Piers Anthony - Phaze doubt

Phaze Doubt

The Apprentice Adept 7

Piers Anthony

Contents

Lysander found his assigned seat in the shuttle as it commenced slow acceleration. The spaceship had been a liner, with individual cabins for each passenger, but the planetary shuttle was cramped in the manner of an atmospheric transport. Well, he was used to tight quarters, after his time in the laboratory.

He hesitated, glancing at the young human woman in the adjacent seat. She was in the process of getting out of her dress by working it up past her legs and buttocks. Please, excuse me, if it is not an imposition

She looked up at him, pausing in her labor. She had short curly black hair and dark brown pupils, in those respects almost matching him. But what was coming into view below didnt match. Am I embarrassing you? she inquired brightly.

No, I am most interested. Your form strikes me as pulchritudinous.

She blinked. What?

Evidently he had used the wrong term. Of aesthetic outline. Comely. Subject to admiration. Incitive of sexual ambition.

She smiled. Attractive?

Yes, thank you. That must be the operative term.

Youre not from this neighborhood, she remarked.

This is a perceptive observation. Indeed I am not. But youyou are a native of the upcoming planet?

Yes. In a manner. Im a serf. We dont wear clothing.

Now I understand. I read the handbook. I will be a serf too, to earn what I need to be recognized as an independent individual. But would you be willing to exchange seats? I have little experience of planetfall and would like to gaze out the window.

Oh, of course. Ive seen it before. She got up and stepped to the center aisle, her dress remaining halfway up. Lysander took the seat she had occupied. Then she lifted her dress the rest of the way off, over her head, leaving only pink bra and panties. She was a well-endowed female, quite appealing in that limited outfit. She folded the dress carefully and took the outer seat.

Thank you, Lysander said. May I introduce myself? I am Lysander, from Planet Grenadier. I am a specialist in robot feed back circuitry.

Alyc, she responded. Thats A-L-Y-C, not ALICE. We serfs have little of our own except our names. Im assistant what ever for Citizen Blue. Not in your class, I guess.

Class?

Im not educated like you. I just help with housework and cooking and whatever, as I said. I never got beyond regular schooling.

He smiled. There may be a misunderstanding. I did not have schooling. I am an android.

She stared at him momentarily, startled. Youre joking!

My humor is limited, as it is in all my kind. My body was generated in the laboratory.

But androids are, well, not smart. You dont talk at all like that!

Perhaps that is because my brain is fully organic. It was taken from a living creature and implanted in the android body in the manner of a cyborg. I was pre-educated in the laboratory so my only challenge was learning to use the body.

Thats fascinating! she said. I never heard of an android cyborg!

So as you understand, I am not in your class, not being a proper man. I have existed in this form only two years.

She was gazing at him with increasing interest. You havent had social experience on your own world?

I am not entirely certain what you mean. I am conversant with the appropriate modes for eating, eliminating, sleeping

Man/woman, she said. Interaction.

I have been instructed on the mechanism for copulation.

Alyc laughed. Dating. Dancing. Kissing.

The mechanisms for relating the local calendar to current events, or He saw by her expression that he was not reflecting her intent. I suspect not.

Would you like to start with me? I mean, until you get into things in Phaze?

Phase? To be in phase, or out of phase?

She laughed again. Phaze. With a z. The magic part of Proton.

Magic? I think I must misunderstand.

So you dont know about that. Well, I guess they havent bruited it about, offplanet. Youll see. But what I meant was whether you would like to be my boyfriend, until you find a girl of your intellect?

But you are full human! he protested. My indoctrination is specific about the perils of miscegenation. I am obliged to inform any human person of my status as quasi-human.

She turned earnestly to him. I am a serf. And you will be too. Were all equal, on Proton: humans, robots, cyborgs, androids, and aliens. All naked, too; will you be able to handle that?

He frowned. The socialthe types interact? I assumed that the social interaction was confined android to android, and man to woman, in practice.

You are a man, Lysander, as Im sure I can show you. The only forbidden interaction is disobedience to a Citizen. Of course serfs dont normally marry, but they do have relationships. So She looked at him questioningly.

In that case, yes, I would like to be your social friend. As I remarked, your physique is attractive.

Oh, Im so pleased! she exclaimed. Im sure it will be very nice, the little time it lasts.

These affiliations are of limited duration?

With me they are. You see, I like smart men, and I can attract them at first, but they always leave me for smarter women.

I apologize in advance for doing that.

She started to laugh, but changed her mind, remembering that he wasnt much for humor. Well, lets make it count. She leaned over to kiss him.

Secure belts for landing. It was the shuttle announcer system, giving warning of higher acceleration. The vessel had been accelerating at just under one gee throughout, backward, its jets toward the planet. In this manner it had reduced the momentum it had started with at the ship. But now it had to make planetfall, and that would require more than one gee.

Never fails, Alyc said. Just when things get interesting. She kissed him quickly and settled back into her seat, fishing for her harness.

Lysander heeded the directive, and snapped his own seat harness about his humanoid body, glancing around as he did so. The other passengers were all humanoid, most of them seeming to be fully human beings, some seeming to be robots. This was hardly surprising, since Proton was a human colony; few creatures of planets other than Earth found it compatible. Gravity, atmosphere, diurnal cycle, light intensity, and temperature range closely matched those of the colonizing planet.

Is it all right if I watch the approach? he asked. I am of course interested in what you propose, but you will remain, while the vision of the landing will be fleeting.

Of course its all right, she said, after a slight hesitation. Ill just hold your hand, meanwhile.

Lysander peered out of the old-fashioned porthole. They were approaching the planet obliquely, and he had an excellent view of it. He was indeed fascinated by it.

The odd thing about Planet Proton was that its South Pole pointed directly toward its sun, always. Most planets in most systems rotated in the planes of their ecliptics, so that their equators were warmest and their poles coldest. Some were skew, so that their poles were alternately heated as they proceeded through their years. But Proton acted as if it were on a fixed axle extending from the star, in seeming defiance of the laws of physics.

The acceleration increased. Gee rose to about 1.5. His right hand felt odd. He tore his eyes away from the porthole and looked at it.

Alyc was holding his arm to her bosom and kissing his hand. It was warmth of her breath on his fingers that had distracted him. Relieved that it was nothing serioussometimes this body reacted in odd ways to stress, and 1.5 gee was a type of stresshe returned his gaze to the porthole.

What Lysander found hard to figure was how the planet maintained a regular day-night cycle. With the sunlight coming always toward the South Pole, there should be no changes; the southern hemisphere should always be day, the northern hemisphere night. Yet that was not the case. The planet acted as if the light were turned at right angles, and it cast its night shadow to the side. The manual indicated that scientists had never been able to agree exactly how this was possible, but it was so. The prevailing theory of the moment was that the planet acted with respect to light like a black hole, bending the light ninety degrees without affecting anything else. This left formidable questions unanswered, but was the best that was offered. Apparently no competent local study had been undertaken to resolve the mystery.