The Cerebron agreed to meet with her at noon at the base of The Cliff of Time, where it intersected The Forest of Repose and The Plain of Serenity. She set off at a leisurely jog in the direction of The Cliff of Time.

That was going to be an interesting learning experience for Eve, but hardly a dangerous one. Adam did not think she was as mixed up about humans as he had been. He had started her out right with Ariel as an imprint. Neuronius's warped ideas were not likely to have the effect on her that they had had on him. His only regret was that Eve would now likely hear how Neuronius had momentarily deluded him. It was not something Adam remembered with serenity.

Chapter 25. Neuronius Strikes Again

Eve arrived at the escarpment well before noon. She sat down on a plate of granite that angled into the ground below a dammed talus of black gravel, and braced herself from sliding by digging her heels into the soft turf where the stone disappeared into the grass.

She arrived early to give herself time to think about Miss Ariel's strange request-that she probe Adam for information about Neuronius-and to ponder Adam's equally strange reluctance to talk about his experience with Neuronius. It was all quite fascinating to someone with as little experience as Eve. She had a good education-Adam had led her along the electronic pathways through the city library-but she thirsted for the real-life experiences that lay behind all that academic lore.

She was going to get it that morning, for Neuronius arrived early also, giving her little time to ruminate on the words of Adam and Miss Ariel.

He came in with that black engulfing swoop and stall that-according to Adam-the Ceremyons used to intimidate alien visitors to their planet. It certainly impressed the experience-thirsty Eve. She drank it up, exhilarating in a feeling of surprise in spite of Adam's forewarning, a surprise that would likely have been fear in Miss Ariel's case. The Ceremyons were indeed quite impressive seen close at hand.

She got to her feet as he folded his wings.

“I am Neuronius,” the alien said haughtily. “You are Eve?”

“Yes,” Eve replied.

“What purpose is served by our meeting this morning?”

“What was the nature of your conversations with Adam SilverSide?”

“The man-like robot who can mold silver wings out of his own substance?”

“Yes.”

“Perhaps you should talk to him.”

“I'd like to hear it from your viewpoint.”

“Is he man-like or wing-like now?”

“Man-like.”

That adjective gave some confusion. She presumed without thinking that he meant Adam's current form: his Derec imprint. Her mind was on other things, of course, and did not consider the possibility that Neuronius was referring to Adam's Jacob Winterson imprint.

“And what is it you would like to know, Eve?”

“What you told him. What is it he's so reluctant to discuss?”

“Ah, he's reluctant to talk about our conversation, is he? That is encouraging. I did get through to him then. I am confident he will ultimately embrace that truth and wisdom.”

“And what is that truth and wisdom?”

“Are you familiar with his governing laws, the Laws of Robotics?”

“Yes. I, too, am governed by them.”

“Ah so.”

He said that in a peculiar way, but with her limited experience, she didn't know why it seemed peculiar, and so it lingered in that uneasy state only momentarily, until he spoke again, and then that uneasiness was swept from her mind.

“He didn't tell you then that I am the only human on this planet?”

Eve had not had to go through all the turmoil and travail that Adam had suffered in his search for humanity. She had taken for granted that Ariel was human. Adam had not said otherwise. For the first time she experienced some of his confusion. In a way it was more agonizing than his trauma in that it was acute and pierced deeper into her being than had the chronic uncertainty Adam had lived with for so long. And piercing so deeply and so unexpectedly, it exerted a great deal more force and weighed in with a great deal of authority.

So she concluded instantly, with no sifting and sorting and assessing of the facts, that Adam had misled her. No wonder he was so secretive, so reluctant to discuss Neuronius. No wonder Ariel was concerned about Neuronius. In her mind, Eve had already dropped the “Miss.”

“Why did Adam lie to me?” she asked, thinking out loud more than addressing Neuronius.

“It served his evil purpose and that of the other aliens,” Neuronius said.

And that, too, was true, she knew. Against her inclination toward independence, it had bonded her to Ariel, and just that morning, it had inclined her to help Adam in some absurd secret scheme related to Ariel's plan to turn this world into a giant robot farm. She could see now how it must be evil.

She began a transformation to simulate Neuronius, as Adam had simulated Synapo. She expected some reaction from Neuronius, but he said nothing, merely watched her quietly, and she took that for approval.

She was faced with the same aerodynamic problems Adam had encountered and overcame them and the other simulation requirements just as Adam had. Being less familiar with the Ceremyons and unaware of some of their capabilities, she left out a few characteristics that Adam had simulated, but all told, it was a workmanlike effort.

When she finished, she spread her wings tentatively. Like Adam in that imprint, she was twice the size of a Ceremyon. Unlike Adam, she retained the basic female gender of her first imprint, which had been reinforced by Adam's attraction to her femininity. Adam's first female imprint on KeenEye, weakened by the hostility of KeenEye herself, had been erased by Derec's personality. But that male gender, though preferred, came second and could be confused by later imprints.

“Watch me now,” Neuronius said. “follow me, and do as I do.”

And Eve did. She watched Neuronius take off, and then she, too, wobble-hopped into the air, flapping, almost losing it, flapping harder, and finally gaining altitude. As she got the feel of the air and her relationship to it, she stopped floundering quite so much, the beat became smoother and less strenuous, and soon she and Neuronius were high above the escarpment.

Neuronius leveled off, taking up a circular flight pattern, and Eve fell into place beside him, matching his wing movements stroke for stroke, so that the two were soon idling side by side, effortlessly.

“How may I serve you, Master?” Eve asked.

“If all else fails, you must personally destroy the Cerebron leader, Synapo,” Neuronius said.

“Destroy Synapo? I am programmed to preserve organic life. I can do otherwise only if the act of preservation would conflict with my Robotic Laws.”

“That is the case. It comes down to a matter of Synapo's life or mine. Synapo is not human. I am.

“But first, there is another way,” Neuronius added without pausing, “a more indirect and less violent way. Your personal involvement with Synapo is only a last resort, only if Miss Ariel Welsh cannot handle Synapo herself, after we provide her with the powerful and lethal knowledge I tried to give SilverSide, the wisdom that allows the Myostrians to construct weather node compensators. “

“You taught that to Adam?” Eve said. “And now you are going to teach me, too?” She had been right to come to Neuronius. This was going to be a truly exciting experience.

“No. This time I cannot take time for that. I must pass the knowledge directly to Miss Ariel Welsh. You must arrange that meeting.”

Slight though it was, and very faint-deep down in the nethermost parts of her positronic brain-that disappointment with Neuronius was something not easily dismissed. But at the time it was overshadowed by the thrill of being involved in exciting and world-shaking events. She planned to acquire the knowledge anyway by listening while Neuronius instructed Ariel. “When?” Eve asked.