The few weeks were much the same for Alexander. His only er was the single guy from before. At first, he didn’t mind. Work was work and he was still making money, even if it wasn’t much.

  But after the man came in for the sixth time with a pletely different po, Alexaarted to get suspicious. So he paid to look up the po numbers. Every siem the man had brought him came from maery used in various tasks.

  That in itself wasn’t all that strange. Except he had worked with Yuri long enough to get the feeling when people weren’t being pletely ho. So after he finished fixing up this test po, he followed the man.

  It wasn’t hard, the man grunted and cursed the entire way as he struggled to carry the heavy item back to wherever he was going. Which turned out to be another repair shop.

  From within a side passage, Alexander watched as a man in e coveralls ehe shop an hour ter a with the very same part he had just repaired on a cart. The guy had been subtrag out his repair work to Alexander and pocketing all the profit. The nerve!

  He wao go over there and have a word with the man, but that wouldn’t get him anywhere. Instead, he turned around and headed back to his tiny repair shop. As good as it would feel to tell the guy off, he had a better idea. Ohat might drum up some actual work.

  Two days ter, the guy returned with aem to repair. Alexander happily repaired it, but he did it in such a way that it would break almost immediately after the first use. It was scummy, but it was also his only real option. He doubted the sleazy shop owner would tinue using him if he raised his prices, aill he money. But if the man was ruined by his own shoddy work, well, that was on him.

  Had the man bothered to disclose that this work was for a third party, that would have been fih him. Alexander would have iated a better rate at that point. But the shop owner hadn’t. It was clear the man who ran the peting repair shop didn’t want to pay his fair share or do the work himself. So he found a sucker to do it for him. Alexander didn’t like being taken advantage of o.

  It took time, weeks in fact for the faultily repaired items to e back to haunt the repair man. But haunt him they did and Alexander was there to withe whole event. A group of angry people stomped into the man’s shop and started screaming at the owner.

  Just as the discussion was really gettied, Alexarode past, making sure the owner spotted him. Just as he hoped, the man poi him. “I wasn’t the one who fixed your items, it was him!”

  The group turo gre at Alexander, and he paused. One of the men in the group stomped up to him. “Are you the one w for Maxim that did such shoddy work?”

  He poio himself. “Me?”

  “Well… whoever is trolling you,” the bearded man spluttered.

  “No. I don’t work for– Did you say, Maxim? No, I own my own repair shop just down the corridor.” He gave the group the location number. “If you are having issues with his work, perhaps I i you in my own. I offer excellent rates and a money-back guarantee.”

  As he was talking to the bearded gentleman, Maxim was turning red and throwing out all sorts of accusations to try and discredit him. But it was clear that the crowd's i in the owner had turned. After three years aboard this station, Alexander could say ohing with certainty, the people that lived here were a pragmatich.

  “’t be any worse than this shyster,” the bearded man jerked a thumb back over his shoulder. “If you do good work, I may have even more for you iure.”

  Alexander flicked a finger, causing his holographic face to nod. “Would you like me to follow you or will you be dropping off the item?”

  Surprisingly, that simple question got more ihan the fact he ood rates and a money-back guarantee. But the other people weren’t quite sold just yet. They were shrewd people.

  One woman crossed her arms. “Pick up and delivery included?” she asked with a stern gaze.

  “For a small additional fee.”

  That seemed to be the crack that broke the dam. These people were all busy men and women. If they didn’t o lug heavy parts around the station, they could get much more dohey all exged taformation with him a up a time for him to e get the broken pos before hurrying back to their respective jobs.

  After the st of the group left, Alexauro an apoplectic Maxim. “If you hadn’t tried to screw me over, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  The man didn’t apologize, he simply turned redder. “One of these days, that robot of yours is gonna need fixing. And when that day es, I’ll make sure there isn’t a single shop on this station that will even sider helping you!” After his hate-filled tirade, the man smmed the door to his shop and locked it.

  Alexander ughed internally. Iime he had been on this station, he hadn’t seen a single piece of tech eveely resembling him. So he doubted anyone on this station would be capable of fixing him. Not that he trusted anyoo fiddle with the thing keeping him alive for the st nearly four hundred years.

  One of the reasons he spent most of his extra money on schematics was he hoped one day to stumble upohat might hint at his ins.

  With a smile on his avatar’s face, he turned and headed to pick up his first real repair.

  ***

  After the blowup at Maxim’s, Alexander acquired a det bit of extra work. It wasn’t enough to keep him busy all the time, but it allowed him some breathing room and time to work on some projects of his own.

