Jason smirked. “You ain’t seen nothing yet. Megan—Star—whatever you want me to call you, can you come upstairs with me? I have something I want to show you.”

“All right…” Highway Star, nee Megan, unfolded into her humanoid robotic shape, and clanked after Jason.

On the next level up was…a hospital bed, surrounded by monitoring equipment. A girl was lying in it, unconscious. Star paused. “Is that your sister? What happened to her?”

“Auto wreck, two years ago. Brain damage was minimal, but she just won’t wake up. We aren’t giving up hope, but in the mean time…” Jason shrugged. “We were able to get data cubes a-plenty, but a neural scanner is the one thing we don’t quite have. It’s not as if I can just jury-rig a NeuroWiiMote.”

“But every automech has one built in.” Star cocked her head. “Come to think of it, a lot of people in your personnel files I scanned have serious health conditions—like Bran’s Parkinson’s. That’s…not exactly a coincidence, is it?”

Jason chuckled. “Well, I guess you could say that.”