"Miércoles," said Toledo as Feroza scrambled back. "I'm sending the slave-factors now."

Feroza could not feel disgusted by the prospect, not while she tumbled backward through the air, the mouthparts of the Dragon unfolding before her like a lethal iron lily.

"Stop," shouted Feroza, first in panic, then in determination. "Stop! I am not your enemy. I am your child." As if genuflecting, she sank onto her knees, arms stretched over her head.

The mother Dragon leaned closer, brushing Feroza with her whiskers, raking Feroza with her headlights. Had Feroza assumed the proper position? Did she look and smell enough like a Dragonlet to stimulate her child-rearing instincts?

"I am your child," Feroza said again as the mother Dragon pinned her in her headlights. Stretched her neck, caterpillar tread grinding, buzz-saw mandibles whining —

And struck out sideways at the nearest baby.

"Got you!" shouted Victor as the enslaved adult pulled the smaller mechanoid off the ground and flung it against the wall of the hangar. The head tore free from the neck, the immature wings shattered. The corpse slumped to the floor, bleeding fuel.

Something snapped at Feroza's still upraised hands. The second Dragonlet ground into view, torch-bearing mandibles extended to sever her fingers. The mother's head was above her, though, and Feroza reached for it, rising from the floor to curl her fingers around those wicked mouthparts. She held on.

"Don't," Feroza said. "Don't kill the other one."

On the other side of the Hangar, the third Dragonlet slithered over to the body of its sibling and began to feed.

"Are you all right, Feroza?"

She jerked out of her fugue, alarms still hooting in her helmet. "The mother Dragon," said Feroza. "She…attacked me." Feroza hands shook in the sweaty confines of her gloves. "Why would she do such a thing."

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"I can tell you," said Victor. "I was looking at her behavior queue and the Dragon reclassified the Feroza object from Dragonlet class to Food class and called Devour( ) on it."

"Excuse me?"

"There was one command in there, and it was to eat you, not feed you. When I deleted it, it popped back up. The only thing I could do was switch it to the little Dragon."

"Sacrificing it for nothing." Feroza breathed hard, blinking the aggravating tears from her eyes. "I know these animals, Victor. Whatever instinct was telling her to eat me, a more powerful urge compelled her to…" Feroza searched for a non-jargon word, "love me."

"Love?"

"The technical term is 'parental investment,' but I didn't think you knew it."

Victor threw up his arms. "This is ridiculous. I was looking at her active processes. It wasn't an instinct that told her to eat you. Your dependency privileges were overwritten. It's like if I zapped your brain with an electrical impulse, you'd do whatever I wanted, whatever you thought about it."

Or when your body is flooded with adrenal secretions, you want to strike out at the people trying to help you. With an effort, Feroza put aside her anger. The Dragons were predators and she looked like food. Did a lion-tamer feel betrayed when her pet bit her on the hand? Did a marine biologist cry when her favorite jellyfish stung her? Or an electronics engineer when she put her hand in the wrong place and got a shock? Feroza should feel stupid and unprofessional. Not betrayed. Not abandoned.

Victor's hand came down on her shoulder and she twitched. "Dio, Feroza, we need to fix your suit."

Feroza looked up and saw the mother Dragon and the two remaining Dragonlets had slumped to the ground. Victor must have gotten his creatures into them and commanded them to sleep. Still and steaming, the giant beasts might only have been works of oddly intricate art. Except when they were cut, they bled.

"So the question is, who zapped her brain?"

"Besides me?" Victor said. "I don't know. There's some kind of reset-override in their behavioral scripts."

Feroza took a shuddering breath, blinked tears from her eyes. "Can you un-reset them?"

"Yes, but then they will just be…eh, un-un-resetted? Re-reset?" Victor's fingers twiddled. "I think I'd better get to work on building those walls. Get that pleasure dome of yours constructed, hey?"

Feroza turned away from the Dragons, toward Victor. "That sounds lovely," she said. "How can I help?"