"Big, aren't they?" Nelson said.
They glanced at each other.
"I've never seen anything like it," Shure said, dazed. The Adharan guards were watching them warily, their weapon tubes ready. Shure advanced toward the first row of jewels, stacked neatly with mathematical precision. "It doesn't seem possible. Jewels piled up like – like a warehouse full of doorknobs."
"They may have belonged to the Adharans at one time," Nelson said thoughtfully. "Maybe they were stolen by the city-builders of the Sirius system. Now they're getting them back."
"Interesting," Barnes said. "Might explain why the Adharans found them so easily. Perhaps charts or maps existed."
Shure grunted. "In any case they're
ours,
now. Everything in the Sirius system belongs to Terra. It's all been signed, sealed and agreed on."
"But if these were originally stolen from the Adharans -"
"They shouldn't have agreed to the closed-system treaties. They have their own system. This belongs to Terra." Shure reached up toward one of the jewels. "I wonder how it feels."
"Careful, Captain. It may be radioactive."
Shure touched one of the jewels.
The Adharans grabbed him, throwing him back. Shure struggled. An Adharan caught hold of his Slem rifle and twisted it out of his hands.
Barnes fired. A group of Adharans puffed out of existence.
Nelson was down on one knee, firing at the passage entrance. The passage was choked with Adharans. Some were firing back. Thin heat beams cut over Nelson's head.
"They can't get us," Barnes gasped. "They're afraid to fire. Because of the jewels."
The Adharans were retreating into the passage, away from the hold. Those with weapons were being ordered back by the commander.
Shure snatched Nelson's rifle and blasted a knot of Adharans into particles. The Adharans were closing the passage. They rolled heavy emergency plates into position and welded them rapidly into place.
"Burn a hole," Shure barked. He turned his gun on the wall of the ship. "They're trying to seal us in here."
Barnes turned his gun on the wall. The two Slem beams ate into the side of the ship. Abruptly the wall gave way, a circular hole falling out.
Outside the ship Terran soldiers were fighting with the Adharans. The Adharans were retreating, making their way back as best they could, firing and hopping. Some of them hopped up onto their ship. Others turned and fled, throwing their guns down. They milled about in helpless confusion, running and leaping in all directions, clicking wildly.
The parked cruiser glowed into life, its heavy guns lowering into position.
"Don't fire," Shure ordered through his phone. "Leave their ship alone. It isn't necessary."
"They're finished," Nelson gasped, jumping onto the ground. Shure and Barnes leaped after him, out of the Adharan ship onto the surface. "They don't have a chance. They don't know how to fight."
Shure waved a group of Terran soldiers over to him. "Over here! Hurry up, damn it."
Milky jewels were spilling out of the ship onto the ground, rolling and bouncing through the hole. Part of the containing struts had been blasted away. Stacks of jewels cascaded down and rolled around their feet, getting in their way.
Barnes scooped one up. It burned his gloved hand faintly, tingling his fingers. He held it to the light. The globe was opaque. Vague shapes swam in the milky fire, drifting back and forth. The globe pulsed and glowed, as if it were alive.
Nelson grinned at him. "Really something, isn't it?"
"Lovely." Barnes picked up another. On the hull of the ship an Adharan fired down at him futilely. "Look at them all. There must be thousands of them."
"We'll get one of our merchant ships here and have them loaded up," Shure said. "I won't feel safe until they're on their way back to Terra."
Most of the fighting had ceased. The remaining Adharans were being rounded up by the Terran soldiers.
"What about them?" Nelson said.
Shure didn't answer. He was examining one of the jewels, turning it over and over. "Look at it," he murmured. "Brings out different colors each way you hold it. Did you ever see anything like it?"
The big Terran freighter bumped to a landing. Its loading hatches dropped down. Jitney cars rumbled out, a fleet of stubby trucks. The jitney cars crossed to the Adharan ship. Ramps dropped into place, as robot scoops prepared to go to work.
