The pod's outer hatch closed with a sullen hiss. The techs disappeared from view as the bay doors slid open. The vacuum of space sucked the pod outside, and Harlin terminated the transmission when the pod vanished into the coiled darkness between the stars. She looked over at him. "Some claim it's inhumane, I know. A virtual execution is what the bleeding heart protestors call it. But every deportee is given sufficient raw material and food to survive a lifetime. They wanted to do their own thing, and all we do is give them more space than they could ever dream of using. If they've got to do it alone, whose fault is that?"

Anger fueled his response. "You've got no right to bother me like this."

She said mildly, "Station regs say I do. Warrant says I can. Better study up on your social contract theory, George."

"What the hell do you people think I did? All I do is go to work, come home, play with an occasional sim, and go to bed. I don't bother anybody, or piss in public."

"Indignant outrage. Very good. I expected it earlier." Frigid green eyes bored into him. "Here's how this is going to work. I'm going to tell you what happened, and you're going to link it up for me. Clear?"

"Yes." Whatever she had, she thought it was good. No programmable attorney in a box could save him if he didn't cooperate fully with her investigation. He knew that much.

She said, "We start yesterday afternoon. A computer programmer from sector 72 is called out of normal rotation to fill in for his coworker Lori Valis, a young woman who became ill quite unexpectedly. Now, this programmer wasn't Valis' normal backup for her interaction with the energy grid, but her usual alternate just happened to have left two days ago for a vacation off-station. Got that so far?"

George mumbled, "I don't know anybody named Valis."

She ignored the interruption. "The programmer messes up. The tech heads are still trying to decipher his actual error, but the short version is, the grid fried him. Burnt toast. You know what happened then?"

"I'm not a programmer."

"Don't sound so defensive. I'll give you a couple of hints. The sector system is designed to shut down upon the entrance of any unknown particles into the grid. Once the programmer expired, he qualified as an unknown particle."

George realized she expected him to respond. "Okay, the system shut down. What's all this have to do with me?"