"How long?" Amos ben Sierra Nueva said desperately
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security chief for Namakuri-Singh, the big drive- systems firm N but Simeon had a bad case of military romanticism. And real talent, he told himself without envy of the brain's abilities. "I know it's early," Gus went on persuasively, "but it's important not to have predictable intervals. So we don't get complacent."
like no other she had ever heard, a harsh repeated ouvuuga-ouuuuga sound. The elegant minuet of move- ment among the waiters turned to an inelegant but efficient scramble for the exits; some moved to assist guests. Thick slabs hissed up out of the floor along the outer wall and the lights flared bright
male voice tone announced. "EMERGENCY PER- SONNEL TO THEIR STATIONS. SECURE ALL SUBSECTION REFUGE AREAS." Patsy stood and looked at her barely touched entree with dismay. "Damn! That's the second time this shift!" She threw her napkin down with disgust. "Simeon pulls these drills like a boy kickin over an anthill to see the bugs scurry."
posed to be privy to that information." There was the hint of a smug smile in the brain's voice.
ever been put in front of me just because you're feeling your oats, you've got another thing coming. Cut it!"
zled, and milled around uncertainly. "Tell them it's over, Simeon. Don't just leave them standing there." "This has been a test," Simeon informed them in the feminine tones he used for such announcements, "Return to your stations. This has been a test"
"Overdoing drills is dangerous, irresponsible and generally counterproductive."
to you, Gustldan't ihmkyou like the looks on their faces after all, buddy. I know I don't. He wondered what he could do to make it impossible for her to gain access to him for the next week.
Channa's flushed countenance. "You really don't lahk him, do ya?" she said with some astonishment
say that?" Patsy shook her head. Just a hunch." Channa sighed and smiled ruefully. "Well, to be fair, there may be a touch of'transference' there. You see, I've always wanted to work planet-side. I love the feel of wind in my hair and rain on my face. I enjoy splashing in an ocean, and the feel of earth under my feet So, for the past two years I've been campaigning for a particular assignment" She looked up at Patsy inquir- ingly. "Have you ever been to Senalgal?" Patsy nodded and smiled warmly in reminiscence. "I sher have. 1 had my first honeymoon thar. What a gor- geous place! Beautiful beaches, warm ocean, flowers eve'rwhar, and the/ood. I'd love to live thar, at least fer a while." She sighed. "So, go on."
incredible. I'd been through twelve interviews, including one with Ita Secand, the city-manager of Kelta, whom I would have been working with. God! What I wouldn't give to work with her. She's witty, charming, sophisti- cated. I felt that I could learn so much from her. It had come down to two of us, myself and someone else."
candidate was, but my feeling was that it was going to be an extremely difficult choice. When suddenly, after holding on for twelve years, Tell Radon decides that he has to retire right now! And thatsweet little plum, that was almost inmy hand, was snatched away so fast it left scorch marks on my nail polish, '"Vbu're station born and bred,' they told me, 'You're perfect for this assignment,' they said. 'It's an extremely important and prestigious post,' they assured me. Rurrrgh! Asthesayinggoes, Icouldjustspit" Patsy looked at Channa's bitter face. "It's a gyp, alright. Looks like yer skills ah goin' against you instead of helpin you out. So, maybe you ah takin' it out on Simeon jest a teensy bit?" She grinned and held up a hand that measured out a micrometer between thumb and forefinger. "Hey, maybe that's good fer him. Now, I think," she placed a hand on her bosom, "that we need you mo'n Senalgal does. I mean, Senalgal's gonna be special whoever runs it, right? But a station, well, it can be just a big oT factory with the wrong people in charge. You don't need Ita Secand t' teach you to be witty and sophis- ticated N you already ah. We need some a' that right here, Ms. Hap, an I'm not kiddin'."
wine to hide her embarrassment "Well, thank you. That's quite a challenge you've set me," she murmured, and changed the subject. "Who was that big, handsome, gray-haired fellow you were talking to last night? Somehow I never met him," 42 Anne McCaffrey fc? SM. Stating "FlorianGusky?" "We call him Gus." "I can see why." Patsy smiled warmly. "He's quite a guy N a retired Navy man, a crack navigator. Tlie stories he's got... I mean to tell you, mmhm."
