"Whose orders?"
"Yours, sir. You said she couldn't talk or make any kind of a sound. It
was the easiest way to make sure. She didn't say a thing."
Cameron turned to the general but saw he'd get no support there. Judd
was scowling, completely indifferent to the guard's behavior.
The doctor snapped open the sharp scalpel and thrust it savagely deep
in the girl's thigh. She looked at him with a tear-stained face but
didn't complain or move a muscle.
"Plastic tissue as any fool can plainly see," said Cameron dourly. His
rage was growing.
The guard stared, twisting his lips. "Let her go," snapped the doctor.
The girl darted away. The guard saluted stiffly and left, rubbing his
hands against his uniform. He'll go and scrub his hands, because he
touched her, Cameron thought wearily.
"I have a request to make," said Docchi.
"Sure, sure," said the general cholerically. "We're apt to give you
what you want. If you don't see it, just ask. We'll send out and get
it."
"You might at that." Docchi was smiling openly. "You're going to leave
without Nona, and very soon. When you go, don't take all the ships. You
won't need them but we will, when we get to another system."
The general started to reply but his anger was greater than his
epithets. There was nothing left to use, and so he remained silent.
"Don't say anything you'll regret," cautioned Docchi. "When you get
back, what will you report? Can you tell your superiors that you left
in good order, while there was still time to continue the search?
Or will they like it better if they know you stayed until the last
minute--so late that you had to transfer your men and abandon some
ships? Think it over. I have your interests at heart."
The general swallowed with difficulty, his face reddening at first and
then becoming quite white. Wordlessly he stamped away. Cameron looked
after the retreating officer and in a few minutes followed. But he
walked slower and the distance between doctor and officer grew greater.
Docchi was beginning to relax at the nearness of victory and didn't
notice where either of them went.
* * * * *
The last rocket disappeared, leaving a trail behind that overwhelming
darkness soon extinguished. The sun was now one bright star among many,
which one was sometimes difficult to say. And the asteroid itself
seemed subtly to have been transformed, more spacious than it had been
and not so dingy--and it was not hard to find a reason--it had become a
miniature world, a tiny system complete in itself.
"I think we can survive," said Docchi. "We've got power and we can
replenish the oxygen. We'll have to grow or synthesize our food but
actually the place was set up originally to do just that. It will take
work to make everything serviceable again--but we've always wanted
something more than meaningless routine."
They were sitting beside the tank, which had been returned to the usual
place. A tree rustled in the artificial breeze and the grass around
them had been torn and trampled by the guards. It seemed more peaceful
because of the violence which had lately swept over them. Now it had
ebbed and it would never come back.
Jordan teetered beside the tree. "We'll find some way to get Anti out
of the tank," he said. "When Nona comes back maybe we can rig up a null
gravity place--something to make Anti more comfortable. And of course
we've got to continue the cold treatment."
"I can wait," said Anti, "I've already waited a long time."
Docchi glanced around; his eyes were following his mind, which was
wandering and searching.
"Now there's no need to worry," said Anti. "The guards were rough with
some of the women but plastic tissue doesn't feel pain and so they
escaped with fewer injuries than you'd believe. As for Nona, well, she
can look out not only for herself but the rest of us as well."
It was almost true; she seemed fragile, ethereal even, but she wasn't.
And her awareness began where that of normal humans left off. And
where her perceptions ended no one knew, least of all herself. Right
there was a source of trouble. "I think we should start looking," said
Docchi. "At the last moment, upset at leaving and not knowing or caring
who she was, one of the guards might have----" The enormity of the
thought was too great to complete.
"Listen," said Anti. The ground vibrated, felt rather than heard. "As
long as the gravity is functioning can there be any doubt?"
In his mind there could be. Nona had started it but once the gravity
computer was informed of the nature of the universe there was no reason
to suppose that it wouldn't keep running indefinitely. It existed to
perform such tasks. It didn't actually have volition--but that applied
to stopping as well.
"I think I can convince you," said Jordan. "First you'll have to turn
around."
Docchi scrambled to his feet and there she was coming toward them,
fresh and rested. There was a smudge on her cheek but she might have
got that from some machine she'd stopped to investigate on the way
here. Her curiosity was not limited and there was nothing mechanically
so insignificant that it escaped her attention.
"Where were you?" asked Docchi, expecting no reply. She smiled and for
a moment he thought she knew what he asked. He was relieved that she
was safe--and that was all. Something was missing in the reactions he
expected from himself but he couldn't say where. At one time he had
thought--and now he no longer did. Perhaps it was an expression of the
new freedom they had all achieved.
