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The passageway beckoned him.

Urle had always known the conditions of space life; halls and rooms and bulkheads.  He’d grown up on an eclectic science colony in orbit around Mars, and even after leaving Phobos he had only lived on other stations and served on ships.

Very rarely had he felt these conditions to be too confining.  This was one of those rare times.

Gohhi station was out there, and while it was perfectly fine in all rules and regulations for him to walk down there and out into Gohhi proper . . . he hesitated, like a child about to break a rule.

He hated that he felt this way; both the desire to go and his hesitation in doing it.

He was a man, an officer, and more machine than flesh by now.  And what he wanted to do was not technically illegal, but was frowned upon.

Taking a moment, he took a deep breath.  It was a golden opportunity to get some upgrades.  His daughters had just left Sol with the rest of the children of the Craton to rendezvous with them, and would take nearly a week to arrive.  So he’d have time to recuperate.

And the rules governing such upgrades required certain safe practices to prevent unauthorized access to his classified data and to keep out spyware.  Such things were a great danger for anyone as machine as he was, and one reason to avoid all upgrades outside of the Sapient Union . . .

But sometimes there was some pretty interesting stuff out there.  And he knew his personal defenses would fulfill all security requirements.

Which made it technically within the rules, if clearly outside their spirit.

He made up his mind.  Steeling himself, he marched onto Gohhi, telling himself that this was simply a good opportunity, that he wasn’t going to get an upgrade just as stress relief.

Others did dumb things to deal with their stress, but not him.  His augments were not crutches, but simply the best way to improve himself at this point.

The Craton‘s docking tube was long, and after the initial section he mingled with others in the debarking area.  Hundreds of people were coming and going onto the ship, and it would take time to sort through and check all arrivals as well as check out each crew member who was leaving.

The line moved swiftly, as efficiently as it could on such scales, but he still felt antsy, itchy almost, to just get out there.  The Craton felt too small now, and only getting lost in the vastness of a station like Gohhi Main would alleviate his mood.

Passing through clearance, he got onto the tram that took him the last two hundred meters to the station proper.  His system switched to Privacy Mode as he went, as was the norm on Gohhi.  No one saw who you were just at a glance, nor could you see much about them.

There was little in the way of fanfare besides a scan that tried to tailor ads to his interests – because of course the advertisers did everything to violate your privacy.  He sent out a packet of false data that would cause the system to judge him not worth the bother, and moved into the crowds.

He walked into the massive crowd, none of the people sparing him a second glance.  A transhuman cyborg was not an unusual sight here, uncounted numbers of them had come to live in Gohhi.  So long as you didn’t bother others, no one cared what you did here.

Everyone moved fast and it felt good to stretch his legs.  Gohhi Main was the largest trade hub in the territory, so most people were here for a reason – and they all wanted to get it over with and get out.

Someone fell into step beside him.  For a moment he thought it was merely coincidence, but the man matched his strides, and turned even as he did.

Looking to face him, his system scanned the face, trying to match it against the databases he had on hand, but got nothing.  No returns at all.  His hackles rose.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I am Kell,” the man said.

And Urle realized that his severe unease that had appeared as the man did was much the same feeling as he typically felt around the Ambassador.

“Really?” he demanded.  “Tell me something only Kell would know.”

The being just stared at him, judgingly, and Urle realized that it was, indeed, Kell.

“Sorry, you startled me.  What are you doing here, Ambassador?”

“I am walking with you.  Though to be honest I assumed your technology would inform you of my identity even if I appeared different.”

“You do have a system, yes?  Did it go into Privacy Mode?”

Kell looked thoughtful.  “I believe it displayed those words.”

“We’re on Gohhi Station, and they have a completely different set of standards for data sharing – they like their privacy.”

“I can understand that,” Kell said.

“The point is that I can’t just look at you or anyone and know all about them,” Urle continued.

He tried to phrase his next question carefully.  “Why is it you are accompanying me?” he asked.

“Is a reason necessary?” Kell retorted.

“I suppose not, you’re free to do what you like.  But if you want to come with me, then you could at least tell me what you want.”

“I wish to walk with you,” Kell said.

Urle sighed.  “All right.  I’m on personal business, though.  So it might be boring to you.”

“I can possess myself of patience,” Kell said, seeming almost amused.  “What is your personal business?”  Kell seemed to consider, then added; “If you do not mind sharing.”

It was surprisingly thoughtful from the being.

“I suppose I don’t mind.  I’m going to look into upgrades.”

“For your machine parts?”

“Yes, that’s right.  There’s a thriving market for such parts – and a lot of transhuman people like myself.”

“I have heard them referred to as augsons or augs,” Kell noted.

“Officially we’re referred to as augsons, yes.  It’s short for Augmented Persons.  Aug is just a nickname.”

“I see.  I would be curious to see more of them.”

“Bear in mind,” Urle said, “that they’re not always friendly to people who aren’t – well, who they think aren’t augs.”

Kell looked amused.  “I promise not to hurt them.”

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