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noise.”
    Now that caught his attention. “You actually worked at G-Mex? Doing what?”
    Sonja hated answering that question, because it inevitably garnered one of only two responses. Either all conversation ground to a horrified halt, and everyone scrambled to find something new to discuss, preferably with someone far away from her, or they wanted the gory details. Usually the women fled and the men leaned in to hear every word. “I worked in the intimate companions lab.”
    “Sex-droids? That’s a hell of a job for your parents to assign you,” Deke said, one brow arching slightly.
    Well, that had to be the most laid back response she’d ever had.
    “Yeah, I know. I think they were trying to discourage me. None of them thought it suitable for a woman of my stature to be working at all, but I was bored out of my mind and kept pushing until they gave in. Joke was on them, once I got over my initial issues, I really liked the work. I was good at it, too.” So good that in the end, they’d given her a lab of her own and tasked her with creating new models. There was a booming trade in the droids, and competition was fierce. The more realistic the droid was, the better it sold. Sonja had worked to make her creations not only physically appealing, but to program them to act as companions, able to converse and mimic human empathy through carefully created behavior algorithms and AI programming.
    She waited for Deke to make one of the usual comments, but he surprised her when he said, “So you know how to work with AI’s? If you have the inclination, I would be happy to learn anything you could teach me about working with the Arca ’s resident AI program. She’s a bit…stubborn sometimes.”
    “I’d love to,” she said, and she meant it. It wasn’t often she got an opportunity to talk about her life’s passion, at least not without the listener’s eyes glazing over within the first thirty seconds. She was about to ask for more information about the ship ’s system when she noticed Deke had stopped. She looked around and realized they were standing in the entranceway to the cockpit. Laid out in front of her was the most incredible view she’d ever seen.
    The cockpit was set in what seemed to be a bubble of glass, giving the pilots a panoramic view of everything ahead and beside them. There were two command chairs overlooking the view screens, each with its own curved control panel in front of it. Heads-up displays shimmered in the air, but beyond them was a scene that drew all of Sonja’s attention.
    It was Earth, floating in the blackness like a polished gem on display. From their current vantage point, the planet was bathed in sunlight, making the oceans gleam an impossible blue. The green tracts of the forests and the softer greens of farmland and fields were bordered by empty spaces that took up far more of the globe than she had truly understood. From here, the scars of the war were still raw and terrible, dead zones where the land was scorched and very little survived. It was still beautiful, though. It was her home, and Sonja’s throat tightened at the thought that she might never see it again.
    Trevar was sitting back in one of the chairs, the air around him thick with readouts and images. Without turning around, he said, “Did you get our kitten tucked in and ready for takeoff? I hope so, because I need you to sync with Arca ’s fucking AI. She’s got her electronic panties in a bunch over our unauthorized passenger . If you don’t fix that thing, I swear one of these days I’m going to put a plasma bolt through her processors.”
    Deke tensed, his arms tightening around her for a brief second. Then he relaxed again, though he was no longer holding her so close.
    “I’ll get on that in a second, but Sonja will need a place to sit.”
    Trevar spun around in his chair to look at them. “Shit! What’s she doing up here?”
    “I brought her up to look at Earth before we left orbit.” Deke