The words were strung together without any pattern to their inflection. 'Are you the computer?' Laura asked. 'I mean, the one I've been talking to?'
'Yes. Good morning, Dr. Aldridge.' Laura winced on hearing again the croaking sound. The words leading up to 'Laura' and 'Dr. Aldridge' had all been enunciated in a wooden but articulate manner. On speaking her name, however, it had sounded like an artificial voice box implanted in the chest of someone whose larynx had been lost.
'So you can talk in here, too?' Laura said. 'In… in Mr. Gray's exercise room?'
'I can't really talk. The treadmill has a vocabulary of several thousand prerecorded words from which I can choose. If I have to form a new word, I must try to synthesize it from its sounds, like Laura Aldridge.'
She couldn't help but wince again. 'So how do you know what I'm saying?' Laura asked. 'I thought you had trouble understanding speech.'
'It depends on the quality of the microphone. This room's sound system has karaoke capabilities, which Mr. Gray never uses, of course. But if I can get clean audio wave forms, I can parse them out with my voice-recognition programs and voila!'
'Neat trick,' Laura said, still staring into the goggles' darkened screens. She took a calming breath and said, 'Okay. How about my run?'
'What would you prefer? Mr. Gray likes professional football.'
'How about just a jog? Is there an option for that?'
'Certainly.'
In a flash there appeared a stunning, picture-perfect image of a country road. Laura staggered and groped blindly for the railing.
She was surrounded by wooded hills, and the trees were resplendent with color. When she turned her head, the picture in the goggles' screens changed accordingly.
She quickly adjusted to sensory immersion in virtual reality. When she came to grips with her surroundings and felt comfortable with her place among them, she straightened to stand erect atop a hill.
'Okay,' Laura said, 'what do I do?'
'You simply begin to run.'
Laura stepped away from where she knew the rail to be — moving onto the middle of the narrow country lane. Beginning a slow jog, she headed down the gentle hill. The rolling belt sloped away from her feet.
After the sealed chambers and exoskeletons of the 3Hs, the treadmill was a piece of cake.
The trees slid by, and she ran from one side of the treadmill to the other — from one side of the road to the other — just to test it out.
'How do you like it?' the computer asked.
'It's great,' Laura said politely. The road flattened, and then the treadmill inclined, forcing Laura to shorten her stride to climb the hill. 'Can we talk?' Laura asked.
'I'd love to talk to you, Laura.'
'Okay, what's going on?'
'World stock markets are plummeting. The Dow, Nikkei, and Frankfurt indices are all down over five percent. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in concert with the U.S. Space Defense Command, is studying plans to intercept the asteroid with warheads, which, by the way, will prove unfeasible. In entertainment news, Steven Spielberg's long-awaited remake of War and Peace is opening this weekend in theaters around the U.S., Japan, and western Europe, where advance ticket sales have surpassed earlier—'
'Excuse me!'
'Yes, Laura?'
'I meant, you know, what's going on around the island.'
'Oh. My mistake. After you went to sleep last night, Mr. Gray began receiving E-mail messages, telephone calls, and visits. It seems some of the island's employees and residents overreacted following issuance of the press release regarding the asteroid.'
'What did the press release say?'
'Would you like me to read it for you?'
'Sure.'
''For immediate release. Gray Corporation. 0704 GMT. The Gray Corporation announced today the successful deceleration of an asteroid to near-earth orbit. The final stage of the retrieval will be completed in approximately forty-eight hours, and mining operations will begin promptly thereafter. The Gray Corporation will today begin acceptance of applications for astronaut training. Persons interested in applying should fill out an employment form at any of the company's seven hundred regional offices. Mr. Joseph Gray, CEO and chairman of the Gray Corporation, said, 'The inception of large-scale human activity in space marks the beginning of a new phase in the history of mankind. We at the Gray Corporation stand ready to meet the challenges that life in the new millennium will bring.'''
Laura chuckled and said, 'I suppose some people aren't quite ready for those challenges.'
'I believe that many here on the island who are familiar with Mr. Gray's technologies perceived a subtext in the announcement. There was a pattern to their inquiries, with consistent requests for Mr. Gray to define what 'phase' we are entering and what 'challenges' we must meet. When some claimed to be representatives of hastily organized, ad hoc committees of workers or residents, Mr. Gray called a town meeting. Despite the late hour, it was well attended. There was a full and frank exchange of views, at the end of which Mr. Gray offered those who wished one hundred and eighty days' severance and free transportation to the destination of their choice. As of this moment, one hundred and forty-seven of the one thousand five hundred and thirty-six corporate employees resident on this island have elected to accept Mr. Gray's offer and are in the process of departing together with approximately two thousand dependents.'
'What about the reports of robots running loose? I understand that a little boy saw a Model Eight running into the trash can or whatever?'
'I have looked into those reports and…' A screeching sound flooded both earphones. The computer was saying something, but the sounds produced bore no resemblance to words. Only their rhythm and pacing indicated speech.
'Hey!' Laura shouted, and the sound stopped. 'Something went wrong with your voice thing.'
Laura ran on in silence, waiting for the computer to fix the problem.
She took the opportunity to pick up her pace. The countryside glided by in an unending world of pastoral beauty. There were no cars to contend with. No potholes. No junky billboards. No annoying calculations of when you should turn around so that you finished your run back where you started. This was a world of shrink-wrapped perfection. She could even hear the sounds of rushing water and of her feet tramping on boards as she crossed a quaint wooden bridge. Add a bird's chirp in the background — which the program did, she discovered — and who needs reality ever again?
It was perfect, and she hated it.
'I'm sorry for the technical difficulty,' the computer said upon its return. 'I think it's all worked out now.'
'Great. Say, listen, could you maybe, I don't know… throw in something a little more interesting? I mean, this jogging program is nice and all, but it's a bit repetitive.'
'The treadmill is called a virtual-reality device, but it is really just a sophisticated laser-disc system. It produces a high quality of resolution because the images were all timed, but unfortunately that makes the display invariable. How about this?' The scene changed instantly, and Laura almost lost her balance as she ran.
The roar of the crowd flooded her ears, and she found herself in a pack of distance runners. Their brisker pace caused Laura to break into what felt like a sprint. All the women around her wore tight shorts and tank tops with athlete numbers attached to their front and back.
'Track!' a woman to Laura's left shouted in accented English, her breath labored as she passed just before a turn. Other runners began to pass on the inside, and Laura felt herself pick up the pace yet again — her arms and knees pumping hard. A gaunt woman at the head of the pack stumbled, causing the runner just ahead of Laura to break stride. A short distance later the lead runner tumbled straight to the track, and the pack broke to both sides and jostled for room to pass.
Laura found herself instinctively dodging the fallen women. She cut off the path of another runner, and the woman fell to the track with a howl — cursing in some eastern European language. Suddenly, there came into view
