by Isaac Asimov
The big robot looked down at his feet, as if he were emotionally upset. Jeff thought it wasn't any wonder that Norby had emotive circuits.
"A home for the Others?" Jeff said.
The robot's huge head turned up to Jeff. "You know of the Others? I referred to them only as our makers."
"Only that they exist. What are they like? When will they return here?"
"I am disappointed," said the Mentor. "I had hoped you would know. Before they left the castle and its computer on this planet, Jamya, they erased from the computer all knowledge of their appearance and former history. All that is left in the computer is the bare fact that they existed, and were here for a time. After they left, the computer activated us and we began our work, but we wonder about the Others. We would like to know the organic creatures who made us."
"How do you know they were organic? Perhaps they were robots, too."
"There is physical evidence that they were organic. There were the remains of food-preparing machines. There were cremation ashes which we analyzed and which seemed to show residues of proteins and nucleic acids such as those in the living creatures of this planet and, no doubt, in you."
"Could you deduce anything about the appearance of the Others?"
"They could not have looked like you because your bodies have the wrong shape to use their equipment, but that is about all we can say. It is a problem that bothers us considerably."
"Jeff," whispered Fargo with clear worry, "I think we've got to know. Ask him if the Others bioengineered the primitive human beings they found on Ice-Age Earth, and if that's what he meant by saying we were different from the people that were found there."
Jeff's hands went cold at the possibility that the human species was the product of interstellar meddling, but he put the question to the Mentor in carefully phrased Jamyn.
"You seem concerned at the possibility, small organic friend," said the Mentor, "if I may call you that. By now, I have sensed your friendship and good will. There is no record that the Others did anything to your people except remove a few specimens to educate and put on another planet-we don't know where. It is only Jamya that seems to be getting special treatment. We hope it is because the Others want it for their own home. For that, we Mentors get it ready."
Jeff felt intense relief that the difference the Mentor had detected had lain in their wearing textile material rather than furs-or something like that. And then he felt silly. The evolutionary record of mankind was too smooth to suppose there had been outside meddling.
He looked down at the All-Purpose Pet. "Did the Others want you to develop an All-Purpose Pet?"
The Mentor took a step backward. Its eye patches dimmed. "No, that was my idea. It seemed to me that a Mentor might enjoy a pet. I also thought that some of the offspring of such a pet might be useful as exchange items in dealing with visitors to this planet, but then I found instructions left by the Others forbidding trade. It turned out the Others had also placed a force barrier around the planet to keep outsiders from coming here. That was one of our concerns when your ship suddenly appeared. How did you jump the barrier?"
Jeff said, "We have a special ship that can come or go through hyperspace anywhere."
"I hope," added Norby in a small voice.
Fargo poked Jeff. "Ask if we can exchange something for the All-Purpose Pet. I want Oola back. I have this craving for that little thing. Funny, considering the short acquaintance."
"You spoke of using your pet for trade-exchange with outsiders. Is there anything we can exchange for the creature?" began Jeff. "We have…"
But the Mentor's eye patches shone red, and Jeff stopped.
"No!" The Mentor snatched up his pet and held her in his lower two arms. The upper two arms were drawn up, fists clenched. "I said I would exchange some of her young. She has not had any yet and I do not yet know if she can have young. So I am going to keep her. She is my experiment. I am different from the rest of the Mentors. I am-innovative."
Jeff felt he had better change the subject. "Do you have a name?" he asked.
"I am First."
"Ask about me, Jeff!" said Norby.
"Mentor First, do you have any small robots?"
'Those you see-for gardening, for construction, for discipline with respect to organic creatures, and so on. They are not intelligent, but they obey our commands."
"Do you have any others we don't see?"
"No."
"Do you take commands from the main computer in the castle?"
"No. We are self-controlled under my general guidance, of course. The castle computer does not have the consciousness we do and it is merely our tool."
Jeff could not help thinking that the robot seemed very proud of its own superiority to all the others, and that it was this that led it on to giving information freely-information that might turn out to be useful.
