Alex wasn’t sure he’d heard that right. He had to make Vitale repeat himself.

“I can bring back your I-Mate,” he explained proudly. “If you want her back, that is. It’s not hard to do but I thought I’d offer it to you.”

“What’s the catch?” asked Alex. “I’ve been around long enough to know that favors like that don’t usually come without strings attached.”

Vitale grinned. “I like you, Alex. You have a brain. I also like that you’ve come here to spend some time in my lab. Not many Vestans will. They see me as a weirdo and a recluse, which admittedly, I kind of am. But that doesn’t mean that they can ignore me except for when they need me. I just appreciate that you didn’t ask me to finish activating your P-com and then just leave. You’ve shown some curiosity for my work.”

“So that’s it? Nothing else?”

Vitale’s eyes rolled upward. “Well, there is something you could do for me.”

“There’s always a catch,” replied Alex, chuckling.

“Not a big one though,” said Vitale. “It’s about my cameras. I need help getting them upright again, and hopefully to stay upright for the foreseeable future. And from what I’ve heard, you’re about to enter the VDF. Their primary area of operations is the mining biosphere. Plus there’s that little rumor about killing the bears so it’s not like I’m asking you a favor that’s too risky, for you that is.”

“So if I go out and fix your cameras over at the mining biosphere, you’ll bring back my I-Mate? How exactly would you do that?”

“Easy peasy,” replied Vitale. “All of the data is stored on the mainframe of Inspiration Technologies, in their vast data farm in the Vega System, home of the marketplace planet of Emporium. We have a direct satellite link to Emporium, which is only twenty-five light-years away. Give me a little time to request her personality file from them and I can get started with adding in my additional ‘upgrade’ package. Someone on the Racine had the good thinking to throw most of the supplies into an escape pod before the ship blew up. Thanks to them, I have several spare bodies of I-Mates that have never been activated. I can put the new data into one of the unused bodies quite easily.”

“You make it sound too easy,” joked Alex.

“Well, it is when you’re me,” said Vitale as a grin broke out on his face. He then leaned in closer. “Tell me, did you get a chance to test out your I-Mate before it was destroyed?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, once.”

“Well? How was it?”

“It wasn’t bad,” said Alex, remembering Kristina. “It just wasn’t very life-like. I knew it was an android so that took some of the fun out of it.”

Vitale patted him on the shoulder. “Just wait until you get her back and you can’t tell the difference between her and a real woman. Then you’ll really be in for a treat.”

Alex chuckled. “I’ll take your word for it. Personally though, I didn’t have much time with her. You don’t really need to wait for the data file from Emporium because there’s not much to it.”

“Even better! That will bring the turnaround time drastically down. I’ll let you know when she’s ready! Oh, before I forget, let me activate your P-com before you leave. I’m sorry that it took so long with yours but it just wouldn’t finish loading last night. Let me see it?”

Alex handed over his P-com while Vitale plugged it into one of his uplinks. While he was doing so, Tabby suddenly came to life. She cradled her head with her hand, which looked kind of funny because she was also still plugged in at the time.

“Wow, I just had the craziest dream,” said Tabby, shaking her head slightly.

Alex shot a look at Vitale. “Do they actually dream?”

“No, they don’t,” he answered, still working on the P-com. “It’s just programming that I’ve put into her so they seem real. But I have put in numerous dream sequences so she could describe them to you if you like.”

Tabby started to laugh and she leaned in closer to Alex. “They feel real to me. The dreams, that is. Sometimes, I think Vitale doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”

Alex could only marvel at the creation in front of him. She was just so . . . real.

He turned to look at Vitale. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.”

“You can always put your trust in Vitale,” he said, pointing his finger at his chest. “It was nice to meet you, Alex. I’m looking forward to seeing you around.”

“Likewise, Vitale. Likewise.”

Alex left Vitale’s lab with a definite spring in his step. He was impressed by the “mad scientist” and found him to be both intelligent and personable, and that was even without the whole Tabby/Tammy situation. His mind drifted back to his experience with his I-Mate, Kristina, and wondered what she would be like with Vitale’s new additions.

Not only did he like Vitale as a person, but his technology could be seriously helpful in the future.

Speaking of technology. Alex checked his P-com and found full functionality of the device. He also noticed he had a message on there from Commander Rooney of the Vestan Defense Force. The message was brief and to the point, asking Alex to meet with him in the VDF headquarters on Biosphere Five.

Using his newly activated P-com, Alex didn’t have to ask directions this time around, following the trail as it led to Rooney’s office. Rooney also had a secretary guarding his front door, an older woman who was very curt but professional with Alex.

Finally, the commander was able to see him. Alex stepped into his office and found Rooney sitting behind a cramped and crowded desk.

Rooney wasn’t that much older than Alex. Alex suspected early forties but judging by the expression on his face, he’d been the commander for some time. Deep lines of worry cut into his forehead and he already had a nice patch of gray hair around the sides of his head. There was a bottle of half-empty alcohol just behind his desk on a stand, and Alex suspected that Rooney took frequent hits of the bottle, no doubt from stress.

