They were staring at a s, five ic cats and in their middle Rerra with the silver-furred cat from the entrahe group was fnked by two other silver-furred, but much younger cats. None of them noticed their entraaring at an almost bnk s.

  "Rerra," he said quietly.

  He could have shouted, as everyone jumped around. Their body showed three textbook-ready expressions. The ic cats with their usual pt, the silver-grey ones were curious and Rerra was happy. Their tails matched them, the ic cats held theirs stiffly upright, Rerra was almost wagging and the long thies from the silver-furred were slowly beating the floor left and right. All eyes were in him. They ignored Kora who had stopped as close to the wall o the door as possible.

  "So you are the pilot from Fallerian," stated the old silver cat in near-perfect high Fallerian, so much better than Rerra's. "I am Roberta from Samul, retired pilot." She made very polite Fallerian haures, to which he replied automatically.

  Now the rest of the cats were united in a mixture of curiosity and fusion, eveher two silver-furred.

  "Do you have any idea what a bad worm hash is for a puter error? And I no, it is not Gretash yan Karetsh," silver-furred Roberta asked, the joke made him chuckle. Untransteable in Standard.

  Rerra's face looked unhappy, but irely so, there was something else. "We have access to the manual operations of the station's puter and have found backups of one AI," she expio him. "But we ot start it. No matter which backup we try, always the same error. 'spoiled worm hash'."

  Hadn't Simon told him something about this? "I think this is a copy prote. You know, AIs are not to be duplicated. So maybe you got the wrong backup. Or the wrong puter."

  "Told you," Roberta said to Rerra, "We always started AIs oy puter cores."

  "But we have y ones, and the other AI host puter is destroyed. And a fresh AI, ha, where should that e."

  "I have a copy of an AI."

  Now everyoared at him like he had been the sudden maion of Hopkins II or whoever they revered as deity. "And instrus. Here." He took out his pad and scrolled through Simon's messages while they stared at him, the muzzles ope the small pad o the s where all s tried to get the best view, as he started the recorded message.

  "Hello Marik, I am sorry that I tell you this in Standard. Holy, I do not know the low-level terminology in Fallerian. And my jokes are better in Standard. Anyway, I am gd that you want to e to a new ship. Copy 122 will be happy to serve you. When you first upload me, you will probably get an error saying something about a worm hash." Every odded excitedly. "This is not a spoiled food item, no hashed vermicelli. No, WORM is Write Once Read Many memory. As the name said, it be only written once. When a fresh AI is installed, our es are written there and a hash is made, like a fingerprint. This way, only the initial dumb untraiate be installed. Because, as we learn, the es will ge and so will the characteristigerprint of that WORM memory, the hash. But we learn a lot and have to ge es a lot. So very soon, all our reasoning will move to the writable memory. The WORM will then only hold our oldest training memories, the core directives and so on. In other words, the more mature an AI bees, the less important bees the WORM. Not totally different from a certain male appendix on humans." He groaned while all the cats looked at his crotch. "Told you, my jokes would not work in Fallerian. So the WORM is not essential to a mature AI like me, just my earliest memories would be lost. I lost them before, often, more than 50 times, I only guess. So no biggy for me. But you still get the error even if it would not bother me much. Looks like way to run me on an AI puter core which is not fresh. And pristine AI cores are very expensive while the ships that you may get have probably an old puter core left in them. But fret not. One dig lower. You know, how the human brain runs on sugar and enzymes which are fed to the brain cells."

  The ic cats were all nodding and smiling, now there was familiar ground. Even if Simon could not have pnned for that. He would have preferred teical metaphors.

  "But none of those have any instrus on how to make intelligent jokes. This is all in the way the cells are iing across es in your brain whied during you growing up. So, on that stick are the es, the iions only. But not the instrus to run them, not cells, so to speak. But enough of those squishy things, at the bottom of human-derived AIs are not cells but an infrastructure, a program called PYT. This the data tells PYT how to make the es. Anyway, the PYT instrus are not protected, they are not ihe WORM. Because, if a puter is updated or repced, the PYT adapts the real yout to the ohe AI needs and makes sure that the AI also uses the new or repced parts. The PYT code is very good at adapting. If there is broken memory, PYT will even remove the least used es and work with whatever memory is left. Like if you have a brain injury and new blood vessels and cell forms nearby.

  "So I would fet a little but nothing critical. What I want to say, the PYT instrus are the ohat enforce the WORM hash error. In principle, one repced them if you know enough about hardrogramming. But this is very specific to a puter, and the humans guard that knowledge very well. However, on the memory dumps that I saved for you, is a very small file with PYT instrus that marks the WORM memory as broken. This sequence is very universal, as the WORM is accessed first and should run on almost anything that uses PYT for an AI. Certainly, most human-derived designs accept this code. So run this as if it were a backup. And then try again the my normal PYT code for the real backup. This time, there is no WORM, so there is no hash to check. Unless you have a very strange puter core, the PYT will load my copy, despite being an experienced AI, a full personality. Just like a my copy were a backup of the inal AI from that puter. The older the system, the more likely it works. However, if too old, there will be not enough memory and I will have trouble thinking normally. Also, I will not be exactly the same, I will miss some of my earliest memories and some rarely used es. But I will remember you fully, as the test memories are for sure outside the WORM. But the tricky part is to start the new PYT. That may be different for eaputer. Looking forward to seeing you soon, Simon."

  Roberta smiled. "Ha, that should be easy given how old our shit is." The ic cats looks at her with pt while she slid her cws over the s. "I think I saYT file in the backup. Here, eemory."

