They had lunch with the cobblies up in the atrium. The cloud cover was burning off, and things were getting hot, at least for a Princeton spring day in the nineteenth year. Even under the awning it was warm enough to start sweat from every joint. The children didn't seem to mind. They were still taken by the stranger who had given their baby brother his name. Except for Viki, they were as raucous as ever, and Unnerby did his best to respond.
As they were finishing, the children's tutors showed up. They looked like students from the institute. The children would never have to go to a real school. Would that make it any easier for them in the end?
The children wanted Unnerby to stay for their lessons, but Sherkaner would have none of it. "Concentrate on studying," he said.
And so—hopefully—the hardest part of the visit was past. Except for the babies, Underhill and Unnerby were alone back in his study in the cool ground floor of the institute. They talked for a while about Unnerby's specific needs. Even if Sherkaner was unwilling to help directly, he really did have some bright cobbers up here. "I'd like you to talk to some of my theory people. And I want you to see our computing-machinery experts. It seems to me that some of your grunt problems would be solved if you just had fast methods for solving differential equations."
Underhill stretched out on the perch behind his desk. His aspect was suddenly quizzical. "Hrunk...socializing aside, we accomplished more today than a dozen phone calls could have done. I know the institute is a place you'd love. Not that you'd fit in! We have plenty of technicians, but our theory people think they can boss them around. You're in a different class. You're the type that can boss the thinkers around and use what ideas they have to reach your engineering goals."
Hrunkner smiled weakly. "I thought invention was to be the parent of necessity?"
"Hmf. It mainly is. That's why we need people like you, who can bend the pieces together. You'll see what I mean this afternoon. These are people you'd love to take advantage of, and vice versa....I just wish you had come up a lot earlier."
Unnerby started to make some weak excuse, stopped. He just couldn't pretend anymore. Besides, Sherkaner was so much easier to face than the General. "You know why I didn't come before, Sherk. In fact, I wouldn't be here now if General Smith hadn't given me explicit orders. I'd follow her through Hell, you know that. But she wants more. She wants acceptance of your perversions. I—You two have such beautiful children, Sherk. How could you do such a thing to them?"
He expected the other to laugh the question off, or perhaps to react with the icy hostility that Smith showed at any hint of such criticism. Instead, Underhill sat silently for a moment, playing with an antique children's puzzle. The little wood pieces clicked back and forth in the quiet of the study. "You agree the children are healthy and happy?"
"Yes, though Brent seems...slow."
"You don't think I regard them as experimental animals?"
Unnerby thought back to Victory Junior and her dollhouse maze. Why when he was her age, he used to fry attercops with a magnifying glass. "Um, you experiment with everything, Sherk; that's just the way you are. I think you love your children as much as any good father. And that's why it's all the harder for me to imagine how you could bring them into the world out of phase. So what if only one was mentally damaged? I notice they didn't talk of having any contemporary playmates. You can't find any who aren't monstrous, can you?"
From Sherkaner's aspect, he could tell his question had a struck home. "Sherk. Your poor children will live their whole lives in a society that sees them as a crime against nature."
"We're working on these things, Hrunkner. Jirlib told you about ‘The Children's Hour of Science,' didn't he?"
"I wondered what that was all about. So he and Brent are really on a radio show? Those two could almost pass for in-phase, but in the long run somebody will guess and—"
"Of course. If not, Victory Junior is eager to be on the show. Eventually, Iwant the audience to understand. The program is going to cover all sorts of science topics, but there will be a continuing thread about biology and evolution and how the Dark has caused us to live our lives in certain ways. With the rise of technology, whatever social reason there is for rigid birthing times is irrelevant."
"You'll never convince the Church of the Dark."
"That's okay. I'm hoping to convince the millions of open-minded people like Hrunkner Unnerby."
