The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ego Machine, by Henry Kuttner

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Title: The Ego Machine

Author: Henry Kuttner

Release Date: April 24, 2010 [EBook #32108]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE EGO MACHINE

_by_ HENRY KUTTNER

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Space Science Fiction
May 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: When a slightly mad robot drunk on AC, wants you to join an
experiment in optimum ecology--don't do it! After all, who wants to
argue like Disraeli or live like Ivan the Terrible?]

I

Nicholas Martin looked up at the robot across the desk.

"I'm not going to ask what you want," he said, in a low, restrained
voice. "I already know. Just go away and tell St. Cyr I approve. Tell
him I think it's wonderful, putting a robot in the picture. We've had
everything else by now, except the Rockettes. But clearly a quiet little
play about Christmas among the Portuguese fishermen on the Florida coast
_must_ have a robot. Only, why not six robots? Tell him I suggest a
baker's dozen. Go away."

"Was your mother's name Helena Glinska?" the robot asked.

"It was not," Martin said.

"Ah, then she must have been the Great Hairy One," the robot murmured.

Martin took his feet off the desk and sat up slowly.

"It's quite all right," the robot said hastily. "You've been chosen for
an ecological experiment, that's all. But it won't hurt. Robots are
perfectly normal life forms where I come from, so you needn't--"

"Shut up," Martin said. "Robot indeed, you--you bit-player! This time
St. Cyr has gone too far." He began to shake slightly all over, with
some repressed but strong emotion. The intercom box on the desk caught
his eye, and he stabbed a finger at one of the switches. "Get me Miss
Ashby! Right away!"

"I'm so sorry," the robot said apologetically. "Have I made a mistake?
The threshold fluctuations in the neurons always upset my m