The next day at noon Eric came to him, functioning on the final set of
servo instructions that had been installed in him at the factory of
his birth eight years before. He shook hands with the two of them and
said: "Now I am prepared for death."
Marie was tearful. "I will miss you, Eric. If you were only under five
years old your span could be extended."
"Everything that happens is right," Eric said impassively.
He clambered on to the operation table, instinctively knowing which
flat surface was for him, and, breaking all his major circuits, gave
up the ghost that only man could restore to him.
Hart found his wife's grief easy to bear. The day after tomorrow she
would join in the general exultation of High Holy Day, with Eric well
forgotten. He methodically began smashing the surface of the limbs and
torso; the greater the visible damage, the greater the honor
redounding to the sacrifice donor. "This will be our gift to the
general pile," he said.
"I thought we could keep him for our garden sacrifice," Marie
protested meekly. "Most people do."
"But the other way is the greater sacrifice."
There was no reply, because she knew he spoke for the deeper, more
moving custom. But suddenly he began to act depressed himself. "I know
we say it every ten years, but Eric was really the best companion we
ever had." He gestured toward the table. "I want to sit here with him
for a while--alone."
"That's carrying things too far, Wendell. A little grief is
proper--but this much is actually morbid."
"It's all within my rights."
She tossed her head petulantly. "Well, I've done my share. I can't
stand any more. It makes a person think and get depressed. I don't
care what you're going to do. I'm going out to enjoy a Preliminary."
"Can't blame you for that," he nodded.
When she had gone he started to work on new instruction tapes for
activating the servo-cryotron. Nothing could be surrendered to chance.
Every possible circumstance in the pile had to be anticipated. There
had to be instructions for action if Eric was crushed below fifty feet
of metal, for assembling any kind of scrambled wiring, for adapting
all types of parts in its immediate surroundings, for using these
parts to absorb parts further away and for timing the operation to the
start of the Highest Rite.
Some tapes had been prepared earlier, so it was possible to put
everything in the cryotron box before Marie returned, as well as to
attach the tiny contact that would reach out from the box until it
reached its first external scrap of wire or metal.
"You poor darling," she pouted. "You missed the most wonderful thing!
They demolished a whole thirty-story building!"
His blood, atavistically effected, pulsed faster until his new creed
came to grips with his old emotions. "They usually don't bother with
buildings for the Rites."
"I know--that's what was so wonderful! The State has decided to make
this one the biggest Day of all time. We'll have enough work to fill
the whole ten years! Everybody was so happy."
"I'm sure they were." He caught himself in mid-sarcasm and said, "I'm
sorry I missed it."
"And I'm sorry I've been so selfishly self-centered." She frowned. "I
forgot about it, but there were people in the crowd boasting they had
been assigned to fight anti-social movements. I had to boast back that
my husband had been honored too."