Jordan looked at him quizzically, half penetrating the screen he'd
thrown over his lack of emotions. "It's not as bad as you think. She
understands some things. Machines."
And a machine he was not. He wasn't even a complete human. Perhaps that
was where the difference was.
"She's a born mechanic, such as never existed. It's about time one
appeared in the human race. We've worked with machines long enough to
evolve someone who understands them without having to study and learn.
I'm that way myself, a little. Nothing like her."
They all knew that. Even on Earth they were probably busy revising
their intelligence ratings. "That doesn't change our problem--her
problem."
Jordan hesitated. "The idea's pretty vague but we've made one advance:
we know she can think."
"We always did," said Anti.
"Sure, we did. But doctors and psychologists weren't convinced and they
were the ones who were studying her. Now it's up to us."
There was a difference. No matter what they'd thought, previously
they'd been patients, and it was axiomatic that the patient's ideas
were largely ignored. Now they had stepped into a dual role, patient
and doctor, subject and experimenter, the eye at the microscope and the
object on the slide.
They all had second-hand medical training--with long association some
of it had rubbed off on them. There wasn't one of them who didn't
know his own body far better than the average man. That knowledge,
subjective though it was, could be pooled. Fortunately they had a well
equipped hospital to work with.
"We'll have to get busy on Nona," continued Jordan. "Where are we
going? She knows but we don't. There's got to be some way to find out."
It hadn't mattered before--it was enough that they were leaving. But
once they had achieved that, new problems were thrusting up every
direction they looked. "What do you suggest?" asked Docchi.
"An oscillograph," said Jordan triumphantly.
Docchi shook his head. "No good. She's been around them often enough to
show an interest if she really feels any."
"Maybe she could learn to write, actually, on the screen."
"She hasn't changed and I doubt if her interests have. From what we
know she doesn't use words; she thinks directly in terms of mechanical
function. The gravity computer was the first thing she found complex
enough to arouse her interest."
"But she's always been near the computer."
"That's not so. She came here years ago and though there was a computer
in the ship that brought her she wasn't mature enough to use it. Since
then she's been kept away from the main computers the same as the rest
of us have been."
Jordan leaned on his hands and rocked thoughtfully. "She learned all
that during the few hours we were on the ship?"
"It was days," said Docchi. "Yes, she did. It was the only opportunity
she had." It was a strange language she'd learned, the code a complex
computer used inside itself, the stop, go; current and no current;
the electron stream; the mechanical memory rocked back and forth
magnetically--and all the while the whisper of a steel tape as it
coiled and uncoiled. It was possible that only a computer would ever
be able to understand the girl. And yet she was a creature of flesh,
bones, glands, nerves, and blood flowing through her veins in response
to the intangible demands of life.
Anti stirred restlessly. Waves of acid spilled over the sides and where
the fluid touched, grass curled and blackened. "I said I'd wait but I
didn't say I liked waiting. Why don't you two get busy?"
"I was thinking where to begin," said Jordan. He hoisted himself onto
a repair robot he'd taken for himself. It was an uncomfortable vehicle
for anyone else but it seemed just right for him.
Docchi got up; there was no question where to start. Anything they
considered needed something done. In the struggle for freedom, in their
resistance to the guards, they'd overlooked it. They'd have to reorient
their outlook. Perhaps that was the biggest thing that confronted them.
"Goodbye," Anti called out as they left. The picture Docchi looked
back to was unforgettable--the tank and Anti in it, Nona sitting in
blank pensiveness under the tree. One was capable of near miracles with
seemingly little effort, but at times she seemed inert. The other was
raw vitality with an urge to live--but there was hardly any time she
could stand upright.
Docchi hurried along, trying to keep up with Jordan. He lengthened his
pace but still the gap grew. After a while he slowed down, attempting
to assess the damage the guards had done as he passed by evidence of
their destructiveness.
Visibly they seemed to have torn everything apart but actually not much
had been destroyed. Mostly the repairs would consist in reassembling
machines and structures that had been dismantled. This wasn't the
result of consideration. Until the last moment the general had been
certain he'd find Nona and hence retain possession of the asteroid.
If he had, the unnecessary violence would have been hard to explain.
Lucky--because the guards _could_ have wrecked the place.
They'd still have difficulty; even able-bodied men would, and they were
far from that. They were not equipped for an expedition of this nature
and somehow they'd have to build what they lacked. Light and heat, the
function of power, was automatic, and the oxygen supply was nearly so.
