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the SLink. We discussed it, dammit. Mary collapsed back in the seat. "I know."
    "Tell me you understand." Ben sounded like he'd been caught stealing.
    Mary understood better than she wanted to. "I should leave."
    "It's okay isn't it?"
    She didn't reply immediately, her thoughts burning again. No it's not! She wanted to hurt Ben. Hurt both of them. Make them feel the pain she felt. But she held her response in check. Melodrama wasn't going to change anything.
    "Yes, it's okay." Her artificial heart felt as though it was forcing its way through her ribs. "I can't stay. The medical team gave me strict orders."
    Mary hobbled outside as quickly as she could and staggered against one of the station's bulky support braces. She gasped in the station air, hardly able to breathe as tears pooled and blinded her. She sniffed them back, not wanting to let Ben detect how much he'd hurt her. The solid yellow block of a cab pulled up and she clambered blindly into the back, curling up on the bench-like seat.
     
    ****
     
    "I'm sorry, Mary." Tartoa swiveled around as she entered. "It's all my fault."
    Mary was suddenly more conscious of how trapped Tartoa was in his bio-mechanical seat, much more even than Ben. She shook her head slowly. "How? You didn't force him."
    "I asked Jennar to check on him. Make sure the repairs were going as planned." His voice was harsh. "Only a CySap can really tell how another is. I never expected that she'd… that they would…"
    That Ben would SLink with another woman after all these decades with me? That he'd forget everything they'd been through and jump "in to bed" with someone else in a few days? "No, you couldn't have anticipated that."
    "Stay here. You need time to recover and I can always use a good assistant."
    "You've already helped far more…"
    "Than you thought I would? I'm pleased my reputation as a cold-hearted bastard is intact." Tartoa grinned. "Wouldn't want anyone to think I'd gone soft."
    "I won't tell." Mary wanted to fall into a wormhole and never come back. "But the longer I'm here, the greater the chance of it slipping out. And if the Company finds out, you'll be in a lot of trouble."
    "The Company?" Tartoa laughed and span three-hundred and sixty degrees. "No chance. They won't ever find out. I've buried it too deep. I'm not as sloppy as I was."
    Mary glanced at her walking sticks. She felt more vulnerable than she could ever remember—even than when she was human before. She needed time to recover, both physically and from Ben's betrayal. Tartoa was a good companion. He seemed to know somehow just when to be silent and went to speak up.
    "I'll stay a while."
     
    ****
     
    Another crowd of open-mouthed settlers flowed out from the recently docked transport. Mary studied them as they swarmed through the corridors like ants searching for crumbs of food. Most looked in shock—as if they couldn't believe that they were finally on their way to a new world. Or perhaps it was the sheer volume of Haven station. Many of them came from enclosed cities and hadn't experienced anything as wide open.
    "Three today." Mary tapped the view surface. "You'd think they'd spread them out more."
    Tartoa slid up behind her, swirling grandiosely to look at the screen. "Not these. They're all heading the same way. One of yours in fact—HIP22449-5. There's a colony ship scheduled to take them there in three days."
    "That was our first A+ find." Mary zoomed in on the crowd examining faces at random. They looked so happy and alive. Almost smug. Bitterness rose up inside her. What right did they have to feel like that when she'd died after Ben left? "How many?"
    "Twenty thousand. Throw Granny out the air-lock, it's going to get crowded around here."
    Mary smiled, but it faded quickly. Tartoa had a dry humor, which only came out when he was comfortable with someone. It had shown itself increasingly over the last few months as they'd worked together. "At least they're going somewhere ."
    Tartoa slid back to his