A different connection blinks on. You pilot these things well, Detective, for a human. A specialty? I have a minor affinity for machines. The path is clear for the next couple stairways; good enough. I thought our regalia aren’t meant to interfere or assist. Daji laughs in my ear, lover-close. I’m offering commentary, who’ll chastise me for that? My help doesn’t come so easily. Get too tart, I tell her, and when I return to the Vimana I’ll chastise you well enough. Because this is what she wants to hear, the expected retort in the script she’s set up between us. Her the petulant, flighty
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