believe what you say; then perhaps you can understand something I'm going to tell you.
"I've been learning a great deal since I left you, Odeen. Never mind how. I have. There's no Emotional left in me at all, except physiologically. Inside, where it counts, I'm all Rational, except that I hope I have more feeling for others than Rationals have. And one thing I've learned is what we really are, Odeen; you and I and Tritt and all the other triads on this planet; what we really are and always were."
"What is that?" asked Odeen. He was prepared to listen for as long as might be necessary, and as quietly, if only she would come back with him when she had said her say. He would perform any penance, do anything that might be required. Only she must come back - and something dim and dark inside him knew that she had to come back voluntarily.
"What we are? Why, nothing, really, Odeen," she said lightly, almost laughing, "Isn't that strange? The Hard Ones are the only living species on the face of the world. Haven't they taught you that? There is only one species because you and I, the Soft Ones, are not really alive. We're machines, Odeen. We must be because only the Hard Ones are alive. Haven't they taught you that, Odeen?"
"But, Dua, that's nonsense," said Odeen, nonplused.
Dua's voice grew harsher. "Machines, Odeen! Made by the Hard Ones! Destroyed by the Hard Ones! They are alive, the Hard Ones. Only they. They don't talk about it much. They don't have to. They all know it. But I've learned to think, Odeen, and I've worked it out from the small clues I've had. They live tremendously long lives, but die eventually. They no longer give birth; the Sun yields too little energy for that. And since they die very infrequently, but don't give birth at all, their numbers are very slowly declining. And there are no young ones to provide new blood and new thoughts, so the old, long-lived Hard Ones get terribly bored. So what do you suppose they do, Odeen?"
"What?" There was a kind of fascination about this. A repulsive fascination.
"They manufacture mechanical children, whom they can teach. You said it yourself, Odeen. You would rather teach than do anything else but learn - and melt, of course. The Rationals are made in the mental image of the Hard Ones, and the Hard Ones don't melt, and learning is terribly complex for them since they already know so much. What is left for them but the fun of teaching. Rationals were created for no purpose but to be taught. Emotionals and Parentals were created because they were necessary for the self-perpetuating machinery that made new Rationals. And new Rationals were needed constantly because the old ones were used up, were taught all they could be taught. And when old Rationals had absorbed what they could, they were destroyed and were taught, in advance, to call the destruction process "passing on" to spare their feelings. And of course, Emotionals and Parentals passed on with them. As long as they had helped form a new triad there was no further use for them."
"But that's all wrong, Dua," Odeen managed to say. He had no arguments to pose against her nightmare scheme, but he knew with a certainty past argument that she was wrong. (Or did a little pang of doubt deep inside suggest that the certainty might have been implanted in him, to begin with? - No, surely no, for then would not Dua be certain with an implanted certainty, too, that this was wrong? - Or was she an imperfect Emotional without the proper implantations and without - Oh, what was he thinking. He was as crazy as she was.)
Dua said, "You look upset, Odeen. Are you sure I'm all wrong? Of course, now they have the Positron Pump and they now have all the energy they need, or will have. Soon they will be giving birth again. Maybe they are doing so already. And they won't need any Soft-One machines at all, and we will all be destroyed; I beg pardon, we will all pass on."
"No, Dua," said Odeen, strenuously, as much to himself as to her. "I don't know how you got those notions, but the Hard Ones aren't like that. We are not destroyed."
"Don't lie to yourself, Odeen. They are like that. They are prepared to destroy a whole world of other-beings for their