Norstrilia

When he offered her his arm, in the old-French ma

“I used to have four hundred years. I used to be slim and beautiful. I liked to make love and I didn’t think very much about things, because I wasn’t very bright. I had had a lot of husbands. Then this change came along, and I felt useless, and I decided to be what I felt like — fat, and sloppy, and middle-aged, and bored. And I have succeeded too much, just the way two of my husbands said. And that man from the stars, he has all power. He can change things.”

Paul did not answer her, except to nod sympathetically.

At the visiphone he stood until a robot appeared. “A subchief,” he said. “Any subchief.”

The image blurred and the face of a very young man appeared. He stared earnestly and intently while Paul recited his number, grade, neonational assignment, quarters number and business. He had to state the business twice, “Criminal public opinion.”

The subchief snapped, not unpleasantly, “Come on in, then, and we’ll fix you up.”

Paul was so a

“Vocalize, man and citizen! These machines don’t carry telepathy.”

When Paul got through explaining, the youngster in uniform looked at him critically but pleasantly, saying,

“Citizen, you’ve forgotten something yourself.” “Me?” gasped Paul. “I’ve done nothing. This woman just sat down beside me and—”

“Citizen,” said the subchief, “What is the last half of the Fifth Rule for All Men?”

Paul thought a moment and then answered, “The services of every person shall be available, without delay and without charge, to any other true human being who encounters danger or distress.” Then his own eyes widened and he said, “You want me to do this myself?”

“What do you think?” said the subchief.

“I can,” said Paul.

“Of course,” said the subchief. “You are normal. You remember the braingrips.”

Paul nodded.

The subchief waved at him and the image faded from the screen.

The woman had seen it all. She, too, was prepared. When Paul lifted his hands for the traditional hypnotic gestures, she locked her eyes upon his hands. She made the responses as they were needed. When he had brainscrubbed her right there in the open street, she shambled off down the walkway, not knowing why tears poured down her cheeks. She did not remember Paul at all.

For a moment of crazy whimsy, Paul thought of going across the city and having a look at the wonderful man from the stars. He stared around absently, thinking. His eye caught the high threat of Alpha Ralpha Boulevard, soaring unsupported across the heavens from faraway ground to the mid-height of Earthport: he remembered himself and his own personal troubles. He went back to his newspaper and a fresh cup of coffee, helping himself to money from the barrel, this time, before he entered the restaurant.

Ruth yawned as she sat up and looked at the ocean. She had done her best with the rich young man.

The false Rod McBan, actually a reconstructed Eleanor, said to her:

“This is right nice.”

Ruth smiled languidly and seductively. She did not know why Eleanor laughed out loud.

The Lord William Not-from-here came up from below the deck. He carried two silver mugs in his hands. They were frosted.

“I am glad,” said he unctuously, “that you young people are happy. These are mint juleps, a very ancient drink indeed.”

He watched as Eleanor sipped hers and then smiled.

He smiled too: “You like it?”

Eleanor smiled right back at him, “Beats washing dishes, it does!” said “Rod McBan” enigmatically.

The Lord William began to think that the rich young man was odd indeed.

The Lord Crudelta commanded, “Send Jestocost here!”

The Lord Jestocost was already entering the room.

“What’s happened on that case of the young man?”

“Nothing, Sir and Senior.”

“Tush. Bosh. Nonsense. Rot.” The old man snorted. “Nothing is something that doesn’t happen at all. He has to be somewhere.”

“The original is with the Catmaster, at the Department Store.”

“Is that safe?” said the Lord Crudelta. “He might get to be too smart for us to manage. You’re working some scheme again, Jestocost”

“Nothing but what I told you, Sir and Senior.”

The old man frowned. “That’s right. You did tell me. Proceed. But the others?”

“Who?”

“The decoys?”

The Lord Jestocost laughed aloud. “Our colleague, and Lord William, has almost betrothed his daughter to Mister McBan’s workwoman, who is temporarily a ‘Rod McBan’ herself. All parties are having fun with no harm done. The robots, the eight survivors, are going around Earthport city. They are enjoying themselves as much as robots ever do. Crowds are gathering and asking for miracles. Pretty harmless.”

“And the Earth economy? Is it getting out of balance?”

“I’ve set the computers to work,” said the Lord Jestocost, “finding every tax penalty that we ever imposed on anybody. We’re several megacredits ahead.”

“FOE money.”

“FOE money, Sir.”

“You’re not going to ruin him?” said Crudelta.

“Not at all, Sir and Senior,” cried the Lord Jestocost. “I am a kind man.”

The old man gave him a low duty smile. “I’ve seen your kindness before, Jestocost, and I would rather have a thousand worlds for an enemy than have you be my friend! You’re devious, you’re dangerous, and you are tricky.”

Jestocost, much flattered by this comment, said formally, “You do an honest official a great injustice, Sir and Senior.”

The two men just smiled at each other: they knew each other well.

The E’telekeli stood from the lectern at which he had been praying.

His daughter was watching him immovably from the doorway.

He spieked to her, “What’s wrong, my girl?”

“I saw his mind, father, I saw it for just a moment as he left the Catmaster’s place. He’s a rich young man from the stars, he’s a nice young man, he has bought Earth, but he is not the man of the Promise.”

“You expected too much, E’lamelanie,” spieked her father.

“I expected hope,” she spieked to him. “Is hope a crime among us underpeople? What Joan foresaw, what the Copt promised — where are they, father? Shall we never see daylight or know freedom?”

“True men are not free either,” spieked the E’telekeli. “They too have grief, fear, birth, old age, love, death, suffering, and the tools of their own ruin. Freedom is not something which is going to be given us by a wonderful man beyond the stars. Freedom is what you do, my dear, and what I do. Death is a very private affair, my daughter, and life — when you get to it — is almost as private.”

“I know, father,” she spieked. “I know. I know. I know.” (But she didn’t)

“You may not know it, my darling,” spieked the great bird-man, “but long before these people build cities, there were others in the Earth — the ones who came after the Ancient World fell. They went far beyond the limitations of the human form. They conquered death. They did not have sickness. They did not need love. They sought to be abstractions lying outside of time. And they died, E’lamelanie — they died terribly. Some became monsters, preying on the remnants of true men for reasons which ordinary men could not even begin to understand. Others were like oysters, wrapped up in their own sainthood. They had all forgotten that huma