"Go ahead and make it," snorted the general. "We're likely to give you
anything you want."
"You probably will. You're going to leave without her. Very soon. When
you do go, don't take all your ships. We'll need about three when we
come to another solar system."
General Judd opened his mouth in rage.
"Don't you say anything you'll regret," cautioned Docchi. "When you
get back, what will you report to your superiors? Can you tell them
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 moment? So late that you had to abandon some of your ships?"
The general closed his mouth and stamped away. Wordlessly, Cameron
dragged after him.
* * * * *
The last ship had blasted off and the rocket trails had faded into
overwhelming darkness. The Sun, which had been trying to lose itself
among the other stars, finally succeeded. The asteroid was no longer
the junkpile. It was a small world that had become a swift ship.
"We can survive," said Docchi. "Power and oxygen, we have, and we can
grow or synthesize our food."
He sat beside Anti's tank, which had been returned to the usual place.
A small tree nodded overhead in the artificial breeze. It was peaceful
enough. But Nona wasn't there.
"We'll get you out of the tank," promised Jordan. "When she comes
back, we'll rig up a place where there's no gravity. And we'll
continue cold treatment."
"I can wait," said Anti. "On this world I'm normal."
Docchi stared forlornly about. The one thing he wanted to see wasn't
there.
"If you're worrying about Nona," advised Anti, "don't. The guards were
pretty rough with the women, but plastissue doesn't feel pain. They
didn't find her."
"How do you know?"
"Listen," said Anti. The ground shivered with the power of the
gravital units. "As long as they're running, how can you doubt?"
"If I could be sure--"
"You can start now," Jordan said. "First, though, you'd better get up
and turn around."
Docchi scrambled to his feet. She was coming toward him.
She showed no sign of strain. Except for a slight smudge on her
wonderfully smooth and scar-less cheek, she might just have stepped
out of a beauty cubicle. Without question, she was the most beautiful
woman in the world. This world, of course, though she could have done
well on any world--if she could have communicated with people as well
as with machines.
"Where were you hiding?" Docchi asked, expecting no answer.
She smiled. He wondered, with a feeling of helplessness, if machines
could sense and appreciate her lovely smile, or whether they could
somehow smile themselves.
"I wish I could take you in my arms," he said bitterly.
"It's not as silly as you think," said Anti, watching from the surface
of the tank. "You don't have any arms, but she has two. You can talk
and hear, but she can't. Between you, you're a complete couple."
"Except that she would never get the idea," he answered unhappily.
Jordan, rocking on his hands, looked up quizzically. "I must be
something like her. They used to call me a born mechanic; just put a
wrench in my hand and I can do anything with a piece of machinery.
It's as if I sense what the machine wants done to it. Not to the
extent that Nona can understand, naturally. You might say it's
reversed, that she's the one who can hear while I have to lip-read."
"You never just gabble," Docchi prompted. "You have something in
mind."
Jordan hesitated. "I don't know if it's stupid or what. I was thinking
of a kind of sign language with machines. You know, start with the
simple ones, like clocks and such, and see what they mean to her.
Since they'd be basic machines, she'd probably have pretty basic
reactions. Then it's just a matter of--"
"You don't have to blueprint it," Docchi cut in excitedly. "That would
be fine for determining elementary reactions, but I can't carry around
a machine shop; it wouldn't be practical. There ought to be one
variable machine that would be portable and yet convey all meanings to
her."
"An electronic oscillator?"
Acid waves washed at the sides of the tank as Anti stirred
impatiently. "Will you two great brains work it out in the lab,
please? And when you get through with that problem, you'll have plenty
more to keep you occupied until we get to the stars. Jordan and me,
for instance. What future is there for a girl unless she can get
married?"
"That's right," Docchi said. "I've got an idea we can do better than
normal doctors. Being accidentals ourselves, we won't stop
experimenting till we succeed. And we have hundreds of years to do it
in."
Glowing, literally, with pleasure, he bent over for Jordan to climb on
his back. Then he kissed Nona and headed for the laboratory.
Nona smiled and followed.
"There are some things you don't need words or machines to express,"
Anti called out. "Keep that in mind, will you?"
She submerged contentedly in the acid bath. Above the dome, the stars
gleamed a bright welcome to the little world that flashed through
interstellar space.
--F. L. WALLACE
* * * * *