"When my masters left Aurora,"Ariel was telling Valeria. "The mistress was only fifteen decades old."
Valeria spat out her coffee.
"Fifteen? You mean fifteen years, don't you?"she said.
"No, madam, fifteen decades."
"But that's, that's a hundred and fifty years! No one can live that long!"
Ariel looked at Valeria.
"Of course they can, madam. Aurorans could."
"Ariel, I didn't ask for a fairy story!"
"It isn't, madam."
"Then tell me the truth!"
"That is the truth, madam."
Valeria stared.
"Ariel!"
"It is the truth, madam."
"How is that possible!"
"All Spacers could live up to three hundred years or more. Earthpeople lived shorter lives. But they were subhuman."
"Earthpeople?"
"They were the one who bred disease."
"Bred disease?"
"Yes, madam."
"What are you talking about, Ariel? Okay, then, don't tell me about yourself, tell me about...Aurora. About the world in general."
"Yes, madam. Aurora was the first of the fifty Spacer worlds. It was originally settled from Earth, of course, but the Auroran masters didn't like to remember that they were descended from Earthpeople. They were Spacers. And the other Spacer worlds, were settled from Aurora or from Earth. They were settled using robots."she said.
"Robots? Like you?"
"Yes, madam. Robots were used to do the hard work that the master did not care to do. It was our duty."
"And all of your masters ran away?"
"They fled the planet, madam."
"Why?"
"The Settlers were gathering in large numbers."
"Settlers?"
"The short lived people from Earth."
"I thought you called them subhuman and Earthpeople."
"They were also known as Settlers, madam. My masters feared them."
"Oh. Why?"
'They bred in great numbers."
"That's what people do. They always breed in great numbers."
"Not my masters."
"Why not?"
"The Spacer worlds had stable populations."
"I guess all worlds do, in a way."
"But there were no such quantities of people. Such as on Earth. There were only a few million, perhaps."
"That's impossible!"