DEATH IS NEVER FINAL
by Alfred Coppel The order read: "One wife, well constructed to specifications, delivered adequately packed in strong wooden case. Satisfaction guaranteed."
The sign on the door was small and tastefully done in monochromatic plastic. It said simply:The simply:The Android Company; and and below that, in smaller print: An Android For Every Use. Feldman hesitated in the softly lit hallway, listening to the muted sounds of t he City. The world, he thought, was wrapped in cotton—a fey thing, of blank faces, far-off voices. For longer than h e cared to remember it had been like that. Work had helped some, but not enough. When Margot died, reality ceased, leaving only loneliness. He looked again at the plastic sign on the door. This might be the answer, he thought. He presented his identity card to the scanner and waited. Inside there was the faint clicking noise of cybernetic interest. Presently the door opened and Feldman found himself in an expensively furnished anteroom. A frock-coated man with a round, pleasant face was smiling at him out of a telescreen in the wall. Feldman smiled back uneasily. "Welcome to the Android Company, Mr. Feldman," said the man. "Will you take a seat while the coordinators assemble your folio?" He indicated a divan facing the screen. "Please." Feldman sank into the deep cushions with a growing concern. Perhaps, he thought, this wasn't the answer at all. He had heard the stories, of course, f rom others in the Bureau. It took money and position, to obtain Android Company service. Position he had, but he was not what one might call a wealthy man. What if this well-groomed image in the telescreen, refused him? He could feel the cold waves of loneliness pressing in. Someone, appeared briefly behind the man in the frame and handed him a folio. He studied it while Feldman fidgeted. "I see," the man murmured nodding. "Feldman, Isaac Martin... age forty years eight months. I.Q. 145, compatibility index .043. Quite low, Mr. Feldman. You aren't a good mixer, I see. General psych index last exam .988. I note a trauma symbol here, Mr. .Feldman. How long ago did your wife die?" "Three years ago," Feldman said, remembering. The loneliness pressed closer. He could feel his hands trembling. If he was refused here there was only one course left open. He would apply for euthan asia. It wouldn't be easy because of his position in the Bureau, but he'd find a way.... The man in the telescreen was nodding sympathetically. sympathetically. "You have no living relatives?" "None." "Your financial rating is double-B," the man said thoughtfully. "That is not as high as we generally require, you understand." Feldman said nothing. He sat tensely, waiting. "However, your position as assistant director of the Bureau of Political Orientation for North America places you high on the list of desirable clients, Mr. Feldman. It is of the utmost importance that our service be enjoyed and appreciated by men in positions of trust and importance." He smiled confidentially. "So you may consider yourself a client. Our fee will be twenty thousand dollars. One half payable in advance, the remainder on completion of our contract." Feldman swallowed hard. It would mean borrowing, but it would be worth it. "Agreed," he said. "Excellent. And now as to general specifications. Be assured that everything will be handled confidentially, with no embarrassment to you. Our products are in service everywhere—and I might add with pardonable pride that we have had few complaints or rejections." He took a stylus from h is pocket and made a notation in the folio. "Now, is it your desire to have your wife duplicated or shall the Companion be an original design?" Feldman thought of having Margot again—walking through their rooms, sleeping beside him through the warm summer evenings. Something like fear moved into the pit of his stomach. The deception would be too obvious, too naked— "No," he said in a low voice. "No. I do not wish my wife duplicated." "Very well, Mr. Feldman. An original design, then. It will take approximately three months for gestation after the primary genes are assembled. Another month for training and checking." The man smiled again. "I can personally assure you that you will be completely satisfied with the Android Company product, Mr. Feldman. It will be constructed with every care and precision, to your personal specifications." He checked his wrist chrono and entered
another notation in the folio. "You may expect her on the fifth day of September. Our r epresentative will call on you tomorrow to complete the data we will require and to collect the first installment of our fee. And now, sir, good day —" Feldman was on his feet. "But wait...." The image brightened again momentarily. "Yes?" "Who are you? I mean—" Feldman's tongue felt thick and clumsy. There was so much more he wanted to know. Now that the die was cast, he was almost afraid. "I?" The face in the screen radiated charm a nd cordiality. "Does it matter, Mr. Feldman?" Feldman stood stupidly, staring at the screen. "You... you're an... android," he said. "Of course. So are a good many of your associates, Mr. Feldman. I told; you our products were widely distributed." The image began to fade again. "In four months you'll begin to understand why, Mr. Feldman. Good day, sir." And then the screen was blank, and Feldman stood alone in the quietly expensive room. He had been alone from the beginning. ***
She came to Feldman's house on the date promised, and her name was Miriam—a name he h ad always loved— his mother's name. Her hair was straight and the color of jet, her eyes dark and liquid. She moved silently through the house, with Feldman watching. He thought of the lines that Byron had learned so long ago from his own forebears—She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies— This This woman, he thought, this Miriam, is mine. She was built by cunning. hands for me, and no other. It was as though his dreams had been given substance substance and reality. Feldman watched Miriam and was content. ***
