Robot Adept (23 page)
Authors: Piers Anthony
Tags: #Contemporary, #Fiction, #Fantasy, #General, #Science Fiction, #High Tech
Jimbo gazed out across the audience. “I do not know the answer, but I would like to think I might guess it.” Fleta knew before she spoke that Jimbo had won this game. She had thought that her own crisis was unique, and that the others in the Tourney were merely competing for the prize of Citizenship. Now she saw that that was not necessarily the case; each contestant might have as good reason to be here as she. She did not begrudge Jimbo the evident sympathy he had evoked in this audience.
FLETA SPEAKS SECOND, the big screen announced.
Now it was upon her! Encouraged by her opponent’s example of discretion and candor, she told her own story in similar fashion.
“There was once in the Frame o’ Phaze a unicorn filly,” she began. “She was happy in her Herd, grazing the plains and running with her companions and learning the ways o’ her kind. She labored to master her transformations, choosing one original form and one common form to complement her natural one. Her dam could become a firefly, so the filly liked the notion o’ a flying form, and chose the smallest o’ the avians, the hummingbird. Most other unicorns chose fierce hawks or fast falcons or lovely feathered birds, or even flying dragons, and some were amused that she should aspire to such an insignificant creature, but she had no fear o’ smallness, for her dam was the smallest o’ mares yet well respected by all the members o’ the Herd and o’ the neighboring pack o’ werewolves too. Indeed, it turned out that she could feed more readily than others, needing only the nectar o’ some flower, and hide well, and it was a good choice.
“The common form was the most challenging, how ever, because that was human. The form itself was not difficult, but just as she had spent more time learning to fly than she had learning the birdform, she had to spend far more time learning to speak like a human than she had achieving girlform. To speak, she had to learn to think like a human, and the ways o’ human thought were marvelous and weird. So she sought help, first from acquaintances among the werewolves and vampires who came more naturally by girlform, then from the most feared o’ human folk, one o’ the Adepts.
This was because her dam was oath-friend to one Adept, and he was friend to some other Adepts, and so one o’ them was willing to help the filly o’ the oath-friend.
Thus it was that the filly spent some time as the guest o’ the Brown Adept, serving her as a serf might serve a Citizen, but also learning from her the complete human language and much o’ the social ways of the human species too.
“Then did the filly come to maturity, and learned the identity o’ the herb that suppressed her cycle o’ heat so that she would not be bred too soon, for the Herd Stallion was her uncle and banned from breeding her.
She played with the human son o’ her dam’s oath-friend, and he showed her how his kind mated, though it were meaningless in the absence o’ heat. E’en so, she came to like that young human man, and wished she could be truly human, that she might be always with him. But he, o’ course, knew her for an animal, and while he treated her always as a companion and e’en friend, there was no way he saw her as one to breed with or, as the humans put it, marry. So she kept her desire for him hidden, knowing that any union between them was for bidden. He was after all the son o’ an Adept, one year to be Adept himself; he was far beyond the aspiration o’ a normal human woman, let alone a mere animal.”
How neatly she had summarized the whole of her first decade and a half of life! But now she was ready for the real story. “Then she came o’ age to mate and bear a foal for the Herd, so she was sent to another Herd, that its Stallion might breed her without incest.
But she dawdled, remaining near the place favored by the Adept’s son, in case he should come there and need a ride or companionship. She knew the hope to be vain, but still she stayed, foolishly. Perhaps it was in her mind that if she arrived at the other Herd not in time for her heat, she would escape breeding, and be free a little longer. It might not make much sense, but she was after all only an animal.
“Then happened something strange. A man passed the region, and he smelled like the Adept’s son, but he acted like him not. He was going naked, as men did not, and stumbling as if he had been ne’er there before.
She kept her distance, wanting to approach, but uncertain. Finally he cried for help, and that was all she needed; she sounded a chord on her horn in answer, and galloped to his aid. He seemed surprised to see her, as if his memory was gone, but rode her away from that place. She had to back off a water dragon, but carried him to safety in the crater. It was especially strange that he used not magic o’ his own to protect himself, and seemed almost wary o’ her, despite their long acquaintance. He settled down to sleep in the crater, and she pondered, then yielded to her desire and changed to girlform and joined him there.
