“As your own person and not one of their ‘assets,’” Peony told her charge sternly, acknowledging that Calliope had outgrown her need for her during the events just after the sabotage.

  “Of course,” Delight put in, sliding into Peony’s implant as though there weren’t any protocols about privacy that she had to abide by.

  “Ladies…” The second marine, one Captain Angel Murray, proved he could ignore protocols along with the best of them. He continued, speaking out loud, “If we could keep the conversation in the airways.”

  Peony sighed, and Delight rolled her eyes, then fixed the tech with a hard stare.

  “So,” she continued, pulling a tablet out of her jacket and passing it over. “If you’d officially acknowledge Calliope’s sentience, we’ll finish her paperwork and head out. I’m sorry there’s not time for a longer goodbye.”

  She isn’t, Peony observed, not wanting to admit how much she preferred short goodbyes herself.

  She signed the paperwork.

  “Come visit,” she told the AI. “Your sisters will miss you.”

  “And only my sisters?” the ex-transport teased.

  “No, I’ll miss you, too,” Peony admitted, not wanting to hide the truth. “Be safe out there.”

  “Said every mommy, ever,” Delight sneered, intruding on their communications.

  She snapped her fingers, before either of them could react, and vanished in a silvery blue flare of light.

  Silence followed her disappearance, then the captain turned to Peony.

  “Odyssey has a new recruit?” he asked, and Peony sighed.

  “Calliope wanted to go. She said the entire fight was ‘fun.’”

  The captain chuckled.

  “She was a natural,” he told her. “Odyssey will look after her well…and Dasojin will keep an eye out for her.”

  “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned them,” Peony said. “Who are they?”

  “They’re an HMT courier group, elite, fast and secure. Casamir use them for all sensitive work. They offered Calliope their support, and Odyssey weren’t best pleased, but accepted it.”

  Peony felt some of her tension ease.

  “Then she’s in good hands?” she asked, and the man nodded.

  “Which brings me to you…and her three sisters.” He gave her an almost pained look. “Why did you let her do it?”

  “Make copies, you mean?” Peony asked.

  “Yes.”

  Peony shrugged. “She’s my friend. I didn’t want her to die.”

  He studied her face for a long moment. “And you didn’t realize you’d end up having to shepherd them?”

  “I…” Peony blushed. “Oh…crap.”

  “Hey!” sounded in her implant in three indignant voices.

  The captain chuckled.

  “I’ll note that for the record,” he told her. “You were truly not thinking of securing a future in the colony shepherding three new AI assets.”

  “Oh, no,” Peony assured him. “I really wasn’t. I just wanted the Calliope to survive. I didn’t even know if we would.”

  “What? Survive?” he wanted to know.

  “Yes,” she admitted. “But then there was Astraya…”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Who’s now our Odyssey liaison,” he put in.

  “And the nanite gel, and Calliope revealed how she’d kept you on board, and we worked out we could use the pods as power sources and suddenly we had a fighting chance.”

  “And you took it,” he concluded.

  “We did,” Peony told him, lifting her chin defiantly.

  He patted the blanket covering her knee.

  “And, I, for one, am glad you did. No way did I want to serve out the rest of my days as a lupari slave.”

  Peony felt her face pale. “They wouldn’t…”

  But the way he was nodding stopped her cold.

  “They would have?”

  “We found the auction invite ready to go,” he told her, his face going momentarily hard, “So I have no problem with any of the steps you and the Calliope took to keep us safe—and neither does the company. I’m glad she’s with Odyssey, though, because she is a natural in the dirty tricks department and I can’t think of a worse place than a quiet colony for a mind like that.”

  Now that he’d pointed it out, neither could Peony.

  “So, you want me to join the colony…” she began, and he nodded.

  “We find ourselves short of an AI liaison, and with three new-born AIs on our hands…that all want to stay…at least, for now.”

  Three voices confirmed that in Peony’s implant, and she gulped.

  “Then I…I’d be glad to stay and help,” she said.

  The captain relaxed a little.

  “Which brings us to the next item on the agenda.” He raised his head and glanced at the pick-up. “You getting this, Cal?”

