Jarvis's first impression of the Braunt as it floated into the airlock was of a giant, head-less June bug. It loomed large in the viewscreen without any physical reference for comparison, sitting flush atop a gray cushion with criss-crossing struts along its bottom surface. Once through the hatch, the struts, which were white and skeletal-looking, unfolded and extended to their full length of over a meter. Each strut terminated in three pencil-thin phalanges with nubby ends.

Per the agreed upon instructions, it reached out and plucked a black panel from the wall, a primitive auto-reader with a touchpad. The Brauntian emissary had no voice box and no way in hell was Aiken going to allow it to bring its own tech aboard. Biologicals only, that was the agreement. Naturally, the alien had been scanned while still in the outer airlock. Whatever base it rested on was not a machine.

"Where's your host?" Jarvis said as he watched the creature orient itself in low gee.

"My substrate is right here beneath me." The auto-reader read off the words in precise English as the Braunt nimbly input the text with its finger nubs. "Allow me to show you."

It raised its upper hemisphere until it was levitating above the base which was now revealed as a flounder-shaped creature with six twiggy legs. Stalk-mounted eyes were present at both the forward and back ends, which were indistinguishable aside from the fact one had a stubby mouth and the other a sphincter. It had the grayish skin of a baby rat which flexed to a rapid heartbeat, leaving no doubt that it was alive. A transparent umbilical sheath ran from a lump just behind its mouth up to the hooked beak of the Braunt. Three smaller hoses were contained within, one of them white and rubbery and the other two crimson and near-black, pulsing together in unison.

"This substrate has been genetically modified for low gravity," said the Braunt. "It possesses fine motor dexterity and visual acuity along with an efficient metabolism. One food pellet feeds it for an entire day."

"With such capable hosts as those, I wonder what use we humans could possibly be to you."

"Human physiology is sub-optimal in many regards, even in the narrow range of Earth-like conditions where it evolved," said the Braunt. "Your brains, on the other hand, greatly intrigue us."

"Our brains come as a package deal with our bodies. We're rather fond of the arrangement and would like to keep it that way."

"We do not intend to extract your brains, if that is what concerns you."

The Braunt was surprisingly adept with human speech. Could it have a micro-AI tucked away somewhere? No, Aiken would have detected it in the scans. He needed to throw it off balance if he had any hope of getting it to slip up.

"I apologize," Jarvis said. "I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Jarvis Tokay, captain of the Harbinger colonist vessel operating under the auspices of the Pan-human Consortium. I would shake your hand but physical contact is out of the question so let's call it done." He waited a few seconds for a response. "This is the part where you tell me your name and how you're king of the Braunts or something."

"My name is unpronounceable in the human tongue. Perhaps I can show you." The Braunt raised a three-fingered hand toward the mounted camera. A quick pattern of light played across the gray skin. "I am the navigation officer of a Brauntian patrol vessel."

"Well, Mr. Lightshow, looks like you drew the short straw. Honestly, do you really think you can convince me to turn over precious human lives in exchange for a hollow promise of a happily ever after in some virgin garden of Eden?"

"This garden of Eden refers to a positive subjective state?"

"Eden. Paradise. Eternal bliss," Jarvis said, relieved to find that the Braunt's encyclopedia of human knowledge might still be missing a few pages.

"We did not promise a positive subjective state in perpetuity, only an uninhabited planet conducive to human colonization."

"Sounds like the deal of a lifetime."

"That is an accurate assessment." There was no irony in the inflectionless tones of the auto-reader. "You already know something of our kind, otherwise you would not have inquired about my substrate. For the sake of expediency, I assume you are in possession of the data exchange your kind refers to as the Golden Record?"

"I know that your race are parasites that mind-control their hosts to do their bidding for them." Jarvis scrutinized the Braunt for some sign of defensiveness, but he wasn't even sure what to look for. Did Braunts even experience human emotions and, if so, how would they manifest themselves in such an alien biology that even lacked a proper face?

"Given our evolutionary origins, we are naturally predisposed to perceive each other as enemies," the Braunt said. "Your kind descended from a line of pack hunting mammals that was plagued by parasitic arthropods while our kind descended from those very arthropods. But our races have transcended their evolutionary past. Your species no longer slaughters animals for their meat and our species no longer siphons their blood without providing something of far greater value in return."

"And what exactly do you provide your pet creature there? It lugs you around on its back and does your every bidding and all for what? One food pellet a day?"

"A reliable food source is only an ancillary benefit. When we pair, the mind of the substrate gets to participate in our consciousness."

"So let me get this straight. You take over the mind of your host and then, to add insult to injury, you make them feel good about themselves for submitting to your mind-control. In other words, you brainwash them."

"I am not familiar with this term, brainwash," said the Braunt.

"You empty their minds and fill them with the thoughts you want them to think."

"We do not compel the substrate to act or think in a particular way. There is no need. Once pairing is complete, the host's mind comes to appreciate the greater depth and clarity of its new consciousness."

"That sure sounds like brainwashing to me."

"From the standpoint of a singleton organism, I can see how this would appear very strange to you. However, human physiology is arranged along similar principles. Its many parts are all managed by a mental organ located in the head, your brain. May I assume that you do not consider your feet to be a slave to your head?"

"Human feet don't possess a self-standing brain of their own."

"But this is not the case for all organs. The human digestive system contains more neurons than the brains of most Earth animals. Yet it does not participate in human consciousness any more than the foot does. It cannot decide when to nourish itself or purge its byproducts. It can only communicate intent through shorthand percepts such as hunger and thirst then patiently wait for the master brain to take action on its behalf. Have I deduced this correctly?"

"I see where you're going with this," Jarvis said, "but human organs were never independent to begin with. They evolved in tandem with the rest of our bodies as a holistic system. Our guts don't have a neocortex or any of the other brain structures necessary for feelings, abstract reasoning and self-awareness."

"Nonetheless, would you agree that it is the function and organization of the brain parts, not their physical location in the body, that creates the phenomenon of human consciousness?"

Jarvis could recognize a leading question when he heard one. "And all those thinking parts happen to be all together inside my skull, yes."

"Would it make any difference if your frontal lobe was located in your hand and your fear and pleasure center, the amygdala, in your foot? For that matter, would it feel any different if your amygdala was physically removed from your head so long as its neuronal connections remained intact?"

"I don't suppose it would. But it would still be my amygdala, the one that co-developed with the rest of my brain and bears my emotional fingerprint."

"What if your brain lacked an amygdala from birth or the original one was destroyed? Occasionally, humans are born with congenital brain defects, are they not? If a human child was missing an amygdala and the only way to restore full emotional function was to transplant it from another creature, would you object to this operation?"

"If that creature was an independent thinking being, you're damn right I would object."

"What if the amygdala could be equally shared between you and the donor creature?"

"It doesn't quite work that way for us."

"Consider a world where one species evolved an independent neocortex while other creatures evolved strong, agile bodies with rich sensory-motor complexes. The first type of creature reasons, reflects and plans but lacks the power of action. By contrast, other creatures perceive, feel and act but do so aimlessly without higher purpose, having no appreciation of wonder and beauty." The substrate reached up with its strut-like arms and pulled the hemisphere down until it was flush with the flounder-creature, appearing as a single bug-like organism once more. "Together we participate in the world and mold it to our needs and desires. We become whole."

Jarvis had to admire the power of the Braunt's argument. It had clearly been scripted to appeal directly to him—and damn if it didn't almost work. Are you buying this crock of shit? He glanced down at Tess, who was disassembling and cleaning her firearm. Yeah, me neither.