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Sonya couldn’t help but notice the empty chair next to 110. That was the other reason why she had wanted to stop off at Starbase 505 before they got their next assignment. 110 was supposed to go home to Bynaus and—if Sonya had her Bynar customs right—rebond with another. Indeed, Sonya hadn’t been entirely sure that 110 was going to even attend the meeting, though she was glad he did. He was still part of the team, after all.

The captain said, “All right, boys and girls—and Nasat and Bynar—here’s the story. We’re heading to a planet called Eerlik. The planet is entirely run by a computer called Ganitriul. It’s broken, and we get to fix it.”

“They named the computer?” said Fabian Stevens, sounding surprised.

“It’s got a personality. Might even be sentient.”

Carol Abramowitz shook her head. “And they can’t fix it . . . why, exactly?”

Turning to Kieran, the captain said, “Duffy?”

Kieran nodded, touched his padd, and an image appeared on the screen. Sonya looked up to see an image she recognized from the mission profile she’d studied before the meeting: an Eerlikka. As a rule, these teal-skinned people were short, hairless, with almost stubby arms and legs, and very wide eyes.

“Eerlik is a thriving, vibrant planet,” Kieran said, “that is technologically quite advanced—at least in some ways. They only recently started venturing into space; the Eerlikka’s focus has been more in the direction of technology-for-comfort. They’ve got very little by way of an urge to explore. They developed space travel several thousand years ago, but never bothered with it much beyond going to the moon and back. About fifty years ago, a sect went out and colonized the ninth planet in their system—”

“How come?” Carol asked.

Trust the cultural specialist to zero in on that , Sonya thought with a smile.

Kieran’s eyes went wide. “Uh—not sure, I— Hang on . . .”

And trust the engineer not to have a clue , Sonya thought with a wider smile. Luckily, she had read the entire thing, unlike her second officer. “A group of Eerlikka that call themselves the Pevvni broke off from the mainstream religion; they wanted to start over in a new place.”

Carol nodded.

“Uh, right,” Kieran said. Sonya noticed several people trying and failing to hide smiles. “Anyhow, the Federation made contact shortly after the colony was established. They weren’t interested in joining, but Eerlik has a rich supply of uridium, so a bunch of trade agreements were made.”

Kieran touched his padd again, and an image of Eerlik’s moon appeared. “For the last three thousand years or so, Eerlik has been completely run, maintained, and administrated by Ganitriul, which is a giant computer located on its moon.” As he spoke, the display slowly changed to a schematic that showed how the moon had been excavated, and Ganitriul installed. “ Everything on Eerlik is run by Ganitriul, and it hasn’t failed them once. It has some of the best diagnostic software and autorepair components that anyone’s ever seen.” He looked at 110. “Might even put the master computer on Bynaus to shame.”

“That is unlikely,” 110 said simply.

Kieran grinned for a moment, then got serious again as he went on. “Like I said, Ganitriul hasn’t failed them—until now. Nothing is working right on the planet anymore—climate controls, entertainment, communications, food distribution, planetary defense, everything. It’s complete and total chaos.”

Bart Faulwell shook his head. “That doesn’t really answer the question. What do they need us for? Surely, they can fix their own computer.”

Fabian smiled. “Not if they can’t get to it. Commander, you said that Gani . . . Gani . . .”

“Ganitriul,” Kieran completed.

“Right—that it runs everything. That includes transporters and ships, right?”

Nodding, Kieran said, “That’s it exactly. And also communications. The only reason we know there’s a problem at all is because Ganitriul itself contacted the Federation Council, asking for help. Eerlik is cut off from any useful communications, and from what Ganitriul said in its message, none