“Maybe you can explain something to me,” Sarah said. She didn’t wait for permission. “In Othar… that’s the city I came from, by the way… we’ve got an AI that runs the day-to-day. I guess it’s like the way Harmony runs this ring. Sanctuary, Equus… whatever its real name is. Our AI is supposed to be a million times dumber than yours, but… it can make all its drones act like people if it wants. Those things seem a little like our maintenance drones, but why aren’t they smarter? If our AI found someone who smelled the same but had fur instead of a shell, they’d shoot them in a second. Those changelings left me alone. They… those are changelings, right?”