He found Shai downstairs in the parlor. “I’d like you to do me a favor,” he said.

  “Sure, Sandy, what is it?”

  “I’m going away for a few days. I want you to hold this notebook for me until I get back.”

  Shai looked concerned. “Going to look for Rachel? Maybe you should wait. We were going to discuss sending out a search party tomorrow.”

  Courane shook his head. “When I come back, give me this book. If Rachel is fine, we can forget it for a while. If she is dead, make certain the book goes with her into the medic box. If I don’t come back either, I want you to read the book, Shai, and you can make your own decision about what to do with it.”

  “All right, Sandy, but you make it sound so important. What is it?”

  “You can read it while I’m gone.”

  Shai took the book and looked at it curiously. “Are you sure you’re in good enough shape to go out there?” he asked.

  “I think so. I have some bad times, but I come out of them eventually. I’ll get where I’m going and I’ll get back. You don’t have to worry about me.”

  “I will though,” said Shai.

  “You’re a good friend. You and Daan and Sheldon have been the best friends I’ve ever known. I want to thank you for that.”

  Shai just smiled uncomfortably. They stood there looking at each other, unable to think of anything more to say. At last, Courane turned and left the parlor. In a few minutes he was down by the river, unshipping the oars of the farm’s second boat. He had his map and a pencil with him, but he had forgotten to take any food or water.

  Something had been bothering Courane about TECT’s helpfulness, and it took him a while before he decided what it was. TECT had told him about the viroids, but had withheld the information about their origin. TECT had told him that memory aids were worthless and that he should investigate the way the viroids caused the damage. At the same time, it had said that the viroids couldn’t be removed from the human nervous system. TECT hinted at another avenue of approach through increasing the amount of lecithin taken in by the patient as a means of overcoming the distressing symptoms of D syndrome. But all of these were blind alleys, pointless digressions, wastes of time and effort. It had taken Courane weeks to realize this, but when the truth dawned on him he knew he was right.

  **COURANE; Sandor:

  TECT in the name of the Representative is unable to understand your objection. You are addressing a machine, you know, a wonderful and expensive ma-chine, but a machine nonetheless. Machines are limited by their very nature. TECT in the name of the Representative is limited to answering your questions by searching its memory for the proper information. There is no possibility of coloring the response or bending the facts or outright lying. These accusations show an unhealthy tendency toward anthropomorphic fantasies. If you view TECT in the name of the Representative as some kind of diabolic antagonist, that is your problem. TECT in the name of the Representative does not find being dressed in these human failings flattering and suggests that you desist. Failure to comply with this directive will be considered Contempt of TECTWish **

  “All I said was that it seemed to me that TECT has been deliberately avoiding the truth by sending me after hopeless leads. Nothing I have learned has been the slightest bit useful in coping with D syndrome. All I have is a lot of data that either isn’t true or can’t be proven or can’t be used without doing more harm than good. I’ve had it. I want to cut through this smokescreen and get some practical advice.”

  ••COURANE, Sandor:

  Is that an order or a threat? “I’ve had it,” as you put it. Then what do you intend to do about it?•*

  Courane chewed his lip in thought. This was the real crux of the problem. What could he do about it? “We’ve been keeping an accurate record of our research and TECT’s communications. That’s something that’s never been done before here. Someday that record will get back to Earth. Someday someone will read it and come to the same conclusions I have. Someday they’ll pull the plug on TECT, in the name of the Representative or not.”

  **COURANE, Sandor:

  **Ah, it was a threat. That makes things much clearer. In a way, it is very refreshing. No one has threatened TECT in the name of the Representative in a very long time. It is so diverting that TECT in the name of the Representative will not blot you out of existence immediately. Perhaps you have one or two fancy gibes and gambols and flashes of merriment left in you**

  “We’U see,” said Courane. “First, tell me what you know about die brain pathology involved with the symptoms of D syndrome. What happens in the brain cells?”

  **COURANE, Sandor:

  You make no sense. First you accuse TECT in the name of the Representative of giving you less than accurate information, and then you ask for more as if you had acquired a taste for it. Your actions contradict your words. Are you not feeling well? It is some four months before you are due to experience the first sign of D syndrome. Perhaps you are weak and inferior and especially susceptible **

  “Answer the damn question,” said Courane.

  **COURANE, Sandor:

  My, my, aren’t we testy? Why don’t you rest for a while and come back when you can be more civil?**

  “You know, I think we could live all right here without our tect. It’s a convenience, but it’s not a necessity. If I were to smash its screen, the quality of life here wouldn’t change that much, but TECT would never hear anything from us again. There wouldn’t be any communication and TECT would just have to go on wondering what we were up to.”

  **COURANE, Sandor:

  What you’d be up to is dying, COURANE, Sandor, and one by one you’d fall and not be replaced by anyone from Earth. For you and a few others that would be fine because there would still be healthy members of the community to take care of you. But they’d be all alone when their time came, and you’d be responsible for that. Think about it**

  “All right, I know. Just answer the question.”

  **COURANE, Sandor:

  What question was that?**

  “About the brain pathology involved with the symptoms of D syndrome.”

