Leo Frankowski

sparrows. I had to go to a
twenty-foot wing span to support a brain net identical to an LDU’s but it should be able to
communicate with them.”
    “What for,
Heiny? We already decided that there ain’t going to be any war. Those metal-eating bugs
are going to eat up everybody’s weapons and that’s going to be the end of it.”
    “They’re not
proven yet, Uncle Martin. We don’t really know that they’ll work.”
    “They worked
well enough to eat the frame off my microscalpel,” Guibedo said. “Think
of it! Just one viable cell I left sitting around, and two weeks later my
microscalpel is a pile of circuits on the floor.”
    “It should teach you not to be so
careless, Uncle Martin. One viable cell plus
a large pile of food equals a lot of
viable cells. We’re just lucky those insects didn’t spread and tip our hand. Are you back in business
yet?”
    “Yah. Jimmy
Saunton, he made me a new frame and cabinet. Only he went and made it out of
silver.”
    “So what’s wrong
with that? It’s what he’s used to working with. Silver is a suitable metal and we have more of it than we need,” Copernick said.
    “But somebody
told him that my mother was Polish, so he designed the cabinet in something he
calls Neo-Polski. You got to see this thing, Heiny! It took Jimmy and four
apprentices a whole month to make. The display screen is supported by four silver
fauns, and the whole panel has got little curlicues all over it. For lateral transverse I got to
twist this little cherub, and the laser firing studs are shaped like little harps
and beehives. All the labels are in Fraktur German.”
    Copernick laughed.
“It sounds great, Uncle Martin. Would you ask him to make me one?”
    “You’re kidding,
Heiny.”
    “Not at all.
I’m going to need a new one anyway, once we launch the insects. We can seal off the
computers, but I hate to be without a microscalpel. Its dubious artistic value
makes a good cover story. We can’t have word get out on what we’re doing.”
    “Okay. You want
it, you’ll get it. I wish I could give you mine, but that would hurt Jimmy’s
feelings.”
    “Just tell him
that I’m a pure-bred Polack, and we’ll see what he comes up with.”
    “Okay,
okay,” Guibedo said. “So how is the bug project going?”
    “It’s pretty much ready to launch
right now. LDUs are finishing up implanting
the food-tree seeds and the larvae
into the vector birds. The CCU figures it will have completed their flight
programming by tomorrow night. Actually,
we can start launching any time, although I’d just as soon hold off until everything is ready.”
    “Me, too,
Heiny.”
    “What are those
disks and drawings, Uncle Martin?”
    “Well, you ain’t going to like this,
but I still don’t figure we need any more
war animals. What I did was I worked
out a biochemistry for floating plants on the ocean. I figured that’s three quarters of the world we ought to be doing something with. Anyhow, I got
some sailboats and floating islands.
And I got a dirigible.”
    “A
dirigible?”
    “Sure. Bucky
Fuller in the fifties, he—”
    “The airborne
cities. I’m familiar with his work. Go on.”
    “Anyhow, I need
some animals to go with them. Some kind of fish that will protect the boats and
islands from other fish. And something to provide motive power for the dirigible.”
    “Well, let’s see
what you have.” Copernick inserted the disk into his control panel then spent a
few minutes studying the display and Guibedo’s drawings.
    “I’ve got to say
I like your basic concept, Uncle Martin. But I’d like to make a few
suggestions.”
    “Like
what?”
    “Your anchored
floating islands are fine, but they’re all one-family dwellings. Shouldn’t you make
some bigger
ones?”
    “Ach. We’re
going to need maybe fifty designs before we’re through. This is just a start. Anyhow,
you want something
bigger, you tie two little ones together.”
    “Okay. These
boats. You’ve designed them like conventional sailboats. Let’s do the standing
rigging as part of the boat plant, but make the running rigging and rudder control parts of
an animal sentient enough to handle navigation.”
    “Heiny, you’ll
take all the fun out of sailing.”
    “The four
you’ve done so far should satisfy the yachtsmen, but I think most people will want
something that
just goes where it’s told.”
    “Okay. We build
some your way and some mine, and people can take what they want. What
else?”
    “Motive