We the Underpeople

We the Underpeople Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: We the Underpeople Read Online Free PDF
Author: Cordwainer Smith
Tags: Science-Fiction
the roadside marble bench behind her. She sat on it obediently. The happiness which had been in her at the top of the stairs bubbled forth anew. If this wise old machine knew so much about her, perhaps it could tell her what to do. What did the voice mean by "wrong planet"? By "lover"? By "he is coming for you now," or was that what the voice had actually said?

    "Take a breath, my dear," said the voice of the Lady Panc Ashash. She might have been dead for hundreds or thousands of years, but still spoke with the authority and kindness of a great lady.

    Elaine breathed deep. She saw a huge red cloud, like a pregnant whale, getting ready to butt the rim of the upper city, far above her and far out over the sea. She wondered if clouds could possibly have feelings.

    The voice was speaking again. What had it said?

    Apparently the question was repeated. "Did you know you were coming?" said the voice from the window.

    "Of course not." Elaine shrugged. "There was just this door, and I didn't have anything special to do, so I opened it. And here was a whole new world inside a house. It looked strange and rather pretty, so I came down. Wouldn't you have done the same thing?"

    "I don't know," said the voice candidly. "I'm really a machine. I haven't been me for a long, long time. Perhaps I would have, when I was alive. I don't know that, but I know about things. Maybe I can see the future, or perhaps the machine part of me computes such good probabilities that it just seems like it. I know who you are and what is going to happen to you. You had better brush your hair."

    "Whatever for?" said Elaine.

    "He is coming," said the happy old voice of the Lady Panc Ashash.

    " Who is coming?" said Elaine, almost irritably.

    "Do you have a mirror? I wish you would look at your hair. It could be prettier, not that it isn't pretty right now. You want to look your best. Your lover, that's who is coming, of course."

    "I haven't got a lover," said Elaine. "I haven't been authorized one, not till I've done some of my lifework, and I haven't even found my lifework yet. I'm not the kind of girl who would go ask a subchief for the dreamies, not when I'm not entitled to the real thing. I may not be much of a person, but I have some self-respect." Elaine got so mad that she shifted her position on the bench and sat with her face turned away from the all-watching window.

    The next words gave her gooseflesh down her arms, they were uttered with such real earnestness, such driving sincerity. " Elaine, Elaine, do you really have no idea of who you are? "

    Elaine pivoted on the bench so that she looked toward the window. Her face was caught redly by the rays of the setting sun. She could only gasp.

    "I don't know what you mean. . . ."

    The inexorable voice went on. "Think, Elaine, think. Does the name 'D'joan' mean nothing to you?"

    "I suppose it's an underperson, a dog. That's what the D is for, isn't it?"

    "That was the little girl you met," said the Lady Panc Ashash, as though the statement were something tremendous.

    "Yes," said Elaine dutifully. She was a courteous woman, and never quarreled with strangers.

    "Wait a minute," said the Lady Panc Ashash. "I'm going to get my body out. God knows when I wore it last, but it'll make you feel more at easy terms with me. Forgive the clothes. They're old stuff, but I think the body will work all right. This is the beginning of the story of D'joan, and I want that hair of yours brushed even if I have to brush it myself. Just wait right there, girl, wait right there. I'll just take a minute."

    The clouds were turning from dark red to liver-black. What could Elaine do? She stayed on the bench. She kicked her shoe against the walk. She jumped a little when the old-fashioned street lights of the lower city went on with sharp geometrical suddenness; they did not have the subtle shading of the newer lights in the other city upstairs, where day phased into the bright clear night with no sudden shift in
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