It was almost as though Mentor First caught a whiff of this thought, for he said, "You ask too many questions. You disturb my peace of mind, and your presence here and the thoughts you have induced in me may change the future. I will ask the castle computer to wipe out the memories of you from my mind."
The Mentor's eyes flared red once more. Odd metal eyelids drew up from the bottom, covering the eye patches completely. "Go back to your own time, or we will take forceful measures to destroy you."
There was the feel of danger, and to Jeff it seemed only sensible to retreat into the ship and shut the airlock door. In the viewscreen, he could see Mentor First standing there, waiting for the ship to leave, while Norby was translating to Fargo.
Jeff said, looking a little shamefaced, "I'm sorry, Norby. We didn't find out about your origins, or about the Others-except that they were organic and not robots-but it's getting dangerous here, and I'm sure we might end by changing the future."
Fargo hesitated, then he strode to the control room chair, seated himself in it, and called out, "Norby! Come here and plug yourself in. We can go back to our own solar system, in our own time, and do some exploring for McGillicuddy's asteroid, the one where he found your alien ship. That will keep you out of the hands of the Inventors Union, and it might be more exciting than this. "
"Wasn't this exciting?" Jeff asked.
"What? A reasonable conversation? Very tame!"
"Isn't it exciting to learn things? When the Mentors were new, they had no robot like Norby; that's why he can be here. But Mentor First bioengineered Oola for himself and is emotional about her. And she's here, which is why our Oola couldn't be here. But that still leaves the problem of why the Mentors became so angry and villainous later in time, and we ought to find out why."
Fargo said, "That Mentor First of yours seems to be getting angry and villainous. He's ordering up some machinery and it may be some sort of weapon."
'Then let's leave," said Jeff, "but let's go back to our present time in Jamya."
"Yes!" Norby said, loudly. "I want to find out why I was made. The Mentors here don't know about me, but I'm sure part of me is Jamyn. I know I was never part of these gardening robots because they don't have emotive circuits or imagination. Jeff, take my hand, and I'll try to move the whole ship forward in time to when you and I left Jamya."
"Well," said Fargo, settling back in the chair with a shrug, "back to something old. Everything will continue to be tame."
"You wouldn't say that if you'd been inside the Mentors' computer scanner," Jeff said. "Go forward, Norby. I'll visualize the castle as we first saw it."
This time the ship itself seemed to shiver.
"There's a miniature dragon outside," Fargo said. "I tell you again. Everything will be tame.:'
9. Not So Tame
"Hello," said Zargl. "You're back. You shouldn't be."
Jeff waved at her as he left the Hopeful, followed by Norby and Fargo. Then he waved at Zi, who was coming out of her home rather hurriedly at the sight of the ship.
"This is my sibling, Fargo," he said to mother and daughter dragon, pronouncing the n
ame carefully. He hesitated before choosing the Jamyn word to describe Fargo's relationship to him. There was no Jamyn word for "brother," of course.
Jeff then asked, with a fine air of casualness, "How long have we been gone?"
"Fourteen day/nights," said Zargl. "Ever since you left, the Jamyns have been arguing about what to do if you returned. The Mentors sent word that you are to be captured and taken to the castle if we ever see you again. Isn't that exciting? Of course, they didn't expect you to come with a ship and reinforcements."
"Which probably makes it even more exciting," muttered Fargo, as Norby translated softly for him. "Maybe things won't be so tame at that. Ask this Pseudoreptile to bite me so I'll be able to understand her language."
"Good idea," said Jeff. "Then if things don't live up to your notions of danger and adventure, you'll at least be able to tell Albany that you were bitten by a dragon. And you, Norby, you can tell her how you missed by a couple of weeks again."
Norby said haughtily, "Can you do better, Jeff?"
Jeff, still mindful of his manners, said, "No, I can't. True is true. Zargl, would you bite my sibling, just a little bit. Just a tiny little bit."
Zargl said, "Certainly." She came shyly up to Fargo, and nuzzled his arm. "Your sibling is very attractive," she said to Jeff.
