dourly.
The guard looked revolted and started to lead her out.
"Let her go," snapped the doctor. "Both of you will be safer, Ithink."
The girl darted away. The guard followed her, shuddering, his eyesfilled with a self-loathing that Cameron realized would require hoursof psychiatric work to remove.
Docchi smiled. "I have a request to make."
"Go ahead and make it," snorted the general. "We're likely to give youanything you want."
"You probably will. You're going to leave without her. Very soon. Whenyou do go, don't take all your ships. We'll need about three when wecome to another solar system."
General Judd opened his mouth in rage.
"Don't you say anything you'll regret," cautioned Docchi. "When youget back, what will you report to your superiors? Can you tell themthat you left in good order, while there was still time to continuethe search? Or will they like it better if they know you stayed untilthe last moment? So late that you had to abandon some of your ships?"
The general closed his mouth and stamped away. Wordlessly, Camerondragged after him.
* * * * *
The last ship had blasted off and the rocket trails had faded intooverwhelming darkness. The Sun, which had been trying to lose itselfamong the other stars, finally succeeded. The asteroid was no longerthe junkpile. It was a small world that had become a swift ship.
"We can survive," said Docchi. "Power and oxygen, we have, and we cangrow or synthesize our food."
He sat beside Anti's tank, which had been returned to the usual place.A small tree nodded overhead in the artificial breeze. It was peacefulenough. But Nona wasn't there.
"We'll get you out of the tank," promised Jordan. "When she comesback, we'll rig up a place where there's no gravity. And we'llcontinue cold treatment."
"I can wait," said Anti. "On this world I'm normal."
Docchi stared forlornly about. The one thing he wanted to see wasn'tthere.
"If you're worrying about Nona," advised Anti, "don't. The guards werepretty rough with the women, but plastissue doesn't feel pain. Theydidn't find her."
"How do you know?"
"Listen," said Anti. The ground shivered with the power of thegravital units. "As long as they're running, how can you doubt?"
"If I could be sure--"
"You can start now," Jordan said. "First, though, you'd better get upand turn around."
Docchi scrambled to his feet. She was coming toward him.
She showed no sign of strain. Except for a slight smudge on herwonderfully smooth and scar-less cheek, she might just have steppedout of a beauty cubicle. Without question, she was the most beautifulwoman in the world. This world, of course, though she could have donewell on any world--if she could have communicated with people as wellas with machines.
"Where were you hiding?" Docchi asked, expecting no answer.
She smiled. He wondered, with a feeling of helplessness, if machinescould sense and appreciate her lovely smile, or whether they couldsomehow smile themselves.
"I wish I could take you in my arms," he said bitterly.
"It's not as silly as you think," said Anti, watching from the surfaceof the tank. "You don't have any arms, but she has two. You can talkand hear, but she can't. Between you, you're a complete couple."
"Except that she would never get the idea," he answered unhappily.
Jordan, rocking on his hands, looked up quizzically. "I must besomething like her. They used to call me a born mechanic; just put awrench in my hand and I can do anything with a piece of machinery.It's as if I sense what the machine wants done to it. Not to theextent that Nona can understand, naturally. You might say it'sreversed, that she's the one who can hear while I have to lip-read."
"You never just gabble," Docchi prompted. "You have something inmind."
Jordan hesitated. "I don't know if it's stupid or what. I was thinkingof a kind of sign language with machines. You know, start with thesimple ones, like clocks and such, and see what they mean to her.Since they'd be basic machines, she'd probably have pretty basicreactions. Then it's just a matter of--"
"You don't have to blueprint it," Docchi cut in excitedly. "That wouldbe fine for determining elementary reactions, but I can't carry arounda machine shop; it wouldn't be practical. There ought to be onevariable machine that would be portable and yet convey all meanings toher."
"An electronic oscillator?"
Acid waves washed at the sides of the tank as Anti stirredimpatiently. "Will you two great brains work it out in the lab,please? And when you get through with that problem, you'll have plentymore to keep you occupied until we get to the stars. Jordan and me,for instance. What future is there for a girl unless she can getmarried?"
"That's right," Docchi said. "I've got an idea we can do better thannormal doctors. Being accidentals ourselves, we won't stopexperimenting till we succeed. And we have hundreds of years to do itin."
Glowing, literally, with pleasure, he bent over for Jordan to climb onhis back. Then he kissed Nona and headed for the laboratory.
Nona smiled and followed.
"There are some things you don't need words or machines to express,"Anti called out. "Keep that in mind, will you?"
She submerged contentedly in the acid bath. Above the dome, the starsgleamed a bright welcome to the little world that flashed throughinterstellar space.
--F. L. WALLACE
* * * * *
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