'They were too happy that I was letting them keep their old jobs,' she told him cynically. 'After all, as controlling stockholder, I had the right to fire them all and set up my own Board of Directors. But I have to tell you the funniest thing!'
'What's that?' he asked.
Her hands caressed Theodore's soft fur. 'Word of what I was doing leaked out, and now there is a market! Did you have any idea how many shell-persons there are who've earned a buy-out, but didn't have any place to go with it, because they were happy with their current jobs?' He shook his head, dumbly.
'Not too many ships,' she told him, 'but a lot of shell-persons running installations. Lots of them. And there were a lot of inquiries from brainships, too, some of them saying that they'd be willing to skip a buy-out to have a body! Moto-Prosthetics even got a letter of protest from some of the Advocates!'
'Why?' he asked, bewildered. 'Why on earth would they care?'
'They said that we were the tools of the BB program, that we had purposely put this 'mechanical monster' together to tempt brainships out of their buy-out money.' She tilted her head to one side, charmingly, and frowned. 'I must admit that angle had never occurred to me. I hope that really isn't a problem. Maybe I should have Lars and Lee Stirling look into it for me.'
'Tia,' he managed, around the daze surrounding his thoughts, 'what is this 'mechanical monster' of yours?'
'It's a cybernetic body, with a wide-band comlink in the extreme shortwave area up here.' She tapped her forehead. 'What's different about it is that it's using shell-person tech to give me full sensory input from the skin as well as output to the rest. My range isn't much outside the ship, but my techs at Moto are working on that. After all, when we take the Prime Team out to the EsKay homeworld, I'm going to want to join the dig, if they'll let me. What with alloys and silicates and carbonfibers and all, it's not much heavier than you are, even though it outmasses a softperson female of this type by a few kilos. Everything works, though, full sensory and well, everything. Like a softperson again, except that I don't get muscle fatigue and I can shut off the pain sensors if I'm damaged. That was why I took Ted out; I wanted to feel him, to hug him again.'
She just sat there and beamed at him, and he shook his head. 'But why?' he asked, finally.
She blinked, and then dropped her eyes to the bear. 'I, probably would have gone for a buy-out, if it hadn't been for you,' she said shyly. 'Or maybe a Singularity Drive, except that CenSec decided that maybe they'd better give me one and threw it in with the repairs. But, I told you, Alex. You're the most special person in my life. How could I know this was possible, and not do it for, for both of us?'
He dared to touch her then, just one finger along her cheek, then under her chin, raising her eyes to meet his. There was nothing about those lucent eyes that looked mechanical or cold; nothing about the warmth and resiliency of the skin under his hand that said 'cybernetic'.
'You gave up your chance of a buy-out for me, for us?' he asked.
She shrugged. 'Someone very wise once said that the chance for happiness was worth giving up a little freedom for. And really, between the Advocates and everybody, they really can't make us do anything we don't want to.'
'I guess not.' He smiled, and she smiled back. 'You do realize that you've actually done the BB program two favors, don't you?'
'I have?' She blinked again, clearly bewildered.
'You've given shell-persons something else to do with their buy-out money. If they don't have Singularity Drives, they'll want those first, and then they'll want one of these.' He let go of her chin and tapped her cheek playfully. 'Maybe more than one. Maybe one of each sex, or in different body types. Some brainships may never buy out. But the other problem, you've solved fixation, my clever lady.'
She nodded after a moment. 'I never thought of that. But you're right! If you have a body, someone to be with and, ah, everything, you won't endanger the shell-person. And if it's just an infatuation based on the dream instead of the reality, well,'
'Well, after a few rounds with the body, it will cool off to something manageable.' He chuckled. 'Watch out, or they'll give you a bonus for that one, too!'
She laughed. 'Well, I won't take it as a buy-out! Maybe I'll just build myself a second body! After all, if we aren't going to be exploring the universe like a couple of holoheroes, we have the time to explore things a little closer to hand. Right?'
She posed, coyly, looking at him flirtatiously over her shoulder. He wondered how many of her entertainment holos she'd watched to find that pose. 'So, what would you like, Alex? A big, blond Valkyrie? An Egyptian queen? A Nubian warrior-maid? How about a Chinese princess or...'
'Let's learn about what we have at hand, shall we?' he interrupted, sliding closer to her and taking her in his arms. Her head tilted up towards his, her eyes shining with anticipation. Carefully, gently, he took the bear out of
