Chapter 13

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13

A CRY FOR HELP

Elijah’s two cats managed to adapt to life on board ship. Elijah had quarters next to the ‘park’ which was a proper park size so they could roam.   Everywhere that was supposed to be ‘outdoors’ had clever holographic sky and clouds which darkened and lightened at the appropriate times and even a sun and a moon and stars which appeared to move across the ‘sky’. It made the planetside caves of steel Cities seem amateur by contrast: B-Movies with polystyrene props, fake greenery and obviously-painted skies. 

Here on the newly-christened Good Ship Gaya one couldn’t believe one wasn’t on a planet’s very pastoral surface.  There was even digital sound-effect birdsong (Elijah’s cats learned to give up looking for actual birds).  Elijah, coming on board most affected with his disorder of the season – which was as bad as his agoraphobia had been - soon found himself becoming more ordered by the day as he relaxed in his cushy double sun-lounger out on his verandah, bathed in good daylight-spectrum ship’s ‘sunlight’. And of course Daneel, who’d come and lie beside him whenever ship’s duties allowed.

The first day, as they lay there, in each others arms, with vintage indie pop-rock playing on the sound system and the ‘sun’ setting in a glorious and realistic show of colour, Elijah happened to glance across at someone’s veranda and saw two people. Who were very evidently and very nakedly having sex. He involuntarily started, embarrassed, and tried to look away but it was no good pretending they weren't there. He knew Daneel, as a Spacer, would see this as nothing as to so much as comment on.  He, Elijah, was just an inhibited Earthling – as Spacers were so fond of calling them. Not that Daneel would ever be so snide – or not to him at any rate.  Daneel, as ever sensing his slight discomfort, made a questioning sound. Elijah murmured, into Daneel’s neck, “Um – bit hot over there…sorry, not used to such… ahem”.

“Oh that”, Daneel had seen the direction of his darted glance. “Should’ve warned you. Sorry. As you say, ‘ahem’”. He sounded amused. “Being a cruise ship people are not discouraged from – ahem, and so they do it”. 

“As I’ve noticed”, Elijah gave a small dry laugh. “Anytime anyplace and never mind what anyone else might see”, and Daneel drolly said, “With a name like Good Ship Lollypop what could you expect.  We didn't name her, remember”.

“Hah, because you hijacked her you cheeky pair of robots.”

“Yup”. Daneel stroked his hair and soon a lovely warm slumberous feeling stole over Elijah again. He couldn't believe how lethargic he’d felt when coming on board this afternoon, how couldn't-be-bothered, how he’d feared that even being with Daneel again would not elevate those dreadful winter blues. Even now he just wanted to lie in Daneel’s warm arms and not do anything else, not even talk much or kiss, and of course with Daneel with his comforting lack of ego he could do just that. The best of all worlds he thought as he drifted off to sleep the best sleep he’d had in ages.

To wake later to find Daneel still warmly around him, his own arm curled round the humaniform’s neck.  Daneel let him gently come to and then asked, “Hungry yet?” and Elijah realizing he was said, “Josaphat, yes!”, and Daneel said, “How about the hugest spiciest freshly-prepared curry, with real-lemon cheesecake and cream to follow…..yay, man, thought that would get you going! Now do you want a vegetarian, prawn, monkfish, chicken or lamb curry...?”, oddly enough Elijah had never had any hang-ups about eating what he knew to be originating from the flesh of creatures (mostly from poultry or cod bred in huge mostly-robotic City  ‘farms’ and which only level-C5 Cityzens and above could afford). So back in the City real meat in particular had been considered a desirable luxury; this had come in neat minced cubes usually in some sauce or other, so that’s what meat was to Elijah: just something called meat, in nice tasty cubes, a once-weekly Friday night treat, especially when ‘curried’.  He’d tried fish (also cubed) too and found he’d liked that also.  So that was alright.  Now he was learning that ‘meat’ and ‘fish’ had variations.  Lamb and beef, with their stronger flavours, had taken a bit of getting used to, as had trout.   Surprisingly he’d also got used to things like squid, prawns and mussels – well at least they came chopped, dissected or shelled and, like the meat or fish cubes, were just little pieces really – not connected to a definite creature shape.  No, it had been the idea of things coming out of ‘dirty’ soil or growing in outside air that had first unhinged him.

Now, as if by magic, from a pulsed summons from Daneel, a serverbot soon appeared and took their orders which they gave whilst still lying in their nest of cushions.  Naturally Daneel, fully equipped and programmed to ‘enjoy’ food, was to do the companionable thing and eat with Elijah.  And now he gently said, “And as a bossy old robot I’m going to now tell you all about the wondrous and nutritious organic homegrown vegetables and fruit that even an old die-hard like you will enjoy”, and Elijah finally said, “Yeah – guess I should. Be a good boy and eat my greens”.

