Leo Frankowski

asked.
    “First some
facts. In the first place, Uncle Martin is not a handsome young athlete. He’s a
ninety-four-year-old former
biology teacher.”
    “Well, I know
that. I did a documentary once on his life.”
    “I mean he
doesn’t look the way you think he looks. He really looks the way he does in your
flashes. He’s only five feet tall and weighs almost three hundred pounds. His hair is
white and his mustache is ridiculous.”
    “You’re lying.”
    “Try to be
rational,” Mona said. “How could anyone that old look anything like what you think
he does?”
    “Well, he couldn’t fit your
description, either. I mean, they work with
living things…”
    “And could have
modified themselves? The fact is they did. Do you remember what Heinrich looked like before he modified himself? He had rickets and
pellagra before he was ten years old. He was stunted and crippled and afraid of the world. When he could, he
totally modi fied and rejuvenated himself. Uncle Martin felt that this
was morally wrong, and while he accepted a limited rejuvenation, he refused to
let Heinrich go any further. He looks now
just as he did when he was fifty.”
    “But why would anybody want to be
ugly?” Patricia asked.
    “It’s not that he
wants to be ugly. It’s that he insists on being himself. Oh, I know he’s being hypocritical, accepting limited rejuvenation and then saying it’s
immoral to take it to its logical conclusion. But that’s the way he
is.”
    “Well, if that’s
true”—and in her own mind, Patricia was starting to believe it—“why do I see him so differently?”
    “Because Liebchen
was trying to make everybody happy—which she was designed and trained to do. Somehow—I have no idea
how—she came up with a way of synthesizing a chemical that changes people. Remember that stuff she had Winnie’s synthesizer
make for the American Indian boys? Well,
she managed to get something similar down you, to make you happy.”
    “Oh, my god! I
thought Liebchen was my friend.”
    “She thought so,
too. I don’t think she meant to harm you at all, only to make you happy. As
things turned out, she did
you a favor. Except for her, you would have gone
back to New York. The reports we’re getting from New York City are absolutely
gruesome. If you hadn’t been killed
by a falling skyscraper, you might have been done in by starvation or
the plague that’s rampaging there. Liebchen
may have violated your mind, and indirectly your body, but she probably saved
your life.”
    “And
Martin?”
    “Uncle Martin may be a hypocrite.
He’s certainly naive about a lot of things,
and not the least bit introspective.
But he’s essentially a very moral person. I can promise you that he didn’t know
anything about what Liebchen
did.”
    “But what am I
supposed to do now?”
    “Well, you
obviously can’t stay as you are; it’s costing you too much, emotionally. There are
several possibilities. I’m sure if you asked him, Heinrich could do something to make
Liebchen’s bungled job of programming permanent and without the unpleasant
side effects. Or he or Liebchen could undo what she did. Then you could stay with Uncle
Martin and accept him for what he is, or leave him. The choice is yours.”
    “I… I just
don’t know… Help me, Mona.”
    “Well, the fact
that you can’t make a decision might have something to do with the fact that your
mind has been altered. So as
a first step, I think we should put your
personality back the way it was before Liebchen began to play marriage broker. I also think that we owe it to Uncle Martin to tell him what happened.”
    “Do you think we
should? I mean, I don’t want to hurt him.”
    “He’s got to
find out some time, and dragging it out will only make it worse. Telephone! Which
TRACs are available?”
    “Only Winnie, my
lady.”
    “Tell Winnie to
come up the ramp and meet us outside. We’re going to Oakwood.”
    “Right now?” Patricia asked.
    “Now. We’re
heading out again in the morning, and this business has to be settled.”
     
    Guibedo paced
nervously as Liebchen and Dirk watched. “Ach. What worries me is how I’m going to explain all this to Patty.”
    “My lord?”
    “What do you
want, telephone?”
    “Pardon my impropriety, my lord, but
in the interests of easing your mind, I
feel obligated to tell you that Lady Mona has explained the situation to
Lady Patricia. They are coming here now to
confront you.”
    “Well, that makes
things easier.