Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez Page B

the ground for decades and make it functional.”
    “Well, I’m very smart,” I said. “And anyone can fix something when they have all the parts. You don’t need a genius for that. Just a skilled worker. But taking half of a broken computer and turning it into something useful…that takes talent.” I examined a few more systems. “Is there some morally questionable dilemma I’ve failed to notice from fixing an old computer? Because if there is, I’m sure you can’t wait to tell me.”
    “No, there’s nothing wrong with it,” she said. “Although if you’re doing it, I do have some suspicion that it could be wrong in some manner.”
    “You wound me, Zala. Not everything I do has a sinister purpose. Actually, nothing I do has a sinister purpose because sinister implies deceptive . And I’m never that. I’m up front about what I’ve done, and I was mostly up front when I did it.”
    “Mostly,” she said.
    “You can’t conquer a world without lying or the occasional half-truth. At least, I haven’t devised a realistic plan to do so, and if I can’t think of it, then it’s unlikely. But I do like to think I keep my deceptions to a minimum.”
    She glanced around the dim room. “Where is my battleguard?”
    I nodded toward another chamber. She marched over there to find her loyal soldiers locked in stasis. She came back with her scimitar drawn.
    “That would be a lot more threatening if you didn’t pull it out at every opportunity,” I said.
    “What did you do to them?”
    “Saved them from a death by radiation poisoning,” I replied. “I apologize if that was too presumptuous on my part.”
    “They wouldn’t have just allowed you to stick them in those pods.”
    “Oh, I wouldn’t hold it against their honor. I waited until they were too sick to put up much of a fight. One of them, the female, did give me a kick. Considering she could barely breathe, that’s probably worth a commendation or something. Bravery in the face of foolish shortsightedness or something. I assume there’s such an award on Venus, though it probably has a less accurate name.”
    “Let them out.”
    “Let them out yourself.” I paused twisting wires. “Without protection, they’ll be dead in a matter of hours. I can’t claim to understand all the nuances of your particular warrior code, so I leave it to you to decide if a pointlessly agonizing death is part of it.”
    Zala put away her sword. Her tail swished in sharp, annoyed snaps. “Will they be well?”
    “Eventually. I had to retrofit the stasis pods to cleanse radiation and repair the cellular damage. It’s a patchwork job, but if the process is uninterrupted, they should be fine in nine or ten days.”
    “That’s too long.”
    “They’re in stasis. It’ll be like a light nap for them.”
    She put her hand on her scimitar but didn’t draw. She chewed her lip. Her scales darkened.
    “And before you ask,” I said, “no, the pod won’t transform them into mind-controlled slaves. Or implant self-destruct codes in their DNA. Or turn them into living bombs. Or transform them into cannibals. Or give them an embarrassing stutter. Or any other crazy, inane evil thing you’re about to accuse me of.”
    She relaxed, though her version of relaxed always struck me as only marginally less tense, but maybe that was only while around me. “You could’ve asked me first.”
    “I didn’t think I’d need permission to save lives. And I was hoping to avoid a long, unnecessary conversation about it. The kind we just had. You’re welcome.”
    Zala’s lips barely moved as she forced a grunt through them. It was the closest I would get to a thank-you.
    I connected one last wire. “On my count, I need you to throw that switch. If you would be so kind.”
    She threw the switch. The lights went out, and the glowing green grass kept the bridge from becoming pitch black. I sorted through the multicolored tangle before me.
    “Aha.” Zala chuckled. “So even the