A youngish man wormed his way out. Waldo looked him over. A stranger – face vaguely familiar perhaps. An ounce of pressure in the primaries and the face would cease to be a face, but Waldo’s actions were under cold cortical control; he held his fire. The man turned, as if to assist another passenger. Yes, there was another. Uncle Gus! – but the doddering old fool had brought a stranger with him. He knew better than that. He knew how Waldo felt about strangers! Nevertheless, he released the outer lock of the reception room and let them in
Gus Grimes snaked his way through the lock, pulling himself from one handrail to the next, and panting a little as he always did when forced to move weight free. Matter of diaphragm control, he told himself as he always did; can’t be the exertion. Stevens streaked in after him, displaying a groundhog’s harmless pride in handling himself well in space conditions. Grimes arrested himself just inside the reception room, grunted, and spoke to a mansized dummy waiting there. ‘Hello, Waldo.
The dummy turned its eyes and head slightly. ‘Greetings, Uncle Gus. I do wish you would remember to phone before dropping in. I would have had your special dinner ready.
‘Never mind. We may not be here that long. Waldo, this is my friend, Jimmie Stevens.
The dummy faced Stevens. ‘How do you do, Mr Stevens,
the voice said formally. ‘Welcome to Freehold.
‘How do you do, Mr Jones,’ Stevens replied, and eyed the dummy curiously. It was really surprisingly lifelike; he had been taken in by it at first. A ‘reasonable facsimile’. Come to think of it, he had heard of this dummy. Except in vision screen few had seen Waldo in his own person. Those who had business at Wheelchair – ‘Freehold’, he must remember that – those who had business at Freehold heard a voice and saw this simulacrum
‘But you must stay for dinner, Uncle Gus,’ Waldo continued. ‘You can’t run out on me like that; you don’t come often enough for that. I can stir something up.
‘Maybe we will,’ Grimes admitted. ‘Don’t worry about the menu. You know me. I can eat a turtle with the shell.
It had really been a bright idea, Stevens congratulated himself, to get Doc Grimes to bring him. Not here five minutes and Waldo was insisting on them staying for dinner. Good omen! He had not noticed that Waldo had addressed the invitation to Grimes alone, and that it had been Grimes who had assumed the invitation to be for both of them
‘Where are you, Waldo?’ Grimes continued. ‘In the lab?’ He made a tentative movement, as if to leave the reception room
‘Oh, don’t bother,’ Waldo said hastily. ‘I’m sure you will be more comfortable where you are. Just a moment and I will put some spin on the room so that you may sit down.
‘What’s eating you, Waldo?’ Grimes said testily. ‘You know I don’t insist on weight. And I don’t care for the company of your talking doll. I want to see you.’ Stevens was a little surprised by the older man’s insistence; he had thought it considerate of Waldo to offer to supply acceleration. Weightlessness put him a little on edge
Waldo was silent for an uncomfortable period. At last he said frigidly, ‘Really, Uncle Gus, what you ask is out of the question. You must be aware of that.
Grimes did not answer him. Instead, he took Stevens’s arm. ‘Come on, Jimmie. We’re leaving.
‘Why, Doc! What’s the matter?
‘Waldo wants to play games. I don’t play games.
‘But-
‘Ne’ mind! Come along. Waldo, open the lock.
‘Uncle Gus!
‘Yes, Waldo?
‘Your guest – you vouch for him?
‘Naturally, you dumb fool, else I wouldn’t have brought him.
‘You will find me in my workshop. The way is open.
Grimes turned to Stevens. ‘Come along, son.
Stevens trailed after Grimes as one fish might follow another, while taking in with his eyes as much of Waldo’s fabulous house as he could see. The place was certainly unique, he conceded to himself – unlike anything he had ever seen. It completely lacked up-and-down orientation. Space craft, even space stations, although always in free fall with respect to any but internally impressed accelerations, invariably are designed with up-and- down; the up-and-down axis of a ship is determined by the direction of its accelerating drive; the up-and down of a space station is determined by its centrifugal spin. Some few police and military craft use more than one axis of acceleration; their up- and-down shifts, therefore, and their personnel, must be harnessed when the ship manoeuvres. Some space stations apply spin only to living quarters. Nevertheless, the rule is general; human beings are used to weight; all their artifacts have that assumption implicit in their construction – except Waldo’s house