“Next morning it seemed he was playing a game, for his speech was strange and he seemed still not to know her. He insisted his name was other than what she knew it was. He claimed to know magic not, and he was loath to wear clothes. She persuaded him to try a spell, and he did, but it worked strangely. She also encouraged him to make some clothing. He said he was a rovot, a thing like a wooden golem, only made o’ metal, and that he needed not to have natural processes. But o’ course he did; he did just prefer to do it alone. And gradually she understood that he was not the same man she had known, but his other self, from Proton-frame, a stranger to Phaze and all that was in it. Yet was he very like the one she knew in appearance, and perhaps in other things too, and she liked him very well. Perhaps she liked him better, for that he needed her help con stantly, lest he blunder into trouble. But he knew not she was an animal; he thought the girlform and the birdform and the unicorn different creatures. He liked the girlform, and therefore she spoke not o’ her other forms, but stayed close to him and teased him and smiled at him, reveling in the companionship she had ne’er had recently w’ the Adept’s son.
“Then he, thinking her human, took her in his arms and kissed her, and her heart fled from her and became his captive that moment. She tried to tell o’ her nature, and why love between them was forbidden, but 0 she could not; she did want the illusion to linger longer.
Then demons attacked, and to save them both she had to change to her natural form and carry him to safety.
The secret was out. But he was not appalled; he said he was a machine, a thing not alive, a creature without feeling, that could not love. Then did new horror loom for her, that she had lost her heart to one who could care not. But he was wrong; he did care for her. And so their forbidden love was born.”
She paused, and looked at the audience, and saw them rapt as they had been for Jimbo’s story. But such was the joy of her memory, for all its heartache, she hardly cared now whether they cared; she just wanted to finish it.
“Then did the Adverse Adepts make chase, seeking to capture them and use him for their purpose, and they had to flee and hide. Goblins were questing e’erywhere.
But they traveled a route the enemy did not suspect, and managed to escape. Later she learned that their love was forbidden not because the Adept his father objected to unicorns, but because only a human woman could bear him an heir. The filly saw that this was valid, for though she could have sex with her lover she could breed with him not. So she decided to free him for his destiny, and to fix herself in human form and jump from a ledge to her death. But he found her, and cried out to her the triple Thee, the ultimate statement o’ his love, and such was the power o’ it that it saved her from the extinction she had sought and made them one again.
“But now that love be still forbidden, if not by humans, then by the situation, for he be a creature o’ Proton, and she a creature o’ Phaze, and they can ne’er cross o’er to each other’s frames without making an imbalance that will harm all. So now they quest for some way to make it right, but know not w’er it e’er can be.”
Then she felt her eyes melting, and knew that her story was done.
AUDIENCE WILL TOUCH
Jimbo’s name highlighted, then Fleta’s.
JIMBO SIX VOTES, FLETA FIVE VOTES. ABSTENTIONS FOURTEEN.
“Hey, wait!” a serf cried. “I didn’t abstain! I hadn’t made up my mind yet!” There was a chorus of agreement.
MAJORITY VOTE OF ESTABLISHED AUDIENCE REQUIRED FOR DECISION, the screen continued imperturbably. AUDIENCE WILL BE REQUIRED TO CONTINUE VOTING UNTIL THAT MAJORITY IS REGISTERED. TWO-MINUTE RECESS FOR CONSIDERATION BEFORE NEXT VOTE.
Fleta looked at Jimbo, and found him looking at her.
She walked across to him. “I liked thy story,” she said, feeling an affinity for him. “Truly, thou dost know for bidden love as I do.”
“Too bad we didn’t fall in love with each other,” he said. “Are you really a . . . ?”
“A unicorn. Aye. But an the Citizens catch me, that be meaningless.”
”How so?”
“They mean to use me as lever against him whom I love. But the Tourney protects me—an I nof depart too soon.”