lahk him, though. I jus love to heah him talk. When I was a kid, I thought I'd do what he did. You know, join the Navy and scour the universe of evil doers, jus' like some ferocious holo-hero." She sighed. "But heah I am, nothin but an algae-herder." "An algae-herder?" Channa asked in amusement. "Algae travel in herds?" "Oh, you know what I mean. Instead of doin' some- thin adventurous, I'm just watchin these bubblin' vats o goop. The excitement is not goin to give me ulcers." She sighed. "Sometimes 1 wish fer a real disaster. Some- thing special."
you wish for," she said. "You may get it" Channa hummed tunelessly as she filled out the adoption forms, looking perfectly content and at peace with the world. The sound irritated Simeon excessive- ly. True, he could in a sense "leave" the area and had done so. But he kept coming back, as though to a blown circuit; drawn to the irritant, checking again and again to see if anything had changed.
that would bug herbad. "I love filling out forms," she said. "The more com- plex the better." Somehow it figures, Simeon thought. When you became a broom, the universe lost a great tax auditor. THE CTTY WHO FOUGHT 43 "Filling out your side of this is no problem," she said. "Your whole life is on file. But I'm going to have to talk to the child soon."
damn forms, in half the time or less and without making obnoxious noises.
"Simeon... while I grant you that we should be as deli- cate as possible." She paused and gestured helplessly. "I've ... we've, got to get him to Medical. We've got to prove, by retinal patterns and gene analysis, that he exists at all. You know how bureaus are: no tickee, no washee. We've got to do a recorded interview of him. So he's got to emerge, fully grown N well, almostNfrom the engineering compartments and into the real world," she concluded in a rush. "Okay.I'U talk to him."
us? I mean, you can discuss the adoption with him. I can stay out of sight nearby until he wants to meet me." She's being conciliatory, he realized. Why doesn't this reas- sure me? He forced down nonexistent hackles and replied in a neutral tone. "Sure, why not?" Channa could hear them talking from where she sat against the cold bulkhead. "You want to adopt me?" a young voice asked in dis- belief. A yearning hope sounded through it "Yeah," Simeon said, surprised to find that he was getting to like the idea. Joat's head popped into Simeon's line of sight, seem- ingly from out of nowhere. "You can't do that," he said with complete certainty, voice flat again. "They won't let you adopt a kid. You're not real."
to be the one to break your bubble, but who's going to let a computer adopt a kid?"
Simeon demanded with a hard edge to his tone. Channa bit down on the fleshy part of her hand. That kid doesn't pull his punches, she thought. Poor Simeon brain, though, dolfttfa offended dignity bit well... Shestifledthe rising guffaw with a swallow. An audible reaction would be out of place. Definitely
creeping into his voice. "You said 'I am, in effect, the station.' That means you're a machine. I've heard about AIs and voice-address systems." To both his observers, his voice was conciliatory but his expression reflected an inner anxiety that maybe this computer was losing its tiny mind.
station computer losing function, Simeon thought in exasperation. Kids!
disciplined, his expression revealed his real feelings. Simeon wondered if he could maintain that duality in the presence of the visually-advantaged. Not that he, Simeon, was in any way visually-dtsadvantaged. Quite the opposite, as Joat would learn soon enough. 'Joat, I think it's time that notion got altered. There's some- one nearby I'd like you to meet. She's known as a brawn, and she's my mobile partner." Which was true as far as it went, Simeon amended. Joat's face went wary. "I don't want to meet anybody," he muttered sullenly, looking cautiously around him. "She, you said?" Another pause. "No, I don't want to meet anyone." "But we've already met, sort of," Channa called out. Joat vanished instantly. "He's gone," Simeon said.
