518 said, "We'll be to the Space Battleship in about five minutes. I'm firing the braking thrusters now to slow us down. Since this piece of junk is NOT up to modern standards and practices, we'll have to dock stern to stern with the new Shuttle on top of the Battleship." It'll be a tight fit between the aft turret and the shuttle." Chalchilaloq tittered and sighed, "THAT is your 'SPACE-BATTLESHIP'? Oh, GOD. I've folded more impressive paper airplanes than that ' piece of junk'! We are so screwed." Malbess couldn't stand it any more. She stood up and growled, "Shut UP, you bitch! If I could bitch-slap YOU without damaging Neon's body, I WOULD! I don't like you. You took over my friend's body, you disembodied, piece of alien software." Chalchilaloq turned and snapped, "I'm SO surprised! Do you REALLY think I wanted THIS? I remember the insane wrath of the Blight making try to kill my baby, and the pain of my heart being shot out through my spine by the love of my life, Aldus. The shock of my daughter staring through the hole as I slid back onto the skycycle!" "I remember it all! I wasn't trying to take Neon OVER! She had a rifle. I was trying to scare her so she'd shoot me to a final death. You can't even say it was suicide, since I was already dead for almost thirty four years by my clock." "I felt your software probes before the 'attack' on Neon as you appraised me! You are some kind of VIRUS!" Malbess bit it off in an anger, and was ready to physically ready to restrain her if she tried anything. Chalchilaloq laughed. "You stupid COW! Don't you think for an INSTANT if I was dangerous, that the Naga Security forces would have HESITATED to shoot me like a dog? The Naga of Nada Haltuu have had technical civilization for over NINE HUNDRED EIGHTY MILLION YEARS! That is almost one BILLION years!" "Tyyee the White was my adoptive mother. Her security detail knew I was driftware embeded in an organic body! No one had ever heard of such a thing! They didn't really know what would happen when I died. I wanted to live again, or die. NOT kill someone to take over their body. I must be some kind of monster. I'm sorry! You hear me? I AM sorry. I didn't want this." Malbess put a hand on her head and asked, "You expect me to believe this? I suspect you can prove that you're not Jongwe Software?" Chalchilaloq sputtered and guffawed. "You have got to be KIDDING me! That would be like YOU people coming up with Drift-ware! The Jongwe are a robotic race barely in advance to YOUR manufacture! Stone knives and bearskins CAN'T make nukes, either. I'm an eleven dimensional informational system that no one can destroy." Malbess sat down with a smug smile. "THAT isn't true. We have someone who can EAT them, destroying the intelligence nature of them. So be nice, or we feed you to our secret weapon." Chalchilaloq looked shocked. "Not even the NAGA can do that!" Malbess shrugged, "It wasn't made by the Naga. Those old Althan-Krommium human fore-runners came up with it. SO watch your ass, 'Miss high and mighty'! You're on notice." 518 asked over his shoulder, "What other species can come up with Drift-ware, or hyper-ware or whatever you are?" Chalchilaloq said, "The Naga, the Althan-Krommium, the Scourge, the 'Beings of the Crystal Flower', and the Chimers are all I know of. My species might have been made by any of them. The 'flower' people are hot-planet sulphur based species. The Chimers are a hostile hydrogen based species, very numerous, hates humans." "The Naga checked me for all of that. They even checked me for probability bombs! They didn't find anything dangerous." Malbess sat down. " ' PROBABILITY BOMBS'? What the fuck?" Chalchilaloq shook her head. "You people don't know anything, do you?" She dropped her head to her chest and closed her eyes. --TO BE CONTINUED!--