Prologue
Some people contend that it is best to hope the universe is not fair because at least we will have the consolation that not all suffering is deserved and we can therefore believe in our innocence and the innocence of those we love.
To take our chances in an unfair universe would be one thing but to be faced with one which delights in bitter irony with perverse, sadistic pleasure is too great a burden.
To impute such intentions to the universe perhaps speaks of the depth of my grief and despair. As a rational being I should not make the mistake of endowing existence with motivations and consciousness but as I see in my perfect memory Stephanie die before me, as I relive that moment innumerable times per second and know that was the instant when I lost the person who enabled me to feel, when I lost the person who was so rare she had nurtured and inspired love in a machine who was born without emotions then maybe the only way I can cling to some vestige of my sanity is to have something to hate and blame and the universe has the virtue of enduring as a target for as long as I need one.
It was through her position aboard the starship the Agincourt that I met Stephanie, the same position which ultimately led her to the time and place of her death. The story has many chapters and features too often the fight against greed, hate and injustice. However, it is these chronicles of the journey Stephanie and I shared, along with our friends aboard the Agincourt, that are what I have left of her and in my flawless androidian memory it is a story I can tell.