Waldo had resented the nickname the public had fastened on them-.I It struck him as overly familiar, but he had coldly recognized the business advantage to himself in having the public identify him verbally with a gadget so useful and important
When the newscasters tagged his spacehouse ‘Wheelchair’, one might have expected him to regard it as more useful publicity. That he did not so regard it, that he resented it and tried to put a stop to it, arose from another and peculiarly Waldo-ish fact: Waldo did not think of himself as a cripple
He saw himself not as a crippled human being, but as something higher than human, the next step up, a being so superior as not to need the coarse, brutal strength of the smooth apes. Hairy apes, smooth apes, then Waldo – so the progression ran in his mind. A chimpanzee, with muscles that hardly bulge at all, can tug as high as fifteen hundred pounds with one hand. This Waldo had proved by obtaining one and patiently enraging it into full effort. A well- developed man can grip one hundred and fifty pounds with one hand. Waldo’s own grip, straining until the sweat sprang out, had never reached fifteen pounds
Whether the obvious inference were fallacious or true, Waldo believed in it, evaluated by it. Men were overmuscled canaille, smooth chimps. He felt himself at least ten times superior to them
He had much to go on
Though floating in air, he was busy, quite busy. Although be never went to the surface of the Earth his business was there. Aside from managing his many properties he was in regular practice as a consulting engineer, specializing in motion analysis. Hanging close to him in the room were the paraphernalia necessary to the practice of his profession. Facing him was a four-by-five colour-stereo television receptor. Two sets of coordinates, rectilinear and polar, crosshatched it. Another smaller receptor hung above it and to the right. Both receptors were fully recording, by means of parallel circuits conveniently out of the way in another compartment
The smaller receptor showed the faces of two men watching him. The larger showed a scene inside a large shop, hangar-like in its proportions. In the immediate foreground, almost full size, was a grinder in which was being machined a large casting of some sort. A workman stood beside it, a look of controlled exasperation on his face
‘He’s the best you’ve got,’ Waldo stated to the two men in the smaller screen. ‘To be sure, he is clumsy and does not have the touch for fine work, but he is superior to the other morons you call machinists.
The workman looked around, as if trying to locate the voice. It was evident that he could hear Waldo, but that no vision receptor had been provided for him. ‘Did you mean that crack for me?’ he said harshly
‘You misunderstand me, my good man,’ Waldo said sweetly. ‘I was complimenting you. I actually have hopes of being able to teach you the rudiments of precision work. Then we shall expect you to teach those butter-brained oafs around you. The gloves, please.
Near the man, mounted on the usual stand, were a pair of primary waldoes, elbow length and human digited. They were floating on the line, in parallel with a similar pair physically in front of Waldo. The secondary waldoes, whose actions could be controlled by Waldo himself by means of his primaries, were mounted in front of the power tool in the position of the operator
Waldo’s remark had referred to the primaries near the workman. The machinist glanced at them, but made no move to insert his arms in them. ‘I don’t take no orders from nobody I can’t see,’ he said flatly. He looked sideways out of the scene as he spoke
‘Now, Jenkins,’ commenced one of the two men in the smaller screen
Waldo sighed. ‘I really haven’t the time or the inclination to solve your problems of shop discipline. Gentlemen, please turn your pickup, so that our petulant friend may see me.
The change was accomplished; the workman’s face appeared in the background of the smaller of Waldo’s screens, as well as in the larger. ‘There – is that better?’ Waldo said gently. The workman grunted