Instead of shaking his hand, Alex offered him a crisp salute, the same that he’d been taught when he served in the Bastards Battalion.

“Commander Rooney, my name is Alex Hawthorne.”

Rooney acknowledged his salute with a simple head nod before gesturing to Alex to sit down.

“Welcome to Vesta, Alex Hawthorne. I can see you have some military experience but we’ll cover that in a moment. You’re probably wondering why I called you in to see me today.”

“I have my suspicions, sir,” replied Alex.

“Most of the colony is talking about you, Alex. But it was the footage of you beating the shit out of the other new arrival. What was his name, Serrano or something? Either way, you almost killed that man yesterday with your bare hands.”

“And I would have if someone hadn’t intervened.”

Rooney’s gaze narrowed. “What do you have against him?”

“It was his fault that our colony ship was destroyed. He tried to hijack it.”

“Well then I can see why there’s some animosity there. Either way, I knew that anyone that fights like you do, with the speed that you have, would be a great fit for the VDF. I called in a favor to Annette Moore to ask if she would consider me stealing you for my force. Apparently, Annette had the same idea I had.”

“She did mention that when I saw her this morning,” said Alex. “Even Ellie Vesta said the same thing.”

“Yes, they know talent when they see it,” replied Rooney. “And so do I. So I have one more question for you. Probably the most important that you’ll be asked today.”

“What’s that, sir?”

Rooney leaned in closer. “Did you really kill two bears with only your hands?”

“I had to use a pulse pistol to finish them off,” replied Alex. “But only after they’d closed the distance with me.”

“Jesus H Christ,” swore Rooney. “So it is true. Do you understand that you’re the only human that’s made physical contact with a bear and lived to tell about it?”

“I can see why,” replied Alex. “They’re fast bastards for their size. Strong too.”

Rooney grunted. “Now I have to have you in the VDF. Your experience, or whatever you did to kill those sons of bitches, is desperately needed. I won’t ask you if you want to join until you’ve seen the complete picture of what we’re dealing with but I want to know more about you. I want to know about your prior military experience.”

“Have you heard about the Orbital Wars back on Earth?” asked Alex.

“I have. Messy business, but such is life for the rich members of the Consortium. Making private armies just so they can play soldier is the hobby of those with too much money and not enough brains.”

“That seems to be a good description of most of the lower members of the Consortium. Either way, I was young and stupid enough to sign up. I fought for nearly fifteen years before my unit was discharged once the fighting was outlawed. I learned everything I know about being a soldier from that group.”

“Like what? Tell me more.”

Alex spent the next fifteen minutes going over all the questions that Rooney could come up with. The commander wanted to know what weapons he was familiar with, his impressions about body armor as well as his preferred fighting tactics. Lastly, Rooney asked him for a play-by-play of all his major battles.

“And that’s when the ceiling fell on me, breaking my back,” finished Alex after telling him everything. “All the private armies were disbanded and I needed to heal. That was the end of my fighting days, well until now.”

“That’s pretty goddamn impressive, Alex. You have more actual combat experience than I do. I’m wondering if this situation shouldn’t be reversed. Maybe you should be the one sitting here at this desk?”

Alex chuckled. “Command is for those that are patient. I’m not sure I have the temperament to do that sort of thing long term.”

“Not many do,” replied Rooney. “But, you’re certainly well-qualified. The job is yours if you want it. I’m thinking about putting you in command as an officer, perhaps as one of my lieutenants or maybe second in command. But you need to know the full situation, like I said earlier. Are you sure you want to hear the long and short of it?”

Alex nodded. “I have to know what we’re up against here. Even if it’s an ugly picture.”

“Ugly picture?” scoffed Rooney. “Goddamnit, the whole studio is on fire, Alex. Not just the picture. Here’s something more concrete. I estimated that before the colony ship arrived, Vesta had probably five to six months left before she became a failed colony.”

Alex’s eyebrows raised in amazement. “That’s it?”

Rooney nodded. “Maybe more or maybe less. At the rate we’re losing men, that seemed pretty accurate to me. Your infusion of new colonists will hold that at bay for a time but the problem is that the bears are killing us off faster than we can reproduce. We may only have less than a year still unless we find a way to stem the tide.”

“I’m told most of the attacks happen around the foothills, where the mines are,” said Alex.

“You’re correct about that. And the mines are an essential operation here in Vesta. It’s the only way the colony can get out of debt. That’s the biggest catch-22 you’ve ever seen, Alex. Either we shut down the mines and the colony goes insolvent or we keep running them and we run out of men. We’re fucked either way. Now, leadership is determined that the mines need to be protected at all cost. So at least we won’t die with empty stomachs.”

“Is there no other source of revenue that Vesta can use to pay off her creditors?” asked Alex.

“Nothing else that is viable,” replied Rooney. “So the mines have to be maintained.”

Rooney leaned across the table. “Do you want to see them?”

“See what, sir?”

Rooney grinned. “The mines. Do you want to go there?”

Alex swallowed heavily. “Yes, yes, I do.”