America 2040 - Golden World Part 23

To him, she was beautiful in all detail, as beautiful in full uniform as out of it. His lips had never touched her. He had no desire to touch her with his lips. He merely wanted to be around her, to be able to look at her clothed or unclothed, to know that warm feeling that wasn't supposed to be a part of him, the feeling of being valued for himself alone, not because he was a first-cla.s.s fighting man, a crackerjack computer, a deadly weapon, a dependable protector, a mechanical-electronic wonder.

"I'm going to keep you for always," Sage said contentedly, as he finished off his ma.s.sage with her deltoids, coming down the front of the pectoral muscles to gently work the soft-firm sides of b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"Do you really want to be with me always?" he asked.

"Ummm," she said, with deep, comfortable sleep just a blink away. He covered her with a sheet and looked down at her. She was so beautiful, and she, even more than Grace herself, loved him, considered him to be a person. And she wanted to be with him always. Yes, it could be arranged. She'd said, hadn't she, that she didn't care about the gossip and the laughter?

It was simple for him to obtain the papers for a wedding license. He gave the central computer an order, and the papers, three copies, came from the word-processor printer.

To see Hamilton City from a distance as dusk fell was to see a multihued jewel. The translucent plastic walls of the dwellings, programmed in colors of individual choice, glowed softly against the background of the endless western ocean.

The well-traveled crawler approach-roads, worn into the plain by the treads of many vehicles, carefully avoided Amando Kwait's fields of grains and vegetables. Wheat was turning golden under the ideal growing conditions of the new Eden. The heavy evening air carried the smell of freshly dampened soil as Kwait's automated irrigation system released flows of cool water from the Dinah River to gurgle its life-giving way down the furrows between rows of giant Earth vegetables.

A regular shuttle of cargo crawlers brought ore from Stoner McRae's low-yield iron mine in the badlands. The metalwork shops, equipment removed from theSpirit of America , were producing the molds and machine tools needed to add copper-refining facilities and the equipment needed to separate the rhenium from the copper ore that was being delivered in small but regular quant.i.ties by miners all over Eden. An entire task force, under the direction of Paul Warden, spent time coordinating trade with miners. Even with the discovery during the outward voyage that the Shaw Drive would operate with a fraction of the rhenium that had been utilized originally, it would take decades to collect enough rhenium from trading with the sluglike miners to send theSpirit of America back to Earth.

The hydrogen separation plant was in operation, and there was plentiful fuel for the scouts. As a gesture of compromise to the concerned-citizens group, Rodrick cut back on exploration and mapping-other than of the continent of Columbia-and used the scouts to keep the colony supplied with a growing variety of fruit and nuts from the fertile southern zone. There had been no further attempts to penetrate the dense equatorial jungle. Curiosity about the jungle's huge life signals would have to be satisfied by watching the multihued Baby grow, something she did very well.

Baby had become the darling of the entire colony, and she had the run of the place. She followed Jacob West around like a dog-then like a pony. By early fall, when the good Earth produce began to come from Amando's fields and grace Hamilton's dining tables, Baby was the size of a horse. It took only one swat on Baby's beak for Jacob to get across the lesson that she was to stay out of Amando's vegetable fields. Of course, she'd put away a couple of hundred pounds of potatoes, digging them with her three-clawed feet, before she was discovered, but Amando's harvest was so generous that no one got too upset, and after that Baby would carefully avoid the fields, piping plaintively until someone would toss her a tomato or a potato or a head of cabbage.

Grace Monroe's concern for Tina Sells, the adolescent infatuated with the admiral, was soon replaced by concern for the amount of time the admiral was spending in Sage Bryson's company. Grace was frankly puzzled about Sage's motivation.

Max, growing a bit nervous as the date of the double wedding neared, coa.r.s.ely brought the question of Sage Bryson and the admiral down to basics.

"Let's rip the skin off his crotch and implant a tool," he growled. "What that woman needs is a good s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g."

"You put it so delicately, dear, " Grace said, making a moue. "Or let one of Mandy Miller's shrinks at her," Max said.

"I'm not sure that it's Sage who will need a psychiatrist," Grace said.

"Grace," Max groaned, "he's a machine, a robot."

"In many ways he's like a teenager having his first crush," Grace said. She smiled. "Is that really all he is to you, just a machine?"

Max grumbled something unintelligible, and then grinned. "I know how you feel, honey. h.e.l.l, you can't help but be fond of him. Look, you want me to have a talk with that dumb broad?"

"No," she said quickly. "I'll speak with the admiral. It's fascinating, watching him develop qualities he should not, in all logic, have. He's discovered Shakespeare. And the twentieth-century lyric poets. He feels , Max. Thank G.o.d he doesn't know hate or jealousy or spite-at least not yet-but he feels friends.h.i.+p. He's big on honor, and now he's in love."

"You afraid he's going to blow a circuit or something?"

"I don't know," she said, frowning. "Just last week he and I ran every circuit in him and scanned his memory chambers. Everything's normal, except he's discovered a way to double-load his amino-acid memory chambers."

