Leo Frankowski

surprising amount of resentment toward us, most
probably caused
by our appearance.”
    “I’ll talk to
Heinrich about that,” Mona said. “Perhaps future units should be given a
more acceptable, if less practical, appearance. How about the other side of the sheet; what have
you accomplished?”
    “It is difficult
to access actual lives saved, my lady. We have distributed approximately 100,000
tons of supplies to the needy, we have moved 128,000 people from dangerous situations
to places of relative safety, and we have interrupted 2,654 1/2 incidents of
assault.”
    “How do you get
a half of an assault?” Patricia asked.
    “There was a
situation which was difficult to assess, my lady.” Dirk explained what had
happened to Saber that afternoon.
    “It sounds
pretty sick to me,” Patricia said.
    “There was no
indication of disease, my lady.”
    “She means that when it conies to
things sexual, humans can get pretty kinky,
Dirk,” Mona said. “Understanding
here is pretty difficult. Suffice it to say that Saber’s actions were
correct. In a similar situation, I would
expect him to repeat his actions. However, this particular couple should be left alone in the future, providing that
they don’t harm anyone else.”
    “Saber is
grateful for your approval, my lady. He has been quite anxious about the incident. Human
sexual practices are very confusing to asexual beings.”
    “They’re pretty
confusing to humans, too,” Patricia said.
    “Is this what’s
been bothering you today?” Mona asked. “I mean, you’ve been in the dumps
about something closer to home than the refugees.”
    “Uh, it’s
something like that, Mona. What would you do if you were going insane?”
    “Something
crazy, I suppose. But you’re not showing any of the usual symptoms of psychosis.”
    “But I am! I
mean, when things change around you, when something looks different from one
moment to the next… Oh! I don’t know.” Patricia began to cry.
    “Easy, girl,
easy. What things are changing?”
    “Martin.”
    “You mean
sometimes he acts like a different person?”
    “No. I mean
sometimes he looks like a different person. Like, sometimes when he just
comes into the room, and I catch him in the corner of my eye, he looks so different, so ugly. Or
when we’re making love, he changes sometimes, just for an instant. And then he’s back to
normal.”
    “I never heard
of anything like it,” Mona said. “But I don’t think it’s
psychosis.”
    “My lady, isn’t it written that ‘love
is blind’?” Dirk said.
    “Stay out of
this, Dirk,” Mona whispered.
    “Well, it’s something,” Patricia said.
    “Tell me,”
Mona said, “what does Uncle Martin look like when he looks different? I mean,
describe him.”
    “Uh, he’s short,
very short. And incredibly fat. And he looks maybe a hundred years old.”
    “Go on,”
Mona said.
    “He’s got a wart
on the left side of his nose and a triple chin. His hair, what there is of it,
is all white and he has a ridiculous mustache.”
    “I see,”
Mona said. This was, of course, a fairly accurate description of Martin
Guibedo. “Now describe what Uncle Martin looks like normally.”
    “Well, you know
what he looks like!”
    “Humor me,”
Mona said.
    “Oh, okay.
Well, he’s got black hair graying at the temples, a neat mustache, and clear blue
eyes. He’s about six one. Rather wide shouldered with a wiry body. Sort of a swimmer’s
build, you know.”
    “Of
course.” Mona was beginning to think that Dirk was right. Perhaps
love was blind. “There’ve probably been other cases like it, Patty. I’ll
talk it over with the CCU when we get home. In the meantime, buck up. It can’t be too serious,
and you’re among friends.”
    ‘Thanks, Mona.”
Patricia put her hand on Mona’s as an arrow lodged itself halfway through
Winnie’s body, with the flint arrowhead stopping directly between their faces.
    “OOWW!”
Winnie yelled.
    Dirk was out the
door in an instant. Liebchen woke up and stuck her grinning head out the
window, eager not to miss anything.
    “Down,
girl,” Mona said, pulling Liebchen to the floor beside herself and Patricia.
“Dirk can take care of it without you.”
    A Gamma unit in Utah
took an interest in the affair. Six of them, Dirk. But take it easy. They’re
all adolescents.
    Thanks! Dirk adjusted his
eyes to infrared and his skin to flat black. He swung out and came silently behind them, catching each
boy alone and swiftly, carefully