‘It isn’t.’
‘How do you know?”
‘How does your head know your arm works?’
He touched his face. ‘So… now what?’
I shrugged. ‘Did the Pekin man look at Homo Sap walking erect and say, „Now what?” We’ll live, that’s all, like a man, like a tree, like anything else that lives. We’ll feed and grow and experiment and breed. We’ll defend ourselves.’ I spread my hands. ‘We’ll just do what comes naturally.’
‘But what can you do?’
‘What can an electric motor do? It depends on where we apply ourselves.’
Stern was very pale. ‘Just what do you— want to do?’
I thought about that. He waited until I was quite finished thinking and didn’t say anything. ‘Know what?’ I said at last.’ Ever since I was born, people been kicking me around, right up until Miss Kew took over. And what happened with her? She damn near killed me.’
I thought some more, and said, ‘Everybody’s had fun but me. The kind of fun everybody has is kicking someone around, someone small who can’t fight back. Or they do you favours until they own you, or kill you.’ I looked at him and grinned. ‘I’m just going to have fun, that’s all.’