Address: Centauri by F. L. Wallace (best books to read txt) 📕

she isn't Nona when they can't get her to stop the drive. Fingerprints or x-rays would reveal it at once but they'll be so sure they have her that it won't occur to them. Nona is impossible to question as you know and Jeriann will give as good an imitation as she can.

"As soon as they discover that the girl they have is Jeriann they won't bother to be polite. Guards will like the idea of finding attractive girls they can manhandle in the line of duty especially if they think it will help them find Nona. It won't, but I think they'll get too enthusiastic and that in itself will hold up the search."

No one moved. The women in the crowd were still, looking at each other in silent apprehension. Jordan started them. He twisted his head, grimacing. "Let's get busy," he said somberly.

"Wait," said Docchi. "I have one Nona. I need more volunteers, at least fifty. It doesn't matter whether the person is physically sound or not, we'll raid the lab for plastic tissue. If you're about her size and can walk and have at least one arm come forward."

And slowly, singly and by twos and threes, they came to the platform. There were few indeed who wouldn't require liberal use of camouflage. It was primarily on these women their hopes rested.

The other group followed Jordan out, looking at Docchi for some sign. When he gave them none they hurried on determinedly. He could depend on them. The sum total of their ingenuity would produce some results.

Mass production of an individual. Not perfect in every instance—good enough to pass in most. Docchi watched critically, suggesting occasional touches that improved the resemblance. "She can't speak or hear," he reminded the volunteers. "Remember it at all times no matter what they do. Don't scream for help, we won't be able to. Hide in difficult places. After Jeriann is taken and the search called off and then resumed, let yourselves be found, one at a time. We can't communicate with you and so you'll just have to guess when it's your turn. You should be able to tell by the flurry of activity. That will mean they've discovered the last person they captured wasn't Nona. Every guard that has to take you in for examination is one less to search for the girl they really want. They'll have to find Nona soon or get off the asteroid."

The cosmetechnicians were busy and they couldn't stop. But there was one who looked up. "Get off?" she asked. "Why?"

He thought he'd told everyone. She must have arrived late. It was satisfying to repeat it. "Handicap Haven is leaving the solar system," he said.

Her fingers flew, molding the beautiful curve of a jaw where there had been none. Next, plastic lips were applied that were more lifelike than any this woman had ever created.

Soon Nona was hiding in half a hundred places.

And one more.

The orbit of Neptune was behind them, far behind, and still the asteroid accelerated. Two giant gravity generators strained at the crust and core of the asteroid. The third clamped an abnormally heavy gravity field around the fragment of an isolated world. Prolonged physical exertion was awkward and doubly exhausting. It tied right in; the guards were not and couldn't be very active. Hours turned into a day and the day passed too—and the generators never faltered. It seemed they never would.

"Have you figured it out precisely? It's your responsibility, you know," said Docchi ironically. "You share our velocity away from the sun. You'll have to overcome it before you start going back. If you wait too long you might not be able to reach Earth."

Superficially the general seemed to ignore him but the muscles in his jaw twitched. "If we could only turn off that damned drive."

"That's what we're trying to do," said Vogel placatingly.

"I know. But if we could do it without finding her."

The resident engineer shrugged sickly. "Go ahead. Try it. I don't want to be around when you do. I know, it sounds easy, just a couple of gravity generators. But remember there's also a good sized nuclear pile involved."

"I know, I know," muttered the general morosely. "Damned atomics not worth inventing. Nothing you can do with them, always too touchy." He glowered at the darkness overhead. "On the other hand we can take off and blow this rock apart from a safe distance."

"And lose all hope of finding her?" taunted Docchi.

"We're losing her anyway," commented Vogel sourly.

"You're getting way from the perspective. It's not as bad as that," counselled Docchi. "Now that you know where the difficulty is you can always build other computers and this time furnish them with auxiliary senses. Or maybe give them the facts of elementary astronomy."

"Now why didn't I think of that?" said Vogel disgustedly. "You don't need me here, do you, General? If not I'd like to go back to my ship." The general grunted consent and the engineer left, lurching under the massive gravity.

"There's even another solution though it may not appeal to you," said Docchi cautiously. "I can't believe Nona is altogether unique. There must be others like her, so-called 'born mechanics' whose understanding of machinery is a form of intelligence we haven't suspected. Look hard and you may find them, perhaps in the most unlikely or unlovely bodies." It didn't show but inwardly he was smiling. He was harassing them effectively from this end. Hope was sometimes the most demoralizing agent.

General Judd growled wearily. "If I thought you knew where she is——"

Docchi stiffened, glowing involuntarily.

"Forget the dramatics, General," said Cameron with distaste. "Resistance we'd have had in any event. He's responsible merely for making it more effective."

He frowned heavily, continuing. "At the moment what he's trying to do is obvious. He needn't bother tearing down our morale though—it's already collapsed. I can't think of a thing we can do that will help us." He wished the medicouncilor had been able to land; he needed further instructions. His own role wasn't clear and he kept thinking, thinking.... He should stop thinking. Of course the ship that carried the medicouncilor couldn't actually touch on the asteroid—there were too many important people aboard and they couldn't risk being taken out of the system. Still, the medicouncilor might have spared a few minutes to discuss things with him. He knew what he ought to do.

