cabin and directed him outside the ship. If he thought the little gray sphere floating in the doorway to his stateroom was a shock, this scene beneath the yacht had eclipsed it. What sort of admiral is Fidelity Demba, that she can present such mysteries to me?
"Put him in stasis," Horss suggested.
"The yacht doesn't have a stasis unit."
"Why can't we deliver him to some agency that can take care of him?"
"We will. We don't have time right now."
"Surely we can take the time to do what is right?"
"I won't explain the time constraint. Help me place him outside the damping field."
"You would send him away?" Horss tried to sound as worried as he should be for a real child, or for such a sophisticated android. "Out there?"
"I must." The admiral sounded more impatient than concerned.
Horss frowned to compete with the admiral's tepid show of concern. It wasn't difficult to dislike what was happening, whether he was worried about the android child or aggravated by his continuing lack of control over his own fate. Samson, however, was a better actor than either of them, as his troubled expression played from Horss to the admiral and back to Horss. Children - real children - were almost magical, like small mythical creatures. This one was even more special because of the circumstances. Horss couldn't help but be mesmerized by the situation, despite his personal troubles. The child was impossible, whatever he/it was.
Horss accessed the yacht's sensor data. He saw the classes and distribution of local flora and fauna. It was dangerous here. He shouldn't condone what the admiral intended to do with the boy. Why would he feel like helping her, in any case?
"I can't place him in danger, Admiral," he replied, daring to defy an admiral. "There are large predators not far away."
Samson's dark eyes caressed the admiral and Horss with tenuous hopefulness. What an exquisitely modeled expression, Horss thought, and hardly needed to remind himself that he should believe the android was a real child. Its face said it very much wanted to stay with him and the admiral. It couldn't know how unqualified they were to be his friends. A long, tense silence ensued between Horss and the admiral.
"You must leave us for a while," the admiral finally said to Samson. "We're not abandoning you. We have some important business to discuss. We'll help you go home as soon as we can. Stay nearby, where we can find you. Call out if you need help."
"Samson," Horss said, surprising himself, wanting to sound concerned and realizing he actually was concerned. Further words failed him. He was concerned but also unsure of the meaning of the child, as though he was being confronted by an act of magic, real magic, in a universe that didn't allow magic, didn't even allow sincerity.
Samson smiled grimly at Horss and returned his gaze to the admiral, searching her face for some reprieve, perhaps. The admiral handed Samson his possessions. Horss saw the boy's hands tremble as he put his computer in his pack. Samson mounted the pack on his shoulders and gripped his spear. He took a deep breath and exhaled unevenly, as though emotion constricted his throat. Do androids simulate breathing? Horss was surprised at his own willingness to believe in the boy's humanity, surprised at the small sharp twinge of emotion this caused in himself.
The admiral pushed Samson. He contacted an invisible force, perhaps an i-field, which resisted his motion. He broke through, stumbled a few steps, and turned around, frowning. Horss could see the boy looking in a random pattern, confirming the presence of an i-field. Samson stood there for several moments. He looked down again at his clothes and shoes. He backed away slowly, turned, and walked off toward the river.
===
"Release him, Baby," Admiral Fidelity Demba instructed the AMI by shiplink.
[When can I talk to Samson, Mother?] the AMI asked.
The admiral sighed. Baby really was a child. But she was not a mother. If she stopped to think about Baby's birth and existence it would shock her again. Just before this critical point in her life, a miracle of thinking electronics occurred - Baby: a spontaneous autonomous machine intelligence - adding a complexity to her affairs she couldn't afford and could never ignore. Perhaps the honor of becoming the parent of such a rare AMI had given her the conceit that she would be capable of tearing Captain Jon Horss away from the single most powerful person in the Union - Admiral Etrhnk, Commander of the Union Navy. Then Samson appeared beneath her ship, throwing her plans, her perspective, her life - everything - into chaos! Samson's appearance was an impossible thing! She was amazed at herself for continuing on this lethal path, even if her resolve and calmness were due mostly to her in-body augments that controlled the effects of stress.
