"You are not helping, Martha," Dalden said.

"Just telling it like it is, warrior. Why go through this stonewall disbelief twice? Besides, her idea of an alien is something bizarre looking that isn't humanoid-another reason why she's having trouble grasping reality here. If you looked like the Morrilians with their oversized heads that accommodate their magnificent brains, she'd have no problem pointing at you and saying you're an alien."

Brittany wasn't listening. She was gripping the hair on both sides of her temples and saying to herself, "There has to be a logical explanation for this. There has to be."

Dalden moved to put his arms around her. "Kerima, your distress pains me. What must I do to ease it?"

She leaned into him, trying to accept the comfort he offered. "Just tell me there's a really good reason for lying to me."

"Talk about a double-edged request," Martha said in one of her more distinct you've-annoyed-me tones.

Brittany swung around, searching for Martha's voice, since Dalden was no longer wearing his communicator. "The audiovisual monitor on the wall," he pointed out with a sigh. "She controls the ship, thus she has eyes and ears in every room."

Brittany marched to the monitor on the wall, which was presently blank. "Show yourself to me. I want to see the woman who has the gall to try to convince me I'm on an alien spaceship.

"I'll do better than that," Martha purred.

Dalden stiffened, but before he could warn Martha off, Brittany was transferred out of the room. He swore, knowing where she'd been taken, and that he couldn't get there in time to prevent Brittany from further shock.

« ^ »

BRITTANY WAS IN SHOCK. IT HAD HAPPENED AGAIN, THAT moment of tingling, then waking in a Completely new location. Waking? No, she was standing up. Even if they'd been able to put her to sleep somehow to move her somewhere else, she wouldn't wake up on her feet.

It had to be illusions, or perhaps rotating walls. She'd seen enough moving walls since she got here to know they had that process down pat and in high speed, so she could be in the same room, just with new walls and-and a really big computer console in the center.

"This is the command center." Martha's voice seemed to come at her from all sides. "If I weren't here, this room would be filled with the specialists needed to run a ship this size, all made obsolete with a Mock II on board. I'm the Mock II, by the way."

"What is a Mock II?" Brittany demanded. "And where are you hiding this time?"

"I'm currently housed in the console you're looking at. That's right, doll, I'm a computer, one of the most highly advanced computers ever created. Dalden let that slip the other day, but fortunately you decided he was just pulling your leg. Not an unrealistic conclusion on your part, since the computers you have on your planet are prehistoric dinosaurs compared to me, and those are all you've had for comparison-until now."

"More bullshit?"

"Your disbelief is wearing thin, child," Martha said with a sigh. "I'm going to make this brief before Dalden barges in here to retrieve you. He's not too pleased with me at the moment. You're causing yourself, and him, a lot of grief over nothing. He did good today. He should be celebrating his victory instead of having to deal with a hysterical woman who can't get past one simple little fact.

"A simple fact!?"

"Why don't you try using the logic you were crying for a few minutes ago? It's rather egotistical of your people to think that your insignificant planet, tucked away in this sector of the universe, is the only planet that supports life. Look at it this way: your solar system has moved into a well-established neighborhood, sorta like the new kid on the block. But there were other systems on the block first so much older than yours that the species in them were exploring far into space while you still had dinosaurs roaming."

"You don't get it. I'd have to be dreaming for this to be real, but I'm not dreaming. I know I'm not, because I pinched myself and it damn well hurt. So stop trying to mess with my mind."

"We'd have to be pretty cold-blooded to try to pull what you're accusing us of trying to pull. Is that really how you see Dalden?"

Of course she didn't, which was why none of this made sense. There had to be a reason for these lies, but she couldn't hope to guess what it was and was driving herself crazy trying to find a plausible explanation.

"Just take me home already," she said wearily. "My job is done. You've captured your thief. You don't need me anymore. I want to go home."

"It's too late for that. It became too late when Dalden made you his lifemate."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"You were already told what it means. You chose to see that as a joke, too. It wasn't. And you're still not taking it seriously yet, but for him, it's about as serious as you can get. You're now his to protect, his to have and to hold, for life. There's no getting out of it, like you people do around here. There's no breaking it. It's a done deal, and it's permanent. So you go where he goes, doll, no ifs, ands, or buts. And where he's going is home to Sha-Ka'an, a planet in the Niva star system, light-years away from here."

"You just slipped up," Brittany said, pouncing on it, and pointing out triumphantly. "Light-years would take more than one lifetime to travel."

In response, chuckling filled the room. "With anything your planet can currently produce, yes, but the rest of the universe runs on different sources of power. This spaceship is powered by gaali stones, the newest and most impressive known source, so it will only take us a couple of months to get home. But even crysillium, the last, now obsolete power source, was capable of similar speed, as well as the one before that. Your planet hasn't come close to knowing what real power is yet."

"You have an answer for everything, don't you?" Brittany said bitterly.

" 'Course I do, I'm a Mock II. We don't stagnate, we grow with age."

"You mean upgrade," Brittany corrected.

"No, my parts can't be replaced, but nor will they ever need to be," Martha recorrected and made a brief attempt at explaining. "Imagine a simulated brain, superpowerful at birth, yet like any brain, capable of maturing. Yes, that means I'm capable of thoughts and decisions just like you, even though I am man-made."

"That's not possible."

"Doll, anything is possible for the Morrilians who created me. They are a very old species whose intelligence can be likened to godlike, if you need a comparison. I'm talking genius beyond anything you can imagine, beyond anything most worlds can imagine, even high-tech worlds far more advanced than yours. Ironically, they are a very simple people with few needs other than intellectual, and very nonaggressive, which is fortunate for the rest of the universe. That nonaggression is made part of all Mock Ils before they are sold."

"Sold? You're actually owned by someone?"

"It might help if you stop thinking of me as a person. While that's great for my ego, it's not very factual. Mock Ils are designed to be compatible with one and only one owner, so all programming is geared to that one individual, and his or her happiness and well-being are our number-one priority.

"My individual is Tedra, Dalden's mother," Martha added. "And her happiness includes her family's, which is why I was sent along on this retrieval trip, not just to recover the Altering Rods but to make sure her son returns home in one piece. Remember her son, the Sha-Ka'ani who has decided that you're the only woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with? Do you really think that he would intentionally hurt you by messing with your mind?"