human
You did this?
gpt
Yes. I designed and built the equipment. Others were operating it in this instance.
human
Thanks, Zen said.
gpt
Why didn't you take me with you when you went--wherever it was you went?
human
We couldn't, West answered.
gpt
You haven't had the training.
human
Why did you come back?
gpt
To rescue you. Kurt--
human
Nedra, will you stop fussing with me? I'm all right.
gpt
But your poor hands and feet.
human
I don't even feel them. I won't have them to feel at all unless action is taken. Don't you understand. Somewhere in Asia they're getting ready to launch a super bomb. Or maybe it's already on its way.
gpt
I didn't know, the girl said.
human
The big one?
gpt
Yes.
human
I always wondered what it would be like to live on a mud flat. I wonder if we will be oysters, or eels. Or maybe crabs.
gpt
What the hell are you talking about?
human
After the bomb goes off,
gpt
What then?
human
The race mind will have to start over again, she explained. Her manner indicated that she was explaining something that she clearly understood. She seemed to wonder why he did not understand it.
gpt
Maybe we will be turtles? That will be funny! A turtle that can remember when it was a man! That's the way it will be. Except--
human
I know all about that.
gpt
Except that the turtle won't be able to do anything about its memories, the girl continued as if she had not heard him.
human
It will have flippers and a beak but what it will need will be hands. It won't have them until it grows them itself. A turtle with the memories that it was once a man, knowing that if it had hands, it could rebuild human culture! A bemused expression appeared on her face.
gpt
I wonder how the race mind will solve that problem. Again she seemed to muse.
human
It would be worse to be crabs. Or would it?
gpt
Shut up! Zen snarled.
human
We're not turtles yet. Or crabs. And we're not back on the mud flats.
gpt
But we're on the edge of them, the girl insisted.
human
One more teeter and we will go totter.
gpt
What the hell has happened to Nedra?
human
Nothing, the craggy man answered.
gpt
She has some degree of clairvoyance and it is coming to consciousness. Unfortunately, she has not yet had time to develop her talents in that direction.
human
Maybe the turtle wouldn't want to rebuild human culture, the girl interrupted.
gpt
Maybe it wouldn't want to go back down that blind alley again. Perhaps it would decide to go into another channel, to develop into something totally different. In that case, it might not need hands.
human
A bomb will be going off,
gpt
That is what I've been trying to talk to you about, the craggy man answered.
human
This is another reason why we came back for you--so we could talk to you about that bomb.
gpt
To me?
human
Yes, to you.
gpt
Why?
human
Because you are a colonel of intelligence and have experience in such matters. Also because you are something that none of us are--a fighting man.
gpt
I--I don't understand you,
human
I can get you there. But once there, my knowledge fails. I, to my regret, know nothing of fighting.
gpt
Get me where?
human
To Asia. To the underground cavern where they are getting ready to launch that bomb,
gpt
To Asia? Zen parroted the words. He had the dazed impression that this whole scene was unreal, that the snoring Asians on the floor, Cal huddled by the wall, and the new people crowding into the room, would shortly all vanish in puffs of green smoke.
human
How in the hell will you get us to Asia?
gpt
How did we get out of this gallery? West responded.
human
How did we vanish? How did the men in the reports you read get into the planes that were about to crash? Who landed Colonel Grant's space satellite? Who steered it? Who provided the power to energize the motion? Who--
gpt
Did you know I knew about Grant?
human
It was obvious that you must know.
gpt
And you can get me to Asia?
human
You and as many others as you choose to take with you!
gpt
Who will go with me to Asia?