ANIMAT
By BASIL WELLS
Battling Venus' slime and vicious frog-apes, J46 yet
found time to wonder: Was he a man or an android?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories Spring 1949.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
For too long had the Sun Maiden been plunging sunward, hermeteor-crushed jets and warped plates feeling the relentless chill ofspace eating swiftly inward.
Past the orbit of Mars; down past Earth's sector of space, and intothe pull of Venus she flashed, her pace quickening. And crew-members,sweating and hollow-eyed within the foul closeness of space suits,worked desperately to repair that all-but hopeless damage.
Abruptly the forward jets flared raggedly. The great ship faltered; itscourse shifted planetward, and even as the clouds swallowed the SunMaiden the first of the patched jets exploded.
The remaining rockets flared briefly and died. The captain jettisonedcargo and equipment before releasing the eight undamaged emergencyvanes. The shrieking solidity of the Wet Planet's air ripped thesturdy blades away as though they had been tinfoil and the ship's fallremained unslackened.
The slanting plunge ended at last. The nose plowed down a rockymountain slope, crumbling with the impact, caromed off a boulder-strewnbench, and ripped through a tree-clad lower level into a mossy-grassedmeadow. There, in a soggy treeless hollow, the scarred hulk that hadbeen the Sun Maiden came to rest....
Jay Forsix turned puzzled eyes on the little knot of survivors besidethe ship. His fair-skinned face was square, like his powerful shortbody, and there was red hair sprouting from beneath the gray plastin ofhis control case's helmet.
Jay looked like a man; he even talked, in a meager jerky fashion, likea man, but he was actually an android robot. Animats, Inc. turnedout thousands of superior robots for the industries of Earth andMars—durable, foolproof expensive machines they were. But for theuranium mines of Jupiter's moons they also had begun to create theseinexpensive living blends of animate flesh and bone, synthetic moroniccreatures.
"There are six animats—and us!" choked the little blonde haired girl.Already the constant moisture of the atmosphere coated her skin withshining dampness.
Her companion, a tall dark-skinned girl, rubbed a bruised elbowthoughtfully. Her teeth flashed in a rueful smile.
"Bottle the tears," she snapped at the blonde girl, slapping hershoulder, "we got plenty water without them."
The smaller girl drew herself up.
"Perhaps you don't know who I am. I'm Thela Draper. My father owns mostof Animats, Inc."
The tall girl laughed. "X with me, Thela. We're in the same fix. Noputting on a front—all we'll be doing is keep alive until help comes."
"If it does come." Thela Draper's lips quivered. "I want...."
"Will you shut up! I'm taking charge. You're a spoiled empty-head evenif you are atomic-plated. I'm not dumb even if I do dance for a livingin dives you'd blast clear of.
"Someday Ina Haan's name will be in all the lights of Mars and Terra."
Jay Forsix shook his head numbly from side to side as he heard thewomen talking. Strange thoughts and sensations were crowding into hisbrain. His hand went up to the bulky helmet that was designed to keephis synthetic body under the control of humans.
He gasped. The battery compartment was empty, its cover gaping. Nowonder his uncontrolled senses were so active and his brain alive.
"Gone," he said to Ina Haan. He recognized her as the dominatingcharacter of the gro