The Metal Maiden Collection

by Piers Anthony

  After that joyful reunion Adela bid them adieu and returned to the doorway she had appeared in. Her mother thought of one more thing to tell her, but she was gone, as I knew she would be.

  “I believe this concludes our association,” I told them. “You paid me in advance, and I have delivered what I could. Mainly, I think, peace of mind.”

  “We are satisfied,” her father agreed. “Her mission is surely important.”

  “Surely so,” I agreed. “I don’t know what it is myself, but she is persuasive.”

  “She was always that,” he agreed.

  I left them and returned to my car. Sure enough, Adela was there. “I am so grateful for what you did, Yon. I am almost sorry your mission is over.”

  I started the car and drove back the way we had come. “I am twice as sorry. I have known you only briefly, but--” I halted. What was the point?

  “I shouldn’t have flirted. You were right: I was lonely, and I took it out on you. I’m sorry.”

  I took a flying leap at the moon. What did I have to lose? “Our association doesn’t have to end just because my assignment did. I can still help you.”

  “Can you?” I hoped it wasn’t my eager imagination that made her seem interested.

  “There are other Awares. They must be in a similar situation. They need to connect with their families the way you did, so that nobody continues to look for them. I can act as go-between, if that will help.”

  “I think it would,” she said.

  Now I bounded on toward the sun. “You folk can’t use credit cards or Internet sites or anything, because those all have records galore. But I can. I can do things for you, using private personal anonymous accounts that can be traced back only to me, never to you. I can be your interface with the material world. If you trust my discretion.”

  “That would certainly help,” she agreed. “But why would you do it? We can’t pay you.”

  “Not in money.”

  She paused, considering. “Are you making a pass at me?”

  Now I leaped for the rest of the Solar system. “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Why do you think, you exquisite creature? You fascinate me.”

  “But you know I can vanish at any time without notice.”

  “I hope you will choose to stay around long enough for a date.”

  She was silent a moment. “I’ll consider it.”

  “Do that.” I was elated, though chances were at least even that it would come to nothing. I glanced at her, but she was gone. I was alone in the car.

  I drove home and gobbled some vittles, deep in thought. Would the Awares really take me up on my offer? Would Adela get halfway friendly with me? I could only hope.

  I cleaned up and slept. I dreamed of Adela. It wasn’t just that she was young and pretty. It was that she had literal magic, and if she came into my embrace it would be because she liked me. I wanted her to like me. I envied her that special Awareness and wanted to be as near to it as I could be. But mainly I just wanted to kiss her and have it mean something more than just shutting me up.

  In the morning I made ready to go out again. Would Adela come to me? Actually she could have joined me in the night if she had wanted to. So I fought to maintain my realism. What would be would be.

  Then as I set foot on the street, heading for my car, I felt something. I was being watched, again, but this time I knew who was doing it. A man in a car parked across the street, theoretically reading a newspaper. An amateur private eye; I knew the type. And a girl standing on the sidewalk. Adela. I knew that no one else noticed either of them. I was also aware of everything else in the vicinity. If I stood just so, in the shadow of a lamppost, no one else would notice me either. Except the two Awares.

  Then it passed. Normality resumed. I realized that I had just suffered a siege of Awareness myself. Now I knew what it felt like!

  Adela and the man were gone, though the car remained. But now I knew what was what. I walked across to the empty car. “Check me out all you want,” I said. “I won’t interfere with you. Adela’s got me tethered.” Then I returned to my apartment.

  And that’s where I am at the moment, waiting on their decision. I’ve made my entry; I’ll put this gimcrack away until next time, and we’ll see. I’ve got the feeling something’s going to happen soon.

  It did. They decided to let me be their liaison with the material world. Starting with their families. I approached each of their families, explaining that I had news of their missing children, and would prove it if they gave me a chance. Some were suspicious, but I carried authentic letters of introduction. So they agreed to the conditions; they had to. In due course we went to each family, and had the same joyful/tearful reunions, followed by departure. Overall, it was a good thing, in more than one way.

  Oh, yeah, the letters: each Aware made sure to quietly recover his or her letter before leaving, so that there would be no physical evidence of the contact. So that the families could not inadvertently betray them.

  I did not set up any formal accounts, because those too could be traced. I just made sure to get anything any Aware asked for, anonymously, and handed it over. Or to do any little thing they needed done, like destroying embarrassing pictures or diaries so they would never be discovered. Teens these days can do the most foolish things!

  And Adela rewarded me with her increasing favor. In fact--

  Chapter 3:

  Contact

  Elasa opened her eyes. She had almost succeeded in being the protagonist as she listened to the recordings. One mystery solved, leading to another: what had happened to Yon Yonson? But that one was readily solved: he had turned Aware and joined the other Awares. That one siege of Awareness he had experienced must have been a precursor to the later conversion.

  The Awares related to the challenge, to somehow abate the threat to all of Earth. Mona had described the vision the sheep sent, of a giant Venus Flytrap taking the planet Earth into its leafy maw. A threat even the sheep could not find a path safely around. The Awares were few in number, maybe a dozen, judging by the missing offspring of space travelers, and largely unable to participate in the affairs of the world; how could they help?

