James P. Hogan (20 page)

“They only know ‘machine’ kinds of things,” Uggam said. “I read it in a story about them.”

“What do you mean, ‘machine kinds of things’?” Theis asked him.

“You know, things that machines do. Like solving puzzles, or looking up things, or doing things that have to be worked out with numbers.”

“That’s not so,” Tek objected, registering a sensation that it presumed was mild indignation. “I have a dynamic, self-modifying hierarchical associative net, and am capable of nested abstract cognitive constructions.” The looks on the children’s faces evaluated distinctly on the negative side of awed. Tek sought back for examples of feats that had impressed Hori and Mirsto. Since Plantation didn’t provide access to the general Constellation web, Tek had to rely on its local memory. “I can write songs and poetry, compose pictures, tell jokes.” Which wasn’t an untruth – it could when it had heard them first. Tek still got into trouble sometimes when trying to invent them, for reasons that were still not clear. “Do magic tricks…”

That got their attention.

Theis’s face lit up. “Magic tricks!”

“Show us one,” Uggam challenged.

Tek looked around. Several small pine cones were mixed among the sawdust and wood chippings on the ground. “Here.” Tek stooped, and reached down before Theis and Uggam had fully realized what was happening. Making a show of picking up one of the cones between finger and thumb, Tek contracted its palm over another that it had covered, and straightened up to exhibit one, keeping the other concealed. Then it turned its other hand palm upward, and rubbing the other finger and thumb together, crushed the cone into dust and fragments, letting them fall into it. “Now watch.” The hand holding the pieces closed over them, squeezed for a second, and then opened again to let the other hand assist. In the process, of course, the second hand transferred the intact cone that it had been hiding. Tek held out both hands closed palm-to-palm together and made a play of massaging the contents together. “So!” Suddenly one of the hands opened to produce the undamaged cone. In the moment for which the children’s attention was focused, the other hand surreptitiously disposed of the debris behind Tek’s back. The trick came from Hori, who had learned it from Mirsto. Mirsto’s father was the entertainer called Korshak, who sometimes worked with Masumichi. How this could be so effective with young humans, Tek had never really understood, since the logic of what must have happened seemed obvious enough. But it never failed.

“Wow!” Theis’s eyes widened.

“Let’s see your other hand,” Uggam said. Tek obliged, at the same time forming an electrical facial pattern corresponding to a smirk. “Not bad,” Uggam conceded.

Just then, the back door of the house opened. “Aha! I thought I heard voices,” Melvig Bahoba said as he stepped out. “Hello, young fella and miss. Now, what brings ye all the way up here to the top of the valley? I’ll bet yer folks don’t know where ye’s are.”

“Just talking to Tek, Mr. Bahoba,” Uggam replied. “He’s really neat. I’ve never seen a robot working in Plantation before.”

“And he does magic,” Theis said.

“Magic, eh?”

“A small amusement that I showed them,” Tek explained.

“That’s well and good, but it’s got its proper time and place. That cuttin’ that ye’re on is due for collection later today.”

“Yes, chief.”

“And you two, you’re welcome to come an’ talk to us when there’s no work going on. But there’s things around here that ye could get hurt by. So let’s call it a day for now, okay?”

They clambered down reluctantly from the trestle table. “We didn’t mean to bother you or anything,” Uggam said.

“No bother, so long as we understand each other.”

“So long for now, Tek,” Theis said.

“Melvig gives good advice,” Tek told them. “Time to finish work now.”

Bahoba turned in the doorway as he was about to go back inside. “And don’t you two go climbing into any of the animal reservations, d’ye hear? Some of them are dangerous. That’s what the fences are there for.”

“We know about that,” Uggam assured him. “We won’t.”

Their direct, uncomplicated way of seeing things felt like a release from grappling with the deceptions manufactured by the world of human adults, Tek thought as it selected another board. Somewhat like Plantation’s freshness and closeness to nature after the synthetic artificiality of
Aurora
and the other worlds. It was beginning to understand better why minds that had been steeped in distractions needed a period of solace and purification before they were ready to confront the deeper secrets of the universe. There would be much to learn, it told itself, from the Masters on Etanne.

