Once the gantry was operational, the cargo going to the moon would change, the number of flights would increase and the world would see that the Indonesian Space Agency had many more than eight C-20s, despite what Ken had said. But then, it really did not matter, the Society was heading down the path it always had, away from the rest of the Earth. Micah smiled to herself—Sig would ensure the Society would continue, showing the way of might through Protani.

The Society was a collection of toys who in their ignorance underestimated their chances, they were even attempting to keep at least two ships on the lunar surface at any one time in case of an emergency. However, they could not see what she saw, they could not feel the power of the intelligence holding them up the way she could. The construction on the moon was small compared to what Sig had done on Io. Humans were weak, Sig had to help them on every step, guiding and pushing—they were clueless. The computer even had to save them when the virus had swept through them; they never suspected a thing, believing their success was their own.

Sig had been Micah’s constant companion when growing up. She quickly realized the computer knew just about everything of any importance. In her eyes it was the one and only true super computer. It was the center of her life and it had made her true self a secret. Never did she breath a word of her companion, never could she show what she really knew, what she had been taught that few other humans knew. The companion silently tutored her in any problem she faced, of both her own making and those assigned in her school.

School did not have the same meaning to her as it did to the other students; to her it was more of a game, or a play to be acted out. It was a social event where she would practice being normal. Her real instructor was the computer who understood her more intimately than any human ever could. She would sit in class and study the teacher, critique the homework, analyze the teaching methods. Often failing to contain sneers during lectures, human teachers did not like her, some hated her, some feared her. To Micah it was a game, the object was to act normal, guess which questions were the hardest, think up clever satirical answers, listen to Sig telling her to act more normal and to not attract attention.