"There you are," said Jeff. "The girls always fall for him."
Fargo smiled. "It's to be expected. No one can resist my devil-may-care attitude and my incredible charm."
"It's the way he shows his little teeth," she said, showing her own much larger ones. Then she nipped a bit of flesh on Fargo's forearm between an opposing pair of her sharp teeth.
Fargo said, "Ouch," and frowned at the tiny droplet of blood that seeped from each of two delicate puncture marks.
"There you are," said Jeff. "The knowledge is transmitted by the blood somehow. The bite is so neatly done, it won't even bruise. In a few minutes, you'll be able to catch the Jamyn words telepathically, and not long after that you will understand them spoken aloud, and be able to speak them yourself."
Fargo waved his arm. "I wish they could teach differential equations that way."
Zi, who had been looking at the Hopeful very carefully, now pointed her right front claw at it and said, "What's that?"
"That's our small scoutship," Jeff explained. "It's ours free and clear; in fact, it was all we had left when the family business failed a few years ago…"
"Look at that"' said Fargo, with sudden energy. "Jeff, do you see what I see?"
Jeff turned to look at the Hopeful and there in the open airlock was a green creature peering up at the castle, and panting.
"Oola!" cried out Jeff in astonishment. "I'll bet she automatically joined us when we went forward in time past the point when we opened the hassock."
"She seems to know the castle," Fargo said. "Look at her reacting to it."
Zi said, "I have never seen a creature like that before. How can she know the castle if I have never seen her?"
"Oola was inside your hassock," said Jeff, "the one you let us have. She was bioengineered by a particular Mentor named First."
"First?" Zi scratched her tail. "He is an important part of our legends. The great Mentor named First organized the construction of the buildings on Jamyn, and carried out the instructions of the Others for the civilizing of the Jamyn and, as you see, did a very good job of it. All Jamyn are in awe of First and feel great respect for him."
"And where is First, now?"
"No one knows. Perhaps he is still at the castle. Perhaps he was the one that spoke to you on my computer screen."
"That can't be," said Jeff. "The Mentor who spoke to me, and who saw me in the castle, was malevolent."
A bell chimed in the dragons' house. "Excuse me," said Zi. "Zargl, come with me and begin the preparations of a meal for our guests, while I find out what the Grand Dragonship wants." In a lower-pitched version of her voice, she said to Jeff and Norby "It is a great honor for her to call upon a mere Congressperson such as myself". She seemed to breathe quickly at the thought of it.
Left to themselves for a moment, Jeff said in Terran Basic, "Fargo, things seem no different here than when we left. Zi remembers our previous visit just as we do. Doesn't that mean that our visit to the past of Jamya didn't change anything?"
"Let's hope so," Fargo said.
Norby, however, teetered nervously on his partly extended legs. "I can tell, Jeff, I can tell. I can sense that nothing important has changed. Mentor First must really have had his memories of us wiped out. And that means that the Mentors in the castle right now are still crazy and mean."
"Good," said Fargo. "Maybe that will mean a chance for us to be battling real nasties."
Zi came out of her house carrying a little table, and Zargl followed with dishes of food. "You'll have to sit on the lawn," she said. "Please accept my apologies for that, but I have no furniture in my home that will fit your peculiar bodies-no offense intended. Even my hassock, my tail rest, is gone, for you have changed it into an unknown green animal. Still, it's such a lovely day, I thought you might be willing to have a picnic before the Grand Dragonship arrives."
"A picnic would be very welcome," said Jeff. "And I'm looking forward to meeting such an exalted person."
"And she's my great-aunt, too," said Zargl, holding up her foreclaws and making them quiver. "Isn't she, Mother?"
"She certainly is, my dear child, and my own aunt."
Half an hour later, they were all, including Oola, finishing the meal. Oola kept looking up at the castle and twitching her tail when Norby suddenly shot up on antigrav, his foot catching Jeff's ear on the way.
