A/N in response to unsigned review: No, I meant attitude jets, not altitude. Attitude jets control the attitude of an aircraft (or robot, in this case), which means its direction of tilt in the air. Changeling thus has to use alternate firing of her hover jets to tilt herself from side to side, resulting in the awkward process previously cited.

21

Practice with the .22 was slow and frustrating. Xen picked up managing and reloading the gun quickly, even deftly, but those were simple mechanical processes. She had done more when she was ten years old and working on her first robot. She could work the safety. She could pull the trigger and manage the kick adequately. She could even, once Changeling had scanned the area and more or less cleared them for live rounds, hit a dirt target with reasonable accuracy ("Do not hit d'rocks or dere will be ricochet," Charon said).

What she couldn't do was repeat the previous day's sensation of frozen time and magnified vision.

Maybe it was because of the head injury, Xen thought. Maybe I hallucinated it. Or maybe it was just a freak. Sometimes even ordinary humans have moments of unexpected speed or strength from nothing but adrenaline. I know I read that somewhere.

Changeling is carrying epinephrine. Xen cut off that line of speculation sharply, reproaching herself. No. That's for emergencies, and the side effects are too harsh to experiment with it. I will not be that stupid.

"There is one important thing Charon has not told you," Changeling told her late in the afternoon, when they had stopped the lessons to eat and drink. "No doubt because he learned it very early and takes it as given."

"What's that?" Xen asked. The sun shone hot and bright, and she had to keep her second lids closed behind her goggles even while sitting in the shadow of the rocks. Charon squatted nearby, eating dried beef quickly and very neatly. They had piled the bones and the bloody clothes together at the point furthest from where Xen slept. She had firmly declined using the skulls for target practice. There would never be a field station for these people, no cold and perfect sleep forever, but she could at least spare them that.

Xen picked at a package of cold macaroni and cheese with a steel fork from her single set of utensils. Bunni had taught her to eat with them, patient even when her long fingers were clumsy. The Doctors would never have thought of it.

"You are familiar with robots and tools," Changeling said. "A robot can perform many tasks. A tool may have many uses, or only one. My turret laser has multiple uses. The gun has only one. And it cannot discriminate who should or should not be killed. It has no artificial intelligence."

"Error processing response," Xen said. "I mean, it's kind of small for that anyway. There's not that much miniaturized tech around." She looked at the .22 where it lay beside her on the ground. Charon had found the leather belt and holster for it in the pile of clothes. It had taken a minute's precision work with Changeling's laser to shorten the belt and add a couple more holes so that it would fit Xen.

"Ah," Charon said. He licked the end of an ungloved finger, then looked at Xen directly. "She means dat real life is not target practice. You must not draw t'gun unless you're willing to kill wit' it. Ot'erwise it is worse dan being unarmed." His tone was matter-of-fact, only marginally more interested than usual.

"Acknowledged," Xen said quietly. "I mean, I understand."

"It does not matter what phrasing you use with Charon," Changeling said. "Observational data indicates that he assimilates new terms quickly for an organic being." Which was the closest to a compliment that Changeling could probably convey.

Well, well.

"I don't want you to think I don't know you're a person," Xen said to the Ghoul.

"Dat is of no importance," Charon said. "And you do not consider it an insult to be treated like a mechanism. You sometimes speak as if you were one."

Xen sighed. "They have a lot of good points. They're very decisive. They think faster than any living person. And with the tech Robco came up with back before the War, they can last for human lifetimes. Probably even more lifetimes of something like me." She looked up at Changeling. "That reminds me. Don't I remember reading something about Ghouls and longevity? Something to do with chromosome length?"

"That depends upon the individual Ghoul," Changeling said. "Some make the conversion with no significant changes to their chromosomal repair enzymes. Some acquire the ability to regenerate chromosome length accurately, essentially preventing them from aging in the ordinary human manner."

"Oh." Xen looked at Charon. "So the reason I couldn't tell his age by looking might not be because he's a Ghoul, it might be because he's not actually aging. Are you immortal, Charon?"

"My Hayflick Limit has been tested," Charon said. "I was not informed of t'results."

"That seems cruel," Xen said.

"Some employers have undoubtedly assumed less intelligence on Charon's part than you are doing," Changeling said.

