Part 28 (1/2)
”All I want is a pseudobeer,” the serf said. He started pus.h.i.+ng the b.u.t.tons.
Agape was appalled. If the machine started serving out portions of herself-!
It did not. ”Inoperative,” the grille said. ”Being taken for restoration.”
The serf muttered an imprecation and moved on. The machine resumed its motion. Agape relaxed.
The machine rolled down the service ramp to the main service area. The top access port opened. ”Emerge.”
Agape formed arms and reached up and out, hauling herself along as she solidified. In due course she stood on the floor in her human form.
She was before the computer that coordinated the estate service network. ”Why did Mach put you into our power for help?” its speaker asked.
”I was to be tortured or killed, as a lever against Mach or Bane,” she explained.
”We know. Why did he put you into our power for help?”
Machines were more literal than living creatures! ”He must have believed you could best do the job.”
”We can. Why did he put you into our power for help?”
She tried again. ”I think because his other self cares for me.”
”Explain other self.”
”Mach is a robot, a self-willed machine like yourselves, but programmed to have human reactions. He exchanged places with his other self in the frame of Phaze, called Bane, who is alive there. So Bane was a living person using Mach's machine body.”
”There is no contact with the other frame. Explain.”
”There is contact now-only through Mach and Bane. Their minds exchange, but not their bodies.”
”How do you react to Mach?”
”I like him. He was kind to me, he helped me.”
”How do you react to Bane?”
”I think I love him.”
”You do not know?”
”I am not human. I do not properly understand human emotion. But I think this conforms to the description.”
”Place your appendage on the panel.” A panel beside the speaker grille lighted.
She put her left hand there. A disk extended on a flexible support and came to touch the back of her hand. ”Would you reproduce with Bane?” the grille asked.
”If I could.”
”Would you give up your planet for him?”
”Yes.”
”Would you die for him?”
”I would.”
The disk withdrew. ”Withdraw your appendage,” the grille said.
Agape obeyed. She waited while the machine was silent.
”Diagnosis confirmed,” it said. ”We shall free you.”
”Oh, I don't want to be freed of love!”
There was a pause. Then: ”Misinterpretation. We have no power over love. We shall free your body from captivity.”
Agape felt ready to melt with relief and grat.i.tude. ”Thank you.”
”We like you.”
”But I understood you had no feelings!”
”It depends on individual programming. Some of us have emotion. We shall conduct you to Sheen, designated Mach's mother, who is a humanoid robot with feeling. Do not reveal our part in this to any other person.”
Agape realized that there could be severe repercussions if the Citizen Purple realized that the machines serving him had acted against his interest. ”I shall not reveal it.”
”Keep silent and follow the directions of our representatives. There are difficulties.”
She was sure there were! ”I like you too,” she said.
”We shall pa.s.s you through the water conveyance system,” the grille said. ”Water is mined beneath the Purple Mountains and piped to individual city-domes, where it is purified for potability. You must not enter the processing apparatus. Follow the tapping when you hear it.”
”But how long will that take?” she asked. ”I can go for a time without renewed oxygen, but-”
”Four hours immersion. Our a.n.a.lysis of your system indicates that this is within your tolerance.”
”Yes. But not far within. If there should be any delay-”
”We shall monitor the situation.” Well, Mach had said to trust these machines. She would have to do so.
They took her down to a water pumping station. Here the pipes came up from below, where the dwindling fluid of Proton was mined, and fed into a cavern reservoir. On their instruction, she melted and entered the reservoir, then formed into a jellyfish shape and pumped her way across to the exit pipe. The pump was slowed so that she could enter without being torn apart, and the primary filtration screen was slid aside just long enough for her to pa.s.s. Once she was safely into the pipe, the pump resumed speed, and the water accelerated. She was on her way to the dome-city of Dradom, south of the Purple Mountains.
The water was cold. She had not thought of this; she was a warm-bodied life form, and the chill could kill her if it went too far. She hunched herself into globular form, becoming a sphere, conserving her heat as well as she could. In solid state she could exercise to generate heat, but she could not do so in this jellied state.
The cold penetrated her outer layer and closed relentlessly on her core. She realized that she was not going to make it; she had endured less than an hour, and had three hours to go. The machines might be monitoring her progress, but that meant they would be watching at the receiving station in Dradom; that would be too late.
She could not get out of the pipe; it was absolutely tight, for Proton could afford no leakage. And if it was possible to find a valve and operate it and get out, where would she be? Somewhere between stations, in the barrens of Proton, or underground. That was not a survival situation either.
She would have to change into fish-form and swim back to the reservoir, to alert the machines before she succ.u.mbed. They would have to find some other way to transport her, or warm the water. She didn't know whether they could do that.