Joat? Simeon is a real person, as real as you or me. But heis connected to the station in such a way that the station is an extension ofhisbody. I'd be happy to tellyouaboutit." No answer but a receptivity which she could almost feel beyond her in the narrow access aisle. "Well," she began, "shellpeople were created as a means of enabling the disadvantaged to live as normal a Hfe as possible. At first that was limited to the creation of miniaturized tongue or digital controls, or body braces. The extension of such devices was to encapsu- late the entire body, though some people still think it's just the person's brain N because they're called "brains.' Despite popular fiction, such an inhumanity is not permitted. Simeon is there, body, mind and ..." She paused and then realized that she couldn't permit personal opinion to corrupt the explanation. ... heart. Simeon is a real person complete with his natural body but he is also this station-city in the sense that instead of walking about it, he has sensors that gather information for him and he controls every func- tion of the station from his central location." "Where is NM Joat paused, too, struggling to com- prehend the concept"N he? He is a he, isn't he?" Tin as masculine as you," Simeon said, accustomed to such an explanation of shellpeople but wishing to underline his humanity. He did note that his voice had dropped further down the baritone level he used. Weft, whynot?
Channa went on, "to, say, check the life-support sys- tems, or Airlock 40, or order an emergency drill, he can do it himself more quickly and more thoroughly than any independently mobile person could.
Simeon couldn't resist adding that. 46 Atme McCaffrty &f SM. Stirling "Never sleep?" Joat was either appalled or awed. "I don't require rest, although I do like relaxation and I have a hobby...." "Not now, Simeon, although N" and there was a smile in Channa's voice N I admit that that makes you more human."
live like one of us?" Joat asked. "I am human, not a mutant, or a humanoid, Joat," Simeon said reassuringly. "But something happened when I was born, and I'd never have been able to walk, talk, or even live very long unless the process of encap- sulating had been invented. Usually it's babies that become shellpeople. We are more psychologically adjusted to our situation than adults. Though some- times pre-puberty accident victims work out well as shellpeople. I can look forward to a long and very use- ful life. But I'm human for all of that" "Very human," Channa replied in a droll voice. Simeon didn't quite like the implications, but at least she said the right tilings. "Andyou run the city?" "I do, having instantaneous access to every com- puterized aspect of such a large and multi-function space station as well as peripheral monitoring devices in a network to control traffic in and out." "I thought brains only ran ships," Joat said after a long pause. "Oh, some do, of course," Simeon said, slightly patronizing, "but I was specially chosen and trained for this demanding sort of work." He ignored the delicate snort from Channa that somehow reminded him he'd started out his management career in a less prestigious assignment. "Do you understand now that I am human?" "I guess so," was Joat's unenthusiastic reply. "You've been in that shell since you were a ftofcy?" "Wouldn't be anywhere else," Simeon said proudly, THE CITY WHO FOUGHT 47 letting his voice ring with a sincerity no shellperson ever had to counterfeit. There was a slightly longer pause. "Then it's not true, what I heard?" Joat began tentatively. "Depends on what you heard," Channa said, having learned in academy the long list of atrocities sup- posedly enacted.
loud unison. "That's totally inaccurate," Channa said firmly. "It's the sort of mean thing people say to scare kids, though. The program won't accept perfectly healthy bodies. To begin with, the medical costs and education are incredibly expensive. So is the maintenance for shellpersons. But it's better than depriving a sound mind of life because the body won't function normally. Don't you think so?" Silence greeted that query. "And if you've also heard the one about taking the brains from the homeless or displaced N no, that is definitely not permitted, either."
spend four years in academy to learn how to deal with shellpeople, of all types."
him. Did she never let up? One thing was sure, Joat's misinformation made him more determined than ever to adopt the boy and give him such security that that sort of macabre stuff would be forgotten.
told, Central Worlds doesn't make slaves of people," Channa was saying at her most emphatic. "The very idea sends chills up my spine." "Not even criminals?" 48 Arme McCaffny 6? SM. Strrtmg "Especially not criminals," Channa said with a little laugh. "With all the power available to a shellperson, you may be very sure Central Worlds makes certain that they are psychologically conditioned to a high ethical and moral standard."
dedication to duty,personal integrity of the highest standard."