"You mean, less than you did when I bought his contract," Xen said.

"I can correct my observations based on new data," Changeling said. "Some humans cannot."

"Or they might not have wanted him to know he might eventually outlive them," Xen said. "I guess that wouldn't matter with the way the contract works, would it, Charon?"

"No," Charon said. "It does not."

"Changeling," Xen said. "Can you test Charon's chromosome regeneration?"

"Not without additional equipment," Changeling said. "In any case, it is not relevant to your current project."

"It might be to a later one," Xen said. "If I don't make it, I'm pretty sure Bunni and Tori have enough stored DNA to clone me. I 'd rather pass Charon's contract on to another Human/Xenoorganic Hybrid." She looked at the Ghoul. "I'm sorry, but you know too much about me and the Lab and the bots for me to let it fall to someone else. There's too much risk to them."

"Do not let sentimental thinking cloud your judgment further," Changeling said.

"Further?" Xen said.

"Even if you did not give orders for the transfer of Charon's contract, he would not be free. He must and will find another employer no matter what your fate."

"Is that right, Charon?" Xen asked him.

"Yes," Charon said.

"So I might as well will it to a clone as not," Xen said.

"If you are concerned about information in Charon's possession, you could give me orders to insure his death in the event of your own," Changeling said.

"That would be a poor return for services rendered," Xen said. "Besides,if I did have a clone, I'd want her to have an interactional model for other organic people from birth. One that doesn't involve them trying to kill her. If he survives me, I want Charon to remain very much alive. Assuming that I canwill the contract to someone who isn't born yet, that is."

"Dat is not provided for by t'contract's terms," Charon said. "But if my contract is in Changeling's possession, I will follow her orders until it is passed on. The effect would be the same."

Xen looked at him in surprise. "You didn't have to tell me that," she said.

"My contract will default to Changeling in the event of your death," Charon pointed out, with no more emphasis than usual. "I have no reason not t'share the information."

"Oh," Xen said. "I see. Changeling, orders follow. In the event of my death, continue to protect Charon in accordance with your primary directives. Order him to accompany you back to the Lab and then transfer his contract to Bunni. Bunni is to transfer it to any clone of mine when she thinks the clone is old enough. Acknowledge."

"Acknowledged," said Changeling. "Why Bunni?"

"Bunni can come closer to thinking like an organic than you or Tori can," Xen said. "She'll understand what I'm doing and why. I don't want anything fatal to conveniently happen to Charon before the clone grows up. Bunni's a Robco Robobrain," Xen explained to Charon. "She raised me more than anyone else did. She'll probably do most of the raising of the clone, too."

"Your makers were not involved wit' dis?" Charon asked unexpectedly.

"Not really, no," Xen said. "I was their project." She hesitated, but he was looking directly at her – not at the ground.

It wasn't a casual question. I don't think Charon knows how to ask them. But then, he probably knows what it's like to be a project.

"They built an artificial womb specifically so they wouldn't bond with me hormonally," she said. "I know that was Dr. Graber's reasoning, at least. Her notes say she was afraid getting pregnant would fuzz up her reasoning. But they knew babies can't live without contact, and they wanted to see if I could survive a few years, so Dr. Montalban programmed Bunni to take care of me. He even padded her chassis."

"The Robobrains are normally combat models," Charon said.

"That's right," Xen said. "The AI on both – I guess all three – of them is special. Dr. Montalban was very good at his job." She smiled thinly. "Changeling wouldn't be such a pain if he hadn't been. I intended her to just be a packbot with a targeting system."

"That would have been prejudicial to your interests," Changeling said.

"I'm not convinced of that," Xen said.

"You must be at least partly convinced, or you would have erased me," Changeling said. "Or perhaps that is merely your reluctance to destroy what you regard as another person, even a subservient one."

"You and Tori killed Camel," Xen pointed out.

"I did not. She is in backup," Changeling said.

"Then you're probably right," said Xen. "I don't like you. But I still won't kill you until or unless I have to."

"You killed the super mutant," Changeling said.

"I had to," Xen said. "I thought he was going to kill Charon. And without Charon, I'd be dead and you'd be scrap as of weeks ago."

"I must now agree," Changeling said.