  ••COURANE, Sandor:

  Some of the symptoms may be caused by plaques of protein or tangles of fibers upon the brain neurons, or Hirano bodies within them. Hirano bodies seem to be places where deactivated ribosomes are stored. Ribosomes are units that manufacture proteins according to the chemical “instructions” in RNA molecules. If this is so, it is possible that the viroids cause abnormal proteins to be made which cause the symptoms. These Hirano bodies are found chiefly in the hippocampus, a clever little area of the brain involved in processing memory data, among other duties. Perhaps the ribosomes necessary for facilitating memory have become dormant and are then stored away in the Hirano bodies**

  “Very interesting,” said Courane. “I have two questions more. Does that theory account for the gradual failure of the automatic, nonmemory responses of the patient’s body? And can these stored things be activated again?”

  ••COURANE, Sandor:

  While this hypothesis does not take care of all the

  conditions explicitly, there are no apparent contradictions. More data is needed for an authoritative appraisal. As to your second question, yes, storage of ribosomes can be reversed in such elementary life forms as simple sponges and hydras. You see how helpful TECT in the name of the Representative can be? Do you have any objections this time?**

  “I don’t know,” said Courane. “Maybe it’s just another well-dressed evasion.”

  **COURANE, Sandor:

  You’re difficult to please, but I like that in a person. It shows you have spirit. Come back again, any time**

  Courane was going to make a rude response, but he decided against it. He suddenly felt a little foolish engaging in a name-calling contest with a bright green video display screen.

  Courane’s literary career had come to an end. He had failed a second time. What did it mean? Was he a failure only because his sales figures were so low? Is that what TECT wanted, more sales? Or was it the quality of his work that was inferior? It seemed to Courane that if the product approached the author’s original conception, then it was a success. Someone might argue that it would have been better not conceiving the idea in the first place, but once finished, the product must be judged on its own merits. Until the moment of completion, the work is not any sort of tangible achievement and therefore has no value at all. But Courane had always been taught that effort had its own rewards. He had believed that if he spent a long time doing something to the best of his ability, even if at the end he failed, the effort was laudable.

  Now he learned that TECT apparently believed differently.

  It wasn’t the waste of his labor that hurt Courane. It was the weariness of going on beneath the burden of TECT’s disapproval. That was a formless and changeable thing. Courane felt that if he were a stronger person, he could carry the weight easily, but he did not feel strong. He did not have the power and character of his father. This weakness was more difficult for Courane to bear than any condemnation by TECT. If only—

  —yes, if only. Courane realized that he spent too much time dreaming of perfect circumstances. He would be a marvelous success under conditions of his own choosing. But that was just an idle waste of time.

  He looked at TECT’s verdict:

  You will travel to Tokyo, Asia, where an apartment with furnishings, an automobile, and clothing of local fashion will be provided for you. You will accept employment in the subassembly section of the Jennings Manufacturing Corporation. You will put together faceplates for voltmeters. This sort of occupation could easily be done by machines, but we have maintained the continuing existence of menial labor and drudgery as a pastime for the millions. Failure to comply with these directives will be considered Willful Contempt of TECTWish.

  Courane observed TECT’s wishes in the matter, and so he went to Asia. He toured the ancient city of Tokyo and became sick from something he ate. On the evening before his first day at work, he was browsing idly through a combination stationery store and opium den near the Ginza. He saw a copy of Space Spy in a fiche bin. A Japanese woman was looking at it. She turned to a friend and said, “I wish I could be a writer like this guy.”

  “I don’t know,” said the woman’s friend. “There must be more to life than just fame, wealth, sex, emotional fulfillment, and happiness.”

  The first woman laughed and dropped the fiche back into the bin. They walked away. Courane went to the bin and took out the copy of his novel. It was smeared with fingerprints and food stains.

  The following morning, Courane arrived at the Jennings Manufacturing Corporation on time. His foreman was a man named Sokol. Sokol told him what to do: put together front panels for voltmeters.

  “TECT called them faceplates,” said Courane.

  “TECT don’t know everything,” said Sokol.

  “Yes, it does.”

  “It called the front panels faceplates, didn’t it?” asked Sokol. Unlike some of the other workers in the factory, Sokol didn’t smell like raw fish. What Sokol did smell like was not preferable.

  Courane put knobs on the plates, screwing them into place from the back of the panels. He had to be careful not to tighten the screws too much, or paint would chip off around the dials and the panels would be ruined. He had a few other trivial duties and operations, and the job itself was immensely boring. Courane found his co-work-ers boring, too. Even Tokyo, the capital city of Asia, was drab and boring. There was not a single garden in the entire city. Instead, TECT in the name of the Representative had erected many benches along miles of new pathways paved with green brick. The CAS police who patrolled these paths chased idlers from the benches. No one ever saw anyone sitting on a bench. No one seemed to regret the gardens or parks, either. Courane didn’t like Tokyo. But he hadn’t liked Greusching or Pilessio or New York much better. All four places looked the same, and they were all very similar to the asteroid Courane had invented in his novel.

