Bester, Alfred The Deceivers

Odnośniki

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

whatever you re programmed for.
-
Is that a no ?
+
Is that a yes ?
+
Ah, now we re getting somewhere. Let s play Twenty Questions. Are you animal?
+
Vegetable? Just to make sure of your + and -.
+
Both? You throwing curves? Mineral?
+
All three? Now what could possibly be all three; animal, vegetable, and mineral? Man? Maybe, if
you count prosthesis, and a lot of us are prostheticthese days. Machine? Maybe. Food? Maybe. Some
seasonings are mineral. But Man doesn t speak your kind of language. Neither do machines. That leaves
Food. Ah, food! It speaks a lovely language of taste and smell and
Winter was jolted again.
After a chaotic moment he burst out, Dear God! Dear trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,
courteous, kind God, I thank Thee, and someday I ll do You a good turn. Of course! Elementary, my
dear Watson. Scents, tastes and sensations the Titanian chemical language. That s what the tank is
trying to translate into visual, simply because it s not equipped to project taste and touch. No computer
is. Maybe they should be someday. All the same, I m impressed, really impressed; I didn t think we had
it in us. So gig, go ahead with the program. Tell me all in Titanian. Where the hell s Demi Jeroux?
Yes?
Yes?
Go ahead.
Keep on talking.
A halfmoon, maybe? Sort of standing on its ear?
A circle. Yes. And?
The circle s divided into two. And now?
And now four? Wait a minute. Wait. Just. One. God. Damned. Minute. This pattern rings a bell.
Bell. Bell. Bell. Bellboy. Bellpull. Belladonna. Bell jar. That s it! The bell jars covering the instruments in
biology lab at Tech. Biology. Cell cleavage into blastulation. Then the gastrula. Embryology, that s what
I m seeing. Something s being born. What? Where? What the hell kind of message is this?
He was hypnotized by the display of lightning cell division; blastula, gastrula, blastodisc&
My God! It s going in microseconds.
Ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm&
This is the first time in history that a computer s ever given birth, but to what?
Primitive Streak&
His excitement drove him into the workshop to get a better view of the end product on the giant
prime video of his computer. During those few moments the development had accelerated into its
d�nouement, for he arrived just in time to have the huge screen explode into his face. Demi Jeroux burst
out of the computer in a shower of plastic particles, rolled and sprawled on top of him. She was naked,
sweating, trembling.
Golly! she gasped. Getting in was easy compared to getting out. Are you hurt, darling?
I m fine. I m great. I m ennobled. I m stupefied. Hi, hey. Hi, my love. Hi, my darling sprite. What s
a nice girl like you doing in a place like that?
Surprised?
Hell no. I always knew we had it in us. I knew it all along.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
TERRA INCOGNITA
Ah, me! What a world this was to live in two or three centuries ago when it was getting itself discovered!
Then Man was courting Nature, now he has married her. Every mystery is dissipated. The Solar is as
familiar as the trodden pathway running between towns. And if you believe that, you re meshuge.
Odessa Partridge
his time they left the six-foot tub together and dripped into the living room. They sat on the couch with
T
their feet up on the coffee table, saturating everything with bath water and not giving a damn in their joy
over the final resolution of their crises.
You ought to hear the furniture and rugs complaining, Winter laughed. Glug, glug, glug. Glgglglg.
Glooog, glooog, glooog. There s no pleasing some things.
I m a pleased thing, Demi glowed. She was looking like a Nereid reclining on a wave; red flowing
hair, green eyes, coral-pink skin. I never dreamed sharing love under water could be so so
So what?
I can t say. Nice Virginia girls never talk about it, so I have no words. Did you, ever before?
Many times, Winter answered promptly. I ve been a rogue under all kinds seas; sea salt,
season s greetings, sea lions, a seesaw, a bishop s see, the Zuider Zee dam She shut him up with a
smack.
And while I was gone?
What, while you were gone?
You know what. Was there anyone else? I promise I ll understand, and she began to look like
Whistler s mother.
Get out of the rocking chair, he grinned. Then, seriously, Believe me, love. We all chase; not
because we re lecherous, we re simply looking for variety and novelty, for entertainment. Well, every
time with you it s new and different, so I don t have to chase anymore. The answer is no. I was happy to
wait for my entertainment. Also, I was too busy trying to locate my variety show and get her back.
You re my favorite Starshmykler, she beamed, transforming into her idea of a blushing meyd l.
Now I want to hear all your adventures that weren t reported by the computer grapevine.
No, you first.
But I haven t had any. How could I, cooped up in your rotten old tank?
He hesitated. Well, which do you want, the good or the bad?
The bad first. Let s get that over with.
He nodded somberly. You couldn t know this, he began slowly, but on Triton I got trapped in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

angamoss.xlx.pl