  Bunky bleated.

  She put her hand on his woolly back. “But nevertheless they can help, and we need to recruit them,” she said. “So be it. Maybe as time passes we will come to understand how.”

  She tended to Bela, then talked to Banner, describing what she had learned. “So now I need to get in touch with these supremely elusive folk, and recruit them to our cause, which is to save the world. But they aren’t going to want to talk to me.”

  He pondered, then spoke. “On Jones, you were able to see the vampires for what they were, because your consciousness is not influenced by the subjectivity of life. Could the Awares be utilizing a similar mechanism to make themselves disappear?”

  “Clouding men’s minds? It’s possible.” Then she caught his point. “I might see them!”

  “Especially if the Lamb is with you to zero in on them.”

  “But they still could avoid me or refuse to talk with me. I need to be able to persuade them.”

  “How about offering them what Yonson did? An interface with the real world. They still need that, especially now that he can’t do it himself.”

  “That’s it!” she exclaimed gladly. “I could kiss you!”

  “Oh, I think my input is worth more than that.”

  “I’ll pay!” She turned to the animals. “Please babysit Bela for one minute.”

  “One minute!” Banner protested.

  “I can do a lot in a minute.” She bundled him off to the bedroom and made impassioned love to him. It was a kind of game they played, wherein he was always angling for sex and she was always obliging him. She had been crafted as a fembot, a sex robot, and knew that business. In this manner they kept it from becoming routine.

  Five minutes later she looked at her watch. She didn’t need a watch to keep time,
but it was part of acting like a normal woman. “One minute. You’re done, you lecher.”

  “I’m done,” he agreed, sated.

  She returned to the Companions. “Tomorrow we go out looking for elusive Awares. Be ready.” As if they ever were not.

  In the morning she packed them all in the car: Bela, Bunky, Vulture, and Python, because the Lamb’s vision indicated that they were needed. She drove to a different section of town, trusting Bunky’s precognition. Would she really see them, as others could not?

  And there they were, or at least two of them: Yon and Adela. She recognized them by their pictures in her memory. Bunky had known.

  “Now how many of us approach them?” she asked. “I don’t want to leave anyone in the hot car, but some of you might freak out my subjects.”

  It turned out that Elasa, Bela, and Bunky would go, while the other two remained near the car. If anyone thought it was odd for a woman with a baby and a lamb to be out on the street, well, they could ask.

  She approached the two, who were seated on a covered bench. She thought they might quietly get up and depart as she approached, but they remained in place.

  “Hello,” she said.

  To her amazement, one answered. “Hello,” Yon said. “You can see us.”

  “Yes. I am Elasa, a humanoid robot, not much subject to subjective illusions. I have a proposition for you.”

  “We are interested,” Adela said. “We are Yon and Adela, Awares.”

  “You were expecting me,” Elasa said, realizing. “So you waited for me.”

  “It’s the appropriate thing to do,” Yon said.

  And just like that they were in the dialogue.

  “This is my baby, Bela,” Elasa said. “And this is the Lamb, Bunky. He is telepathic and precognitive. That’s how we were able to locate you. By the car are Vulture and Python, who I think will be liaison between us. Because we can’t afford to meet personally again, yet will need to remain in close touch.”

  “Why?” Yon asked. “I mean, why do we need to be in touch? We knew it was right to meet you, but we don’t know why.”

  “That’s a long story. Maybe I can digest it down to the essence so as not to bore you.”

  “We are interested,” Adela said.

  “Do you know about the sheep of Colony Planet Jones?”

  “We have heard of them,” Adela said. “My father went there once and heard the story. They know the future, and no one can hurt them.”

  “All of you have parents who went to Jones,” Elasa said. “Where they must have picked up a virus or something that didn’t affect them but did affect their children. You are like the sheep.”

  “Like what?” Yon asked, startled.

  “No one can hurt a sheep, because she knows exactly that will happen, and can defend herself. It’s the same for Bunky here. I understand he killed a dire wolf.”

  Adela shook her head. “That seems unlikely. Those are pony-sized wolves, fast and vicious, and they hunt in packs. I read about them.”

  “Maybe we need a small demonstration. Try to hurt Bunky.”

  “Oh, we wouldn’t!” Adela protested.

  “I see a stick in the gutter. Take it and strike him.”

  “This is necessary,” Yon said. He fetched the stick, then swung it hard at Bunky.

  The Lamb didn’t move. He stood placidly beside the bench. The stick came down on his small woolly shoulder and struck something hard. It broke off, the end smacking beyond the bench and into the pavement.

  Yon picked it up. “It’s cut,” he said. “But I saw no knife.”

  “Their knives project only at the moment of need,” Elasa said. “As when a wolf bites down. You don’t necessarily see it happen, but it is effective.”

  “Why didn’t he just step out of the way?” Adela asked.

  “Because it was necessary to make the demonstration,” Yon answered her. “He is like us. He knew.”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  Yon, Elasa, and Bunky looked at her.