"What are you doing?" asked Jeff, rubbing his ear hard.
"I want to hurry back to the Hopeful, " said Norby. "I suggest you two bring Oola and join me. Look what's coming."
From over the trees at the left of the castle, came a strange airborne procession. Majestically, a retinue of Jamyn flew toward Zi's home, and from their jeweled claws hung a glittering hammock that supported a dragon considerably larger than Zi.
"It's my aunt," cried Zi, clacking her teeth in excitement and respect. "Please do not leave. I so want you to meet her."
The hammock came overhead and was let down in front of them, dragons hovering about with a great swirl of wings to insure that it landed safely.
"Make way for her Grand Dragonship," shouted all the dragons in a medley of squawks that was totally unmusical.
When the hammock was flat on the lawn, the Grand Dragon stepped off it. She unfurled her wings, each leathery portion brightly painted in contrasting colors, and shook them. A diamondlike jewel adorned each point of the projections that went down her back to the tip of her gilded tail.
"So, my niece," she said, holding herself high with her wings akimbo to make the colors show dramatically, "you make friends with the enemy when I instructed you not to!"
"I'm sorry, Aunt-Your Dragonship-but I do like these humans and their little robot. And Zargl and I had already made friends with them weeks ago, so it was already too late when your instructions came. And see, they have discovered this green creature that was inside my tail rest-which they call by the interesting nonsense word, 'hassock.' "
"You don't understand," said Her Dragonship. "This green creature, as you call it, is the Mentors' Pet. They have watched the situation through monitors and they have sent me to correct the theft. Otherwise we will be punished."
"Correct the theft?" asked Fargo. "What do you mean by that? The hassock was given us by your niece freely."
"Nevertheless," said the Grand Dragon, "you two strangers and your ugly robot and this pet will be brought to the Mentors."
Norby said to Jeff in a furious whisper, " Are you just going to stand there and let her call me ugly?"
Oola whined and became more like a beagle than ever.
Fargo said, "This pet is my pet. It belongs to me now."
"No, she doesn't," screamed the Grand Dragon, stampi
ng her foot, which was large and had wicked claws on it. "My guards will prove that by overpowering you…"
"That would not be sporting, Your Dragonship," said Fargo. He paused and bent down to Norby. "Have I got the right word? Jamyn is not an easy language to learn in a great hurry."
"Say it isn't fair.., Norby said in Jamyn. "Dragons don't play sports the way you do, but they are fair."
"Surely, Your Dragonship, you have some more civilized way of settling a dispute than brainless force?" Fargo smiled his most charming smile.
The dragon guards began to move toward him, but the Grand Dragon gestured them back. "This stranger appeals to our civilized nature," she said, "and no one can appeal to that in vain. It would be an insult to the Mentors otherwise."
She smiled, too, her pointed teeth and front fangs showing to full advantage. She adjusted her jeweled gold collar and stepped forward until she was only a few centimeters from Fargo. She was a little taller than he was, and, counting the tail, considerably bigger.
"There! It will be I alone against two of you and a robot. It is three to one in your favor so it is you who will be uncivilized, yet I will personally bring all of you to the Mentors."
"Is that indeed so?" said Fargo, as he thrust out his chin.
"Fargo!" said Jeff, reverting to Terran Basic, "Let's just go with her…"
"Never!" said Fargo, pushing up his sleeves.
"Listen, you're not going to try to punch her, are you?" asked Jeff. "Her fangs will tear into your knuckles."
"Fist fighting is crude," Fargo said, adjusting his stance. "I'm going to see if I can use any of tl}e defensive arts that Albany has taught me. I wouldn't mind having a sword or rapier, though. Cold steel against hot fang, eh?"
"This isn't funny!" said Jeff. "You can't win!"
Norby was ascending and descending on his telescopic legs, forcing his way between Jeff and Fargo and shouting, "Listen to me, you human idiots! The Jamyn respect tradition and authority and they never use force among themselves!"
"Well?" asked Fargo, "Are you trying to spoil the fun?"
