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After a moment she understood and nodded. "Yes," he said. "She tried it on one
of my assistants.
The next computer program he set up was Hell's own mess! He was punished, of
course, but after a few more similar examples, Lena got the point."
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"You program computers now?"
"I instruct, supervise, and make spot checks. Quite a change, isn't it, from
teaching sex and combat? But 1 looked ahead, saw i was in a young man's game
and needed a new sideline if I wanted to be valuable to the Establishment for
the long haul."
He smiled. "So even before Erika was killed-or we thought she was, and isn't
that a wonder for you?-about the time your brother began to make sense again,
in fact, I took
\r259
\rnew aptitude tests and came out with a ticket for computer work. And trained
in it, and gradually phased out of the physical side of my career. As a job,
that is." He laughed. "I still pursue it as a hobby, though not the combat
part. Creaking joints are all well and good, but brittle bones are another
matter."
She looked at him and could no longer regret his aging. "Cecily? Is she still-
"
"No." He shook his head. "She left the Establishment-how long ago?-say, five
years after you were here. Fell tail over turnip in love, took her accumulated
bonuses, and went civilian on us in
Buenos Aires. With a Tri-V actor. I have to admit she chose well, though I
didn't think so at the time-ah, well! To sum it up-the man did reach success,
and Cecily became a buxom mother and eventually an alarmingly plump
grandmother -and happy in her life. I talked with her only a few days before
she died."
"Oh? How-how long ago?"
"Ten years-twelve? At any rate-peacefully, in her sleep."
"Yes. That is one goal."
Now he looked at her. "You have a better one, do you?"
"Better? I do not know. But today I learned the manner of death of one woman,
and was reminded of another. Older than you, they were, by six and eight
years. One died trying to master an unruly horse-the other, in combat."
"Rissa-do you reproach me?"
"No!" The violence of her headshake made her hair fly. "I only try, Jorge, to
define my own feelings." She paused. "I have killed, and found that when I do
I must grieve for it. I-"
"You, too? It took me a long, hard time to learn that."
"But you did?" She clasped his hand. "What 1 mean, I think, is-I have faced
death and won.
Someday, as with all of us, I will face it and lose. But when that times
comes-Jorge, I think I
would rather die in daring than in dreaming."
She felt her mouth twist, then straighten again. "Perhaps, as I age, that
feeling will change.
Do you think it will?"
For a time, he said nothing. Then; "I don't know-I can't know. Some people
change, some don't.
For me-if that's what you're asking, and it's all right if you are-well, it
varies. Some mornings
I wake wishing I'd die'd in Lena's purge. Other
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days, my liver treating me more kindly, I wish myself another century of life
and a warm woman to share every year of it. Have I answered you, Rissa?"
She saw his smile and returned it. "I think so. None of us are the same at all
times, you are saying. So that must be true of me, also-I cannot judge my
future self by my present feelings."
"And don't be too harsh with your past self-if you grow and learn, and find
you've made some pretty bad mistakes. Because we all make them."
"I will remember." She glanced at her watch. "Oh-it is time to meet with Erika
and Liesel, and I
did not ever stay silent to hear your story. Later, perhaps?"
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"Whenever you're free. Anyone in the computer section can tell you where to
find me. And-it's been good, very good, to see you again."
"And you, Jorge. But now I must go."
SHE found the Hulzein sisters already at coffee; Erika had also a small glass
of amber liquid.
"Come on, Rissa-sit down. Have some brandy with me?"
Rissa declined and poured coffee for herself. Erika said, "I was about to tell
Liesel some things I learned after she left Earth. You might care to hear it,
too."
"Certainly. What sorts of things?"
"About the start of the Hulzein dynasty. I hadn't known before-if our mother
knew, she didn't tell us. But prowling the computer banks one time, looking
for something else entirely, by accident I ran onto-well, I guess you'd call
it our grandmother's personal journal. And the way it began, you see-"
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Fascinated, Rissa paid close attention. Heidele Hulzein had been highly
intelligent, close to genius, blessed with sound health and long-lived
heredity. She married young, had two children and was disappointed in them-for
each was given to illness and considerably less-intelligent than herself. The
fault did not seem to lie with the father-he was Heidele's equal, or nearly
so.
"But somehow their genes didn't match up right-a couple of poor recessives
that fit together, maybe. Heidele had a smattering of genetics; when she
formed her theory she went
261
to a real expert. And the story was-"
Heideie's unique attributes derived from the combinations of both halves of
her chromosome package; neither by itself could re-create them.
"So her friend the expert devised a way to fertilize one hap-loid ovum with
the nucleus of another. The odds were fifty-fifty."
Rissa said, "I do not understand."
"Out of a binful of identical pairs of shoes pick out two shoes, blindfolded.
Keep doing it. On average, a quarter of the time you'll get two left shoes,
same for two right ones. But half the tries, you'll get matched pairs. Well,
the mismates simply didn't fertilize-no problem there. She got Renalle on the
third try and decided she had a dynasty going that would last for all time."
"What happened to the other children?" said Liesel.
"She and her husband raised them and saw them begin their own adult lives.
Meanwhile Heidele put her considerable talents to building an empire-the
Establishment-for her dynasty to rule."
"And if it had not been for the copy-machine effect-" said Rissa.
"You know where she missed?" Liesel said. "Two generations seems to be as far
as it's really safe, but for those two it did work well. Right?"
Erika smiled. "I think so; I'm glad you agree. But what's your point?"
"That after two parthenogenetic, replicated stages the third should be by
normal reproduction.
If the woman's not satisfied with the first child, have the next by another [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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