When SilverSide arrived above the dome, the alien's hook was pointing aft, so he must be amenable to conversation.

With his hook also pointing aft, SilverSide quietly glided up beside the alien and said, “Leader Synapo, I need to resolve a matter of…”

“Sarco,” the alien said. “Synapo will arise late this morning.”

Talking to Sarco might be better than talking to Synapo. Sarco knew both Neuronius and Synapo and was a leader himself. Who better to judge between the two?

“I must get a matter of extreme urgency resolved, leader Sarco, a matter of understanding Synapo better so as to compare him with Neuronius-and properly place him in a hierarchy of intelligence relative to Neuronius-who claims to be the most intelligent creature on this planet.”

“Neuronius? By the Great Petero,” Sarco hissed, emitting a small green flame simultaneously.

“Neuronius says further that he is a human, and not a Ceremyon, that there are no others of his species on this planet.”

“I hesitate to term him a Ceremyon myself,” Sarco said, “but unfortunately he is-a paranoid Ceremyon suffering delusions of grandeur. He is certainly not more intelligent than Synapo, take my word for it. He wouldn't have been ejected from the Cerebron elite if he were.”

“He has been a member of Ceremyon society then?”

“Most certainly. Something we all regret now, but did little about at the time, because Neuronius was so insidiously clever. Cleverness, however, does not equate to wisdom and intelligence.”

“Thank you for your help. You have been of great assistance. I will take my leave now.”

SilverSide balled and dropped.

Chapter 21. Reprieve

They had posted Jacob and Mandelbrot on the balcony of the apartment to watch throughout the night for premature closing of the dome.

“This reminds me of another night before you came,” Jacob said to Mandelbrot. “I spent it much as we are destined to spend this night, but I did not have your company.”

“I trust nothing untoward happened that night,” Mandelbrot said.

“No. But that was the last night Miss Ariel spent under a dome that might imprison her inescapably. She spent the next night in the lorry, sleeping on the back seat. The next morning that first crisis with the aliens was resolved. “

“Let us hope this crisis will be similarly resolved with a pleasant ending. What are the chances of the wild one, do you think?”

“As you observed earlier, he is unpredictable,” Jacob said, “but I wished him a great deal of success for Miss Ariel's sake. It would seem that wish has gone astray. His return is long overdue.”

“I fear you are right,” Mandelbrot said. “Master Derec observed that the alien leaders returned in midafternoon to their normal stations, though that was not altogether clear to me, since one looks so much like another.”

They had all waited, sitting in the lorry outside the dome, watching for SilverSide's return.

A flock of the black aliens had returned from the direction they took when they flew off with him in their midst. But he was not with them on their return. That did not bode well for the safety of the wild one.

For Jacob, the night passed much as it had before, except that this time he had the company and the conversation of Mandelbrot: They had a short inconclusive exchange regarding the Laws of Humanics, and then they began a long investigative conversation, delving into the many ramifications of Jacob's new knowledge of hyperwave communication, the knowledge that there were two types of modulation, not just one: the old discrete type that they were all familiar with, and now this new continuous type, that they had deduced from the aliens' remarks, and which now explained Derec's mysterious internal monitor link with the supervisors of the robot cities. The technology for that link was developed by the erratic Dr. Avery, and understood only by him until Miss Ariel had pushed them into drawing parallels and connections with the two types of hyperspace travel: jump teleportation, which was related to discrete hyperwave modulation, and Key teleportation, which was related to continuous hyperwave modulation. In the course of the long night, they drew parallels and derived conclusions that they recorded by joint effort as a long and comprehensive dissertation for the robot city's archives, an exhaustive treatise that was intended to answer any and all questions on the subject.

It was a longer night for Ariel and Derec, a night they spent closeted in their bedroom to avoid exposing Wolruf to their disagreement. That friction had now escalated beyond the mild and not unusual interplay for dominance that characterizes the relationship of many pairs of lovers.

It started immediately after dinner, when Ariel had gone into the bedroom to get away from the rest of them. She was feeling intensely sorry for herself. Why was it so important that she pull off this effort at conciliation and cohabitation with a bunch of aliens, this attempt to save and incorporate into their galactic community a world she didn't give a dam about?

Was it merely a matter of pride, an attempt once again to prove her capacity for leadership? Derec had never insisted that his must always be the last word, the final and ultimate judgment on things that affected both of them and that they were both mutually responsible for.

Yet why did he always make her feel childish when she tried to establish her individuality in that regard? She had as much right to make decisions as he did, and frequently the decisions he made that were right, were right only because her advice kept him from going astray.

Certainly she knew more about controlling robots than he did. He might know more about what made them tick physically, but she knew far more about how to get the most out of them socially, even out of Mandelbrot, who Derec had created himself. Her upbringing on Aurora, surrounded by robotic servants, had given her experience in that regard, a natural dominance over robots that could never be achieved without that easy confidence one acquires in childhood when waited on hand and foot by robots. Strangely, Derec had not had that common upbringing.

One can become quite attached to them and even treat them like pets. The intelligence of some robots can make that attachment even stronger than that for an animal pet, particularly if the robot is one of the rare humaniform creations, the kind Aurorans were so leery of. Jacob was certainly more than a pet.

That thought sneaked up on her and startled her now when it came so consciously to mind. Before Derec had come to Oyster World, she had been feeling guilty about Jacob, about how obviously uncomfortable Derec had been in the company of that handsome robot on Aurora. Now she didn't feel guilty at all. Derec had more than overcome those odds with the robotic monster he had brought with him from the wolf planet. With all her skill in handling robots, she had no confidence at all that she could reliably control SilverSide.

And now he had caused an irreparable disruption of the tremendous rapport she had established with the Ceremyons, particularly with Synapo. Sarco had remained a small enigma, a sort of friendly enemy, as best she could judge. She sensed that it was not that he disliked her, but more that he could not treat her as anything but an alien. Well, she felt the same way about him, so that made them even. And now, with SilverSide's shenanigans, Sarco was indeed the enemy, she felt sure.

Derec walked into the bedroom at that moment, and that feeling for Sarco was transferred to Derec, except that in Derec's case the feeling was not nearly so mild. Derec was more an enemy lover, and one that she could not love now because he had become so much the enemy.