"Shovel them up," Silvanus Fry rambled, crossing over to Captain Shure. The Manager of Terran Enterprises wiped his forehead with a red handkerchief. "Astonishing haul, Captain. Quite a find." He put out his moist palm and they shook.
"I can't understand how we could have missed them," Shure said. "The Adharans walked in and picked them up. We watched them going from one planet to the next, like some sort of honey bee. I don't know why our own teams didn't find them."
Fry shrugged. "What does it matter?" He examined one of the jewels, tossing it up in the air and catching it. "I imagine every woman on Terra will have one of these around her neck – or will want one of these around her neck. In six months they won't know how they ever lived without them. That's the way people are, Captain." He put the globe into his briefcase, snapping it shut. "I think I'll take one home to my own wife."
The Adharan commander was brought over by a Terran soldier. He was silent, clicking nothing. The surviving Adharans had been stripped of their weapons and allowed to resume work on their ship. They had got the hull patched and most of the corrosion repaired.
"We're letting you go," Shure said to the Adharan commander. "We could try you as pirates and shoot you, but there wouldn't be much point in it. Better tell your government to stay out of the Sirius system from now on."
"He can't understand you," Barnes said mildly.
"I know. This is a formality. He gets the general idea, though."
The Adharan commander stood silently, waiting.
"That's all." Shure waved impatiently toward the Adharan ship. "Go on. Take off. Clear out of here. And don't come back."
The soldier released the Adharan. The Adharan made his way slowly back to his ship. He disappeared through the hatch. The Adharans working on the hull of the ship gathered up their equipment and followed their commander inside.
The hatches closed. The Adharan ship shuddered, as its jets roared into life. Awkwardly it lifted from the surface, rising up into the sky. It turned, heading toward outer space.
Shure watched it until it was gone.
"That's that." He and Fry walked rapidly toward the cruiser. "You think these jewels will attract some attention on Terra?"
"Of course. Is there any doubt?"
"No." Shure was deep in thought. "They got to only five of the ten planets. There should be more on the remaining inner planets. After this load gets back to Terra we can begin work on the inner planets. If the Adharans found them we should be able to."
Fry's eyes glittered behind his glasses. "Fine. I didn't realize there would be more."
"There are." Shure frowned, rubbing his jaw. "At least, there ought to be."
"What's wrong?"
"I can't understand why we never found them."
Fry clapped him on the back. "Don't worry!"
Shure nodded, still deep in thought. "But I can't understand why we never found them ourselves. Do you think it means anything?"
The Adharan commander sat at his control screen, adjusting his communication circuits.
The Check Base on the second planet of the Adharan system came into focus. The commander raised the sound cone to his neck.
"Bad luck."
"What occurred?"
"Terrans attacked us and seized the balance of our cargo."
"How much was still aboard?"
"Half. We had been to only five of the planets."
"That's unfortunate. They took the load to Terra?"
"I presume."
Silence for a time. "How warm is Terra?"
"Fairly warm, I understand."
"Maybe it will work out all right. We didn't contemplate any hatching on Terra, but if -"
"I don't like the idea of Terrans having a good part of our next generation. I'm sorry we hadn't gotten farther in the distribution."
"Don't worry. We'll petition the Mother to lay a whole new group to make up for it."
"But what would the Terrans want with our eggs? Nothing but trouble will come, when hatching begins. I can't understand them. Terran minds are beyond comprehension. I shudder to think what it will be like when the eggs hatch. – And on a humid planet, hatching should begin fairly soon…"
Ed Doyle hurried. He caught a surface car, waved fifty credits in the robot driver's face, mopped his florid face with a red pocket-handkerchief, unfastened his collar, perspired and licked his lips and swallowed piteously all the way to the hospital.
The surface car slid up to a smooth halt before the great white-domed hospital building. Ed leaped out and bounded up the steps three at a time, pushing through the visitors and convalescent patients standing on the broad terrace. He threw his weight against the door and emerged in the lobby, astonishing the attendants and persons of importance moving about their tasks.
