'You sound like Kari, exactly like Kari.' She laughed. 'Yes, but imagine trying to have this conversation with one of my BB Counselors!'
He screwed up his face and flung up his hands. 'Oh, horrors}' he exclaimed, his expression matching the outrage in his voice. 'How could you confess to feeling anything? AH-One-Oh-Three-Three, I am going to have to report you for instability!'
'Precisely,' she replied, sobering. 'Sometimes I think they just want us to be superior sorts of AIs. Self-aware and self-motivating, but someone get out a scalpel and excise the feeling part before you pop them in their shells.'
'There's a fine line they have to tread, dear,' he told her, just as soberly. 'Your classmates lack something you had, the physical nurturing of a parent. They never touched anything; they've never known anything but a very artificial environment. They don't really understand emotions, because they've never been allowed to experience them or even see them near at hand. I don't think there's any question in my mind what that means, when they first come out into the real world of us softies. It means they literally enter a world as foreign and incomprehensible as any alien culture. In some ways, it would be better if they all entered professions where they never had to deal with humans one-on-one.'
'Then why?' She picked her words with care. 'Why don't they put adults into shells?'
'Because adults, even children, often can't adapt to the fact that their bodies don't work anymore, and that, as you pointed out yourself, they will never have that human touch again.' He sighed. 'I've seen plenty of that in my time, too. You are an exception, my love. But you always have been special. Outstandingly flexible, adaptable.' He sat back in his chair and thought; she didn't interrupt him. 'Tia, there are things that I don't agree with in the way the shell-person training program is run. But you're out of the training area now and into the real world. You'll find that even the Counselors can have an entirely different attitude out here. They're ready to accept what works, not just what's in the rule books.'
She paused a moment before replying. 'Kenny, what do I do if, things creep over into eros? I mean, I'm not going to crack my column or anything, but...'
'Helva,' Kenny said succinctly. 'Think of Helva. She and her brawn had a romance that still has power over the rest of known space. If it happens, Tia, let it happen. If it doesn't, don't mourn over it. Enjoy the fact that your brawn is your very best friend; that's the way it's supposed to be, after all. I have faith in your sense and sensibility; I always have. You'll be fine.' He coughed a little. 'As it, ah, happens, I have a bit of fellow-feeling for you. Anna and I have gotten to be something of an item,'
'Really?' She didn't even try to modulate the glee out of her voice. 'It's about time! What did she do, tip your chair over to slow you down and seduce you on the spot?'
'That's just about word for word what Lars said,' Kenny replied, blushing furiously. 'Except that he added a few other pointed remarks.'
'I can imagine.' She giggled. Lars was over two centuries old, and he had seen a great deal in that time. Every kind of drama a sentient was capable of, in fact, he was the chief overseer of one of the largest hospital stations in Central Systems. If there was ever a place for life-and-death drama, a hospital station was it, as holo- makers across the galaxy knew. From the smallest incident to the gravest, Lars had witnessed, and sometimes participated in, all of it.
He had been in charge of the Pride of Albion since it was built. He had been built into it. He would never leave, and never wanted to. Cynical, brilliant' number='with an unexpectedly kind heart. That was Lars.
He could be the gentlest person, soft or shell, that Tia had ever met. Though he never missed an opportunity to jab one of his softperson colleagues with his sharp wit.
'But Kenny.' She hesitated, eaten alive with curiosity, but unsure how far she could push, 'Kenny, how nosy can I be about you and Anna?'
'Tia, I know everything there is to know about you, from your normal heart rate to the exact composition of the chemicals in your blood when you're under stress. My doctor knows the same about me. We're both used to being poked and prodded.' he paused 'and you are my very dear friend. If there is something you are really curious about, please, go ahead and ask.' His eyes twinkled. 'But don't expect me to tell you about the birds and the bees.'
'You're, when we first met, you called yourself a 'medico on the half-shell'. You're half machine. How does Anna feel about that?' If she could have blushed, she would have, she felt so intrusive.
He didn't seem to feel that she was intruding, however. 'Hmm, good questions. The answer, my dear, is one that I am afraid can't apply to you. I'm only 'half machine' when I'm strapped in. When I'm not in my chair, I'm, an imperfect, but entirely human creature. 'He smiled.
'So it's like comparing rocks to bonbons.' That was something she hadn't anticipated. 'Or water to sheet metal.'
'Good comparisons. You're not the first to ask these questions, by the way. So don't think you're unique in being curious.' He stretched and grinned. 'Anna and I are doing a lot of, hmm, personal-relations counseling of my other handicapped patients.'