"Overload? Is that why he's going nuts?"

She touched Max s hand. "Falling in love is nuts?"

"I think you and Sage have the same problem," Max said, with a leer.

She leered right back at him. "I think you might have a point there, Chief."

Max swallowed, looked around. They were in Grace's lab. All was quiet. He asked, "Do you suppose, by any odd chance, that if I kissed you and maybe sneaked just one little feel, everybody and everything on this oversized mudball would stay away for just five minutes?"

"We won't know until we try, " she said, going into his arms, lifting her lips. His kiss was tentative, and his hand stayed at her waist. He was open eyed, eyes moving back and forth.

"You're not concentrating," she whispered.

"I keep waiting for the door to get busted down or a general alarm to go off."

"Relax," she whispered, and as he did, Jackie Garvey burst into the room with a frothy something in white held out before her.

"Whoops," Jackie said, starting to back out.

Max sighed. "Come on in, Jackie," he said in total defeat and resignation. Grace giggled.

"It's finished," Jackie said, extending a wedding dress. "Good-bye, Max," Grace said. "You don't see the wedding gown until the big day."

"Try it on," Jackie urged when Max had gone. And then, "Grace, you're beautiful."

"Well, I'm a little older than most women who marry," Grace replied, "but I managed to stay chaste, and to tell you the truth, I'm glad."

Jackie looked down to hide the quick expression of shame on her face.

"You're going to wow them," Jackie said.

"We'll wow em together," Grace said. "You're so young and beautiful, no one will notice the gray hair at my temples and all the crow's feet."

Jackie laughed.

Following Duncan Rodrick's surprise proposal and his suggestion to Max and Grace that they make it a double wedding, Jackie had come to be very fond of Grace. She loved it when Grace started talking about Max, because Jackie had always felt that Max was a grouch, and to see him through Grace's eyes was a revelation.

"Jackie," Grace said as she began to remove the wedding gown, "may I ask you something in confidence?"

Jackie swallowed hard. Now and then her guilt and self-hatred for her affair with Rocky Miller sneaked up and hit her in the gut. "Sure, " she said.

"How well do you know Sage Bryson? She's in the electronics section."

"Not all that well. She's a very beautiful woman, isn't she?"

"That she is," Grace agreed.

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, just curiosity, I guess." Grace was not one to gossip.

"Are you getting a cupid syndrome?" Jackie asked with a smile. "Since we're getting married, you re wanting to play matchmaker for Paul Warden?"

"He's a nice man, " Grace said. "I was just wondering why Sage is so cruel to him." But that, of course, was not her real reason for asking Jackie if she knew Sage. The admiral's newly found ability to experience emotions was a constant source of concern for her, but she put it aside for the moment because she and Jackie were scheduled to spend some time with the s.h.i.+p's supply officer and diet.i.tian, making up the menu for the wedding reception to which the entire colony was invited.

Meanwhile, Grace's concern for the admiral was being shared by Duncan Rodrick, who was facing a situation that made him want to yell loudly for help.

The admiral, all earnestness, was standing at full attention opposite the captain in his office. "Sir," hesaid, "I realize that this is without precedent. That's why I wanted to talk with you about it before I get the signature of the bride-to-be on the marriage license."

Rodrick had come to value the admiral highly. His a.s.sociation with the lifelike robot, however, had always been in the line of duty, so that he had not developed, as had many members of the colony, a fondness and regard so complete that it was almost possible to forget that the admiral wasn't human.

"I have studied the s.h.i.+p's const.i.tution and laws pertaining to the question, sir," the admiral continued.

"And I find nothing to prohibit such a contract between robot and human, unless one draws a very literal conclusion and states that I am, after all, a minor, being less than five years old from my activation date.

But since I have a large body of experience and knowledge, I feel that there is just cause to set aside that question."

"You have a point," Rodrick said, wondering if he should call Grace Monroe and let her handle the situation. The admiral was her "boy," after all.

"Now, I'll admit that I have not studied the entire body of the law," the admiral went on. "Do you, sir, know of any legal reason why this contract should not be made?"

"Well, I don't know of any law against it," Rodrick admitted, still at a loss.

"I had thought to ask Grace and Chief Rosen to allow us to join them in their ceremony," the admiral said, still standing at attention. "But Grace seems so happy and so busy, I decided not to add to her concern."

"Very considerate," Rodrick agreed.

"There's another matter, sir," the admiral said. "As the head of a family, I will have certain responsibilities. To date, it has been my pleasure to serve without set hours and without pay. In the future, when I am married, I think it would be only fair that I be allowed the same privileges as any other s.p.a.ce Service officer." He laughed. "Not at admiral's pay, of course. I realize that Grace has a certain quaint sense of humor, and that she gave me the name of admiral as a sort of a jest, or mild protest against the military mentality. My rank, sir, I will let you determine. If I have to start at the bottom, as ensign, that's fine with me. And it will not be necessary to make my service pay retroactive. I ask only that I be allowed the same terms of duty, and that I be given the right to make a claim to land, as all the others can."

