"I am here to help you, Tappy," he murmured. "I think I can help you best just by being near you. Until you achieve your destiny." Then he drew his hand loose, rolled onto his stomach, and tried to sleep.
For a moment he was afraid she would start crying. Then she rolled over, too, toward him, and set her hand on his back. with that contact she seemed to be satisfied. Her breathing became even.
He was relieved. He knew that had she insisted on more, he would in the end have succumbed. He had before. It was not easy doing what he believed was right. But it was best. He could never fully redeem the wrong he had done her, there in the cabin in the Green Mountains of Vermont, so far away in more than one sense. Maybe his recent efforts to get her to wherever she was Meanwhile he could at least going represented his need to atone.
avoid making it worse.
He slept, and dreamed, and in one dream he was approaching Tappy, desiring her, and feeling guilty for it. He knew, even asleep, that she was beside him, and it was his duty to leave her alone. But there was that in him that wanted it otherwise.
He knew it was morning, because it was light, and Abe and Abbie were there to get them dressed. Jack felt greatly refreshed; maybe there was something restorative in slept well, and it seemed that Tappy had, to note that the two AI had gotten mixed tending to Jack, and Abe to Tappy. An evidently not of great significance to them.
They took turns in the shower, stripping managed to avoid looking at Tappy's nude body the night before, but realized that he could not do so now without making more of his human foibles apparent than he cared to. Fortunately he had a reflex that prevented him from having a masculine reaction in public. So he affected neutrality, as he had during the night.
Whatever the AI did not know about any aspect of his relationship with Tappy was fine by him.
Her body was and was not what he expected. She was slender, but not thin; her legs were nicely fleshed, her hips and buttocks rounding into womanhood, and her breasts were well enough formed. Yet neither was she at the adult level. He judged that she was about halfway across her transition from childhood to womanhood, physically. In some countries, as he understood it, a girl was considered to be old enough if she appeared old enough; mere years did not define statutory rape. In such a country, he would have been in trouble anyway.
But there was something else. That intangible glow. She turned her face to him and smiled, fathoming where he stood, and it was as if there were an aura about her. She knew what they had done, and she regretted it not at all. She had in that sense proven herself.
Perhaps it had been at that point that she became independent of the need for the leg brace. She had begun to assume command of the situation, to choose her own course. To lead. She had led him to the portal between worlds. The Imago had begun to manifest, and surely it permeated her now. She had power, and knew it, and her growing confidence manifested in a straighter stance, a certainty of acceptance, and a subtle knowing. In a country that judged by attitude, she would be deemed old enough.
When she was dressed, that aura remained. She took his arm, guiding him rather than being guided by him. She squeezed, indicating that she was by no means through with him. Oh, yes, she was changing!
After breakfast it was time for talk. They sat in comfortable chairs in a three-quarter circle. "There is more to clarify, Jack, and it is best if your ignorance is quickly abated," Abe said.
"We think you will be more receptive if you learn it in your own manner. Please make the remaining inquiries in your mind."
Jack reminded himself that this was not a living man. He should not react to the seeming condescension. But he was slightly irritated. So he became slightly unreasonable. "I have no remaining inquiries, thank you."
Tappy's face turned to him. Her tongue was between her teeth, as if she needed to bite it. She was amused.
"Surely you do, Jack," Bart said, neither amused nor annoyed.
"You folk are interchangeable?" Jack inquired, now playing to his audience of one living person. "You alternate on sentences?"
."Yes, if you wish," Abe said.
"What about the missing two'! Why haven't we seen Cole or Candy?"
"They have been at work on maintenance, But you need have no concern; their responses would be identical to ours."
This was getting nowhere. Jack knew he was being unreasonable. Therefore he became more so. "Maybe I'd rather judge that for myself." He stood. "I'll go find Candy."
Abe looked at Tappy. She tittered. It was the first truly human sound he remembered hearing from her. Abruptly his unreasonableness took another turn. "You're here to serve the Imago, right? Well, you can serve her best by removing the block that stops her from talking to me in my language. You can do that, can't you?"
"We can," Abe agreed. "But-"
"Then get on it!" Jack snapped. "Then she can ask the questions. Let me know when she's ready." He strode from the chamher.
No one followed. Probably Tappy had indicated no, and she herself had been intrigued by the notion of being able to talk again. He had half expected Tappy to try to come with him, to plead silently with him, but she had not. It was a sign of her new confidence that she knew he was making a deliberate scene, and apparently she was enjoying it. Maybe the emotionless AI manikins annoyed her, too, but because they served her, she could not make an issue of it.
Bat now he was stuck wandering around the building without a guide. He had no idea where he was going. So he was making pretty much of a fool of himself. But he was stuck on his course.
He kept walking, striding down the hall he found himself in.
He came to some sort of central square, except that it was round. Halls radiated out to the four directions, and there were shafts going up and down. He was walking so fast that he was stepping into the pit below before he realized. But he didn't fall.
He just floated across the center, as if he weighed nothing, his inertia carrying him on to the far side.
Antigravity? Well, why not! They seemed to have everything else.
He decided to explore the shaft above. He turned and jumped.
If there really was no gravity here, he should be able to sail right up to the top.
Instead he found himself angling toward the far wall of the shaft. He twisted as well as he could before crashing into it, managing to get a foot out to break his fall. But instead of rebounding back into the center, he found himself catching his balance and straightening up. The wall was now his floor.
He looked back. There was the center, with its radiating halls.
Now the one he was in seemed level, and the one he had come from seemed vertical.
Jack shook his head. Live and learn! He resumed his walk, going toward what might or might not be the top of the building.
There did seem to be light at the end of the passage.
It turned out to be an opaque but glowing wall. Or floor. When he came to it, his orientation shifted again, and now he was walking on it. Its surface seemed slightly curved, so that he could not see the full length of the new passages, which extended in four directions from the mergence. This was like the center square, only one hall was missing: the one which would have led on through the wall and outside, perhaps.
"Where do I go from here?" he asked himself aloud. He realized that he could fairly readily get lost, and make an even bigger fool of himself than so far. Maybe that was why the AI had let him go: they were waiting for him to give up and accept their way of doing things. Passive persuasion.