“Do you remember exactly where? Can you take us there?” Katherine asked.

“Thought robots ‘ur servants,” Wolruf said, wrinkling her face in puzzlement. “Why not juss ask them to bring it to ‘u?”

“Nevermind about that,” Derec said gently. Answer Katherine’s questions. Do you remember the way? Can you take us there?”

“I remember, always, so I can take ‘u. Don’ want to. Don’ want key, don’ want to see robots or robots to see me. But ‘u be my friend and feed me and I be ‘ur friend and show ‘u. Okay?”

Derec looked to Katherine. “I’m taking her to find some food,” he said. “If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to go solo from here on.”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” she said quickly. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

“Come on, then,” he said as he started brushing futilely at the fur clinging to his clothing. He looked back to Wolruf and smiled. “Let’s see if we find you some food before I choke to death on your dander.”

They ended up returning to the hospital, both because it was relatively close and because it was one of the few facilities they knew anything about. Katherine entered first, demanding care and attention as she swept through toward the ICU and making sure to gather up both Dr. Galen and Florence along the way. A minute later, Derec and Wolruf slipped inside and headed in the other direction, toward the kitchens.

“Meat, breads, vegetables-what’s best for you?” Derec said, scanning the menu of the autogalley.

“Plants,” Wolruf said, crouching. “Something to work my teeth on.”

“Everything’s synthetic, I’m afraid-the farm is one of the things they closed down. Let’s see-I think they make the apple wedges with a lot of fiber.”

“Do ‘u know what ‘ur going to do with the key when ‘u find it?” Wolruf asked from behind.

“No.” Derec turned around and presented the alien with a white tray filled with pale yellow pulpy slices of apple. With surprising patience, Wolruf selected a wedge, sniffed it experimentally, then balanced it on her narrow tongue and delicately took it into her mouth. As far as Derec could tell, she did not chew it, but swallowed it whole.

That created a minor paradox-though Wolruf did not appear to be eating quickly, the plate rapidly emptied. She ate as though she were trying to make up for all seven weeks of deprivation at one sitting, and yet was scrupulously neat and almost completely silent. There were none of the wet crunching noises that any human trying to keep pace would have made.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she finds our eating habits repulsive, he thought as he watched her.

When the tray was empty, Wolruf offered it up to Derec with a hopeful look. “I guess ‘u can trust me now, right?” she said.

“Except I’m not the one you have to win over,” he said, taking the tray and turning back to the autogalley for a refill. “Katherine is. Which reminds me-why didn’t you tell me she was on board?”

Wolruf shrugged. “No chance to. Always something ‘appening, somebody ‘terrupting.”

“That’s true enough,” Derec said, surrendering the replenished tray. “There’s questions I’ve been wanting to ask you since that first night and I haven’t gotten a chance to.”

“Ask,” Wolruf said, then rolled out her tongue for another bite.

Derec considered a moment. “This one isn’t important to anyone but me. You didn’t know I was on the asteroid, did you?”

“Not until gunners spot you. Then thought you were robot.”

“Which is why you didn’t fire at me-”

“Aranimas’s orders-not perfectly followed.”

“You meant the robot that was with me? That was a self-destruct.”

“Fine distinctions escape Aranimas. Ask gunner who hit him.”

Derec smiled. “Did you know the key was on the asteroid?”

“No twice.”

“That’s what I thought. But then why were you there? Was it just the dumbest luck that you showed up?”

“Purpose, not luck. Aranimas build very fine starglass. Saw ast’roid being made and became very curious.”

“Say that again? I didn’t catch your meaning.”

She cupped her hands and made motions like forming a snowball. “With starglass, Aranimas watched the ast’roid-making. Boss very curious. Not something Erani ever do. ‘U do it often?”

“No,” Derec said, still blinking in surprise. An artificial world-it was remotely possible. Use a small fleet of haulers to bring in the raw material-maybe just smaller planetoids brought in from the nearest dirty system. Drive the pieces together at just the right speed and fuse them into a larger body-but why?

The answer came to him almost immediately. To hide the key. To bury it away where no one would ever find it, as though it were as dangerous as a cask of plutonium waste. Buried cleverly, not at the heart of the asteroid where the first shaft sunk would uncover it, but tucked invisibly under the surface.

Except that someone saw or found out, and sent the robots to retrieve it.

“Are you sure about this?” Derec demanded.

“Sure. Aranimas saw it all. Very good starglass.” She offered up the empty tray hopefully.

Then we’re in over our heads, Derec thought as he turned back to the autogalley. Way over-

Wolruf was finishing her third helping when Katherine joined them. She had drawn on station supply for a longsleeved blouse to wear over the jump suit, and traded the foot pillows for soft-soled shoes.

“I sent Florence on an errand and gave Dr. Galen a task that should keep him out of the lobby for at least half an hour,” she said. “And I made Dr. Galen fit me with a loaded medipump just in case it’s not convenient to come back. Though my skin really doesn’t feel too bad. Are you two almost ready?”

Wolruf made the last two wedges disappear. “I am.”

“Then it’s time to pay the bill for the meal,” Katherine said, reclaiming the empty plate. “Let’s go look at the map.” They stood elbow to elbow in the deserted lobby, Wolruf in the middle.

“Here’s where we are,” Katherine said, pointing. “And here’s about the spot you and Derec went to the mat. All you have to do now is tell us where the key is, and we’ll go get it. You can go back to the dark and never have to see another robot.”

But Wolruf was unable to understand the map in any of its modes or projections, even though both Derec and Katherine made labored efforts to try to explain it. “I know it in my feet and my nose,” Wolruf said. “I go with ‘u and show ‘u.”

Katherine frowned and looked to Derec. “How are we going to smuggle her through the halls? It was risky enough bringing her here. And she said she almost got caught the first time.”

“I was thinking while we were walking that a place this large probably used to have some kind of personal transport.”

“Jitneys,” she said.

“That’s the word.” An image of a three-wheeled utility vehicle snapped into focus in his mind. In automatic mode, they were essentially wheeled robots. In semi-auto, they served as smart taxis for visitors to the station. But in manual mode, they should offer freedom from Central Services control and privacy from Security curiosity. “The robots don’t need them, but I’ll bet they’re all lined up somewhere ready to roll.”

“Won’t the robots think it’s unusual, seeing one out in the streets?”

“I don’t think so,” Derec said. “When a ship’s in port the crew probably uses them. And seeing one of the carts won’t strike them as any more strange than our presence alone would. Robotsnotice people. It’s the way they’re made. But we don’t need to be invisible-we just need to be left alone. What do you say?”

Katherine pursed her lips and considered. “I think if we don’t find any jitneys, it doesn’t matter what I think.”