"That ship left yesterday. They got their quota and left within the hour, before any of the passengers could change their minds. We're going farther, to Sirius."
Sirius. A mighty sun, with planets to match. It was a place to be big. Big and lonely.
"I can't force you to do anything," said the robot. It sounded pleased. "But I have no inhibitions about others."
The robot flipped up its cowl. There was a storage space and a woman in it.
Except for her hands, she was bound tightly by tangle strands.
"I don't think she likes you at the moment," said the robot. "She'll tell you that as soon as she's able to speak. She may relent later, when she realizes what it's really like on Sirius. You've got the whole voyage to convince her."
The eye-stalks of the robot followed Jadiver interestedly. "Are you looking for the tongs? Remember that the tangle stuff is repelled by your skin."
Jadiver willingly used his hands and the tangle strands fell off.
As the robot had predicted, Doumya Filone was not silent—at first.