Free Star Vigilante (Vigilante Series) by T. Jackson King

console, and the standard eco-comforts—all apparently safe. Suit stepped inside, taking the rear benchseat.
    One and a half seconds .
    “—you going to enter? Oh.”
    One and three quarter seconds had passed since ocean-time .
    “Step-down,” he mentally ordered Suit.
    His senses slowed now, much the way one feels a slow turn around a roadway corner in an old-style surface conveyance. Centripetal force seemed so endless in such things. Matt blinked, clearing his faceplate for politeness’ sake.
    Eliana sat down opposite him on the front benchseat, long legs pulled up underneath her. Her eyes shied away from him, focusing on a mid-air advertising holo. The hatch shut and the taxi jerked forward.
    Time to find out how provincial she really was. And time to ask some direct questions. “Eliana, why are you so secretive with me? You’re the Patron, I’m the Vigilante. If I’m to do good work for you and your brother, you should be more confiding.”
    She faced him, her look guilty. “I know. You’re right. But . . . secrecy is a way of life among the Halcyon Greeks. All we can count on are those of our Clan, and even family may use you, may make you a tool for their purposes.” She looked down at her lap, where she’d interlaced her fingers. “I . . . I thought my task was just to find a Vigilante and bring you here. But in being away from home, apart from the Derindl and my Clan, I’ve learned how uncontrolled life really is.” She looked up, her face a flood of mixed emotions. “I miss my Derindl Nest-mates. I miss the Mother Tree. And yet, I’m finding it hard to think of leaving your company.” She smiled awkwardly. “There, I’ve shared one of my secrets.”
    Matt winced as her comment re-awoke vain wishes. This probing of motivations cut both ways. Time to change vectors. “Eliana, what did you want to be when you grew up? Before you chose to be a scientist?”
    She looked surprised, then shy. “I . . . I wanted to be a teacher. Like my teachers at the Kostes Palamas school. It’s a school for crossbreeds, in Olympus. I spent half my early years there, half with my Nest-mates at Mother Tree Corinne. “
    “Why a teacher?”
    She bent her head. “Because they liked me.”
    “And your Greek Clan neighbors? They didn’t like you?”
    “They were Pure Breed human,” she said flatly, eyes rising and fixing again on him. Aware once more of how he led her. “There was always a distance in how they treated me. A certain wariness.”
    “Like the Pericles group?”
    She half-smiled, as if she relished his testing of her. “Not like them. Like normal people who fear what is different from them. Blood ties help. But they didn’t make me the same as them.”
    “And the pure Derindl?”
    Eliana shrugged, averted her eyes a moment as the tube taxi whooshed through a curve, then fixed back on him. “They were kind to me. They let me roam across the many trunks of the Mother Tree, between school sessions.” Her look became intent. “And you, Vigilante. Why did you choose to become a cyborg?”
    Good. A counterstroke, even if the move was rather obvious . “Lots of reasons.”
    “Tell me.”
    “No.”
    She looked confused, then irritated. “Hey. That’s not fair.”
    “Right.”
    Stiffness covered her face. “You enjoy teasing me, showing me that I’m oh so provincial. Don’t you?”
    “No, I don’t.”
    Her disbelief shouted through Suit’s armor. She eyed him sharply. “I think you’re afraid to admit how inhuman you’ve become.”
    Ummm. Not bad. A bit tough, even. He swallowed. “That’s irrelevant.”
    She slapped the benchseat. “That’s not fair!”
    “Exactly.”
    Keen intelligence shone through her anger. “Explain, please.”
    Once more, he admired her ability to put aside her local bias against cyborgs and engage with him. “Patron Themistocles, life is not only uncontrollable, it is not fair. You should not expect fairness in this life. Especially not from