“Computer off,” said Kosoff.
Emcee’s image disappeared, but Brad couldn’t help feeling that the computer was still in the room, listening to them, watching them. A glance at Chang’s face told him that she felt the same way, only more so.
He realized that Kosoff was staring at him, which made him feel more uncomfortable.
Spreading his thick-fingered hands, Kosoff said, “I’ve always felt that computers are like obedient little children. They always do what you tell them to do, even if what you tell them happens to be wrong.”
Littlejohn smiled ironically. “Especially if what you tell them is wrong.”
Chang said nothing.
Kosoff leaned toward her, sitting next to him, and patted her hand reassuringly. “Elizabeth, you’ve just gained a very capable addition to your staff. You should be pleased.”
“I suppose I am,” Chang replied uncertainly.
“Good,” said Kosoff. “Good.”
For a moment, no one spoke. Then Kosoff pushed his chair back from the table and got to his feet. “If there’s no other business, I think we should all get back to work.”
“But Alpha’s boiling away,” said Brad.
“Slowly,” Kosoff said. “We have plenty of time to deal with that problem. Centuries. Millennia, most likely.”
“But—”
“I’ll talk to Abbott about it. And Pedersen. For now, I think we’ve finished with the philology department’s immediate problem.”
Littlejohn pushed himself up from his chair. Reluctantly, Brad got to his feet also, towering over his department chief. But as Chang began to rise from her chair, Kosoff said, “Elizabeth, we should discuss how to make the best use of Emcee on the linguistics agenda.”
She looked up at him, nodded, and remained seated.
Kosoff extended his hand to Brad. “Good work, son. You have a way of making breakthroughs for us.”
Brad tried to shrug nonchalantly. Kosoff walked him and Littlejohn to the door, and waved cheerily as they stepped out into the corridor.
Once the door closed, Littlejohn said, “You’ve made an impression on him.”
“I guess so,” said Brad.
“Maybe he’ll protect you against Chang.”
“Protect me?”
Littlejohn strode several steps along the passageway before answering, “She’s furious at you. Didn’t you see that?”
“I saw she was upset. I thought it was about Emcee doing the work her group is supposed to do.”
Shaking his head, Littlejohn said, “She blames you for showing how inadequate she is. She blames you for invading her territory, her turf.”
Brad looked down at the dark-skinned Aborigine. “You think so?”
Littlejohn smiled patiently. “You’re an innocent, Brad. But you’re swimming in treacherous waters.”
“You think Chang could be dangerous?”
“And Kosoff, too. You’ve got to think about protecting yourself. You’re surrounded by aliens; they may look like ordinary people, but they’re more alien to you than I am.”
“More alien than the humanoids on Gamma.”
“Humanoids,” Littlejohn said. “That’s what they are. Remember that. They’re humanoids, not truly human.”
* * *
Kosoff, meanwhile, had seated himself back at the circular table, next to Chang.
Staring at the door that Brad and Littlejohn had just gone through, Kosoff muttered, “He’s a remarkable young man.”
Chang said, “Just because he talked to the master computer…”
“No,” said Kosoff. “It’s more than that. I exiled him to Alpha for three months and he came back and drove us to make contact with the octopods. Now he’s discovered that Alpha’s in danger and we haven’t been using Emcee at anywhere near his full capacity. He upsets the status quo. He’s a revolutionary, whether he himself understands that or not.”
“He’s pushed himself into my field. An amateur.”
“Who’s made significant discoveries.”
“An amateur,” Chang repeated.
“A dangerous amateur,” said Kosoff. “If we’re not careful with him, he’ll have both our heads.”
Chang’s eyes went wide. “What can we do about him?”
“I’m not quite sure,” said Kosoff, his intense blue eyes focused on the door once again. “Not yet. But I’ll have to come up with some way of dealing with him.”
“Push him out an air lock,” Chang growled.
“No, no, no. We have to use him. Put his natural curiosity and intelligence to work for us.”
“Not on my team! I won’t have him making a shambles of our work.”
“I agree. I’ll move him to something else, something that uses his background in anthropology.”
“And what might that be?”
“I don’t know. Not yet.”
* * *
That night, as Kosoff prepared for bed, he was still thinking about Brad, wondering how to use the young man without upsetting Chang or any of the other committee heads.
He stepped from the lavatory to his bedroom. Briefly he thought about calling one of the young women among the scientists to drop in for a nightcap. There was a redhead among the astronomers who seemed particularly friendly. She might be fun.
But as he climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to his bearded chin, his mind filled with a vision of Felicia Portman. Felicia Portman MacDaniels now. He stole her away from me. She’s married to him. Like a blundering ass, I walked her up the aisle and handed her over to him.
That’s a mistake that I’ve got to correct.