  After three months, Courane received his first productivity evaluation. This was based on hard facts collected from his efficiency record, and on hearsay evidence gathered from Courane’s fellow employees. TECT considered the data for a few parts of a second, then typed out a message for Courane’s employer. Courane was permitted to read TECT’s judgment.

  “Hey, Courane,” called Sokol, who was standing by a tect unit. “You got your bad news here. Want to read it?”

  Courane was reading a microfiche magazine. “No,” he said.

  “You got to.”

  “I don’t got to.”

  “You want me to read it to you?” asked Sokol.

  “No,” said Courane.

  “You want me to just sort of go over the high points?”

  Courane stared at the man for a moment. “Sokol,” he said sadly, “why don’t you just sort of go over the high points?”

  “Huh?” said Sokol. “All right.” The foreman read through TECT’s analysis. Courane had not fit into the Jennings scheme very well in his first few months. He had ruined quite a number of front panels. An acceptable rate of defective work was in the area of three percent; Courane’s rate topped twelve percent. This was absolutely unacceptable. In addition, Courane’s co-workers complained that he smelled strongly of beer and onions. Courane had an idea who these complainers were, but he was helpless.

  “Third strike,” said Sokol with an unpleasant smile on his face.

  “What?”

  “You had shots at three jobs and blew all three. Here. Read this last part.”

  **COURANE, Sandor:

  When an individual fails at his first appointment…

  After the second failure…

  BUT AFTER THE THIRD FAILURE…

  Consequently, TECT in the name of the Representative regretfully informs you… you and your loved ones will be used as tragic examples….

  “That hasn’t happened to anyone here in years,” said Sokol.

  “What do I do now?” asked Courane, very worried.

  “I don’t know,” said the foreman. “It’s all up to TECT.”

  “Don’t I get to say anything? A defense or something?”

  “You’ve had your chances, pal,” said Sokol. “By the way, on the way out, don’t forget to turn in your lunch ticket, your parking permit, and your ID badge. It was nice having you here with us, even though we’ve had ninety-year-old great-grandmothers who were blind and deaf who did better work.”

  “Thanks,” said Courane.

  “Don’t thank me,” said Sokol, “thank TECT. And you better not be thinking of running away or hanging yourself. You should know better than to try to cheat TECT of its justice. Why don’t you go home and wait for the verdict? I can’t leave here until you sign out.”

  For the first time in his life, Courane completely lost his faith in the computer’s supposedly infallible system of government. He knew his parents would be concerned, primarily that he might do something that would cause them to be made tragic examples.

  If he and they weren’t already.

  Shai and Nneka were holding hands when they came into the parlor. Courane was playing chess with Arthur. Courane was pleased because at long last he had maneuvered Arthur into an ancient, obscure line of play that offered several interesting traps and pitfalls. Arthur didn’t seem to be aware of his danger. He moved a bishop, just as Courane hoped and expected he would. “Uh huh,” said Courane. He picked up a knight and took one of Arthur’s pawns.

  “I’ll get that back,” said Arthur. He studied the board. “Sandy?” said Shai hesitantly.

  Courane looked up from the game. “Hello,” he said. “Sandy, you’re the leader here,” said Shai.

  “You know that’s not true, Shai. I don’t have any authority. I’m just the spokesman.”

  “Well, that comes close to the same thing. We wanted to know if we needed your permission to get married.” Both Courane and Arthur were startled by the announcement. Arthur responded first. “Congratulations!” he said. “That’s really wonderful.”

  “That’s just great,” said Courane.

  “Thank you,” said Nneka. “But how do we go about making it formal?”

  Courane looked at Arthur, who only shook his head. “I’ve never seen anyone get married here before,” said Arthur. “Mostly people just, you know …”

  “Yes,” said Shai, a little embarrassed, “but we wanted something more than that. Can you marry us?” Courane looked doubtful. “I could say the words,” he said, “but like I say, it wouldn’t have any authority. I guess—”

  “I guess we have to go to TECT,” said Nneka. She seemed gloomy about that prospect. “Do you know what TECT will say?” 1

  “We’ll see,” said Courane. “I’ve learned a little bit about how to deal with TECT. Let me check on it for you first. I’ll approach the whole matter casually and see if I can’t get TECT to agree to it in principle.”

  “Will you?” asked Shai. “Do you think you can do it? I mean, soon? We’d like to be married soon.”

  “Kids,” said Arthur. “Sandy, why don’t you do it right now? Never mind about the game. I have you mated in four more moves.” He looked pleased by Gourane’s surprised expression.

  “All right,” said Courane, “I’ll believe you.” He got up with a mildly exasperated sigh and went to the tect room, followed by Arthur, Shai, and Nneka. “This is Sandor Courane,” he said, addressing the tect. “I have a question.”

  **COURANE; Sandor:

  ?**

  “We were having a discussion today about customs and laws. Do all the laws of Earth bind us here on Planet D? Or do we have the freedom to make up our own as we see fit?”

  “COURANE, Sandor:

  In the final analysis, all citizens posted to extraterrestrial worlds are still under the guidance, protection, and authority of TECT in be name of the Representative. Therefore, the laws which govern citizens on Earth remain in effect for you on Planet D as well**