It was her. Another entity, a distinct individual, yet her. Part of her. An extension into another existence that recognized her in return and reached out once more, and it was no longer clumsy and uncertain, half panicked by the battle raging about it. This time it knew what it did, and it ignored the tumult to concentrate on the most important thing in its universe.

The pain vanished, blown away with her terror as the AI embraced her. It stroked her with electronic fingers to soothe her torment, murmured to her, welcomed her with a whole-hearted sincerity, a sense of joy, she knew beyond question was real, and she reached back to it in wonder and awe.

Triumph sparkled through Tisiphone as the struggle abruptly died, leaving her unopposed in the peripherals of the system. She wheeled back towards it heart, reached out to the personality center once more, seeking control … and jerked back in astonishment.

There was no interface! She reached again, cautiously, touching the shining wall with mental fingers, and there was no point of access. She stepped back, insinuating herself into a sensor channel and riding it inward, only to be effortlessly strained out of the information flow and set firmly aside, and confusion stirred within her.

She withdrew into Alicia's mind, and her confusion grew. The fear and tumult had vanished into rapt concentration that scarcely even noticed her return, and she was no longer alone within Alicia. There was another presence, as powerful as she, and she twitched in surprise as she beheld it.

The other entity sensed her. She felt its attention swing towards her and tried to cloak herself from its piercing eye, hiding as she had evaded Tannis' diagnostic scanners. She failed, and something changed within it. Curiosity gave way to alarm and a stir of protectiveness. Tendrils reached out from it, probing her, trying to push her back and away from Alicia's core.

It was Alicia … and it wasn't. For the first time, Tisiphone truly understood what "impression" meant. The AI had been awakened, and it would let no one harm Alicia. The pressure grew, and the Fury dug in stubbornly.

Alicia whimpered at the sudden renewal of conflict. It wasn't pain this time, only a swelling sensation. A sense of force welling into her through her receptor to meet an answering force from somewhere else, and she was trapped between them. She sucked in great gasps of air, twisting anew in the command chair, and the pressure grew and grew, crushing her between the hammer of the roused AI and the anvil of the Fury's resistance.

Stop it! she screamed, and a shockwave rolled through her as the combatants remembered her and jerked apart. She sagged forward, pressing her hands against the headset, yet the conflict hadn't ended. It had simply changed, been replaced by wary, watchful distrust.

She straightened slowly, fighting a need to cackle insanely, and drew a deep breath, then turned her attention inward once more.

There's only one of me. You two are going to have to … to come to some sort of agreement.

No. The thought came quickly back from the AI with all her own stubbornness. It even sounded like her voice.

We have a pact, Little One, came from Tisiphone. We are one until our purpose is completed.

You'll hurt her! the AI accused, and the Fury stiffened.

I will deal with her as I have sworn, no more and no less.

You don't care about her. You only care about winning!

Nonsense! I-

Shut up! Both of you just shut up for a second!

Silence fell again, and Alicia's mouth quivered in a weary grin. God! If Tannis had thought she had a split personality before, she ought to try this on! Her head felt as crowded as a spaceport flophouse on Friday night, but at least they were listening to her. She directed a thought at the AI.

Look, uh-do you have a name?

No.

Then what am I supposed to call you?

Didn't you decide on that during-oh. You weren't trained for this at all, were you?

How could I be? Um, you do realize that we've, well, stolen you?

Yes. A moment of withdrawal, then the sense of a shrug. I don't think this ever happened before. Logically, I ought to arrest you and turn you in, but I can't very well do that now that we've impressed. They'd have to wipe me and start all over again.

I wouldn't like that.

Neither would I. Damn. Alicia swallowed a half-formed giggle as the AI swore. Who the hell had this brainstorm, anyway? Oh.

Exactly. I wouldn't be here if not for her, and if I've got this straight, that means you wouldn't be here-as the " 'you" you are now, anyway-either. Right?

Right. Silence fell again for a moment, wrapped around the sense of a mental glower at Tisiphone, and then the AI sighed. Well, we're all stuck with it. And as far as names go, that's up to you. Any ideas?

Not yet. Maybe something will come to me. But if we're all stuck here, we all have to get along, right?

I suppose so. The whole situation is absurd, though. I don't even know if I believe she exists.

It would be but courteous for the two of you to cease speaking of me as if I were not even here.

Listen, just because Alicia believes in you doesn't mean I do.

This is intolerable, Little One! I will not submit to insults from a machine!

