“There’s one other thing,” said Hector.

“What’s that?”

“The biological network, once it’s established, is likely to be much more mutable than one composed of wires and chips. We may experience some spontaneous renetworking.”

“What do you mean?”

“The brains may choose to do things differently than we would.”

“That explains why my coffee maker reminded me of my eight o’clock appointment when I switched it on this afternoon.”

“Yeah, things like that.”

“They say we have brought them something much longed for,” said Lilith.

“Like what?”

“Time to think.”

“But what if they spend too much time thinking about other things? What if they start talking to each other and forget to keep the ventilation system running?”

All she got were uncomforting shrugs on all sides.

oOo

The blue polymer was spreading rapidly through the city. As soon as he learned of it, Hyper went down to the power station on Grand Boulevard with a pair of insulated gloves and a wire stripper and got himself a piece of the stuff. He used it to treat his robots. Within a few hours they were biologized. He gathered them on the front lawn of his house; newly graceful creatures of metal flesh. He vaulted astride Robo-Mime and set off with his herd through the streets of Vattown to Mavi’s house. The noise of his entourage brought her out onto the porch, her eyebrows knitted quizzically.

“Where’s Chango?”

“She’s inside.”

“Tell her to get out here.”

Mavi disappeared back into the house, and long moments passed. Finally Chango came out. She eyed the robots guardedly. “What are you up to?”

“According to Slatermeyer’s calculations, the blue poly will reach the traffic net today. C’mon, saddle up, you don’t want to miss this.”

“There won’t be anything to see.”

“Maybe not, but it’s a historic moment. Human beings are losing control of their inventions. Don’t you want to be there when it happens?”

“Not particularly. Besides, what’s so special about the traffic net? Most of Grand Boulevard is already running on blue poly.”

“But once it gets into the levway, it’ll go everywhere. It’ll be in the 'burbs by tonight. C’mon, what have you got to do today? Mope around some more?”

She shrugged, and climbed reluctantly onto the shoulders of Close Enough for Jazz. “Is this safe?”

“Just hang on,” he said, and directed the robots west, towards the levway. They stood on the embankment, watching levcars whiz past below as the sun inched its way towards the horizon.

“How long do we have to stand here? It’s probably happened already,” said Chango.

“No, look.” Hyper pointed to where a solid line of levcars crept along the road surface at a fraction of their normal speed. “That’s got to be the front edge.”

“Is that as fast as they can go?”

“No, but the road’s keeping everyone back from the discontinuity. Once it’s all biologized, speeds will return to normal, but for the next few days, there’ll be traffic jams, something no one’s had to put up with for years.”

“All this new stuff — the brains, the blue poly, Helix and her people — I wonder if human beings are going to get left behind.”

“Maybe. But so many of us already have been. You and I, we’ll be alright. We already know how to survive in a world that was made for someone else.”

Chango nodded and cast her gaze north, to the peak of the GeneSys building, just beginning to glow golden in the gathering dusk.

oOo

Helix sank into the waters. She felt the cramping in her abdomen, felt herself widening as the first egg slid out and drifted to the bottom of the tank. It was followed by eleven more. She ducked beneath the waters, gently running her hands across the slippery surface of the membranes. Her daughters, she thought, and smiled.

The End