Voyage From Yesteryear

“And that would be enough to fix something?”

“Sure,” Chang said confidently. “I’ll give you a call when I’ve talked to Adam. He’s the friend. Would Jay like to go too.”?

Bernard hadn’t really thought of that. He saw Jay nodding vigorously, and tossed up his hands. “Why not? :If

you’re sure it’s okay, then thanks … thanks a lot.” “No problem,” Chang told him.

Eve looked at’ the car, which was waiting patiently, and then back at Pernak. “We’re through, really,’ she said. “Shall we carry on and see the town?”

“Let’s do that,” Pernak agreed. “I’ll take the things.” ‘They can go on the maglev on their own,” Murphy informed them. “The handler at the village terminal will route them through. You pick them up by the elevator in your basement. What’s your number there?”

“Ninety-seven,’ Pernak replied. He looked at Eve and shook his head.

“That’s all,” Murphy said, addressing the cart. “Ninety-seven, Cordova Village. On your way.”

“One second,” a voice said from behind them. They looked round to find a Chironian robot winking its lights at them. It was a short, rounded type, which made it loose tubby. “You haven’t taken any of our special-offer hand gardening tools. Do you want to grow fat and old before your time? Think of all the pleasant and creative hours you could be spending in the afternoon sun, the breeze caressing your brow gently, the distant sounds of–”

“Aw, cut it out, Hoover,” Rastus told the robot. “These people have only just arrived. They’ve got more than enough to do.” He looked at the Terrans. ‘This is Hoover. He runs the place. Don’t pay too much attention or you’ll end up buried in junk up to your eyes.”

“Junk?!” Hoover’s lights blazed crimson in unison. “What do you mean, funk? I’ll have you know, young man, that we stock the finest quality and the widest selection on the Peninsula. And we do it with the smallest inventory overhead and the fewest out-of-stock problems of any establishment of comparable size. Junk indeed! Have you troubled to inspect our–”

“Okay, okay, Hoover.” Rastus held up an apologetic hand. “You know I didn’t mean it. You do a great job here. And the displays today are very artistic.”

“Thank you, and my compliments to you, sir.” Hoover acknowledged in a suddenly more agreeable voice. “I hope you all enjoyed your visit and that we’ll see you here again soon.” The cart rolled away to deliver its load to the handling machine. Hoover escorted the group back to the entrance. “Now, next week we’re expecting a consignment of absolutely first-class–”

“Lay off, Hoover,” Chang said wearily. “We’ll check it out through the net. Okay, maybe we’ll see you next week.”

In the corridor, the quartet had shifted to Mozart. “Have the robots been kept on as a kind of tradition?” Bernard asked.

“The kids like having them around,” Sal confirmed. “And to be honest, I suppose we do too. We’ve all grown up with them.”

“I can remember the one that first taught me to talk,” Abdul said. “It’s still operating today, up there on the Kuan-yin. But the ones you see today have changed a lot.”

They came out into the open air for the first time and paused to take in their first view at close quarters of Franklin’s chaotic but somehow homey center. “And what about all this?” Eve asked. “Does it go back to the first days too?”

“Yes,” ‘Sal replied. “Forty years ago this was just a few domes and a shuttle port. The main base that you came in through was only built about ten years ago. Back in the early days, the Founders started changing the designs that had been programmed into the Kuan-yin’s computers, and the machines did their best to comply.” She sighed. “And this is what it ended up like. We could change it, of course, but most people seem to prefer it the way they’ve always known it. There ‘were some ghastly mistakes at times, but at least it taught us to think things through properly early on in ‘life. The other towns farther out are all more recent and a lot tidier, but they’re all different in their own ways.”

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