“Then early this morning he ascended to meet me in the form of a Ceremyon, as best he can manage, and as you know, that is a startlingly huge Ceremyon.
“It was then that we learned of his interaction with Neuronius, who had tried to pass himself off as the only human on the planet in order to win SilverSide's allegiance. I hope I was able to forestall that. I watched SilverSide descend to The Plain of Serenity and watched as he transformed to a being that looked from that distance somewhat like Wolruf, but probably twice her size. I last saw him entering The Forest of Repose in that form.”
“That would be his KeenEye imprint,” Derec said, “one of the lupine creatures he copied on that other planet. Thank you. At least we know he's still alive and hope he'll return. Thank you very much.”
The two Ceremyons turned then and took to the air.
Immediately after the meeting, in the short time that was left before lunch, Ariel, Derec, and Wolruf began planning the robot farm experiment, discussing in broad outline the revisions in the programming of the Avery robots that would be required, not only for the many different farms themselves, but also for the creation of the city's new terminal facilities that would be needed to support the farms.
SilverSide had not returned by the time they sat down to lunch. In spite of all the trouble he had caused her, Ariel felt inexplicably concerned about his welfare.
Chapter 22. The Egg
Once again SilverSide was in turmoil. All was confusion. Who should he believe? He wished only to evade the dilemma. He metamorphosed, escaping back to the relative peace of his wolfish “childhood,” back to the days when LifeCrier had guided him into the life of the pack on the wolf planet.
Thus, midmorning found SilverSide imprinted on the wolflike female KeenEye, trotting along an animal trail far from the robot city. As she had the night before, she spent the late morning and early afternoon exploring the vast Forest of Repose, its trails, brooks, rivers, and lakes that lay within ten kilometers of the city.
Monitoring the field lines of Oyster World's natural magnetism kept her oriented during her aimless roving, so that as the morning waned, she began to zero in on the dome without dwelling on what she was going to do when she got there.
In the early afternoon, she came to the edge of the forest opposite the mirage-like transparency that concealed the robot city. She sat down on her haunches and stared at the dome with unseeing eyes, mulling over-as she had all morning-what Neuronius and then Sarco had told her.
She could not escape the essential validity of Sarco's assessment of Neuronius-a self-centered, paranoid psychopath-nor could she any longer ignore Synapo's directive to serve Miss Ariel and the feeling that that could best be done in the male imprint of Jacob Winterson, who was already serving Miss Ariel with apparently great efficiency and to her obvious satisfaction.
The Jacob imprint would help, but it was still not clear exactly how she could best serve Miss Ariel. The physics Neuronius had expounded had only confused her, offering information that conflicted with her earlier knowledge of space and time. He had not clarified the physics, but had instead muddied it and left SilverSide worse off than she had been before. The new information was useless, and worse than useless in the confusion it created about the physics she had once known.
As she sat there in the quiet heat of the afternoon studying the dome and trying to make sense of the aborted discussion with Neuronius, she gradually became aware of a faint humming off to her left, nearer the dome but deeper in the forest. When the sound finally broke through her reverie, she rose and trotted along an animal path that led in the general direction of the hum.
The path led past the hum, and when SilverSide recognized that she had passed the point of closest approach, she started through the vegetation, heading directly for the sound. Although the ground was covered in that area, the cover was not dense, and she had no difficulty weaving through the shrubbery. As the hum grew steadily louder, she almost ran into its source as she came around a tall bush covered with pink blossoms.
She recognized the source instantly. It was a two-meter sphere, just as hers had been, and the duodecahedral structure of the coarse silvery cells of its skin, dulled by the heat of passage through Oyster World's atmosphere, told her instantly it was an egg similar to her own.
It lay atop the crushed base of two bushes, framed by pink flowers, set in green foliage which, in close proximity to the foreign surface, was now seared and wilted by the heat the egg had exuded earlier. It was now almost cool to the touch, almost ready for hatching. And it came to her then what she must do.
She kept the KeenEye form to speed her dash through the thin shrubbery of the forest, but when she came to the plain, she began the transformation to the Jacob imprint, stopping only long enough to fashion the heavy muscular legs that would take her the three kilometers to the dome's opening in the shortest length of time. As she ran along the wall of the dome, she completed the transformation to the masculine Jacob form well before he reached the opening on the north side.
As SilverSide approached the opening, Wohler-9 called to him from a small runabout parked near the west edge.
“I get no response from you on the comlink, Jacob.”
“I am SilverSide,” he said as he hopped into the passenger seat. “Take me to Miss Ariel Welsh.”
Wohler-9 started the runabout, turned into the near southbound lane of Main Street, and proceeded rapidly down the street in the direction of the Compass Tower.
“I have instructions to take you to Master Derec at once, SilverSide. “
“Where is Miss Ariel?” SilverSide asked.
“At the apartment.”
“Good. Then we are proceeding in the right direction.”
“Yes. Master Derec is working at the mainframe, which is currently on the second underground level of the Compass Tower.”
When they came abreast of the apartment, SilverSide jumped out. Wohler-9 braked the runabout to a halt but remained seated.
“I must take you to Master Derec,” Wohler-9 called to SilverSide's back.
“Later,” SilverSide called over his shoulder as he ran into the building.
He took the stairs three at a time and burst into the apartment.
Ariel was sitting at the dining table reading a computer printout. The table was strewn with piles of computer output. Jacob was thumbing through the piles, apparently hunting for the next printout she would need.
SilverSide took in the scene, picked Ariel up, cradling her in his arms like a fragile baby, dashed out the door, down the stairs, and past Wohler-9, who was walking toward the apartment from the runabout.
Ariel had time to scream only once before she was deposited in the runabout. As she was being gently scooped up, she had screamed, “Jaaaacobbbb,” with a Doppler modulation that trailed off like the whistle of a passing train.
Jacob Winterson had responded with the millisecond speed characteristic of Dr. Han Fastolfe's humaniform robots. But that speed was no match for the microseconds it took for all of SilverSide's motions, save for the brisk but gentle acceleration when he had picked up Ariel and started toward the door.
He and Ariel were speeding away from the apartment building in the runabout as Jacob came pounding out of the apartment past Wohler-9.
Ariel's first scream had ended as she was being deposited in the runabout. Her next scream was delivered in the interrogative mode as they pulled away from the apartment.
“What are you doing?” she shrieked with an intensity that rattled SilverSide's auricular diaphragms-akin to eardrums.