“Won’t you be safe offplanet?”
“I be not in mine own body, here. An I depart this world before I exchange to mine own frame, methinks can I not exchange at all, and that be worse yet.”
“So you would prefer to remain here a little longer,” he said.
“Aye,” she said sadly. “But that decision be not in my power.”
He smiled. “But it may be in mine.” He stepped to the front of the stage, waving his hands. “May I have your attention!” he cried.
Instantly a sour note sounded from the screen.
ERROR! CONTESTANT MAY NOT ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE AUDIENCE ON HIS BEHALF.
“I haven’t finished my story,” he cried. “There’s something else I have to say.”
ERROR! STATEMENT IS OUT OF ORDER AT THIS TIME.
A man in the audience stood. “Listen, who’s deciding this game, us or the machine?” he demanded. “Aren’t we like a jury, and we can hear more if we want?”
“Yes, and can’t we judge for ourselves whether he’s trying to change our votes unfairly?” a woman re sponded.
The screen hesitated. PROCEDURAL MATTER.
AUDIENCE WILL INDICATE WHETHER TO HEAR MORE FROM CONTESTANTS. SELECT RESPONSE YES NO. The YES was highlighted, then the NO.
CONTESTANTS MAY SPEAK, the screen printed, yielding gracefully.
“Okay,” Jimbo said. “We’ve got two people here, both probably on the way out regardless of this particular game. One can go any time; the Tourney is just a pretext to get him offplanet without being charged with anything. The other is here to protect her from trouble still brewing, and if she can stay a while longer, maybe things will work out a little better for her. So if I were voting, and I had trouble making up my mind, I think I’d boot the one with nothing to lose, and keep the one with maybe something to win. Now I’m not trying to tell anybody how he should vote, just saying the way I see it, and the damned machine can’t object to that, can it?” He walked to the side, leaving the stage to Fleta.
She realized that she was supposed to say something, but she could think of nothing. She just stood there and started to melt again, which seemed to be this body’s way of crying. She didn’t want to melt in front of all these people, so she hid her face in her hands, overcome.
After a moment, the voting proceeded. Fleta forced her eyes back into shape and looked at the screen.
FLETA TWENTY-THREE VOTES, JIMBO TWO;
FLETA PROCEEDS TO ROUND TWO.
Jimbo looked at her and smiled. She ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him. The members of the audience applauded.
Suddenly she felt much more at home in the frame of Proton.
She had two days before her next match, because of the time required for the remaining Round One games to clear. Mach came to her, after passing through a thorough screening by the Game Computer to ensure that he was whom he claimed to be, and they had a little additional honeymoon. She cherished this brief experience with his own body; she had come to love him in Bane’s body, but this was his reality. If she managed to return to Phaze, this would be all she ever knew of the true Mach.
Then it was time for her Round Two match. This time her opponent was a young woman, of grim visage, and she knew there would be no courtly generosity. She had to win outright.
She got the numbers again, and chose ARTS again.
The girl chose B, so they were in TOOL-ASSISTED ARTS: Painting, Sculpture, Costumed Drama, Decorative Sewing, Patterns with blocks, colored sand, grains of rice or whatever, Card Houses, Kaleidoscope, and Musical Instruments.
Fleta was encouraged; she understood most of these Arts. She played with confidence, and got Music. The other girl was plainly uncertain now. In the end they had to play music, each on her own instrument. The girl chose the piano, and Fleta chose the syrinx: otherwise known as the panpipes, her natural instrument as a unicorn. She had, as a matter of private challenge, learned to play the panpipes in girlform. This was difficult, because her girlfingers lacked the musical coordination of her horn, and her girlmouth could play only one note at a time, or adjacent notes. But fingers weren’t really necessary for this; hooves would have done to hold this instrument firm. She was unable to play two themes simultaneously, but the underlying harmonics came naturally, so she could do a creditable job. Whether she could do it in this alien body she wasn’t sure, but she thought she could. They followed the line to the appropriate chamber.
