"Ken Rand - The Henry and the Martha" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rand Ken)

****

People loved to watch the humans, loved to see them walk, speak their
gibberish at them, eat, exercise, groom themselves. They loved to see the Henry
cavort and dance and sing and attack the display window in mock fury. People
would stand before the display and gesture at the humans to provoke response. The
Henry always obliged. They loved the Martha too.

No, we couldn’t fix them or replace them with sims, however sophisticated.
Nobody would ever see the humans be human again.

But what if people could be a human?

****

“You’ve had your turn,” A-nan said. “Mine now.”
 I gave up the waldo and left the Henry dangling, suspended in the act of
copulation with the Martha. Its body went limp and swayed, suspended by delicate
and intricate artifices linking its nervous and sensory systems with the observer-link
booth. A-nan took my place, and the humans resumed copulating, their ecstatic cries
in near synchronicity. A-nan fell into rhythm.

The Martha was off-link, on stand-by mode, for a system upgrade, which is
why A-nan and I had to share the Henry at the moment, otherwise A-nan would have
linked with the Martha while I linked with the Henry, and we would have experienced
human sexual intercourse at the same time. Maybe we would also experience
simultaneous orgasm, as sometimes happens.

In a minute, the Henry reached a howling climax, and in another few seconds,
the Martha, on automatic and diagnostic but not linked to a waldo, responded with
its own. A-nan felt as the Henry felt.

Because we were their caretakers, A-nan and I got to link with the humans
more often than the average patron did. We were wealthy is that regard. We never
passed up an opportunity, even during repair and testing. A-nan unplugged, grinned,
flushed, and sighed.

“Marvelous,” the Director said, waiting with scant patience for his turn.

The Henry was still the more popular human, but the Director preferred being
the Martha. Now, though, the Director had to settle for being the Henry during the
Martha’s downtime. Director’s privilege: he got more time in-human than anyone.

The Director switched the program from copulation to dance. He liked to
dance.

Fans signed for the copulation sim more often than any other program, but
many also ran the murder program—as the Henry. In that sim, none elected to be the
Martha. So far.