What constitutes a good ashtray when there is no gravity to hold the debris in place? Did Waldo smoke? Suppose he played solitaire; how did he handle the cards? Magnetized cards, perhaps, and a magnetized playing surface
‘In through here, Jim.’ Grimes steadied himself with one hand, gesturing with the other. Stevens slid through the manhole indicated. Before he had had time to look around he was startled by a menacing bass growl. He looked up; charging through the air straight at him was an enormous mastiff, lips drawn back, jaws slavering. Its front legs were spread out stiffly as if to balance in flight; its hind legs were drawn up under its lean belly. By voice and manner it announced clearly its intention of tearing the intruder into pieces, then swallowing the pieces
‘Baldur!’ A voice cut through the air from some point beyond. The dog’s ferocity wilted, but it could not check its lunge. A waldo snaked out a good thirty feet and grasped it by the collar. ‘I am sorry, sir,’ the voice added. ‘My friend was not expecting you.
Grimes said, ‘Howdy, Baldur. How’s your conduct?’ The dog looked at him, whined, and wagged his tail. Stevens looked for the source of the commanding voice, found it
The room was huge and spherical; floating in its centre was a fat man – Waldo
He was dressed conventionally enough in shorts and singlet, except that his feet were bare. His hands and forearms were covered by metallic gauntlets – primary waldoes. He was softly fat, with double chin, dimples, smooth skin; he looked like a great, pink cherub, floating attendance on a saint. But the eyes were not cherubic, and the forehead and skull were those of a man. He looked at Stevens. ‘Permit me to introduce you to my pet,’ he said in a high, tired voice. ‘Give the paw, Baldur.
The dog offered a foreleg, Stevens shook it gravely. ‘Let him smell you, please.
The dog did so, as the waldo at his collar permitted him to come closer. Satisfied, the animal bestowed a wet kiss on Stevens’s wrist. Stevens noted that the dog’s eyes were surrounded by large circular patches of brown in contrast to his prevailing white, and mentally tagged it the Dog with Eyes as Large as Saucers, thinking of the tale of the soldier and the flint box. He made noises to it of ‘Good boy!’ and ‘That’s a nice old fellow!’ while Waldo looked on with faint distaste
‘Heel, sir!’ Waldo commanded when the ceremony was complete. The dog turned in mid air, braced a foot against Stevens’s thigh, and shoved, projecting himself in the direction of his master. Stevens was forced to steady himself by clutching at a handgrip. Grimes shoved himself away from the manhole and arrested his flight on a stanchion near their host. Stevens followed him
Waldo looked him over slowly. His manner was not overtly rude, but was somehow, to Stevens, faintly annoying. He felt a slow flush spreading out from his neck; to inhibit it he gave his attention to the room around him. The space was commodious, yet gave the impression of being cluttered because of the assemblage of, well, junk which surrounded Waldo. There were half a dozen vision receptors of various sizes around him at different angles, all normal to his line of sight. Three of them had pickups to match. There were control panels of several sorts, some of which seemed obvious enough in their purpose – one for lighting, which was quite complicated, with little ruby tell-tales for each circuit, one which was the keyboard of a voder, a multiplex television control panel, a board which seemed to be power relays, although its design was unusual. But there were at least half a dozen which stumped Stevens completely
There were several pairs of waldoes growing out of a steel ring which surrounded the working space. Two pairs, mere monkey fists in size, were equipped with extensors. It had been one of these which had shot out to grab Baldur by his collar. There were waldoes rigged near the spherical wall, too, including one pair so huge that Stevens could not conceive of a use for it. Extended, each hand spread quite six feet from little finger tip to thumb tip