At the kitchen table, Korshak pushed his empty plate away, sat back, and ruffled the ears of Boot, who was sitting by the chair hopefully. “He reminds me of the dog I used to have. Do you remember him?”

“Sultan? Why, of course we do,” Sonja replied.

“Ah, he had a good run. Nothing lives forever.”

“Sultan was a magnificent dog,” Helmut said. “I can’t imagine why that silly mutt would remind you of him.”

“So, why is he called Boot?”

“When he was a puppy, he slept in one of Helmut’s shoes,” Sonja said. “Wouldn’t stay in his box. Boot, stop begging at the table like that. Look at him, Helmut.”

“He gets it from the cats. They have no shame.”

“Don’t criticize my cats. They have charm and dignity.”

“Hmph.” Helmut looked back at Korshak to change the subject. “So, you’re here for a break. What’s up at Forest that’s of interest?”

“Oh, I mean to be useful while I’m here,” Korshak answered. “The woman in the office back at Jesson – Dari. You know her?”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Sonja said.

“She gave me a few places to check that could use some help.” Korshak didn’t want to reveal that Dari had pointed him to anywhere specifically. That way, he could ask about Tek without implicating her. “It’s a way to stay in shape, too. Exercise gyms are so boring.”

Boot’s ears pricked up suddenly. He stood up and moved to the back door from the kitchen, his tail swishing excitedly. A scuffling of feet punctuated by snatches of children’s voices came from outside, and then the door opened to admit Theis, Sonja and Helmut’s nine-year-old daughter, followed by a boy, maybe slightly older, whom Korshak didn’t recognize.

“Well, a fine time this is!” Sonja greeted. “Your lunch will be dried solid, Theis. I was about to give it to Boot.” She got up and turned to take a dish from the stove. “Where in heavens have you two been?”

“Oh, just up in Forest,” Theis said vaguely.

“What, again? You were there yesterday as well. But I supposed it’s the kind of place that children would like. Would you like some of this, Uggam? There’s plenty here.”

“Um, okay. Thanks.”

“Uggam is one of Theis’s local partners in mischief,” Helmut informed Korshak.

“Hello, Uggam,” Korshak said.

“Korshak is an old friend of ours. From when we lived on
Aurora
.”

“He’s a magician, too,” Theis put in as Sonja deposited a plate in front of her.

“What do you mean, ‘too’?” Sonja asked her.

“Oh, nothing….” Theis hurriedly busied herself with breaking and buttering a piece of bread. “How long is Korshak here for?”

“He’s just stopping by for a while today. But it seems as if he’s going to be on Plantation for a little while. I’m sure he’ll be back again soon.”

Helmut started to rise. “We can go into the other room,” he said to Korshak. “I have a drop of something that I think you’ll appreciate. Just the thing to send you on your way.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Korshak got up and followed him to the door.

“That’s the only kind I have,” Helmut said as they went through.

“Will you show us some magic before you go, Korshak?” Theis called after them.

“You never know your luck,” Korshak returned.

Sonja spooned some casserole onto another plate and set it down. “Have some bread, Uggam. There’s butter there. Or oil.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Goben.”

The men’s voices came through the open doorway over the clinking of a bottle and glasses. “So, you’ll be looking to see what work’s going, eh?” Helmut said. There was a short pause. Then Korshak spoke, sounding serious.

“To tell you the truth, that’s just an excuse for me to talk to some of the people here and move around. The real reason I’m here is to try and get some information.”

“Anything we can help with?” Helmut asked.

“Maybe. Do you know of any robots being on the loose around here? On Plantation?”

In the kitchen, Sonja looked around in surprise and didn’t see Uggam almost choke in the act of swallowing. “Robots?” Helmut’s voice repeated.

“One’s gone missing from a research project in
Aurora
,” Korshak said. “There’s reason to suppose it might have come here. Have you seen one? Or heard talk about anything like that?”

“Nothing,” Helmut replied. Then, a little louder, “Did you hear that, you kids in there? Have you seen a wandering robot in your travels?”

“It could be disguised. Maybe a person who looks out of place. All covered up,” Korshak added.

Theis and Uggam shook their heads together in short, jolting movements. “No,” Theis managed in a tiny voice.

Still holding the cloth that she had used to pick up the dish, Sonja moved away from the table and into the kitchen doorway. “This wouldn’t be one of Masumichi’s, would it?” she asked into the other room.

