Robot Adept (10 page)

“Then, as I sang the spell of exchange—“

“I spake thee the triple Thee, as thou didst do when—“

He stepped into her and crushed her in his embrace.
 
“You are my love!” he said. “I tested you, but no other person could have known—“

“This really be thy rovot form?” she asked uncertainly.
 

“It really is. But let me prove myself to you, so that you know you can trust me. I came for you in a canoe I fashioned to float in air, with Suchevane, the most dazzling of vampires, and saved you from your suicide.
 
Then the Translucent Adept appeared, and offered us sanctuary, and the splash of truth supported him, so I agreed—“

She put a finger against his lips. “It be enough, Mach; I know thee now. Methinks in my desire to stay with thee, I worked a bit of magic of mine own, and came with thee to thy frame.”

“A double exchange!” he said, awed. “You are in Agape’s body.”

She looked down at herself. “Aye, this nor looks nor feels like mine! Let me see whe’er I can revert to natural state.” She tried to shift to her unicorn form, but nothing happened. “It happens not.”

“You cannot change that way, here,” Mach said.
 
“Magic doesn’t work in Proton. The laws of science are enforced; mass must remain constant. When Agape changes, she does so slowly, melting from one shape to another.”

“Melting?” Fleta asked, repelled.

He smiled. “I suspect Agape finds your method of changing form awkward, too!” Then he made a sound less whistle. “And she must be there, with Bane! Experiencing magic for the first time!”

“In my body?” Fleta asked, disturbed.

“I’m sure she’ll try to treat it as well as you treat hers,” he said with a smile.

She relaxed. “Mayhap ‘tis fair. But this body—I want to be locked not in human form fore’er! How does it work?”

“I can’t tell you directly, because I have had no experience in it, or in any living body other than Bane’s.
 
She just melted and reformed. Here, maybe we can do it small-scale first, so you can discover the technique.” He took her left hand. “Concentrate on this, and try to turn it into a hoof.”

She tried. Her instant change did not exist, but gradually the outlines of her fingers softened. Then they sagged into each other, and melted together. Then they assumed the form of a hoof, and the nails expanded and fused to make it hard.

She looked at the rest of her. “I be girlform—w’ one hoof!” she said, amazed.

“So you can do it,” he said warmly. “But for now, I think it is best to maintain your human form. I gather from what Bane thought to me that we are two serfs serving in this office, and the Citizen does not know our identities. We had best keep it that way, for if Citizen Tan is the same as the Tan Adept, we could be in serious trouble!”

“The Tan Adept,” she repeated, chagrined. “He o’ the Evil Eye.”

“The evil eye? That’s his magic?”

“Aye.”

“Exactly how does that work?”

“We know not, save that it makes others do his will.”

“I think we are lucky that magic is inoperative here; the Tan Adept cannot affect us that way. Still, we should take no avoidable risks. I had better drill you in office procedures—which I fear will make little sense to you, at first.”

“They make no sense to me already,” she admitted.
 

“The first thing to do is conceal your Phaze mode of speech. That would give you away in the first few seconds. Can you speak as I do, if you try?”

She giggled. “I can try. But thou dost—you do speak so funny, mayhap—I may burst out laughing.”

“It isn’t funny for Proton. Look, Fleta, this may be a matter of life and death.” He paused, reconsidering. .
 
“I had better call you Agape, too, so I don’t give you away.”

“At times you are idiotic,” she said carefully.

“What?”

“Are we not in hiding? Call me Agape, and Tan will know instantly I be his prey.”

He knocked his head with the heel of his hand.
 
“There must be a gear loose in my circuitry! You’re right! We surely have artificial names!”

“Yes,” she said, in her measured way, resisting the urge to say “Aye.”

“Can we find out those names?”

“Have to.” He went out to the desk in an adjacent chamber. “There have to be records.” He activated the desk screen and spoke to it: “List authorized office personnel.”