The first time he’d done this outside the City he’d felt sick by the real taste and texture of such fare (even having to actually cut it!). Surely it would be full of vermin which would then eat his insides. It had come straight out of the soil - dirty brown naked soil - after all, or grown in unfiltered outside air. No nice clean processing.  It had been like seeing naked sex for the first time and he’d had to try not to retch.  However, more recently he’d got used to the idea of this real-vegetable eating -  but sometimes he still wasn't very good about it and when his winter blues came on he’d really got rather bad about it.  In the often rather itinerant and irregular nature of his job he’d tended to fall back on classic City-style yeastameals: out of a freezer into a microwave, heated in minutes, and eaten with a fork straight out of the tri-compartmented tray. Usually a rissole masquerading as something proteinaceous, a satchet of sauce if you were lucky, and  two varicoloured flavoured blobs consisting of a carbohydrate and a ‘vegetable’ – which nary had seen an actual one. Now he had to make the effort to get used to what he called Outside eating again.  A nasty twinge of dispiritedness came over him at the thought of all this effort.  Daneel said softly, “Ha’hey don’t turn into a vegetable”, which had the desired effect of making Elijah laugh by its sheer silliness yet peculier aptness. He perked up enough to  order two green vegetables: okra and sag, with his monkfish  curry and a peach and a tangerine to follow, along with the naughty cheesecake with cream. And a light beer.  Finishing off with spiced chai tea and burfi sweetmeats.  The serverbot forever patiently waited whilst they sorted all this out – no huffing or tutting whilst Elijah quelled his hang ups.

It was the most wonderful meal he’d ever eaten and he lay sated afterwards. He’d forgotten about the people having their naked sex just yards away. He’d been eating naked vegetables and fruit, straight out of the ship’s soil or from its ‘sun’-drenched orchards – okay the ship’s soil, whilst genuine, wasn’t quite as ‘dirty’ as planet soil, but it was not far off.  Before he’d come Outside he’d never once eaten anything that directly came from soil or been grown in sunshine, now here he was chewing lovely fresh tenderly cooked veg and biting into actual sun-ripened fruit and thinking what a wonderful flavour it all had instead of worrying about sticky dribble or what it might be doing to his insides. He turned his head and sleepily kissed Daneel in a mutual haze of curry and garlic fumes.

“That’s better”, Daneel said. “You taste just great. Not like a vegetable now”.

And then the intercom – sounding like an old fashioned twen-cen digital phone because that was the ringtone selected by Elijah -  rang.  Elijah and Daneel both swore a bit, Elijah because it could be somebody for him, and Daneel because it might be a ship’s duty calling, and it was just too awful to have to disentwine, sit up and get off the cushy sunlounger (Daneel said his pozzies were now flowing like warm honey, always proof of a robot’s wellbeing “That’s why I’m so witty and so wise right now”).

THE CRY

It wasn’t a ship’s duty.  It was Ben – all the way from Earth.  On a costly EtherHoloVidPhone or EHV Phone; known as an ‘Eva’ .

“Lije? Lije! I’ve run away from home”, Ben sounded tearful.  “It’s all horrible.  I wish I could come with you and go away from here.  She grabbed me by the hair and tried to dangle me by it – like robots can do – I mean, not by the hair but by the wrists when they want to punish somebody – but she did it in front of the whole class – 'cos she said she hated long hair on boys and if she had a pair of scissors she’d cut it off me right then – which is really really gross when girls can have any hair they like and it’s just not fair – but they’re allowed to do lots of things and be things that boys can’t – it really really hurt and I was scared she’d pull it right out – she’s always picking on the boys, 'specially ones like me – she did this to another boy, by his ears – we’re always getting physical abuse like that and the girls don’t -  I started yelling 'cause I couldn’t help it and then another teacher came in 'cause of the noise we were all making – and I just went on yelling and then I ran for it – right out of school – and I haven’t been home for two days – I just got on the first accessway to the Ex and went as far as I could and slept in that castle park…”

But then Ben started crying in earnest. “Please don’t be angry with me, Lije.  I’m sorry I rang you like this and bothered you but—”

And then, in under a minute, Ben’s credits ran out and the line went dead.

“Jehosaphat shat! That poor bloody kid!” Elijah looked as desperate as Ben had sounded.  “I should’ve thought of him before I came running away like this…hold on, I’ll try and see if I can get him on his mobile – if he’s got it with him…”.

“This is terrible” Daneel said. “He sounds in real distress”.  The humaniform looked and sounded so genuinely concerned it moved Elijah to suddenly want to cry.  “Look”, Daneel went on, “if you can’t get hold of him I can get one of our space yachts into action and fly back to Earth – it would take about ten hours if I started up the programming now…well I – and Giskard – run this show now so we make the decisions as to where the money’s spent…Now first try and get hold of poor Ben and hope he’s got his mobile on him”.

