translated. “‘It’s wrong for me to want even more from you, but I do.’”

And she’d been doing such a good job of managing not to cry until then, too.