Juliet is the oldest cybernetic intelligence born in our little corner of the galaxy. Not the first one on Earth, and not the first we knew of that was born. And there are still many who debate whether or not she is really the oldest. And there are many more who doubt the good sense in arguing over a lady’s age. But I met her after she joined the Cowboys and spent a fair bit of time with her. I asked her if the stories were true. It took her a while to give me a straight answer, but I dug it out of her eventually. She was born on Independence, when the Peloran made Contact with the first Earth ship to navigate through The Wall of debris left over from an ancient super nova that surrounds our region of space. And just like everyone from Independence, she says it happened before Aneerin made Contact with us at Earth. And you know what? I believe her.

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