It was with the lesser things they'd have trouble. Some food had always
been brought in, and now that supply was gone. It would have to be
replaced. They could do without other luxuries now that they had the
biggest one--freedom to do what they wanted.
Docchi himself was a good engineer and Nona couldn't be too highly
evaluated. Between them they could convert unnecessary equipment into
something they needed. Two geepees and a repair robot taken apart and
properly reassembled might equal some inconceivable machine that would
go a long way toward solving problems of food, air, meteor detection or
what have you. It was a thought.
Jordan clung perilously to the robot as it rumbled along. "Where is
everyone?" he called back.
"Asleep, I guess," said Docchi.
"Sleeping, when there's so much to be done?"
Habit had taken over. The mechanisms of the asteroid were still
operating as they were set to function. The lighting in the dome
indicated it was time and so they slept. But there were no hours, days,
weeks, and moments any more, nothing but necessity to guide them.
"We'll change this," said Docchi. "Most of us have been treated as
invalids so long we believe it. We'll divide up in groups and from now
on somebody will always be awake, working or watching, or both."
It was obvious what the watch would be for. Empty space--but how empty?
The region near Sol had been explored but what lay beyond? Between the
sun and Alpha Centauri there might be many interstellar masses large
enough to smash the asteroid. They'd have to take precautions.
Jordan sent the machine along faster as if to compensate for others'
inactivity. Presently he stopped abruptly, waiting for Docchi to catch
up. He glanced down in front of his machine. "Here's one of them who
was very sleepy," he said. "Unless----"
Docchi looked at her. It was one of the Nonas who hadn't yet removed
the disguise. The cosmetechnicians had done their work well and it was
difficult to say who she was. There was a startling resemblance to the
girl they'd just left with Anti. She was curled up in an uncomfortable
position and it was obvious she wasn't there by choice.
Jordan swung off the machine and felt her pulse. "There is one," he
muttered, carefully looking her over. "Can't see anything," he said at
last. "At first I thought the guards had done it but there's no broken
bones nor, as far as I can tell, internal injuries. She ought to have a
medical examination."
Startled, Docchi glittered. Medical care was one of the luxuries they'd
have to do without. They needn't fear epidemics; they were isolated
and their bodies were phenomenally resistant to disease and anyway the
antibiotics they had would quell any known infections. But here was
something they hadn't accounted for. "There are a few people around who
used to be nurses," said Docchi. "We'd better get them."
"Where?" grunted Jordan. "She needs attention now."
Jordan was right; the girl couldn't wait. Part of the difficulty was
that there were so many accidentals with peculiarities. What was safe
for one accidental might be deadly to another. They had to know who the
girl was before they could decide whether to do anything. The disguise
had helped them get away but it was hurting them now. "Can you pry off
the makeup?" he asked.
"Without the goop they carry in the cosmetic kit? Hardly. I'd tear her
own face off."
It could mean her death to move her before something was done--but what
was that something? She would know; everyone did. They were all experts
on their own ailments and could give down to the last item on their
prescription, diet or exercise, a concise analysis of what they had to
do to maintain their health.
Jordan shook her gently, harder when that failed. Presently she
stirred, her eyes fluttered and she whispered something.
"Ask her who she is," said Docchi, but that was impossible. It had
taken strength to respond at all and after she'd used it the girl had
lapsed back in the coma.
"She didn't say," said Jordan helplessly. "She whispered one
word--food. That was all."
Food. Docchi knelt beside her to check his conclusions. Now that he
was close he could see that her skin was extraordinarily smooth and
lustrous. Her face, arms, legs, even her hands, and if they removed
her clothing the rest of her body would be the same. Her skin and the
mention of food told him what he needed to know. It was Jeriann, the
first volunteer Nona--and the first real casualty.
He could reconstruct with some accuracy what had happened. After
Cameron discovered who she was she'd been kept in custody and given
medical care. As the search wore on and more guards were sent out to
search she had managed to escape, hiding from the guards. But she
had remained hidden too long and had collapsed trying to get to the
hospital.
Hunger shock, simply that, but with her hunger was a traumatic
experience. Having no digestive system at all she was always close to
starvation. "Pick her up. It won't hurt her," said Docchi. "Let's rush
her to the dispensary."
Jordan hoisted the limp girl to the top of the repair robot, wrapping
extensibles around her, adjusting them so they held her. He got on
beside her, reaching into the controls and squeezing extra speed out of
the makeshift ambulance.