"Where?" Ed demanded, gazing around, his feet wide apart, his fists clenched, his chest rising and falling. His breath came hoarsely, like an animal's. Silence fell over the lobby. Everyone turned toward him, pausing in their work. "Where?" Ed demanded again. "Where is she?
They?"
It was fortunate Janet had been delivered of a child on this of all days. Proxima Centauri was a long way from Terra and the service was bad. Anticipating the birth of his child, Ed had left Proxima some weeks before. He had just arrived in the city. While stowing his suitcase in the luggage tread at the station the message had been handed to him by a robot courier:
Los Angeles Central Hospital. At once.
Ed hurried, and fast. As he hurried he couldn't help feeling pleased he had hit the day exactly right, almost to the hour. It was a good feeling. He had felt it before, during years of business dealings in the "colonies," the frontier, the fringe of Terran civilization where the streets were still lit by electric lights and doors opened by hand.
That
was going to be hard to get used to. Ed turned toward the door behind him, feeling suddenly foolish. He had shoved it open, ignoring the eye. The door was just now closing, sliding slowly back in place. He calmed down a little, putting his handkerchief away in his coat pocket. The hospital attendants were resuming their work, picking up their activities where they had left off. One attendant, a strapping late-model robot, coasted over to Ed and halted.
The robot balanced his noteboard expertly, his photocell eyes appraising Ed's flushed features. "May I inquire whom you are looking for, sir? Whom do you wish to find?"
"My wife."
"Her name, sir?"
"Janet. Janet Doyle. She's just had a child."
The robot consulted his board. "This way, sir." He coasted off down the passage.
Ed followed nervously. "Is she okay? Did I get here in time?" His anxiety was returning.
"She is quite well, sir." The robot raised his metal arm and a side door slid back. "In here, sir."
Janet, in a chic blue-mesh suit, was sitting before a mahogany desk, a cigarette between her fingers, her slim legs crossed, talking rapidly. On the other side of the desk a well-dressed doctor sat listening.
"Janet!" Ed said, entering the room.
"Hi, Ed." She glanced up at him. "You just now get in?"
"Sure. It's – it's all over? You – I mean, it's
happened?
"
Janet laughed, her even white teeth sparkling. "Of course. Come in and sit. This is Doctor Bish."
"Hello, Doc." Ed sat down nervously across from them. "Then it's all over?"
"The event has happened," Doctor Bish said. His voice was thin and metallic. Ed realized with a sudden shock that the doctor was a robot. A top-level robot, made in humanoid form, not like the ordinary metal-limbed workers. It had fooled him – he had been away so long. Doctor Bish appeared plump and well fed, with kindly features and eyeglasses. His large fleshy hands rested on the desk, a ring on one finger. Pinstripe suit and necktie. Diamond tie clasp. Nails carefully manicured. Hair black and evenly parted.
But his voice had given him away. They never seemed to be able to get a really human sound into the voice. The compressed air and whirling disc system seemed to fall short. Otherwise, it was very convincing.
"I understand you've been situated near Promixa, Mr Doyle," Doctor Bish said pleasantly.
Ed nodded. "Yeah."
"Quite a long way, isn't it? I've never been out there. I have always wanted to go. Is it true they're almost ready to push on to Sirius?"
"Look, Doc -"
"Ed, don't be impatient." Janet stubbed out her cigarette, glancing reprovingly up at him. She hadn't changed in six months. Small blond face, red mouth, cold eyes like little blue rocks. And now, her perfect figure back again. "They're bringing him here. It takes a few minutes. They have to wash him off and put drops in his eyes and take a wave shot of his brain."
"He?
Then it's a boy?"
"Of course. Don't you remember? You were with me when I had the shots. We agreed at the time. You haven't changed your mind, have you?"
"Too late to change your mind now, Mr Doyle," Doctor Bish's toneless voice came, high-pitched and calm. "Your wife has decided to call him Peter."
"Peter." Ed nodded, a little dazed. "That's right. We did decide, didn't we? Peter." He let the word roll around in his mind. "Yeah. That's fine. I like it."
