“You have earned a release from your Public Service obligation, of course. You could go back to Earth if you wish.”
“But the work is being done here.”
“Exactly. And—frankly—you are much safer here than on Earth, where some Zealot fanatic can murder you.”
There’s a Zealot fanatic here on this station, Grant thought. At least one. And I know who it is.
“Beech is keeping me incommunicado,” Grant said. “Egon and the women, too. I can’t even get a message out to my wife.”
Dr. Wo nodded knowingly. “I have seen to it that you can have the freedom of the station. You needn’t be confined to the infirmary. As for messages home…” He shrugged his heavy shoulders. “I’m afraid Mr. Beech has the upper hand in the communications department.”
Grant stared at the older man. It’s a struggle, he realized. A battle between Wo and Beech. Neither side has a completely free hand. And I’m caught in the middle of their power struggle.
Dr. Wo intruded on his thoughts. “Very well, then, Mr. Archer. There is one last farewell for you to make.”
“Farewell?” Grant asked.
Wo gestured toward Sheena’s darkened pen.
“Sheena’s leaving?”
“We have no further need of her. Perhaps the dolphins can be of help in your attempts to establish meaningful contact with the Jovians, but Sheena is too much like us to be of any aid in your work.”
“What’s going to happen to her?”
Wo sighed heavily. “The simplest thing to do would be to sacrifice her. Then we could dissect her brain and—”
“No!” Grant shouted.
Raising both his hands placatingly, Dr. Wo said, “I agree. It would be a criminal act. I am taking Sheena back to Earth with me, to a primate research center in Kinshasa. They are quite eager to have her, in fact.”
“She’ll be all right there?”
“She will be welcomed. They have augmented several other apes. Sheena will not be an anomaly there. If all goes well, she will be the mother of a new breed of creatures, the founder of dynasties. And another challenge to the fundamentalists.”
“By force of arms, if necessary. She is an extremely valuable entity.”
Grant felt a glow of satisfaction. “She’ll be among her own.”
“I believe so,” said Wo.
“I wish…” Grant could not finish the sentence. He swallowed hard and fought back tears, feeling embarrassed to be emotional about a gorilla.
Wo touched the keypad built into his chair’s armrest, and the overhead lights brightened to their daytime level.
“I can make the sun rise,” he said wryly. “One of the privileges of being station director.”
And Sheena wakes up with the sun, Grant remembered. He turned expectantly toward the entryway to her pen. Will she still be angry at me? he wondered.
Very gently, Wo said, “She asked to see you.”
“She did?”
“When I told her you had been injured, she became rather upset.”
Grand didn’t know what to say.
He heard her shambling out of her pen, huffing and snuffling like anyone who’d just awakened from a good night’s sleep. As he scrambled to his feet he caught a trace of the thick animal scent of her. Then Sheena appeared in the entryway, massive hairy shoulders brushing both edges of the open hatch.
“Grant,” the gorilla rasped.
“Hello, Sheena.”
She turned her eyes briefly to Dr. Wo but immediately looked back at Grant. “Grant hurt.”
“I’m all right now, Sheena. I’m fine.”
“No hurt?”
“Not anymore,” said Grant. “It’s good to see you, Sheena.”
“Sheena no hurt.”
She remembers the neural net, all right, Grant realized. But maybe she’s forgiven me for it.
The gorilla glanced at Dr. Wo again, then took a knuckle-walking step toward Grant. Grant extended his hand to her, palm up. Sheena reached out her enormous hand and touched Grant’s palm lightly.
“And Sheena is my friend,” he replied.
“Yes. Friends.”
Dr. Wo broke in, “Sheena and I are going to a new place where Sheena will make many new friends.”
The gorilla seemed to consider this for a moment, then said, “New friends. Grant, too?”
“I’m afraid not, Sheena. I’ve got to stay here for a while. Maybe later I’ll come and see you.”
“You come. See new friends. See Sheena.”
“I will,” Grant promised, hoping that he would one day be able to keep his word.
THE BEAUTY OF THY HOUSE
Surprised at how difficult it was for him to bid farewell to Sheena, Grant returned to the infirmary where he and Karlstad stood patiently for a final checkup by the little martinet who headed the medical staff. Once officially released, they dressed quickly and headed for their quarters, both of them walking awkwardly, their electrode- studded legs still feeling alien, barely under their own control.
Grant went past his own door.
Karlstad, tottering along beside him, said, “Have you forgotten where you live?” things, come to think of it”
“The only thing I want to do is get a decent meal and get the medics to shut down these damned biochips, so I can feel like a whole human being again.”
Grant nodded absently and kept on going as Karlstad stopped in front of his own door.
“And then I’m going to look up Lainie,” Karlstad called after him. “For real.”
Grant paid him no attention. Tamiko. All this time, Tamiko has been working for Beech.
He went to Hideshi’s quarters and rapped on the door. It rattled slightly. Funny, Grant thought, I never noticed how flimsy these doors are.
“Who is it?” Hideshi’s voice called.
“Grant Archer.”
She slid the door back and ushered Grant into her compartment with a silent gesture. As he stepped in he saw a garment bag lying open on the bed, clothes scattered around it. The drawers of her desk hung open and empty.
“You’re leaving?” he asked.
“With Beech, yes.”
“You’re one of his agents, aren’t you?”
“That’s obvious,” Hideshi said, walking back to the bed and sitting on it, among the clothes.
“And you’re a Zealot.”
Hideshi did not answer.
“You’d kill me if Beech told you to, wouldn’t you?”
She made a sour face. “He won’t. It’d be pointless now. You’ve done your damage. No sense making a martyr out of you.”
