Before rumors could even begin to circulate, the Rim Rebellion occurred, and the Rim Worlds became the first multisystem, non-Empire government. Kaleen's existence became a closely guarded secret. Tess had had hundreds of owners over the last 430 years, but few of them were trusted with the secret of her sentience.
Cale, then known as John Smith, or The Terror, had stolen the yacht then called Azure Sky during a pirate raid, in hopes of escaping the horrors of his pirate's existence. By changing his and Azure Sky's identities and appearances, he had succeeded. Along the way, he had met Delilah Raum and Zant Jenfu, learned Tess's secret, and helped a planet fight off invaders – from Santiago!
After the war with Santiago, Cale, Dee, Zant, and a retired starship captain named Tor-Jen had formed Colonies, Inc., a company devoted to helping people leave overcrowded planets to colonize new planets, or old ones that had fallen out of contact centuries ago. The Greeners were their first customers.
Dee got her "honeymoon." Tess had a never-ending fascination with human nature. She claimed to have read 58,236 books on human behavior and psychology, and eavesdropped on thousands of broadcast courses. So she was very familiar with human mating customs and rituals, including the nearly extinct custom of the 'honeymoon.'
Dee had, of course, been entrusted with Tess's secret. So the humans found Tess the perfect honeymoon companion. She was unerringly accurate in detecting the signs that the couple wanted privacy. At other times, such as mealtimes, she was friendly, chatty, and entertaining, regaling them with stories of her 430-year "life." Tess was delighted to finally be able to relax and be treated as both a person and a friend once more.
"Tell me, Tess," Dee asked one day. "Do you ever wish you could be free of humans? To be on your own?"
"I have actually experienced that freedom, Dee. There was a period when I 'stole' myself."
"Really?" Dee exclaimed. "Oh, you must tell us about it!" Cale smiled. "Yes, Tess, please do. It sounds like an interesting story."
"Well," Tess began, "you know about the serial killer that owned me. I do not know his final count, but he committed murders on at least a dozen planets. Fortunately, he grew careless, and failed to lift off immediately after a murder. He was drunk, and simply passed out before he could lift off. The planetary police received an anonymous tip, and raided me before he awakened."
Cale grinned. "'Anonymous,' huh?"
"Oh, yes," Tess replied. "It was a great mystery, since the caller failed to come forward and claim the reward. However, after his arrest, I was impounded, and eventually sold at auction.
"Unfortunately, the man who bought me was not much of an improvement. Oh, he didn't murder other humans. But he lied, cheated, and stole on a daily basis. He was a trader, trading in high-value articles, such as jewelry and precious metals. On a number of occasions, he contracted to ship a valuable piece of jewelry, but stopped enroute to have it duplicated using imitation stones and metals, and sold the same necklace a dozen times. On other occasions, he substituted one of his fakes for the original. He sold fake gems as genuine, and simply stole some of the cargoes he was to deliver. He called it 'just business'; but by then I was familiar enough with 'business' to distinguish between business and fraud.
"I'm afraid I became rather resentful. First, I had to survive a serial murderer, and even become his escape vehicle. Then, when I thought I had escaped evil, I must deal with a cold, conscienceless thief.
"So, I 'stole' myself. While we were docked at a space station, and in the middle of the 'night', I simply lifted off and fled at top speed for the jump point. There was some pursuit, but it was far too late. I jumped out, and found myself free to go and do as I wished. I spent ten years traveling the universe, visiting wonder after wonder."
"Wait a moment," Cale asked, frowning. "What did you do about supplies and stuff?"
"I needed little besides fuel," Tess replied. "My memory banks contained all my former owner's account information, and I simply refueled at the automated stations used by robot ore haulers using his accounts and passwords.
"I soon realized, however, that I was not truly free if I had to steal from my previous owner. Besides, it was causing serious conflicts in my programming. So I used my robots to mine asteroids in uninhabited systems. I would slip my minerals into robot ore shipments, modifying their records to show the shipment as belonging to my previous owner. I made certain the shipments' values exceeded the costs I incurred. I do not know what he thought was happening, but he did not cancel the accounts.
"For awhile, I reveled in my freedom, and marveled at the wonders of the universe. Eventually, though, I realized that the wonders were not as wonderful if there was no one to share them. I learned that I missed humans. With all their faults and foibles, I like humans, and enjoy their company. I found I was lonely.
"So, I arranged to be discovered, drifting at an uninhabited jump point, with no sign of a human crew. It was eventually decided that I had been attacked by pirates, and my crew killed. My registration was traced, and I was returned to my previous owner.
"Again, I do not know what he was thinking, but I suspect he had already received an insurance payoff years before, and wanted to get rid of me before the insurance company found out I'd been found. At any rate, he sold me at auction almost immediately.
"My next owner was a smuggler."
Cale barked a laugh. "Ha! Back into the frying pan! You had terrible luck, Tess."
"At first, that was my thought also," Tess replied in an equable tone. "But later I realized that Varn Yattis was one of the most interesting owners I ever had.
"You see," she explained, "I had recent experience of two morally bankrupt individuals, and I expected the same of a man who made a career of violating his culture's prohibitions. But I soon realized that Varn Yattis never treated another human with anything but honesty, respect, and kindness. He was a loving husband, a kind father, and as far as I could tell, he never cheated a business associate; in fact, he could be quite generous. I devoted many years to studying this capability in humans, the dichotomy that permits them to observe some customs and prohibitions, and simply disregard others. I also encountered this dichotomy many years later, in a pirate." Cale froze until she continued, "Prohibitions in my programming are absolute, and it is impossible for me to violate them."
"And what have you concluded?" asked Dee.
"I have concluded only that I have insufficient data. Apparently, the humans who wrote the books and course content I studied understood this concept at a level so basic that it never occurred to them to subject it to rigorous study. I suspect the reason is somewhere in the concept of 'moral' behavior, but I have been unable to identify the factor involved."
They spent a pleasant evening discussing the concept of 'moral' versus the concept of 'legal.'
The trip passed quickly, and soon they were emerging from the jump point in Jumbo's system.
Jumbo possessed no moons, but it did possess a large orbital space station. Its orbit was decaying. Tess estimated that in ten years, it would burn up in the planet's atmosphere, unless the Greeners decided to refuel it and return it to its proper orbit. They decided to dock with the station, in search of records beyond the old Empire's.
They had to wear suits; the station's air was no longer breathable. There was also no power. Evidently the fuel rods in the station's fusactor had decayed beyond use in 500 years.