There was never a moment’s doubt in Maverick’s mind that he was seeing SilverSides. The goddess was exactly as he had pictured her: tall, strong, and beautiful, gleaming in the late afternoon sun like light off still water. She moved with a precise, icy regality, and yet her eyes literally glowed with love as she gazed out upon the kin.
Then he noticed the other female, cautiously slinking out after SilverSides. The second one was definitely not a kin-her muzzle was too short and blunt, her fur the lush reddish brown of nut tree leaves in the fall, and she walked on her hind legs as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Still, there was something about her exotic looks that made her terribly exciting and romantic. She was almost a vision of passion incarnate.
He felt WhiteTail’s breath hot on his ear. “I know what you’re thinking,” she whispered with the barest hint of a growl. “Stop drooling at that exotic wench. Now. ”
Maverick attempted to feign innocence. “Is that really the OldMother?” The look in WhiteTail’s eyes told him that his attempt had not worked.
His next question caught her attention, though. “ And what in the blazes are those ugly pink things with the loose fur?” WhiteTail’s hackles went up when she saw the other beings that were coming out into the light.
“Th-the one at the back is a WalkingStone,” she said in a halting voice. “And those two silver ones-they must be GodBeings, like SilverSides. ” She licked her lips and swallowed nervously. “But I’ve never seen anything like those other three. Mother, they’re ugly!” The slight murmur that had started in the crowd behind them suddenly dropped to silence as SilverSides descended the ramp alone.
She walked straight toward them: precise, formal, her every movement a study in perfection. Just when it seemed to Maverick that he couldn’t stand the power of her presence a moment longer, she stopped, smiled gently, and laid eyes upon LifeCrier.
“Old friend,” she said in the soft, warm tones of PackHome kinspeech. “Please stand up. You are my packmate, not my prisoner. ”
Slowly, unsteadily, LifeCrier got to his feet, while those near enough to hear SilverSides’ words looked at him with new reverence. “Great SilverSides,,, LifeCrier said in HuntTongue, his voice reedy with tension, “I have followed your commands. This pack I have gathered in your name; it awaits your orders. ”
“You have done well, Friend LifeCrier. ” She smiled again and looked over the massed faces as if she knew each one. For an instant her eyes paused on Maverick, and he felt as if the goddess’s gaze went right through him.
“Big furry deal,” WhiteTail muttered. “Her eyes glow. ” To Maverick’s utter amazement, WhiteTail was not struck dead, nor did SilverSides seem to notice her blasphemy.
Instead, SilverSides turned back to LifeCrier and draped a companionable tail across his hips. “Come, old friend. We have much to discuss. ” Looking over her shoulder, she said something to the strange beings in the bird. The language was unfamiliar-the only word Maverick caught was “Wolruf”-but whatever she said must have made sense, for one of the exotic beings and one of the GodBeings came over to join SilverSides and LifeCrier, and together the four of them turned away from the bird and began walking toward the city. The crowd parted before them like a field of tall grass before a strong wind.
Glancing at WhiteTail, Maverick found that she was staring back at him with an unreadable expression composed of equal parts of fear, anger, concern, and something else that he didn’t recognize. Before he could ask, though, she turned her face away and started trotting after LifeCrier. “Come on, Mavvy,” she said without looking back, “let’s see if we can’t keep the old boy out of trouble. ”
It gave him a chill, for a moment, to realize just how thoroughly WhiteTail had replaced the inner voice that he used to argue with.
Chapter 22. Twolegs, Fourlegs
Avery grimaced and put the laser back into his pocket. “Well, that’s that. Here’s hoping we haven’t unleashed a monster. ” He turned to Ariel. “Will you be okay while Derec and I go check out Central?”
She shrugged. “The spaceport’s crawling with security robots. As long as they still obey the Laws, I’ll be fine. “
“All the same, be careful. Mandelbrot, don’t let Ariel out of your sight. ”
“Yes, Master Avery. ”
Avery started to turn to Lucius and then had another thought. “Oh, and Mandelbrot? How’s the translation program coming along?”
Mandelbrot’s eyes dimmed slightly. “Not well. I am optimized for personal defense and valet service, not linguistics. The kin inflections are extremely complex, and morphemic meaning appears to vary depending on the social status of the person being addressed. ”
“It’s not that difficult,” Lucius muttered.
Mandelbrot’s eyes flared brighter, and he swiveled his head to look at Lucius. “Perhaps, Friend Lucius, you use an alternative definition of difficult. I find it almost impossible to tell the difference between bark, meaning ‘Welcome, friend,’ and bark, meaning ‘Strangers attacking. ’ “
Lucius pursed his lips, put his hands on his hips, and shook his head. “Oh really, Mandelbrot. If you’d just listen to the stress modulation on the third harmonic”
“Ahem!” The robots interrupted their embryonic spat long enough to look at Avery, who smiled paternally at them. “I’m sure you two can get this hammered out soon enough. In the meantime, Mandelbrot, stay close to Ariel and keep your personal defense routines at the top of your stack. ”
“Yes, Master Avery. ”
Avery turned to look at Lucius. “Lucius, you’re our relay. Keep your commlink to Eve open at all times and report anything unusual to Derec. ”
The silver Avery frowned. “Are you also ordering me to stay close to Ariel and Mandelbrot?”
The real Avery frowned right back. “Would you even if I did?”
Lucius smiled and shrugged. “Probably not. ”
“Then I won’t waste my breath. Just try to stay out of trouble, will you?”
“I always try, Friend Avery. ”
“Yeah. I know. ” Avery sighed and turned to Derec. “Okay, son, let’s see if we can’t find a groundcar. ”
An hour later, Avery and Derec stood in the atrium of Central Hall, facing Central’s console input/output devices. “So why isn’t it responding?” Avery asked.
Derec broke off commlink contact and shook his head. “I don’t get it. This is weird. ”
“Sensory impairment?” Avery suggested.
“No. ” Derec shot the console an odd look. “Central’s sensories are fine. It knows that we’ re here. ’, Derec paused and scowled. “Let me rephrase that: The information is available to it. It just doesn’t care that we’re here. ”
Avery blinked. “That’s impossible. As a positronic intelligence-”
“Yeah, well, that’s part of what makes it so weird. ” Derec scowled again, and then shrugged and turned to Avery. “The mental impression I keep getting is one of intelligence without sentience. Does that make sense?”
Avery wrinkled his nose. “It isn’t even aw~ of its own existence?”
Derec thought it over a moment, then nodded. “It seems to be fully functional. There’s a tremendous amount of computational power waiting to be applied. But there’s no personality. It simply isn’t… troubledby conscious thoughts. ”
“That’s impossible,” Avery said again. “Try your commlink one more time, and this time tell me exactly what you’re receiving. ”
With a shrug, Derec closed his eyes and invoked his internal commlink. “Okay. Commlink on: Central is acking. I’m picking up some shell primitives-cats, splits-okay, and that’s a t-sort. Now it’s mounting a device. “ Derec broke concentration and opened his eyes. “I know this sounds silly, but it seems to be running on pure cron. ”
Avery frowned and scratched his head. “I don’t understand this. ”
“Dad, as I told you on the way over, SilverSides destroyed parts of Central the last time she was here. ”