Waldo

‘Now....our name, please?

‘Alexander Jenkins.

‘Very well, friend Alec - the gloves.

Jenkins thrust his arms into the waldoes and waited. Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life. Jenkins bit his lip, as if he found unpleasant the sensation of having his fingers manipulated by the gauntlets he wore

Waldo flexed and extended his fingers gently; the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous paral -lelism. ‘Feel it, my dear Alec,' Waldo advised. ‘Gently, gently- the sensitive touch. Make your muscles work for you.' He then started hand movements of definite pattern; the waldoes at the power tool reached up, switched on the power, and began gently, gracefully, to continue the machining of the casting. A mechanical hand reached down, adjusting a vernier, while the other increased the flow of oil cooling the cutting edge. ‘Rhythm, Alec, rhythm. No jerkiness, no unnecessary movement. Try to get in time with me.

The casting took shape with deceptive rapidity, disclosed what it was - the bonnet piece for an ordinary three-way nurse. The chucks drew back from it; it dropped to the belt beneath, and another rough casting took its place. Waldo continued with unhurried skill, his finger motions within his waldoes exerting pressure which would need to be measured in fractions of ounces, but the two sets of waldoes, paralleled to him thousands of miles below, followed his motions accurately and with force appropriate to heavy work at hand

Another casting landed on the belt - several more. Jenkins, although not called upon to do any work in his proper person, tired under the strain of attempting to anticipate and match Waldo's motions. Sweat dripped down his forehead, ran off his nose, accumulated on his chin. Between castings he suddenly withdrew his arms from the paralleled primaries. ‘That's enough,' he announced

‘One more, Alec. You are improving.

‘No!' He turned as if to walk off. Waldo made a sudden movement - so sudden as to strain him, even in his weight- free environment. One steel hand of the secondary waldoes lashed out, grasped Jenkins by the wrist

‘Not so fast, Alec.

‘Let go of me!

‘Softly, Alec, softly. You'll do as you are told, won't you?' The steel hand clamped down hard, twisted. Waldo had exerted all of two ounces of pressure

Jenkins grunted. The one remaining spectator - one had left soon after the lesson started - said, ‘Oh, I say, Mr Jones!

‘Let him obey, or fire him. You know the terms of my contract.

There was a sudden cessation of stereo and sound, cut from the Earth end. It came back on a few seconds later. Jenkins was surly, but no longer recalcitrant. Waldo continued as if nothing had happened. ‘Once more, my dear Alec.

When the repetition had been completed, Waldo directed, ‘Twenty times, wearing the wrist and elbow lights with the chronanalyser in the picture. I shall expect the superposed strips to match, Alec.' He cut off the larger screen without further words and turned to the watcher in the smaller screen. ‘Same time tomorrow, McNye. Progress is satisfactory. In time we'll turn this madhouse of yours into a modern plant.' He cleared that screen without saying goodbye

Waldo terminated the business interview somewhat hastily, because he had been following with one eye certain announcements on his own local information board. A craft was approaching his house. Nothing strange about that; tourists were forever approaching and being pushed away by his auto-guardian circuit. But this craft had the approach signal, was now clamping to his threshold flat. It was a broomstick, but he could not place the licence number. Florida licence. Whom did he know with a Florida licence? He immediately realized that he knew no one who possessed his approach signal - that list was very short - and who could also reasonably be expected to sport a Florida licence. The suspicious defensiveness with which he regarded the entire world asserted itself; he cut in the circuit whereby he could control by means of his primary waldoes the strictly illegal but highly lethal inner defences of his home. The craft was opaqued; he did not like that

A youngish man wormed his way out. Waldo looked him over. A stranger - face vaguely familiar perhaps. An ounce of pressure in the primaries and the face would cease to be a face, but Waldo's actions were under cold cortical control; he held his fire. The man turned, as if to assist another passenger. Yes, there was another. Uncle Gus! - but the doddering old fool had brought a stranger with him. He knew better than that. He knew how Waldo felt about strangers! Nevertheless, he released the outer lock of the reception room and let them in

Gus Grimes snaked his way through the lock, pulling himself from one handrail to the next, and panting a little as he always did when forced to move weight free. Matter of diaphragm control, he told himself as he always did; can't be the exertion. Stevens streaked in after him, displaying a groundhog's harmless pride in handling himself well in space conditions. Grimes arrested himself just inside the reception room, grunted, and spoke to a mansized dummy waiting there. ‘Hello, Waldo.

The dummy turned its eyes and head slightly. ‘Greetings, Uncle Gus. I do wish you would remember to phone before dropping in. I would have had your special dinner ready.

‘Never mind. We may not be here that long. Waldo, this is my friend, Jimmie Stevens.

The dummy faced Stevens. ‘How do you do, Mr Stevens,

the voice said formally. ‘Welcome to Freehold.

‘How do you do, Mr Jones,' Stevens replied, and eyed the dummy curiously. It was really surprisingly lifelike; he had been taken in by it at first. A ‘reasonable facsimile'. Come to think of it, he had heard of this dummy. Except in vision screen few had seen Waldo in his own person. Those who had business at Wheelchair -‘Freehold', he must remember that - those who had business at Freehold heard a voice and saw this simulacrum

‘But you must stay for dinner, Uncle Gus,' Waldo continued. ‘You can't run out on me like that; you don't come often enough for that. I can stir something up.

‘Maybe we will,' Grimes admitted. ‘Don't worry about the menu. You know me. I can eat a turtle with the shell.

It had really been a bright idea, Stevens congratulated himself, to get Doc Grimes to bring him. Not here five minutes and Waldo was insisting on them staying for dinner. Good omen! He had not noticed that Waldo had addressed the invitation to Grimes alone, and that it had been Grimes who had assumed the invitation to be for both of them

‘Where are you, Waldo?' Grimes continued. ‘In the lab?' He made a tentative movement, as if to leave the reception room

‘Oh, don't bother,' Waldo said hastily. ‘I'm sure you will be more comfortable where you are. Just a moment and I will put some spin on the room so that you may sit down.

‘What's eating you, Waldo?' Grimes said testily. ‘You know I don'tinsist on weight. And I don't care for the company of your talking doll. I want to see you.' Stevens was a little surprised by the older man's insistence; he had thought it considerate of Waldo to offer to supply acceleration. Weightlessness put him a little on edge

Waldo was silent for an uncomfortable period. At last he said frigidly, ‘Really, Uncle Gus, what you ask is out of the question. You must be aware of that.

Grimes did not answer him. Instead, he took Stevens's arm. ‘Come on, Jimmie. We're leaving.

‘Why, Doc! What's the matter?