Continuing his circuit of inspection, Krug sped to Duluth, where he watched new androids coming from their containers. Nolan Bompensiero was not there — the late shift at Duluth was staffed entirely by alpha supervisors — but Krug was shown through the plant by one of his awed underlings. Production appeared to be higher than ever, although the alpha remarked that they were still lagging behind demand.
Lastly Krug went to New York. In the silence of his office he worked through to dawn, dealing with corporate problems that had arisen on Callisto and Ganymede, in Peru and Martinique, on Luna, and on Mars. The arriving day began with a glorious winter sunrise, so brilliant in its pale intensity that Krug was tempted to rush back to the tower and watch it gleam with morning fire. But he remained. The staff was beginning to arrive: Spaulding, Lilith Meson, and the rest of his headquarters people. There were memoranda and telephone calls and conferences. From time to time Krug stole a glance at the holovision screen that he had lately had installed along his office’s inner wall to provide a closed-circuit view of the tower under construction. The morning was not so glorious in the Arctic, it seemed; the sky was thick with ragged clouds, as if there might by snow later in the day. Krug saw Thor Watchman moving among a swarm of gammas, directing the lifting of some immense piece of communications equipment. He congratulated himself on the choice of Watchman to be the overseer of the tower work. Was there a finer alpha anywhere in the world?
About 0950 hours Spaulding’s image appeared on the sodium-vapor projector. The ectogene said, “Your son just called from California. He says that he regrets having overslept, and he’ll be about an hour late for his appointment with you.”
“Manuel? Appointment?”
“He was due here at 1015. He asked several days ago that you hold some time open for him.”
Krug had forgotten. That surprised him. It did not surprise him that Manuel would be late. He and Spaulding reshuffled his morning schedule, with some difficulty, to keep the hour from 1115 to 1215 open for the conference with Manuel.
At 1123 Manuel arrived.
He looked tense and strained, and he was, Krug thought, dressed in an odd way, odd even for Manuel. Instead of his usual loose robe, he wore the tight trousers and lacy shirt of an alpha. His long hair was drawn tightly back and fastened in the rear. The effect was not becoming; the openwork blouse revealed the unandroidlike shagginess of Manuel’s torso, virtually the only physical feature he had inherited from his father.
“Is this what the young men of fashion have taken up?” Krug asked. “Alpha clothes?”
“A whim, father. Not a style — not yet.” Manuel forced a smile. “Though if I’m seen this way, I suppose, it could catch on.”
“I don’t like it. What sense is there going around dressing like an android?”
“I think it’s attractive.”
“I can’t say I do. How does Clissa feel about it?”
“Father, I didn’t make this appointment so we could debate my choice of costume.”
“Well, then?”
Manuel put the data cube on Krug’s desk. “I obtained this not long ago while visiting Stockholm. Would you examine it?”
Krug picked the cube up, turned it over several times, and activated it. He read:
And Krug presided over the Replication, and touched the fluids with His own hands, and gave them shape and essence.
Let men come forth from the Vats, said Krug, and let women come forth, and let them live and go among us and be sturdy and useful, and we shall call them Androids.
And it came to pass.
And there were Androids, for Krug had created them in His own image, and they walked upon the face of the Earth and did service for mankind.
And for these things, praise be to Krug.
Krug frowned. “What the hell is this? Some kind of novel? A poem?”
“A bible, father.”
“What crazy religion?”
“The android religion,” said Manuel quietly. “I was given this cube in an android chapel in the beta section of Stockholm. Disguised as an alpha, I attended a service there. The androids have evolved quite a complex religious communion, in which you, father, are the deity. There’s a life-size hologram of you above the altar.” Manuel gestured. “That’s the sign of Krug-be-praised. And this—” he made a different gesture — “is the sign of Krug-preserve-us. They worship you, father.”
“A joke. An aberration.”
“A worldwide movement.”
“With how many members?”
“A majority of the android population.”
Scowling, Krug said, “How sure are you of that?”
“There are chapels everywhere. There’s one right at the tower site, hidden among the service domes. This has been going on at least ten years — an underground religion, kept secret from mankind, capturing the emotions of the android to an extent that wasn’t easy for me to believe. And there’s the scripture.”
Krug shrugged. “So? It’s amusing, but what of it? They’re intelligent people. They’ve got their own political party, they’ve got their own slang, their own little emotions — and their own religion too. What concern of mine?”
“Doesn’t it stir you in some way to know that you’ve become a god, father?”
“It sickens me, if you want the truth. Me a god? They’ve got the wrong man.”
“They adore you, though. They have a whole theology constructed about you. Read the cube. You’ll be fascinated, father, to see what kind of sacred figure you are to them. You’re Christ and Moses and Buddha and Jehovah all in one. Krug the Creator, Krug the Savior, Krug the Redeemer.”
Tremors of uneasiness began to shake Krug. He found this matter distasteful. Did they bow down to his image in these chapels? Did they mutter prayers to him?
He said, “How did you get this cube?”
“An android I know gave it to me.”
“If it’s asecret religion — ?”
“She thought I ought to know. She thought I might be able to do her people some good.”
“She?”
“She, yes. She took me to a chapel, so I could see the services, and as we were leaving she gave me the cube and—”
“You sleep with this android?” Krug demanded.
“What does that have to do with—”
“If you’re that friendly with her, you must be sleeping with her.”
“And if I am?”
“You should be ashamed of yourself. Clissa isn’t good enough for you?”
“Father—”
“And if she isn’t, you can’t find a real woman? You have to be laying with something out of a vat?”
Manuel closed his eyes. After a moment he said, “Father, we can talk about my morals another time. I’ve brought you something extremely valuable, and I’d like to finish explaining it to you.”
“She’s an alpha, at least?” Krug asked.
“An alpha, yes.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Please, father. Forget the alpha. Think about your own position. You’re the god of millions of androids.Who are waiting for you to set them free. ”
“What’s this?”
“Here. Read.” Manuel shifted the scanner of the cube to a different page and thrust it back to him. Krug read:
And Krug sent His creatures forth to serve man, and Krug said to those whom He had made, Lo, I will decree a time of testing upon you.