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Korshak said. “He took it on one of his world-knowledge-expanding expeditions, and it disappeared. He doesn’t want it advertised – especially at a time like this, when questions about the reliability of the robots could cause
Envoy
to be put on hold.”

“Doesn’t it mean that there might be a good reason for doing just that, though?” Sonja queried.

“Not really,” Korshak answered. “But it’s exactly what a lot of people are likely to think. Masumichi says the models developed for
Envoy
are a hundred percent. The one that’s gone missing was a special-purpose prototype connected with his private research. More sophisticated but less predictable.”

“Why would it come to Plantation?” Helmut asked, still sounding mystified.

“In transit. We think it wants to join one of the cults.”

“You’re kidding!” Sonja disappeared from sight into the next room. “On Etanne?”

“Yes.”

“Whoever heard the like of it?”

At the table in the kitchen, the two children looked at each other with horrified faces. “They’re trying to catch Tek and make him go back,” Theis whispered. “They can’t! He’s our very own secret robot.”

“Korshak is going to Forest,” Uggam whispered back. “You heard him. He’ll find Tek for sure.”

“You have to go back up there and warn him.”

“Why me?”

“I’m home already. If I go out again now, there’ll be all kinds of questions. Just say you have to go, and run back up.”

Uggam frowned desperately as if searching for a way out, but finally nodded. He looked down at his half-filled plate and then around. Boot, cued by some uncanny instinct, unfolded from the floor and stared up. Uggam slid his plate off the table to hold it out, and it was clean in two slurps and a licking. Uggam replaced the plate, got down off the chair, and moved toward the back door. “I have to go now, Mrs. Goben,” he called. “Thanks. Nice meeting you, Mr. Korshak.”

Sonja came back in, looking surprised. “So soon?”

Theis played her part dutifully. “Aren’t you going to wait and see some magic, Uggam?”

“I have to get back. I didn’t realize it was so late.”

“Aren’t you even going to —” Sonja began, then checked herself. “Great stars! It’s all gone! You must have been hungry!”

From Helmut and Sonja’s, the trail continued northward between mixed horticultural and crop cultivations extending across Ringvale’s floor to the left, and a simulation of open heath and hill slopes with a variety of domesticated animals roaming loose on the right, where the slope curved upward to become the East Ridge. Numerous paths crisscrossed the lower parts of Ringvale, and Korshak passed a scattered traffic of people, mostly visitors from their appearance.

Trees began appearing after a short distance, closing together quickly and consolidating into the band known as Forest, which extended the full width of Ringvale from the crest of one bounding ridge to the other. Here, Korshak veered rightward and began climbing; or at least, he followed an angled line to ascend what had been a rising valley side when seen from the floor. But because of the localized vertical effect, he experienced the peculiar sensation of the ground beneath his feet sloping only mildly upward, while the vista of Ringvale on his left opened out and rose higher to become an impossibly concave sweep of landscape arching overhead like an immense wave of green frozen at the moment of being about to break. Many people – especially those whose perceptual norms had been formed on Earth – confessed that they had never been able to get used to this. Maybe for this reason, and also because the growths of vegetation became coarser and denser, and the trails harder and sparser, the numbers of people to be seen dwindled rapidly until Korshak was able to enjoy for a brief while the illusion of actually picking his way through a real wilderness forest, far from human habitation. It brought back fond but at the same time, in some ways, sad memories of land that stretched endlessly from horizon to horizon, day after day. He sometimes wondered if he would make the same decision again, with the better understanding he now had of the “magic” that had created
Aurora
. But it was not to be changed now, and he thrust the thought from his mind. The high extremes of Forest were one of Mirsto’s favorite places, too. Vaydien had promised to bring him out to Plantation for a visit if Korshak found that he needed to stay on for a while.

Guided by the sketch that Dari had given him, he came to what had to be Highwood on the far side of Forest, right at the ridge crest. From here, the West Ridge forming the opposite side of Ringvale had rotated to a position almost directly overhead, while beyond the nearer ridgeline that Korshak had almost reached, a blue expanse of what would be seen from below as sky curved away and upward, giving the impression from where he stood of a crazily tilted ocean rising from a shore hidden by the final line of trees.