• VI.


    Back on board the Cloister, Colyn Randarr watched the old man who was quietly lying in his bed. The story the captain had just been told was incredible and insane. He could not understand what would drive a man to make up such a thing. The old man had told it with such passion, as if every word were the gospel.

    Humanoid robots had been in use throughout the empire for fifty years. Church officials had allowed and even condoned their production. Each one was fitted with a Schuyls logic circuit, and each one was programmed to obey and respect all forms of life. They were all also completely void of emotion. They were fitted with inhibitors that prevented them from developing feelings, because a robot with feelings was an android. A robot without feelings was nothing more than a machine and nothing else in the eyes of the church.

    Randarr went outside to see how the work was coming along. His own robots had completely dug the ship out and were prepping the engines for launch. The first mate walked over to his captain, and asked, “What did the ole man tell ya?”

    “He was sick,” replied Randarr. “He told a story of monsters and murder... He was very disturbed. He died in my bed, so sure that he had unleashed evil in the empire as I am sure the sun will rise tomorrow. Perhaps he rests in a better place now.”

    “An’ what of us?” asked the first mate. “We’s nearly ready ta launch. Do we go home or do we continue the journey?” It was obvious from his tone which choice was the one he preferred. The rest of the human crewmen approached, and it was clear from their expressions that they agreed with the first mate.

    “We go on,” said Randarr steadily. “I set out to prove something I intend to go on until I do.”

    The men grew angry and began to approach the captain when they heard the same howl they had before the appearance of the old man. This time it was coming from inside the ship. They hurried in, and found the source of the howl in the captain’s cabin.

    A beast of a man was on the floor, holding the old man’s corpse in his arms. The crewmen were aghast at the sight of the creature, but none of them stirred. Randarr himself was pale and trembling. He approached the creature, and got down on one knee before it. “Who are you?” he asked.

    The creature looked up, a deep frown on his face. “He never gave me a name,” replied the android. He gently rocked back and forth with the corpse in his arms. Oil began to leak from his eyes and he realized that his logic circuit was simulating tears.

    Randarr was taken aback by this creature that cried black tears. “Before he died,” he said to the beast, “he told me his story. Please let me ask you... after all that has happened to you because of this man, why do you cry?”

    The android held Ben with one arm and wiped the oil of his cheeks with his sleeve. For many moments, he did not respond. Finally, he said, “Because he was my father!” He began to howl again, and the crewman left him in peace.
    *


    The men stood around the grave. The android insisted he dig it himself, and done so with his own bare hands. Digging it through the frozen ground certainly took its toll on him, and he had scraped all of the skin off his hands. He took a bit of metal from Ben’s hovercraft and bent it into a shape that was both abstract and beautiful that slightly resembled an open hand. Randarr recognized it as a model of the Schuyls logic circuit.

    The android placed Ben’s body in the hole, and quickly covered it. He marked the spot with the icon he had created, then simply stood over the grave and stared at it. The first mate read a passage from the Holy Book, and the men quickly dispersed. A light snow started to fall.

    Randarr approached the android. “Come with us,” he said. “I could use a man like you on my ship.”

    “I am no man,” replied the creature. “I am an android. I will never belong in your world, nor do I wish to.” He held up his gleaming, exposed metal hands and added, “Nor could I ever fit in. My place is out here, captain. You are right, there are many other worlds beyond Mendrall. Worlds that even have people on them. Somewhere there is a world with people who will accept me as I am. As I was made. Until I find that world, I will keep moving.”

    Before he turned to go, Randarr said, “Perhaps I will see you again one day.”

    But the android made no reply. Randarr boarded his ship and fired the engines. The android did not stir as the ship lifted into the sky and blasted out of the atmosphere of Mendrall.

    On the bridge of his ship, Colyn Randarr moodily gazed out the window. His first mate was behind him, waiting for orders. The robot at the wheel simply steered.

    “We’s leavin’ the ugly one behind then?” asked the first mate.

    “It was his choice,” replied the captain.

    “An’ us? Which way are we headed?”

    Randarr did not break his gaze out the window, nor did he pause when he replied, “Home."

    End