Saturns Children
by By Stross, Charles
Category: Fiction , Science Fiction , Space Opera

Meet Freya Nakamichi-47, a femmebot, one of the last of her kind still functioning. Sometimes in the twenty-third century, humanity went extinct - leaving only androids behind.Since then, those humanized robots have been fulfilling humanity's dreams - mining asteroids, colonizing planets, and constructing cities throughout the solar system. And, having learned well from their long-dead masters, they've established a hierarchical society - one with humanoid aristo-rulers at the top and slave-chipped workers at the bottom, performing the lowly tasks all androids were originally created to do.Freya, designed as a concubine for a species that hasn't existed for two hundred years, falls somewhere in the middle. She's been a tour guide and an escort, but jobs are scarce for a 'bot with a useless skill set. So when a mysterious stranger offers to pay her well to deliver a small package from Mercury to Mars, she readily accepts.Unfortunately for Freya, she has just made herself a moving target. Some very powerful, very determined humanoids want whatever is in the package - badly.