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memories? If he
was a companion as Carly had said, were the memories he thought
were his nothing more than programming?
    If that was the case, though, why would
he remember being a scientist? As good as artificial intelligence
was, it required a great deal of ‘learning’ in order to mimic human
behavior and the easiest, and quickest, way to go about that was to
give the computer ‘memories’ to learn by.
    Where was the logic in giving him the
memories he had, though? There was nothing there to prepare him for
interacting as a companion! He’d spent most of his life either
studying for his degree or doing his research. He’d been a loner,
had had very little time for any kind of relationship. Wouldn’t it
be more logical to give a companion cyborg more social
memories?
    It occurred to him after a while that
there was one way to know for certain whether the memories were
real and truly his.
    He could find his sister

Chapter Four

    “I think I’m losing my
mind!”
    Carly stared at Brenda in dismay, an
avalanche of guilty thoughts colliding in her mind. Brenda was more
agitated than she’d ever seen her, distressed enough that she’d
dragged Carly down to their secret meeting place in the middle of
their shift. “Why would you say that?” she asked
cautiously.
    White faced, Brenda clutched Carly’s
arms. “I thought I saw my brother, Devlin.”
    Carly had feared as much and she still
felt a shockwave of horror wash over her, felt the blood leave her
own face. She couldn’t seem to collect her thoughts with the guilt
that was riding her and come up with a response that would sound
the least bit reasonable. “You did? When? Where?”
    “It wasn’t him! It couldn’t have been
him!” Brenda exclaimed, whirling away and beginning to pace. “It
must just be that I’ve had him on my mind so much lately because
you and I have talked about him so much.”
    Carly felt a hard blush rise to her
cheeks. Fortunately, Brenda seemed too distracted to notice. She
cleared her throat, trying to get up the nerve to confess what
she’d done, but all she could think about was that Devlin had put
her in this horrible position! She knew it had to be him! And what
the hell was he doing wandering around when he was supposed to stay
in the apartment!
    Of course, she hadn’t told him he had
to, but why would he have left it?
    She hadn’t told him that he had to stay
in the apartment, but she also hadn’t given him any errands to
run!
    Because she hadn’t wanted to risk the
chance of Brenda, or someone else who’d known the real Devlin,
seeing her cyborg!
    Damn it!
    She’d known when she’d ordered him that
she was taking a huge risk. She’d managed to quiet her conscience
by convincing herself that she could keep it a secret, that Brenda
need never know.
    “Well, uh, maybe that’s it?” she
finally said a little weakly, instead of confessing like she should
have. “We’ve been talking about him a lot and you had him on your
mind and you just saw someone who looked a lot like him?
    “Or maybe not even a lot,” she added in
a rush when Brenda turned to look at her accusingly.
    “Do you know how many Arapaho are in
this colony?” Brenda snapped.
    Carly blinked at her. “Uh …
no.”
    “Me!”
    Carly felt heat flash in her face.
“Well … uh … Devlin was never here at all, right? So it couldn’t be
him.”
    “It couldn’t be him because he’s dead!”
Brenda snapped. “He died a year ago in that explosion!”
    It occurred to Carly that she was
getting in deeper and deeper. She should confess and take the
fallout she had coming to her, try to explain. Brenda was going to
find out sooner or later anyway, she told herself, trying to brace
herself for the inevitable even while still searching her mind
frantically for some escape.
    “Well … uh … I … uh ….” The stammering
didn’t help. No solution magically presented itself. The urge to
confess was nearly overwhelming, but the fear of the