"Lazarus, that was a memory I did not bring along when I was selecting what to fit into this skull."

"You see, Justin? I'm allowed to know only what they think is good for me. As may be, this heroic treatment worked; I have not been bored since. Other descriptives might apply-but not that one."

"Lori, do you sense a double entendre?"

"No, merely a thinly veiled innuendo. Ignore it with dignity."

"But at first I didn't know my odd relationship to this pair. Oh, I couldn't help knowing that Ishtar, and Hamadryad-one of Ira's daughters; you've met her?"

"Years back. A lovely girl."

"Quite. Both of their mothers are lovely. I couldn't help knowing that both were pregnant; they were spending most of their time with me. But although they were swelling up like poisoned pups, they ignored it, so I didn't inquire."

Justine nodded. "Privacy."

"Naw, just hard-nosed. I've never let the privacy custom keep me from snooping when it suited me. I was miffed, that's all. Here two girls are with me every day and like daughters to me and obviously as knocked up as Pharaoh's Daughter- and they tell me nit. So I got stubborn and outsat them. Till one day Galahad-he's their husband-well, not exactly; you'll see-Galahad invites me downstairs, and here they have, one each, the two prettiest little redheads I ever saw."

"Shall we let him off one cry?"

"You got over it; you both look like me now."

"Or do we add a third cry for that?"

"I still don't smell a mouse; I'm simply pleased. As well as amazed that they had produced babies that looked like identical twins-"

"Which we are, except that we're triplets."

"But some weeks of playing with these babies causes my natural genius and suspicious mind to infer that the girls have pulled a whizzer. I was not then in the sperm bank so far as I knew, but I am well aware of tricks that can be played on a helpless client undergoing antigeria, so with unerring logic I reach the wrong answer: These babies are my daughters by artificial insemination unmentioned to me. So I accuse them' of it. And they deny it. And I explain that I am not angry, but quite the contrary I hope these little cherubs are mine."

"'Cherubs.'"

"Ignore it. He's simply trying to con Mr. Foote."

"Cherubs at that time, I mean, aside from a tendency to bite. That I want them to be mine and share my name, and fortunes. So they confer with their fellow conspirators- Minerva and Galahad-Minerva was in it up to her overload safeties."

"Lazarus, you needed a family."

"Quite right, dear. I'm always better off with a family; it keeps me harmlessly occupied and unbored. Justin, did I mention that Minerva allowed me to adopt her?"

"We weren't asked!"

"Look, kids, under the loose rules of this termite bill I can unadopt you this minute, if such be your wish. Cut the tie. Be just your genetic brother through circumstances I had no more part in than you had. Renounce all authority over you two. Let me know."

The two girls looked at each other briefly. Then one said, "Lazarus-"

"Yes, Lorelei?"

"Lapis Lazuli and I have discussed it, and we both think that you are just exactly the father we want."

"Thank you, my dears."

"And to confirm it, we are canceling two cries and a chin quiver."

"That's most pleasing."

"And besides that, we want to be cuddled...because we are feeling very immature, insecure, and frightened-"

Lazarus blinked. "I don't want you to feel that way, ever. But-Well, can the cuddling wait?"

"Oh, certainly-Father. We know we have a guest. But perhaps you and Mr. Foote would join us in bathing? Before dinner?"

"Well, Justin? Bathing with my hellions is squirmy but fun. I don't do it often because they turn it into a social event and waste time. Suit yourself; don't let your arm be twisted."

"A bath I certainly need. I was clean when I was sealed into that pod-but how long was I in it? I really don't know. And a bath should always be a social event if there is time and good company. Thank you ladies; I accept."

"And I accept, too," put in Minerva. "I'm inviting myself. Justin, Tertius is primitive compared with Secundus, but our family refresher is nice and quite large enough for sociability. 'Decadent,' as Lazarus calls it."

"I designed it to be decadent, Justin. Good plumbing is the finest flower of decadence and one I have always enjoyed when I could get it."

"Uh-my clothes are still in Ira's office. Even my toiletries. Absentminded, I'm sorry."

"No matter. Ira may fetch your bag, but he's absentminded, too. Depilatories, deodorants, scents-no problem. I'll lend you a toga or something."

"Buddy Boy! I mean 'Father.' Does that mean we dress for dinner?"

"Call me Buddy Boy; I'm hardened to it. Go as far as you like, darlings...except that as usual Mama Hamadryad must okay any cosmetics. Back to how I acquired these daughters who are my sisters, Justin: Having conferred, this gang of genetic pirates came clean and threw themselves on the mercy of the court. Me. So I adopted these two, and we registered them, and the registration will be straightened out one day, as I explained. How Minerva gave up the profession of computer and assumed the sorrows that flesh is heir to is a longer story. Want to synopsize it, dear?-and fill him in later if you wish."

"Yes, Father."

"None of your lip, dear; you're a grown woman now. Justin, when we woke this darling, she was about the size and biological age of those two reformed hellions-remind me to take their temperatures, Minerva. I adopted Minerva because she needed a father then. Doesn't now."

"Lazarus, I will always need you as my father."

"Thank you, my dear, but I take that only as a pleasing compliment. Tell Justin your story."

"All right. Justin, are you familiar with the theories concerning self-awareness in computers?"

"Several of them. As you know, my work is mostly with computers."

"Permit me to say, speaking from experience, all theories are empty. How a computer becomes self-aware remains as much a mystery, even to computers, as the age-old mystery of flesh-and-blood self-awareness. It just is. But, so far as I've heard-quite far in view of the library that was locked in my memories then and is still in Athene's memories-self-awareness never arises in a computer designed only for deductive logic and mathematical calculations, no matter how big it is.

But if it is designed for inductive logic, able to assess data, draw hypotheses therefrom, test them, reconstruct them to fit new data, make random comparisons of the results, and change those reconstructions-exercise judgment the way a flesh-and-blood does, then self-awareness may occur. But I don't know why and no computer knows. It just does."

She smiled. "Sorry, I did not mean to sound pedantic. Lazarus figured out that I could go into a blank human 'brain, a clone brain, using techniques used to conserve memories in rejuvenation clinics. When we discussed this, I had the entire technical library of Secundus' Howard Clinic in me-stolen, in a way. I no longer have it; I had to pick and choose what to take along when I went into this skull. So I don't remember much of what I did, any more than a rejuvenation client knows all that is done to-him; you would have to get details from Athene, who still has them-and who, by' the way, never had the rather painful awakening that a computer goes through when it first begins to know itself, because I left a piece of me in Athene, oh, like a yeast starter. Athene dimly remembers having been Minerva at one time-about the way we flesh-and-bloods"-Minerva straigntened up, smiled, and looked proud-"remember a dream as something not quite real. And I remember being Minerva the Computer some- what the same way. I remember all my contacts with people very sharply-because I chose to keep them, replicate them into this skull. But if anyone were to ask how I handled the transport system of New Rome...well, I know that I did, but not how I did it."