Lady Lure (10 page)

“How fascinating. Can we fix it?” Gently,
Perri touched the scorched fingers of her daily companion. “The
Space Dragon
does carry a few repair supplies.”

“It shouldn’t be too difficult.” After
another survey of the robot’s neck and chest cavities, Halvo
continued his explanation. “When Rolli’s hands were burned, a
safety device automatically disconnected the robot’s main circuitry
in its head from the circuits in the lower body. This prevented a
burnout in the main circuits, which would have destroyed the
robot’s memory banks. To put it simply, Rolli won’t require brain
surgery. I can replace the destroyed fibers and reset the safety
device. Then, after we put the head back on and fasten the screws
to make the necessary connections, Rolli should function normally
again.”

“I am glad to hear we won’t have to open
Rolli’s head. Halvo, I ought to tell you about the memory—”

“Would you locate the repair supplies and see
if we carry the right-size fibers?” Halvo asked, his attention on
the robot. “We ought to have some. It is a standard size.”

Deciding there would be time enough later to
tell him what she knew about Rolli’s main circuitry, Perri
obediently headed for the small cargo bay.

* * * * *

“Your manual dexterity is remarkable,” Halvo
said a long time later. “It is probably why you are a good
seamstress.”

“I have never been permitted to use men’s
tools before. I expected to be clumsy.”

“You weren’t, not for a moment. You have been
a real help to me, Perri.”

His praise warmed her. She had been feeling
guilty and worthless. But after her successes on the control panel
and on Rolli, she thought she might be good for something after
all.

“As a matter of fact,” Halvo said, “I think
you ought to learn to pilot the
Space Dragon.”

“I?” She stared at him, not sure she had
heard him correctly. “Only men can pilot spacecraft.”

“Regula is one of the last male-dominated
planets,” Halvo said. “On other worlds, and in the Jurisdiction
Service, females are required to develop all possible skills. The
first officer, armaments officer, and the navigator of the Krontar
are all females.”

“They are?”

Halvo paused in his inspection of Rolli’s
apparently undamaged head to look hard at Perri. He was so clever
that she believed he must be fully aware of the new currents
arising in the stream of her thoughts.

“You have been deliberately kept in
ignorance,” Halvo said.

“Ignorance is not the same as stupidity,”
Perri said at once, stung by what she perceived as an insult.

“You are not stupid, Perri. Quite the
opposite.”

“If I cannot return to Regula, then I must
make a new life for myself elsewhere. To do so, I will have to
educate myself as quickly as possible.”

“I will be happy to help you, Perri.”

His words were said in all seriousness, but
something told her that Halvo was not talking only about the
various ways of life encompassed by the Jurisdiction or the study
of mathematics and the sciences. When he smiled at her, standing
there with Rolli’s metal head in his hands, Perri knew Halvo had a
more intimate education in mind. A warm fluttering began deep
inside her, a sensation that brought a blush to her cheeks.

“We can discuss your curriculum later,” Halvo
said, returning his attention to the robot. “For the moment, let’s
put Rolli back together. If I hold the head in the right position
on the neck, will you replace the screws?”

“Do you trust me for so important a
task?”

“Why not? You haven’t made a mistake
yet.”

“I have made many, Halvo.” The residue of
sadness and guilt sounded in her voice.

“Not on Rolli.” Halvo regarded her soberly.
“You can learn from the other mistakes you have made. It will be
part of your education.”

“Thank you,” Perri whispered, lowering her
head so Halvo would not see the sudden moisture in her eyes. In
effect, he had just said that he forgave her for what she had done
to him.

Halvo put Rolli’s head down on the bench and
took Perri’s hands in his. “Look at me.”

Reluctantly, Perri lifted her eyes to meet
his.

“You have been thinking of me as a victim,
but I am not,” Halvo said. “It was my deliberate choice to leave
the
Krontar
and board the
Space Dragon.
Captain Jyrit
disapproved of my decision. The leader of the security team warned
me that I was making a dangerous move. I refused to listen to
either of them. But just suppose for a moment that I had listened.
Suppose I had decided to be sensible. What would you have done
then?”

