A difficult job needs to be done. Tools are hired and paid well for their trouble. But one tool, an ancient AI, has a cautionary story to tell, and she tells it to one of the few humans who can appreciate what she is saying. "The contractor wasn’t ancient, certainly not compared to the Great Ship or this well-traveled tool. But he was quite a lot older than his apparent age. His born name was Pamir and he had been an important captain serving the Great Ship, but certain troubles caused him to leave that life and the greatest profession. Hiding ever since, he had worn a wild variety of names and jobs, lives and passions. One of the galaxy’s great experts in wearing carefully contrived life stories, he earned what he could to thrive, and that included hoarding secret funds and prebuilt lives ready for the moment his present lies began to crumble. Pamir leaned back, looking like a man who had nowhere else to be." For more than twenty years, Robert Reed has been writing about the Great Ship. This recent tale gives a fresh perspective on many things, including the power of two voices quietly talking to one another.