“What an interesting idea!” Richard said excitedly, standing up and beginning to pace. “So are you suggesting
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that even such things as a child’s unwillingness to share a toy, for example, might be linked in some way to our sexuality?”
“Perhaps,” Archie replied. “Maybe Galileo is practicing the possessiveness of his adult sexuality when he refuses to share one of his toys with Kepler. Certainly the human child’s devotion to the parent of the opposite sex is a precursor of adult attitudes.”
Archie stopped, for Richard had turned his back and had increased his pacing. “I’m sorry,” he said, returning a few moments later and again sitting on the floor beside the octospider. “Something occurred to me just now, something I thought about briefly earlier this morning when we were talking about controlling our emotions. Do you remember an earlier conversation in which you dismissed the concept of a personal God as an ‘evolutionary aberration’ necessary for all developing species as a temporary bridge during transition from the first awareness phase to the Information Era? Have the recent changes in you altered in any way your attitude about God?”
A broad burst of multicolored strips, which Richard recognized as laughter, spilled over most of the octospider’s upper body. “You humans,” Archie said, “are absolutely preoccupied with this notion of God. Even those like you, Richard, who profess not to believe, still spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about or discussing the subject. As I explained to you months ago, we octospiders value information foremost, as we were taught by the Precursors. There is no verifiable information available about any God, especially not one who is involved in any way with the daily affairs of the universe—”
“You didn’t exactly understand my question,” Richard interrupted, “or maybe I didn’t phrase it precisely enough. What I want to know is, in your new, more emotional state, can you understand why other intelligent beings might create a personal God as a device to give them comfort and also to explain all those things that they cannot comprehend?” *>
Archie laughed again with bursts of color. “You’re very
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clever, Richard,” the octospider said. “You want me to confirm what you think, namely that God also is an emotional concept, born out of a yearning not unlike sexual desire. Therefore God too is derived from sexual hormones. I cannot go that far. I do not have enough information. But I can say, based on the turmoil inside me these last few days, that I now understand this word ‘yearning’ which was meaningless to me before.”
Archie seemed like his old self this morning. Richard smiled. He was pleased. Their exchanges had been like this daily before Archie’s buffer had become empty of barrican. “It would be great, wouldn’t it,” Richard said suddenly, “if we could still talk with all our friends back in the Emerald City?”
Archie knew what Richard was suggesting. The two of them had been careful never to mention the quadroids or even to hint that the octospiders had an intelligence-gathering system. They did not want to alert Nakamura and their guards. Now, as Richard watched silently, bands of color streamed around Archie’s head. Although the octospider was no longer using the derivative language that had been developed for communication with the humans, Richard was able to understand the gist of the transmission.
After formally greeting the Chief Optimizer and apologizing for the lack of success of their mission, Archie sent two personal messages, a short one to Jamie and a longer one to Dr. Blue. During the transmission to his life partner Dr. Blue, variegated bursts of color broke out of the measured pattern of Archie’s message. Richard, who had grown to know his basement companion well in their two months together, was both fascinated and touched by this beautiful display of uninhibited emotion.
When Archie was finished, Richard came over and put a hand on the octospider’s back. “Do you feel better now?” he asked.
“In some ways,” Archie replied. “But I also feel worse at the same time. I am more aware now than I was before that I may never see Dr. Blue or Jamie again.”
“Sometimes I imagine what I would say to Nicole,”
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Richard interrupted, “if I could talk to her on the telephone.” He spoke his words very correctly, exaggerating the movements of his mouth. “I miss you very much, Nicole,” he said, “and I love you with all my heart.”
Richard did not have very vivid dreams. Therefore, external sounds were not likely to be incorporated into an ongoing dream. When he heard what he thought was a shuffling of feet above him in the middle of the night, he awakened quickly.
Archie was sleeping. Richard looked around and realized that the night light in the toilet area was extinguished. Alarmed, he awakened his octospider companion.
“What is it?” Archie asked in color.
“I heard something unusual upstairs,” Richard whispered.
There was a sound of the door to the basement stairs opening slowly. Richard heard a soft footstep, then another, on the top of the stairs. He strained his eyes, but Richard could see nothing in the near darkness.
“It’s a woman and a policeman,” Archie said, his lens picking up the infrared heat of the intruders. “They have stopped for the moment on the third step.”
We ‘re going to be killed, Richard thought. A powerful fear swept through him and he drew closer to Archie. He heard the slow closing of the basement door and then the footsteps descending the stairs.
“Where are they now?” he whispered.
“At the bottom,” Archie said. “They are coming. I think the woman is—”
“Dad.” Richard heard a voice from his past. “Where are you, Dad?”
“Holy shit! It’s Katie,” Richard said. “Over here,” he added, too loud, trying to contain his excitement.
A very small flashlight beam wandered around the wall behind his mattress and eventually landed on his bearded face. A few seconds later Katie tripped over Archie and literally fell into her father’s arms. fc
She kissed and hugged him, tears running down her
cheeks. Richard was so startled by the entire event that he was at first unable to respond to any of Katie’s questions. “Yes . . . yes, I’m fine,” he said eventually. “I can’t believe it’s you. . . . Katie, oh, Katie. . . . Oh, yes, that gray mass over there, the one you kicked a moment ago, is my friend and fellow prisoner, Archie the octospider.”
Several seconds later Richard exchanged a firm handshake in the dark with a man Katie introduced only as her “friend.” “We don’t have much time,” Katie said hurriedly after several minutes of conversation about the family. “We’ve short-circuited the power systems in this entire residential area, and they should be repaired before too much longer.”
“Are we going to escape, then?” Richard asked.
“No,” Katie said. “They would certainly catch and kill you. . . . I just wanted to see you. When I heard the rumor that you were being held somewhere in New Eden . . . Oh, Daddy, how I have missed you! I love you so very much.”
Richard put his arms around his daughter and held her as she cried. She felt so thin and fragile in his arms. “I love you too, Katie,” Richard said. “Here,” he added, pulling away slightly, “shine the light on your face. . . . Let me see your beautiful eyes.”
“No, Daddy,” Katie said, burying herself again in his embrace. “I look old and used. … I want you to remember me as I was. I have lived a hard—”
“It’s unlikely that they will be keeping you here much longer, Mr. Wakefield,” the male voice in the dark interrupted. “Almost everyone in the colony has heard the story of your appearance at the soldiers’ camp.”
“Are you all right, Daddy?” Katie said after a short silence. “Are they feeding you properly?”
“I’m fine, Katie … but what have you been doing? Are you happy?”
“I’ve had another promotion,” she said rapidly. “And ‘ .my new apartment is beautiful. You should see it. . . . And ; I have a friend who cares about me.” .%• “I’m so glad,” Richard said as Franz reminded Katie that
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they needed to be going. “You were always the smartest of the children. . . . You deserve some happiness.’v
Katie suddenly began sobbing and lowered her head against her father’s chest. “Daddy, oh, Daddy,” she said through her tears, “please hold me.”
Richard put his arms around his daughter. “What is it, Katie?” he said softly.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” Katie said. “I work for Nakamura, managing prostitutes. And I’m a drug addict . . . a complete and total drug addict.”