The wall suddenly faded, turning from opaque to transparent. Ed spun quickly. They were looking into a brightly lit room, filled with hospital equipment and white-clad attendant robots. One of the robots was moving toward them, pushing a cart. On the cart was a container, a big metal pot.
Ed's breathing increased. He felt a wave of dizziness. He went up to the transparent wall and stood gazing at the metal pot on the cart.
Doctor Bish rose. "Don't you want to see, too, Mrs Doyle?"
"Of course." Janet crossed to the wall and stood beside Ed. She watched critically, her arms folded.
Doctor Bish made a signal. The attendant reached into the pot and lifted out a wire tray, gripping the handles with his magnetic clamps. On the tray, dripping through the wire, was Peter Doyle, still wet from his bath, his eyes wide with astonishment. He was pink all over, except for a fringe of hair on the top of his head, and his great blue eyes. He was little and wrinkled and toothless, like an ancient withered sage.
"Golly," Ed said.
Doctor Bish made a second signal. The wall slid back. The attendant robot advanced into the room, holding his dripping tray out. Doctor Bish removed Peter from the tray and held him up for inspection. He turned him around and around, studying him from every angle.
"He looks fine," he said at last.
"What was the result of the wave photo?" Janet asked.
"Result was good. Excellent tendencies indicated. Very promising. High development of the -" The doctor broke off. "What is it, Mr Doyle?"
Ed was holding out his hands. "Let me have him, Doc. I want to hold him." He grinned from ear to ear. "Let's see how heavy he is. He sure looks big."
Doctor Bish's mouth fell open in horror. He and Janet gasped.
"Ed!" Janet exclaimed sharply. "What's the matter with you?"
"Good heavens, Mr Doyle," the doctor murmured.
Ed blinked. "What?"
"If I had thought you had any such thing in mind -" Doctor Bish quickly returned Peter to the attendant. The attendant rushed Peter from the room, back to the metal pot. The cart and robot and pot hurriedly vanished, and the wall banged back in place.
Janet grabbed Ed's arm angrily. "Good Lord, Ed! Have you lost your mind? Come on. Let's get out of here before you do something else."
"But -"
"Come on." Janet smiled nervously at Doctor Bish. "We'll run along now, Doctor. Thanks so much for everything. Don't pay any attention to him. He's been out there so long, you know."
"I understand," Doctor Bish said smoothly. He had regained his poise. "I trust we'll hear from you later, Mrs Doyle."
Janet pulled Ed out into the hall. "Ed, what's the matter with you? I've never been so embarrassed in all my life." Two spots of red glowed in Janet's cheeks. "I could have kicked you."
"But what -"
"You know we aren't allowed to touch him. What do you want to do, ruin his whole life?"
"But -"
"Come on." They hurried outside the hospital, on to the terrace. Warm sunlight streamed down on them. "There's no telling what harm you've done. He may already be hopelessly warped. If he grows up all warped and – and neurotic and emotional, it'll be your fault."
Suddenly Ed remembered. He sagged, his features drooping with misery. "That's right. I forgot. Only robots can come near the children. I'm sorry, Jan. I got carried away. I hope I didn't do anything they can't fix."
"How
could
you forget?"
"It's so different out at Prox." Ed waved to a surface car, crestfallen and abashed. The driver drew up in front of them. "Jan, I'm sorry as hell. I really am. I was all excited. Let's go have a cup of coffee some place and talk. I want to know what the doctor said."
Ed had a cup of coffee and Janet sipped at a brandy frappe. The Nymphite Room was pitch black except for a vague light oozing up from the table between them. The table diffused a pale illumination that spread over everything, a ghostly radiation seemingly without source. A robot waitress moved back and forth soundlessly with a tray of drinks. Recorded music played softly in the back of the room.
"Go on," Ed said.
"Go on?" Janet slipped her jacket off and laid it over the back of her chair. In the pale light her breasts glowed faintly. "There's not much to tell. Everything went all right. It didn't take long. I chatted with Doctor Bish most of the time."
"I'm glad I got here."
"How was your trip?"
"Fine."
