Unicorn Point

This ruthless woman would do whatever she thought would be effective in bending his will to hers. Already she had let him know that he would do what she wished in a social sense, or see her ire taken out on little Nepe. His robot logic made it clear: it was better to do whatever Tania wanted. If she overstepped her bounds, Citizen Tan would call her up short.  But that could mean having an affair with her. As a man or robot in the frame of Proton, he had no technical reason not to; his marriage to Fleta had no bearing here. But emotionally the prospect appalled him. His body was the one Bane used, when they exchanged, and so Agape was concerned, while his mind was in love with Fleta, making Fleta concerned. Thus it was not a simple matter of catering to the demands of a demanding woman without any emotional involvement, as a normal robot could do. There were deep social conflicts. That seemed to be why Tania was doing it.  Was it merely her normal cruelty, or was there some more sinister reason? He was profoundly dismayed by this devel opment.

“I’ll be fine. Uncle, and so will you,” Nepe said, jumping off the desk to take Tsetse’s hand. “Thanks for the game and the demstration!”

“You are welcome, Nepe,” he said, wishing he had never brought her here. Obviously he had played into Tania’s hands.  Yet the child seemed quite satisfied, and she was evidently not entirely innocent of the games adults played. This could not be accounted for by the malice of either Citizen Tan or his sister.

Nepe and the receptionist departed. Mach braced himself for Tania’s dalliance, seeing no alternative.  But she surprised him. “I have no greater personal or social interest in you, Mach, than you have in me, “she said.  “Certainly I have no need to coerce you into anything. I can have any plaything I desire, with no difficulty. I do confess that a challenge is intriguing, and you are a challenge, but at this stage I want only to impress on you the current realities.”

“You have done so,” he said gruffly.

“With that understanding, we may proceed to the Oracle.” Mach nodded grimly. The worst of it was that her evident personal interest in him, for whatever cynical reason, evoked a complementary interest; he was now aware of the beauty and texture of her body. Even her mind intrigued him. Fleta was straightforward and honest and positive and nice, and he loved her; Tania was devious and dishonest and negative and cruel, and he knew little of this type, and found it uncannily fascinating. Fleta was completely open; he always knew where she stood and how she felt. Tania was the opposite, which gave her the quality of mystery—and that lured him in the manner of a candle with a moth. He was disgusted with him self, but the lure remained.

She nodded in return, her eyes narrowing appraisingly. She was experienced enough to know the type of appeal she had for men. “The time will come when I do not have to tell you to kiss me,” she said. “Like all males, you are fascinated by bad women.”

Mach did not answer, as there was no honest refutation he could make. He set up a circuit mask that would detune his awareness of her physical features and prevent him from reacting to them, but there was no simple way to do the same for his emotion. He had learned too much of the living response, these past five years, and hardly cared to diminish that lest it affect his relationship with Fleta.  “Oracle,” Tania said to the desk. It responded to her voice, and put through the call to the Oracle. This took a minute, as the Oracle was a highly restricted apparatus. It had resided for many generations in Phaze, until Stile had engineered its exchange with the Book of Magic, making both fully operative.

“Sit at the desk,” she directed him.

“There is no need,” he said. “I do not fatigue.”

“I see you are after all a slow learner. Sit.” Mach circled the desk and took the comfortable chair vacated by the receptionist.

Tania followed, and sat in his lap. He had to do an emergency short-out of his tactile receptors in that region to prevent a reaction as her firm naked buttocks made contact.  There was no subtlety whatsoever in her approach, but it remained effective. “Every time you balk, I will react unpredictably,” she said, reaching across him to touch a button in the chair.

Abruptly his receptors turned on again. “What?” he exclaimed, startled.

“I have nulled your shorting mechanism,” she said, tensing and relaxing a buttock. “Did you suppose I knew nothing of robotics? This office is appropriately equipped.” He should have known. His machine defenses were useless here. He was no Adept, in this frame, and that made him vulnerable. She could make him react when she chose to.

“Oracle.” It was the connection. With relief, Mach plunged into his recitation of formulae, tuning out his body’s awareness of hers.