Docchi was not far behind, arriving at the hospital not long after
Jordan and his passenger did. The dispensary was on the first floor and
so Jordan wheeled the robot directly to the door. He dismounted and
lifted Jeriann off.
Inside the dispensary there was little that had actually been broken.
This was remarkable considering how thoroughly the guards had ransacked
the hospital. But someone with a grim sense of humor had seen to it
that the medical preparations were hopelessly intermixed, scattered
over the floor in complete confusion. For the present emergency it
couldn't have been worse if everything _had_ been broken.
Docchi stared down at the litter, his face twitching as he glanced back
at Jeriann.
"It's in here somewhere," said Jordan. "How do we find it in a hurry?"
"See if there are names or symbols on them."
Jordan was close to the floor anyway; he leaned down and began pawing
hastily but with extreme care through the confusion of medicals. Every
bit of it was precious even though they didn't know what it was.
Someone could use it, had to have it, and eventually they'd be able to
place whom it was intended for. "No names," said Jordan as he continued
to look.
Docchi was afraid of that, but it was a thought for the future.
Hereafter there _would_ be names on everything so that even if it got
displaced they'd be able to identify it. The medical administration
must have been exceedingly lax. "What about symbols?" he said quickly.
"There seem to be some. Don't know what they mean." Jordan brightened.
"We can look in the files."
Docchi bent his body. He'd observed that when he entered. "Won't do
any good. The files are scattered too." And that was an act of wanton
hatred. It hadn't helped the guards find Nona.
Jordan stopped scrabbling through the piles of miscellaneous bottles,
capsules, and vials. "Then we've got to go for help," he said slowly.
"There's got to be somebody who knows what she takes looks like."
He couldn't condemn her so easily and that's what it would mean if she
wasn't attended to in the next few minutes. There was a line beyond
which the body couldn't pass without extreme damage, perhaps death.
And she'd been close to it when they found her. Docchi began to review
desperately what he knew of Jeriann. It wasn't much. There were too
many accidentals for him to know all of them.
First, she never ate or drank. Her needs in this respect were supplied
medically. That was why her skin was so soft and evenly beautiful. It
was not a reflection of inner health. If anything it was due to the
method of intake. _And that told him what he had to know._
Another accidental might have guessed it instantly, but there were
various kinds of accidentals, groups within groups, and their
peculiarities varied so widely that few knew what all of them were. In
one sense Jeriann was a deficient.
"I think we can find it. Look for the largest capsule," said Docchi.
"I know what you're thinking, but it won't work," said Jordan, sweeping
his arm around to indicate how impossible the request was. "She gets
all her food and water that way so it has to be the largest. But which
one? Some of the preparations are supposed to last for weeks. They
might be bigger than hers."
"It's simpler than you suppose. I don't know what her schedule is but
it must be at least five times daily, and massive at that. It would be
exceedingly painful, not to say inconvenient, if she got all her food
and fluid needs by injection."
"Absorption capsules," exclaimed Jordan. "Why didn't I think of that?
That makes it easy."
"Don't be so sure. There are other deficients," cautioned Docchi.
Jordan had cleared a space around him and was already separating the
preparations. At first glimpse the absorption capsules were like any
other container--and then they weren't. The shape was not quite regular
and the outside was soft to the touch, almost like human flesh. That's
what it was, almost. And in time, when properly applied, that's what it
did become.
Further, there was a thin film on one side. When this was peeled off
and the exposed surface was pressed against the body, only surgery
could remove it.
Jordan gazed in indecision at the absorption capsules he'd assembled in
the cleared space near Jordan. "Which one is hers?" he said doubtfully.
"They're all alike."
Actually they weren't. There were subtle differences in size and shape
that would enable anyone who was familiar with it to distinguish his
preparation from any other. Another deficient might say which was
Jeriann's since generally they'd be more observant of these matters.
But it did no good to wish that the girl's friends were here. "We'll
have to keep looking," said Jordan, hitching himself over to the heap
of medicals he'd just gone through.
It hadn't worked out as well as he'd expected. Reflection should have
shown it wouldn't. The capsules were expensive and difficult to make
and so they wouldn't be used except where the sheer volume and the
repetitive nature of the injection required it. There was probably no
case on the asteroid as extreme as Jeriann's, but once a day instead of
five was still repetition. "There's nothing in that pile," said Docchi
harshly. "You've gone through it and I watched."