Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [36]
It was impossible for an android to “starve to death.” However, if Data could not replenish certain organic nutrients soon, his safeties would shut him down. He would remain in stasis until found by someone who knew how to reanimate him. Inside Elysia’s sacred mountain, that could mean forever. He wondered if Elysia’s gods knew that. After all, his design was unique-Even if they had encountered other androids, they might not know his personal specifications.
So he said to Thelia, “We are in need of nutrients and water.” “There is no choice but to go on until we find some. It is a test of endurance.”
“Humans are capable of going on beyond their endurance,” Data said. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“If you refuse to give up, you cannot be stopped short of death. There are situations, though, in which my will has no effect: I am designed with safeguards which will stop my function so as to retain my systems in a state from which I can later be revived.”
“Do you mean you cannot die?” she asked.
“Oh, no, I can certainly die. In fact, my friends remind me often that I am not indestructible. If I had fallen into that flaming chasm I would have been as dead as you. However, I cannot die from attrition. If my power source is damaged, or when in the future it simply wears out, if it cannot be immediately replaced my systems will shut down to preserve my memory banks for revival when power can be restored. The same is true of my organic components.”
“You have not eaten since our Quest began,” said Thelia, “and you have been injured. If you do not find food you will-?”
“Cease to function,” he supplied. “To you it would appear that I was asleep or unconscious.”
“Is this about to happen?”
“The nutrients in my system have reached the critical level, giving me a thirty-minute warning. If I do not restore the balance in that time my systems will shut down.”
Thelia nodded. “Continuing to climb hastens the use of … nutrients?”
“Yes.” There was no use trying to explain that what he needed were trace elements. They might be readily available in the rocks surrounding them, but the gods had apparently made certain Data would not be able to ascertain that without his tricorder.
“You must stay here and rest while I seek ahead for food,” Thelia told him. “There may be dangers-was “Not dangers beyond my capabilities, if I am alert,” she replied. “The gods do not require that which we are not capable of, only that which tests us to our limits.”
Data remembered how she had driven off the gring. Yet she was a small woman, frail, flesh and blood, and had needed his aid to pass every obstacle. But then, that might be the test. If he were human, it would be a test of pride. Or perhaps it was of trust, that the Elysian gods could indeed provide what an android required. “Go, then,” he told her, sitting down with his back against one of the ubiquitous rock formations. “I trust that the gods will not ask what you cannot provide.”
Thelia stood, checking the knife and sling at her waist, and started purposefully up the path. She disappeared around a twist in the trail, but Data turned up his hearing to keep track of her footsteps. They did not fade out, but paused. He heard softer noises-apparently she had to crawl through another tunnel.
Suddenly Thelia’s laughter drifted back to him. “Data!” she called, her voice echoing hollowly, “come and join me.”
Wondering if it were a trap, he went somewhat cautiously around the bend in the trail and stooped
crawl through the tunnel that appeared before him. There was bright light at the other end.
He emerged into daylight.