'Precisely.' She blanked the screens before he had a chance to study the pictures further. 'After I turned out so well, Lab Schools started considering older children on a case-by-case basis. They've taken three, so far, but none as old as me.'
'Well, my lady, as remarkable as you are now, you must have been just as remarkable a child,' he told her, meaning every word.
'Flatterer,' she said, but she sounded pleased.
'I mean it,' he insisted. 'I interviewed with two other ships, you know. None of them had your personality. I was looking for someone like Jon Chernov; they were more like AI drones.'
'You've mentioned Jon before,' she replied, puzzled. 'Just what does he have to do with us?'
'Didn't I tell you?' he blurted, then hit himself in the forehead with his hand. 'Decom it, I didn't! Jon's a shell-person too; he was the supervisor and systems manager on the research station where my parents worked!'
'Oh!' she exclaimed. 'So that's why,'
'Why what?'
'Why you treat me like you do, facing my column, asking permission to come aboard, asking me what kind of music I want in the main cabin.'
'Oh, you bet!' he said with a grin. 'Jon made darn sure I had good shell-soft manners before he let me go off to the Academy. He'd have verbally blistered my hide if I ever forgot you're here, and that you're the part of the team that can't go off to her own cabin to be alone.'
'Tell me about him,' she urged.
He had to think hard to remember the first time he ever started talking to Jon. 'I think I first realized that he was around when I was about three, maybe two. My folks are chemtechs at one of the Lily-Baer research stations. There weren't a lot of kids around at the time, because it was a new station and most of the personnel were unattached. There weren't a lot of facilities for kids, and I guess what must have happened was that Jon volunteered to sort of baby sit while my parents were at work. Wasn't that hard. Basically all he had to do was make sure that the door to my room stayed locked except when he sent in servos to feed me and so forth. But I guess I kind of fascinated him, and he started talking to me, telling me stories, then directing the servos in playing with me.' He laughed. 'For a while my folks thought I was going through the 'invisible friend' stage. Then they got worried, because I didn't grow out of it, and were going to send me to a headshrinker. That was when Jon interrupted while they were trying to make the appointment and told them that he was the invisible friend.'
Tia laughed. 'You already knew that Moira and I have known each other for a long time, well, she was the CS ship that always serviced my folks' digs, that was how I got to know her.'
'Gets you used to having a friend that you can't see, but can talk to,' he agreed. 'Well, once I started preschool, Jon lost interest for a while, until I started learning to play chess. He is quite a player himself; when he saw that I was beating the computer regularly, he remembered who I was and stepped in, right in the middle of a game. I was winning until he took over,' he recalled, still a little aggrieved.
'What can I say?' she asked rhetorically.
'I suppose I shouldn't complain. He became my best friend. He was the one that encouraged my interest in archeology and when it became obvious my parents weren't going to be able to afford all the university courses that would take, he helped get me into the Academy. Did you know that a recommendation from a shell-person counts twice as much as a recommendation from anyone but a PTA and up?'
'No, I didn't!' She sounded surprised and amused. 'Evidently they trust our judgment.'
'Well, you've heard his messages. He's probably as pleased with how things turned out as I am.' He spread his hands wide. 'And that's all there is to know about me.'
'Hardly,' she retorted dryly. 'But it does clear up a few mysteries.'
When Alex hit his bunk that night, he found he was having a hard time getting to sleep. He'd always thought of Tia as a person, but now he had a face to put with the name.
Jon Chernov had shown him, once, what Jon would have looked like if he could have survived outside the shell. Alex had known that it was going to be hideous, and had managed not to shudder or turn away, but it had taken a major effort of will. After that it had just been easier not to put a face with the voice. There were completely nonhuman races that looked more human than poor Jon.
But Tia had been a captivatingly pretty child. She would have grown up into a stunning adult. Shoot, inside that shell, she probably looked like a doll. A stimulating, lifeless adult, like a puppet with no strings; a sex- companion android with no hookups. He had no desire to crack her column; he was not the sort to be attracted by anything lifeless. Feelie-porn had given him the creeps, and his one adolescent try with a sex-droid had sent him away feeling dirty and used.
