Part 1 (2/2)

We sailed over the Canyon's lip, into s.p.a.ce as it were, and toward the city I could no longer see now that I was lower down than the house. I had to wait for the city now to put up its big grey-blue cones and stacked flas.h.i.+ng window-gla.s.s and pillars on the skyline.

But something else had absorbed me. There was something odd about the robot machine which was driving the flyer. Normally, of course, it was just the box with driving digits and a slot for coins. Today, the flyer box had a head on. It was the head of a man about forty years of age, who hadn't taken Rejuvinex (or a man of about seventy, who had), so there were some character lines. The eyes and the hair were colorless, and the face of the head was a sort of coppery color. When I put my coin in the slot, the head disoriented me by saying to me: ”Welcome aboard.”

I sat down on a seat which hadn't been slashed, and looked at the head. I had, of course, seen lots of robots, as we all do, since almost everything mechanical is run by robots in the city. And even Mother has three robots who are domestic in Chez Stratos, but they're of s.h.i.+ny blue metal with polarized screens instead of faces. They look like s.p.a.cemen to me, or like the suits men wear on the moon, or the Asteroid, and I always called our robots, therefore, the ”s.p.a.cemen.” In the city, they're even more featureless, as you know, boxes on runners or panels set into walls.

Eventually I said to the flyer driver: ”Why have you got a head today?”

I didn't think it could answer, but it might. It did.

”I am an experimental format. I am put here to make you feel at home with me.”

”I see.”

”Do you think I am an improvement?”

”I'm not sure,” I said nervously.

”I am manufactured by Electronic Metals Ltd., 2 1/2 East Arbor.”

”Oh.”

”If you wish to receive a catalog of our products, press the b.u.t.ton by my left ear.”

”I'll ask my mother.”

Demeta would say: ”You should make the decision yourself, darling.”

But I gazed at the back of the colorless hair, which looked real but peculiar, and I thought it was silly.

And at the same time it was human enough so that I didn't want to be rude to it.

Just then the outline of the city came in sight.

”You may see,” announced the head, ”several and various experimental formats in the city today. It will also be possible to see nine Sophisticated Formats. These are operating on 23rd Avenue, the forecourt of the Delux Hyperia Building, on the third floor of Casa Bianca, on Star Street-” I lost track until it said ”-the Grand Stairway leading to Theatra Concordacis.” Then I visualized Egyptia going into hysterics.

”You may approach any of these formats and request information. The Sophisticated Formats do not dispense catalogs. Should you wish to purchase any format for your home, request the number of the model and the alphabetical registration. Each of the Sophisticated Formats has a specialized registration to enable the customer to memorize more clearly. These Formats do not have numbers. There is also...”

I lost interest altogether here, for the flyer was coming in across Les Anges Bridge. Below was all that glorious girderwork like spiderweb, and underneath, the Old River, polluted with chemicals and fantastically glowing purple with a top sheen of soft amber. I'm fascinated always by the strange mutated plants that grow out of the water, and the weird fish in armor that go leaping after the riverboats, clas.h.i.+ng their jaws. A great tourist feature, the Old River. Beyond it, the city, where the poor people work at the jobs the machinery has left them to do, atrocious jobs like cleaning the ancient sewers-too narrow and eroded for the robot equipment to negotiate safely. Or elegant jobs in the department stores, particularly the more opulent second owner shops, which boasted: ”Here you will be served only byhuman a.s.sistants.” It's curious to be rich and miss all this. My mother considered sending me to live for a year in the city without money, but with a job, so I'd learn how the poor try to survive.

”They are the ones with backbone and character, dear,” she said to me. Sociologically she is highly aware. But in the end she realized my unfair advantages would have molded my outlook, so that even if I succeeded among the poor, it would be for the wrong reasons, and so would not count.

I got out of the flyer at the platform on the roof of Jagged's, and went down in the lift to the subway.

There was a gang fight going on in one of the corridors and I could hear the scream of robot sirens, but I didn't see anything, which was a disappointment and a relief. I did once see a man stabbed at an outdoor visual. It didn't upset me at the time. They rushed him away and replaced the parts of him that had been spoiled, though he would have had to pay for that on the installment plan-clearly he hadn't been rich- which would probably mean he'd end up bankrupt. But later on, I suddenly remembered how he had fallen down, and the blood, and I began to get a terrible pain in my side where I pictured the knife going into him. My mother organized hypnotherapy for me until it went away.

Egyptia was standing at the foot of the Grand Stairway that leads up to the Theatra Concordacis. She was wearing gilt makeup, and a blue velvet mantle lined with lemon silk, and people were looking at her. A topaz hung in the center of her forehead. She made a wild gesture at me.

”Jane! Jane!”

”Hallo.”

”Oh, Jane.”

”Yes?”

”Oh, Jane. Oh, Jane.”

”Shall we go up?”

She flung up her arm, and I blushed. She made me feel insignificant, superior and uneasy. As I was a.n.a.lyzing this, I saw someone hurrying over, a man, who grasped Egyptia's raised arm excitedly.

”All right,” he said. ”Tell me your number.”

Egyptia and I stared at him. His eyes were popping.

”Go away,” Egyptia said. Her own eyes filled with tears. She couldn't bear the stupid things life did to her.

”No. I can pay. I've never seen anything like it. I heard it was lifelike, but Jesus. You. I'll take you. Just give me your registration number-wait-you don't have one, do you, that's the other type. Okay, it's alphabetical, isn't it? Somebody said it's to do with the metal. You'd be gold, wouldn't you? G.O.L.D.?

Am I right?”

Egyptia lifted her eyes to the tall building tops, like Jehane at the stake. Suddenly I knew what was happening.

”You've made a mistake,” I said to the man.

”You can't have it,” he said. ”What do you want it for? Mirror-Biased, are you? Well, you go and find a real girl. Young bit of stuff like you shouldn't have any trouble.”

”She isn't,” I insisted.

”She? It's an it.”

”No.” I felt on fire. ”She's my friend. She isn't a Sophisticated Format robot.”

”Yes it is. They said. Operating on the Grand Stairway.”

”No.”

”Oh, G.o.d!” cried Egyptia. Unlike the rest of us, He didn't answer.

”It's all right, Egyptia. Please, please,” I said to the man, ”she isn't a robot. Go away, or I'll press my code for the police.”

I wished at once I hadn't said it. He, like Egyptia and me, was rich, and would have his own code round his neck or on his wrist or built into a b.u.t.ton. I felt I'd been very discourteous and rash, but I couldn't think of anything else to do.

”Well,” he said. ”I'll write to Electronic Metals and complain. A piece of my mind.”

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