"Don't call me Mother," she ordered Baby. "Please do as I requested."
[He's coming,] Baby reported. [He looks angry, although I think I surprised him. Can I come out and watch?]
"No. Stay inside, Baby. You know your duties."
[I can perform my duties from outside, Mother. I'm always connected to the ship.]
"Do as I say! This is serious. You're too young to understand how serious and dangerous."
[But Samson is outside. Won't he also be in danger?]
"Don't argue with me, Baby. Here he comes. Stay at your post."
She looked down at the impossible child on the ground and saw the first signs of his awakening. She leaned over and said in Twenglish: "Hello, Samson." At the same time she saw Jon Horss as an overlaid image in her ocular terminal as he descended the egress elevator and registered his astonishment at the scene. She turned off the view of Horss in order to concentrate on Samson.
Admiral Demba participated in the dialog with Samson and Captain Horss, never once thinking she was in command of the situation. This was an out-of-body experience, as though she observed herself and the others from a distance. It was exhilarating, interacting with a real Earthian child and waiting for Jon Horss to explode behind her.
Finally she had forced Samson to walk away from the ship. It endangered him, not keeping him on the ship, but it might prove something about the reason for his existence. She watched him walk away, saw him remove the data device from his backpack, and heard his side of a conversation. She was startled at the exchange, knowing it had to be an act of mental illness, yet wondering at its effortless inventiveness. She continued to be surprised by the boy. She continued to be distracted by his presence. She continued to keep her back to Captain Jon Horss, the Navy Commander's flagship captain, the officer she had stolen, abducted, imprisoned, because she greatly needed a ship's captain of his ability, and who would probably try to kill her before the day was over, and before she ever knew who Samson was.
"A child!" Horss declared. "What is happening, Admiral?"
"I don't know." She knew he would not believe her. Admirals were never to be trusted in any case. She would not even try to convince Horss of anything in regard to the boy. She could hardly convince herself he was real.
"This is Earth," he said. "Why are we here?"
"To talk," she replied.
"You brought me here just to talk? I was a prisoner on your yacht for three days, Admiral! Why didn't you speak to me then?"
"You were a prisoner so that I wouldn't be required to talk to you. It was necessary that I not speak to you. Now we can talk."
"Why would that be, Admiral?"
"That is for you to deduce."
"What are we to say to each other?" Horss asked.
"I don't care. Anything."
"Nothing in particular? The Freedom? The Request for Voluntary Reassignment?"
She was out of her normal pattern, far out, ripped away from all that was familiar. She had been safe in her little office in Navy Archives, comfortable in her daily routine, and seldom threatened by the lurking violence of Navy life. It was home, and to a lesser degree the construction site of the Freedom was home. She had lost her home. She had deliberately put herself in this desperate position, deliberately, yet without deliberation. Even without the appearance of Samson, she would be dismayed by her
impulsive actions. The great starship, the Freedom, was a project that all but defined her existence, but to launch it under these circumstances was beyond her comprehension. She saw the pattern of events as necessary but understood nothing of its ultimate cause for being. She saw herself as the necessary force of will but understood nothing of herself. The rush and crash of events gave her too little time to be introspective, but it was probably safest not to be too introspective. And here she was, thinking too much into distraction while a potential enemy stood behind her. She could almost feel the tension emanating from Jon Horss's body. No admiral let anyone take such a position in this kind of circumstance. Every admiral expected attack, never yielding a position of tactical advantage. He hadn't yet attacked her, so that might answer one question: did Etrhnk explicitly order Horss to kill her?
"He isn't a real child," Captain Horss said. "No one does that to a real child: sending him away into probable danger."
Perhaps Samson had temporarily halted an attack by Horss. It wasn't wise to remain with her back to him, even with Baby watching to warn her. She knew she had a knack for escaping attempts on her life, but Horss was a past champion of personal combat in the Navy Games. The attack, if it came, would have to be unarmed combat. Although his class-1 uniform gave him powerful weaponry linked to the energy of her yacht, the yacht would also prevent either of them from turning their weaponry on each