Geri turned toward the massive, looming machine. “I’ve never been here before. It’s a little frightening.”
Hector put on a smile. “There’s nothing to be frightened about . . . that is, I mean, well, it’s only a machine. It can’t hurt you.”
“I know. It was Odal and Kanus’ hired monsters that killed father, not the machine itself.”
She walked along the long, curving, main control desk, looked over its banks of gauges and switches, ran a finger lightly across its plastisteel edge.
“Could you show me what it’s like?”
Hector blinked. “Huh?”
“In the dueling machine,” she said. “Can it be used for something else, other than duels? I’d like to see what it’s like to have your imagination made real.”
“Oh, but … well, you’re not … I mean, nobody’s supposed to run it without … that is….”
“You do know how to run the machine, don’t you?” She looked right up into his eyes.
With a gulp. Hector managed a weak, “Oh sure….”
‘Then can’t we use it together? Perhaps we can share a dream.”
Looking around, his hands suddenly clammy, Hector mumbled, “Well, uh, somebody’s supposed to be at the controls to, er, monitor the duel … I mean….”
“Just for a few little minutes?” Geri smiled her prettiest.
Hector melted. “Okay … I guess it’ll be all right. Just for a few minutes, that is.”
He walked with her to the farther booth and helped her put on the neurocontacts. Then he went back to the main desk and with shaky hands set the machine into action. He checked and double-checked all the controls, pushed the final switches, and dashed to the other booth, tripping as he entered it and banging noisily into the seat. He sat down, rumbled with the neurocontacts hastily, and then stared into the screen.