  “Because the Lamb wasn’t shipped to Earth by spaceship,” Adela said. “He’s not old enough for that. His mind was exchanged with a local lamb. And the local lamb wouldn’t have a knife.”

  Elasa realized she was right. So what had happened? “Let me see that stick.”

  Yon gave her the two pieces. They were fairly cleanly separated, but now she saw that the break was at a knot. It looked like a cut, but wasn’t. And the bench had a hard metal rim lining its edge, to prevent wear. “I was mistaken,” Elasa said. “The bench severed the stick. He was standing right next to it.”

  “Where he has been standing all along,” Yon said. “Knowing this was coming.”

  “Just as we waited here, knowing Elasa was coming,” Adela said. “He did what it took to emulate the sheep of Planet Jones. You’re right: he is like us.”

  “Or similar,” Elasa said. “You do what you do because it feels right. Bunky can anticipate the future, and his telepathy assists.”

  “Telepathy,” Yon said. “Can he demonstrate that too?” Then he did a double-take. “He just spoke to me! I heard ‘yes’ in a bleat.”

  “So did I,” Adela said.

  “I did not,” Elasa said. “But I’m a machine. Only with the combined focus of the three animals can I catch even a hint of it. But the point is, you now understand that these creatures are special, and similar to you in key respects.”

  “We get it,” Yon agreed. “But we still don’t know why you need to be in touch with us.”

  “I am coming to that. There is a threat looming, not just to us, but to all Earth. Figuratively it is like a giant Venus Flytrap closing its digestive leaf-mouth on the planet. We are all doomed unless we can prevent it.”

  “How can we prevent it?” Adela asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Adela frowned. Yon laughed. “She just did it back to us!”

  Adela nodded, accepting it. “You know you need us, but not exactly how you need us.”

  “That’s it,” Elasa said. “Bunky and the sheep see it coming, but we have yet to discover exactly what it is or how to stop it. But we do know that the Awares must be a key part of our defense.”

  “I think I can see a way,” Yon said. “Say this threat to Earth is technological, the enemy may be able to read all our communications, and know all our secrets. So we can’t plan any effective defense. But we Awares aren’t connected. They can’t read our secrets. That could make the key difference.”

  “What we need is to read the alien menace more specifically,” Adela said. “So that we will know their secrets and can devise a way to balk them.”

  “That makes sense,” Yon said. “And if this is to be our only face-to-face meeting, we need to do it now, so we all know what we’re up against.”

  “There is one potential member of the team who is not here,” Elasa said. “On Jones I caught and tamed a vampire plant. I call her Venus. But she won’t arrive here for another five months.”

  “Venus Flytrap,” Yon agreed, smiling. “You figure that relates to the image?”

  “Yes. This plant has pheromones and projective telepathy. She can, for example, make a man see her as the most alluring woman, making him eager to have sex with her. But if he does, she will suck his blood from his penis.”

  “A plant?”

  “The projected illusion shows a luscious woman, but the only solid physical part is the flytrap sheath that takes in his member. Picture it as like an automatic milker milking a cow. The penis is the teat.”

  “Got it,” Yon said uncomfortably. “You figure the alien menace will look wonderful, fooling the marks, but treat Earth like a penis teat?”

  “Maybe,” Elasa said. “Maybe not. An analogy may bear little physical relationship to the reality it suggests. The sheep know about the vampire plants, so maybe used that image. But whatever the reality, it means doom for Earth. That’s the one sure thing.”

  “I think we need to get a better picture o
f that reality.”

  “The menace is coming closer, but so far it remains hopelessly vague,” Elasa said.

  “You said it takes all the Companions working together to reach your mind,” Adela said. “Because you’re a machine. Suppose they tried connecting with Aware minds?”

  “There should be more power there,” Elasa agreed.

  “Let’s try it,” Yon said.

  Bunky bleated. Vulture and Python came over from the car. Elasa introduced them to the two Awares. Then Adela huddled with Bunky, Vulture, and Python, putting her head close to theirs.

  “Focus on the menace,” Yon said. “Precog it. Merge your talents.”

  They focused. Elasa wished she could tune in on their minds. The precognition of the Lamb augmented by the Awareness of the woman. That combination had not been tried before. What would they discover?

  Then suddenly they fell apart. Adela looked sick. So, amazingly, did the three animals.

  “It didn’t work?” Elasa asked, disappointed.

  “It worked,” Yon said, “I caught just a whiff of it. Totally awful.”

  “I got it all. I will—will translate in a moment,” Adela said. “I just need—need time to recover.”

  So did the animals. Vulture and Python returned to the car. Bunky came to lay his head on Elasa’s lap. She stroked his wool, trying to comfort him. She had never before seen him so upset.

  In due course Adela recovered enough of her composure to describe what she had seen. “It’s not a giant carnivorous plant,” she said. “It’s worse. Much worse.”

  They waited silently.

  She took a few breaths, then resumed. “A better analogy would be a dead rat being consumed by maggots. Earth is the rat.”

  Another silence.

  Adela spoke again. “The aliens are the maggots. Maybe some century they will metamorphose into halfway pretty flies, but right now they’re just ugly eating and pooping machines.” She glanced at Elasa. “No offense.”