"Yes, if you wish," Abe said.
"What about the missing two? Why haven't we seen Cole or Candy?"
"They have been at work on maintenance. But you need have no concern, their responses would be identical to ours
This was getting nowhere Jack knew he was being unreasonable. Therefore he became more so. "Maybe I d rather judge that for myself" He stood "I'll go find Candy."
Abe looked at Tappy. She tittered. It was the first truly human sound he remembered hearing from her. Abruptly his unreasonableness took another turn. "You're here to serve the Imago right? Well, you can serve her best by removing the block that stops her from talking to me in my language. You can do that, can't you?"
"We can," Abe agreed "But—"
"Then get on it!" Jack snapped "Then she can ask the questions. Let me know when she's ready." He strode from the chamber
No one followed. Probably Tappy had indicated no, and she herself had been intrigued by the notion of being able to talk again. He had half expected Tappy to try to come with him, to plead silently with him, but she had not. It was a sign of her new confidence that she knew he was making a deliberate scene, and apparently she was enjoying it. Maybe the emotionless AI manikins annoyed her, too, but because they served her, she could not make an issue of it.
But now he was stuck wandering around the building without a guide. He had no idea where he was going. So he was making pretty much of a fool of himself. But he was stuck on his course. He kept walking, striding down the hall he found himself in.
He came to some sort of central square, except that it was round. Halls radiated out to the four directions, and there were shafts going up and down. He was walking so fast that he was stepping into the pit below before he realized. But he didn't fall. He just floated across the center, as if he weighed nothing, his inertia carrying him on to the far side.
Antigravity? Well, why not" They seemed to have everything else.
He decided to explore the shaft above. He turned and jumped. If there really was no gravity here, he should be able to sail right up to the top.
Instead he found himself angling toward the far wall of the shaft. He twisted as well as he could before crashing into it, managing to get a foot out to break his fall. But instead of rebounding back into the center, he found himself catching his balance and straightening up. The wall was now his floor.
He looked back There was the center, with its radiating halls. Now the one he was in seemed level, and the one he had come from seemed vertical
Jack shook his head. Live and learn! He resumed his walk, going toward what might or might not be the top of the building. There did seem to be light at the end of the passage
It turned out to be an opaque but glowing wall. Or floor. When he came to it, his orientation shifted again, and now he was walking on it. Its surface seemed slightly curved, so that he could not see the full length of the new passages, which extended in four directions from the mergence. This was like the center square, only one hall was missing the one which would have led on through the wall and outside, perhaps.
"Where do I go from here?" he asked himself aloud He realized that he could fairly readily get lost, and make an even bigger fool of himself than so far. Maybe that was why the AI had let him go: they were waiting for him to give up and accept their way of doing things. Passive persuasion.
A woman appeared before him "May I assist you, Jack?"
Startled, he stared at her. She was definitely not one of the ones be had seen before Abbie and Brie were female but conservatively so, really not much more developed than Tappy herself. This one was comparatively voluptuous, with an orange dress that showed the rounded upper contours of her breasts somewhat more than would have been the case had the fit been perfect. Her dark hair swirled about her face and shoulders cohesively, lending additional sex appeal.
"I have two questions. Three. Four."
"I am at your service, Jack."
"You are one of them? An AI?"
"Yes, Jack "
"Then you must be Candy."
"Yes."
"How did you appear so suddenly?"
"I stepped through the panel." She demonstrated by stepping back. Her body disappeared, first the front side, then the back side. Then her face reappeared, framed by darkness "It is an opaque screen. You may enter, if you wish." Her face disappeared again.
Jack put out one hand. It passed through the opacity and disappeared "Oh— like the rock."
"Like a portal, yes," Candy agreed. She was standing in the chamber, which was like another bedroom. Now he was, too. "And your fourth question?"
"Why are you so different from the others?"
"We established four of us as the original complement, of a neutral type, to serve the Imago and her companion. We were not certain what was in order, so withheld two pending further information. Our research indicated that your species is highly sexual, and since you did not indulge with Tappy, we crafted my form to be more mature. You may relieve your sexual frustration with me, if you wish."
So he and Tappy had been watched. Somehow he had known that would be the case. The AI intended to protect the Imago, and for all they knew, he could be dangerous to her.
"I'm not sexually frustrated," he said shortly.
"Then I apologize for our misunderstanding. When your copulatory member became rigid in the night—"
"That's normal!" They had observed, all right! He had forgotten the dream, but now it came back. He hoped they had not been able to see into his mind then.
"We did not know." Candy said. "Your particular species has not come often to our attention. I can assume a less provocative shape."
"You can do that? Just change your shape?"
"Do you wish me to demonstrate this?"
Suddenly he believed it. "No. Keep your present form. I like it." And maybe, he realized, he should take her up on her offer, so as not to be further tempted by Tappy. Candy might be a robot, but he suspected that she would feel exactly like the most cooperative of women, and she surely knew what she was doing. In that sense, she was adult, regardless of her technical age.
"I will show you more of my body, since you like it," she said, her hand going to her dress.
"No!" For suddenly he realized that this, too, would be wrong. She was a machine, possessing no emotion, so it would inevitably be fake, not real. A cross between sex and masturbation. And to whatever extent it was real, it would be a betrayal of Tappy.
"I apologize for disturbing you. I will conform precisely to your expectation, if you will advise me what—"
"It's not that. It's—" But again, he did not want to tell her, knowing that in reality she was a neuter machine. "Just how old are you, anyway?"
"In your terms, approximately one hundred thousand years."
Jack tried to keep his jaw from dropping, and half succeeded. He had assumed she had been constructed within the past year or so. "You've been— a beautiful woman— from before the time there were human women?"
"No, Jack," she said, unsmiling. "I am not human. I have served the Imago in the shape of whatever species the Imago has chosen as host. As have we all. We are long conversant with the Imago, but not with your species."
"But with your fancy building right here on this world near Earth, you must have— I mean, even the minions of the Gaol are human here!"
She paused just an instant. "I think it is essential that your ignorance be swiftly abated, as Abe advised you. But it is apparent that we are not evoking your cooperation. Please advise me of the manner best to approach you, so that you will be receptive."
Jack stared at her. "You really want to know?"
"Yes, Jack."
"Why?"
"Because the Imago is presently in a human host. She is therefore subject to the idiosyncrasies of the human nature. If we learn from you what those are, we shall be better able to work with her."