"Oh, so it's her you care about, not me?"
"Yes, Jack."
Actually they had never pretended otherwise. He was here on sufferance, because Tappy had brought him, and they treated him courteously, by their definitions, because she wanted them to. They were not evil, merely ignorant of the human nuances. Their very mistakes with him demonstrated the truth of that.
Had these been secret agents of the Gaol, they would have approached him in either a more deceptive or more forbidding manner. Malva had alternately enticed and threatened him. It had all been bluff, but it showed the way she worked. These AI had done neither. Well, Candy had offered him sex, but had done it so clumsily that it was obvious that she knew next to nothing about the emotional aspects of it. That wasn't surprising in creatures who had no emotions.
The conviction was growing that the AI were the genuine article, and that he really ought to cooperate with them. But he needed something more.
"You are all in mental contact with each other?" he asked. "When I talk to Abe, it's the same as talking with you, even if you're not there, and vice versa? Whatever I do with you is the same as doing it with him?"
"Yes, Jack."
"So if I had decided to have sex with you, it might as well have been with him?"
"Yes, Jack. He would have formed an orifice—"
"Give me one decisive reason to cooperate with you."
"We exist to forward the purpose of the Imago."
Jack stared at her. "That's it?"
"Yes, Jack."
They remained at cross-purposes. He pondered a moment. "Suppose I said I would cooperate if you ripped off one of your arms and threw it away?"
She put her right hand on her left elbow and made a contortion. The left arm came out of its shoulder socket, dangling tentacular threads. She threw it to the floor.
"That was just a question!" Jack exclaimed, appalled. "I didn't mean it literally!"
"I apologize for misunderstanding, Jack."
He stooped to pick up the arm. It remained warm and soft. No bone projected from the torn end, just a hard plastic surface. "Doesn't it hurt?"
"We do not experience pain."
"But it's a shame to waste such a finely crafted limb! Now you can't use it."
The fingers on it flexed. "I can use it, Jack. It merely lacks anchorage."
He handed her the arm. "Put it back on, then."
She took it by the elbow again and pushed the end into the gaping shoulder socket. The shreds of plastic melted and flowed, sealing over the injury. "It will not be at full strength immediately, but it will serve," she said.
"Okay, I'll cooperate until I find reason not to," he decided. "Not because I know anything about the Imago, but because I care for Tappy."
"Tell me how to avoid antagonizing you, so that you will not find reason not to cooperate with us."
"For one thing, stop this damned condescension!"
"I do not understand, Jack."
"You keep treating me like a feelingless object."
"Yes. Does this disturb you?"
"Yes, it does! And it will disturb Tappy, too. In fact, that could be why she wants me here: because at least I understand her feelings, somewhat."
"But we are feelingless objects ourselves."
"Then how the hell did you manage to serve the Imago in its other hosts? Weren't they all living creatures?"
"We were more conversant with their nuances, and had competent input. They were in the Galactic Registry."
"And my species is not?"
"It will be added, Jack, now that the Imago—"
"Yes, I see. The Imago must have chosen it because it was a primitive backwater species no one would suspect of harboring such a significant entity."
"That is a likely conjecture."
"So you were caught short this time."
"Yes. If you will tell me what I am doing wrong, I will correct it immediately."
"Just like that," he said with irony.
"Yes, Jack."
"Okay, I'll make you a deal. You show me around this place and tell me what I need to know, and I'll tell you how not to antagonize me while you're doing it."
"This is what we asked of you at the outset of our association."
"First lesson: never say 'I told you so.' "
They walked through the door-portal, and she showed him around. They talked, and he pointed out the nuances of human interaction as she ran afoul of them, beginning with the ill-fit of her dress. She became both more human and more attractive at a rate that was alarming in its implication.
He looked at the brightness of the outer hall. "What's beyond this?" At her gesture, the white wall-floor became transparent, and they could see outside.
Jack stared. It was a blaze of light from a seemingly infinite number of sources. "Those— those are stars!" he exclaimed. "But so many, so close!"
"We are in a globular cluster of stars, orbiting the galactic center. Because this cluster is outside the plane of the galactic ecliptic, it will be among the last to be drawn into the black hole."
"So you won't have to move and rebuild soon?" he asked, still stunned by the change.
"No, that is of no immediate concern, as is anything beyond a few billion years. But it represents another backward region, of little interest to the Gaol, so they are unlikely to search here soon."
"Backwater species, backwater cluster," he agreed. "It does make sense. But how did we come here? This building was in a cloud on the honkers' world!"
"This is not a building, Jack. It is a mobile city. To fetch the Imago, we rendezvoused intermittently at the designated spot and broadcast our signal. When the Imago came, we ceased the shuttling and settled at the primary location."
"Let me see if I have this straight," he said, staring at the amazing sky. "When Tappy came through the portal to the world of the honkers, you picked her up on your instruments, and sent your city: seven seconds there, seven away. Tappy could tune in on your signal, but so could the Gaol, so it was a race. The Gaol tried to get to the city and destroy it, but couldn't, so they tried to intercept Tappy instead. But the honkers helped her avoid the minions of the Gaol, and to get away from them when they did capture her. It was a close call, even so."
Candy smiled, a thing she had not done before he advised her about things like that. "You have a marvelous understanding of the situation, Jack!"
"Just how far is this from the honker planet? And how far was that from Earth?"
"This is about fifty thousand light-years from the honkers, and that planet is about one thousand light-years from Earth. The planetary portals cannot retain their tuning long, so are normally established for short ranges."
Jack shook his head. "So this is a spaceship, really!"
"I think it does not match your concept. Jack. A ship of space can travel where it chooses. A city must be carefully programmed and routed. This one is able to travel only from here to the realm of the Imago's concealment. Now that it has vacated that world, it will not be feasible to return there; the Gaol will prevent it."
He could appreciate the determination of the Gaol! "So they are searching for us now. Will they follow us here?"
"They can not trace an intermittent phase-state. That is why we used it, and have used it in prior millennia. They will have to spread their net again, narrowing down the possible regions of the galaxy where we might be. Their efficiency has been increasing in recent centuries, and we may have no more than a year to complete the training of the Imago. This is why we require your help."
"A year? How long does training usually take?"
"Seven years— the full term of the ripening of the Chrysalis. Because the Gaol were unusually alert this time, the Chrysalis had to be hidden instead. This makes it difficult."