That was all she needed occasionally from Corth, to be held. Being raised in the Kystran Child Centers left a big void in some people’s lives, probably why so many young people started going to Stress Clinics as soon as they were old enough, looking for the love they had lacked in their growing years. The Child Centers were for learning only. They gave you approval, motivation, self-esteem, and any number of other good qualities, but they didn’t give you love.

It was a lack Tedra sometimes felt keenly, the reason that she had bought Corth last year. He was an entertainment android, designed to entertain a woman in every way possible. He was free-thinking to a small degree, insomuch as he could follow and participate in a conversation as long as only logical responses were required and the subject was one within his memory banks. He couldn’t make decisions on his own the way Martha could, didn’t have feelings to bruise or stir up, and Stars forbid he should argue with anyone. Aggression was not in his makeup, but spontaneity was. Tedra had only to touch him in a sexual way and he could become the ideal sex-sharer, totally devoted to her pleasure. Getting him to just hold her in a nonsexual way wasn’t as easy, so it had to be verbally requested.

“The Martha is correct, Tedra De Arr.” Corth spoke softly behind her. “You do not make full use of my abilities.”

“I get as much use as I want of them, babe.”

“I would be gentle with your breaching.” Tedra sat up to look down at him suspiciously. “Since when do you pursue a subject that has been dropped, Corth?” She didn’t wait for an answer, her eyes locking on the communications console in the center of the large Rec lounge she had taken to spending most of her time in. “Have you been tampering with Corth’s programming, Martha?”

“Me?” She had got her innocent-sounding voice down pat. “Why would I do that?”

“Well, you better undo what you didn’t do, metal lady, or-”

Corth pulled her back down to their previous position. “Relax, Tedra De Arr. I am incapable of hurting you.”

Tedra scooted out of his arms and off the couch, more than a little unnerved by the change in him. After all, as a machine, he had the strength of ten men. And Martha really had given him a dose of aggression.

“I’m going to kill you, Martha!”

“Now, kiddo, he’s only a little more lifelike, is all,” was the computer’s response. “All that sickening agreeing with you was getting on my nerves.”

“You don’t have nerves, you motherless piece of scrap iron, you have circuits. And those can be turned off.”

“You can’t shut me down, doll.” Martha went for a reasonable tone now that she’d got a rise out of Tedra. “I run the ship, remember, supply your oxygen, your food, etc. If you turn me off, you go with me. I didn’t think you were into suicide.”

“Oh, shut up!” Tedra snapped. “And you”-she glared at the android, who was sitting up-“don’t move another inch, or I’ll have to kick you into malfunction.”

“Now don’t do that, Tedra,” Martha said in her soothing voice. “If you break him, who’s going to fix him up here in space? The Rover’s meditech unit only works on live bodies, you know.”

“Then you’d better change him back to the way he was. I won’t be raped by a machine.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Martha insisted. “He’s only a little more assertive. Reassure her, Corth.”

The android stood up, but not to reassure her. “My appearance has not been changed, Tedra De Arr. Do I no longer appeal to you since you met the Sha-Ka’ari warrior?”

“So you filled him in about that, old girl?” Tedra asked with even more irritation.

“We’ve talked about them enough,” Martha replied blithely. “I thought he shouldn’t be left in the dark.”

“That’s your problem. You think too much.” And now Corth needed reassurance. This was ridiculous.

“I love the way you look, Corth. You’re more handsome than any man could possibly be.”

And he was. His outer frame was crafted to her specifications, black hair at a moderate cut, lovely light green eyes, half a foot taller than she was, and young in appearance. If he were real, she’d likely beg to file for double occupancy. But she’d never lost touch with the fact that he wasn’t real, even when she used him to fulfill her need to fantasize that she was loved and cared for.

“I just don’t want to be chased around the ship by you, babe,” she continued, only to hear a loud, heavy sigh from Martha’s direction. “And you can cut that out,” she told the computer. “You did this on purpose just to annoy me, and don’t think I don’t know it.”

Martha didn’t answer, but Corth was determined to prove how effective his new programming was. “But you would enjoy the breaching more with me, Tedra De Arr.”

“No offense, Corth, but…” She paused as an unpleasant thought occurred to her. “Martha, can he be offended now?”

“No.”

A small blessing. She addressed the android again. “It’s like this, babe. I’d prefer my first sex-sharing to be with a real man. It’s an emotional thing that I want to share with someone who will feel the same emotions I will.”

“The Martha can give me emotions.”

“She’d better not,” Tedra growled, losing her patience. “Now hook yourself up to the Martha and rid yourself of the need to argue with me, or I’m going to pull your plug.”

He hesitated very briefly, but a direct order from her was still impossible for him not to obey. When he came back to her a few minutes later, she demanded, “Are you as you were before?”

“I am as you want me to be, Tedra De Arr.”

She sighed in relief. “I’m delighted. How about a game of Warfare to take my mind off this unpleasantness?”

With a nod he moved immediately to the imaging screen console to activate games mode and bring the screen out of its ceiling slot where it was stored when not in use. Since Warfare was a lifelike simulation of the real thing, played with real-looking people on a real-looking world, the game could only be played on an imaging screen. The one choice to make before the start of the game was the era of weaponry to use.

The Rover’s screen was an eight-foot square, but some screens could be hundreds of feet square, depending on their location and size of the expected audience. Since imaging screens were mainly used for story viewing, the imaging computer could create a visual portrayal of any one of the millions of ancient stories in its files, again with very real-looking people enacting the stories. Of course, all stories, even those created thousands of years ago, were updated and made modern, which was a crying shame, since seeing them in their original form would have been like seeing history come to life. But most citizens of Kystran weren’t familiar with their ancient history and had studied the modern history of the planet only since colonization, if even that. So few, if any, of the older stories would make sense to them if viewed in their original form.

Tedra took one of the six game chairs before the screen which contained controls for the few dozen games available that needed an imaging screen for play. There certainly wasn’t anything else to do aboard a Rover but amuse herself. Had she got a World Discoverer, it would have been otherwise, for she had had enough training in her three years of study with World Discovery to be able to fly the small, one-manned craft by herself. On the Rover, she was left only with the job of ambassador and trade negotiator if and when they came upon any new worlds. And she fully intended to do the job, since she wanted at least something to show for her wasted time away from Kystran. But whatever trade contracts she could secure for Kystran would not be reported for the benefit of the new Director. They would wait until Garr Ce Bernn was returned to power.