"Uh—" said Bill, sweating.
"Answer me! Do you dare to ignore me, the Supreme, the Only Intelligence in the universe?"
"Well," said Bill, glassy-eyed. "That is, there doesn't seem to be much to say—"
"NOT MUCH TO SAY!"
The Supreme Intelligence went into a spin.
"I shall destroy you, do you understand me, you insignificant accretions of matter? How dare you exist? Know you that matter disappeared billions of years ago. You do not belong in this universe!"
Bill blinked. He met Molly's anxious glance. Then something made him grin. His lips moved. "He's as crotchety as Unk was. I can handle him."
Molly's lips smiled tremulously in agreement.
Bill said brazenly to the Voice, "I am, therefore I am—if you've read your Descartes. In other words, we're here, so we belong. Sell me something else." He waited for the lightning bolt. It didn't come.
"Descartes? Sell? Speak plainly, stupid creature. Or are you incapable of true thought? That would be the final irony. After slowing my thought-rate down over eons of time. To find that you cannot think! Yet, what else could I expect of your intelligence, hampered by its envelope of living matter?"