"What, in water?" said Gurder.
"No, in air. Because there's nothing to hold it on the plate, you see."
"Oh." Gurder nodded. "Is that where the glue comes in?"
Masklin knew that they could go on like this for hours. What these sounds mean, he thought, is: I am alive and so are you. And we're all very worried that we might not be alive for much longer, so we'll just keeptalking, because that's better than thinking.
It all looked better when it was days or weeks away, but now when it was"
How long. Thing?"
"Forty minutes."
"We've got to have another rest! Gurder isn't running, he's just fallingupright."
They collapsed in the shade of a bush. The shuttle didn't look much closer, but they could see plenty of other activity. There were morehelicopters. According to Pion, who climbed up the bush, there werehumans, much farther off.
"I need to sleep," said Angalo.
"Didn't you sleep on the goose?" said Masklin.
"Did you?"
Angalo stretched out in the shade.
"How are we going to get on the shuttle thing?" he said.
Masklin shrugged. "Well, the Thing says we don't have to get on it, we just have to put the Thing on it."
Angalo pushed himself up on his elbows. "You mean we don't get to ride on it? I was looking forward to that!"
"I don't think it's like the Truck, Angalo. I don't think they leave a window open for anyone to sneak in," said Masklin. "I think it'd take more than a lot of nomes and some string to fly it, anyway."
"You know, that was the best time of my life, when I drove the Truck," said Angalo dreamily. "When I think of all those months I lived in theStore, not even knowing about the Outside ..."
Masklin waited politely. His head felt heavy.
"Well?" he said.
"Well, what?"
"What happens when you think of all those months in the Store not knowing about the Outside?"
"It just seems like a waste."
Pion curled up and started to snore. Angalo yawned.
They hadn't slept for hours. Nomes slept mainly at night, but needed catnaps to get through the long day. Even Masklin was nodding.
"Thing?" he remembered to say, "wake me up in ten minutes, will you?"
Chapter 7
Satellites: They are in space and stay there bygoing so fast that they never stay in one placelong enough to fall down. Televisions are bouncedoff them. - From A Scientific Encyclopedia or theEnquiring Young Nome by Angalo de Haberdasheri.
It wasn't the Thing that woke Masklin up. It was Gurder.
Masklin lay with his eyes half closed, listening. Gurder was talking tothe Thing in a low voice.
"I believed in the Store," he said, "and then I found out it was just a-asort of thing built by humans. And I thought Grandson Richard, 39, wassome special person and he turned out to be a human who sings when hewets himself-"
"Takes a shower!"
"And now there's thousands of nomes in the world! Thousands! Believingall sorts of things!
That stupid Topknot person believes that the going-up shuttles make thesky. Do you know what I thought when I heard that? I thought, if he'dbeen the one arriving in my world instead of the other way around, he'dhave thought I was just as stupid! I am just as stupid! ... Thing?"
"I was maintaining a tactful silence."
"Angalo believes in silly machinery and Masklin believes in, oh, Idon't know. Space. Or not believing in things. And it all works for them.
I try to believe in important things, and they don't last for fiveminutes. Where's the fairness in that?"
"Only another tactful and understanding silence suffices at thispoint."
"I just wanted to make some sense out of life."
"This is a commendable aim."
"I mean, what is the truth of everything?"
There was a pause. Then the Thing said: "I recall your conversationwith Masklin about the origin of names. You wanted to ask me. I cananswer now. I was made, I know this is true. I know that I am a thingmade of metal and plastic, but also that I am something which livesinside that metal and plastic. It is impossible for me not to beabsolutely certain of it. This is a great comfort. As to names, I havedata that says nomes originated on another world and came here thousandsof years ago. This may be true. It may not be true. I am not in aposition to judge."
"I knew where I was, back in the Store," said Gurder, half to himself.
"And even in the quarry it wasn't too bad. I had a proper job. I wasimportant to people. How can I go back now, knowing that everything Ibelieved about the Store and Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) and GrandsonRichard, 39, is just ... is just an opinion."
"I cannot advise. I am sorry."
Masklin decided it was a diplomatic time to wake up. He made a gruntingnoise just to be sure that Gurder heard him.
The Abbot was very red in the face.
"I couldn't sleep," he said shortly.
Masklin stood up.
"How long, Thing?"
"Twenty-seven minutes."
"Why didn't you wake me up!"
"I wished you to be refreshed."
"But it's still a long way off. We'll never get you onto it in time. Wake up, you." Masklin prodded Angalo with his foot. "Come on, we'll have to run. Where's Pion? Oh, there you are. Come on, Gurder."
They jogged on through the scrub. In the distance, there was the low mournful howl of sirens.
"You're cutting it really fine, Masklin," said Angalo.
"Faster! Run faster!"
Now that they were closer, Masklin could see the shuttle. It was quite high up. There didn't seem to be anything useful at ground level.
"I hope you've got a good plan, Thing," he panted, as the four of them dodged between the bushes, "because I'll never be able to get you all the way up there."
"Do not worry. We are nearly close enough."
"What do you mean? It's still a long way off!"
"It is close enough for me to get on."
"What is it going to do? Take a flying leap?" said Angalo.
"Put me down."
Masklin obediently put the black box on the ground. It extended a few of its probes, which swung around slowly for a while and then pointed toward the going-up jet.
"What are you playing at?" said Masklin. "This is wasting time."
Gurder laughed, although not in a very happy way.
"I know what it's doing," he said. "It's sending itself onto the shuttle. Right, Thing?"
"I am transmitting an instruction subset to the computer on the communications satellite," said the Thing.
The nomes said nothing,
"Or to put it another way ... yes, I am turning the satellite computer into a part of me. Although not a very intelligent one."
"Can you really do that?" said Angalo.
"Certainly."
"Wow. And you won't miss the bit you're sending?"
"No. Because it will not leave me."
"You're sending it and keeping it at the same time?"
"Yes."
Angalo looked at Masklin.
"Did you understand any of that?" he demanded.
"I did," said Gurder. "The Thing's saying it's not just a machine, it's a sort of-a sort of collection of electric thoughts that lives in a machine. I think."
Lights flickered around on top of the Thing.
"Does it take a long time to do?" said Masklin.
"Yes. Please do not take up vital communication power at this point."
"I think he means he doesn't want us to talk to him," said Gurder. "He's concentrating."
"It," said Angalo. "It's an it. And it made us run all the way here just so we can hurry up and wait."
"It probably has to be close up to do ... whatever it is it's doing," said Masklin.
"How long's it going to take?" said Angalo. "It seems ages since it was twenty-seven minutes ago."