Navigators of Dune

26

As she watched the male body growing inside the Tlulaxa biological tank, Anna Corrino felt as if she were coming alive along with it. Grown from cells of the late Gilbertus Albans, it made her feel sorry that the poor Headmaster had gotten his head chopped off. But seeing the body also made her happy.

The physical form drifting in the nutrient fluids reminded her of marble statues around the palace square in Zimia, but Anna could only think of it as Erasmus now. Erasmus! Her secret friend, her savior, her most steadfast companion, the one who had saved her from the dark and confusing mental labyrinth where she had been lost.…

She glanced at the pulsing gelsphere resting on the table, connected to its sensory apparatus. “That will be you as soon as it’s finished.” She divided her attention between the growing body in the tank and the robot’s detached memory core, uniting them in her mind.

“I have been without an appropriate body since the Battle of Corrin,” Erasmus said. “I miss my original flowmetal form, but removing my memory core from it was the only way for Gilbertus to save me from the mobs overrunning our city. Now I am eager to have the ability to move around as I please, to see and touch and experiment at will. The added biological component will be fascinating, I am certain.”

Erasmus had been a comforting presence at the Mentat School whenever she drifted off to sleep, a wise and friendly voice that spoke through a secret conduit in her ear, advising her, testing her, helping her through the turmoil in her shattered mind. She would have been lost without him.

“I can always help you, even before your body is ready.” Anna bent close to the gelsphere as if whispering in his ear.

She knew her mind had been damaged from the poison she had taken at the Sisterhood school, but did not consider herself to be foolish or overly gullible. She knew all the stories, had read the history of what the independent robot had done to his human captives, but she was also pleased that he found her fascinating. He had helped Anna in so many ways. How could she not forgive him?

The robot continued, “Dr. Danebh says the body will be ready in nine days for the implantation of my memory core. The waiting is difficult. I am tempted to power down my processor clock, stop my own subjective time, and wake up when the body is ready. I want to see with my new eyes, walk with my new legs, and feel temperatures, textures, pleasure, and pain with my new hands.”

Anna said quickly, “Please don’t shut down in the meantime. I can keep you company. Won’t it be interesting for us to discuss what you can do with a biological body? I have so many ideas, so many suggestions.”

She regarded the biological tank and the human body suspended there. She tapped the smooth, transparent walls, but the naked male form drifted away, bent in a partial fetal position, its arms and legs curled up. “I wonder what it’ll be like to touch it, to feel skin — and know it is you.” Her breath fogged the curved plaz.

“I wonder if it will make me feel more human to be in a human body,” Erasmus mused. “Theoretically, it should.”

She brightened. “You know it will! You’ll sense with nerve endings, feel what real people feel. It won’t just be data. At last you’ll be a real person yourself.”

“I conducted tens of thousands of experiments and collated so many experimental results in my attempts to understand humans, but still something has always been missing. Some key factor keeps eluding me … a parameter that cannot be measured by even the most advanced laboratory apparatus.”

“You’ll feel the difference,” Anna said.

“I anticipate sharing many results with you.”

“And I’ll assist in every way possible.” She let out a long sigh.

Erasmus spoke as a disembodied voice. “When I see that body growing in the tank, I see only Gilbertus Albans, and it makes me feel … heavy.” He paused, as if troubled or confused. “I am experiencing an indefinable set of reactions that I suspect would be broadly categorized as sadness.”

Anna’s expression fell. “I’m so sorry, Erasmus.” His sensors shifted, and she knew he was reading her face and identifying the genuine sympathy there. “Gilbertus was a good Headmaster,” she said. Her gaze flicked back and forth. “He wanted to help me, wanted to make me a Mentat.”

ERASMUS HAD BEEN analyzing and manipulating humans for centuries, all for the purpose of fully understanding them. Such an intriguing species! The evermind Omnius, who held dominion over the machine empire, had let him conduct thousands of experiments so the thinking machines could defend against the capricious human enemy. But Erasmus had always yearned for more.

Since the collapse of the Synchronized Empire, his overall purpose hadn’t changed, but because he was the last independent robot, his need to understand humanity had taken on a personal urgency.

After centuries of research with the vast resources available in the machine capital of Corrin, Erasmus once thought he had conducted every possible test. But after the barbaric execution of Gilbertus, he had finally experienced a true breakthrough.

With his perfect memory, he could replay the images of Anari Idaho’s brutal sword strike, how the blade sliced smoothly into Gilbertus’s bowed neck and decapitated him. The robot struggled each time he reviewed the images, and most of all he couldn’t comprehend the strange look of calmness on Gilbertus’s face in the final seconds, the beatific acceptance that his life would end.

What had he seen in those final moments? What had he known?

That mystery posed an even more compelling question, making Erasmus desperate to experience what was missing inside him … a level of nobility and perception that all humans possessed even without trying. Perhaps with a perfect biological body he would experience the secret by feeling his nerves, his heart, all his senses. As a sentient biological organism — or as close as he could get to becoming one — he would know what it was like for warm tears to stream down his fleshy cheeks. He would absorb existence … the mysteries of life … in the same way that even strange, confused Anna did.

And once he assessed his new sensations, he wondered if he would be able to detect something so esoteric as the soul. It seemed possible to him, and he intended to look for it with all due diligence.