The girls' lessons is history had been comprehensive; they saw all the ramifications clearly enough, and sank into gloom. They were pacing around in the lounge, heaving sighs at regular intervals, when the monitor chimed and announced Mr. Frolich, formerly of Galactic Records. They had instructed it to turn everyone away without disturbing them, but Mr. Frolich was on the short list.
Entering the lounge a little later that day, Yuri opened the door on pandemonium. Sugar was staggering across the knee-high, transpex-topped table; Pepper doing a handstand beyond it; and Ginger leaping for it at full speed. As Ginger landed on the table top, she doubled her legs under her, then uncoiled like a released spring, gleaming red horns reaching for Sugar's slender waist. Sugar had had time to recover her balance. She avoided the horns lithely, laughing, and caught her sister by the shoulder, trying to push her to one side and off in mid-leap. But Ginger grabbed her arm and yanked as she staggered sideways. For a moment they teetered on the edge, each trying to throw the other off. Then Pepper landed in the middle of the table top, legs doubled under her. She uncoiled in the girls' devastating fashion and stiff-armed the others off. One of them managed to catch her arm and drag her with them. Pepper teetered precariously on the edge herself, as the others landed in a breathlessly laughing heap, then her hooves slipped off and she sat down heavy on the edge of the table. She had scrambled, laughing, partway back on, before the others got to their feet. They grabbed her arm and leg and jerked her off.
"Yuri!" she cried, as she landed on the floor. The other two saw him then, and he was inundated by them, all talking at once. Before he could do more than say hello, they had told him that Mr. Frolich had become their manager, that he had a plan, and that he wanted to see him. They dragged him into the conservatory, where Frolich had been talking quietly to Dr. Birrel, sat him down in a lounger, brought him drinks, and swarmed into his lap. It was like having a lapful of kittens.
"You wanted to see me—I believe?" he said, looking at the girls doubtfully.
"That's right," said Frolich, laughing; "The girls tell me you've been down to Silver City. You understand what the girls' chances of happiness are, then."
Yuri nodded. "Ten years or more from now, some new android will try again and open the doors, but this is the girls' only chance," he said somberly. "They'll have been forgotten by then except for historical background in the articles."
"That's the idea. The Guild is swinging the public against us. It's like they're herding sheep; they mean us no harm, they're just protecting their own interests, but . . ."
Yuri nodded again. "You said something about a plan."
"Yes. As I see it, the thing to do is to lead the sheep in a circle, back over the shepherds."
"It sounds great," said Yuri dubiously. "How do you do it?"
"Well, what direction are they going? At this rate, they'll soon have made it a matter of legal precedent that an android, or other 'created being', is legally property like a robot. The precedent will hold until some judge decides to upset it, but that won't happen until a clear majority of the public change their minds. So we take a step further in the same direction. We sell one of the girls." The girls all grinned at him, un-dismayed by the prospect. He pulled his jaw up, and managed to croak, "There must be more to it. Out with it."
"Your reaction is, as the posters say, negative, yes?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Most people will agree with you, I think. Men might secretly like to be able to buy girls, but they would care to have women able to buy exotic men. Women, in particular, will find android ownership decidedly indecent. Especially the Discussion Clubs." He grinned, frog-like. "Lucky they had that clause limiting use of robotic puppets; the temptation to use it against the girls was too great."
"You make it sound too simple," said Yuri, dismayed at the thought of one of the girls sold to some drooling vacbrain. "Forbidding ownership of androids is one thing, but granting them freedom to compete with men is another." He shook his head, looked over at Dr. Birrel, who also looked unhappy. "What do you think of it?" he asked.
The other frowned. "I don't like it any better than you do. But I admit that I'm out of my element here. Mr. Frolich does seem to understand the public."
Yuri felt abandoned, yet he couldn't voice his objections—not with the delighted girls reading his every thought from six inches away.
"So, which one would you prefer?"
"What? "
The girls exploded into laughter at his expression, Sugar leaning out to protest something to Frolich. Pepper gave him a delighted hug, and Ginger said, "Was that reaction negative or positive?"
"But—I couldn't—I couldn't begin to . . ." he began dazedly.
"Remember, this is merely for the benefit of the news services."
"But—"
"You're not hinting that there's something wrong with us, are you?" asked Pepper, peering into his eyes.
"Let me think," he said feebly. To Frolich, "The idea is to arouse the indignation of the public?"
"That's right. Also, the mere idea that anyone, even an ordinary young reporter, can afford to buy an android, will give everyone the horrors. Think what it would do to society. Free androids, and the problem of fitting them into society, is a mild problem beside that."
"But our main purpose is to arouse indignation. I'll be the monster in the scene, the girls the innocents. I see your plan," he nodded. "Yes, I can buy it. But I still don't like it," trying to avoid the girls' eyes. Better me than some men I know, he thought.
Sugar had climbed down and brought a spinner and card from some child's game. "High score wins," she said, and before Yuri could grasp her meaning, they had all spun it.
Sugar won. Yuri looked down on a radiant face between two of the saddest ones he'd ever seen. Ginger and Pepper were blinking back tears, lips quivering; they looked for all the world like two puppies left outside at night for the first time. He reached down and gave them both a bear hug, and Sugar hugged them from the other side. They were nothing if not game; in a few minutes all were smiling.
"Next time I'll get the spinner," said Pepper huskily. Then they both hugged Sugar. Ginger said, "We'll help you pack. Come on, let's hurry!" Sugar had time only to squeeze Yuri's hands, then they were gone.
An hour later Yuri, still dazed, was airborne with a chattering platinum-blond android all his very own—it says here. Specifically, it—the bill of sale—said that he had, "for considerations received and forthcoming" purchased forty-seven kilograms of assorted organic compounds "formed into a living experimental animal, description below"—Sugar's name not being mentioned anywhere on the document.
"The Actors' Guild has compared them to robots, which are nothing but zerohmic crystals," said Frolich. "By that reasoning, an android is 'nothing but' a mass of organic compounds; an experimental animal, at best."
Frolich called the panting reporters together, and in comment on tile Actors' Guild suit, announced that they had "accepted the decision of the public"; they had sold Sugar and options on her sisters. The new owner proposed to exhibit them on the live circuit; Dr. Birrel would receive twenty percent of the net for the next ten years. He had retired, and had no plans for producing more androids. By the time Yuri and Sugar got to Cleveland, a flight of over an hour and a half, two-thirds of the population of the Inner Planets must have known about the sale. Frolich had not disclosed the name of the purchaser, but Yuri could not long remain anonymous even if he wished. His apartment was in the Spire of Cleveland.