“Done?” she repeated blankly. “I don’t know.
I was depending upon your curiosity to impel you to do as I wished
you to do.”

“Exactly. Don’t you see, Perri? You could not
have captured me without my cooperation. Never think of me again as
a victim. I am having far too much fun.”

“I turned your life upside down,” she
said.

“We did it together – the same way we escaped
from Regula and got this ship under control together. The same way
we are working together now to repair Rolli. I won’t betray you,
Perri.” Halvo’s hand rested against her cheek for a moment.

Perri thought he was going to kiss her. She
would have welcomed his embrace. But Halvo dropped his hand and
returned his attention to Rolli.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said,
somewhat abruptly. “And we are not out of danger yet. We can never
forget those Regulan ships that are following us.”

* * * * *

“That should do it.” Relaxing in the
knowledge of a job well done, Halvo sat back in the copilot’s chair
and sent a glance toward Rolli. The robot was just finishing the
last test on the ship’s controls.

“Most systems on the
Space Dragon
are
now functioning within tolerable limits,” Rolli said. “Which is not
to say they are in perfect working order or will continue to
function. Still, the last two hours have been most productive.
Admiral, I have so far neglected to express my appreciation for the
prompt and technically accurate repairs you made to my own
systems.”

“I acted out of self-interest, Rolli. Perri
and I need your skills if we are to survive. No thanks are
necessary, but if you are offering them, you ought to include
Perri, too. She helped me.”

“I do not doubt her ability to rise to such
an occasion.” Rolli’s head swiveled in Pern’s direction. She sat in
the navigator’s chair looking remarkably dejected considering the
success she and Halvo had achieved in getting Rolli working
again.

“I want Perri to learn to pilot the
Space
Dragon,”
Halvo said, sounding as if he expected to hear an
objection from Rolli.

“An excellent idea,” Rolli said. “It would be
an added safety factor if all three of us were able to pilot the
ship. Shall we begin at once? Perri, if you will stand directly
behind me, I will explain the control panel to you. I believe you
have already memorized most of it since I answered the questions
you put to me during our voyage to intercept the
Krontar
”

“No.” Perri rose from her seat, but she did
not move toward the main control panel. “Later, perhaps. Please,
Halvo, I can’t do this right now.”

“You ought to rest for a while,” Halvo said,
hearing the strained note in her voice.

“I am a bit tired.” A lone tear trickled down
Perri’s soft cheek. She fled the cockpit, heading toward her own
cabin.

“I do not believe she is ill,” Rolli
said.

“Not in the way you mean. Not physically
ill,” Halvo said. “I have seen similar reactions in young Service
personnel under my command. Excitement and a determination to prove
themselves can carry them through the worst pre-battle tension.
They set aside their very natural fears and any doubts they have
about the rightness of what they are doing. Then, once the action
is over, they often lapse into depression or guilt, as Perri is
doing now. The reaction is always strongest when the battle has
ended badly and there is no triumph to buoy their spirits.”

“I comprehend the problem,” Rolli said.
“Abducting you was an act entirely foreign to Perri’s nature. She
undertook the mission only to save Elyr. To foreswear her beliefs
about right behavior, to give up such a vital part of her own value
system in order to help another, then to meet betrayal from that
other, could only result in emotional devastation.”

“You do understand.” Halvo gave the robot a
close look, but there was nothing to see except the smooth metal
head and the steadily blinking eyelights. Certainly, there had been
no emotion in Rolli’s voice. There could not be. Robots did not
feel emotions.

“I was originally programmed to conform my
circuitry to Perri’s needs and to her thought patterns,” Rolli
said. “It takes no great leap of logic to discern that she is
suffering a severe reaction to unbearable stress.”

“I would call that an accurate diagnosis,”
Halvo said.

“Perhaps it would help if you talked to her,
if you explained to her the psychological implications of what has
occurred in the same way in which you have just explained them to
me.”