Words came on:

PROPRIETOR: CITIZEN TAN

EMPLOYEES: TANIA—SUPERVISOR—HUMAN

AGEE—DESK GIRL—ANDROID

MAC—MENIAL—HUMANOID ROBOT

“There it is,” he said. “You are Agee, and I am Mac.
 
Evidently they set us up with names as close to our own as feasible, so we would identify more readily.” He smiled. “Your name means ‘One who flees’; that seems appropriate in the circumstance.”

But she was staring at the screen. “I am glad Bane taught me to read your language,” she said, with the same measured care. “This magic slate is fascinating. But—“

“It’s called a screen,” he said. “You simply tell it what you want, and read its answers. It is simple enough for an idiot to operate, because most androids are idiots.
 
When you encounter something you don’t understand, you should just smile and look blank, and it will be dismissed as android incompetence.”

“That, too,” she agreed. “But—Mac—what of Tania?”

“If she comes to the office, you just do whatever she tells you to do. Androids must always obey humans, outside of the experimental community. Evidently she doesn’t bother to come in much; this office must still be on standby status. We’re just caretakers.”

“Tania,” she said carefully, “is the Tan Adept’s daughter. Stile was minded to marry Bane to her, but feared she would dominate him with her evil eye.”

Mach stared at her. “And this is parallel!” he exclaimed. “Of course she has access to this office! If she comes in, we’re in trouble!”

“That were my thought,” she said.

He addressed the screen again. “Status of Tania.”

The screen answered: TANIA—SISTER OF CURRENT CITIZEN TAN, DAUGHTER OF FORMER CITIZEN TAN, RETIRED. EMPLOYED BY HER BROTHER AS RANKING SERF. DESIGNATED AS HEIR TO TAN CITIZENSHIP.

“That’s her, all right,” he said. “Her brother inherited the Citizenship, so she is the next in line, should he retire or die. That was evidently fixed by their father.
 
She will be very like a Citizen, in all but legality.” He glanced up. “Bane was going to marry her?”

“They want an heir to the Blue Demesnes,” she said.
 
“Tan wanted a suitable match, too. She is about four years older, but is pretty if you like that type.” Mach glanced at the picture of Tania the screen showed. The average man would like that type.
 

“And if they married, the Blue Demesnes would have its heir, and the Adverse Adepts would have a permanent hold on Stile,” Mach said. “I can see why Bane balked!”

She smiled. “He never saw her. He refused to get close to her, because of the evil eye.”

“Smart person, my other self. Let’s just hope she doesn’t show up here.”

Mach drilled her on office etiquette. He evidently hoped that there would be no calls to this office soon, but at least she was minimally prepared.
 
She saw him looking at her. His body and features were different, as were her own, but she knew that look.
 
“Dost thou wish to make love, thy way?” she asked quietly.

He sighed. “I do. But it occurs to me that though it may be known that Bane and I have exchanged back, it may not be known that you and Agape exchanged also. Therefore it would seem that I am with the wrong female, and if I wish to be consistent, I will not make love to her.”

“But who will know?” she asked.

“That’s the irony: perhaps no one. But just as you must adopt the speech of this frame to conceal your identity, I think I must adopt a loyalty to an inapplicable principle, to further conceal your identity. We shall have enough trouble hiding from the Contrary Citizens, without adding to it this way.”

“But be they not the analogues o’ the Adverse Adepts, whom we have joined?” she asked.

“Yes. But we are now standing in for Bane and Agape, who have not joined them. The truce is a compromise that leaves us in the Adepts’ hands, and Bane and Agape in Citizen Blue’s hands. I’m trusting Bane not to interfere with that situation in Phaze, and I shall not interfere with it in Proton. I think that is the equitable course.”

“It all be too complicated for me,” she said. Then, reverting to the local dialect: “I need some rest.”

“Rest,” he agreed. “I don’t need it, in this body.”

“For my mind, not my body,” she clarified. “I deal not—I don’t deal in alien frames every morning.”

