Alien Harvest by Robert Sheckley

Author:Robert Sheckley [Sheckley, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf
ISBN: 553564412
Publisher: Bantam Books, Incorporated
Published: 1995-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

32

Julie and Gill returned to the aftercabin. They were alone except for Norbert, who stood silently against the curving wall like a futuristic basilisk, with Mac the dog asleep in his arms.

“Well, Gill,” Julie said, “what do you think of all this?”

Gill looked up from his inspection of the armament they had brought. His expression was mild, quizzical. “To what, specifically, do you refer?”

“Stan and his mad trip for royal jelly. This planet. Me.”

Gill took his time before answering. “I do not ask myself that sort of question, Miss Lish. And if I did…”

“Yes?”

“If I did, my conclusions would have no value. I am not like you humans. I am a synthetic.”

“How do you differ from real people?”

Gill looked disturbed, but managed to smile. “No soul, for one thing. Or so they say.”

“And for another?”

“No feelings.”

“None at all, Gill? Yet you look like a man.”

“Appearances can be deceiving.”

“Don't you even find me attractive?” Julie asked.

Again there was a long pause. Then Gill said, “There is an old saying of your people. 'Let sleeping dogs lie.' I would advise that here.”

“Why is that?”

“Because synthetic people with feelings are something the human race wants no part of.”

“That must be some other race,” Julie said. “Maybe I'm not part of it. I wouldn't mind it at all if you had feelings. You could tell me about yours and I'd tell you about mine.”

“Our feelings would be nothing alike,” Gill said.

“Are you so sure?” Julie said. “Sometimes I've felt that I've been set up to follow some program written by someone else. 'The Beautiful Thief,' this one is called. I sometimes wish I could just rewrite my programming. Do you ever wish that?”

“Yes,” Gill said. “I know what you mean.” Then he shook his head irritably. “Excuse me, Miss Lish, but I must go finish checking out these weapons. Dr. Myakovsky is going to need us at any time.”

“Do what you have to do,” Julie said. She walked away, and Gill watched her go.

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