The Star Virus

The reason why Sinnt had chosen this arrangement to restore his sight became clear to them a short time later. Rodrone shook him by the hand, trying to ignore the creepy feeling he got from looking a man in the face and being looked at in return from a point some inches to the left. "We had some trouble finding you," he said. "Eventually we were helped by a relative of yours. Verard."

Sinnt gave a croaking laugh. "Uncle Verard! Poor old fool! He told you I was lost in limbo, I suppose? Wasting my substance in useless speculation?"

"Something like that."

Sinnt nodded, an unexpectedly live gesture from his eyeless head. "Sometimes I feel sorry for that clique of old drivelers. You should visit their data library sometime. They maintain it like a holy shrine—thousands upon thousands of completely unrelatable facts."

"Facts are what science is about," Redace said thoughtfully, stroking his chin.

"True, but they think the universe is constructed logically, brick by brick. They don't realize how immensely mysterious and basically irrational it all is." He invited them to be seated. "Well, you're not here to discuss metaphysics. What's it all about?"

Briefly Rodrone explained about his find and what conclusions they had been able to draw. Sinnt listened without interruption until he had finished.

"Yes… well you were right to come to me. Atomics is my field, and if it is an atomic device, as you think, I may be able to find out something. Let's have a look at it, then. Where is it?"

"We have it in a Safe Room."

"Bring it here, I don't go traveling these days."

Clave and Redace left to fetch the lens. Rodrone was alone with the bizarre scientist.

They sat facing one another, Sinnt staring unblinkingly from his shoulder camera. Rodrone knew he was being coldly, calmly appraised. For his own part, he found that it cost him a slight effort to be at ease with the man. It was hard to get used to the fact that he almost never turned his head; if he wished to shift his gaze, only the camera swiveled.

There was a strained silence for some seconds. Then, suddenly, Sinnt spoke in an unnatural voice.

"I had not ruled out the possibility that you were a Streall robot."

The question was so unexpected that Rodrone laughed. "But why?"

"The Streall are normally very jealous of their artifacts. Your own story testifies to that. But your story could be an ingenious cover. Who knows that you are not a Streall tool, sent to take rather than to give?"

Completely mystified by these remarks, Rodrone asked, "To take what? Have you got something belonging to them too?"

Sinnt did not answer and for nearly a minute neither spoke. Then, to break the silence, Rodrone said, "And do you still consider me to be a robot?"

"No. I have given you a searching internal examination. I am satisfied that you are a human being and that you have not been tampered with. The Streall experience certain difficulties in understanding the human body, which are hard to mask. I would take the condition of your nervous system to be conclusive proof of your normality. In particular, they have never succeeded in following the complicated connections between the neocortex, the rear cortex, and the pineal gland, which is what makes man what he is and is unique to him."

Rodrone remembered his own experience of the Streall's off-beam attempts to control human nervous systems. But this thought was pushed aside by his amazement of Sinnt's claim. While he had been sitting here the scientist had examined his body in every detail, even down to the functioning of his brain. This unparalleled feat explained why Sinnt had foregone the use of more normally aesthetic eyes. He was not content to limit his vision to the visible spectrum. His shoulder camera must be sensitive to all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation from radio waves to high-frequency gamma rays, and no doubt was capable of receiving images from many other kinds of radiation as well. It would be able to function as an electron microscope, of course, and probably it had some sensitivity to the host of subtle, ghostlike radiations given off by atoms, but whose ultimate nature was completely unknown.

Sinnt had adapted himself to the needs of his research. Rodrone had noticed that the luminosity and color of his eye lenses seemed to vary slightly, but he had taken this to be due to the waxing and waning of his attention. Instead, it betokened his constant switching to alternative modes of vision.

But Rodrone was also surprised by the other's interesting and informative remarks concerning man's nature. How did he come to know so much about it, and furthermore how did he know so much about the Streall? There was something offbeat and odd about the way Sinnt launched into a conversation.

"Perhaps it is you who are the Streall robot," he suggested.