Free Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak Page A

to. One word to the captain and he’d find himself lacking room to take you. But I think it would be safe to let you go. Even if you repeated what I told you tonight, I doubt that anyone would believe you. It would be just another space myth.”
    â€œYou seem to be sure of yourselves,” said Tennyson.
    â€œWe are,” said Ecuyer.

Chapter Ten
    It was still dark when Tennyson awoke. He lay for long minutes in a fuzzy, comfortable, woolly blackness, not sleeping, but still not quite awake, not entirely aware, remembering nothing of what had happened, thinking hazily that he was still in Gutshot. The room was dark, but there was a hidden light somewhere and through half-open eyes he could make out the darker shapes of objects in the room. The bed was comfortable, and a sense of delicious drowsiness filled him. He shut his eyes again, willing himself to sink deeper into sleep. But he felt that something was different, that he was not in Gutshot, nor in the ship.…
    The ship! He sat upright in bed, jerked out of sleep by the thought. The ship and Jill and End of Nothing.…
    The End of Nothing, for the love of Christ! And then everything came tumbling in upon him.
    A terrible stillness lowered over him and a stiff rigidity, and he sat stricken in the bed.
    Mary had found Heaven!
    The light, he saw, came from a door that opened into the living area. The light flickered and wavered, brightening and fading, dancing on the walls, reaching forth and falling back. It came, he realized, from the fireplace, still burning. The fire, he told himself, should have burned to embers, drowned in gray ash, long ago.
    In one dark corner of the room, a shadow moved, separating itself from the other shadows. “Sir, are you awake?” it asked.
    â€œYes, awake,” said Tennyson, through stiff lips. “And who the hell are you?”
    â€œI am Hubert,” said the shadow. “I have been assigned your batman. I will do for you.”
    â€œI know what a batman is,” said Tennyson. “I ran across the term some years ago in the reading of an Old Earth history. Something to do with the British military. The phrase was so strange that it stuck in my mind.”
    â€œThis is exceptional,” said Hubert. “I congratulate you, sir. Most people would not have known.”
    The batman moved out of the deeper shadows and now could be seen more clearly. He was a strange, angular, humanlike figure with an air of mingled strength and humility.
    â€œRest easy, sir,” he said. “I am a robot, but I will do no harm. My one purpose is to serve you. Shall I turn on a light? Are you ready for a light?”
    â€œYes, I am ready. Please, a light,” said Tennyson.
    A lamp on a table against the farther wall came on. The room was a match for the living area he had seen earlier, its furniture solid and substantial, metal knobs gleaming, old wood shining darkly, paintings on the walls.
    He threw back the covers and saw that he was naked. He swung his legs out of bed and his feet came down on carpeting. He reached for the chair beside his bed where he had draped his clothes. They were no longer there. He pulled back his hand, ran it through his hair and scrubbed his face. The whiskers grated underneath his palm.
    â€œYour wardrobe has not arrived as yet,” said Hubert, “but I managed to obtain a change of clothes for you. The bath is over there; the coffee’s ready in the kitchen.”
    â€œBath first,” said Tennyson. “Would there be a shower?”
    â€œA shower or tub. If you prefer the tub, I can draw your bath.”
    â€œNo, shower’s fine. Faster. I have work to do. Is there any word of Mary?”
    â€œKnowing you would wish to know,” said Hubert, “I visited her about an hour ago. Nurse tells me she is doing well, responding to the protein. You’ll find towels, toothbrush and shaving tackle laid out in the bath. When you are finished,