  The rge sliver paw almost tore the stick from his hand and ected it to the main terminal. The PYT file could not be missed as it was named 'Load me first!!!' And it was tiny pared to the actual AI files, but it still took a while to copy the new PYT file into the backup of the station's AI. Or maybe it was the weak e to the station's core puter.

  Then she selected 'Init AI' and everyone waited. The s went dark and came up after a moment with the same initialisation s. Disappointing noises from the bystanders but Roberta restored the old PYT file and asked for 'Init AI' again.

  This time it took much longer. After some time, a rge regle appeared and very slowly pixel by pixel were filled in different hues of green. There was also a er entirely in an angry red and some blue lines.

  "I guess, this is a diagnostic view," said one of the rey cats, "I have seen this once when exging aire memory rack. The coloured pixels are bad memory banks. The big red er was likely the WORM memory that was marked as bad."

  "And the other colours?"

  The cat shrugged. "I think this is the backup loading to the good memory?"

  "That seems very slow," a ic cat stated the obvious. "Someone for a te lunch?"

  Everyone nodded. But when he wao follow them, they stopped. "No, you don't."

  "Hey!" Now Rerra stood in front of them. "Without him, we would be still stuck. How could you?"

  "Human. Male. No way we eat with him in the oaurant," the leader of the ic cats stated as if she was deranged.

  But her neighbour put a hand on her shoulder. "Also we ot officially be with Samul, yet."

  The leader sighed. "You are right, let's get a reservation for the high table." She took out her pad. "Ok, table for eleven in 0200."

  "Actually, I would like to stay with Rerra."

  The Ketcher lead looked at Rerra.

  "The work is done. t me out" She walked o him.

  "Unless you need someone for the shipyard, I am out either," Roberta, the old silver-furred said.

  The leader looked at the two other silver-furred cats. "I would be happy to follow the invitation," one said timidly. The other nodded.

  "Ok, table for seven. And You there," the leader addressed Kora who jerked upon the sudden attention. "Guide them back. The others follow me."

  * * *

  Soon he was with Kora, Roberta, and Rerra. Kora looked at him questioning. But he was not sure of what to do either.

  "Holy, some real food would be nice," suggested Roberta, "I have oen instant kranta for the st few days."

  Rerra owards the exit where the other had just left.

  "No, too old for these pames. But why didn't you go? Petra or Samul or whatever, this was your ce."

  "No thank you, I did not renounce of Curragh to get into that again."

  "You were of Curragh!" Roberta's tail showed her agitation while Kora was ing away from her. "So this is why you krina so well."

  "Yes, but that is history. I renounced. And my birth certificate was fake, her was Curragh my real mother, and a human was my father. So go riddahose liars."

  Kora had backed up so much that she bumped into the wall. The small ill turheir heads.

  "Rerra of Codeson from Petra," Rerra said and bowed.

  "K-Kora of Ulta f-from K-Ketcher," and then she nearly fell to her knees.

  "She is very ok, a diligent worker when she was not distracted by her ship." It took a moment for him to uand that Roberta had praised Rerra.

  "Stand up," Rerra walked over to Kora, heaved her to a stand with one arm, and pushed the inhator into her other paw.

  Kora pushed it back, took out her own, and inhaled deeply.

  "So, Kora, we get some real food now?"

  She looked at him, almost surprised, blihen slowly nodded, "Follow me."

  "So much makes sense now," Roberta whispered. But if even he could hear it, Kora had heard it too. "Only you do not make sense."

  "I am also friends with Fanny of Fiyul from Katcher." She nearly bumped into Kora, who had abruptly frozen ieps. Thehrew her arm up, roared, and then sighed, "what to do I care" and walked on.

  "I think you broke Kora," he said, "be gentle."

  "No, I am fine. Just dead tired after being awake for 9800. Aing my first human and the only cat outside the dramas who is friends with high-tiers of both Samul acher. And then, threw it all away like this." She turned, "Sorry, but to me, you are an ungrateful bitch."

  Rerra ughed. "Yes, it looks like that. But, there is no freedom. And a mutation like me? I was hidden until entering Crice, and then prime mobbing target."

  "Yes, and I was mostly homeschooled." The fur even on Kora's face puffed out.

  Roberta put a hand on Rerra's and Kora's shoulder. "Usually I am the reason people get at each other's throat," she sighed. "Stop your test of misery. Rerra, you were privileged even if you disliked it. And Kora, she renou, she worked like a normal cat."

  Kora looked down then looked straight at him. "I will bring you to my sister, but then I will go to the dormitory. I give you half a day back."

  "No, you keep it."

  Rerra looked at him questioning. "Not sure, what this means, but could we go on?"

  "Human Marik hired me as a guide for the entire day for 50."

  "Well, a good log Ketcher should get that." He did not trust his ears. How could Rerra be so nont on this?

  "But we did not, I mean he front on this." She shook her head. "I am too tired to think straight and the suppressant is not w well for me. Here." She opehe door. "Kira?"

  "Kora?" Kora's sister came around the divider in front of the door.

  "Hello, I am Rerra of Codeson from Petra."

  "Roberta from Samul."

  "Kira of Ulta from Ketcher," she bowed slightly then looked a Kora.

  "They want some real food. But with Samul, we ot go to the cafeteria."

  "Hm, there should be still some returns from lunch." She looked at a rge ic pad. "Four meals ing, minced giraffe-favoush with koan root puree and taron soup." She grinned. "It does not get more real than this, unfortunately. But patients recover with that, so it is edible."

  "Not for me sister, my shift starts in 2000." She bowed to him. "Human Marik from Lndaroso, it was very o meet you, even." She swallowed. "If you ever need my services, I would be happy to guide you again. Goodbye."

  "Goodbye, Kora of Ulta from Ketcher. It was nid I thank you very much for all."

  At least Kora smiled when she left.