“In Vladivostok. God….”He chuckled, as though not sure whether he had the right to joke or not. “In Vladivostok and its environs.”
“Really? Teriffic!” Krivoshein looked at him enviously. “Did you work on the ships?”
“Not quite. I blew up underwater cliffs. And now I'm back to work here.”
“And you're not scared?”
Adam looked into Krivoshein's eyes.
“I'm scared, but… you see, I have an idea. Instead of synthesizing artificial people I want to try to transform regular ones in the computer — womb. Well… you know, put them in the liquid and act on them with external information. I guess that's possible, no?”
Adam was too diffident, he knew he was, and was sorry that he put the idea so clumsily.
“It's a good idea,” the student said. He looked at Adam with new interest. “I guess we're not that different,” he thought. “Or is it just the internal logic of the discovery?” He went on. “But it's been done, Val. They put various parts of their bodies into our native element. I think they've even gotten in completely.”
“Is it working?”
“It's working… only I'm not sure about the last experiment.”
“That's marvelous! You see… then… then we can introduce art information into man with retrieval on a feedback basis.” And Adam, still shy and confused, told Krivoshein his plan for ennobling man through art.
The student understood.
He quoted from Krivoshein's diary: “We have to base our work on the fact that man strives for the best, that no one, or almost no one, consciously wants to perform vile or stupid deeds, that such deeds are a result of misunderstanding. Things are complicated in life; you can't figure out right away whether you're behaving the right way or not. I know that from my own experience. And if you give a person clear information that his psychology can respond to — about what's good, what's bad, what's stupid — and a clear understanding that any of his vile or stupid acts will eventually turn against him, then you don't have to worry about him or his behavior. This information could be introduced into the computer — womb as well — “
“He's done that, too?” Adam was surprised.
“No. There was only a vague idea that it was necessary. That the rest would be meaningless without it. So your idea is right on the mark. It fills in the blank, as we say in academic circles. Listen!” Krivoshein suddenly realized. “And with an idea like that you walked around, following me like a detective instead of just hailing me or coming up to the apartment?”
“You see,” Adam tried to explain, “I thought that you… were him. You walked right past me, didn't recognize me, didn't acknowledge me. I thought you — or rather he — didn't want to see me. We parted unpleasantly….” He lowered his head.
“Yes…. Have you been to the lab?”
“The lab? But I don't have a pass. And my papers are Krivoshein's, they know them there.”
“How about over the fence?”
“Over the fence?” Adam shrugged in embarrassment. The idea hadn't occurred to him.
“The man develops the most audacious, daring ideas but in real life… my God!” Krivoshein shook his head in disapproval and tried to explain: “You have to get rid of that lousy temerity before life, before people or we'll be lost. And the work will be lost. Well, all right.” He handed him the keys. “Go make yourself at home and get some rest. You've been hanging around all night; you need it!
“Where is… he?”
“That's what I'd like to know: where he is, and what happened to him.” The student looked worried. “I'll try to clear all that up. I'll see you later. So long.” He smiled. “It's really terriffic that you came.”
“No, a person can't be thrown off the track that easily!” Krivoshein thought as he headed for the institute. “A great project, a major idea can subjugate anything, can make you forget insults and personal goals, and imperfections. Man strives for the best: he's absolutely right!”
Overcrowded morning buses rushed past him. The student noticed Lena in one of the them: she was sitting by the window and staring abstractly into space. “Ah, Lena, Lena, how could you?” Reading the diary had a tremendous effect on him: he felt that he had spent that year in Dneprovsk. Now he was simply Krivoshein and his heart contracted with the memory of the pain that that woman had caused him (yes, him!).
I know what our research is leading up to, there's no point in kidding ourselves: I have to get into the tank. Kravets and I are performing minor educational experiments with our extremities. I even used the liquid circuit to fix up my knee tendons, torn so long ago, and now I don't limp. All this represents marvels in medicine, but we're aiming for something bigger — the transformation of an entire person! We can't putter around here, or we'll spend another twenty years around the tank. And I'm the one who has to go in, an ordinary, natural person. There's nothing more for Kravets to do in the tank.
Actually, I'll be testing myself, not the computer — womb. All our knowledge and usage of the word “good” isn't worth a thing if man won't have the will power and determination to undergo informational transformation in the liquid.
Of course, I won't come out of the bath transformed. First of all, we don't have the necessary information to make substantial changes in the organism or intellect; and secondly, we don't need that for a beginning. It's enough to experience being plugged into the computer — womb, to prove that it's possible and not dangerous — and, well, to change something in me. Make that first orbit around the earth, so to speak.
Is it possible? Is it dangerous? Will I return from the orbiting capsule, from the experiments? The computer — womb is a complicated thing. We've discovered so many new things in it, and we still don't know everything about it. I'm not too comfortable with the shining prospects of our research.
This is the very time I should get married. The hell with my careful relations with Lena; I need her. I want her to be with me, take care of me, worry about me, yell at me when I come home late, but give me dinner first. And (since everything is clear with the synthesis of doubles) let future Krivosheins appear not from the computer but as a result of good, highly moral relations between parents. And let them complicate our lives — I'm for it. I'm getting married! Why didn't I think of it before?
Of course, to get married now when we're about to do this experiment… well, at least there'll be a permanent reminder of me — a son or daughter. People used to go to war, leaving wives and children behind. Why can't I behave in the same way?
This may not be on the up and up — getting married when there is a possibility of leaving a widow behind me. But let those who have done what I'm doing condemn me. I'll accept it from them.
May 12. “Marry me, Lena. Let's live together. And we'll have children as beautiful as you and as smart as me. Hummmm?”
“Do you really think you're smart?”
“Why not?”
“If you were smart you wouldn't make suggestions like that.”
“I don't understand.”
“There, you see. And you think you'll have smart children.”
“No, tell me. What's wrong? Why won't you marry me?
She stuck the last pin into her hair and turned from the mirror to me.
“I love it when you pout. Darling Val! My lovely red — haired bear. You mean you've developed some honorable intentions? You sweetie!”
“Wait! Are you agreeing to marry me?”
“No, my love.”
“Why not?”
“Because I understand a little more than you do about family life. Because I know nothing good will come of it for us. Just think back. Have we ever talked about anything serious? We just meet, spend time…. Think. Haven't there been times when I come to see you, and you're busy with your thoughts and you're not happy, even angry, that I'm there? Of course, you make believe — you try hard, but I can tell. What will happen if we're together constantly?”