tinged with awe. Channa laughed in surprise at that assumption. "I wish," Simeon said fervently. "Remember my mentioning that creating and train- ing a shellperson is expensive? I wasn't kidding. By the time Simeon graduated from training, he had an enor- mous debt to pay off to Central Worlds." "Hunh. Thought you said they weren't slaves," "They're not Every shellperson has the right to pay off their debt and become a free agent A good many ship- persons do and then they own themselves. A management shellperson, like Simeon, will often get their debt picked up by a corporation, and when they've worked off the debt, they work under contract" "Are you paid off, Simeon?" "No, though my contract fee is generous enough. But, as I mentioned, I have hobbies.. . "Like what?" Joat asked. "I've got a great sword and dagger collection which includes a genuine Civil War flag, a regimental eagle." "Hey, way cool! Got any guns?" What is it with some males ? Channa thought. "Yeah," Simeon said eagerly. "I've got a real Brown Bess flintlock, and an M22. And one of the first back- pack lasers ever issued!"
presence for a moment His voice sounded louder, as if THE Crry WHO FOUGHT 49 he was drifting back from whatever refuge he had bolted towards. "All sorts of old weapons, eh?" "You name it A Roman gladius, even." "A what?" "Good question," Channa said. "Shortsword. Over three thousand years old," Simeon broke in. A pause. "Of course, it could be a reproduction. If so, it'sstill in awfully good shape for an artifact of that age. I can trace it back at least five hundred years provenance. The records say it was first owned by the legendary collector Pawgitti, then dug up out of the ruins of his villa." My throat is getting hoarse, Channa realized an hour later. Amazing what he knows. Joat had probably neatly escaped formal education, but had acquired a jackdaw's treasure chest of information about his keener interests. Anger awoke in her. It was criminal that a mind like Joat's had been ignored, like a weed in a corner lot. Or the barbaric way in which pre-shell handicapped were ignored as nonproductive persons. Joat wasn't just interested in showing that he knew things that she didn't, either. There was a naked hunger to learn in his voice. Closer and closer... She could see a little huddled shadow and an occasional glint of his eyes as he turned his head.
collecting over the years," Simeon was saying. "I've got great strategy games N whole boards..."
a games partner? Then she realized he was only sweetening the pot
I think it would be to your advantage, Joat. Certainly it would mean security and a place to call your own instead of ducking from one hidey-hole to the next when inspection teams go through. You'd have regular meals, and you could go to engineering school" 50 Amu McCaffrey 6f SM. Stating Channa heard a soft "yeah" from out of the cold darkness. ^ "Think it over tonight, why don't you?" Simeon said "Tomorrow you can come up and scan the room I can assign you. Maybe have dinner with Channa and talk about it some more." "Yeah," came more dearly from out of the darkness. "Okay," Simeon's voice was pleased. "If you have any questions tonight, just speak 'em out, and 111 answer." CHAPTER FOUR It's an honor to win the trust of a child, Simeon thought, especially one who's been through what this kid has. I don't think Fve ever been quite this happy. He intuited that the feeling approximated what the word "tickled" meant, and he also thought that this was what it felt like to smile. Since Joat had moved in, he'd been trying to empathize more with the softperson worldview.
floros, Joat was not prepossessing. Short for his age, scrawny to the point of emaciation, with huge blue eyes in a face that might have been any color short of black under the gray, ground-in coating of grime and machine oil. The mouse-brown hair had been hacked off and was standing up in tufts. The clothing was an adult-sized coverall with the arms and legs cut off to fit An air of sul- len suspicion accompanied a pungent odor.
Channa began casually. "It doesn't give a clue about where you're from the way that some names do. I use 'Hap' as a surname because I was born on Hawking Alpha Proxima Station, for example."
aggressively. "I gave it to myself. It means 'jack-of-all- trades,' 'cause that's what I do, some of everything."
down on the form as Jack, then?" Joat looked at her with cool contempt "Why? That's 52 Anne McCaffny fcf SJVf. Stiriing "You're a ... girl?" Simeon asked, bringing the "g" sound up from the depths of his diaphragm and manag- ing to split the word in several astonished syllables.
defensively, pointing at Channa, as though ducking responsibility.
before she managed some reassurance. "Hey, it's all Yüklə 2,81 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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