The Companions by Sheri S. Tepper Read Free Book Online Page A

very much in line to take over in a few years when the current general manager retires.”
    At the time, I didn’t know what that was. I asked, hesitatingly, “Earth Enterprises…?”
    â€œEarth Enterprises is the parent agency of Exploration and Survey Corps,” Witt said.
    Shiela nodded. “The Corps makes great use of technology in its work. But, according to Gainor, some of their technology falls short in unfamiliar situations. Technological devices can do only what they’re designed to do; one has to ask a certain question before a device can be designed to obtain an answer. But, if one doesn’t know what question to ask…” She shrugged, her hands held wide, miming confusion. “Gainor tells me that some of the scientists attached to ESC have felt that some answers to technical questions may be found in the senses of nonhuman creatures, Earthian and ET. Dogs, for example, can smell things we cannot. They can detect a coming earthquake. That’s been known for centuries, of course. Though we’ve developed excellent technology, we still have no idea how dogs themselves process the information. Other animals also have senses we don’t know how they use…other animals whose senses we might learn to use…”
    â€œYou mean, experiment on dogs?” I cried, horrified.
    Shiela reached out a calming hand. “Not vivisect, dear. Certainly not. Nothing painful or invasive. There’s been informal research going on for some time, unlicensed, I regretto say, but heaven knows, if we had to license it, nothing would happen.”
    â€œResearch?” Now it was Witt’s turn to question.
    â€œAttempts at modifying humans to become hyperacute, have hearing like bats, for example, or noses like dogs…”
    I studied the far wall, letting the words unlicensed and informal slide over me as Shiela continued.
    â€œNone of which is the point! Whether there’s anything to it or not, it will serve as an excuse, a justification for saving the dogs!” Shiela patted my knee. “I’m rattling, aren’t I, dear? But I was getting to the point, eventually. We’ll bring your dogs here. Whether we actually can accomplish anything useful or not, working under the aegis of ESC will make us attack-proof, at least for a while.”
    â€œHere?” I said, disbelieving, staring at the costly elegance around me.
    Shiela laughed, a pretty, social sound. “Not in this room, no. But my family is small—one son, a couple of elderly cousins, and the servants. We use only a score of rooms on this side of this one floor. You can see that we have what’s called a sea-view these days, though I’m not that fond of algae harvesters, and I much prefer my Bonner wall vistas to an expanse of green soup. The inner rooms on this floor are mostly galleries and humidity-controlled storage rooms for artworks that would otherwise be discarded to make space for people. We have sculptures, paintings: Rembrandts, the last Picassos, the last van Goghs and Gaugins, all salvaged from the wreckage after the museum riots. I have the very last Ambruster, too, and all that was left of Oakal’s works after the Europa pogrom, and some unedited originals of Lipkin’s Mars work…”
    â€œMy mother,” I said, surprised. “Matty Lipkin. And Joram Bonner is my stepfather.”
    Her expression changed, and she really looked at me for the first time. I was not someone Witt had dragged into her house because he was a do-gooder. I had become a person she already knew something about. She took my hand. “Mydear, what a wonderful artist Matty Lipkin was. And Joram Bonner! Well. We would all lose our sanity if it weren’t for the Bonners, First through Third. But then, I’m sure you know that! At any rate, people who have these fantastic artworks leave them to me in their wills. I throw charity parties every now and then, and people