"Is the service getting any better? Does it still take as long as it did?"
"About the same."
"I can't see why you want to go all the way out there. It's so – so cut off from things. What do you find out there? Are plumbing fixtures really that much in demand?"
"They need them. Frontier area. Everyone wants the refinements." Ed gestured vaguely. "What did he tell you about Peter? What's he going to be like? Can he tell? I guess it's too soon."
"He was going to tell me when you started acting the way you did. I'll call him on the vidphone when we get home. His wave pattern should be good. He comes from the best eugenic stock."
Ed grunted. "On your side, at least."
"How long are you going to be here?"
"I don't know. Not long. I'll have to go back. I'd sure like to see him again, before I go." He glanced up hopefully at his wife. "Do you think I can?"
"I suppose."
"How long will he have to stay there?"
"At the hospital? Not long. A few days."
Ed hesitated. "I didn't mean at the hospital, exactly. I mean with
them.
How long before we can have him? How long before we can bring him home?"
There was silence. Janet finished her brandy. She leaned back, lighting a cigarette. Smoke drifted across to Ed, blending with the pale light. "Ed, I don't think you understand. You've been out there so long. A lot has happened since you were a child. New methods, new techniques. They've found so many things they didn't know. They're making progress, for the first time. They know what to do. They're developing a real methodology for dealing with children. For the growth period. Attitude development. Training." She smiled brightly at Ed. "I've been reading all about it."
"How long before we get him?"
"In a few days he'll be released from the hospital. He'll go to a child guidance center. He'll be tested and studied. They'll determine his various capacities and his latent abilities. The direction his development seems to be taking."
"And then?"
"Then he's put in the proper educational division. So he'll get the right training. Ed, you know, I think he's really going to be something! I could tell by the way Doctor Bish looked. He was studying the wave pattern charts when I came in. He had a look on his face. How can I describe it?" She searched for the word. "Well, almost – almost a greedy look. Real excitement. They take so much interest in what they're doing. He -"
"Don't say he. Say
it
."
"Ed, really! What's got into you?"
"Nothing." Ed glared sullenly down. "Go on."
"They make sure he's trained in the right direction. All the time he's there ability tests are given. Then, when he's about nine, he'll be transferred to -"
"Nine! You mean nine
years?
"
"Of course."
"But when do we get him?"
"Ed, I thought you knew about this. Do I have to go over the whole thing?"
"My God, Jan! We can't wait nine years!" Ed jerked himself upright. "I never heard of such a thing. Nine years? Why, he'll be half grown up then."
"That's the point." Janet leaned towards him, resting her bare elbow against the table. "As long as he's growing he has to be with them. Not with us. Afterwards, when he's finished growing, when he's no longer so plastic, then we can be with him all we want."
"Afterwards? When he's eighteen?" Ed leaped up, pushing his chair back. "I'm going down there and get him."
"Sit down, Ed." Janet gazed up calmly, one supple arm thrown lightly over the back of her chair. "Sit down and act like an adult for a change."
"Doesn't it matter to you? Don't you care?"
"Of course I care." Janet shrugged. "But it's necessary. Otherwise he won't develop correctly. It's for
his
good. Not ours. He doesn't exist for us. Do you want him to have conflicts?"
Ed moved away from the table. "I'll see you later."
"Where are you going?"
"Just around. I can't stand this kind of place. It bothers me. I'll see you later." Ed pushed across the room to the door. The door opened and he found himself on the shiny noonday street. Hot sunlight beat down on him. He blinked, adjusting himself to the blinding light. People streamed around him. People and noise. He moved with them.
He was dazed. He had known, of course. It was there in the back of his mind. The new developments in child care. But it had been abstract, general. Nothing to do with him. With
his
child.
He calmed himself, as he walked along. He was getting all upset about nothing. Janet was right, of course. It was for Peter's good. Peter didn't exist for them, like a dog or cat. A pet to have around the house. He was a human being, with his own life. The training was for him, not for them. It was to develop him, his abilities, his powers. He was to be molded, realized, brought out.