THE FIRST

Asha had been loading cargo when the ship responded to her.

There was no light, no sound, no sensation she could have described to anyone in a way that would have made sense. One moment she was working — moving sealed containers from the dock transport to the lower bay, doing the job she had been doing for three years — and the next moment something was present in the back of her awareness that had not been present before. Just a quality of attention, aimed at her from somewhere nearby, something that had been searching for a long time and had just found what it was looking for.

She looked at the Ketheri ship docked at bay four. She had worked around Ketheri ships her entire adult life and had never given this one particular attention. It was giving her particular attention now.

She finished her shift, went home, went to bed, and told herself it was the kind of thing that happened when you were tired. The next morning the feeling was stronger. She changed her route to work. She stayed late two nights running. On the third morning she took the route past bay four anyway, because she had spent thirty-one years making decisions by facing them rather than by looking the other direction.

The Ketheri liaison found her three days later.

"The ship has indicated a preference," he said.

"I do not know what that means," she said.

"The ship at bay four has been observing the personnel on this station. When a ship of its kind identifies a person compatible with a specific role, it signals. We have been attempting to establish a bond between that ship and a person for a long time, and that bond has not held with anyone we selected. The ship selects differently than we do."

"And it selected me."

"Yes."

"I am a cargo handler. I am not a pilot. I am not a soldier."

"The ship does not explain its preferences. It indicates them. We follow them. That is how this has always worked."

"What is the bond? What does it actually do?"

"It connects you. The ship's systems and your awareness become linked. You perceive what it perceives. You operate together. The connection has been attempted before and has not held. We do not fully understand why. The ship chooses differently than we do."

"What happens if I say no?"

"You can say no. But the ship will wait. And it will keep indicating its preference until the preference is honored or until the circumstances no longer permit waiting."

She thought about it for a week. She walked to bay four on her lunch break and stood at the viewport looking at the ship. The feeling was there every time — steady, patient, not demanding anything from her, just present. On the fifth day she sent Serath three questions. Her position would be held. Her choice at every step. No one else knew. On the seventh day she said yes, because the feeling had not diminished and she had never been the kind of person who made decisions by refusing to make them. She did not fully know what she was saying yes to. She knew only that something was asking and she had run out of reasons to keep not answering.