"Wouldn't it be simpler and less expensive to make warbots in the form of floaters? Because human soldiers walk upright on their hind limbs doesn't make it the optimum design strategy."

"A perceptive question, Senator," Peixoto said, "but I believe you'll find it is the best design strategy. General Kulikov, why don't you explain."

The general rose; he preferred to speak on his feet. "The human nervous system," he answered, "evolved to operate an erect, bipedal body with upper appendages which manipulate objects. And beginning in infancy, each of us spends years mastering their function. The warbot servo is designed to operate using those same neural circuits in the manner for which they evolved, and in which the person learned to use them.

"In the late 28th century, when warbots became feasible, alternative design strategies were tested. All but the bipeds presented serious training problems, while biped servo design proved less difficult than expected.

"So when the present emergency struck, we went with a biped design. Plans already existed for large-scale production. Have I answered your question?" Kulikov finished.

Senator Bomboulis nodded. "You have, General. Before my election, I was a professor of history at the University of Kaunas. So I am well aware how little appreciation and support your peacetime defense efforts received-both your predecessors' efforts and your own. You have my sincere admiration and gratitude for your dedication, foresight and ingenuity." He paused, then chuckled wryly. "Not to mention your thick skin."

When the meeting was over, the president walked to his office, briskly as always. He was thinking about something Kulikov had failed to mention. A bot design, loosely speaking, only recently in production, and not bipedal at all. Not a fighting bot in the conventional sense, though in its way, military. But it wasn't time yet to make it known, even to the cabinet. A leak would result in problems he would gladly do without.

Warbots

On their way to various training areas, B Company's trainees had seen the new building grow from bare, bulldozed earth to a completed structure in under four weeks. The largest in the regimental area, it even had two stories. They'd wondered what it was for. Now, obviously, they were about to find out.

Entering it, they filed into a small lecture hall and sat down on its benches. It smelled like newly-sawn lumber and fresh paint. Then someone, something entered and stepped to the lectern. "I am Lieutenant Mei-Li Huygens-Gurejian," she said, "from New Netherlands, in Spain. That's on Terra. I have two children, and for four years I was a lecturer in history at the University of Barcelona. Until I was afflicted-and I do mean afflicted-by cascade syndrome, the major killer of young adults on Terra." She spread her arms. "So when I had a chance to contribute to the defense of my species and my children, I took it. Without hesitation."

A mother! thought Jael Wesley. More than seven feet tall, and steel! Here to protect her babies. A thrill ran through her. Glancing sideways at Esau, she laid her hand on his.

Huygens continued. "Two years ago I was five feet four and weighed one hundred twenty-five pounds. In secondary school I was a competitive gymnast. It developed excellent balance and coordination, very useful for warbots. Now I'm seven feet three, and weigh four hundred forty-seven pounds; perhaps less than you thought. In the Core Worlds, materials engineering is quite advanced."

Jael didn't understand everything the warbot said, but she got a sense of it. And she was impressed by the bot's clear female voice. She'd expected a baritone, a voice like the bot's on the cube they'd watched.

"I see one of you is female," Huygens added, and Jael felt herself blushing. "As I still am in all but body. My viewpoint remains essentially female-a female soldier's-and my feelings are still female, though in some respects different than before." Her fingertips passed down her body almost to the knees; her arms were long. "Obviously I'll have no more children, but I've had my quota, and with cascade syndrome I couldn't have had more anyway. Nor could I have mothered the two I had much longer; I was expected to die within weeks at most. But now, if I survive this war, I can be with them. I may very well not survive, but if we lose the war, my children would die."

She paused, then laughed. "They've seen me like this, incidentally. I had five days leave before I shipped here. They're eight and five years old, a girl and a boy, and at first they were very shy with me. But within a couple of hours, the shyness was gone, replaced by curiosity. Argop loved using my arm for a chinning bar. We did some hugging and kissing, too," she added chuckling. Jael found herself loving this seven-foot metal woman. "Kissing went better for me than for them. My sensorial package-the senses built into this servo-includes a good sense of touch and being touched. And my brain translates it into familiar feelings. But touching me? I'm afraid I'm not the best for snuggling with." Her audience laughed nervously. "Krikor, my husband, says he'll be glad to get used to it, but I told him he should find a female companion anyway. One who'll be a good surrogate mother for our kids, and whom I can get along with when the war is over."

She sounded almost serene as she said it. It struck Jael that this woman had needed to examine her feelings and make adjustments fast. But then, having a deadly disease, she must have gotten used to doing that. And now she had a life again, and a purpose.

It also occurred to Jael that she herself might never have had those thoughts if she hadn't left New Jerusalem, and the life and farm they'd had there. The realization took her by surprise.

Mei-Li Huygens-Gurejian hadn't been killing time, talking about herself. Part of her job was to make herself human for her listeners. That accomplished, she went on to prepare them briefly for the training they'd begin when she'd finished.

They could not, she told them, learn to operate a servo-a bot body-while still organics. What they could do, though, was learn and get used to what warbots did in combat, especially individual and small-unit tactics.

"Some of it," she said, "is much like the things you already do. Every day, while training as organics, you learn things that warbots need to know. And most of the time, in combat, warbots work with organics, and need to know what you know and do. So those of you who make yourselves available for warbot service-in case you're ever maimed or fatally injured-will already know much of what you need to know. You'll have it stored in your brains. And what you learn in the training you begin tonight will teach you the rest.

"The main thing you'll need to do, after being bottled and installed, is learn to operate your new body, the servo. And that's not so much learning as it is simply practice. You'll find that your arms and legs will work very much like they always have. Intend them to do something and they'll do it. But your center of gravity will be higher, so your sense of balance will feel a little off at first. Also your arms will be considerably longer, and you'll have to get used to that. You'll weigh a lot more, so it will be harder to dodge. And you'll be a lot faster, a lot stronger, and a lot more durable. Meanwhile, some things you'll have to be more careful about, till you get used to doing them in your new body. And some things you can be less careful about."

A lecturer is a kind of teacher, Jael thought. No wonder she's good at explaining. She wished she could get to really know this woman, this giantess.

"What you'll begin here this evening," Huygens went on, "is called `virtuality training.' You'll wear a special helmet, and sit in a little room, seeing and hearing a realistic video scene all around you. Seeing it as if through bot eyes, hearing it as if through bot ears. The sounds that go with the scenes will be partly the sounds of battle, including orders from officers. And partly it will be the voices of your trainer and your coach, telling you what's going on and what to do. As an imaginary warbot, you'll seem to move around and fight within that scene, but without ever leaving your module. Your coach will be seeing the same things you see, and talk to you through your earphones. It'll be awkward at first, but that will soon pass."