  It was during one of these tinkering sessions that he noticed the head of a little girl peeking from around the entry to his shop. He didn’t turn his head or aowledge the child as he tio work.

  There were a surprising number of kids left to just roam the sed ring without supervision. But given what he knew of the sed ring, he shouldn’t be all that shocked. Nobody lived on this ring willingly. They either fell on hard times or they couldn’t make it on the higher rings. Not that he could judge these people, he was in the same situation after all.

  Alexander had seen other kids peeking through his door from time to time over the st weeks. He got it, he was a robot, something of i. Most of those kids were in and out in a fsh as soon as he even slightly turned in their dire. Almost like someone had dared them to do it and they were terrified of the sequences if he caught them. He wondered what they would think if they knew he saw everything.

  This little girl seemed to be different. She just stood there silently for a bit, staring at him with a look of wide-eyed curiosity only a child could show.

  He sighed audibly, making the girl jump slightly. “ I help you, Miss?”

  He thought the kid might bolt, but instead, she threw her arm inside and grabbed the doorframe and sort of hung there in the doorway, arms outstretched a against the wall. “Is it true you snatch up naughty kids and devour them?”

  The question was so absurd that it caused Alexao miss the circuit he had been s, ruining the entire board. “What! Who told you that?” He finally turo face the girl as she swung bad forth in and out of the doorway while holding the frame.

  “Markus said so. He's one of the older kids in the orphanage. Said you eat naughty children.”

  Orphans? Well, that expined why nobody cared what the kids got up to.

  “And what if I said it was true?” He didn’t have anything against children, he just thought there were better pces for them to be pying than around his shop.

  The girl paused in her swinging and put a fio her mouth as she sched up her fa thought. Then she shook her head, her dark hair swirling around. “Nuh uh, I wouldn’t believe you,” she stated with vi.

  “So you think I’m lying or that Markus is?”

  She sched her face up again but didn’t seem to have an answer for that. Then he saw her grin befiggling. “You ’t eat children!” she screamed in triumph. “No mouth!” Then she ughed and bolted down the corridor.

  Alexander sighed. He should have just remained quiet, now he was certain this girl or her friends would be bugging him even more.

  ***

  He o add prophetic to his resume. Each day after, the girl returned. Most of the time she would just hang around in the doorway, literally. Other times she would creep inside his shop and lean against the wall, just watg him until she got antsy a.

  Sometimes she was quiet, but most of the time she jabbered on and on about everything as kids seemed to do. It didn’t seem to matter to her o that Alexander simply ignored her preseil she finally left.

  One hing was that no other kids seemed to e to try their luck. Whether he had her to thank for that or not was unclear.

  He had beeed to shoo the girl away, but he learned a surprising amount about the station or at least the sed ring from this child. And he didn’t even know her name.

  After three weeks of her stant chatter, he finally decided to interrupt her and ask. “What’s your name?”

  The young girl didn’t even miss a beat. “Yulia. I’ll be this many this year!” He looked over to see the girl holding up eight fingers.

  Alexander didn’t have a good grasp on child biology, it seemed to be among his missing memories, but she seemed small for her age.

  “Tell me, Yulia, why do you hang around here? Certainly, there must be more iing pces to be?”

  She giggled. “You talk funny.” She somehow mao shake her head as she said that. “The other kids are afraid of you. They say I’m a scaredy cat cause I get nightmares. But they don’t call me that no more 'cause I stay here.”

  Ah, the fwless logic of children.

  “Fine. You may tio visit.”

  The girl squealed in delight and Alexander had to hold his hand out to settle her. “But if yoing to be here, you o help me.”

  If the girl nodded her head any faster, Alexander was sure the thing would have flown off her shoulders. But then she paused, seeming to realize she had no idea what sort of help she could offer.

  Alexander smiled, a it show on his holographic face. “You attend some sort of study or schooling?”

  She nodded again. “Mrs. Weber is teag us the alphabet and I add and subtraumbers.” Then she looked around spiratorially before whispering. “I even mullyply. Only the older kids are supposed to be learning that.”

  “That’s very impressive. Do you know any history?”

  She nodded.

  He walked around from behind his ter, carrying a stool he had printed for her a ferior. He hadn’t put it out until now because he didn’t want to ence her to hang around. But if she could be helpful, that was a different story.

  Alexander set the stool o the side of his ter. “Have a seat and tell me what history you know.”

  Giving a young kid like this carte bo talk was like opening the floodgates on a dam.