"I know we can"t," admitted the general, morosely looking 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," Cameron commented sourly.
"It"s not as bad as all that," consoled Docchi. "Now that you know where the difficulty is, you can always build another computer and furnish it with auxiliary senses. Or maybe build into it the facts of elementary astronomy."
Cautiously, he shifted his frail body under the heavy gravity.
"There"s another solution, though it may not appeal to you. I can"t believe Nona is altogether unique. There must be others like her.
So-called "born" mechanics, maybe, whose understanding of machinery is a form of empathy we"ve never suspected. Look hard enough and you may find them, perhaps in the most unlikely or unlovely body."
General Judd grunted wearily, "If I thought you knew where she is--"
"You can try to find out," Docchi invited, glowing involuntarily.
"Forget about the dramatics, General," said Cameron in disgust. "We"ve questioned him thoroughly. Resistance we would have had in any event.
He"s responsible merely for making it more effective than we thought possible."
He added slowly: "At the moment, obviously, he"s trying to tear down our morale. He doesn"t have to bother. The situation is so bad that it looks hopeless. I can"t think of a thing we can do that would help us."
The Sun was high in the center of the dome. Sun? More like a very bright star. It cast no shadows; the lights in the dome did. They flickered and with monotonous regularity went out again. The general swore constantly and emotionlessly until service was restored.
A guard approached with his captive. "I think I"ve found her, sir."
Cameron looked at the girl in dismay. "Guard, where"s your decency?"
"Orders, sir," the man said.
"Whose orders?"
"Yours, sir. You said she was sound of body. How else could I find out?"
Cameron scowled and thrust a scalpel deep into the girl"s thigh. She looked at him with a tear-stained face, but didn"t move a muscle.
"Plastissue, as any fool can see," he commented dourly.
The guard looked revolted and started to lead her out.
"Let her go," snapped the doctor. "Both of you will be safer, I think."
The girl darted away. The guard followed her, shuddering, his eyes filled with a self-loathing that Cameron realized would require hours of psychiatric work to remove.
Docchi smiled. "I have a request to make."
"Go ahead and make it," snorted the general. "We"re likely to give you anything you want."
"You probably will. You"re going to leave without her. Very soon. When you do go, don"t take all your ships. We"ll need about three when we come to another solar system."
General Judd opened his mouth in rage.
"Don"t you say anything you"ll regret," cautioned Docchi. "When you get back, what will you report to your superiors? Can you tell them 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 moment? So late that you had to abandon some of your ships?"
The general closed his mouth and stamped away. Wordlessly, Cameron dragged after him.
The last ship had blasted off and the rocket trails had faded into overwhelming darkness. The Sun, which had been trying to lose itself among the other stars, finally succeeded. The asteroid was no longer the junkpile. It was a small world that had become a swift ship.
"We can survive," said Docchi. "Power and oxygen, we have, and we can grow or synthesize our food."
He sat beside Anti"s tank, which had been returned to the usual place.
A small tree nodded overhead in the artificial breeze. It was peaceful enough. But Nona wasn"t there.
"We"ll get you out of the tank," promised Jordan. "When she comes back, we"ll rig up a place where there"s no gravity. And we"ll continue cold treatment."
"I can wait," said Anti. "On this world I"m normal."
Docchi stared forlornly about. The one thing he wanted to see wasn"t there.
"If you"re worrying about Nona," advised Anti, "don"t. The guards were pretty rough with the women, but plastissue doesn"t feel pain. They didn"t find her."
"How do you know?"
"Listen," said Anti. The ground shivered with the power of the gravital units. "As long as they"re running, how can you doubt?"
"If I could be sure--"
"You can start now," Jordan said. "First, though, you"d better get up and turn around."
Docchi scrambled to his feet. She was coming toward him.
She showed no sign of strain. Except for a slight smudge on her wonderfully smooth and scar-less cheek, she might just have stepped out of a beauty cubicle. Without question, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. This world, of course, though she could have done well on any world--if she could have communicated with people as well as with machines.
"Where were you hiding?" Docchi asked, expecting no answer.
She smiled. He wondered, with a feeling of helplessness, if machines could sense and appreciate her lovely smile, or whether they could somehow smile themselves.
"I wish I could take you in my arms," he said bitterly.
"It"s not as silly as you think," said Anti, watching from the surface of the tank. "You don"t have any arms, but she has two. You can talk and hear, but she can"t. Between you, you"re a complete couple."
"Except that she would never get the idea," he answered unhappily.
Jordan, rocking on his hands, looked up quizzically. "I must be something like her. They used to call me a born mechanic; just put a wrench in my hand and I can do anything with a piece of machinery.
It"s as if I sense what the machine wants done to it. Not to the extent that Nona can understand, naturally. You might say it"s reversed, that she"s the one who can hear while I have to lip-read."
"You never just gabble," Docchi prompted. "You have something in mind."
Jordan hesitated. "I don"t know if it"s stupid or what. I was thinking of a kind of sign language with machines. You know, start with the simple ones, like clocks and such, and see what they mean to her.