Maverick

“This ship is a robot, fully subject to the Laws of Robotics. Even if we could come up with a weapon, the ship wouldn’t let us use it unless we could prove that there were no humans on board Aranimas’s ship.

“So what we have to do-” Derec and Avery were glaring at each other again, so she grabbed them both by the ears and steered them around until they were looking at the viewscreen. “-What we have to do is go down to the planet and develop our defense there. With all the resources of a Robot City at our disposal, I’m sure that we can find a way to protect ourselves from Aranimas. ”

Smiling sweetly, she looked first to Derec and then to Avery. “ Agreed?” They were a little slow on the uptake, so she dug her long red fingernails into their earlobes.

“Ow! Yes! We agree!”

“Good, I’m glad you decided to be reasonable about this. ” She released her grip. “Mandelbrot? Begin preparations to deorbit and land in Robot City. ”

“There will be a time delay of approximately six hours,” Mandelbrot answered. “Reconfiguring the ship for atmospheric entry will take two hours, and then-owing to the damage we suffered in the fight-I must insist on full visual inspection and structural testing before we attempt reentry. ”

“Okay. Get on with it. Is there anything that we can do to help you?”

“Yes. ” Mandelbrot turned to face Ariel, and his eyes dimmed momentarily as he worked his way through some kind of Robotic Law dilemma. “Mistress Ariel? I would appreciate it if you could locate Mistress Wolruf and… reasonwith her. ” His gaze dropped to focus on her fingernails.

“Don’t worry, Mandelbrot, Wolruf’s a smart girl. I’ll get her back on the bridge before reentry, and I won’t use anything sharper than words. ”

Chapter 19. Maverick

It was a good stretch; the kind that starts in the hips, snakes forward along the spine through the shoulders, and ends in an enormous yawn and fully spread toes on the forepaws. Maverick recovered from the yawn, shifted forward to stretch his back legs, and then indulged in a little shake.

WhiteTail just looked at him and growled softly.

“Oh, c’rnon, girl, let your ears down once in a while. ” With a little spring, he jumped up to stand with his hind feet on the pavement and his front feet up on the low, square railing that bordered the scenic overlook. Behind him, a quartet of younglings dashed by on the slidewalk, yipping happily.

“Y’know, WhiteTail, you could learn something from them. ” He looked over his shoulder and pointed his nose at the younglings as they leapt off the slidewalk and disappeared into a pocket park. “They don’t try to figure things out. They don’t question the wisdom of SilverSides. They simply trust and enjoy. ”

WhiteTail’s voice was low, barely above a growl. “I prefer to trust my own nose. And it tells me that there’s something really wrong here. ”

“Here?”Maverick laughed. “Face it, girl, you’ve been seeing sharpfangs in the shadows ever since we arrived. ”

She trotted over and jumped up to stand next to Maverick. “Mavvy, doesn’t it bother you that we’re the only living things in this city?” She pointed to the enormous silver-blue den across the way. “A cliff face like that should be home to a whole flock of cragnesters. But look at it: there’s not one white splat to be seen. ”

Maverick laughed again. “And you’re complaining?”

WhiteTail shot him a distempered look and then turned to look at the pocket park. “Have you taken a close look at those trees? No, of course not, you’re a male; the only time you notice trees is when you want to mark one.

“Yesterday I chewed some bark off a tree, and you know what I found? Blue grit, just the same as we found inside that WalkingStone’s chest. ”

“You’re kidding. ” Maverick squinted at the park just in time to see a youngling scare up a nuteater and chase it halfway up a tree. The other three younglings dashed over to join in, and the four of them danced around the tree, barking like happy fools and trying to get ru

“Fu

Maverick sputtered. “What a silly-I mean, do I look like someone who plays youngling games?” WhiteTail glared sharply at him; he coughed a bit and then swallowed his pride. “Okay, I have. But only once or twice. Just for fun. ”

“I saw a youngling catch a nuteater this morning,” WhiteTail a

“So you know what the youngling finally did? He got so fed up that he yelled, ‘Stop, nuteater!’ And just like that, the nuteater stopped. Froze in place, halfway up the tree. Stiff as if it’d been dead for a moondance.

“Well, the youngling was pretty pleased with himself. He jumped up, grabbed the nuteater, and started throwing it to the ground and pouncing on it. Took him no time at all to get bored with the game, and after he threw the dead nuteater aside, I decided to pick it up and skin it. Know what I found?”

“Let me guess. Blue grit. ”

“Yep. ”

Maverick turned away from her and looked out over the edge of the balcony, nodding profoundly. “Yes, that makes perfect sense. Stone nuteaters in stone trees, and all obedient to the will of the kin. Even the smallest WalkingStones serve SilverSides’s purpose. ”

“What?”WhiteTail’s ears sprang erect, and she pushed herself right in Maverick’s smugly smiling face. “Look here, Mister First Believer, I have to listen to this kind of spoor when it comes from my father, but I don’t have to put up with it from you. ”

“Oh, hard is the heart of the unbeliever,” Maverick said with a sigh.

“And don’t think for a minute that you’re fooling me with your pious lines. ”

“So young, so pretty, and yet so cynical,” Maverick lamented. “Is it really impossible for you to believe that it’s true?” He made a sweeping gesture with his head to take in the cityscape below them. “Even with SilverSides’s wondrous works all around you?”

WhiteTail’s ears flattened against the sides of her head, and her lips curled into the barest hint of a snarl. “Fu

“One need not see the sharpfang to recognize the signs of its passing. ”

WhiteTail let out a little sneeze of disgust. “Mavvy, you used to be a kin with some sense. What happened to you? Don’t answer, I know: You met the scouts from the GodBeings, pack and saw the lightning of their anger. But what really happened in that box canyon?”

Maverick shrugged. “That is what happened. I’m sorry if my poor tongue ca

“Did they actually say that they came from SilverSides? How can you be so sure that this is really the blessing of the OldMother and not a trick of the FirstBeast?”

He blinked at her as if the question were almost beyond comprehension. “WhiteTail, all you have to do is look. Clean, warm dens for everyone. Moving paths to carry you wherever you want to go. Unlimited food. How could life be better?”

WhiteTail sneezed again and then leaned out over the edge of the balcony and pointed her muzzle at a group of converts in the street below. The six of them lay in a semicircle, prostrate before an automat, barking in rhythm. The automat responded with a flash of light, a clap of thunder, and an enormous mound of cooked meat.