“I will see what else I can learn of our situation.”

“What will you do?”

“I will activate a circuit within myself to ensure that no electronic device can spy on me without alerting me, and another to give me access to a secret connection via the phone.”

“This must I—“ She broke off and tried again. “I must see this.”

Soon he had it. “This is Mach,” he said to the screen, and gave a code sequence that identified him. “What is my status?”

“Citizens are canvassing the city,” a self-willed ma chine replied. “They seek the alien woman, not you.
 
They have narrowed it down to this sector, and will close in on you within three days.”

“What is the contingency plan?”

“We have a chute with meshed valves, for liquid wastes; the alien must melt and flow down that, and we shall convey her to the Tourney, which commences in six days.”

“The Tourney? She is not qualified for that!”

“She must enter and lose. She will then be required to depart the planet, without interference.”

“Now I understand,” he said. “The Contrary Citizens cannot hire a Tourney loser, and cannot prevent that loser from departing the planet unless there is a question of a crime to settle. Any such charge against Agape would put her under the authority of the courts, which also would protect her from them. This is a practically foolproof way to get her safely offplanet and back to Planet Moeba, where the Citizens have no power. All that is necessary is to keep you hidden until the Tourney begins, and qualify you for it; thereafter you will be safe. Obviously Citizen Blue, my father, has taken a hand and acted effectively to save Agape and his own position.”

“What is the Tourney?” Fleta asked, confused.

“An annual tournament whose first prize is Citizenship. It is run by the Game Computer, by the rules of the Game. It is very popular with serfs, though all losers are deported.”

“Like the Unilympics?” she asked.

“The what?”

“A big contest for status. Each species has its own: the Werelympics, the Vamplympics, the Elflym pics—“

“Maybe so.” He frowned. “But the Citizens are liable to locate you in two days. That leaves a gap of three.
 
Also, you are unqualified for the Tourney. Theoretically you would have those three days to qualify; if you fail, or if the Citizens capture you in that period, all will be lost.”

She realized that Agape, with her lively intellect and special powers of adaptation, might have found a way to qualify. Fleta, in Agape’s body, would hardly have a chance. This unexpected exchange of the two females could prove to be extremely costly!

Still, now they knew the challenge: get her through to the Tourney, and get her qualified. If they accomplished that, she would be shipped to the completely alien Planet Moeba.

And what would she do there? She had only vague knowledge of Proton, and none of Moeba. Even success was disaster!

Mach pondered, and told her that he would have to modify the plan in one detail. He would have to get Fleta exchanged back to Phaze before she was exiled to Moeba. That meant he had to locate Bane, and intercept him, and catch him in the company of Agape, and bring Fleta in for another exchange. He was sure, the girls could not exchange unless the effort was made in the company of the boys. It seemed an almost impossible act of juggling, considering the pursuit by the Contrary Citizens and the demands of the Tourney, but somehow he had to manage it. Because however he might be constrained to act personally, Fleta was the creature he loved, and he could not allow her to suffer exile to a completely alien world, with no prospect of return to her homeland.

“Aye,” she whispered, loving his determination though she hated the threat that hung over her.
 

“I have accepted sanctuary with the Adverse Adepts, in Phaze, for the sake of our love. If I had no other way, I would seek similar sanctuary with the Contrary Citizens. But integrity requires that I make every other effort first, before giving the Citizens the complete victory they seek.”

“Aye,” she agreed again. Now at last she could relax.
 
Except for another problem: food. This was morning, and her body was hungry. Fleta had no idea how to operate the food dispenser, and no idea how to make Agape’s body eat. Mach could operate the food machine, but when she took food into her mouth, she discovered that she had no mechanism for swallowing; indeed, she had no throat. The body possessed a bellows mechanism for the inhalation and exhalation of air, for which the amoebic body had a need similar to that of the human body. Thus her chest rose and fell naturally, and she could speak normally. But that was all; she had no internal digestive system.