[i]I've never had a hubris of my own before.[/i]

It's a strange thing for her mind to latch onto, no? Such a small detail to focus on, and probably patently incorrect to boot. She, Alexa, had brought down the wrath of a god on an Empire. She, the scion of Molech and Athena, had singlehandedly destroyed an empire spanning the galaxy. She's known for centuries that she was the Warsage's downfall, but she hadn't realized that it had happened so [i]early![/i] Not even in ignoring the rituals, or in performing them wrong, but in believing that Aphrodite didn't--

But so long as she's focusing on that, she can put off thinking who told her to believe that in the firs--

No. Don't. There's not enough time for--just focus on the present, okay? Like the two--no, four? Call it four robots. Two. She can do two. Caval and--shit, what did she say her name was, did she say her name? You should be [i]good[/i] at this, you got training specifically in remembering people at court, you [i]useless--[/i]

How is a Pisel-class loader even sentient? You don't need to give a crane a big brain--just enough to move to location A, recognize target B, and figure out the best path to move it to location C. You expect her to believe that in two hundred years, she--it?--[i]she[/i] had just, just, [i]decided[/i] it was going to be something different? Is that even possible? You are what you are, you don't just--

Caval gives her an encouraging shove, and she staggers against the crane's dangling hook. "But I have a girlfriend," she very carefully does not say. A), it's not true. Not yet, at least. B), if it [i]were[/i], that's exactly the thing you should never tell somebody who has a grudge against you.

One wide-stretched eye flits to Caval, and then up, up the crane. They're really serious about this, aren't they?

She takes one hitching, heaving breath, and sits in the hook of the crane like it's a swing, lets it haul her up to eye level. "It is," she hesitantly decides, "a pleasure? To meet you?"