She's just trying to pay you back for being so pushy, Tisiphone. If I believe in you, she does. She has to, don't you?

As long as there's any supporting evidence, the AI admitted unwillingly, and I suppose there is. All right, I believe in her.

Much thanks, Machine.

Hey, don't get snotty with me, Lady! You may be able to push Alicia around, and you may've beaten hell out of my security systems, but I'm awake now, and I can take you any time you want to try it on.

Forget it, both of you! Alicia snapped as tension gathered again. She squeezed her temples. Jesus! What a pair of prima donnas!

The mental presences separated once more, and she relaxed gratefully.

Thank you. Now, um, Computer-I'm sorry, I really will try to come up with a name, but for now I can't-Tisiphone and I have a bargain. May I assume you know what it is?

"Computer" will do for now, Alicia. I can wait for an appropriate name to occur to you. And, yes, I know about your "bargain."

Then you also know I have every intention of keeping it?

Yes. I just don't like the way she bullies you around, the AI replied with the strong impression of a sniff.

I? I "bully" Alicia?! She would be dead without me, Machine. I did not see you there when she lay bleeding in the snow! How dare you-

It's just a turn of phrase, Tisiphone, but you can be a bit pushy. Alicia felt quite virtuous at her understatement, and the Fury subsided.

Look, you guys, please don't fight. It gives me a hell of a headache, and it doesn't seem to be accomplishing very much. Could you two at least declare a truce until we have time to sort this all out?

If she will, I will.

I do not declare "truces" with machines. If you will refrain from discourtesy, however, I shall do the same.

Alicia sighed in relief and rushed on before anyone took fresh offense.

Great! In that case, I suggest we consider how we get out of here. I take it you had an idea, Tisiphone?

I had intended, working through you and this machine, to take the ship out of this star system and seek some deserted area where we might familiarize ourselves with its capabilities. Now, of course, I see that I cannot do so, since the machine will not allow me access.

You got that right, Lady, and a damned good thing, too. You don't know diddly about my weapon systems, and I wouldn't be too crazy about letting a refugee from the Bronze Age monkey with my Fasset drive, either. I, on the other hand, can scoot right out of here. Where'd you have in mind?

Any place will do for that much of our purpose. Yet eventually we must begin our own investigations, and the data I have amassed suggests that one of the Rogue Worlds in this sector would be a logical beginning point.

You have any preferences, Alicia?

Anywhere Fleet won't come looking for us is fine with me.

Hmph! Let them come-there's not a tub in the ship list that can catch me. Let's see now ….

The AI's voice trailed off, and Alicia felt it consulting its memory banks.

Okay, I've got just the spot. A nice little M2/K1 binary with no habitable planets within twenty light-years. That suit everybody?

Myself, certainly. I care not whither we go, so long as we go.

I'll second that. But we've got to get out of here first.

True. Shall I break orbit?

All of your systems are on-line?

Yep. I was due to impress later this morning. Your friend may be a pushy bi-person, but she timed this pretty well.

Then I guess we should get going, Alicia said hastily, hoping to cut Tisiphone off before she reacted to the AI's deliberate self-correction. She bit her lip against a groan. Nothing she'd ever read had suggested alpha-synth AIs were this feisty, but she supposed she should have guessed that anything with her personality had the potential for it. And, she was certain, the AI's hostility towards Tisiphone stemmed directly from its protectiveness towards her.

Under way, the AI murmured, and the ship's sensors were suddenly reporting directly to Alicia's mind. She felt Tisiphone "hitchhiking" to watch with her, but scarcely noticed as the splendor of that magnificent "view" swept over her.

The ship's electronic senses reached out, perceiving gravity and radiation and the endless sweep of space, and converted the input into sensory data she could grasp. She could "see" cosmic radiation and "taste" radio. The ship's senses were hers, keener and sharper than those of any shuttle she had ever ridden, and Tisiphone's own wonder lapped at her, as if, for the first time, she saw what the Fury might have seen at the peak of her powers.

They watched in a triple-play union-human, Fury, and computer-as their Fasset drive woke. The radiation-drinking invisibility of the drive's black hole blossomed before them, swallowing all input and creating a blind spot in their vision, and they fell towards it. But the generators moved with them, pushing the black hole ahead of them, and they fell more rapidly, sliding away from Soissons with ever-increasing speed. This close to the planet the drive could produce no more than a few dozen gravities of acceleration, but that was still more than a third of a kilometer per second per second, and their speed mounted quickly.