"No, Doctor," she said firmly. "I will _not_ waste another eight or ten
years of my life playing nursemaid to a hunk of pseudo-human machinery.
"I watched that thing go mad, Fitz; you didn't. It was the most
horrible, most frightening thing I've ever experienced. I will not go
through it again.
"Even if the next one didn't crack, I couldn't take it. By human
standards, a robot is insane to begin with. If I followed this up, I'd
end up as an old maid with a twisted mind and a cold heart.
"I quit, Fitz, and that's final."
Mike was watching her as she spoke, and he found his emotions getting
all tangled up around his insides. Her red hair and her blue eyes were
shining, and her face was set in determination. She had always been
beautiful, but at that moment she was magnificent.
_Hell_, thought Mike, _I'm prejudiced--but what a wonderful kind of
prejudice_.
"I understand, my dear," said Dr. Fitzhugh slowly. He smiled then,
deepening the wrinkles in his face. His voice was warm and kindly when
he spoke. "I accept your resignation, but remember, if you want to come
back, you can. And if you get a position elsewhere, you will have my
highest recommendations."
Leda just stood there for a moment, tears forming in her eyes. Then she
ran around the table and threw her arms around the elderly and somewhat
surprised roboticist.
"Thank you, Fitz," she said. "For everything." Then she kissed him on
his seamed cheek.
"I beg your pardon," said a sad and solemn voice from the door. "Am I
interrupting something?"
It was Treadmore.
"You are," said Fitzhugh with a grin, "but we will let it pass."
"What has happened to Snookums?" Treadmore asked.
"Acute introspection," Fitzhugh said, losing his smile. "He began to try
to compute the workings of his own brain. That meant that he had to use
his non-random circuits to analyze the workings of his random circuits.
He exceeded optimum; the entire brain is now entirely randomized."
"Dear me," said Treadmore. "Do you suppose we can--"
Black Bart Quill tapped Mike the Angel on the shoulder. "Let's go," he
said quietly. "We don't want to stand around listening to this when we
have a ship to catch."
Mike and Leda followed him out into the corridor.
"You know," Quill said, "robots aren't the only ones who can get
confused watching their own brains go round."
"I have other things to watch," said Mike the Angel.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| UNWISE CHILD |
| |
| RANDALL GARRETT |
| |
| When a super-robot named Snookums discovers how to build his |
| own superbombs, it becomes obvious that Earth is by no means |
| the safest place for him to be. And so Dr. Fitzhugh, his |
| designer, and Leda Crannon, a child psychologist acting as |
| Snookums' nursemaid, agree to set up Operation Brainchild, a |
| plan to transport the robot to a far distant planet. |
| |
| Mike the Angel--M. R. Gabriel, Power Design--has devised the |
| power plant that is to propel the space ship _Branchell_ to |
| its secret destination, complete with its unusual cargo. |
| And, as a reserve officer in the Space Patrol, Mike is a |
| logical replacement for the craft's unavoidably detained |
| engineering officer. |
| |
| But once into space, the _Branchell_ becomes the scene of |
| some frightening events--the medical officer is murdered, |
| and Snookums appears to be the culprit. Mike the Angel |
| indulges himself in a bit of sleuthing, and the facts he |
| turns up lead to a most unusual climax. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| UNWISE CHILD |
| |
| RANDALL GARRETT |
| |
| Dr. Fitzhugh looked out over the faces of the crewmen. |
| |
| "The whole thing can be summed up very quickly," he said. |
| |
| "Point one: Snookums' brain contains the information that |
| eight years of hard work have laboriously put into it. It's |
| worth _billions_, so the robot can't be disassembled, or the |
| information would be lost. |
| |
| "Point two: Snookums' mind is a strictly logical one, but it |
| is operating in a more than logical universe. Consequently, |
| it is unstable. |
| |
| "Point three: Snookums was built to conduct his own |
| experiments. To forbid him to do that would be similar to |
| beating a child for acting like a child. |
| |
| "Point four: Emotion is not logical. Snookums can't handle |
| it, except in a very limited way. |
| |
| "It all adds up to this: Snookums _must_ be allowed the |
| freedom of the ship." |
| |
| Every one of the men was thinking dark gray thoughts. It was |
| bad enough that they had to take out a ship like the |
| _Branchell_, untested as she was. Was it necessary to have |
| an eight-hundred-pound, moron-genius child-machine running |
| loose, too? |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| More Doubleday Science Fiction: |
| |
| NECROMANCER |
| Gordon R. Dickson |
| |
| Paul Formain, a young mining engineer, has discovered that |
| someone--or something--is making attempts on his life; |
| inexplicably, he finds himself possessed of the uncanny |
| ability to escape his unknown nemesis. |
| |
| With the knowledge that he somehow has strange powers, |
| Formain approaches the Chantry--a small but important |
| organization involved in trying to save the world from the |
| horrors of technology. He is accepted as an apprentice |
| necromancer, passes all the tests of the black magic |
| society, and is initiated as a member. |
| |
| Set in the Chicago Complex, a multi-level city with |
| individual subway cars and automatic libraries, NECROMANCER |
| is science fiction in the popular cosmic |
| style--thought-provoking and entertaining. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| RANDALL GARRETT wrote his first successful short story at |
| the age of fourteen, for which he was awarded a check from |
| his editor and a C-minus from his English teacher. Mr. |
| Garrett spent his youth in various places in the United |
| States--living wherever his Army officer father was |
| assigned--and received his higher education at Texas |
| Technological College. He is the author of three novels (two |
| in collaboration with Robert Silverberg) and a biography of |
| Pope John XXIII, and has had short stories published in all |
| of the science fiction magazines. |
| |
| JACKET BY RICHARD POWERS |
| |
| _Printed in the U.S.A._ |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Notes & Errata |
| |
| Superscripts are enclosed in braces (curly brackets) and |
| are preceded by a caret. |
| |
| Subscripts are enclosed in braces (curly brackets) and |
| are preceded by an underscore. |
| |
| Two instances each of a 'U' with breve are rendered as |
| plain 'U's. |
| |
| Two instances of an 'o' with macron are rendered as |
| plain 'o's. |
| |
| The following typographical errors have been corrected. |
| |
| |Error |Correction | |
| |Captan |Captain | |
| |purity |purty | |
| |supercedes |supersedes | |
| |collossal |colossal | |
| |atempts |attempts | |
+----------------------------------------------------------+