The sun was high in the center of the dome. Sun? It was much more like a very bright star. It cast no shadows; it was the lights in the dome that did. They flickered and with monotonous regularity went out again. Each time the general swore constantly and emotionlessly until service was restored.

A guard approached, walking warily behind his captive. He saluted negligently. "I think I've found her, sir."

Cameron looked at the girl. "I don't think you have. And it seems to me you were unnecessarily rough."

The guard smirked with bland insolence. "Orders, sir."

"Whose orders?"

"Yours, sir. You said she couldn't talk or make any kind of a sound. It was the easiest way to make sure. She didn't say a thing."

Cameron turned to the general but saw he'd get no support there. Judd was scowling, completely indifferent to the guard's behavior.

The doctor snapped open the sharp scalpel and thrust it savagely deep in the girl's thigh. She looked at him with a tear-stained face but didn't complain or move a muscle.

"Plastic tissue as any fool can plainly see," said Cameron dourly. His rage was growing.

The guard stared, twisting his lips. "Let her go," snapped the doctor.

The girl darted away. The guard saluted stiffly and left, rubbing his hands against his uniform. He'll go and scrub his hands, because he touched her, Cameron thought wearily.

"I have a request to make," said Docchi.

"Sure, sure," said the general cholerically. "We're apt to give you what you want. If you don't see it, just ask. We'll send out and get it."

"You might at that." Docchi was smiling openly. "You're going to leave without Nona, and very soon. When you go, don't take all the ships. You won't need them but we will, when we get to another system."

The general started to reply but his anger was greater than his epithets. There was nothing left to use, and so he remained silent.

"Don't say anything you'll regret," cautioned Docchi. "When you get back, what will you report? Can you tell your superiors that you left in good order, while there was still time to continue the search? Or will they like it better if they know you stayed until the last minute—so late that you had to transfer your men and abandon some ships? Think it over. I have your interests at heart."

The general swallowed with difficulty, his face reddening at first and then becoming quite white. Wordlessly he stamped away. Cameron looked after the retreating officer and in a few minutes followed. But he walked slower and the distance between doctor and officer grew greater. Docchi was beginning to relax at the nearness of victory and didn't notice where either of them went.

The last rocket disappeared, leaving a trail behind that overwhelming darkness soon extinguished. The sun was now one bright star among many, which one was sometimes difficult to say. And the asteroid itself seemed subtly to have been transformed, more spacious than it had been and not so dingy—and it was not hard to find a reason—it had become a miniature world, a tiny system complete in itself.

"I think we can survive," said Docchi. "We've got power and we can replenish the oxygen. We'll have to grow or synthesize our food but actually the place was set up originally to do just that. It will take work to make everything serviceable again—but we've always wanted something more than meaningless routine."

They were sitting beside the tank, which had been returned to the usual place. A tree rustled in the artificial breeze and the grass around them had been torn and trampled by the guards. It seemed more peaceful because of the violence which had lately swept over them. Now it had ebbed and it would never come back.

Jordan teetered beside the tree. "We'll find some way to get Anti out of the tank," he said. "When Nona comes back maybe we can rig up a null gravity place—something to make Anti more comfortable. And of course we've got to continue the cold treatment."

"I can wait," said Anti, "I've already waited a long time."

Docchi glanced around; his eyes were following his mind, which was wandering and searching.

"Now there's no need to worry," said Anti. "The guards were rough with some of the women but plastic tissue doesn't feel pain and so they escaped with fewer injuries than you'd believe. As for Nona, well, she can look out not only for herself but the rest of us as well."

It was almost true; she seemed fragile, ethereal even, but she wasn't. And her awareness began where that of normal humans left off. And where her perceptions ended no one knew, least of all herself. Right there was a source of trouble. "I think we should start looking," said Docchi. "At the last moment, upset at leaving and not knowing or caring who she was, one of the guards might have——" The enormity of the thought was too great to complete.

"Listen," said Anti. The ground vibrated, felt rather than heard. "As long as the gravity is functioning can there be any doubt?"

In his mind there could be. Nona had started it but once the gravity computer was informed of the nature of the universe there was no reason to suppose that it wouldn't keep running indefinitely. It existed to perform such tasks. It didn't actually have volition—but that applied to stopping as well.

"I think I can convince you," said Jordan. "First you'll have to turn around."

Docchi scrambled to his feet and there she was coming toward them, fresh and rested. There was a smudge on her cheek but she might have got that from some machine she'd stopped to investigate on the way here. Her curiosity was not limited and there was nothing mechanically so insignificant that it escaped her attention.

"Where were you?" asked Docchi, expecting no reply. She smiled and for a moment he thought she knew what he asked. He was relieved that she was safe—and that was all. Something was missing in the reactions he expected from himself but he couldn't say where. At one time he had thought—and now he no longer did. Perhaps it was an expression of the new freedom they had all achieved.

Jordan looked at him quizzically, half penetrating the screen he'd thrown over his lack of emotions. "It's not as bad as you think. She understands some things. Machines."

And a machine he was not. He wasn't even a complete human. Perhaps that was where the difference was.

"She's a born mechanic,