He evidently hadn’t.  All Elijah got was a monotonous perpetual ringtone.  “Oh fuck!”

“Right. Oh-fuck indeed,” Daneel endorsed. “So now I’ll go and start up the programming – that shouldn’t take more than an hour.  One Jump should get us back to Earth within ten hours”.

“Us?” Elijah stuttered. “But surely you can’t…”

“Oh yes I can,” Daneel said firmly.  He looked wonderful and determined.  “A good human being is in distress and I cannot countenance that.” There and then he turned and started for the apartment exit.  Amazing, Elijah thought, this robot can rationalize the difference between a good human who was worth going to all this trouble and expense to save and a bad one who wouldn’t be.  This operation: programming up a Space yacht and flying it back to Earth would cost the Cruise Company millions.  But hey, two robots, Giskard and Daneel, now ran said Cruise Company and when did robots need salaries for themselves in any big way (apart from nice clothes or a few metallo accessories).

Daneel’s mane of red-bronze hair swished as he turned back to Elijah.  Like a shampoo ad, Elijah irrelevantly found himself thinking.  “Coming?” asked Daneel, now all measured-purposeful action; those gorgeous model’s looks belieing such no-nonsense hands-on capeability. He touched the door-contact and the exit slid silently back. “It might be slightly more exciting watching me programming than watching paint dry”.  Elijah, now psyching himself into a similar man-of-action instead of a post-prandial couch-potato, followed.

“Hey,” Daneel now said, “Don’t forget your toothbrush”.

“Oh gawd, yes”.  It would be a ten hour trip, during which Elijah would need to wash and sleep, so his sponge-bag wouldn’t go amiss.  He just in time remembered to grab his towel as well.  And mobile.  And something to read.  He would keep trying to see if he could make contact with Ben somehow.  He felt terrible now that he’d so blithely run off to space without a thought for the vulnerable boy, his great-great-great-great grandson, left behind on Earth.  He was afraid Ben might do something rash to himself, or get caught up by bad people – a City park at night wasn’t the safest place for a youngster to be alone in, and a gentle one like Ben, especially not so.

Space yachts were miniature interstellar space ships and designed to go for long journeys.  Big enough not to feel cramped, small enough to be easily manoeuvrable.  So they were pretty comfortable with all amenities and full communications, including an ‘Eva’ phone.  Elijah could’ve had the run of ten luxury staterooms with ensuite bathrooms.  But naturally he preferred to be with Daneel in the control cabin, where there was an extra acceleration couch at the back, behind the command chair.  A nice big one into which they could both snuggle once the ship was on course for Earth.  The yacht also had a big cushy lounge with a vast holoscreen at one end, a restaurant and a well-stocked bar. As time was of the essence and there was just the two of them they didn’t bother to stock the restaurant, instead, for Elijah, relying on the self-service soya-based readymeals which were decidely upmarket – and certainly far superior to Earth’s yeastameals.

By now Daneel had communicated with Giskard via their robotic intercomms to tell him that as from now until further notice he was in sole charge of the Good Ship Gaya. Giskard, in effect, just said okidokey as if it were completely normal for his co-boss to take off on a ten hour journey back to Earth in one of the Space yachts.  Robots never needed to explain things to each other. Daneel next found out which planet they would have their next stop-off at and Giskard ‘told’ him and Daneel ‘said’ that’s where they would rendezvous and again, in effect, Giskard said fine and that was that.  Such clean elegent no-fuss no-faff, unlike with humans. Meanwhile Daneel got on with programming a course back to Earth which he did in little over half an hour and then they were ready to go.

So good was Daneel’s programming that, with one Jump, they got there in eight hours.  The sight of beautiful Earth in all its swirly blues and whites hanging in a black velvet star-sprinkled sky was stupendous.  As the pair stood, entwined, in the dark Earthlit viewing dome Daneel seemed as moved as Elijah was, saying it made his pozzies flow, always a good sign.  Elijah still a little apprehensive when faced with such huge open space was glad to cling tight to Daneel and feel the humaniforms strong arms wrapped around him.  How lucky he was to have one such as Daneel!  It made him all the more determined to find and rescue Ben, for such unconditional loving fed one’s confidence and melted away most hang-ups.  People went on about how they loved their dogs but no dog could hug you and cradle you and be a rock in quite the way Daneel was.  A fantastic computer he might be but then, biologically, so were humans too.  We’re all atoms when all’s said and done so what the heck, Elijah often thought.

As they neared the planet and were able to make out the continents and even see the domes of the major Cities, the nightside ones glowing, Daneel returned to the command chair to slip on the headset-and-mike that connected one to Air Traffic Control.  Looking and sounding every inch the cool competent pilot, despite his flowing mane, ear-piercings and fashionably bleach-batiked figure-hugging denims.

Link to next Chapter 14:  http://nanowrimo2011ataleoftworobots.blogspot.com/2011/08/chapter-14.html