Oh, what a laugh! I sought obscurity and safety out in space—and find neither!
Matsudo looked away again. Saul knew, then, that this was a matter decided far above, and there would be no use inflicting protests on his uncomfortable friend.
He had seen simulations better than Matsudo’s—prepared in stochastic logic by JonVon to his own models. Matsudo was right. Things were indeed getting better…or at lest they would slip downhill more slowly for the foreseeable future. Saul had hoped that it would mean more time to study—to really study—what was going on here.
There was more to all of this than a life-or-death struggle between colonists and native organisms. Much, much more, and he wanted to find out about it.
But how does one fight city hall?
Maybe I could persuade Virginia to desert with me, into the tunnels. We’ll graze on green stuff; like Ingersoll. Raid the animal lockers and thaw some sheep to raise. Maybe plant sorghum down on the south forty and tell the universe to go to hell.
The ridiculous image made him smile, in spite of himself.
“I must have three months.” He began the inevitable bargaining. “There are experiments to finish, and I’ve got to brief Svatuto. Also, Keoki and Marguerite need more training before I hand the lab over to them.”
Matsudo shook his head. “Two weeks. It is all I am willing to… all I can risk you further.”
Saul smiled. “I’ll have to write a training manual for future shifts—on handling the cyanutes and using the microwave disruptor… Eight weeks, minimum.”
After a long silence, Matsudo sighed in acquiescence. “I fear for you, Saul. But I am also selfish. I admit that it will be good to have you here for that much longer.”
The black-haired immunologist looked out over the slopes of Mount Asahi. Sunset faded into a purpling night. Lowering clouds flickered with hints of thunder.
“Flesh is weak,” Akio Matsudo said softly, removing his glasses to polish them one more time. “And it is lonely without friends, where only the snow falls.”
VIRGINIA
As she approached the sleep-slot prep room one of her own poems—if indeed they deserve such a highfalutin’ name!—came rushing into her head.
Okay, you’re brave enough to say it to JonVon. Now do it.
She slipped into the prep room. Saul already lay in the carrier beneath cool pale light, surrounded by cylinders and spheres of gleaming steel. Carl Osborn was helping Keoki Anuenue, the med-tech, work over him. The red nutrient webbing resembled a net of blood vessels projected through the skin, like a demonstration in school. Saul was still awake, though drowsy. His eyes followed her as she walked to his side. Fog curled in chilly fingers around her.
Carl glanced up. “Where the hell have you been! I’ve been listening to the comm. Just as I started, all the mechs went dead.”
“I know.”
“Oh, is it already fixed?”
“It will be, if I give the order,” she said precisely.
Carl blinked. “What’s that mean?”
“I shut them all down. And I won’t bring them back on line unless you and Ould-Harrad honor my request.”
Anuenue kept attaching leads to Saul, oblivious, but Carl stopped and carefully put down his needle-nose pliers. He stepped away, where the tech couldn’t hear. “You’re… threatening us?”
“Let’s call it a promise.”
“Promise! What the—?”
“Either let me slot now, or you won’t get any useful work out of me or the mechs.”
“That’s disobedience! Blackmail!”
“Call it anything you like. Just do it.” Virginia compressed her lips into a thin, pale line.
“We need you.”
“There are other programmers available—unslot one. And JonVon can take over a lot of functions. I’ve upgraded his capabilities.”
“No computer is as good as you.”
Good. Get him to argue rationally. “JonVon’s general organizing structures are better than mine. He also does higher-order selfprogramming. That makes him very adaptable.”
“But your experience.”
“Listen, I’m not negotiating here. I’m demanding.”
Carl sighed and she saw that he was worn down. Not physically—his solid jaw and strong cheeks were ruddy with health, a welcome sight in these days—but mentally. Ould-Harrad is a frustrating commander. Carl was the natural choice for exec officer, but it’s a relentless task being number two to a man like that. And I’m not making it any easier on him.
“You honestly think JonVon will work with another computer wizard? He’s your baby, after all.”
“I’ve instructed him to. I mandated it, using the old mission mainframe. Just as I’ve told him to keep the mechs dead until I give him the word.”
Carl said angrily, “So it is blackmail.”
“Call it a negotiating position.”
“You said you were demanding, not negotiating.”
A shrug. “Skip it. Slot me or else nothing gets done.”
Carl bristled and pointed a finger at Saul. “He put you up to this.”
“No. I never talked to him about it. I… decided on my own.”
Carl’s voice seemed squeezed, diminished. “You… love him that much?”
This was no time to care about anything except results. Carl’s face was reddening, his breathing getting faster. If he saw how unsteady she was, how much nerve it took to do this— “Of course. You’ve known that all along.”
Somehow this simple declaration blunted Carl’s building anger. “You… want to spend the same time in the slots?”
“We belong together.”
Carl shrugged again. “Damned nasty, shutting down the mechs this way.”
“I had to show I mean it. I don’t intend to live without Saul. Particularly since nobody really knows how much longer things will hold together here anyway.”
“We’ve got the diseases licked, Saul says.”
“Yes, for now. But what about long-term effects? We’ve got to be sure we have able bodies for service decades from now. People who can come out of the slots in good condition, ready to work. Saul and I fit that description. You know we can survive.”
She played out the arguments just as she had rehearsed them. There were holes in them, of course, but she saw now that Carl in his disoriented state was vulnerable to her, unable to muster a coherent objection. Perhaps he would, in fact, be glad to be rid of both her and Saul; their love was a continual irritant to him, she guessed.
Carl asked, “Keoki, could you get some more KleinTex solution from stock?” The tech nodded and left.
Carl seemed pensive, almost dazed.
“Carl… I know this is a hard time…”
He blinked, obviously struggling with inner conflicts. “You know, I never pay attention to the people around me… never know what they’re thinking… feeling.”