“Blink your left eye. Very good. Now close your right eye, hold it closed until I say ‘Ready,’ and then open it and smile at the same time.”

“May I speak?”

“In a moment. Ready.”

The bright blue eye opened. Thin lips drew back to reveal even white teeth. Sue Ando studied the grinning face for a few seconds, then turned to her assistant. “Now that needs attention. It’s enough to scare a Cecropian. We need an upward curve on it, make it look more friendly.”

“I’ll take care of it.” The other woman made a note on her computer scratchpad.

“May I speak?”

Ando nodded to the naked male figure standing in front of her. “Go ahead. We want to test your speech patterns anyway. And stop smiling like that — you give me the shivers.”

“I am sorry. But why are you going through all this again? It is quite unnecessary. I was thoroughly checked before I left the Persephone facility, and I was found to be physically perfect.”

“I should hope so. We don’t take rejects. But that was a month ago, and I’m checking for changes. There’s always a settling-in period for an embodied form. And you’ll be going a long way, to a place where they’ve probably never even seen an embodiment. If you run into stability problems you won’t be able to drop in to a shop for an adjustment the way you can around Sol. All right. One more test, then we have to get you to the briefing center. Look at me and lift one foot off the floor.”

As the bare foot was raised, Sue Ando stabbed with her fist at the unprotected jaw. One hand began to move up in self-defense, but it was too slow. Ando’s knuckles came into hard contact with the chin.

“Damnation!” She put her fist to her mouth and sucked at the bruised joints. “That hurt. Did you feel it?”