Frederik Pohl The Boy Who Would Live Forever

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

talked about getting machine-stored, only he thinks she doesn't think of it as storage, she thinks of it as
death."
"Huh," said Stan; evidently life could have its miseries even when you had unlimited funds to draw on.
Then, observing that she was absently frowning, "Is something the matter?"
She shrugged, then said, "Oh, no, hon. Not at all. But did you ever hear of somebody named Wan?"
Stan thought for a minute before he decided. "I don't know. Maybe. Who is he?"
"Well, I don't know that," she admitted. "Only Klara and Dr. von Shrink were talking about him while
they were getting ready for the procedure. They didn't seem to like him much." Then she grinned and
changed the subject. "So did you want to hear about von Shrink's test?"
"I guess. What was it, peeing in a bottle?"
"Nothing like that." She pursed her lips. "It was a lot easier than that. Did you know that he's just a point,
Stan?"
"Who, von Shrink? What do you mean he's just a point?"
"What I said. No dimension at all. After he asked me all his questions, what he did was just sort of focus
himself inside me and look around. He saw the embryo, Stan. Our baby! Only of course it doesn't look
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
much like a baby yet."
She was going too fast for him. "Wait a minute. He wasinside you? How'd he do that?"
"He just did it, Stan." She yawned and changed the subject. "You know what? I wish I could've
borrowed that couch for a couple of hours."
"Yes," he said absently, "sure. Me too." He wasn't thinking about the couch, though, because he now
had other things to ruminate on, and he was ruminating so hard that, until Estrella nudged him, he didn't
notice that they had arrived at their own apartment.
They were trying to decide whether to call on Hypatia for a final meal when someone was at the door.
When Stan opened it he was surprised to see Hypatia standing there, with a couple Heechee guiding
motorized pallets behind her. "Dr. Moynlin's compliments," she said. "She just received some new
furnishings from Earth, and wonders if you can use these others."
And while Stan and Estrella watched the two Heechee rolled their goods into the apartment; and even
before they had everything set up, Stan and Estrella recognized that they were being given that same large
and obviously comfortable four-poster bed, with rose-colored sheets that seemed to be made of raw
silk. When the bed was installed and made neatly, hospital corners and all, Estrella firmly escorted them
to the apartment door. "Thank Klara very much for us," she told the shipmind, "but right now I want to
try this thing out."
They did try it out. It turned out to be satisfactory in all respects, and Stan was not a bit clumsy, in
neither Estrella's opinion nor his own. When at last they went to sleep, it was with Estrella in his arms,
and all was as right as could be with everything on the Forested Planet of Warm Old Star Twenty-Four.
13
Stovemind in the Core
I
After I left that other Marc Antony to do my work on the Wheel, I did go to the Core, where I busied
myself with my usual pursuits for a while. I did not hurry, but long before the first organic day had passed,
I had most of my duties well organized.
Let me make one thing clear. Although I use the word "duties" for lack of a better one, its implication is
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
quite wrong. Everything I did was entirely voluntary. I had left the Wheel of my own free will, being
surplus to requirement there, and I had had no "duties" assigned to me in the Core. How could I have?
Who in the Core (or anywhere else for that matter) had the authority to assign work for me?
No, there was only one reason for all my activities. It is simply not my nature to be idle.
Since my primary function is as master chef, I began a study of my prospective clientele. That was easy
enough. All I had to do was to census all the humans in the Core and to ask or deduce their menu
preferences. There weren't that many humans present no more than fifteen hundred or so when I
arrived, fewer than ten thousand even after those first days. Some of the immigrants were, by organic
standards, somewhat famous two former vice presidents of the United States, some entertainment
stars, even Gelle-Klara Moynlin, who had once been the richest woman in the galaxy. (Still was, although
she had given much ofher wealthaway when she came to the Core.) However, the famous didn't receive
any better treatment from me than the least of the unknowns. I gave them all of my best.
My best, for each, rested on what I thought they would prefer. For a start, it was quite easy to match
meals to ethnicities toad in the hole and Stilton cheese for the Brits, assorted curries and several kinds
of dumplings in cream or sugar syrup for those from the Indian subcontinent, dim sum and a variety of
main-course entrees for the Chinese stuffed crab claws, Peking duck, jellyfish, barbecued beef, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Linki