“Which may not be true of Kallik,” E. C. Tally said. “And still less of Louis Nenda and Atvar H’sial. The Lotus field of Paradox erases all memories.”

“From men,” J’merlia said, “and from Lo’tfians and Hymenopts. But from machines? Or from computers?”

The others turned to look at E. C. Tally. He nodded. “According to the records, all memories are lost in Paradox, from Organics or Inorganics. However.” He bent down to release the line from J’merlia and place it around his own body. “However, this is not Paradox. The Lotus field here may not be the same. An experiment is in order.”

They watched in silence as he cautiously stepped into the yellow ring, then passed across the five-meter band that led to the green. In the middle of the green annulus he paused and looked back.

“I feel some slight disturbance of circuits.” His voice was calm. “It is not enough to inhibit performance, nor to prevent my further progress. I will proceed.”

He walked on, descending across the shallow bowl of the floor. Five paces short of the place where J’merlia had faltered, he paused again.

“I must return.” His voice had become halting and slow. “I cannot retain information. It is being destroyed in both current and backup files… I record a loss of fourteen thousand sectors in the past three seconds.” He turned and took one hesitant step away from the center. Then he seemed to freeze.

“Twenty-three thousand more sectors are gone,” he said dreamily. “The rate is increasing.”

“That’s enough.” Graves heaved on the line, and Tally came bobbing and weaving back to the periphery of the chamber. At the edge he halted and shook off Birdie Kelly’s supporting hands.

“Do not worry, Commissioner Kelly. I have lost some data — all recent — but I am still fully functional. Most of my stored memory has not been affected.”

“But we’ve answered the main question,” Graves said. “The field is just as effective on organic or inorganic memories. So we can’t get them out — any of them.”

“We must.” J’merlia stood up and made a movement as though he was ready to run back toward the middle of the chamber. “The masters are in there! Kallik is there! We cannot abandon them.”

“I am sorry, J’merlia.” Graves walked across to place himself between the Lo’tfian and the silent forms at the center of the room. “If we could do something to help Kallik and the others, we would — even though Atvar H’sial and Louis Nenda tried to kill us, back on Quake. But we can’t do a thing to get them out.”

“That statement is plausible, but not proven.” E. C. Tally had been standing motionless. Now he raised his hands to touch the sides of his head. “I would like to question it. When I was receiving my original indoctrination, before I set out for Dobelle, there were calibration problems. To make the required adjustments, it was necessary to remove my brain.”

Tally ignored Birdie Kelly’s gasp of horror. He was feeling carefully around his temples. “I pointed out to the technicians at the time that my embodied design was intended for continuous sensory input. They employed a neural bundle connecting my brain to my spine. I lost sensory feeds and body control for a few seconds as the attachment was being made, but I was otherwise unaffected. Now, my observations suggest that J’merlia is the strongest and most agile of us. If he were to ascend the cable all the way to the surface, enter the Have-It-All, and return with a long high-capacity neural cable…”

Birdie Kelly had never seen anything so disgusting in his whole life. And that was saying something.

E. C. Tally lay on his side on the gently curving floor, eyes closed. A coil of high-capacity cable lay by him. His head was supported on a folded blanket taken from the Have-It-All, and he was giving calm directions to Julius Graves and J’merlia.

“The skull is of course real bone, and the skin was grown naturally. But for convenience of access the blood vessels were terminated in the rear section, on a line one centimeter above my ears. The blood supply to the upper skull has been rerouted to veins and arteries in my forehead. The upper cranium is hinged at the front and secured with a line of pins at the back. You will see the access line when the hair is lifted. If you raise the skin at the back you should see the pressure points, marked in blue on the bone.”

Graves inserted a thin spatula into the horizontal gap a few inches above E. C. Tally’s rear hairline. As he levered upward there was a gleam of white bone. Three blue dots were revealed on the smooth rear of the skull.

“I see them. Three of them?”

“That is correct. Very good. When those pressure points are simultaneously depressed, the rear pins release. You will find that the whole upper cranium lifts forward about the hinged line in the forehead. The skin, veins, and arteries there should stretch, but they will remain intact above the hinged region.” When Graves hesitated, Tally added, “Do not concern yourself about my sensations. Naturally, the warning signals that you know as pain have been modified in my case. I will feel nothing that you recognize as discomfort.”

Graves nodded, and while J’merlia held the spatula in position he reached in and pressed the three marked places on the white bone. There was a sharp click. The rear part of the skull jerked upward a couple of millimeters, revealing a narrow dark slit.

“That looks like poor design,” Graves said. “Isn’t there a danger that the release could be triggered accidentally?”

“Not while I am functional. I must cooperate, or be incapable of internal state transitions, before the release can take place. Now — grasp the rear hair and lift the upper cranium, rotating it about the forward hinge.”

The whole cap of the skull eased upward under Graves’s gentle pressure. Birdie saw the inside of the hemisphere, with its intricate network of red blood vessels. Below it was a bulging gray ovoid, sitting in the skull case as snugly as an egg in an eggcup.

“Very good.” Tally remained completely still. “You will now see what appear to be the meninges — the outer protective membranes of the human brain. In my case they are of course artificial. I was embodied with my own independent power supply, so there is no need for anything other than a neural body-brain interface. You will find the neural interface when you lift me out of the skull cavity. Lift me only a few centimeters, and proceed with caution. It would be undesirable to disable the interface prematurely. A strong pull would unseat the connection.”

Graves was reaching into Tally’s head and cautiously lifting out a roughly spherical object, small enough to hold comfortably in his two cupped hands. As the wrinkled ball was raised, a short coiled spiral was revealed. It ran between the bottom of the embodied computer and the lower hindbrain of E. C. Tally’s body, above the end of the spinal column. Clear liquid dripped from the coil onto Graves’s hands as the computer brain was lifted free of its body.

“Now,” Tally continued. “The next phase should be simple, but I will not be able to guide you through it. Commissioner Kelly, you and J’merlia must make sure that my body does not move — there may be some reflex muscle activity. Councilor Graves, you must break the connection between me and the body, and then connect it again through the high-capacity cable. Do it as quickly as you can, consistent with care, but do not worry if it takes a minute or two. This body’s own hindbrain will permit it to function normally for at least that long, while I am absent. Also, do not be afraid to touch the inside of the skull cavity. This body is well protected against infection. Carry on, please, as soon as you feel ready.”

Graves nodded. There was another click as he reached in and delicately separated the body and the sphere of the embodied computer. E. C. Tally’s limbs jerked against Birdie and J’merlia’s restraining grasp; then the body slumped and steadied.