“I’m not sure that would be a good idea,”
Halvo said.

“You must offer counseling to junior officers
under your command when they are distressed as Perri is now. Why
not do the same for her?”

“The truth is, Rolli, I am having a bit of
trouble with my own feelings toward Perri.”

“If you express your resentment directly to
her, will it not become easier for the two of you to work out your
differences? Should we encounter further dangers, it will be
necessary for you to work together in harmony to alleviate any
resulting crisis.”

Halvo could not tell the robot that, far from
feeling resentment toward Perri for abducting him, he was suffering
from a nearly uncontrollable desire for her. It was more than sheer
lust, it was a vibrant longing for the most intimate kind of
communion. Halvo had known many women on many worlds. Never before
had he been so passionately drawn to a female that he had
difficulty in thinking about anything else but her. As honest in
his own way as Perri was in hers, Halvo knew what a joining with
her would mean. He could not take Perri and then walk away from
her. If he made love to her, it would be love in truth, and they
would be bound together forever after.

While he could see a great many benefits to
himself from such an arrangement, he did not think it would be fair
to Perri. He was much older than she, and his life experiences were
entirely different. Perri, released from the Regulan subjugation of
females, ought to be free to pursue her own life in any way she
wished.

All of his reasoning assumed that Perri
wanted Halvo as much as he wanted her. He could not be sure that
she did.

“Damnation,” Halvo muttered to himself. “I
don’t know how to handle this.”

“While your reluctance to intrude upon
Perri’s privacy is commendable,” Rolli said, “she does need a
friend.”

“I thought you were her best friend,” Halvo
said.

“The differences between a metal robot and a
human being are obvious, Admiral. You yourself have previously
pointed out some of them to me. I do not have a soft lap, nor would
I offer sugar cakes indiscriminately.”

“If I didn’t know better,” Halvo said, “I
would accuse you of having a sense of humor.”

“I am merely stating the obvious, which may,
of course, appear to be humorous to the human mind.” Rolli paused
as if to let that statement sink in and then said, “Perri has a
liking for heskay tea. She finds it comforting.”

“Is that the vile-smelling stuff she drinks
with every meal?”

“It is programmed into the food processor,”
Rolli said, “which has been fully functional for the last
thirteen-and-one-half minutes. You should have no difficulty in
obtaining a hot beverage from it.”

With a chuckle, Halvo rose, pleased to note
that his physical condition appeared to be improving. He was able
to get out of the copilot’s seat with neither pain nor vertigo.

“Heskay tea and straightforward logic. Now I
know how you keep Perri under your thumb,” he said to the robot. “I
must remember your methods.”

“Thumbs?” Rolli asked. “Precisely speaking, I
do not have thumbs in the human sense. I am merely equipped with
five jointed digits at the ends of metal arms.”

“Right. And you don’t have a fondness for
Perri integrated into your main circuitry either.” With one of his
own hands about to descend on Rolli’s square metal shoulder in a
gesture of comradely affection, Halvo stopped himself just in time.
Rolli did not appear to notice either the motion of Halvo’s hand or
the muttered oath with which he turned away from the control panels
and left the cockpit.

Hot heskay tea was a thick orange brew with a
fetid odor that threatened to turn Halvo’s stomach. Holding a mug
of it he left the galley and headed toward Perri’s cabin.

The interior sliding doors were not
functioning. All of them were wide open. This was one of the ship’s
systems that would require further repair work once they located a
safe landing place. Thus, Halvo was able to walk right into Perri’s
cabin. She was curled up on the bunk, her knees drawn almost to her
chin and her eyes closed. Setting the tea mug down on the shelf
beside the bunk, Halvo sat next to Perri. He stroked her glowing
hair gently, letting his fingers tangle into the thick waves while
he reflected that it was a good thing he could not close and seal
the door and be alone with her.

Perri’s eyes opened, but she lay unmoving
while Halvo’s hand slipped through her hair over and over again.
Finally, she stretched, turning onto her back. Catching Halvo’s
hand, she held it against her cheek.