H. Beam Piper Fuzzy Papers

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"Get Ernst Mallin. Tell him to come here and get that damned Fuzzy to
Niffilieirn out of here."
Argue about the legal aspects later; if Mallin wanted a Fuzzy to study, he
could have one. Myra said something about better late than never, and
retracted into her office. The door from the outside hall opened cautiously,
and a couple of police and three mechanics from one of the aircar hangars
entered;
somebody'd had sense enough to call for reinforcements. One of the mechanics
had a blanket over his arm; that was smart, too. The girls were searching the
big room, and keeping watch on the doors. The hall door opened again, and Joe
Verganno and one of his technicians came in with a hand lifter loaded with
tools.
"Anything been done to the board yet?" he asked.
"Nifllheim, no! We're not making a bad matter worse than it is. See if you can
figure out what's happening in the computer."
"A couple of my men are going to find that out down below. Lemme see this
screen, now." He went into the room, followed by the technician with the
lifter. The technician said something obscenely blasphemous a moment later.
He went back to the big room; through the open door of her office, he could
hear Myra talking to somebody. "Come and get him, right away. No, we don't
know where he is . . . Eeeeeeh! Get away frorn. me, you little monster! Mr.
Grego, here he is!"
"Grab him and hold him," he ordered. "Go help her," he told one of the cops.
"Don't hurt the Fuzzy; just get hold of him."
Then he turned and ran through the computer room almost collid-ing with
Verganno's helper, and ran into his own office. As he skid-ded around his
desk, the Fuzzy dashed through the door of Myra's office. The blanket the
aircar mechanic had been carrying sailed after him, missing him. Myra, the
cop, and the mechanic came running after it; the mechanic caught his feet in
it and went down. The cop tripped over him, and Myra tripped over the cop. The
cop was curs-ing. Myra was screaming. The mechanic, knocked breathless under
both of them, was merely gasping. The Fuzzy landed on top of the desk, saw
Grego, and took off from there, landing against his chest and throwing his
arms around Grego's neck.
One of the girls, coming through from Myra's office and avoiding the
struggling heap in front of the door, whooped, "Come on, everybody! Mr.
Grego's caught Ifirn!"
The cop, who had gotten to his feet, said, "I'll take him, Mr. Grego," and
reached for the Fuzzy. The
Fuzzy yeeked loudly, and clung tighter to Grego.
"No, I'll hold him. He isn't afraid of me." He sat down in his desk chair,
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holding the Fuzzy and stroking him. lit's all right, kid. No-body's going to
hurt you. And we're going to take you out of here, to a nice place where you
can have fun, and people'll be good to you . . . 7~
The words meant nothing to the Fuzzy; the voice, and the stroking hands, were
comforting and reassuring. He snuggled closer, making happy little sounds. He
was safe, now.
"What are you gonna do with him, Mr. Grego?" the cop asked.
Grego hugged the Fuzzy to him. "I'm not going to do anything with him. Look at
him; he trusts me; he thinks I won't let anybody do anything to him. Well, I
won't. I never let anybody who trusted me down yet, and be damned if I'll
start now, with a Fuzzy."
"You mean, you're going to keep him?" Myra demanded. 'After what he did?"
"He didn't mean to do anything bad, Myra. He just wanted to make a pretty
thing with the lights. I'll bet he's as proud as anything of it. It's just
going to be up to me to see that he doesnI get at any-thing else he can make
trouble with."
"Dr. Mallin said he was coming right away. He'll be disap-pointed."
"He'll have to be disappointed, then. He can study the Fuzzy here. And get the
building superintendent and the chief decorator; tell them I want them to
start putting in a Fuzzy garden up on my ter-race. Tell both of them to come
up to my suite personally; tell them I want work started immediately, and I'll
authorize double time for overtime till it's finished."
The Fuzzy wasn't scared, any more. Pappy Vic was taking care of him. And all
these other Big Ones were listening to Pappy Vic; they wouldn't hurt him or
chase him any more.
"And call Tregaskis at Electronics Equipment; ask him what's holding up those
hearing-aids he was going to send me. And I'll need somebody to help look
after the kid. Sandra, do you do anything we can't replace you at? Then you've
just been appointed Fuzzy Sitter in Chief. You start immediately; ten percent
raise as of this morning."
Sandra was happy. 'I'll love that, Mr. Grego. Whafs his name?"
"Name? I don't have a name for him, yet. Anybody have any ideas? I
"I have a few!" Myra said savagely.
"CaH him Diamond," Joe Verganno, in the doorway of the com-puter room,
suggested.
"Because he's so small and precious? I like that. But don't be a piker. Call
him Sunstone."
"No; that was probably why the original Diamond was named, but I was thinking
of calling him after a little dog that belonged to Sir Isaac Newton," Verganno
said. "It seems Diamond got hold of a manuscript Sir Isaac had just finished
and was going to send to his publisher. Mostly math, all done with a quill
pen, no carbons of course. So Diamond got this manuscript down on the floor
and he tore hell out of it, which meant about three months' work to do over.
When Newton saw it, he just looked at it, and then sat down with the dog on
his lap, and said, 'Oh, Diamond, poor Diamond; how little you know what
mischief you have done!"'
"That's a nice little story, Joe. It's something I'll want to remind myself
of, now and then. Bet you'll give a lot of reasons to, won't you, Diamond?"
7
JACK HOLLOWAY leaned back in his chair, resting one ankle across the corner of
the desk and propping the other foot on a partly open bottom drawer. If he had
to work in an office, it was nice
working in a real one, and it was a big improvement to be able to use his
living quarters exclusively for living in again. The wide doors at either end
of the arched prefab hut were open and a little breeze was drawing through,
just enough to keep the place cool and carry off his pipe smoke. There wasn't
so much noise outside any more; most of the new buildings were up now. He
could hear a distant popping of small arms as the dozen and a half ZNPI7
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recruits fired for qualification.
A hundred yards away, at the other end, Sergeant Yorimitsu was monitoring
screen-views transmitted in from a couple of cars up on patrol, and Lieutenant
Ahmed Khadra and Sergeant Knabber were taking the fingerprints of a couple of
Fuzzies that had come in an hour ago. Little Fuzzy, resting the Point of his
chopper-digger on the floor with his hands on the knob pommel, watched [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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