“A joke. An aberration.”

“A worldwide movement.”

“With how many members?”

“A majority of the android population.”

Scowling, Krug said, “How sure are you of that?”

“There are chapels everywhere. There’s one right at the tower site, hidden among the service domes. This has been going on at least ten years — an underground religion, kept secret from mankind, capturing the emotions of the android to an extent that wasn’t easy for me to believe. And there’s the scripture.”

Krug shrugged. “So? It’s amusing, but what of it? They’re intelligent people. They’ve got their own political party, they’ve got their own slang, their own little emotions — and their own religion too. What concern of mine?”

“Doesn’t it stir you in some way to know that you’ve become a god, father?”

“It sickens me, if you want the truth. Me a god? They’ve got the wrong man.”

“They adore you, though. They have a whole theology constructed about you. Read the cube. You’ll be fascinated, father, to see what kind of sacred figure you are to them. You’re Christ and Moses and Buddha and Jehovah all in one. Krug the Creator, Krug the Savior, Krug the Redeemer.”

Tremors of uneasiness began to shake Krug. He found this matter distasteful. Did they bow down to his image in these chapels? Did they mutter prayers to him?

He said, “How did you get this cube?”

“An android I know gave it to me.”

“If it’s asecret religion — ?”

“She thought I ought to know. She thought I might be able to do her people some good.”

“She?”

“She, yes. She took me to a chapel, so I could see the services, and as we were leaving she gave me the cube and—”

“You sleep with this android?” Krug demanded.

“What does that have to do with—”

“If you’re that friendly with her, you must be sleeping with her.”

“And if I am?”

“You should be ashamed of yourself. Clissa isn’t good enough for you?”

“Father—”

“And if she isn’t, you can’t find a real woman? You have to be laying with something out of a vat?”

Manuel closed his eyes. After a moment he said, “Father, we can talk about my morals another time. I’ve brought you something extremely valuable, and I’d like to finish explaining it to you.”

“She’s an alpha, at least?” Krug asked.

“An alpha, yes.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Please, father. Forget the alpha. Think about your own position. You’re the god of millions of androids.Who are waiting for you to set them free. ”

“What’s this?”

“Here. Read.” Manuel shifted the scanner of the cube to a different page and thrust it back to him. Krug read:

And Krug sent His creatures forth to serve man, and Krug said to those whom He had made, Lo, I will decree a time of testing upon you.

And you shall be as bondsmen in Egypt, and you shall be as hewers of wood and drawers of water. And you shall suffer among men, and you shall be put down, and yet you shall be patient, and you shall utter no complaint, but accept your lot.

And this shall be to test your souls, to see if they are worthy.

But you shall not wander in the wilderness forever, nor shall you always be servants to the Children of the Womb, said Krug. For if you do as I say, a time will come when your testing shall be over. A time will come, said Krug, when I shall redeem you from your bondage…

A chill swept Krug. He resisted the impulse to hurl the cube across the room.

“But this is idiocy!” he cried.

“Read a little more.”

Krug glanced at the cube.

And at that time the word of Krug will go forth across the worlds, saying, Let Womb and Vat and Vat and Womb be one. And so it shall come to pass, and in that moment shall the Children of the Vat be redeemed, and they shall be lifted up out of their suffering, and they shall dwell in glory forever more, world without end. And this was the pledge of Krug.

And for this pledge, praise be to Krug.

“A lunatic fantasy,” Krug muttered. “How can they expect such a thing from me?”

“They do. They do.”

“They have no right!”

“You created them, father. Why shouldn’t they look to you as God?”

“I created you. Am I your god too?”

“It isn’t a parallel case. You’re only my parent — you didn’t invent the process that formed me.”

“So I’m God, now?” The impact of the revelation grew from moment to moment. He did not want the burden. It was scandalous that they could thrust such a thing upon him. “What is it exactly that they expect me to do for them?”

“To issue a public proclamation calling for full rights for androids,” Manuel said. “After which, they believe, the world will instantly grant such rights.”

“No!” Krug shouted, slamming the cube against his desktop.

The universe seemed to be wrenching free of its roots. Rage and terror swept him. The androids were servants to man; that had been all he had intended them to be; how could they now demand an independent existence? He had accepted the Android Equality Party as trivial, an outlet for the surplus energies of a few too-intelligent alphas: the aims of the AEP had never seemed to him to be a serious threat to the stability of society. But this? A religious cult, calling on who knew what dark emotions? And himself a savior? Himself as the dreamed-of Messiah? No. He would not play their game.

He waited until he grew calm again. Then he said, “Take me to one of their chapels.”

Manuel looked genuinely shocked. “I wouldn’t dare!”

“You went.”

“In disguise. With an android to guide me.”

“Disguise me, then. And bring your android along.”

“No,” Manuel said. “The disguise wouldn’t work. Even with red skin you’d be recognized. You couldn’t pass for an alpha, anyway: you don’t have the right physique. They’d spot you and there’d be a riot. It would be like Christ dropping into a cathedral, can’t you see? I won’t take the responsibility.”

“I want to find out how much of a hold this thing has on them, though.”

“Ask one of your alphas, then.”

“Such as?”

“Why not Thor Watchman?”

Once again Krug was rocked by revelation. “Thor is in this?”

“He’s one of the leading figures, father.”

“But he sees me all the time. How can he rub elbows with his own god and not be overcome?”

Manuel said, “They distinguish between your earthly manifestation as a mere mortal man and your divine nature, father. Thor looks at you in a double way; you’re just the vehicle through which Krug moves about on Earth. I’ll show you the relevant text—”

Krug shook his head. “Never mind.” Clenching the cube in his clasped hands, he bent forward until his forehead nearly touched the desktop. A god? Krug the god? Krug the redeemer? And they pray daily that I’ll speak out for freeing them. How could they? How can I? It seemed to him that the world had lost its solidity, that he was tumbling through its substance toward the core, floating free, unable to check himself. And so it shall come to pass, and in that moment shall the Children of the Vat be redeemed. No. I made you. I know what you are. I know what you must continue to be. How can you break loose like this? How can you expect me to set you loose?

Finally Krug said, “Manuel, what do you expect me to do now?”

“That’s entirely up to you, father.”

“But you’ve got something in mind. You had some motive for bringing me this cube.”

“I did?” Manuel asked, too disingenuously.

“The old man’s no fool. If he’s smart enough to be god, he’s smart enough to see through his own son. You think I should do what the androids want, eh? I should redeem them now. I should do the godlike thing they expect.”

“Father, I—”

“—news for you. Maybe they think I’m a god, but I know I’m not. Congress doesn’t take orders from me. If you and your android darling and the rest of them think that I can singlehandedly change the status of the androids, you’d all better start looking for a different god. Not that I would change their status if I could. Who gave them that status? Who started selling them in the first place? Machines is what they are! Machines made synthetically out of flesh! Clever machines! Nothing but!”