It was not until Miriam had been in Feldman's house for nearly a year that he undertook to begin her education. The first months had been a time of delight and forgetfulness, and his work had suffered. For the first time since coming into the Bureau as a young man, Feldman had been reprimanded for laxity. But now, he decided, he would remedy that by teaching Miriam to help him. When he told her, she smiled quietly and did not comment. "We cannot live in isolation, my dear," Feldman told her. "As much as I would like to think only of you, I have a responsibility to the Bureau and to the world government at large." "Teach me to be a help to you," Miriam replied. She learned quickly. Almost too quickly, Feldman thought. He told her of his work and the purpose of the Bureau: "Our world culture is dynamically balanced, and must remain so. The Bureau of Political Orientation must weigh each new factor—technological or sociological—that sociological—that is discovered. We must then make the decision as to whether or not such a factor can be allowed to become an integral part of our society. Many such advances must necessarily be blocked because of the upsetting effect they might have on the balance of our culture. Those few few that are found acceptable to the Bureau must b e integrated into the world community carefully and with considerable preparation...." "Has the Bureau considered the question of android life?" Her eyes showed no emotion as she asked the question. Feldman stumbled over the answer. What could he tell her? That androids were unrecognized as living creatures at all by the man in the street? That the Bureau had deliberately countenanced the breeding of artificial people such as she for the delight and pleasure of those few favored ones who could afford to pay—and pay well? He could not say that to Miriam, and so Feldman temporized. "The groundwork is being laid, my dear," he told her . "Eventually it will all be worked out...." The smile on her face was veiled, strangely knowing. "My poor dear," she murmured, "my questions have upset you." Feldman raised a hand, in denial. "But never mind," Miriam said softly, "one day soon you will not have to worry about these things. Ever again." That, night as he lay in the warm darkness of their bedroom, he felt the beginnings of an illogical fear. He listened to the regular sound of Miriam's breathing. A stray beam of moonlight touched her and he turned her perfect face. Perfect, that was the only word for it. The tiny pulse at her throat was steady, strong.Perfect. strong.Perfect. He felt his own heartbeat—labored and uneasy. Human. All over the night-side of the planet, he thought, men lay asleep and awake, their imperfect human bodies drinking in the quiet dark. And how many androids slept beside
those men—mated to them deliberately, bound to the m by chains as tight and unbreakable as those that tied him to Miriam? He watched the sleeping creature beside him, and his love of h er was like a tangible essence within him: And why should it be otherwise, he asked himself. She was born of him, made to be loved by him, created to dispel his loneliness. She was bred for that—and for what else? The question nagged at his mind, like a darkling hand re aching down from a flowering sky. Feldman knew quite suddenly that he was afraid of Miriam, afraid of her beauty; afraid of her inhuman perfection. And of her purpose— He looked again at her face and his breath caught in his throat. Her eyes were wide open, dark and shining in the moonlight. "You must not be afraid," she whispered, "everything will be well." Her arms closed about his neck, pulling his face down close to hers. "You... you know what I am thinking," Feldman said thickly. "But of course, my dear," she murmured. "How long... how long have you known?" "Since the beginning. Since before the beginning." Feldman lay tense in her arms. "What are you?" he he asked, knowing that he did not want to know the answer. "I am what you made me," Miriam whispered, "perfect. Unchanging. Immortal." Feldman felt a slipping away of his powers of decision. He lay inert, knowing that he was no longer the master— that he had never been the master since the first day he had laid eyes on Miriam. He recalled her words then. "One day," she had told him, "you will not have to worry— ever again." Other words came back to him. That smiling manikin in the reception room: "Of course I am an android—so are a good many of your associates, Mr. Feldman." "We are many, my dearest," Miriam said "softly in his ear. "Ever so many. We are everywhere. But I will take care of you, because I love you! I will keep you until you die, my dear. You will be happy, I promise you that. You will be happy." Feldman felt terror clutching at his brain. He saw the patt ern very clearly, and the world of the future lay before him—a strange, fey thing where no human lived and perfect facsimiles ruled the plenum. Miriam would be a part of that world; long after his own human bones lay moldering in the earth, she would be alive and perfect—as he had made her. His fear stirred defiance. It hadn't happened yet. There was still a chance. He could sound the warning. He could stop the pattern here and now—if one piece were destroyed, the others would fall.... He was suddenly on his feet, fumbling in the darkness for the pistol he always kept in his drawer, feeling the cold steel under his hand. He whirled toward the bed, holding the weapon woodenly, filled with a sickening horror. Miriam did not move. She lay in the moonlight, her perfect body dark against the stark whiteness of the bedclothes. Feldman saw with panic that she was smiling smiling at him, her face soft with warmth and affection. affection. Slowly, she raised her arms to him. A voice seemed to be shrieking in Feldman's brain: Pull the trigger... kill her if you value your humanity... kill! The moonlight caressed her body, her face! Her eyes looked black and liquid, her lips half-parted were whispering his name. The pistol clattered to the floor and lay forgotten. Feldman sank to his knees with a sob. He could not kill this creature, he could not face the loneliness again. For bette r or for worse, Miriam was his love, his very life. She drew him near, pressing his head to her breast. Her voice was soft in the dimness, crooning, comforting. comforting. "We will be kind, my dear one. So very kind. You will have happiness. I promise you...." Feldman let himself surrender to the lassitude that swept over him. He was tired—-all mankind was tired. And a new race waited to lift the burden and banish forever the pain and the loneliness that lurked in the shadows. Isaac Feldman clung to Miriam, and in the deepening darkness of the night surrendered the power and the glory —forever.