"Admiral, have you talked this over with Grace?" Rodrick asked.

"Not in full, sir. As a member of the service, I thought it my duty to speak with my commanding officer first."

"The lady in question," Rodrick said, "has agreed to marry you?"

The admiral stood taller, smiling proudly. "She wants to be with me forever, sir."

Rodrick made up his mind. He had never been a man to dodge responsibility. "Well," he said, "I think the first thing we have to do is get that young lady of yours in here to sign the license." He was thinking that the admiral's lady was young Tina Sells, a minor, and that once that was pointed out to both of them, the situation would be defused long enough to have Grace poke around in the admiral's brain a bit and to have someone talk some sense into Tina. "Sir, I'd rather have her sign the license in privacy, if that's all right."

"You do admit that the situation is rather unusual?"

"Yes, of course."

"In unusual situations, Admiral, we sometimes have to resort to methods not to our liking. I think it's best that I have a talk with both you and your young lady."

"Yes, sir, if that's the way you feel, sir."

"I think that's best," Rodrick said.

"May I use your communicator, sir?"

Rodrick handed over the communicator. He was thinking that he might as well get it over, although he himself had a lot to do. The admiral turned his back and spoke softly. Finished, he handed the communicator back. "She'll be here in five minutes, sir."

"I'm sure that you two have discussed the long-range implications of your marriage," Rodrick said.

"Oh, yes, sir," the admiral replied. "Our union will be purely platonic. She is in total agreement, which is fortunate, of course." His face was quite serious. "As it happens, sir, she has no desire to bear children.

There are precedents for such a nonphysical union, sir, as I'm sure you're aware."

"Have you considered that you will be removing from the breeding pool one woman who is capable of helping to build Eden's population?"

"We have discussed that, sir. I realize that this is a fine point, but our casualties to date have resulted in a surplus of one female in the colony. The nature of the work will, by the laws of probability, produce a larger surplus of females as the development and exploration phase continues."

Rodrick didn't answer. He drew himself a cup of coffee and was stirring in the cream when his caller sounded and he said, "Come in."

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Sage Bryson asked, after casting a clouded look at the admiral.

Rodrick s shock must have showed on his face, because Sage's face went red, and she looked grimly at the admiral, who was smiling happily.

"The admiral tells me you two have plans," Rodrick began.

"I have been working with the admiral on certain aspects of field theory, sir," Sage said quickly. "I'm sure you're aware of his impressive capability as a computer."

"Yes, I am, Miss Bryson," he said. "The admiral is a very valuable member of this expedition."

The admiral stood taller, chest swelling.

From a look of tension on Sage's face, Rodrick had the feeling that there was something very wrong.His first impulse was to send the admiral out of the room and talk with Sage alone, but there was enough smoke present to indicate some fire. Better to get it all out in the open. He picked up the wedding license and handed it to Sage.

"What's this?" she asked, and then her face went red again.

The trouble is, Rodrick was thinking,the admiral is too human . He could understand how a woman could forget that the admiral's blood consisted of cooling and lubricating fluids, and, perhaps, Sage's flirtatious actions and words, which would have been understood by a man, had been misconstrued by the robot.

"And just who are you going to marry, Admiral?" Sage asked, her voice very cold and harsh. She had told him time and time again that one of the most beautiful aspects of their relations.h.i.+p was that it was totally private, known only to the two of them.

"Sage?" the admiral asked, his beaming smile fading.

"What has this, this,thing told you, Captain?" Sage demanded.

The word stung the admiral deeply. He realized that he had made a serious error. For a moment he felt the nearest thing to pain that he had ever felt, and then he was no longer thinking of himself. He stepped forward, holding out his hand. "Please forgive me, Sage, Captain. I fear that the experiment I have been conducting on double-loading my memory chambers has had an adverse effect. If you'll give me the papers, Sage, I'll destroy them and ask Grace to repair my memory chambers. We can't have erratic behavior, can we?"

Rodrick, filled with admiration, said nothing.

"What has he told you?" Sage screamed at Rodrick. "I demand to know!"

"I don't think it's anything to get excited about," Rodrick said soothingly. "I believe the admiral has made his explanation."

"Oh, no you don't." Sage raised her voice and waved the marriage license. "There's something going on here, and I demand to know what it is!"

"I believe that the admiral has become very fond of you during your work together," Rodrick said.

"That's all, plus a slight malfunction, as he has explained."

Sage turned her blazing eyes on the admiral. Her fair skin was flushed and her mouth distorted. "What did you tell the captain?" She whirled to face Rodrick. Her voice took on a malicious edge. "I've been trying to decide, Captain, whether or not to come to you. Thisthing , this machine, has a filthy mind. He is a menace. He brought a ma.s.sage table to my quarters because I'd been having stiff neck muscles from my work. I saw nothing wrong in having him ma.s.sage my neck muscles, but then he-" She bent closer and whispered, "-tried to take off all my clothes. He-"