Project Pope

Nine

The suite was large and well appointed. The living-area floor was covered by thick carpeting, the furniture stopped just this side of elegance; in a huge fireplace that took up half of one wall a fire burned. Off to one side was a dining area, doors opened into a kitchen and a bedroom; gilded mirrors and tasteful paintings hung upon the wall, intricate carvings of what appeared to be ivory were positioned on the mantel.

'Sit down and take it easy, Ecuyer said to Te

'Would you have some Scotch?

'You have good taste, said Ecuyer. 'How did you run into Scotch? It's virtually unknown. Only a few old human hands…

'The captain on the ship, said Te

'Yes, the captain. He keeps us well supplied. Several cases every trip. We have a standing order from a planet called Sundance — a human planet, as you might guess. It is the only place within a thousand light-years that stocks it. The cases always seem to be a little short. The captain pilfers them. We make no comment on it. It is, we figure, a legitimate kickback.

Ecuyer brought the drinks, handed one to Te

'Drink up, he said. 'I think we may have something to drink to.

'I hope so, said Te

'Tell me, Doctor, do you always show this much devotion to your patients? You stayed at Mary's bedside until she showed signs of possible improvement. You must be tired. I will not keep you long. You should get some rest.

'If you have a place for me.

'A place for you? Dr. Te

'My place? I thought that it was yours.

'Mine? Oh, no. I have a suite much like this. But this one is for guests. For the moment, it is yours. We understand you lost your luggage, and we've arranged to supply you with a wardrobe. It will be here in the morning. I hope you do not mind.

'It was u

'You persist in not understanding, said Ecuyer. 'There is nothing we can do that would properly repay you.

'You can't be sure of what I've done. Mary still may not make it, even with the protein.

'But there was improvement.

'Yes, the pulse is better. She seems a little stronger. The temperature dropped a bit, but not enough to be significant.

'I have faith in you, said Ecuyer. 'I think you'll pull her through.

'Look, said Te

'Yes, said Ecuyer smoothly. 'Yes, we know all that. But we were not about to confront you with it. We don't know what happened, and unless you want to tell us, we don't want to know. We have no need to know. I know you are a doctor. I wasn't even absolutely sure of that to start with, but now I know you are. With you there is a chance Mary will live; without you, what would have been her chance?

'Probably no chance at all, said Te

'She wouldn't have, said Ecuyer. 'She had no way to know. And she would not have dared.

'All right, then. Say I saved the patient. Hell, man, that's my business. That's what I'm trained to do. Save all I can; I ca

Ecuyer waved his hand. 'No need to worry on that score. If you say you are a doctor, then you are a doctor. If we let you practice here, then you have the right to practice.

'Yes, said Te

'On End of Nothing, if Vatican says so, then it is so. There is no one to dispute us. Were it not for us, there'd be no End of Nothing. We are End of Nothing.

'All right, said Te

'By now, Doctor, said Ecuyer, 'you should have grasped the situation. We have no doctor. We very badly need one. We want you to stay on as our resident physician.

'Just like that?

'Just like that, said Ecuyer. 'Can't you see? We're desperate. It would take us months to get another doctor. And then, what kind of doctor?

'You don't know what kind of doctor —

'I know you have devotion to your patients. And you are honest. You are honest about how you happen to be here, and when I asked about your treatment, you'd give no guarantees. I like that kind of honesty.

'Someone may come storming in here with a warrant for my arrest. I don't think it will happen, but…

'They'd play hell serving it, said Ecuyer. 'We protect our own. If you really are in trouble, Doctor, I can guarantee your safety here. Be you right or wrong, I can still guarantee it.

'All right, then. I don't think I'll need protection, but it's nice to know it would be there. But what about this setup? What would I be getting into? You call this place Vatican and I've heard stories about a Project Pope and all of it being headed by a band of robots. Can you tell me what's going on? This old lady, Mary, talked of angels. Is that just an old lady's dream, a somewhat premature death-bed vision?

'No, it's not, said Ecuyer. 'Mary has found Heaven.

'Now, said Te

'Of course I do, said Ecuyer. 'She really has found Heaven. All evidence points to her having found it. We need her further observations to try to pinpoint it. Of course, we have her clones — three of them, growing up. But we can't be certain that the clones-

'Evidence? Clones? What kind of evidence? If I remember rightly, Heaven is not a place. It's a condition. A state of mind, a faith…

'Doctor, listen. This will take some explanation.

'I would suspect it might.

'Let's first try to put the whole thing into perspective, said Ecuyer. 'Vatican-17, this Vatican, began almost a thousand years ago with a band of robots out of Earth. On Earth, the robots had not been members — had not been allowed to be members — of any faith. I think in some places it is different now. Robots can become communicants — not everywhere, but in certain areas, on certain planets. A thousand years ago this was not true; robots were considered beyond the pale of any religion. To be a member of any religious faith, to profess oneself to any faith, one must have a soul, or the equivalent of a soul. Robots had no souls, or were thought to have no souls, so they were barred from participating in any religious experience. How well are you acquainted with robots, Doctor?

'Really not at all, Mr. Ecuyer. In my lifetime I may have spoken to half a dozen of them, seen a few more than that. I did not come from robot country. There were a few in medical college, but humans and robots did not associate there. I've never really known one. I've never felt the urge-

'What you have just said is what ninety-nine out of every hundred humans would say. They're not involved with robots, not concerned with them. Probably they think of them as metal humans, as machines trying to ape humans. I can tell you they are a whole lot more than that. At one time they would not have been, but today, here on End of Nothing, they are more than that. In the last thousand years, the robots here have evolved; they have become creatures that stand apart from men. In the process of evolving, they have never forgotten, however, that they are the creations of men, and they do not resent, as you might think they would, that they are created beings. By and large, they still feel a close relationship to humans. I could talk all night telling you what I think the robots are, what these robots here are. They came here because they had been denied religious experience elsewhere, had been read out of that part of human life that had a strong appeal to them. You have to know a robot well to understand his instinctive drive toward religious experience. It may be no more than an overcompensation — a deep instinct to model himself as closely to the human race as possible. He is denied so many things that a human has; there are so many limitations placed upon him by his very nature. A robot ca