  “Yes, sir,” came the third voice, the one Calliope had introduced as Calico.

  “She’s a whiz at administration and oversight,” the marine captain explained, turning back to Peony, “And she doesn’t have a potty mouth like her slightly older sister…”

  “Callie,” Peony supplied, remembering just how many times she’d been called ‘sugartits’ during the battle.

  “Yes, now that one has earned the right to acquire a shuttle as her own personal shell, and we’d like to retain her services as the main colony transporter for exploration and other activities.”

  “Agreed,” Peony stated, unable to think of a better position for the mouthy AI.

  “And she’ll be the marine liaison,” the captain added.

  Peony opened her mouth to argue, then remembered the AI’s first tasks. “Agreed,” she said, “But they need to teach her the protocols of swearing, particularly the whens.”

  “Also agreed,” the captain told her. “Last thing we need is for her tell a trade delegation to get its ‘motherfucking asses in my goddamned shell.’”

  Peony’s jaw dropped.

  “She didn’t…”

  His eyes twinkled with suppressed mirth, and he almost smiled a second time, but stopped.

  “She…almost…did,” he admitted. “Fortunately, it was a simulation and being blown apart by a lupari battlecruiser was an object lesson in manners."

  "Oh dear.”

  He flashed her a grin, then sobered.

  “Which brings us to the third AI in the clan,” he continued.

  “Clan?” Peony asked, her head spinning.

  “Yup, the Challenge Clan. We’re happy to have Calico in admin, Callie in transport and the marines, but Callistemon isn’t sure what she wants to do.”

  “Oh?” Peony’s heart sank.

  An AI with no sense of place was almost as bad, if not worse, than a human with the same identity problem.

  “Well, she’s almost sure, but it’s likely to be a long time before we’ll be getting an orbital or a battle cruiser for her to run, and she is nowhere near ready to be handed into the service of the likes of Odyssey or any other merc squad, so in the interim, she needs as broad a range of experiences as we can provide.”

  A knock came at the door, and Carver went to answer it. Peony watched as a svelte brunette sashayed into the room.

  “And that’s where we come in,” she said. “I am Abeona, one of Dasojin’s founders. We’d be happy to have Callistemon ride along with us to learn something of the galaxy before you let her loose in it.”

  “You would?” Peony asked, not hiding her misgivings. “But…I don’t know you.”

  “Which is why I’m here,” Abeona told her. “You’ve earned quite the reputation as the AI liaison who let her charge give itself three siblings and be influenced by a vigilante organization.”

  Peony stared, and Abeona smirked.

  “But given that was the best way to ensure her survival, we won’t hold it against you. We’d like to establish a transport hub here, so we’ll be a permanent presence, and, as part of our tenure, here, we can teach your Callistemon something of the protocols of space you’re not aware of.”

  “And…” Peony swallowed against a dry mouth. “In return?”

  Abeona came to stand at the foot of the bed. “Like I said, we’d like to establish a transport hub here, and for that we need the permission of the colony leaders.”

  Peony turned to the captain, and caught the barely contained amusement in his expression as Abeona spoke again.

  “The unanimous approval of all the colony leaders,” she stated. “The other three are all in favor, which, I believe, leaves just you.”

  Peony’s eyes widened as the implications caught up with her, and her world dipped and swayed. She heard Abeona’s voice as if from a distance.

  “Are you sure she’s well enough for this?”

  “Quite sure,” the captain replied, giving Peony’s shoulder a little shake. “So, what do you say?”

  “About what?” she managed, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened, and not even bothering to attempt to work out the how.

  “About taking your place in the colony, and on the colony council, and about Dasojin’s request,” he reiterated.

  “You… You couldn’t have just…” Peony began, watching his eyes crinkle at the edges. She floundered. “You… I…uh…”

  “Does that translate as a ‘yes’ or a ‘no?’” Calico asked, the AI’s voice sounding overly loud from the speakers, as well as slightly confused.

  It translates as an I’m so very screwed, Peony thought, and hoped the young AI didn’t have Calliope’s ability to read past her implant. Out loud, she said, “Yes. It translates to ‘yes.’”

  Because, truly, what else was she going to say?